This past weekend I attended the "First International Workshop of Veterinary Neuroscience", arranged by TiHo, my school. Even though it's a bit (!) above my level of knowledge, a friend of mine (also a veterinary student) and I decided to go anyway. It was free of charge (thank you pharmaceutical companys!) and so at least we 'd get a free lunch... But it really turned out to be a great workshop. Even if I understood very little of some presentations, the lectures by visiting professors were very inspiring.
Especially the lecture from a professor from Yale medical school was great. What struck me the most was the way he so enthusiastically presented his knowledge, and really made you want to learn more. I'm sure that the Germans there who also held lectures are also highly motivated and fascinated by their field of interest, but they don't show it at all. I guess that's not the German way...
The most interesting presentation was held by a doctor from the Hannover medical school, who showed how they experimentally used spider silk fibres (!!) as a guiding material to bridge a 6 cm nerve defect in sheep. They keep spiders (I've forgotten the name of the breed) at the school and harvest the fibers that they produce to repair the damaged nerve. Certainly changed my view of cobwebs!
This past week we've had some amazing weather, the highlight being Saturday with 24 degrees C. It felt like summer! Finally it's goodbye to the indoor arena, and the horses love training outside too of course. I went to a stable in the southern part of Hannover to take some pictures of my friend D and the horse she rides. I've uploaded some that I thought turned out well here.
