CSHL Center for Humanities

Love Data Week at the Library and Archives 2026 | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory International Love Data Week is a worldwide event in which university libraries organize events, workshops, and games to help researchers appreciate their data.  Love Data Week always falls on the sam...

Here's a recap of Love Data Week 2026!

www.cshl.edu/library-news...

You are invited to the 2026 History of Science meeting celebrating "Five Decades of Nuclear Receptors: Physiology, Molecular Biology & Pharmacology!”

Register here: meetings.cshl.edu/meetings.asp...

The meeting begins at 7:00 PM on Wednesday, April 15th, and concludes on Saturday, April 18th.

Join us next week for Love Data Week!

Our own CSHL community gathers eager to learn about the cutting-edge work happening just beyond their own desks and benches. Yesterday was day 1 filled with collaboration & big ideas. Excited for another full day of idea sharing and connection at the CSHL In-House Symposium. #ScienceMakesLifeBetter

Join us this Friday for the Sydney Brenner Research Fellowship Virtual Symposium!

Friday, January 16, 2026
1:30pm-3:30pm EDT
Zoom

We will be hearing from five Brenner Fellows about their research and experience working with the CSHL archives.

Happy New Year! We look forward to welcoming you in 2026!

To make an appointment to visit the archives, please reach out to archives@cshl.edu or visit www.cshl.edu/archives/.

Image: Barbara McClintock teaching during the 1981 Plant Course at CSHL. Photograph by Herb Parsons.

Happy Holidays from the CSHL Library and Archives! We hope you have a wonderful holiday season!

Painting of Carnegie Library, CSHL (2025) by Gilbert artist-in-residence Hugo Perez.

Please join us for the Sydney Brenner Research Fellowship Virtual Symposium!

Friday, January 16, 2026

We will be hearing from five Brenner Fellows about their research and experience working with the CSHL archives.

In 1980, Walter (Wally) Gilbert received the Nobel Prize in Chemistry alongside Frederick Sanger and Paul Berg. They received the prize for pioneering a method for determining the sequence of nucleotides in a nucleic acid.

View the full scrapbook here: tinyurl.com/2k7zmwz4

Handwritten picture postcard from David Muller to his father H.J. Muller. (1933)

From the collection of Hermann J. Muller. Along with professional correspondence, the collection includes personal correspondence and memorabilia.

libgallery.cshl.edu/items/show/9...

Center for Humanities & History of Modern Biology | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory The Center for Humanities & History of Modern Biology was created in 2018 to establish a permanent home for the humanities at CSHL, one of the world’s premier private, nonprofit scientific research in...

Jim Watson’s passing marks the loss of a towering figure in modern science.

You can explore his extraordinary collection of original papers and materials at the CSHL Archives and online through the link below.

Career Opportunities | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Careers

HISTORIAN OF THE LIFE SCIENCES position at CSHL!
I’m thrilled to announce that the CSHL Center for Humanities and the History of Modern Biology is inviting applications for this position.
This is a remarkable opportunity to join a unique, internationally recognized institution and the Center

In remembrance of Dr. James D. Watson | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Jim Watson made many contributions to science, education, public service, and especially Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL). As a scientist, his and Francis Crick’s determination of the structure of...

It is with sadness that we acknowledge the passing of Dr. James Watson, Nobel prize-winning scientist and former Director and President of CSHL. We extend our sincere condolences to his wife Liz and family during this difficult time. www.cshl.edu/in-remembran...

New internship opportunity!

The American Philosophical Society and CSHL invite applications for a joint summer internship program for undergraduates working on junior or senior research projects related to the history of the life sciences.

More info here: apply.interfolio.com/174285

Letter from Jean Weigle to Matthew Meselson, September 7, 1960

Rest, Play, Turn Dreams Into Reality

The CSHL Archives recently acquired a series of correspondence between Matthew Meselson and Jean Weigle.

The letters primarily detail Meselson's transduction experiments, and also give us a glimpse into the close friendship they shared.

The journey: One lab’s long winding road to cancer discovery | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory As many as one in eight men in America will be diagnosed with prostate cancer at some point in their lives. About one in 44 will die from it. “Prostate cancer is very common,” Cold Spring Harbor Labor...

