“In 2002, the world’s leaders agreed to achieve a significant reduction in the rate of biodiversity loss by 2010. Having reviewed all available evidence, including national reports submitted by Parties, this third edition of the Global Biodiversity Outlook concludes that the target has not been met. Moreover, the Outlook warns, the principal pressures leading to biodiversity loss are not just constant but are, in some cases, intensifying.”
Ban Ki-moon, Secretary General United Nations, in the Foreword to “Global Biodiversity Outlook 3”, 2010.

NCBS prides itself on the interdisciplinarity of its biology. Investigations in more traditional areas are enriched by contributions from researchers with strengths in physics, mathematics, informatics, chemistry and nanotechnology. The benefits of such cross-fertilisation were exemplified last year when a DNA-based pH probe developed by Yamuna Krishnan’s nanobiology team was quickly shown to actually work in living cells in collaboration with Jitu Mayor’s team. (see Nature News article). 

In an Indian tropical forest there are few things as distinctive and exciting as the swoosh of a hornbill flying overhead. The rushing sound of its heavy wings feels so loud and close that it captures all your attention, then leaves you relieved that the bird had no malevolent intent. Of course if you are lucky enough to also see one of India's nine hornbill species, there is excitement too, all of them being adorned with disproportionately large hooked bills, augmented yet again, in some species, by a striking bony casque.

It does not take long for anyone starting up research in a big centre to realise how much their success depends upon the expertise and dedication of their institution's general staff. A centre like NCBS is no simple enterprise, often having to function much like a city in miniature. Innumerable services must run smoothly in the background not only to facilitate basic research activities but to enable a remarkable range of ancillary amenities available on campus: housing, dining, childcare, mail, transport, banking, sports and entertainment, travel assistance, conference hosting and medical care. Given the efficiency, reliability and friendliness of the staff who make this possible at NCBS, the Director K. VijayRaghavan took great pleasure at the recent Republic Day festivities in thanking and honouring, on everyone's behalf, some of the individuals and units that have provided truly superlative efforts in the last year. "Our Admin, Technical and Service Staff are true heroes, comparable to the best anywhere in the world." says Dr VijayRaghavan, "They are the unseen force which keeps our system running well. Honouring our colleagues once a year is very important and reminds us how necessary they are for the success of our science."

This week on February 15 and 16 NCBS will host a meeting, “Learning about memory: cells, circuits and behaviour”, that brings together the world’s leading researchers on the neurobiological basis of memory. The six speakers, each of whom will give one talk each day, span the field, not only in terms of its scope – from molecular mechanisms right up to network dynamics – but also its entire history.

Tim Bliss, the first speaker, was the co-author, with Terje Lømo, of the 1973 paper that gave the initial detailed account of “long-term potentiation” (LTP) a phenomenom that provided, for the first time, evidence of a possible cellular foundation for memory. LTP describes a form of enhanced and enduring connectivity between neurons that develops if there is frequent electrochemical crosstalk across their junction (the synapse). Thus repeated experiences have a greater possibility of leaving a neural trace in our brains, and so, for better or worse, we are at least partly the products of our own individual history.