RALEIGH, N.C. March 6 - "It's traditional to say it's a pleasure to be here," said Eric Lander to an audience at North Carolina State University in a lecture marking the opening of a new bioinformatics research center on Tuesday. 

Lander, however, was over 800 miles away in Boston. He spoke via satellite to the audience in Raleigh after a snowstorm prevented the director if MIT's Whitehead Institute from presenting his speech in person.