Long time, no write

I'm amazed that it's been such a long time since my last post. Here's a quick summary of what I've been up to in the last few months:

• Lost my appendix in late July, evidently continuing a disturbing trend among evolutionary bloggers. Intelligently designed indeed... That put me out of action for a few days.
  
  
• Worked on the first draft of a manuscript on developmental complexity and robustness. It's not bad, but needs a bit more work. That should keep me off the streets in the next few months...
  
  
• Went to the first Euro-Evo-Devo conference in Prague in mid-August. Talked about modularity and robustness in a symposium on "Modularity". Each speaker talked about a different kind of modularity. It was great fun, but I'm not sure the concept is that helpful (if it ever was)... The rest of the meeting was pretty good.
  
  
  
• Participated in a Summer School on "Mathematics in Biology and Medicine" in September in Portugal. A very interesting meeting. By pure coincidence, Martin Golubitsky, my distinguished colleague from the Department of Mathematics, was also invited. We finally got a chance to talk even though we're in adjacent buildings here in Houston -- we agreed that we should talk some more...

More later.