If there is a stereotype in the public's mind of what a Nobel laureate in chemistry is like, the odds are strong that Peter Agre does not fit it.

Where some might expect him to inhabit a rarefied world of equations and white lab coats, he is down-to-earth, plain-spoken, and self-effacing. Though he knows some of the world's most accomplished scientists and advised President Barack Obama during last fall's campaign, he is eager to talk about the teachers and clergy who were influential as he grew up in small-town Minnesota. And though his biomedical research solved one of the enduring mysteries of how cells work, he got a D in chemistry during his senior year of high school because, he says now, he was preoccupied with skiing and girls.

Such character markers prompted one admiring colleague to call Agre "the people's laureate." And in an interview last month as he prepared to assume the presidency of AAAS, his heartland values were evident as stressed the need for scientists to engage in their communities--in schools, local politics, and other venues--to share and convey the practical benefits that research brings to our lives.

Alice S. Huang, a distinguished virologist and lifelong advocate for women in science, has been chosen to serve as president-elect of AAAS beginning 17 February, at the close of the 2009 Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Huang is a senior faculty associate in biology at the California Institute of Technology, where she was previously a senior councilor for external relations. She comes to the AAAS presidency as past president of the American Society for Microbiology and past dean for science at New York University. A member of several scientific advisory boards, Huang has also consulted on science policy for government agencies in Singapore, Taiwan, and China.

Learn more about Alice S. Huang and see a list of others recently elected to AAAS offices.

Charles Darwin was deeply interested in the origin and evolution of emotion--he saw it manifest not just in humans, but in other mammals, even insects. Psychological researcher Paul Ekman says that Darwin saw his exploration into emotions as an "important contribution showing the commonality of all people and a common descent."

In an episode of Science Podcast, host Robert Frederick talks with Ekman and other scholars of human and animal emotion who spoke at a symposium during the AAAS Annual Meeting.

A central line of thinking: By studying the complex emotions of apes--their happiness, fear, and even grief--we can see how emotions served as a crucial platform for human evolution. But here's an interesting thing that set humans apart: We can regulate our emotions, and our brain circuitry, by writing about our feelings.

Listen to the full report on Science Podcast.

Reporters and bloggers from U.S. online publications are a growing presence at the AAAS Annual Meeting, which typically attracts hundreds of reporters from all over the globe for its five-day festival of science news. But according to a new story in the influential Columbia Journalism Review, this year's meeting was striking for the number of mainline U.S. newspapers and broadcast outlets that had little or no presence in Chicago.

Author Cristine Russell, who attended the meeting, noted that the Associated Press, Reuters, and Agence-Press France were there as usual, as was a large contingent of reporters from the U.K., Australia, and other international publications. Indeed, Russell noted a strong sense of optimism about science coverage in Europe and developing regions overseas.

But, she wrote: "The rapidly failing fortunes of the American print media, and specialty science reporting in particular, provided an underlying sense of gloom and doom [among reporters] at the annual science gathering." It's an important story not just for science journalists, but for anyone who cares about the status of science and engineering in American culture.

While many sessions at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago focused on the most urgent science and policy issues confronting us, other researchers were there to talk about an issue of timeless fascination: the possibility of alien life.

Alan Boss, a staff scientist with the Carnegie Institution for Science, said in a AAAS podcast that, given the billions upon billions of stars in the universe, it's "inevitable that Earth-like planets are out there."

Also inevitable: That story got extensive news media pick-up in the U.S. and overseas.

But at a different symposium, Irene Klotz of the Discovery Channel came away with a counterintuitive take: "No need to leave the planet to look for alien life--perhaps it's here, in peaceful coexistence with or complete isolation from the standard variety that permeates Earth."

"Nanofoods"  promise everything from mouth-watering bursts of flavor to fresher produce, but there's very little research on how these tiny particles added to foods and food packaging might behave inside the human body.

Is it safe to drink your green tea with a dose of nano-selenium? Or eat a piece of bread studded with nano-encapsulated fish oils? Speakers at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting said the answers are unclear.

UPDATE: Listen to Robert Fredericks' story on nanofoods at Science Podcast.

