Goodbye Marburg

Today is our last day in Marburg. It was a little sad saying goodbye to all the students and post docs at the Institute today. We have had a wonderful time in Germany. The hospitality has been marvellous. We hope to be back in March next year but we will be based in Braunschweig. Thanks to everyone. Very special thanks to Regine.

Barry & Regine at Usedom - by Shigeyuki

Introduction to the solar system while you cycle

Displays featuring each of the planets in our solar system are proportionately placed on the cycle way both south and north of Marburg. I think this is such a nice concept to remind us all that we are part of a vast universe. Great educational value for all.

Saturn station on Marburg cycle way

Saturn station on cycle way

Deutsche Post

Today I had to collect a parcel from Zurich containing my headlamp which I left there. I am not sure why they did not deliver such a small parcel to my mailbox. When I got to their centre in Bahnhofstraße the man behind the counter asked me for my passport which I didn't have but my drivers licence sufficed. Then he wanted to know if I knew what was in the parcel and where it was from! After all this questioning I finally got my headlamp. I am not sure what happens if someone sends you a surprise parcel and you have no idea where it is from or what it contains. Does Deutsche Post keep it?

Münster city tour

Last evening we had a fabulous tour of the city of Münster with a superb guide - having it in English was a big help. Münster is a city with about 1200 years of history. The tension between church and city was interesting with the leaders of the day building the city hall face to face but at a distance to the Bishop's residence. They even run him out of town for a period until he was reinstated. Although heavily bombed at the end of World War II the city residents had great foresight to rebuild the city very much what it used to be like with wonderful 3-4 storey buildings with a range of facades and lower level arches. Even today they have done a great job of trying to put up buildings that blend in with the old architecture - what a magnificent new museum - but the guide pointed out one rather ugly exception that has a sign with an eagle planted out front of it by a visiting artist. Münster was the site where the treaty was signed over 350 years ago to end the 30 year war. There is a wonderful sunken area behind the city hall that has two two metal sculptures by Eduardo Gillida to mark the decision to have dialogue to resolve conflict. There were so many things you would miss without a guide like the little metal plaque in the pavement to mark the former home of a Jewish business couple - apparently there is a nation wide effort to remember the Jews killed during the war with these plaques.

Thanks Paul and Bettina for a wonderful visit to Münster.

Münster facades

Eduardo Chillida "Toleranz durch dialog"

Winter home for the wealthy rural citizens

Plaque marking spot of former Jewish business in the city

A full day of science

Yesterday was a full day of science first with Bettina's Fusarium group in the morning, Paul & Julia's Botrytis group in the afternoon then my seminar. Still lots to discover about the structure, function, regulation and evolution of secondary metabolite gene clusters. NADP oxidases are such cool enzymes but exactly how they signal remains a big challenge but I have not had any good ideas on this for a while. Who would have thought that T4HN melanin biosynthesis in conidia and sclerotia of Botrytis could be so interesting - I look forward to seeing that publication and the many others from this group of very smart and enthusiastic researchers.

I do love the Botanic Garden at the University of Münster especially the phylogenetic garden - a great place to relax between the two science discussion sessions.

Thanks to Paul for introducing me to Bruno as it sounds like he has some great new tools that will help us better understand the cell wall of E. festucae.

Gomphocarpus physocarpus - Botanic Garden

Cacti Münster Botanic Garden

Phylogenetic garden

Some German history

The morning was science but the afternoon a little of German history with a visit to The Hermannsdenkmal to see the monument erected on the hill of Grotenburg near Detmold of Arminius the leader of the Germanic tribes that defeated the Romans around 9 AD. Subsequent investigations suggest the site of the battle was in fact northwest of this site at Kalkriese. Much to my surprise the Celts also lived in this area and an important site of worship was the Externsteine, a sandstone formation in the Teutoburg forest.

Hermannsdenkmal

Externsteine

The Claviceps team

Today I met with the Claviceps group of Lisa, Sabine, Janine, Selma and Birgit working with Paul Tudzynski in Münster. I do enjoy informal group discussions like this where the students openly share their results and there is lots of time for discussion. This was also an opportunity to see the new laboratories they moved into in 2011 - no personal bench space but just community space is concept I have not seen before but seems to work really well. Secondary metabolites, glucans, cytokinins and effectors - a wonderful mix of good science.

The Claviceps team

Barry & Paul