There's a whole list of posts below live-blogged from the CMPI conference that I attended on Wednesday, and I think that the organizers will be putting up some audio files of the proceedings soon. It was an enjoyable meeting, and I met a number of interesting people. Since it also involved politics (on which everyone's an expert), the discussion was often livelier than at many scientific conferences. The entry barrier for speaking up about (say) the effect of efflux transporters on toxicokinetics, fascinating subject though that is, is higher than for talking about where the FDA should get its money and how they should spend it.

While in DC, I also got a chance to meet Megan "Jane Galt" McArdle, and we had a nice talk on economics, scientific research, academia, kitchen implements and the eighteenth-century novel. (Get yourself a liberal arts education, and you'll never run out of conversational topics, is my advice). Next time I'm in the area, she threatened to get Tyler Cowen to show up, who will probably take us to some Papuan or Zanzibarean restaurant in a decrepit strip mall. (Not that he's wrong about those being reliable places for good ethnic food).

Blogging will now resume its one-a-day pace here: five per day in real time is about my limit (particularly in a room where there's no place to plug in the laptop - although the CMPI people did well by us in getting wireless access set up outside the hotel's usual exorbitant charges).