Research highlights: (1) Having established a novel remote blood sampling set-up, I was able to clearly demonstrate that sex-steroid-independent diurnal changes in the pulsatile pattern of luteinizing hormone (LH) secretion play a central role in triggering the onset of puberty in female rats; (2) I was subsequently able to show that glutamate receptors represent a fundamental component of the reproductive neuroendocrine axis, and that their manipulation can profoundly influence reproductive function; (3) By developing mouse monoclonal antibodies that are highly specific to gonadotrophin-releasing hormone (GnRH), I made it possible for GnRH-producing neurones to be chemically characterized using multiple-label immunohistochemistry; so far, I have freely distributed these antibodies to >70 investigators around the world; (4) Through a series of photoperiodic and histochemical studies I was able to establish that an area of the brain known as the bed nucleus of the stria terminalis represents a key relay station for environmental signals that impinge on the GnRH neuronal circuits of seasonal breeding species; this finding has also helped to establish the hamster as an experimental model for seasonal affective disorder; (5) Traditionally, the neurotransmitter GABA was thought to exert its influence on the reproductive axis exclusively by its actions at the level of the hypothalamus; but this idea has now been brought into question because of my novel finding that GABA is also highly expressed within the pituitary gland itself; (6) Traditionally, control of gonadotrophin secretion in mammals was thought to be controlled by a single neuropeptide, known as mammalian GnRH or GnRH-1; my recent cloning of a second form of the GnRH (GnRH-II), and demonstration of its unique expression pattern in the rhesus monkey hypothalamus, has opened up a new way of thinking about how the hypothalamus controls reproductive function.