The 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago ended yesterday afternoon. But over the next day or two, we'll be bringing you some additional stories that came out of the meeting--interesting, important stories, with a focus on the future. Thanks for spending time with us. We'll hope to see you again next year.  

In the beginning of Woody Allen's Annie Hall, an anxious young Alvey Singer visits a psychologist's office. When asked what's wrong, he says, "the universe is expanding." His mother replies, angrily: "What is that your business?"

Well, it is MIT professor Alan Guth's business.

Speaking that the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago, Guth, a theroretical physicist and cosmologist, and Lawrence Krauss, a physicist and popular author, explored the history of the Big Bang that created the universe and what might happen as the expansion of the universe accelerates.

Millions of years from now--that's when things could get really interesting.

Some people, despite all the evidence before them, will choose the wrong retirement plan. Others, driving against the tide of reason, will go to a movie that is obviously going to be a box office bust. Now, though, the field of behavior economics is offering new insight into the way people make strategic decisions.

Caltech economist Colin Cramerer, speaking at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting, said his field is embracing the tools of psychology. It is moving away from the classical models that assume people acting in optimal ways and toward models that can explain why people make choices that seem irrational.

Doom and gloom has become such a standard refrain when discussing the state of ocean ecosystems that it's easy to forget that real progress is being made.

Professor Jeremy B. C. Jackson of the Scripps Institution of Oceanography in La Jolla, California, presented research during the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting that showed Pacific coral reefs protected from fishing and pollution appear to be most resistant to the effects of climate change.

In a podcast for AAAS, Jackson said that that while it may not offer a solution to climate change, making biodiversity protection a management priority could buy time until the climate situation is resolved.

Filing from Chicago, Associated Press correspondent Randolph Schmid wrote that Jackson is encouraged by former President George W. Bush's new marine monument estblishing  protected areas in the Pacific, as well as by conservation language from President Barack Obama.

"It's going to take a while, because this is a serious business, but the commitment is there in this administration," Jackson said.

Michael Boor says he needed a fierce work ethic for sunrise chores on his family's dairy farm in New York. But he sees an upside: Perseverance and strong will enabled him to accomplish something much more impressive.

Last summer, Boor, who is in his second year at Cornell University's College of Engineering, completed an internship at Lockheed Martin, where he helped design an autonomous boat for the Navy that can navigate rocks and other hazards using little more than GPS and radar.

Boor secured his internship though a pioneering AAAS program, ENTRY POINT!, which connects talented science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) students who have disabilities with employers from around the country.

With the first rough draft of the Neandertal genome in hand, it's clear that Neandertals did not contribute much, if anything to the gene pool of modern humans, evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo said in his plenary speech to the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting.

What's even more clear is that the Neandertal genome will be a tremendous step in unraveling the history of our species, revealing the genetic changes that pushed us toward modernity.

Watch a video of Svante Pääbo's plenary address.

Things are winding down in Chicago, but some interesting events remain on the program (all of them at the Hyatt Regency). Among them:

Nanofood for Healthier Living?, a symposium. 9:15-10:45 a.m., Grand Ballroom B.

New Computing Platforms for Data-Intensive Science, a symposium. 9:15-10:45  a.m. Columbus GH.

Casting New Light on Ancient Secrets, a symposium. 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Grand Ballroom C North.

Celebrating Darwin at 200: Explaining How Human Morality Evolved, a symposium. 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Grand Ballroom A.

Global Sea Level Rise: Observation, Causes, and Prediction, a symposium. 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Columbus IJ

Origins and Endings: From the Beginning to the End of the Universe, a symposium. 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m., Columbus KL

The Science of Arms Control, a symposium. 9:30 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Columbus AB.

Adulteration, Counterfeiting, and Smuggling: How Safe is Our Imported Food?, a symposium, 11:00 a.m.-12:30 p.m. Grand Ballroom B.

For more events, see the online day planner or check your program book.

More than 100 years ago, a remarkable set of fossils were discovered at a site in Croatia: the bones of about 80 Neandertals who died more than 120,000 years ago. Today, research is continuing on those fossils, and Elizabeth Culotta surveys some intriguing insights in a post today on the Findings blog of the journal Science.

