The ChemConnector Blog by Antony Williams

I’m excited to speak next week at a “by invitation only” symposium at one of the top Fortune 500 Companies. The focus of the gathering for the 350 attendees will be “Networks” and I will be speaking about  “Crowd-sourcing to Build A Structure-centric Community for Chemists”. I will of course talk about ChemSpider but also about my experiences with Wikipedia Chemistry and other general and scientific networks I have become involved with over the years. I will be speaking alongside invited speakers from organizations such as Yahoo, MIT, General Electric, Brookhaven, Harvard University etc so I am quite humbled not only by the invitation  but also by the chance to network (appropriate for a gathering about “networks”) with such a diverse group of people. I’m not sure what the situation is regarding releasing the presentation publicly after the gathering but will do so following discussions with the organizers. I’m sure it will be acceptable.

I seem to be surrounded by people who have developed “autoimmune diseases” (ID) over the past few years. These are commonly people around the age of 40 and are therefore my peer group. It is hard to watch my friends. and over the past few years, members of my immediate family, be severely debilitated by some form of ID whether it’s gastrointestinal in nature, thyroid function or some form of multiple chemical sensitivity.

A close personal friend of mine recently gifted me with a copy of a book called “The Autoimmune Epidemic: Bodies Gone Haywire in a World Out of Balance–and the Cutting-Edge Science that Promises Hope” and I am close to finishing it. I think the title speaks for itself. With an increasing number of “westerners” being diagnosed with autoimmune diseases, and numbers far exceeding thos with cancer, the book makes for interesting, and I would say for me personally, quite shocking reading. As a father of young children I am concerned now for what they will encounter as challenges to their bodies moving forward. A recommended read for everyone…not just scientists.