Finally—friends have said that this was not the best conference to be my very first, and they’re probably right. But at this moment, when US policies are deliberately crippling scientific research, I’m glad I got to attend and see everyone. This, all of this, is worth fighting for.

Every coherent and seemingly-full story presented still has next steps. The work of collaborators across disciplines and boundaries flesh out and contextualize findings. When we address setbacks we get can help for troubleshooting and commensuration for how hard science often is.

Many of us are academics—we’re not in it for the money. Ultimately we hope to help people, treat disease, save the planet. This impact takes effort from multiple people/institutions, over years of study. None of the work I did in industry would’ve happened without prior, publicly-funded research.

What’s next? We’ve convened, made new connections—then it’s time to communicate with the rest of society (Funny, this is the same sort of call-to-action you’d hear from church retreats). Telling people how important scientific research is requires a different style of presentation.

Several talks my labmates would’ve liked to see were cancelled, many from the NIH or national labs. The unfilled pauses between talks were stark reminders that we’re missing key players. Many speakers thanked the NIH for funding (one person named specific individuals from the NIH who helped them).

I was struck by the diversity of topics—protein structure/dynamics, microbiology, microscopy, IDPs, drug discovery, and more—and the diversity of people. Again, attendees are literally from around the world. The Celebrate Diversity ribbons put into words the reality of the community’s composition.