The way Detlev Ganten, head of Berlin's Charite University Medical Center, tells the story, he was enjoying dinner in early March at the British Embassy in Berlin with a small group of scientists, when the topic of conversation turned to Germany's lack of a National Academy of Sciences. Germany still does not have an Academy despite the strong urging last year by the National Science Council (Wissenschaftsrat) that the regional science academies combine in a national academy. Ganten told the group that he believes Germany's more than half-dozen regional science academies in cities such as Berlin, Heidelberg, Göttingen, and Munich will agree to combine into one national academy before Germany's next national elections in autumn of 2006.