When I heard last Friday, the 28th of October, that Susan Lindquist had died at 67, I did not believe it. I hadn’t known Susan for long. But I vividly remember our meetings over dinner—at an Indonesian restaurant in Amsterdam…
When I was trained as a microbiologist in the 1980s the bacterial universe contained three kinds of microbes: commensals, doing no harm but occupying spaces like the oral cavity and the gut; opportunists, causing harm only in immuno-compromised individuals and…
Joep Lange died on July 17, 2014 jointly with his partner Jacqueline van Tongeren in the downing of the airplane of Malaysian Airways over the eastern Ukraine. They were on their way to an AIDS conference in Melbourne, Australia. AIDS…
On the late evening of 21of July, 21 2013 incredible fireworks signified my happiness after the first day at the Biennale of Venice. The fireworks take place for centuries celebrating the end of the plaque epidemic of 1576- 1577. Every…
On memorial day of 2012 my closest friend in science died : Norm Letvin. A year later two memorials were held at Harvard honoring his memory. It started all with music as he would loved it. A year after he…
