christmas08

Christmas message 2008

14. December 2008

Dear Friends,

It is time again to ponder the year past…

We started the year refreshed after a great time in Taiwan, looked after by Bruce's business partner KC. Many thanks, KC!

In February I had my 60^th birthday party. Kiri suggested The Coast – restaurant on the Prince Henry Hospital site, where she worked as a wine waitress. Bronwyn Cumbo and three of her friends performed for us. About 40 friends came, also Bruce’s brothers Eric and Geoff and their wives. It was great to celebrate with everybody!

The next big event was Anton and Dimple's wedding in Houston, Texas in March (Anton is son of Tad – both are Bruces’ business partners). I headed to Buffalo first, to finish a paper with colleague Mary Bisson. Late snow storm stranded me at JFK airport for a day. Nothing was flying! Together with a group of stranded passengers we managed to get a minibus with a driver to drive us 500 km to Buffalo through snow! We started at midnight and got in by the morning. Very bedraggled and sleep-deprived, I turned up on Mary and Terence’s door step! We did get the paper finished and it has come out in Journal of Membrane Biology.

The wedding was true Bollywood event with multiple parties, beautiful young people dancing and singing, henna painting and chanting. The groom came on a white steed. We had wonderful time: thank you Dimple’s family! Wishing you long and happy life together, Anton and Dimple!

We also visited the NASA Space center – very interesting and inspiring!

Back at work it was time to teach a first year course and look after 2^nd Year Lab, all going smoothly, even leaving time for research. After several re-writes, and input from Alan, we have finally prepared my Research Associate Virginia’s data on mechanosensitive channels in salinity-stressed Chara for publication. Together with my Ph. D. student Saba, we contributed some current-voltage analysis. The paper has come out in Plant Cell and Environment. The data was gathered by Virginia on a visit to Teruo Shimmen’s lab in Japan. It took 5 years to put together! But our resources are very limited and this will continue…I have just submitted a sequel, based on Sabas’ data, suggesting that H⁺ (or OH^-) channels contribute to salinity stress in salt-sensitive charophytes. We are also working on membrane PD noise observed upon exposure of Chara cells to high salt. Alan Walker spent a lot of time supervising Saba and bringing our understanding of “noise” to a new level. Thank you, Alan!

Our group was once again submitted to space takeover. We lost our storage and most of the apparatus kept there. However, we got a small room built to house our microscope and some more shelving. Saba’s research was disrupted for several months.

At the end of May, Bruce and I headed to Fukuoka: me for the 4^th conference in Plant Neurobiology, Bruce to have a much needed break. The conference was very interesting and my talk (H⁺/OH^- channels in charophyte salinity stress) was well received. It was good to catch up with people I met last year in Slovakia: Frantisek Baluska, Stefano Mancuso and Elizabeth Van Volkenburgh and my Japanese colleagues Teruo Shimmen and Koreaki Ogata. After the conference we visited Koreaki and his wife Hiroko (pianist and music teacher). Hiroko’s students performed for us with a flourish and enjoyment – it was lovely! Then former Koreaki’s student Takashi Someya and his student Noriko took us on a day trip to Karatsu castle and Saga, region of Japan famous for beautiful porcelain. Later in the week we caught the shinkansen to Aioi to stay with the Shimmens. The Himeji institute has changed a lot, since I visited in 1991. The mountains are very beautiful and Teruo and Yumiko now live close by. Teruo is well funded and happy. Teruo took us to visit Tetsuro Mimura in Kobe university and we admired his well funded lab and chatted to his group. Finally we had a lovely meal in a small restaurant. On the way back to Aioi, Teruo and Yumiko, showed us fireflies – which are increasing in numbers, as Japan gets more environment conscious. We had many beautiful meals cooked by our friends or in restaurants. I now try to eat sashimi at least once a week! Thanks for a splendid time, Japanese friends!

The midyear brought two sad events. Eric and Fay moved to Nowra, as the climate seemed to make Fay feel better. But sadly soon after the move Fay succumbed to her illness. We visited shortly before to celebrate Eric’s 70^th birthday.

Mother’s partner Mila was admitted to St.Luke’s hospital with dementia, which became unmanageable. My mother was exhausted looking after him and left for Czech republic to recuperate. Mila died, while my mother was away.

In July the University was shut for a week, as Pope came to Sydney to celebrate Catholic World Youth Day. Together with Cumbos we went to small village of Rylstone and walked in the Wollemi national park. It was a short, but very refreshing break: we should have Pope avoidance week every year!

In the second session I taught three courses, two of them biophysics, which I enjoy. I felt that the teaching went well. But was exhausted at the end of the session.

In September, I met Bruce in Singapore for another conference – break. We flew in to Berlin, met Mary Bisson and drove to Thomsdorf for a field trip associated with 5^th meeting of International Research Group on Charophytes. This part of Germany has many lakes of glacial origin. Some of the lakes were crystal clear and full of charophytes! The conference was in Rostock. I presented a short talk on our membrane potential noise experiments. After the conference there was another field trip to Gotland – island off Swedish coast. It was my first time in Sweden and I loved the forests and brooding lakes. Bruce’s Viking genes were obvious, he looked so much like the locals! The conference and both field trips were beautifully organized – we had a wonderful time. Thank you Hendrik, Irmgard and Ingeborg! And everybody for being such good company!

Back in Sydney I organized 80 birthday for my mother, which was a great success.

Bruce spent a lot of time in Taiwan and also in Europe. Despite the economic meltdown, the factory is up and almost running. Amazing, as last year it was just an empty field. As with the rest of the world, the future is uncertain (but it always is!)

Kiri went to conferences in Hungary and Greece and traveled in Rumania. She is doing some molecular biology in Hanover, Germany, as part of her Ph. D. She has just sent off proofs of her paper about last years giant experiment with 800 sheep. She has also traveled to Pakistan to meet David, her housemate from Camden, who is working there. Together with several friends they walked the Karakoram mountains in Kashmir. I was relieved when she got back to Germany! I am flying there next week to spend Christmas in Europe. We will spend a few days in Czech republic and then meet our friends Blatts in Chamonix.

Next year is the year of book writing. I managed to get exemption from teaching to write my charophyte book with Alan and Michelle, my student Saba will write his thesis and Kiri will too!

So, we bring you

Season's greetings and All the Best in 2009!!!

Mary, Bruce and Kiri

The background picture is lake Budgewoi, north of Sydney, where we collect our salt tolerant charophyte Lamprothamnium.

March: shoveling snow in Buffalo