News: AAAS 2010 Annual Meeting News
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AAAS convened its 2010 Annual Meeting in San Diego, a world capital of biomedical research, biotechnology, and oceanography, and a vital center for electronics, communications, and aerospace. From 18-22 February, thousands of scientists, engineers, policymakers, educators, and journalists from some 50 nations gathered for a conference that ranged from over-the-horizon science to urgent policy issues. AAAS.org writers Benjamin Somers, Becky Ham, Molly McElroy, Ginger Pinholster, Edward W. Lempinen and others provided extensive coverage, plus a sampling of Annual Meeting news from around the world.
This page offers news from the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego. View highlights from the 2010 Annual Meeting or learn more about the upcoming AAAS Annual Meeting.
With your schedule for the rest of 2010 already filling up, it’s not too early to mark the dates 17-21 February 2011 on your calendar. That’s when thousands of the world’s most influential scientists, science educators, and journalists will gather in Washington D.C. for the AAAS Annual Meeting.
The theme of the meeting—“Science Without Borders,”—is a natural for our time. Think of the world’s most pressing issues—in health, energy and climate, security, and education. All of them have a significant science component. All are international.
The increasing complexity of these challenges calls for innovative problem-solving, AAAS President Alice S. Huang says in her invitation to the meeting. Many of these problems require an approach across several disciplines and areas of technical expertise. We need to tap the full potential of a diverse workforce, and bring that diversity of experience to bear on the problems that confront us. We need to work together to build knowledge.
When the 177th AAAS Annual Meeting convenes in Washington, “sessions will feature strong scientific content to illustrate the interface of different disciplines or will exemplify a multidisciplinary approach to problem-solving,” Huang said.
You can learn more about the meeting now, but be sure to check back to learn more as the program comes together. Registration opens 10 August.
See you in February!
[Alice S. Huang, a distinguished virologist now at the California Institute of Technology, took office as president of AAAS on 22 February 2010. AAAS Senior Writer Edward W. Lempinen recently interviewed her by phone.]
Read the full Q&A with Alice S. Huang.
On a recent trip to China, virologist Alice Huang read about a surprising survey of Chinese youth: When asked to name the heroes of the 20th century, many of them listed Albert Einstein. Back home in the United States, as the old year gave way to the new, she scanned her newspapers’ lists of the most influential people of the year and of the decade, hoping to see a scientist or an engineer. But there were none.
Though there are many worthy candidates, the lack of public recognition defines a crucial challenge for American science, the new AAAS president said in a recent interview. Scientists and science teachers must find ways to convey to the public and to science students the enormously important contributions made by science—and the idealism, creativity, and passion that drive many breakthroughs.
In Huang’s view, talking about passion and idealism can help recruit more students into science and engineering, especially from the underutilized pool of women and minorities. It can help build public understanding of science and support for investment in research and development. Overseas, it can help drive home the point that a culture of freedom is critical to scientific advancement.
Read a profile of new AAAS President Alice S. Huang.
The recording is plain and brief: A man whose speech has been damaged by a stroke is asked by a researcher to say “Happy Birthday,” but he can do no more than repeat the letters N and O. Then, he is asked to sing “Happy Birthday,” and with a little nudge, he sings the song straight through, quite clearly.
It is a crucial insight, illustrating the complex relationship between language and music in the human mind. They interact, they overlap, and yet they appear to operate in different centers of the brain. And where language is lost, music may help bring it back, researchers said at the AAAS Annual Meeting.
"Music and language are two very special abilities we have,” Aniruddh D. Patel, the Esther J. Burnham Senior Fellow at the Neurosciences Institute, said in a AAAS podcast. “Understanding how they work in the brain would have lots of implications for lots of practical things like treating language disorders or aiding language learning.”
To survey the news coverage generated by the symposium, read the full story.
Fifty years after the laser was born, its descendants include devices
that could soon peer through three feet of steel and detect the
smallest cancers. But its most important offspring could be a
technology that puts a clean energy future in reach within decades,
experts said at the AAAS Annual Meeting.
Using powerful
lasers to slam hydrogen atoms together at speeds of a million miles per
hour, researchers at the National Ignition Facility near San Francisco hope to create a
source of fusion energy, said project director Edward Moses, "similar
to building a very small star on Earth."
If they succeed, the
fusion technology could solve "one of the great challenges of
humanity," said Moses, by providing "unlimited, carbon-free" energy to
power the planet within the next three to four decades.
Becky Ham has more about the lasers in our future.
Barry Barish studies particle physics, a science where
researchers sometimes talk about the enormous strides they've made in
the past two decades to draw closer to "a theory of everything." The
discoveries have been significant, he said at the AAAS Annual
Meeting, but "we're nowhere near the end of the field."
Massive
projects, from a Antarctic "ice cube" laced with neutrino detectors to
the headline-grabbing Large Hadron Collider particle accelerator, will
make "the next decade or so really exciting" for particle physicists,
said Barish.
Researchers have come to the point "where we
know how, but we don't what, we'll see," he said in his plenary speech
on 22 February.
Becky Ham has the full story on Barry Barish's address.
SAN DIEGO—A panel of researchers with expertise in infant learning, adolescent
drug use, aging, and memory convened for a symposium at the AAAS Annual
Meeting, and as they described their research, the conclusion was inescapable:
America, you need a nap.
“People are definitely sleep-deprived,” Sara Mednick, an assistant professor of psychiatry at the University of California, San Diego, said in a AAAS podcast.
"That sleep-deprivation is leading to increased risk for cardiovascular disease, depression, mood problems, weight gain, obesity, and diabetes. A lot of different health concerns seem to be helped by good sleep and damaged by poor sleep.”
The symposium drew extensive news coverage—including stories by the Economist, China's Xinhua news agency, and the ScienceNow Web site.
