So, I’m back from Colombia, where indeed, I did have a very good time. The meeting went very well and I think there will be a few productive collaborations as a result.
I didn’t do too much of the tourist thing - not really that easy for such a short trip, though I did get […]

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So, I’m sitting in the airport in Bogotá in Colombia.  Naturally my flight from Paris got here late and I missed my connection to Medellin, so I have to wait another four hours for another flight.  I have been on the go for about 20 hours at this stage.

I was woken this morning (seems […]

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Heading for Colombia in the morning for a few days. Back at the begining of next week. Speaking at a microbiology conference to mark the first meeting of the colombian society for Microbiology and the 50th anniversary of the department of microbiology at the university of Antioquia in Medellin in Colombia.
Have never been […]

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Well, the last 24 hours have been pretty strange.

Last night I discovered that a washing machine that I own has been stolen (long story).  

Today I am on my way to South America.  I had to get locks changed in my apartment and was against the clock to make it to Dublin Airport.  Had […]

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Going to Rio de Janeiro on Saturday to teach on an EMBO course. The temperature right now (early morning in Rio) is 23 degrees C. Time to dust off the flip flops.
Am leaving Ireland on Saturday afternoon late. Flying to Charles de Gaulle airport, just outside Paris. After a very short […]

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So, I’m finally back in Ireland. The trip was pretty good from a scientific perspective. The Aspen meeting wasn’t the best of the three of these meetings I have been to. It didn’t have enough of what I was interested in, but there was some stuff I found interesting, in particular a […]

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So, oil is dangerously close to the ‘psychological’ barrier of 100 dollars a barrel? I’m not sure I know what that means, but let’s just say that oil is getting pricey.
The fall out from this is that all manner of travel will get expensive and producing anything that depends on oil for energy will […]

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This morning in my inbox of real paper letters there was a nice stiff paper letter from the Royal Irish Academy telling me that they are going to give me €2,000 for to go visiting scientists in Sydney Australia and in Honolulu, Hawaii.
I had applied for more, but who cares? I’m going on a […]

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I’m serious. Today I had a quick trip to London to work on a paper. Ordered a taxi for 6:45. It arrived at 6:42 and whisked me up to Dublin Airport in 25 minutes. There was nobody, repeat, nobody, at the check-in when I got there. I forgot that […]

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Dr. Tony Ryan died today aged 71 after a long illness.
Although I hate having to take Ryanair flights and I generally avoid them, they did have the effect of making the aviation industry in this part of the world begin to become efficient and so, Dr. Ryan has left a legacy of some considerable […]

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