Gastartikel Conferences and meetings arranged by various scientific organizations provide a platform for science, career development, business, and policy making to come together. They help give a good exposure to scientists about the latest developments in research. Apart from science they are good chance to visit new places and learn about new cultures.

Fifteen thousand letters, that’s the number of letters which the Darwin Correspondence Project claims to have archived. These are letters which Darwin and his contemporary biologists exchanged. What was the purpose? The answer is NETWORKING. Darwin would have faired well in twittering or facebooking.

Well in the present day world, it has become much more easier for scientists to come and meet at platforms like the EMBO meetings etc. What else do you need when you have Nobel laureates, an author of a best seller, top scientists, editors of high profile journals, top business companies of science and the young minds together on the same platform (EMBO2010). Darwin would have saved a lot of his energy, paper and ink had he been provided with a platform like EMBO meetings to convey his ideas and theories among fellow scientists.

Networking is an important issue nowadays among scientists as we are heading towards a border free science. Meetings and conferences have become like the neuronal synapses, without which science would be a little difficult. It helps fellow scientists to know what is going on in other parts of the world and it also provides an insight into the latest developments in research. Conferences and meetings open avenues for inter subject research. With experts of diverse field around there, it provides a chance to know the probabilities of inter subject collaborations.

These conferences are a good platform for young scientists to explore new avenues of research. They help the graduate students and postdocs to look into new avenues for their future.

Scientists need to get out of laboratories, and these scientific conferences and meetings provide them a chance to do so. Apart from the scientific aspect meetings like the EMBO 2010 allow scientists to travel and explore new places.

Vaidurya Sahi ist Gastblogger vom EMBO-Meeting