To learn more—including some advice on the ideal nap— read on.
![Giant kelp [Public domain photo courtesy of Steve Lonhart / Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries Media Library]](http://news.aaas.org/marine%20reserve%202.jpg "Giant kelp [Public domain photo courtesy of Steve Lonhart / Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctuary and the U.S. National Marine Sanctuaries Media Library]")
While marine reserves that ban fishing are effective tools for easing
stress on an ecosystem-- allowing fish stocks to recover from pollution
and over-sized fishing hauls-- some say they are an unfair burden on
local populations who depend on marine resources for sustenance or
income.
But a panel of top marine scientists, speaking at a 2010
AAAS Annual Meeting symposium, said that efforts to improve marine
health and increase fisheries are not opposing goals.
By
increasing oceanographic research that can identify the most important
areas for the health of marine systems, Steve Gains, dean of Bren
School of Environmental Science &
Management at the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB), said
that "fishery managers can design marine reserves that will increase
overall ocean health as well as increase catch for fisheries."
Ben Somers has more on the marine sanctuary symposium. Plus, listen to Erik Stokstad's Science Podcast interview Terry Hughes, a coral reef biologist at James Cook University in Townsville, Australia. And read Erik's full story in ScienceNow.
Trace a finger along a geological map of the California
coastline, and you'll travel a landscape rich in detail--until you hit
the water. In our maps and in our minds, the oceans for too long have been a "featureless blue
plain," said Marcia McNutt at the 2010
AAAS Annual Meeting.
As the first woman director in the 130-year
history of the U.S. Geological Survey, McNutt hopes to erase
that blank spot and replace it with a clearer picture of how the oceans
are changing and how those changes could affect the whole country. And one of the key challenges facing the Survey is to understand sea levels rising as a result of climate change.
Read Becky Ham's account of Marcia McNutt's address to the Annual Meeting.
The 2010 Annual Meeting has closed after five rich, exciting days in San Diego. But there are still stories to tell--about lasers and the science of sleep, and about new AAAS President Alice S. Huang.
Check back over the next day or two for more Annual Meeting news!
On two foggy days last June, high-ranking Chinese educators met in San Diego with a team of U.S. colleagues to discuss the ethical standards surrounding the conduct of research. In the months since, U.S. scientists have led missions to North Korea, Syria, Cuba and other nations.
Writing in the San Diego Union Tribune, AAAS President Peter Agre and U.S. Ambassador Thomas Pickering said those missions are emblematic of “a promising global trend that features researchers, diplomats, and others collaborating on science and, in the process, building closer ties between nations.”
President Barack Obama and Congress "have made welcome moves to embrace the potential of science
diplomacy," Pickering and Agre said, but in the months ahead, "they will need to exert
still more leadership and make sure the effort has the resources needed
to succeed."
The op-ed, published Saturday 20 February, was the third in a series of three published by the Union-Tribune during the AAAS Annual Meeting.
Read more about the op-ed by Peter Agre and Thomas Pickering.
Feeding an ever-growing human population, providing healthcare for everyone, and mitigating human stresses upon ecosystems are among the world’s most urgent 21st century challenges. Biology could be part of the answer, but undergraduate biology classes are typically stuck in the last century, with lackluster teaching techniques that alienate students and prevent them from attaining the science literacy.
Now a group of undergraduate faculty have released a report that culls their most effective and modernized teaching techniques for biology, with the fundamental effect of making biology classes more student-centered. The summary report, “Vision and Change: A Call to Action,” was released at the AAAS Annual Meeting.
“It’s personal and national security interests at stake,” said Karen Kashmanian Oates, deputy division director in the National Science Foundation’s Directorate of Education and Human Resources.
Molly McElroy has the full report.
The AAAS Science and Human Rights Program, in collaboration with Amnesty International, has created a new database of human rights-related events occurring in northwestern Pakistan.
“Human rights workers in the highly volatile region have had difficulty gathering data,” explained AAAS Project Director Lars Bromley. “Creation of a common database on violations will assist investigations. AAAS and Amnesty International staff worked together to create a database on human rights related events from major news sources for the years 2005-2009. This database was then made accessible via a mapping and analysis tool available on the project Web site, www.eyesonpakistan.org."
Bromley, his AAAS colleague Susan Wolfinbarger, and Scott Edwards of Amnesty International described their efforts during the AAAS Annual Meeting symposium, “Information Technologies and Remote Sensing for Understanding Human Rights.”
With greenhouse gas levels increasing in the atmosphere and humans showing little collective will to control the emissions, researchers are looking more closely at potential solutions that would’ve seemed inconceivable just a few years ago.
For example: What if humans, in an effort to reflect some of the sun’s heat away from Earth, pumped aerosols into the atmosphere to form a sort of curtain over the land and oceans?
That’s essentially what happens when a big volcano erupts, but for humans to do the job, it would require engineering on an unprecedented scale. And yet, at the AAAS Annual meeting, it was clear that with climate changes growing more worrisome, geo-engineering has moved from the fringe closer to the mainstream.
In an article in ScienceNOW and in a Science Podcast interview, Eli Kintisch explored how the idea might work—and some potential challenges. Karin Zeitvogel, covering the Annual Meeting for Agence France-Presse, also has an account.
Read more about geo-engineering coverage at the AAAS Annual Meeting.
Highlights from the final day of the AAAS Annual Meeting:
New Frontiers in Particle Physics, a plenary lecture by Barry C. Barish, director, Global Design Effort for the International Linear Collider, and Linde Professor of Physics emeritus, California Institute of Technology. 8:30-9:30 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 6AB.
Children of Assisted Reproductive Technologies: Their Health and New Genetic Issues, a symposium. 9:45-11:15 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 1B.
