Awesome - they also talked about Tara Perot-Sinal's work. We were post-docs together in Baltimore (although our work has now gone in very different directions -- she is more of a psychologist, I'm more of a physiologist).

...and this is the first time since 2000 that I haven't been at the Society for Neuroscience meeting. It's kind of sad.

I was at a Society for Neuroscience meeting back in about 1997 or so (in DC at the old convention center) and went to the grad-student/postdoc social one night. I knew nobody there and was sort of milling around aimlessly... on my way to the bathroom I head someone mention anandamide, which was the recently-discovered natural counterpart to THC. Out of curiosity I stopped to ask the guy about it and it turned out to be Bill DeVane, who was the person who discovered anandamide. He's a great guy and we had a nice talk while we witnessed the disturbing sight of about 30 scientists doing The Macarena in synchrony. I gave Bill a ride back to what turned out to be our common hotel (after finding my car broken into on the street). No anandamide analogs were consumed.

This is all well and good, but what the world really needs to know is how Paris Hilton reacts to cardboard cut-outs of mice - specifically, what happens when they are jammed repeatedly into her eyes and temples.

a cardboard cutout of the ubiquitous Hilton Hotel heiress has a painkilling effect on mice

Strange! Because images of Paris Hilton have the opposite effect on humans.

Probably one of the few instances where painkilling constitutes cruelty to animals. ;-P

"Neuroscientists have found that a cardboard cutout of the ubiquitous Hilton Hotel heiress has a painkilling effect on mice."

My universe is complete. I'm turning off my intarweb forever. Good night and good bye.