Our gift to you

When my older sister and I were about seven and six years old, respectively, what we really wanted for Christmas were Tammy dolls. Tammy was about the same size as Barbie (and had almost as many clothes), but she was considered a more wholesome toy for little girls. She had poofy hair and wore a little turquoise romper. We were obsessed.

My sister was the enterprising one, and she did a fair bit of snooping. A few weeks before the big day, she found the coveted dolls in their hiding place. I wanted to be surprised, but she insisted on showing me and then swore me to secrecy. By Christmas morning, I was an emotional wreck.

But when we tore into our gifts, there were no Tammy dolls to be found. My mother figured out we’d unearthed them, so she took them back to the store and replaced them with far more expensive and tasteful Madame Alexander dolls. You can see where I got my obsession with the element of surprise — not to mention my general anxiety around the giving and receiving of gifts.

December is, of course, the big month for gifts, so I’m tamping down my emotions and trying to get into the spirit. This month’s issue is the ASBMB Today team’s gift to you, our members and readers. We are so grateful for your unflagging interest and enthusiasm, especially over the past two years. You’ve kept us motivated through these months of uncertainty.

So tucked into this issue is our roundup of some of the year’s most interesting science and our annual gift guide (does giving gift suggestions count as a gift?). We’ve got profiles of the ASBMB’s 15 big award winners to get you excited about the 2022 annual meeting in April in Philadelphia (here's a link to the first one). We also offer two very different essays, by Adele Wolfson and Brooke Morriswood, about the rewards of having undergraduates in the lab. And we wrap it all up with a truly lovely essay by Richard Levy on the pain and rewards of a life in research.

Thanks so much for reading. I hope your holidays overflow with joy and surprises.