Visit to John Innes Centre

Yesterday was the first really wet day we have experienced since arriving in Europe 7 weeks ago. With science duties completed we went out to the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts on the UEA campus. This Centre houses the extraordinary art collection of Sir Robert and Lisa Sainsbury. They must have had a big house to store and display all these items before they were donated to the Centre. A special exhibition of Francis Bacon and the Masters was a treat to visit. While I admired his work it would not be my choice of art to purchase or display even if it was affordable. What made the exhibition so good was the supplementation of artists who he admired and had influenced his work including Velazquez, Rembrandt, Michelangelo, Van Gough, Picasso and Matisse.

Thursday was a day of science at the John Innes Centre at the invitation of ex patriate Mike Bevan. My seminar was well received. It was interesting to see Sophian Kamoun's stand up work bench - the first scientist I have met to adopt this style of working. I enjoyed the science discussions with Mike, Philippa Borrill and Sarah O'Connor. A surprise was to meet Abhi Sarkar, formerly of AgResearch, who is now working with Cathie Martin on a joint research program between India and UK on improving the nutritional quality of crops.