MBL Opens With Caution | The Enterprise

This letter to the editor of The Falmouth Enterprise is from MBL Director Nipam Patel.

Summer brings many things to Cape Cod and Falmouth. From striped bass to hatching ospreys, from tourists enjoying the natural beauty of our beaches and patronizing our businesses to families who migrate to our shores every summer. In Woods Hole, summer washes over our small village with sunscreen-covered ferry passengers mingling in our parks and restaurants with an international cadre of students and faculty immersed in the unique scientific congregation that swirls here each summer.

In 2020, the Marine Biological Laboratory (MBL) tradition of annually convening some of the brightest and most-promising minds in the biological sciences to do their most creative work was substantially interrupted for the first time in its 132-year history. This summer, the MBL tradition will resume. We are thrilled to be welcoming back our students and faculty to immerse themselves in the possibilities of discovery that are driven by curiosity, inquiry, and a dedication to learning what nature can teach us about ourselves. By exploring new ways of studying the smallest molecules and cells to the most fascinating marine organisms and the environments in which they live we can uncover the mysteries of regeneration, brain function, how microbes benefit and hinder our health, and how our environment is responding to the pressures we place on it as a species we inevitably find ways to apply our learnings to improve the human condition.

Thanks to the dedication of our faculty, staff, and community we will be welcoming about 50 percent of our normal visiting population of students and scientists. Read more of the article here.

Source: MBL Opens With Caution – Letter | Falmouth Opinion | capenews.net