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Traveling the country roads flanked
by snow-painted woods to the Biology of DNA conference at Cold Spring
Harbor Laboratory on Long Island, it's easy to forget that New York
City lies just thirty-five miles west. As the expansive harbor that
gave this distinguished research lab its name settles into view,
it's clear you've entered a special place.
The pristine setting hints at the original mission of Cold Spring
Harbor, founded in 1890, when biologists were exploring the implications
of Darwin's theory of evolution. The island's plentiful animal and
plant life provided the perfect natural laboratory to study the
diversity of life in terms of our shared evolutionary ancestry.
Today, researchers here build on that work, using molecular genetics
to confirm and elucidate the biochemical basis of our common origins.
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