Although we've been in Germany for months, it seems like there's always more to do and see. This week we got to check a few more things off the list, as the whole group went to visit Bayer and the Neanderthal Museum. It was kind of funny spending the morning learning about the amazing scientific advances we've made as a species and then to hop back on the bus and see what are speculated to be our much more humble origins.
The First thing that struck me about Bayer wasn't actually the company, but it's location on a rather park-ish part of the whole complex. It really tied in with what the spokesperson was saying about Bayer being more environmentally friendly and working on crop production techniques to try to match the growing population and demands to our world's capabilities. One of the highlights of the tour and presentation was getting to see a new interactive 3D area that technically wasn't open yet. That and watching people try to keep their balance on the therapy machine made me feel like a little kid in a science museum. After touring around more of the complex and getting to see a really awesome robot inventory/storage system and a few assembly lines, we grabbed some lunch before heading to the Neanderthal Museum.
Again, one of the be
st parts about this experience was the location. The building was really close to the valley of discovery itself. I enjoyed getting a better comparative look and seeing the Neanderthal bones next to contemporary ones. One of my professors back at A&M was really interested in the Neanderthal genome and the current research being in the area, so it was neat to see a more in-depth view of what she had lectured about back in Texas. I also had quite a few personal misconceptions about Neanderthals that I found myself having to revise upon listening to our tour guide. All in all, it was really interesting and I'm glad that we were able to take the time to trek out to the valley site as well. 
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