It's the last week, it must be cherished.

After a sad departure from Bonn, we made it to Berlin in 16 out of 17 pieces. I called for Justin and frantically followed the train from the outside as he was trapped in but it was too late. He was gone. Then, thirty minutes later, he was back. So, we went to the hotel.

Monday evening we did a bicycle tour of Berlin. I love riding bicycles so, touring the city on one was perfect. We rode for about three hours exploring the young history of Berlin's streets. We saw a section of the Berlin Wall equipped with the original border fortifications, heard stories about escape refugees, rode through the Brandenburg Gate and to the Holocaust Memorial, and made our way around the city as one of the largest bike touring groups in the history of Berlin. All on bicycles.

Tuesday had a full schedule. We toured numerous labs at the Max Delbrück Center for Molecular Medicine. My favorite was the discussion with Dr. Besser about his stem cell research lab, which led into the ethical discussion about the use of stem cells. It was a very interesting topic because of the differences of opinions between people and even countries. It was interesting to speak with a scientist that actually works with stem cells and hear his point of view versus learning about the views of anonymous figures with information that only suggests whether their opinions are based on science or religion. I really enjoyed Dr. Besser's presentation because he was acknowledging both sides of the argument. We also toured the MRI facility equipped with a 7 Tesla magnet. It was fun to play around with the magnetic field; the metal rings in the girls' bras were being twisted around, which felt awkward and my shoes had metal in the soles and were being pulled towards the machine! Because of the lack of time, our last tour was unfortunately cut short. We visited the labs for surgical research unit of the OP 2000, which has the potential of being used with surgeons being in one part of the world and the patients in another. It was amazing how they were able to reconstruct a scan of a region of the body and use cameras and sensors to display the instruments on the screen for surgical assistance.

The last part of the evening included an optional tour of the Otto Bock facility, which was a company that designs prosthetics, wheel chairs, and other physically assistive devices. As a biomedical engineer I really enjoyed this tour and all of the interactive features the facility had to offer. There were screens that displayed an arm with visible tendons, muscles, bones and ligaments on a table and you could place your arm underneath the projection to see where these structures lie and what they are labeled. There were also different physical activities to do like a treadmill with prosthetic assistance and a wheelchair with a virtual reality screen. The building was so modern and clean. I would love to work somewhere like that.

We have Dresden and one more day in Berlin as a group. Sad day.

Brittany