On my first day, I went into work, and then straight to the departmental retreat! I wanted a break before I start work and I got it! The retreat was held at Ringberg Castle, about 70 km from Munich. The Castle is not the usual grand medieval type we tend to think about, but it’s still quite pretty. It sits on a hill and overlooks a lake (Tegernsee) surrounded by typical Bavarian villages. When the talks at the retreat become boring, at least there’s beautiful scenery to look at from the lecture room! No, I don’t mean that the retreat was boring and useless. Just the opposite. I never realised that the department has its hands in everything from physics to biology, and I was quite dazzled at the technology they had at their disposal. But what amazed me more was that there were several things in life I could never run away from. I listened to yet another talk on Alzheimer’s disease, my PhD research topic, from one of our guests, and as he spoke, I could see the Introduction chapter of my...