CSHL Center for Humanities

Drawings of three flies on top portion of a vertical yellow card.

Typed poem on yellow card reads: "There once was a fruit-fly named Joan, / Whose affair with a brash Protozoan / Gave results aggrevating / When, soon after the mating, / All her offsrping flew off as a clone."

For Hermann J. Muller's 65th birthday, students sent him poems with accompanying drawings by Elof Carlson. The poem and drawing below features drosophila, which Muller studied the genetics of.

History of the Lab!

The Davenport building was first used by the superintendent of the Fish Hatchery. When the Dept of Genetics was established, its director Charles Davenport lived there until he retired in 1932. It then served as a residence for staff and became known as the Carnegie Dorm.

Long Island researchers using tomatoes to feed the future of science Tomatoes are ripening in gardens across our area, but in one Long Island field, no one is picking them. Instead, they are fueling groundbreaking research into bigger yields and better medicines. CBS News New York's Carolyn Gusoff explains.

Researchers at the renowned Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory have documented 35,000 tomato branches over three years.

Hooper-Up 1924 - cshl Archival collection of Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory ( CSHL ) photos.

In the early 1900s, students created a newsletter called Hooper Up. Each issue included cartoons, jokes, “news” articles and songs covering not only the lab’s scientific work but also lab gossip.

Surviving issues of the newsletter are digitized via the CSHL Archives!

bit.ly/4lriHdv

Screenshot of CSHL's oral history website page. The middle of the image shows a window with a video still with the scientist Cori Bargmann. On the right is the interview transcript.

Our oral history collection is growing! New interviews with leading scientists are now available online.

library.cshl.edu/oralhistory/...

Branching out: Tomato genes point to new medicines | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Picture juicy red tomatoes on the vine. What do you see? Some tomato varieties have straight vines. Others are branched. The question is why. New research from Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) pro...

New research from CSHL’s Zach Lippman, David McCandlish, and collaborators uncovers cryptic mutations—hidden genetic changes that only show up under certain conditions and shape plant traits. Understanding these could lead to better crops and better medicines. www.cshl.edu/branching-ou...

Research fellowship available!

CSHL Library and Archives offers the Sydney Brenner Research Fellowship to support research projects in the history of the life sciences.

Deadline for applications is August 1, 2025.

www.cshl.edu/education/ce...

Home page of CSHL's Cancer Genetics: History & Consequences website. White, yellow and red text on black background.

Our website for the 2025 Cancer Genetics: History & Consequences meeting is live!

To view photographs, videos, slides, abstracts, and the meeting program, visit:
library.cshl.edu/Meetings/Can...

#cshhist25 #cancergenetics

Arkarup Banerjee named 2025 McKnight Scholar | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Assistant Professor Arkarup Banerjee has been named a 2025 McKnight Scholar. Awarded by the McKnight Foundation, the scholarship provides early-career neuroscienti...

CSHL Assistant Professor Arkarup Banerjee has been named a 2025 McKnight Scholar, one of neuroscience’s most prestigious early-career honors.
www.cshl.edu/arkarup-bane...

Built c.1825, this Cold Spring Harbor building once stored whale oil—sealed with “bungs,” inspiring the name Bungtown Road. 🐋 Over 200 years, it has served as a dormitory, lecture hall, lab, and now houses our Office of Sponsored Programs. #History #ColdSpringHarbor

Cancer Genetics: History & Consequences Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory hosted Cancer Genetics: History & Consequences from March 26 to March 29, 2025. The meeting was organized by Suzanne Cory, Walter & Eliza Hall Institute of Medical Research; Mila Pollock, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory; Louis Staudt, National Cancer Institute; and Harold Varmus, Weill Cornell Medicine.

Watch a recap of the Cancer Genetics: History & Consequences meeting here! #cshhist25 #cancergenetics

bit.ly/4kytOjO

At the Lab: AI evolves | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Today’s AI can talk the talk, but it literally can’t walk the walk. This week At the Lab, CSHL Professors Anthony Zador and Alexei Koulakov discuss the biological brain’s multibillion-year evolutionar...

CSHL Professors @tonyzador.bsky.social y.social and Alexei Koulakov explain how a quirk of evolution—the way our DNA passes down instructions to build a brain—might be a key factor when it comes to designing smarter AI. Take a listen: www.cshl.edu/podcasts/at-...

Pancakes may never taste this good again | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Graduate student Lucía Téllez Pérez reflects on her experience attending the recent CSHL meeting Cancer Genetics: History & Consequences.

From reading The Hallmarks of Cancer in Spain to sharing pancakes with its author at CSHL—Lucía Téllez Pérez’s journey in cancer research came full circle. Read her inspiring story below.

#CancerResearch #CSHL #ScienceLife

Front page of the Cold Spring Harbor Symposia on Quantitative Biology digital archives. The background of the webpage is dark red with black and white photographs of scientists and text about the website.

Explore our digital photo archives!

The CSHL Digital Photo Archives document the annual Symposia on Quantitative Biology from the 1st meeting in 1933 to present day.