Geoengineering the Climate: The Royal Society Study, a symposium. 9:45-11:15 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 4.
Marine Reserves in a Changing World: Connecting Research with Human Needs, a symposium. 9:45-11:15 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 10.
Using GIS and Spatial Analysis to Better Understand Patterns and Causes of Violence, a symposium. 9:45-11:15 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 5A.
See Monday's schedule online or beginning on page 26 of the program book.
SAN DIEGO--Evidence is accumulating that poverty-related stress from birth to
age 5 affects neurological development, including the expression of genes and the release of hormones which has
implications for physical and mental health later in life, reseachers said Sunday.
Research
indicates that children living in poverty, especially during early
childhood, are likely to earn and work less and are at an increase risk
for chronic diseases has been widely-documented. But scientists
speaking at a Sunday press briefing at the AAAS Annual Meeting here
said that researchers may be closer to learning about the specific
mechanisms.
Whether biology or environment has a stronger impact
on the shape of a person's character has long been a polarizing
question among researchers and among the public. But speaking at the
AAAS meeting, W. Thomas Boyce, M.D., professor of pediatrics at the
University of British Columbia, said rejected that polarity.
"The
question of 'is it nature or nurture' should be all but over because
clearly they are affecting each other," said Boyce.
Read Ben Somers' story on the impacts of early childhood poverty.
![Eric S. Lander [Image © and courtesy of the Broad Institute]](http://news.aaas.org/images/Broad1756-Dr.Lander_sq.jpg "Eric S. Lander [Image © and courtesy of the Broad Institute]")
U.S. President Barack Obama caught the attention of
researchers by promising in his inaugural address "to restore science
to its rightful place." At the AAAS Annual Meeting, presidential
adviser Eric Lander said the Obama administration has delivered on that
promise with bold new initiatives and more subtle gestures of respect
for the scientific worldview.
From economic initiatives to science diplomacy, the Obama administration has found a place for science in many of the nation's ambitious endeavors, Lander said in his speech on Friday 20 February.
Read Becky Ham's account of Eric Lander's address.
There's more troubling news about bisphenol A:
The chemical compound is used in the production of some plastics--look for those with recycling symbol #7. In an interview with Science Update, AAAS's 60-second radio show, neuroendocrinologist Heather Patisaul of North Carolina State
University says bisphenol A exposure disrupts reproductive development
in both rats and humans.
"What happens with our rats is they go through puberty too early," Patisaul said, "and
this mirrors what we’re seeing in girls in the U.S., where the age of
puberty is getting lower."
Patisaul spoke at a symposium Saturday at the AAAS Annual Meeting on the consequences of endocrine disupting agents.
In a separate symposium, researchers explored the link between bisphenol A and other synthetic chemicals with breast cancer.
Listen to host Bob Hirshon's story on Science Update.
SAN DIEGO--How's this for a math problem: How many police officers does it take to make a neighborhood safe from crime?
And here's your second problem: Is this really a matter for math?
In
presentations at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting, applied mathematicians
showed how their skills can be used to explore real-life problems, from
crime "hotspots" to traffic pileups and crowded sidewalks. Urban
planners and social scientists are increasingly turning to math as a
way to understand these complex groups of unpredictable people, the
speakers said.
Read Becky Ham's full story.
With the need for new, clean energy sources increasingly urgent, a growing sector of researchers and investors are looking to derive oils from algae to power vehicles. Perhaps surprisingly, though, it’s not a new idea.
In an in interview with AAAS, bioenergy expert Al Darzins said that the U.S. Department of Energy had explored the concept in its Aquatic Species Program from 1978 to 1996. But the current energy market, combined with concerns about climate change, have brought the idea roaring back—at the DoE and in the private sector.
Here’s the basic idea: When stressed, micro-algae produce oils, or lipids. But significant hurdles remaining growing the algae on a mass scale and harvesting and processing the oils.
“Right now our best estimation is that in order to produce a gallon of algae oil, it would be anywhere from $10 to $40 a gallon,” Darzins said. “We need to bring that down to a dollar or two.”
It's too bad James Bond wasn't at Family Science Days--he could have learned how to use science to set a secret rendezvous point at the Annual Meeting in San Diego.
Using a special kind of paper and a bunch of ordinary household products, children at an activity table developed by the San Diego chapter of the Association for Women in Science wrote messages that would appear and disappear with the spray of a bottle.
While it may never replace texting or Twitter for teenagers, the activity was a hands-on chemistry demonstration that used the fun of science to engage children. And that was just one of many activities at Family
Science Days, which brought more than 20 exhibitors to the exhibition
hall of the San Diego Convention Center.
Kids also could make a living necklace at the American
Society of Plant Biologists table, explore underwater worlds (in an
aquarium ) with the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, play with
lasers with Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, and power a light
bulb while riding an exercise bike at the Center for Sustainable
Energy California display.
Family Science Days continues Sunday from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.
Learn about Family Science Days in the full story
Highlights from the fourth day of the AAAS Annual Meeting:
Ethical and Societal Dimensions of Biosecurity and Dual-Use Research, a symposium. 8:30-10:00 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 7B.
Adam Smith Meets Jacques Cousteau: Using Economics to Protect Marine Resources, a symposium. 8:30-11:30 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 17A.
Role of Sleep in Memory from Development to Old Age, a symposium. 8:30-11:30 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 2.
Careers Away from the Bench, a career development workshop. 10:00-11:00 a.m., Marriott Hotel and Marina, Marina Ballroom G.
Family Science Days and Meet the Scientists Series. 11:00 a.m. -5:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Exhibit Hall 1B.
