Let’s talk about symbiosis - and philosophy!

In the 9th year of our “Let’s talk about symbiosis” seminar, we had to move online but that did not prevent us from having extensive and lively discussions about symbiosis research. Master and PhD students presented and discussed their own research on various symbiotic relationships, covering diverse environments such as marine clams and nematodes, the mouse gut or amoeba. Not only did we talk symbiosis, we also talked philosophy. Our guest speaker Gregor Greslehner from the University of Vienna’s institute of philosophy shared his “Philosophical perspectives on microbiome, symbiosis and individuality” and got us all to think outside the box. To end the seminar on a lighthearted note, we finally shared some stories about times when we messed up in our research. After all, it’s good to remind ourselves that no-one is perfect and making mistakes is part of research and learning.