You can view lists of symposia participants, photographs, and the contents of the symposia volumes.

library.cshl.edu/symposia/

Call for Papers! @genomeresearch.bsky.social is now encouraging submissions for a Special Issue on The Genetics and Genomics of Somatic Mosaicism, Guest Edited by Drs. Gilad Evrony, Eunjung (Alice) Lee, and Raheleh Rahbari. tinyurl.com/Call-for-pap... #BOG25 #KSMosaicism25 #MITS25 #somaticmosaicism

The new issue of Genome Research is now live! Follow the link to a new ultra-long nanopore sequencing toolkit, a unified analysis of atlas single-cell data, and more! tinyurl.com/Genome-Res-3...

Autism genetics: The faces behind the data | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory More than 5.4 million adults in the U.S. have autism. That’s about the populations of Los Angeles and Phoenix combined. Autism, or autism spectrum disorder (ASD), is a developmental disability that af...

As Autism Awareness Month ends, we highlight CSHL research changing lives. From breakthrough genetic discoveries to new diagnostic tools, CSHL scientists are helping make diagnoses & better support a reality.
Learn more: www.cshl.edu/autism-genet... #AutismAwarenessMonth #Neurodiversity #CSHL

Check out our Guide to the CSHL Historical Collections!

CSHL's archives hold a wide range of materials on the history of the life sciences and medical research in the 20th and 21st centuries.

Integrating exposomics into biomedicine Assessing a full range of environmental exposures will improve human health

Our environment shapes our health—from air and food to stress and neighborhoods. A new paper from a Banbury Center (@cshlbanbury.bsky.social) meeting at CSHL advocates for exposomics, a new way to measure it all.

www.science.org/doi/10.1126/...

Glorious morning lights on Jones Building at @cshlnews.bsky.social

Science is a team effort, & on #WorldLaboratoryDay & in honor of Laboratory Professionals Week, we want to express our deepest gratitude to our lab managers, research technicians, building managers & lab professionals who facilitate groundbreaking research. Thank you for all that you do!

Lessons of the past, leaders of tomorrow | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory From March 26–29, 2025, Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s Center for Humanities & History of Modern Biology, in collaboration with the CSHL Meetings & Courses Program, hosted Cancer Genetics: History & ...

Cancer research has changed lives—& it started with fundamental biology. In March, leading scientists & Nobel laureates gathered at CSHL to reflect on key discoveries like RAS & BRCA1, & to explore the future of cancer genetics. #CSHhist25
@cshlmeetings.bsky.social

www.cshl.edu/lessons-of-t...

Celia and Wally Gilbert Artist-in-Residence Program | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory The Center for Humanities and History of Modern Biology at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) is pleased to announce the Celia and Wally Gilbert Artist-in-Residence Award for artists, composers, wri...

Applications are open for the Celia and Wally Gilbert Artist-in-Residence Program!

www.cshl.edu/education/ce...

Ludmila Pollock named AAAS Fellow | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s (CSHL’s) Ludmila Pollock has been named a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). She is recognized for her efforts to promote th...

Congratulations to our Executive Director Mila Pollock! She has been named a 2024 Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS).

www.cshl.edu/ludmila-poll...

At the Lab: Science for lovers | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Professor Zach Lippman’s research in plant prickles resulted in one of CSHL’s most publicized discoveries of 2024. It also gets at the very heart of what motivates basic ...

In the latest episode of At the Lab Season 2, Lippman takes us on a global journey through evolutionary biology, CRISPR gene editing, & the pursuit of 1 question: can we grow roses without the prickles www.cshl.edu/podcasts/at-... subscribe wherever you get your podcasts! #CRISPR #SciencePodcast

It’s not you—it’s cancer | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cancer ravages both body and mind. If you’ve ever lost loved ones to the disease, you might recognize the physical and emotional changes cancer patients often endure during their final months. They se...

New cancer research links apathy and lack of motivation to cachexia, a condition driven by inflammation and reduced dopamine. The findings offer hope for treatments that could boost quality of life and help patients better tolerate therapy.

www.cshl.edu/its-not-you-...

Lucas Cheadle awarded $750K MIND Prize | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory As the world’s population ages, neurodegenerative conditions like Alzheimer’s disease are becoming more and more common. Alzheimer’s is the leading cause of dementia. And though research into these co...

Lucas Cheadle’s unique research on neurodegenerative diseases, Alzheimer’s in particular, has earned him the prestigious 2025 MIND Prize from the Pershing Square Foundation, providing $750,000 over three years. @cheadlelab.bsky.social www.cshl.edu/lucas-cheadl...

CSHL's Archives house a unique collection of oral histories providing an unprecedented perspective on the development of molecular biology, the present state of science, and visions of the future by leading scientists in the field.

To watch these interviews, visit: library.cshl.edu/oralhistory/

Cancer Genetics: History and Consequences day three! #cshhist25

The Cancer Genetics: History & Consequences meeting continues—& it’s a rousing success! Guests stop for some wine and cheese before heading to tonight’s panel.

Pictured : Nobel Laureate Carol Greider, Terri Grodzicker, Rob Martienssen, Mila Pollock, & Siddhartha Mukherjee

#CSHhist25