The Future of Stem Cell Research, a topical lecture by Lawrence S.B. Goldstein, director, Stem Cell Research Program, and professor of cellular and molecular medicine, University of California, San Diego. 12:30-1:15 p.m., San Diego Convention Center Room 6D.
Science in the Theater, a symposium. 1:30-3:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 1B.
Will Coral Reefs Disappear? Separating Fact from Conjecture, a symposium. 1:30-4:30 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 9.
Language Learning in Deaf Children: Integrating Research on Speech, Gesture, and Sign, a symposium. 3:30-5:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 2.
Science Below the Sea, a plenary lecture by Marcia McNutt, director, U.S. Geological Survey. San Diego Convention Center, Room 6AB.
See Sunday's schedule online or beginning on page 23 of the program book.
Francis Collins, the genome pioneer who now heads the U.S. National Institutes of Health (NIH), can't shake his uneasy thoughts about the Institutes' financial future. While it received $10 billion in stimulus funds, those funds run out after two years--and that's sure to cause stress in the medical research enterprise.
Speaking to reporters Friday at the Annual Meeting, Collins seemed to expect a significant loss of funds. “There is no question that after this 2-year influx, which the
community was desperate for, we are once again going to see a difficult
time for investigators to get funding for all the great ideas they
have,” he said in story in Science NOW.
Collins and NIH plan to try some new funding strategies designed to maximize the bang-for-the-buck yield. New funds will be set aside for high-risk, innovative projects--and he promised more details in the week ahead.
Read Christina Reed's full report in Science NOW.
An expert panel of researchers working with California's "green chemistry" initiative will release a report this spring that could help the state decide on stricter regulations for synthetic chemicals linked to some breast cancers, speakers said at the AAAS Annual Meeting.
Dioxin, bisphenol A, and similar chemicals can damage breast tissue, according to some reports, and a few studies have found higher rates of breast cancer among women exposed to high levels of these agents. But it's still unclear how the chemicals might trigger cancers, the scientists said, and which chemicals are the most toxic and should be regulated immediately.
For more information on the research project, read the full story.
With an estimated 35 million people infected with HIV worldwide, public health officials have begun to look beyond developing a vaccine to the stop the epidemic.
By establishing universal, voluntary HIV screening programs and immediate antiviral treatments for individuals infected in high-risk regions, Brian Williams, a research fellow at the South African Centre for Epidemiological Modeling and Analysis, said that global public health officials could eradicate HIV/AIDS in 40 years, and stop HIV infections in as soon as five years.
Speaking Saturday at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego, Williams said that the advances in antirviral treatments have been successful at increasing the life expectancy of someone infected with HIV. But as their life expectancy increases, so does the potential that they can infect someone else.
By testing people in high-risk regions and immediately putting the patients on medications that reduce their viral-loads, Williams said that public health officials could "render HIV-infected people not infectious."
Benjamin Somers has a full report on "test all, treat all."
Wind farmers and Western state governors planning for the
future of climate change may soon get help from a new national "Climate
Service," said National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration head
Jane Lubchenco at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting.
Modeled on the
National Weather Service, the Climate Service would combine NOAA's
extensive research and its decision-support programs into one
"easy-to-find doorbell" for Americans seeking practical advice on
climate issues, she told a group of international reporters on 20
February.
Read Becky Ham's story on Jane Lubchenco's visit to the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego.
Real science vs. Hollywood superheroes—it seems like a fun topic, something on the light side. A symposium at the Annual Meeting Friday drew considerable media attention. (Scientific American and CNN's SciTechBlog, for example.)
But in a Science Podcast interview, Jim Kakalios, a physics professor at the University of Minnesota and the author of “The Physics of Superheroes,” made clear that the subject is no guilty pleasure.
There are students “who are never going to become scientists or engineers, but they’re going to be citizens and voters for the rest of their lives,” Kakalios said. “And the traditional ways we have of teaching physics turn these students off….
“Whenever I use superheroes to illustrate science concepts, students never wonder when they’re going to use this in their real life,” he continued. “Apparently they all have plans for after graduation that involve spandex and patrolling the city and knowing how many evil mad scientists there are out there.”
Listen to the full podcast interview with Jim Kakalios. And check out Helen Fields’ story for ScienceNOW.
Calls for spending cuts are growing louder as the draft U.S. budget moves through House and Senate committees. But AAAS President Peter Agre and University of California Chancellor Marye Anne Fox, writing in the San Diego Union-Tribune, urge lawmakers to remember that federal investment in research and development pays big dividends locally and nationally.
The $1.6 trillion budget deficit forecast for 2010 by the administration of President Barack Obama “provokes serious concerns for all of us,” they wrote. “But reacting to that problem by reducing America’s investment in research and development would cause an even more significant deficit over the longer-term, by diminishing innovation and global competitiveness. Federally funded research drives advances in science and technology, and that creates new industries, new products and new wellsprings of prosperity in California.”
The op-ed, published Friday 19 February, was the second in a series of three published by the Union-Tribune, all linked to the AAAS Annual Meeting here.
Read a summary of the commentary by Marye Ann Fox and Peter Agre. Or jump directly to the full text.
The list of similarities between dolphins and humans grows longer. Research discussed earlier at the AAAS Annual Meeting focused on the large brain size in both mammals--and dolphin research that may yield new insights into human conditions such as Type II diabetes, cervical cancer and exposure to toxins.
Now a Sunday symposium at the meeting, focused on dolphin intelligence, will include research that shows that dolphins have self-awareness, as measured by their ability to a recognize themselves in a mirror.
In a new episode of Science Update, the prize-winning AAAS 60-second radio show, host Bob Hirshon talks with Diana Reiss, a psychologist at Hunter College at the City University of New York. So far, she says, apes, elephants, and magpies are among other animals to pass the self-awareness test.
Take a minute and listen to Science Update.
