Sir

We appreciate your interest in spontaneous meetings organized by young postdocs (see Nature 392, 211; 1998), which demonstrates your interest in the growth and formation of scientists in their early years. You have drawn attention not only to a new initiative but also to some of the problems experienced by postdocs. As organizers of the First European Workshop on Cell Death, however, we fear that the tone of the leading article may open the door to misinterpretation. We should therefore like to clarify our position.

Our meeting is not a ‘rebellion’ but a different type of approach, which we believe is necessary in a rapidly developing field with more than 6,000 publications a year and only one official European meeting. It is not intended to be a competitor of meetings organized by established groups, but a complementary initiative, which we believe fits in the objective of the European Cell Death Organization (ECDO).

We would also like to acknowledge that the European School of Haematology/ECDO awards scholarships to young scientists. Nevertheless, the organization of meetings in cheaper locations with longer discussion time will benefit science by facilitating exchange, confrontation of ideas and collaborations.

We hope that young European scientists will help to ‘refresh’ science rather than ‘rebel’ against it. Our intention is not to create a negative attitude, but to send out a positive signal by showing that it is feasible to organize an inexpensive workshop, where we will try to create an atmosphere of open and constructive discussion for the improvement of the field.