HOUSTON-At the first Life Sciences and Space Medicine Conference, held here from 3 to 5 April, NASA Administrator Daniel Goldin made it clear that NASA’s life sciences program is not exempt from his drive to reinvent the space agency. "We’ve got to do things differently to get to our goal" of making long-duration space travel a reality, he told the audience. He stressed "rigorous peer review," collaboration with investigators at the National Institutes of Health and in industry, and the development of commercial spin-offs. Once NASA’s overhaul is complete, "life sciences will be the jewel in the crown," Goldin told Science. But as the meeting revealed, there are already some bright spots.