“We could have published more if we had a more aggressive, short-term vision. And we would’ve failed the prostate cancer community if we’d given them something that sounded great but didn’t last.” www.cshl.edu/the-journey-... #ProstateCancer

The hitchhiker's guide to the smelliverse with CSHL's Alexei Koulakov, Ph.D. YouTube video by Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory

Synesthesia, shipwrecks, and African elephant all await you in the smelliverse! Get a guided tour from CSHL Professor Alexei Koulakov in our Cocktails & Chromosomes video. @alexkoulakov.bsky.social #NeuroSkyence youtu.be/b5i0gUz3O1I?...

The twenty-first biennial Neurobiology of Drosophila meeting started last night! We are excited to host everyone this week, use #cshldros for all of your posts!

Early-onset cancers are on the rise & scientists are racing to understand why. This NYT feature highlights research from CSHL Associate Professor Camila dos Santos on how pregnancy, breastfeeding, & even urinary tract infections can leave lasting marks on breast tissue & influence cancer risk.

Go inside cancer’s biology | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory What happens inside and around a cancer cell? How does a tumor’s interaction with its surroundings contribute to cancer’s growth and spread? These questions could lead to a new generation of cancer th...

How do tumors grow, spread & interact with their surroundings? Scientists gathered at CSHL last week to share answers that could shape the future of cancer therapies. Read more: www.cshl.edu/go-inside-ca...

Congratulations Dr. Lucy Shapiro!

Dr. Shapiro was honored with the 2025 Lasker~Koshland Special Achievement Award in Medical Science!

Watch Dr. Shapiro discuss some of the defining moments of her career here: tinyurl.com/y94vzhax

We are saddened to learn about the passing of Dr. David Baltimore.

A friend of CSHL since his undergraduate research in 1959, his last visit to CSHL was this March for the History of Science Meeting where he spoke about his journey in finding reverse transcriptase.

tinyurl.com/yy675k4c

Piano/Violin duo Chaeyoung Park & Oliver Neubauer | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Piano/Violin duo, Chaeyoung Park & Oliver Neubauer, will perform at CSHL. Reception to follow.

Pianist Chaeyoung Park and violinist Oliver Neubauer, two rising stars in their craft, have prepared a night of splendor for the Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory. community. Join us on September 19 at CSHL’s Grace Auditorium. More information and tickets can be found here: www.cshl.edu/mc-events/pi...

Inglis and Sever earn Royal Society Research Culture Award | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory’s (CSHL’s) John Inglis and Richard Sever have earned The Royal Society’s 2025 Research Culture Award. The two were honored for cofounding the preeminent biomedical prepri...

CSHL’s John Inglis & Richard Sever have received @royalsociety.org’s
2025 Research Culture Award. www.cshl.edu/inglis-and-s...

Matthew Meselson on Chemical & Biological Warfare | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Dr. Matthew Meselson is a geneticist and molecular biologist known for being heavily involved in chemical and biological warfare research and anti-war activism. Many documents in the collection are in...

Learn more about Dr. Matthew Meselson's research on Chemical & Biological warfare with our digital collections.
www.cshl.edu/archives-blo...

Summer days at Cold Spring Harbor!

This photograph is from from Kitty Brehme Warren's scrapbook. One of many photographs depicting life at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory!
cshl.smugmug.com/Kitty-Brehme...

Ever use cortisone? Thank one farmer and two CSHL scientists | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Addison’s disease is no walk in the park. The disorder occurs when a person’s adrenal glands don’t make enough cortisol. This hormone plays a key role in multiple bodily functions, including metabolis...

The medicine you rely on. The creams in your cabinet. The injections that fight cancer. They all trace back to a single Addison’s patient in 1930—saved by an experimental treatment that came out of CSHL: www.cshl.edu/ever-use-cor...

Inspiring breast cancer breakthroughs | Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory Breast cancer is one of the most common cancers among women in the United States, second only to skin cancer. Thanks to decades of fundamental research, it’s also one of the most curable. However, cha...

As World Breast Cancer Research Day comes to an end, we’re sharing five stories that showcase not only our scientists’ progress, but also the donors and community members who make this work possible: www.cshl.edu/inspiring-br...

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.