One especially interesting note: Most of the Neandertals died before 30. More recent fossil findings, from about 30,000 years ago, suggest a much higher proportion of older adults in the culture. "Older adults can care for and transmit culture to the young," Culotta writes, "and more adults means a larger population, which most researchers agree spurs cultural innovation."

According to researchers at AAAS Annual Meeting, the increased life span may help explain the explosion of artistic creativity in the Upper Paleolithic period.

At the Findings blog, you can also read how climate change may encourage the spread of malaria, about the prospects for U.S. endangered species, and more.

It may not be the oldest trick in the book--still, though, you'd think that a male sage grouse would never fall for the seductive wiles of a robotic female sage grouse. Gail Patricelli is using that gambit nevertheless to learn about the evolution of the bird's social behavior.

Patricelli, an assistant professor of evolution and ecology at the University of California at Davis, says in a new episode of Science Update that the research is shedding light on why "the male sage grouse need not only a big flashy display, but also the ability to use it appropriately" when courting a female.

After you listen to Bob Hirshon on Science Update, there's another Patricelli podcast after the jump, along with some insights gleaned by others reporters at the Annual Meeting.

A superheated soup of quarks and gluons and a cold cloud of lithium atoms both behave like a "perfect liquid," flowing without resistance. But what can a perfect liquid tell us about the early microseconds of the Big Bang, or black holes, or the physics of other extreme conditions in the Universe?

At a symposium at the AAAS Annual Meeting, physicists from three separate research communities came together to discuss the implications of the perfect liquid--and the startling idea that string theory may be the best way to explore this new state of matter.

When you live in a place where grocery stores are common and well-stocked, headlines like these may seem highly unlikely: "Riots, Instability Spread as Food Prices Skyrocket." "Global Food Riots Turn Deadly." "Hunger to Replace Energy Crisis."

But the stories are real, and speakers in a symposium at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago said such headlines may become more common if immediate actions are not taken to improve the quality and supply of reliable agriculture in the world's poorest nations.

Their key to preventing future food crises: ensuring reliable access to cheap, nutrient-rich foods by developing better seeds.

The lives of many humans are closely interrelated with those of domestic animals, and many admire wild animals, too. Even so, there's a widespread assumption that animals don't think in the way that people think--they don't count, understand concepts, or plan for the future.

But the assumption may be wrong, according to research discussed at the AAAS Annual Meeting. The Associated Press cited Edward A. Wasserman, an experimental psychologist at the University of Iowa, and wrote: "Monkeys perform mental math, pigeons can select the picture that doesn't belong. [And] humans may not be the only animals that plan for the future."

It's a story with near-universal appeal--and in one form or another it was picked up from Dublin to Detroit and L.A. In Brazil, the AP story ran on Estadao.com under the headline "Cientistas dizem que alguns animais planejam o futuro." Even American Buddhist Net sampled it.

If you've ever kissed someone, in earnest, you know that it can set off a hot cascade of fireworks in your brain and central nervous system. But what chemistry drives the swoon and the racing heart?

In an interview with Science Podcast, Rutgers University anthroplogist Helen Fisher explains what she's learned in research that includes putting more than four dozen "madly in love" people through fMRI brain scans. Fisher's conclusion: Homo sapiens has three brain systems for mating and reproduction: the sex drive, the passion of being in love, and attachment.

"Kissing," she says, "evolved as an all-purpose mechanism that could stimulate any one or all of these three."

To get the chemical details, listen to her interview with Robert Frederick, host of Science Podcast.

You've heard a lot of troubling news about climate change, but now the news gets worse: New research finds that recent projections are actually underestimating the pace and depth of change. How could it happen?

Christopher Field, a member of the United Nations' Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), blames an unexpected surge of greenhouse gas emissions between 2000 and 2007. Field told reporters that future warming "will be beyond anything" predicted earlier, and his briefing at the AAAS Annual Meeting was widely picked up in U.S. and European news reports.
In a story on page 3 of Sunday's Washington Post, Kari Lyderson explained the feedback loops that appear to be driving accelerated change. Quoting Field: "It's a vicious cycle of feedback where warming causes the release of carbon from permafrost, which causes more warming, which causes more release from permafrost."

The story also was picked up by KQED in San Francisco; the Telegraph in London, and Reuters, among others.

