Noble Prize

[cornerofmadness]

It was the final day of the seminar (tomorrow and Sunday are the work shops). I got to attend a lecture by a Noble Prize winning biologist on the Hoxb8 gene. He was basically the inventor of the knockout mouse. It was a fascinating lecture and so complicated and yet he made it sound as easy as turning out a light. There was one on cardiovascular damage and exercise (interesting that mild-moderate exercise has health benefits but super heavy exercise doesn't add to it). And there was one on the evolution of our bodies driven in part by our aggressive nature (the terrifying thing was the graph that shows distinctly that we're in the safest era ever, less killing than even a hundred years ago. scary as hell).


I skipped out on the business meeting and went to the Beehive House and Lion house, Brigham Young's house. I wanted the tour since it's an important part of the history here. This was however where they set the Mormon missionaries loose on you. Every room was a tiny bit of history, huge plug for it's religious significance. Oh well. they were nice enough when I refused to take a book of mormon with me. I pitched their family values paperwork they put in my hand (not in front of them but anything saying marriage is only between men and women and sex outside of marriage is a sin God will hold you accountable for isn't for me).

I also went on a ghost tour but I'll post that tomorrow as I want to put up pics and I'm out of time (have to get up uber early tomorrow) I wanted to go with them tomorrow on their other tour but it doesn't start until 9. I don't mind walking back at 9 like I did tonight but midnight is later than I want to cruise the city alone on foot. I did manage to aggravate my good hip again on the tour. Granted I'm already in pain from all the walking and long sitting.