That was the week that was ...

Hello and welcome to the first edition of That was the week that was, a flimsy and none too enlightening view of the events of the week in the world of the life sciences, both here and overseas.

Every week, this newsletter will bring you all of the latest headlines, accompanied by a slightly subversive overview of what has happened and who dunnit, featuring juvenile comment on important events and highlighting the trivia that is the joy of today's modern media practitioner (which would be me).

If you want the real news then just click on our headline stories as usual, and if you are offended then look away now. If you disagree with anything I say, feel free to send me an email at kate_mcdonald@idg.com.au and we can get a discussion going, which would be nice.

We have to start on a serious note, however, following this morning's news that the Victorian Premier, Steve Bracks, has decided to stand down. Whatever your political persuasion or personal view of the man, there is absolutely no doubt that Bracks and his government, in particular his treasurer and minister for innovation and regional and rural development, John Brumby, have done an enormous amount for the broader science community in Victoria.

Putting together the exact figures will be difficult, but this duo made a decision to capitalise on the outstanding research and knowledge base that has traditionally existed in Victoria by dedicating essential - and massive - funds to building an absolutely thriving life science and biotechnology sector in the state.

Victoria has long had the great benefit of being host to outstanding universities such as Melbourne and Monash, La Trobe and Swinburne; to globally influential research institutes such as the Walter and Eliza Hill Institute, the Howard Florey and Peter Mac; and to major research departments within CSIRO.

Victoria's Department of Primary Industries is also a world leader in basic and applied research, and the integration of research institutes and clinical application through Victoria's major hospitals is second to none in this country.

Thankfully, Bracks and Brumby seemed to have sat down one day and decided to allocate as much funding as possible to assisting not only the traditional research sector but to building a vibrant biotech industry. They have most definitely achieved that, if the amount of time the suburb of Clayton is mentioned in peer-reviewed literature and the membership of the BioMelbourne Network is anything to go by. That Melbourne is the site of the new Australian Synchrotron, due to start operation next Tuesday, is in many ways due to their support.

So, good on you, Steve. While Peter Beattie and his treasurer, Anna Bligh, are probably now intent on erasing you from history and putting yet more funds into Queensland's booming biotech in the race for national dominance, for the science community as a whole, it was a job well done.

Sydney this week was host to the annual conference of the International AIDS Society (IAS), which made regular headlines on the nightly news. We'll have a couple of in-depth stories about research results announced at the conference in the next issue of ALS, but in the meantime, if you'd like to see videos or read transcripts from the conference, go to www.kaisernetwork.org.

This marvellous not-for-profit organisation has partnered with the IAS to broadcast all of the proceedings and provide written transcripts of the whole conference, a quite extraordinary resource that should be applauded.

Also this week, a new Adelaide-based company called Oncaidia has announced it will list on the stock exchange. We'll have the background story and an interview with CEO Keith Smith in the Sept/Oct issue of ALS.

We also say goodbye to Odile Crick, respected artist, accordion player and wife of Francis, who passed away this week aged 86. While most well-known as a painter of nudes, Odile Crick was also famous for having sketched the illustration of the DNA double helix that accompanied her husband and James Watson's letter to Nature in April 1953 that set off the you-know-what.

According to an obituary in The Washington Post, Odile was rather underwhelmed at the groundbreaking news Francis announced to her upon his return from the pub on a famous Saturday afternoon. "You were always coming home and saying things like that," she said, "so naturally I thought nothing of it."

And finally, the head writer of The Simpsons, one-time mathematics student Al Jean, is interviewed on this week's podcast from Nature, (featuring Stephen Hawking's lament at his inability to propound a unified field theory). "In this house we obey the laws of thermodynamics!" says Homer, and the local TV station publicises the latest bestseller: So you're calling God a liar - an unbiased comparison of evolution and creationism. Have a listen at www.nature.com. It's a giggle.

See you next week,

Kate.