Do we need a rescue plan for Planet Earth? Planetary scientist Susan Kieffer thinks so; in an address to the AAAS Annual Meeting, she recommended the creation of a new global agency that would move against threats such as degraded soils and ocean acidification in the same way that the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and the World Health Organization pounce on the latest flu outbreak.

It's a plan that will require humans to think on a whole new time scale, says Kieffer.

UDATED: Watch a video of Susan W. Kieffer's address.

It turns out origami is more useful than making swan napkins at your favorite Chinese restaurant--it might just save your life. But more on that later.

A panel of mathematicians speaking at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago explained how the traditional art of paper-folding can be used in the classroom to get students excited about math as well as by engineers to develop the next generation of innovative products.

If you get really good at the art, you may find that automakers, medical technology companies, and even NASA are interested in your skills.

The AAAS Annual Meeting resumes on a bright, frosty morning in Chicago. Among the day's highlights:

Studying Vertebrate Genomes: Reading Evolution's Notebooks, a symposium. 8:30-10:00 a.m., Hyatt Regency, Regency Ballroom A.

Quest for the Perfect Liquid: Connecting Heavy Ions, String Theory, and Cold Atoms, a symposium. 10:30 a.m.-noon. Hyatt Regency, Regency Ballroom C.

Family Science Days/Meet the Scientists, a free special event open to the public. 11:00 a.m.-5:00 p.m. Hyatt Regency, Riverside Center.

Amory B. Lovins, Profitable Solutions to the Oil, Climate, and Proliferation Problems, topical lecture. 12:30-1:15 p.m., Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom B.

Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder: The New Battle for Veterans, a symposium. 1:30-3:00 p.m. Hyatt Regency, Columbus CD.

Solutions for Resuscitating Dead Zones: From Chicago to the Gulf of Mexico and Beyond, a symposium. 1:30-4:30 p.m. Hyatt Regency, Columbus IJ.

Svante Pääbo, A Neandertal Perspective on Human Origins, plenary lecture, free and open to the public. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Fairmont Hotel, Imperial Ballroom.

For more details and more events, check the daily online schedule or your program book.

Ok, admit it: You've always wondered whether kissing is just an evolved form of pre-mastication. As a matter of fact, maybe it is.

On a special weekend podcast of Science Update, the AAAS radio show, hosts Bob Hirshon and Susanne Bard follow that question wherever it leads. And they also offer a fresh take on other stories emerging from the Annual Meeting in Chicago: How mosquitos woo. How scientists are using robots to study bird courtship. And Charles Darwin's 200th birthday.

Listen responsibly.

Does the current economic crisis mean that the glass is half-full or half-empty for the international science community?

It may depend on how fast you want to drink your water. R&D budgets are likely to be tight in the near future, but experts from the European Union, Japan, and the United States say tough times could spur many countries to invest in science and technology in an unprecedented way as they build new knowledge-based economies.

Here are some of things you can do at AAAS Family Science Days: make a cloud in a Ziploc bag, extract DNA from a strawberry, watch the explosive lift-off of a rocket concocted from a film canister, or poke at the insides of the squid.

Here's one thing you can't do at Family Science Days: get bored.

Among Sunday's highlights: presentations on peregrine falcons, x-ray vision, the connections between hip-hop and math, and dancing with a droid. It's free, and open to the public.

Despite the grim forecasts, climate change may be worse than expected, according to new research covered in the Findings blog produced by the journal Science. And remember how ethanol was supposed to be a new green fuel? According to another item in Findings, it could lead to massive new deforestation in the Amazon jungle.

Climate change is a prime concern at this year's AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago, but a crew of top Science writers and editors is casting a wide net. Compounds derived from marine sponges that may be able to undermine the toughest bacteria. The prospects for U.S.-North Korea science cooperation. The engineering applications of origami.

Check it out in Findings.

Former U.S. Vice President and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner Al Gore on Friday urged scientists to join in "a full-blown political struggle to communicate the truth" about climate change and its impact on the earth.

In an impassioned address to an overflow crowd of 3000 at the AAAS Annual Meeting, Gore welcomed the recent political transition in Washington, D.C., and the public's rising concern about climate change. But, he said, the knowledge and wisdom of scientists is needed at every level of the political process to press for a broad shift to renewable energy over the next 10 years.