At the end of every human chromosome, a short string of repetitive genetic code called a telomere keeps the chromosome from unraveling or clinging to its companions. Not much more than a tiny stutter of DNA, the telomere nonetheless tells an eloquent story about the importance of basic research, Carol W. Greider said at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting.
Researchers now know that telomeres play a critical role in aging and diseases such as cancer, but these implications were far from Greider's mind when she began the studies that would lead to her 2009 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
Telomere research is "the perfect example of bridging science and society," she said in her 19 February plenary speech. "It's fundamental knowledge that fuels practical implications."
Read more about Greider's research and the implications for human health.
Highlights from the third day of the AAAS Annual Meeting:
Repairing Our DNA: Bridging Molecular Mechanism and Human Health, a symposium. 8:30-10:00 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 17A.
Traffic, Crowds, and Society, a symposium. 8:30-10:00 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 11B.
Marine Spatial Planning: A New Approach for Balancing Ocean Uses and Ecosystem Health, a seminar. 8:30-11:30 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 17B.
Family Science Days and Meet the Scientists Series. 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Exhibit Hall B1.
Understanding Earthquakes Through Large-Scale Simulations, a topical lecture by Thomas Hillman Jordan, W.M. Keck Professor of Earth Sciences, University of Southern California, Los Angeles. 12:30 -1:15 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 6D.
Targeting HIV/AIDS Prevention: New Research and Future Avenues, a symposium. 1:30-3:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, 6E.
Improving Oral Health: Smiles for Life, a symposium. 3:30-5:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 6D.
AAAS Awards Ceremony and Reception. 5:00-6:30 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 6C.
Science and Technology in the First Year of the New Administration, a plenary lecture by Eric S. Lander, director, The Broad Institute of MIT and Harvard University, and co-chair, President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. 6:30-7:30 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 6AB.
See Saturday's schedule online or beginning on page 18 of the program book.
It was a last-minute affair, organized with some urgency. With climate researchers under sustained and often highly political attacks in recent weeks, some of the world's most eminent science leaders decided to talk to the press about what was going wrong--and what science should do about it.
Climate change skeptics have energized their attack in recent weeks, claiming that emails stolen from a U.K. center showed research bias and that an error in an IPCC report on melting Himalayan glaciers showed a lack of rigor. But while admitting mistakes, the scientific panel at the AAAS Annual Meeting also had sharp words for how climate skeptics use distortion as a tool--and how many in the news media play along.
In a Science Podcast with Eli Kintisch, distinguished Texas A&M climate expert Gerald North pressed that point: "I’ve never seen anything quite like this… But then, over the years, there were not the sort of outrageous commentators on television and radio. Now, you factor that in, and little things like this can be exploited for political advantage."
Listen to the podcast. And check out Eli Kintisch's related story at ScienceNOW.
![A common dolphin [Public domain photo courtesy of NOAA, Scott Hill]](http://news.aaas.org/images/Common_dolphin_sm.jpg "A common dolphin [Public domain photo courtesy of NOAA, Scott Hill]")
When medical researchers use animal models to understand human illness, they usually turn to mice or monkeys. But now researchers are discovering that dolphins may provide insight into a range of human diseases, from cervical cancer and the effect of toxins to Type II diabetes.
In presentations Thursday and Friday at the AAAS Annual Meeting, researchers detailed the surprising medical parallels between humans and the big-brained, ocean-going mammals. And their research generated extensive news coverage, from blogs to newspapers and from North America to Europe.
Stephanie Venn-Watson, director of clinical research at the U.S. Navy Marine Mammal Program Foundation in San Diego, said in a podcast interview with Nicole Foley of AAAS that research into dolphins glucose-processing and blood-sugar levels could someday yield treatment of late-onset diabetes in humans.
"Both dolphins and humans have big brains compared to their body size," Venn-Watson said. "Large busy brains need a lot of sugar, so scientists believe this could be why dolphins and humans have these common sugar needs."
Edward W. Lempinen samples the coverage from San Diego.
UPDATE: Bob Hirshon, host of AAAS's Science Update radio show, says the diabetes-like condition in dolphins may actually be good for their brains.
![Earth, seen from space [Photo © and licensed from Getty Images, photo #AA048417]](http://news.aaas.org/images/Earth_AA048417.jpg "Earth, seen from space [Photo © and licensed from Getty Images, photo #AA048417]")
A panel of influential U.S. and European scientists yesterday affirmed
the overwhelming scientific consensus that the Earth's climate is
changing, but said they and their colleauges should have responded more
quickly and effectively to news about errors in a major climate report
and hacked researcher e-mails.
In a discussion at the AAAS
Annual meeting, the prominent scientific leaders acknowledged errors in
a 2007 report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and
possibly impolitic email exchanges by East Anglia University climate
researchers. But they expressed shock at the political effects of the
disclosures and characterized the impact as far out of proportion to
the overwhelming evidence that human activity is changing the Earth's
climate.
The panel included Ralph Cicerone, president of the National Academies
of Science and
chair of the National Research Council; Lord Martin Rees, president of
the Royal Society in the United Kingdom; James J. McCarthy, chairman of the AAAS
Board and Alexander Agassiz
Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University; Philip
Sharp; a Nobel laureate and professor at the Massachusetts Institute of
Technology; and Jerry North, a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University.
Becky Ham has the full story.
![A crop from a Mystery Men Comics image [Public Domain]](http://news.aaas.org/images/mystery-men-comics.jpg "A crop from a Mystery Men Comics image [Public Domain]")
From a Central American island with an out-of-control Jurassic park to a
time-traveling DeLorean that takes you back to the future, there's
plenty of science in movies and television.
Obviously no man has ever shot super-strong spider webs from his wrists,
and no one can fly faster than a speeding bullet without an airplane.
