Farewell Bil

It's been a strange week - full of experiments and great results. And full of parties. Sunday we met for our monthly Bookclub meeting (or as one member calls it, our monthly food and drink orgy). Saturday we were over at Bil's, who is leaving us to start up his own lab on the west coast.

First we lost U. Now Bil ...

Scientists are always on the go. 4 years here, 5 years there. It's exciting but at the same time disorienting. My wife and I feel like we have no real base. Is it Seattle where her family is from? Is it where my roots are in Montreal? Is it New York where we lived for 6 years?

It reminds me of this great book I read a couple of years ago - The Global Soul, by Pico Iyer. In it, this Indian born, English and American educated, now resident of Japan, describes a new class of countryless individuals. These educated citizenless people take part in a nebulous global culture. A true phenomenon of life in the 21st century.