"We do have the capacity to make this generation one of those generations thatchanges the course of humankind," he said. The audience responded with a sustained standing ovation.

UPDATE: Watch the video of Al Gore's special invited address to AAAS.

Suppose there was a grant program specifically for women researchers--just a small grant, enough to pay for some overseas travel. Think of it as seed money for building international collaboration.

There was such a grant for a few years earlier in this decade, and it yielded impressive results: Not just joint projects, but more papers published with multi-national authors. The small grants also opened the door to much larger research grants.

New research on the Women's International Scientific Cooperation grants was presented today at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago, during the annual Women and Minorities in Science Networking Breakfast.

Incoming AAAS President Peter Agre hopes to visit North Korea in the coming year, according to a new report on Science Podcast. In an interview with Podcast host Robert Frederick, the 2003 Nobel laureate explained the idea behind the plan: "Individuals can change things and science can create friendships that cross boundaries."

Agre will assume the AAAS presidency next week, after the close of the Annual Meeting in Chicago. He noted that 49 U.S. states are represented at this year's meeting, but as a native Minnesotan, he'd like to bring in some scientists from North Dakota, which is not represented, and from other heartland states.

Agre also talked about national science priorities and the impact of the global financial meltdown. To hear more, listen to Science Podcast.

With help from a dazzling slide show and music from George Harrison and U2, Sean Carroll came to the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting to celebrate the lives of Charles Darwin, Alfred Russel Wallace, and Henry Walter Bates--explorers from the first golden age of evolutionary biology.

Carroll spun an old-fashioned adventure yarn about the three men, who showed how the astonishing variety of life on Earth could lead to the evolution of new species.

The Earth and its life may be entering a "new era where natural forces are being overwhelmed" by human influences on climate and habitat, AAAS President James J. McCarthy said at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting.

But McCarthy remains hopeful that renewed political action can guide the current climate crisis toward a more favorable future.

See the video of McCarthy's plenary address.

The AAAS Annual Meeting resumes today in Chicago. Among the highlights:

Adult Stem Cells: From Scientific Process to Patient Benefit. 8:30-10:00 a.m., Hyatt Regency Grand Ballroom D North.

The Science of Kissing, a scientific symposium. 8:30 a.m.-11:30 a.m. Hyatt Regency Columbus CD.

The Grid, the Cloud, Sensor Nets, and the Future of Computing, a symposium. 10:30 a.m.-noon. Hyatt Regency Grand Ballroom B.

Lene Vestgergaard Hau, Wizardry with Light: Freeze, Teleport, and Go!, a topical lecture.12:30-1:15 p.m. Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom A.

2009 John P. McGovern Lecture in the Behavioral Sciences: Elizabeth Loftus, Illusions and Delusions of Memory. 12:30-1:15 p.m. Hyatt Regency, Regency Ballroom A.

Origin and Evolution of Planets. 1:30-4:30 p.m. Hyatt Regency, Regency Ballroom C.

Susan W. Keiffer, Celebrating the Earth: Its Past, Our Present, a Future?, plenary lecture. 6:30-7:30 p.m. Fairmont Hotel, Imperial Ballroom.

For more information, check the online program planner or your program book.

Climate change was on the "hit parade" of top stories last year, but the world financial meltdown may soon displace it, journalists and media watchers said at a symposium Friday at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago.

And with the traditional media bedevilled by shrinking circulation, severe cutbacks and plagiarism scandals, many climate researchers and reporters are looking for the best way forward toward public education.

An option recommended by one panelist: "hyper-local" reporting, with local news media exploring in detail the impact of climate change in every city and town.

Americans know how to personalize just about everything. Want to listen to your favorite song? Just download it onto your MP3 player. Black and gold hightops? Log on to the right Web site and design them yourself. A cheeseburger hold the pickles? Swing by your local fast food joint and it's made to order.

So: Do you want to meet your home's energy needs with five liters of water a day? Just ask Daniel Nocera how to personalize your energy.

