SWARM came and went and again UBRP made a strong showing. The Southwestern and Rocky Mountain Regional Division (SWARM) of the American Association for the Advancement of Science held its 76th Annual Meeting in Las Cruces, New Mexico, April 9-12. UBRPers Regina Benton (Dr. Wenk's laboratory, Neural Systems, Memory & Aging, and Dr. St. John's laboratory, Cell Biology & Anatomy), Francisco Villa (Dr. Little's laboratory, Biochemistry), and Casey Jones (Dr. Fregosi's laboratory, Physiology) were on hand to present posters. Carol Bender and UBRP faculty sponsor, Dr. Robin Polt, also attended, as did one of Dr. Polt's graduate students, Michael Palian. Part of the fun of this meeting is that sessions cover a broad range of topics. This year there were presentations on everything from comparative animal behavior and cognitive development, to development of opioid glycopeptides as novel analgesic agents, to the future of public universities.

Dr. Oliver Sacks, well-known neurologist and author of such books as Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, and An Anthropologist on Mars, gave the keynote address. Dr. Sacks spoke about creativity and the brain by using examples from his work with autistic individuals and with Robin Williams (who played Dr. Sacks in the movie Awakenings) to illustrate his points.

Francisco and Carol took some time away from the meeting on Monday, as did Regina and Casey on Wednesday, to visit White Sands National Monument. White Sands is at the northern end of the Chihuahuan Desert in a mountain-ringed valley. Great wave-like dunes of fine white sand have engulfed 275 square miles of desert creating the world's largest gypsum dune field. A variety of plants and animals have adapted to survive in this harsh environment including the bleached earless lizard, sand verbena, yucca, and kit fox to name a few. Did we mention rattlesnakes? They are there too! Although none of us saw one, we did see their tracks. Following a trail takes on a whole new meaning. One hikes from one pliable marker to the next, hoping that a strong wind does not come up at an inopportune time and bury all evidence of the "trail."

Back at the meeting, Regina's poster was titled, "The Impairment of Retention Induced by L-Name is Associated with a Cholinergic Hypofunction" and dealt with the work she did with Dr. Giancarlo Pepeu at the University of Florence in Italy in 1999. Casey presented a poster titled "Influence of Pulmonary Stretch Receptor Feedback and CO2 on Upper Airway and Respiratory Pump Muscle Activities," and Francisco's poster was titled "Cooperative DNA Binding by the CI Regulatory Protein in HK022 Bacteriophage." Joining them were 45 other student presenters including students from The University of Texas at El Paso, New Mexico State University, the University of New Mexico, the University of Colorado, Vanguard University, Colorado State University, the University of Southern Colorado, Kennesaw State University, and the Escuela Secundaria in Chihuahua, Mexico. Student presentations were judged. There was a shortage of judges so Francisco was pressed into service. At the closing banquet, seven awards were made to students with the best presentation or posters. Regina and Casey each received one of the awards. (Congratulations Regina and Casey!) Next year, SWARM will meet in Denton, Texas at North Texas State University. With luck and hard work, UBRP should again be present in force!