Okay, seriously, how did we do this...

[agilebrit]

Before the internet?

I just found out that the University of Texas at Austin, while it does not have a School of Medicine, does have a Center for Cellular and Molecular Toxicology, and an Institute for Neuroscience. This makes it a great setting for the science-y part of my Zombies! story.

Twenty years ago, to find this out, I would have had to take a trip to the library and then made an hour-long long-distance phone call. Assuming anyone's even on campus right now. Right now, all I have to do is type a few words and click my mouse a couple of times.

How much do I love this:

The INS administers the neuroscience graduate program and is home to more than 70 diverse neuroscience related faculty that represent all major disciplines and techniques in neuroscience including molecular, physiology, cellular and systems research, cognition, behavior, and the neurobiology of disease.

Zombie research, anyone?

Comments

[kensieg.livejournal.com]

There were paper records of things. Researching took longer but was possible.

[agilebrit.livejournal.com]

Oh, sure. But in the past, I would have had to wait until Monday to go to the library to get the information I needed in order to make the phone call to get the ACTUAL information I needed--and there's still no guarantee there'd be anyone actually on campus to answer my questions, or that I would have even known what questions to ask without having seen "Institute for Neurological Studies" right there in front of my face.

And it turns out that I still, really, need to make a building up out of whole cloth because I don't want people who actually go to the University of Texas to call me on the layout of an existing building. But since the story takes place IN THE FUTURE, I can totally do that.