Speaking at a topical lecture at the AAAS 2009 Annual meeting in Chicago, Nocera, a professor of energy and chemistry at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, outlined how one day we might be able to harness the power of the sun and water to run your home and car without releasing greenhouse gases.

What's his solution? A cheap, at-home water-splitting machine. 

The story was tailored perfectly for the day: On the eve of the calendar's most romance-oriented holiday, a panel of philematologists at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago gathered to explore cortisol, oxytocin, the hot flashes of an fMRI, and, of course, estrogen and testosterone.

After an hour-long pre-Valentine's Day briefing on the science of kissing, many reporters came away with a vision of kissing as a snapshot of evolution in action.

"Researchers believe that the touching of lips is a 'biological' quality-control strategy for 'mate assessment' which has evolved over millions of years, wrote Richard Alleyne, science correspondent for the U.K.-based Telegraph. "It also triggers certain hormones that reduce stress, increase attachment between a couple and increases the sex drive."

Update: Hear a report by Science Update, the daily 60-second radio show from AAAS.

Sub-Saharan Africa holds uncounted wealth in diamonds, platinum, gold, and copper, but throughout recent centuries, it has been largely unable to convert its natural resources into economic prosperity. Corruption, colonialism, and mismanagement typically get the blame.

Now, though, some researchers see a new source of hope in partnerships between private enterprise based in Europe or the United States and African academic institutions. "We need to show each community not only that they can work together, but that partnerships serve each of their interests," said Margaret Kigozi, director of the Uganda Investment Authority, at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago.

Science Update, the 60-second AAAS radio program, talked with human diet expert Peter Ungar and came away with a provocative conclusion: "If you think the modern American diet is bad for us," says host Bob Hirshon, "it might give you comfort to know that humans have been making unhealthful food choices since long before the advent of fast-food joints."

Ungar, a researcher at the University of Arkansas at Fayetteville, sees a relatively simple problem: We don't eat today what our distant ancestors evolved to eat. The research is interesting, but the implications are troubling for human health.

Listen to Science Update's first report from the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago.

You're nervous. You ask yourself: "What was I thinking?" Why did you volunteer to be interviewed by the local newspaper? How can you explain your laboratory's super-complex protein folding research? You can barely explain your research to your physics-major friends without them checking their watch.

Now what?

To help scientists feel more comfortable communicating their research to the public, AAAS and the National Science Foundation (NSF) sponsored a full-day workshop at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago, which brought more than 100 scientists and 40 public information officers from around the country to a ballroom at the Hyatt Regency hotel.

AAAS President James J. McCarthy offered an admiring survey of past scientific accomplishments and "a nervous look forward" in a speech on Friday night, writes Science reporter David Grimm in the journal's Findings blog.

In his presidential address to the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago, McCarthy offered a grim look at the dramatic--and perhaps irreversible--climate impacts caused by greenhouse gasses in Earth's atmosphere. But all is not hopeless. Writes Grimm: "McCarthy noted that there is more than one future ahead of us, depending on the path we chose. He has hope that, even if we can't stop emitting CO2, we may be able to mitigate its effects via geoengineering. And he's cheered by recent political trends."

The AAAS Annual Meeting resumes in earnest today in Chicago, with dozens of symposia, presentations, and speeches across the spectrum of disciplines. Among the highlights:

Basic Research for Global Energy Security: A Call to Action, a symposium. 8:30-11:30 a.m., Hyatt Regency Grand Ballroom F.

The Central Role of International Scientific Cooperation in Meeting Global Challenges, a topical lecture panel featuring AAAS President James J. McCarthy; Lord Martin Rees, author and president of the Royal Society; and József Pálinkás, president of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. Noon-1:15 p.m., at the Hyatt Regency Crystal Ballroom A.

Harnessing the Sun and Oceans to Meet the World's Energy Demands, topical lecture by Daniel G. Nocera, professor of energy and chemistry at MIT. 12:30 to 1:15 p.m., Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom B.

Science and Technology Policies and the Changing Global Economy, a symposium. 1:30-3:00 p.m., Hyatt Regency Columbus Hall KL.

Forum for School Science, a special session. 1:30-5:00 p.m., Hyatt  Regency Columbus Hall IJ.

