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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