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Stacey Gabriel gives us a sneak peek of her upcoming Midsummer Nights’ Science lecture, which she will give on August 1. Director of the ӳ����ý's Genomics Platform, she will discuss the implications of using DNA sequencing and genotyping technologies to compare DNA from one person to another, and from humans to other animals.

To comprehend a book written in English, readers need to recognize all 26 letters of the alphabet. To probe the inner workings of the genome, researchers need tools that can recognize a much shorter alphabet: the four “letters” or bases (As, Cs, Ts, and Gs) that make up DNA. Just as frequently misreading a letter in the English alphabet can make for a bewildering read, mistaking any of the letters in the DNA alphabet can be a source of confusion too.

Matthew Freedman remembers the moment as clear as day. “I was sitting in the Massachusetts General Hospital cafeteria with David Altshuler talking about human genetics, and it just hit me,” Matthew recalls. “This is what I want to do.”

Peter Reddien gives us a sneak preview of his upcoming Midsummer Nights’ Science lecture, which he will give on July 25. As Peter explains in the video below, planarians – a kind of flatworm – possess an amazing ability. They can regenerate new heads, or any other missing body part, after injury. Peter and his colleagues are trying to understand how these amazing feats of regeneration happen. Watch the video below to hear more.