But in American superhero history, there may be more science than meets
the eye. And the contemporary artists who produce comic books and
blockbuster films are often deeply concerned to get the science, more or
less, right.
Speaking Friday morning during a symposium at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego, a panel of scientists who have worked with filmmakers along with writers from the NBC superhero drama Heroes said that portraying science correctly-- at least partly--can be as important as other production values.
Speaking Friday morning during a symposium at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego, a panel of scientists who have worked with filmmakers along with writers from the NBC superhero drama Heroes said that portraying science correctly-- at least partly--can be as important as other production values.
They also said that while Hollywood occasionally misappropriates
science, allowing super-humans to shoot spider-webs from their wrists,
for example, the use of science in movies can serve as an important
way to engage the public's interest in science.
UPDATE: Scott LaFee has a nice story on the Hollywood-science relationship on page 1 of Saturday's San Diego Union-Tribune.
Benjamin Somers has the full story on science and superheroes.
Forget the image of a data-driven, lab-coat-wearing nerd: In reality, scientists are "passionate humans" with a chance to serve society like few other professionals, AAAS President Peter C. Agre said at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting.
In a deeply personal speech reflecting on his career, Agre celebrated "the people of science"--students, teachers, heroes, mentors, colleagues, and the public--who connect scientists with a larger world throughout their lives.
These relationships inspire and sustain researchers, he said, making science "a rewarding career like no other."
Becky Ham has the full story on Agre's speech.
You might think they have their heads full worrying about climate
change and disease, but some scientists also fear cocktail parties and
Thanksgiving with the family.
It's where the sometimes-dreaded question comes up: What do you do for a living?
Many
scientists are eager to share their research with the public, but they
lack the tools to turn it into a positive and productive conversation,
participants agreed at a workshop offered at the 2010 Annual Meeting by the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science & Technology.
A few short hours later, however, they were practicing new speaking skills in front of a video camera and crafting short and powerful messages about their work.
Becky Ham has the full story.
They’ve never launched a rocket into space, but students visiting the Reuben H. Fleet Science Center in San Diego had a basic understanding of Newton’s Second Law of Motion.
Where did they learn that force is equal to mass multiplied by acceleration? For some, it was the last time they went out to eat.
At AAAS Public Science Day at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting, more than 500 local elementary school students traveled to the science center in San Diego’s Balboa Park for a jam-packed Thursday of science activities and exploration.
For more information, read the full story.
Science and technology will play a critical role in global efforts to reduce the size of nuclear arsenals and restrict the spread of radioactive materials, according to a panel of top nuclear experts at the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting.
Speaking at a Thursday afternoon press briefing, the panel said that by using science to verify nuclear stockpile reduction and ensure that rogue groups do not gain access to radioactive materials, nation's would more likely to join nuclear downsizing efforts.
Jay Davis, chair of the American Physical Society's panel on nuclear arsenal downsizing, said that science will play an important role in three key elements of nuclear downsizing: verifying the process of dismantling stockpiles; ensuring that the remaining arsenal is safe, secure, and reliable; and ensuring the peaceful use of fissile materials around the world.
For more information, read the full story
The AAAS Annual Meeting kicks into full gear today, with a packed day of events. Among the highlights:
The Road to Personalized Medicine, a seminar. 8:30-10:00 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 17B.
Decoding the Secret Pathologies of Dolphins, a symposium about how dolphins are serving as models for human health. 8:30-10:00 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 1B
Human Dimensions in Geoengineering, a symposium. 8:30 to 10:00 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 6E.
Toward Green Mobility: Integrating Electric Drive Vehicles and Smart Grid Technology, a symposium. 8:30 to 10:00 a.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 4.
National Public Radio's Talk of the Nation: Science Friday, a live broadcast with host Ira Flatow. 11:00 a.m.-1:00 p.m., Marriott Hotel and Marina, Marina Ballroom D.
Infectious Diseases Have No Passport: Battling HIV, TB, and STDs on the Mexico-U.S. Border, a topical lecture by Steffanie Strathdee, associate dean, UC-San Diego School of Medicine. 12:30-1:15 p.m. San Diego Convention Center, Room 6E.
A California Roadmap for Chemicals that Affect Breast Cancer Risk, a symposium. 1:30-3:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 6D.
Telomerase and the Consequences of Telemere Dysfunction, a plenary lecture by Carole W. Greider, Daniel Nathans Professor and Director of Microbiology and Genetics, Johns Hopkins University. 6:30-7:30 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 6AB
Annals of Improbable Research 8:00 to 10:00 p.m., Marriott Hotel and Marina, Seaview Room.
See Friday's schedule online or beginning on page 13 of the program book.
American society should be concerned about signs of a growing gap between scientists and the public, and both the research community and individual scientists should seek new ways to strengthen the relationship, two top AAAS officials wrote in the San Diego Union-Tribune.
In a commentary published on the opening day of the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego, AAAS President Peter Agre and CEO Alan I. Leshner noted that the historically close partnership between science and the public has yielded extraordinary benefits—measured in jobs, health, and public well-being—since World War II.
But recent reports by the National Science Board and the Pew Research Center for People & the Press have shown strains in the relationship—the authors characterized it as “a creeping loss of interest and confidence in science.” That’s evident, they said, in issues such as teaching evolution in public schools, embryonic stem cell research, climate change, and energy policy.
“In an era of incredible opportunities and profound problems, our nation can only thrive if decisions are shaped by a science-literate public and well-informed policymakers,” Agre and Leshner wrote. “Those may be the defining challenges for our research enterprise in the 21st century.”
To learn more about the commentary, read the full story.
