Like a new captain for a sinking Titanic, Francis Collins came aboard NIH at a time when the world was drowning in the late-2000's recession. It was a challenging time for US biomedical research, and leading the National Institutes of Health is a tough job. "The Director deals with the Directors of each NIH Institute: Powerful scientists, strong-willed with their own strengths, priorities, biases and institutional limitations", explains NCBS's VijayRaghavan, "To conduct an orchestra of cats is never easy."

But Collins had the resume to make one believe he could turn things around. A physical chemist turned biologist, Collins has pioneered the development of some of the most significant techniques of molecular biology, such as chromosome jumping and positional cloning. Using these methods, Collins and his team helped to identify the key genes involved in cystic fibrosis. Later, he went on to shepherd the International Human Genome Sequencing Consortium, and led the public side of the effort that first described the human genome in 2000.

Visiting India for the first time, Collins' talk at NCBS emphasised how NIH wants to build relationships with the growing Indian scientific community. More specifically, he also stressed that NIH wants to actively collaborate with the stem cell research centre at NCBS, and with institutes in other parts of the country. With over 250 active grants from the NIH, India is one of the countries most frequently funded. On Monday, Collins is heading to Delhi to sign a 'letter of intent' with M.K. Bhan, Secretary of the Department of Biotechnology.

Magdolna Hargittai, the first speaker in the Science and Society series, has been in the field of chemical research for over 40 years now. Her research interests range from structural, molecular and high-temperature chemistry to the intriguing subject of the personal aspects of science and women scientists in particular. She has authored and co-authored over a dozen books, including the highly successful Symmetry through the Eyes of a Chemist and the Candid Science series (and one on traditional Hungarian cuisine, Cooking the Hungarian Way). I had the chance to talk to her and here are excerpts from the interview.

Veronica Rodrigues, Senior Professor at the National Centre for Biological Sciences, Tata Institute of Fundamental Research (TIFR) passed away on 10 November, 2010, after a five-year battle with breast cancer. Veronica was born in Kenya in 1953 where she went to school.  She joined Makerere University in Uganda but left during the turmoil there on a scholarship to study in Trinity College Dublin, where she did her B. A. with Honours in Microbiology in 1976. Stimulated by the scientific papers of P. Vijay Sarathy and Obaid Siddiqi on bacterial genetics, she wrote to Sarathy asking whether she could do her PhD with him. Sarathy, himself a PhD student, passed the letter on to Siddiqi who invited her immediately to join TIFR. With a strange British passport, which barred entry into Britain, Veronica landed in India in 1977, a country very new to her and about which she had a romantic and idyllic view. Obaid had moved his interests to neurogenetics and pioneered the study of olfaction in the fruitfly. Veronica was Obaid's first student in this new area.

The family tree of the Tata Institute of Fundamental Research, which so far includes Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore, will soon have a fourth major branch: TIFR Hyderabad. The foundation stone will be laid by PM Manmohan Singh on October 19, as reported recently in the Times of India. TIFR Director Mustansir Barma and NCBS Director Prof. K. VijayRaghavan welcome and encourage all interested parties at NCBS to join them in Hyderabad for the event. See below for more details.

The conference was opened by Mr. Masayuki Tsuchikawa, Consul Head of the consulate of Japan, Bangalore. Professor Norio Nakatsuji, Director of iCeMs spoke briefly about the institute and then presented Dr. VijayRaghavan a kimono-no-obi to herald the new partnership. The antique sash was made in Nishijin district from obi silk, exclusive to Kyoto city and dates back to the early 1900s. The kimono will be put on display at the new satellite lab.

“According to the big bang theory the universe is only 13 billion years old. ... We made some observations a year ago which we are still trying to explain but the simplest explanation seems to be that there stars that are 20 billion years old.” (Jayant Narlikar).  Does the universe have a beginning? Was life on earth seeded from outer space? Dr. Jayant Narlikar visited NCBS recently and the Centre's news team was there to ask his opinions on questions that humans have pondered since time immemorial.

A team of students from Bangalore’s Srishti School of Art, Design and Technology were judged to have made the “Best Presentation” at the prestigious International Genetically Engineered Machines (iGEM) Competition, held on Monday, November 2nd at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. At iGEM, undergraduate teams from around the world compete to build innovative genetic devices in living cells, applying synthetic biology to solve problems in areas such as environment, energy, health, and foundational research.