ABSTRACT
But the most important event of 1972, without fear of contradiction, was Dave Pawson’s organisation of the first International Echinoderm Conference (IEC) in Washington, DC.
Now, 3 decades later, Nixon, Brejnev, Mao, Pompidou and Pope PaulVI are all dead – and so aremany others. But the Queen of England is still going as strong as the Beetle, although unlike the Queen, the Beetle has been replaced by a redesigned newmodel.We have wonderful computers allowing us to receive or send dozens of e-mails every day, therefore making all information equally important and urgent.We have giant hard disks full of images, we invented a new verb, “to Google”, and we have softwares specifically designed to produce science, and mistakes, at higher rates than ever before dreamed. But what about echinoderm science since 1972?
