I have now been in Boston for 3 days attending the MRS Fall Meeting. It hasn’t been quite as good as the last couple I went to. I usually use these huge meetings as a way of dipping in and out of sessions to harvest new ideas for research. However, this time I have found less of the really interesting stuff that sets new ideas off for my own research. The nanomechanics stuff was interesting but no new insights were presented. Because of poor scheduling I was talking in one session at the same time as one of my post docs in another so I missed a slab of other interesting talks.

The trip to the trade show was good. I have a Frisbee, two yo-yos and some silly putty for the kids plus an assemble your own bucky-ball kit. At the Veeco stand I am going to be put in touch with someone who is doing work complementary to our nanomechanics work on tissue so that is a good result too.

The world of publishing was represented and Nature (NPG) wins the prize for the worst reception: Pretzels and Cheese Sauce served in the afternoon coffee break. Wiley and the RSC had an open bar and snacks in the evening, while Elsevier had better quality booze but you had to get a ticket for each drink. I noticed one Springer Editor at each reception – presumably making a single handed effort to ruin the bottom line of his competitors.

The poster show is about to start, so I had better descend once more into the seething mass of scientists and try and work out what is being done to push back the frontiers.