![An image of multiple chromosomes (some are incomplete as they are damaged)[Photo by By Wikimedia User 'Square87,' licensed Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike]](http://news.aaas.org/images/Brokechromo.gif "An image of multiple chromosomes (some are incomplete as they are damaged)[Photo by By Wikimedia User 'Square87,' licensed Creative Commons Attribution Share Alike]")
Researchers have developed a new technique for tracking cancer by
identifying personalized biomarkers from tumor DNA.
Announced Thursday
during the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego, the findings show that
next-generation sequencing technology is poised
become an important tool in the new era of personalized management of
cancer patients.
The results will be published in the 24
February 2010 issue of the journal Science Translational Medicine, published
by AAAS.
"There is currently no test for cancer patients that provides personalized biomarkers for clinical management of disease, and we feel that this is an important step in bringing new genome sequencing technologies to personalized patient care," said senior author Victor Velculescu, associate professor of oncology and Co-Director of the Cancer Biology Program at Johns Hopkins.
Read the full story.
The journal Science and the National Science Foundation today announced the winners of the 2009 International
Science and Engineering Visualization Challenge. The visual rendering of scientific subjects are, in a word, stunning. They range from educational posters to an illustration of a jellyfish burger to microscopic images of "cell-extracellular matrix interactions that occur during capillary formation within the lung."
The images aren't, strictly speaking, Annual Meeting news. But among the researchers, educators, journalists and others in San Diego, one imagines that thousands would appreciate the spectacle of science communicated so effectively, and so beautifully.
AAAS.org has a news release by AAAS writer Natasha Pinol, a slide show done by the staff of Science, a video, and more.
In remarks to international media at the start of the 2010 AAAS Annual
Meeting, AAAS President Peter Agre said countries that neglect research
spending during the economic downturn may be "discouraging a generation
of scientists."
The Nobel laureate praised the European Union's efforts to build a "knowledge-based society," encouraging the United States to follow their lead. "Nations that fund science are investing in the future," he said, "while those who cut science spending are just hoping for the best."
In response to questions from journalists, Agre said recent news about errors in climate change reports "has caused significant damage" to the science community at large. But he urged researchers to "stay with their game plan, and do science the best we can" while communicating the difficulties involved in climate studies.
Promising a "laid-back" speech to fit the Southern California setting, Agre said his presidential address tonight will include stories from his work as a "cheerleader" for research on malaria and other disease of the developing world.
The Nobel laureate praised the European Union's efforts to build a "knowledge-based society," encouraging the United States to follow their lead. "Nations that fund science are investing in the future," he said, "while those who cut science spending are just hoping for the best."
In response to questions from journalists, Agre said recent news about errors in climate change reports "has caused significant damage" to the science community at large. But he urged researchers to "stay with their game plan, and do science the best we can" while communicating the difficulties involved in climate studies.
Promising a "laid-back" speech to fit the Southern California setting, Agre said his presidential address tonight will include stories from his work as a "cheerleader" for research on malaria and other disease of the developing world.
Dalia Abdel Salam El Dessouky, environment editor for the Al-Ahram Hebdo newspaper in Egypt, and Nadia El-Awady, president of the World Federation of Science Journalists, will join their international colleagues in San Diego as recipients of the 2010 AAAS Fellowship for Science Reporters from North Africa.
The fellowships were awarded by EurekAlert!, the global science news service operated by AAAS, in cooperation with the National Association of Science Writers in the United States under its partnership with the Arab Science Journalists Association.
“Attending the AAAS Annual Meeting is a great opportunity to learn about the science happening in the top institutions in the U.S. It's also an excellent chance for me to mingle with fellow science journalists,” El-Awady said. “And I'll be announcing at the AAAS Annual Meeting that the U.S.-based NASW and the Arab Science Journalists Association will be jointly organizing the 7th World Conference of Science Journalists in Cairo in 2011. So I am very excited about coming for many reasons.”
A radio broadcast on probability told through a tale about a drifting balloon, a newspaper series on the impact of a devastating genetic disease on a family in rural Montana, and a group of gracefully written stories about genetics and evolution are among the winners of the 2009 AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards.
The winners:
Large Newspaper—(Circulation >100,000): Carl Zimmer, The New York Times
Small Newspaper—(Circulation <100,000): Amie Thompson, Great Falls Tribune.
Magazine: Gary Wolf, Wired.
Television—(Spot News/Feature Reporting, ≤ 20 minutes): Julia Cort, NOVA scienceNOW.
Television—(In-Depth Reporting, >20 minutes): Doug Hamilton, WGBH/NOVA.
Radio: Jad Abumrad, Soren Wheeler, Robert Krulwich, WNYC Radiolab.
Online: Lisa Friedman, ClimateWire.
Children’s Science News: Douglas Fox, Science News for Kids.
AAAS and its partners have named 10 researchers and science leaders as
winners of a series of prestigious prizes for 2009. The prizes are
awarded for exemplary work in a range of fields, from trailblazing
research to international science cooperation to mentoring
undergraduate and graduate students.
The winners:
The winners:
Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award: Dr. Nancy
Olivieri, University of Toronto;
Philip Hauge Abelson Award:
Francis S. Collins, M.D., director of the U.S. National Institutes of
Health and former director of the Human Genome Project;
Public Understanding of Science and Technology Award:
May R. Berenbaum, head of the Department of Entomology at
the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign;
Lifetime Mentor Award: Diola
Bagayoko of the Southern University at Baton Rouge, Louisiana;
Mentor Award: Luis
Colón, chemistry department chair at the State University of New York
at Buffalo;
Newcomb Cleveland Prize:
Articles by Christian Marois and colleagues and another article
directed by Paul Kalas;
International Scientific Cooperation Award: Katepalli
R. Sreenivasan, immediate past director of the International Centre for
Theoretical Physics in Trieste, Italy;
Joshua E. Neimark Memorial Travel Assistance Endowment:
Michele A. Korb, a new faculty member in the Department of Teacher
Education at California State University, East Bay; Kim Har Wong, a
University of Massachusetts Boston graduate student; and Timothy D. Panosian, a Vanderbilt
University graduate student.
