The first International Symposium on Urolithiasis Research was held in Leeds, England, in 1968. The meeting was the first in what was to become a series of symposia intended to gather together a diverse group of biochemists and physicians, urologists and engineers, with a common interest in factors affecting the formation of human urinary stones. Since its inception the series has threaded a peripatetic course back and forth across the Atlantic Ocean, from Madrid in Spain, to Davos in Switzerland, to Williamsburg in the USA, to Garmisch-Partenkirchen in Germany and Vancouver in Canada, under the guardianship of Drs Nordin, Cifuentes Delatte, Fleisch, Smith, Schwille, Dirks and Sutton, and their colleagues. In 1992, for the first time, the meeting moved to the southern hemisphere, to Cairns in Northeastern Australia. Unlike most previous symposia, there were no invited papers. Instead, the submitted abstracts were allowed to dictate the content of the meeting so that the conference programme would reflect the flavour of current research in the field. To achieve this, all abstracts were graded anonymously by three referees to determine their categorization as oral, theme poster, or general poster presentations. The 300 or so accepted absracts were then allocated to seven plenary sessions, nine theme poster discus sion groups and three large general poster sessions."

In Will They Grow Back by Monday?, new children's author Josephine R. Bay describes what it is like for a little girl suffering her first bad hair day. Illustrated by Jeanette A. Spencer, this book offers hair-brained fun for the whole gang. Who hasn't wanted to snip, snip, snip a stray wisp or two on a particularly bad hair day? The fact is Becky's mane issue has been bugging her all day. She can't do a thing with her hair. Her locks are loopy and wild; all she wants to do is tie them back and keep them out of her face. She'd use a paperclip or a hairnet if she could and, quite frankly, this isn't the first time her unruly curls have set her back. So the following day, she makes a plan, which seems like a really, really good idea at the time, but all too soon proves to be a short, short, shortsighted strategy.