The Origin of the Human Species, a seminar. 1:30-4:30 p.m., Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom B.

Remarkable Creatures:  Epic Adventures in the Search for the Origins of Species, a plenary address by author and molecular biologist Sean B. Carroll.  4:30-5:30 p.m., Fairmont Hotel, Imperial Ballroom.  

The Honorable Albert Arnold Gore Jr., former U.S. vice president and 2007 Nobel Peace Prize winner, will deliver a special invited address to registrants for the AAAS Annual Meeting and American Association of Physics Teachers winter conference. 6:30 p.m.

With obesity on the rise, a subset of diet gurus will tell you that the best thing to do is eat nuts and berries like our prehistoric ancestors. Researchers at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Chicago are offering a more complex view, though they seem to agree that the evolution of our diet does not match well with our evolution toward a more sedentary lifestyle.

When humans switched from foraging to agriculture, that "greatly decreased the range of foods that we consume," says Peter Ungar, a professor of anthropology at the University of Arkansas, Fayetteville. "...The typical  American diet is mostly processed flour, fat, and occasionally people throw some tomato sauce on top of it."

In Ungar's view, that is not an ideal menu. Richard Alleyne in the Telegraph and Ian Sample in the Guardian picked up the story and gave their readers interesting insight into the evolution of the human diet.

It's time to talk science with a guy who dug up a dinosaur-eating crocodile, a computer science whiz who sees math in every hip-hop tune, and a woman on a mission to solve the mystery of the disappearing honeybees.

Or maybe you'd like to dance with a droid or deep-freeze a banana into a hammer that can pound nails? The scientists, the shows, the experiments--they're all here at AAAS and Science Chicago's Family Science Days, a free public event that provides hands-on science learning opportunities for the whole family.

Join the fun on Saturday and Sunday, 14-15 February, in the Hyatt Regency Chicago's Riverside Center Exhibition Hall. Check the full schedule of events.

Take a paradigm-changing researcher from the 19th century, a 21st century communications medium, and the timeless impulse of humans to celebrate the annivesary of a friend's birth, and what do you have?

Several dozen scientists, from all over the world, using YouTube to sing happy birthday to Charles Darwin, who would've turned 200 today. Past AAAS Presidents Peter H. Raven and Francisco J. Ayala were among those to join the greeting--Ayala with a dignified "¡Feliz cumpleaños!"

AAAS CEO Alan I. Leshner, who serves also as executive publisher of Science, delivered this greeting: "We're delighted you were born--you've certainly evolved our view of life and how it came about."

The YouTube birthday card for Darwin was produced by the Society for the Study of Evolution. Check it out.  

 

Point your fingers, wave bye-bye--maybe even flap your arms like a bird: it could boost your young child's vocabulary in preparation for school, researchers are reporting at the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting.

Differences in early gesturing may explain why children from high-income families often start school with a head start compared to children from low-income families, according to the University of Chicago study, which was published today in <i>Science</i>.

The Science blog, Findings, has a great account of the new research.

Update: BBC's James Morgan has picked up the story, too.

CHICAGO--A rough draft of the Neandertal genome, announced today in a joint press conference in Leipzig, Germany and the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting, confirms that modern humans and Neandertals shared a speech-related gene, and may soon reveal more about our kinship with our closest evolutionary cousins.

Evolutionary geneticist Svante Pääbo of the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology and colleagues said their first draft contains nearly 63% of the Neandertal genome. Looking at individual genes, the team hopes to "home in on the differences that might have made a difference to our ancestors" as Neandertals and modern humans diverged genetically about 800,000 years ago, said Pääbo.

Want more? Read the Associated Press' Patrick McGroarty on how the draft was constructed. James Morgan of BBC News describes what the research means for the potential paleo-romance between Neandertals and modern humans. And find out why one researcher interviewed by Ewen Callaway at New Scientist is comparing the historic announcement to the launch of the Hubble Telescope.

You also can watch a video of the press conference. Pääbo will reveal more of the genome on Sunday 15 February at a AAAS plenary address in Chicago.

UPDATE: National Public Radio and Deutsche Welle have picked up the story, too.

