CHICAGO--Families with children, teachers and students, early-career scientists and all others with a curious mind are invited to come to events that are free and open to the public at the AAAS (Triple-A-S) Annual Meeting. The events began with Public Science Day on Wednesday 11 February and will continue through the meeting from 12-16 February in Chicago.

With cutting-edge, plain-language lectures on topics such as climate change and science-based efforts to create better forms of energy as well as hands-on science activities for children, the AAAS Annual Meeting promises something for people of all ages and interests. A summary of AAAS events is provided below.

Registration for these free events is required either in advance or on-site. To register online, visit http://www.aaas.org/meetings. On-site registration is located at the Hyatt Regency Chicago, Gold Level, East Tower, Grand Ballroom Lobby.

FAMILY SCIENCE DAYS

Saturday - Sunday, 14-15 February, 11:00 a.m. -  5:00 p.m.

Exhibit Hall, Riverside Center, Hyatt Regency Chicago

See a schedule of events for Family Science Days.

On Saturday and Sunday, the public is invited to the popular Family Science Days, organized by AAAS in partnership with area laboratories, universities, and museums. this free event, with hands-on activities and stage shows for families, children, and young adults, also features the Meet the Scientists Series, hosted in collaboration with Science Chicago.

The Field Museum will bring an exact replica of a T. rex dinosaur, for instance. The "Physics Van" from theUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, will offer exciting demonstrations, and experts such as chemist Lee Marek of the University of Illinois, Chicago, will be on hand to answer children's questions. Argonne National Laboratory will feature winning entries from its annual Rube Goldberg Machine Contest for high school students, and Fermilab will provide a "Mr. Freeze!" show. Among other activities, children will be able to make and fly kites indoors, use balloons to investigate how a multi-stage rocket works, peddle an energy bike that transfers power to light bulbs, fans and electronic appliances, and observe and predict hermit crab movement. To attend, the public should plan to pick up a free badge first in the Exhibit Hall.

MEET THE SCIENTISTS SERIES AT FAMILY SCIENCE DAYS

Saturday - Sunday, 14-15 February, 11:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Exhibit Hall, Riverside Center, Hyatt Regency Chicago

Middle- and high-school students also are being encouraged to participate in a series of short, interactive presentations by leading scientists during Family Science Days. The 2009 Meet the Scientists series will include fossil-hunter Paul Sereno, insect scientist May Berenbaum, and peregrine falcon specialist Mary Hennen. Computer scientist Juan Gilbert will talk about hip-hop music and math, while physicist Uwe Bergmann plans a presentation on "x-ray vision," and astronomer Mark Hammergren will explore "Asteroids, Alien Life, and UFOs."

PLENARY LECTURES

Thursday - Sunday, 12-15 February

Fairmont Chicago, Imperial Ballroom

AAAS President James J. McCarthy, Ph.D., President's Address, Thursday, 6:30 p.m.

McCarthy is the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University in Cambridge, Mass. He received his Ph.D. from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and B.S. degree in biology from Gonzaga University. He teaches courses in ocean and climate science and oversees Harvard's program in Environmental Science and Public Policy. His research interests relate to marine plankton, biogeochemical cycles, and climate. He has served on and led many national and international groups charged with planning and implementing studies of global change, including chair of the international scientific committee that establishes research priorities and oversees implementation of the International Geosphere-Biosphere Program from 1986 to 1993; founding editor for the American Geophysical Union's Global Biogeochemical Cycles; co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Working Group II, which had responsibilities for assessing impacts of and vulnerabilities to global climate change for the Third IPCC Assessment (2001); lead author of the Arctic Climate Impact Assessment; and vice-chair of the Northeast Climate Impacts Assessment. He has been elected a fellow of AAAS and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and a foreign member of the Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.

Sean B. Carroll, Ph.D., Professor of Molecular Biology and Genetics, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Remarkable Creatures: Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species, Friday, 4:30 p.m.

Until recently, scientists studying evolution relied on fossil records and morphology to painstakingly piece together a picture of how animals evolved. Today, scientists are now using DNA evidence collected from modern animals to find new clues. Molecular biologist Sean Carroll focuses on the way new animal forms have evolved, and his studies of a wide variety of animal species have dramatically changed the face of evolutionary biology. Major discoveries from his laboratory have been featured in Time, U.S. News & World Report, The New York Times, Discover, and Natural History.

Susan W. Kieffer, Ph.D., Center for Advanced Study Professor of Geology and Physics, and Walgreen University Chair, University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, Celebrating the Earth: Its Past, Our Present, a Future? , Saturday, 6:30 p.m.

Planetary scientist Susan Kieffer has degrees in math, physics, geology, and planetary science, which is apparent in the interdisciplinary nature of her work. She is internationally renowned and a leading authority on the mechanisms of meteorite impact, geyser dynamics, volcanic eruptions, and river floods.

She was the first scientist to describe the physics and chemistry involved in the eruptions on Jupiter's moon Io, the lateral blast associated with the eruption of Mt. St. Helens, the dynamics of Old Faithful as seen by a micro video camera lowered into the geyser between violent eruptions, and the hydraulics of the rapids of the Colorado River. With colleagues, she described the dynamics of the Chixculub meteor impact that caused vaporization of limestone, which resulted in massive amounts of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere and ultimately resulted in a major extinction event 65 million years ago. Kieffer is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a MacArthur Fellow, and has received numerous awards and honors. She attended Caltech, University of Colorado, Boulder, and Allegheny College.

