Conference Summary

Extract

This was a superb conference: scientifically exciting, and wonderfully enjoyable from every viewpoint. The biggest problem was, of course, that trying to absorb all the science has resembled drinking water from a firehose: there has been just too much of it to take in on the spot. So if the purpose of a conference summary talk is to dispense sage advice, then I will say that the best thing all of us can do now is simply to go home and think, and begin digesting this vast array of new material. IAU 207 is sure to be remembered as a launching point for many new directions and syntheses that will emerge from its stimulus over the next several years.