To learn more about the award winners, read the full story.
Children’s science books on how plants bring the Earth to life, on a
real-life “frog scientist” —Tyrone Hayes of the University of
California, Berkeley—and on the world of microbes earned top honors in
the 2009 AAAS/Subaru Science Books & Film (SB&F) competition, sponsored by Subaru of America, Inc.
The
prizes, intended to promote science literacy by drawing attention to
the importance of good science writing and illustration, this year
honored five authors, one nature photographer, and a total of three
books. AAAS and Subaru co-sponsor the prizes to recognize recently
published works that are scientifically sound and foster an
understanding and appreciation of science in readers of all ages.
“These
prizes encourage science literacy in children and young adults by
recognizing authors who convey the excitement of science in ways that
engage young minds,” said Alan I. Leshner, chief executive officer of
AAAS and executive publisher of its journal, Science.
Ginger Pinholster has the full story.
The AAAS Annual Meeting opens today, the first day of a five-day run. Among the highlights at the San Diego Convention Center and nearby sites:
A special Forum for Sustainability Science will look at how colleges and universities can develop academic programs on how society can balance environmental, economic, and social constraints to development. Special emphasis will be placed on identifying sustainability core concepts. 1:00-6:00 p.m. San Diego Convention Center, Room 1B.
A clinic entitled Public Engagement with Scientists: Ways to Listen and Work with Life Long Learners welcomes members from scientific associations, universities, and museums to explore ways that scientists can improve engagement with learners of all ages. 3:00-4:30 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Room 9.
The fourth annual Canada Reception, focused on "the Canadian way"
of pursuing international partnerships and collaboration. 5:00-6:30
p.m., Marriott Hotel and Marina, Seaview Room.
The annual AAAS President's Address features AAAS
President Peter C. Agre, M.D., director of the Johns Hopkins University Malaria Research Institute. The event is free and
open to the public. 6:30-8:00 p.m., San Diego Convention Center, Hawaiian Corridor.
See Thursday's full schedule online or on page 13 of the Program Book.
![The launch of Apollo 15. [Public domain photo courtesy of NASA]](http://news.aaas.org/images/Apollo_15_launch_sm.jpg "The launch of Apollo 15. [Public domain photo courtesy of NASA]")
Families with children, teachers, early-career scientists, and all others with a curious mind are invited to events that are free and open to the public at the AAAS Annual Meeting, 18-22 February in San Diego, California. This is the first time in the association’s 162-year history that AAAS is meeting in San Diego.
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.
There will be lectures by some of the brightest and most influential minds in American science, and at Family Science Days over the weekend, there will be a chance for young people to meet with some of those scientists and ask them questions.
For more information on the free public events in San Diego, read Ginger Pinholster's story.
Dolphins with diabetes, green cars designed to feed power back into the electrical grid, human embryonic stem cell research, the link between music and language, and sleep and memory are just a few of the topics likely to generate headlines during America’s largest general scientific conference, set for 18-22 February.
2010 will be the first time since its founding in 1848 that the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) has convened its annual conference in San Diego.
Described in The Times Higher Education as “the Olympics of science conferences,” the 2010 “Triple-A-S” Annual Meeting offers free, public lectures by two Nobel laureates, a key presidential science adviser, the director of the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS), and the director of the global design effort for the International Linear Collider—the highest priority future project for particle physics worldwide.
“The theme of this year’s conference, 'Bridging Science and Society,' highlights the increasing relevance of science, technology and engineering as well as scientific literacy to the well-being of society,” said AAAS President Peter Agre, a 2003 Nobel laureate in chemistry. “It also calls on all scientists and engineers to make their work both beneficial and understandable, and on society to discover again the excitement and hope that research and its findings offer. It is a call to action that resonates around the world.”
To learn more about the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting, being held for the first time in San Diego, read the full story.
Luis Colón
of the University at Buffalo, The State University of New York
(UB-SUNY) has been honored by the American Association for the
Advancement of Science for his deep commitment to advancing diversity
in the chemical sciences.
Colón,
who serves as professor and chair of the UB-SUNY chemistry department,
will receive the 2009 AAAS Mentor Award for work leading to an increase
in Hispanic-Americans receiving Ph.D. degrees in chemistry.
Read more about Colón's accomplishments.
Diola Bagayoko of the Southern University at Baton Rouge, Louisiana,
has been honored by the American Association for the Advancement of
Science for his efforts to significantly increase the number of
African-American Ph.D.s in physics and chemistry.
Bagayoko, who
serves as the Southern University System Distinguished Professor of
Physics, will receive the 2009 AAAS Mentor Award for Lifetime
Achievement for his extraordinary work on behalf of undergraduate
students.
Read more about Bagayoko's accomplishments.
The American Association for the Advancement of Science, America's
largest general scientific society, has named Katepalli R. Sreenivasan,
an extraordinary educator and mentor of next-generation scholars
worldwide, to receive the 2009 AAAS International Scientific
Cooperation Award.
Sreenivasan, immediate past director of the
International Centre for Theoretical Physics (ICTP) in Trieste, Italy,
was selected for "his role as a transformational leader of an
international research center that promotes cutting-edge science by
bringing together the brightest minds from nations within and beyond
the developing world," according to the award selection committee.
Read more about Sreenivasan's accomplishments.
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AAAS Annual Meeting resources for reporters, including press releases, speaker papers, presentations, bios, and multimedia.