Svante Pääbo, M.D., Ph.D., Director of the Department of Genetics, Max-Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology, Leipzig, Germany, A Neandertal Perspective on Human Origins, Sunday, 6:30 p.m.

A biologist specializing in evolutionary genetics, Svante Pääbo is known as one of the founders of paleogenetics, a discipline that uses the methods of genetics to study early humans and other ancient populations. He is conducting some of the most exacting work ever attempted on the DNA of human and nonhuman primates. His track record of discoveries began in 1985 when he isolated DNA from a 2400-year-old Egyptian mummy. In 2006, after decoding fragments of DNA from the remains of Neandertal, he announced plans to reconstruct the entire genome. In 1992, he received the Gottfried Wilhelm Leibniz Prize of the Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft, which is the highest honor awarded in German research. Pääbo's department in August 2002 published findings about the evolution of the "language gene," FOXP2, which is lacking or damaged in some individuals with language disabilities. He was born in Stockholm and earned his Ph.D. degree from Uppsala University. He is a foreign associate of the National Academy of Sciences.

TOPICAL LECTURE SERIES

Friday - Sunday, 13-15 February

Hyatt Regency Chicago

(Times and Rooms Below)

Friday, 13 February, NOON - 1:15 p.m. (Topical Panel)

• The Central Role of International Scientific Cooperation in Meeting Global Partnerships: József Pálinkás, Ph.D., President, Hungarian Academy of Sciences, Budapest, and Professor of Physics, University of Debrecen; and Lord Martin Rees, Ph.D., President of the Royal Society, Master of Trinity College, and Professor of Cosmology and Astrophysics, University of Cambridge, U.K.; Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom A

Friday, 13 February, 12:30 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. (Two concurrent lectures)

• T. Conrad Gilliam, Ph.D., Marjorie I. and Bernard A. Mitchell Professor and Chair of the Department of Human Genetics, University of Chicago, Ill., Human Genetics, Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom C
• Daniel G. Nocera, Ph.D., Professor of Energy and of Chemistry, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, Harnessing the Sun and Oceans To Meet the World's Energy Demands, Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom B

Saturday 14 February, 12:30 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. (Four concurrent lectures)

• Ekaterina Dadachova, Ph.D., Sylvia and Robert Olnick Faculty Scholar in Cancer Research, and Associate Professor of Nuclear Medicine and Microbiology and Immunology, Albert Einstein College of Medicine of Yeshiva University, Bronx, N.Y., New Approaches to the Therapy of Infectious Disease, Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom B
• Lene Vestergaard Hau, Ph.D., Mallinckrodt Professor of Physics and of Applied Physics, Harvard University, Cambridge, Mass., Wizardry with Light: Freeze, Teleport, and Go!, Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom A
• 2008 George Sarton Memorial Lecture in the History and Philosophy of Science: Elizabeth Loftus, Ph.D., Distinguished Professor, University of California, Irvine, Illusions and Delusions of Memory, Hyatt Regency, Regency Ballroom A

• Tim D. White, Ph.D., Professor of Integrative Biology, University of California, Berkeley, Evolution of Early Humans, Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom C

Sunday, 15 February, 12:30 p.m. - 1:15 p.m. (Four concurrent lectures)

• 2008 John P. McGovern Lecture in the Behavioral Sciences: Ken Alder, Ph.D., Professor of History and Milton H. Wilson Professor in the Humanities, Northwestern University, Evanston, A History of the International Scientific Conference, Hyatt Regency, Regency Ballroom A
• Colin F. Camerer, Ph.D., Robert Kirby Professor of Behavioral Economics, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, Interface Between Cognitive Psychology and Economics, Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom A
• Amory Lovins, Ph.D., Co-Founder, Chairman, and Chief Scientist, Rocky Mountain Institute, Snowmass, Colo., Profitable Solutions to the Oil, Climate, and Proliferation Problems, Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom B
• Jeannette Wing, Ph.D., Assistant Director, National Science Foundation, Arlington, Va., Computational Thinking, Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom C

CAREER SUPPORT FOR STUDENTS AND SCIENTISTS

Friday - Saturday, 13-15 February, 10:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

Sunday, 17 February, 9:00 a.m. - 5:00 p.m.

(Times and Locations Vary)

The AAAS Annual Meeting is rich with activities for professional and career development. Sessions are designed for everyone regardless of degree level or career stage and offer many opportunities for networking and meeting colleagues and peers.

Career-Building Workshops for scientists, students and others are planned throughout the weekend and will cover topics ranging from basic skills such as interviewing to more advanced subjects, including dealing with career transitions and communicating with the U.S. Congress.

Career Guide to the Meeting contains a list of workshops and other open events; available at registration at the Hyatt Regency Chicago. In addition, many Exhibitor-Sponsored Workshops will take place during the AAAS Annual Meeting.

The first AAAS Annual Meeting took place in 1848 in Philadelphia, Pa. In 2007, the AAAS Annual Meeting drew some 8,000 participants, including nearly 900 press registrants from around the world. Past meetings have featured such notables as Albert Einstein, former U.S. President William Jefferson Clinton, Microsoft CEO Bill Gates, and Google Co-Founder Larry Page.

AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society, and publisher of the journal Science. Science has the largest paid circulation of any peer-reviewed general science journal in the world, with an estimated total readership of 1 million. AAAS was founded in 1848, and serves 262 affiliated societies and academies of science, reaching 10 million individuals. The non-profit association is open to all and fulfills its mission to "advance science and serve society" through initiatives in science policy, international programs, science education and other fields.