At the Middle School Science Summit on Evolution, co-sponsored by AAAS and the Field Museum, students explored the museum's halls, delved into its collections, and heard from Charles Darwin himself (or a reasonable facsimilie) on the 200th anniversary of his birth.

Shirley Malcom, head of Education and Human Resources at AAAS, cited surveys showing many American adults don't believe in human evolution. "If we're able to introduce the processes by which evolution happens," explained Malcom, "we can help keep young people's minds open in later grades."

No surprise: The museum's Chilean rose hair tarantulas and Madagascar hissing cockroaches helped engage the kids, too.

Kathyn Pierno, a teacher at Gateway School in coastal town of Lomond, Calif., uses her school's proximity to world-class surf break to teach her students about physics--including energy, force, momentum, acceleration, balance, and buoyancy. Students, she says, "learn better when they are interested in what they are studying. I [try] to communicate basic science principles to them through their own language, hoping to capture their attention long enough to teach them some of my own."

That creative insight, expressed in an essay, won Pierno top prize in the 2009 AAAS/Subaru Essay Writing Competition. Four other teachers also were honored for their essays on designing science lesson plans and using technology in the classroom.

The future--the very, very, very distant future--does not look especially promising for the universe, says Lawrence Krauss, author, physicist, and director of the Origins Institute at Arizona State University. If you're thinking about cold temperatures and the end of energy as we know it, then you and Krauss are on a similar track.

He'll be one of the speakers at a symposium on Monday morning--"Origins and Endings: From the Beginning to the End of the Universe." That's from 9:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Hyatt Regency in Chicago, in Columbus Hall KL.

Alexis Madrigal at the Wired Science blog has a nice advance look at Krauss' ideas.

Children's science books exploring sibling relationships in the animal world, global climate change, and neuroscience earned top honors in the 2008 AAAS/Subaru Science Books & Film (SB&F) competition, sponsored by Subaru of America Inc.

The 2009 prizes, intended to promote science literacy by drawing attention to the importance of good science writing and illustration, honored 10 authors, one illustrator, and a total of seven 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.

CHICAGO--In remarks to international media at the start of the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting, AAAS President James McCarthy said he is "very optimistic" about the role of science in U.S. President Obama's administration. Obama's prompt selection of a scientific team of "extraordinary caliber" suggests that issues such as global climate change will receive renewed attention over the next four years, McCarthy noted.

"Obama not only picked the best people, they immediately said 'yes,'" McCarthy said in response to numerous questions on the new administration. Obama's scientific appointments include former AAAS Presidents John Holdren and Jane Lubchenco, who are both appearing in confirmation hearings before the U.S. Senate today.

On the 200th anniversary of the birth of U.S. President Abraham Lincoln, McCarthy discussed the parallels between Lincoln's national challenges and those awaiting President Obama in an editorial in the 13 February issue of the journal Science.

The 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting begins today--a bright, chilly day in downtown Chicago. Among the highlights:

A special Forum for Sustainability Science Programs will look at the challenges confronting universities as the attempt to meet a growing need for sustainability research--curriculum development, linking science to decision-making, and funding. 1:00-6:00 p.m., Hyatt Regency, Ballroom A.

The third annual Canada Reception, focused on "the Canadian way" of pursuing international partnerships and collaboration. 5:00-6:30 p.m., Hyatt Regency, Crystal Ballroom C.
 
The annual AAAS President's Address features AAAS President James J. McCarthy, the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University. The event is free and open to the public. 6:30 p.m., Fairmont Hotel International Ballroom.

For more information, check the online program planner or look at your program book.

AAAS has named 11 researchers, educators, and science advocates as winners of its 2008 science awards:

The Award for Public Understanding of Science and Technology: Kenneth R. Miller, a biology professor at Brown University.

The International Scientific Cooperation Award: Ambassador Thomas Pickering.

The Mentor Award for Lifetime Achievement: Percy A. Pierre, vice president and professor emeritus of electrical & computer engineering at Michigan State University.

The Mentor Award: Sylvia T. Bozeman, professor of mathematics at Spelman College in Atlanta.

The Newcomb Cleveland Prize: Team members Anoop Kumar, James W. Godwin, Phillip B. Gates, and Jeremy P. Brockes of University College London; A. Acely Garza-Garcia of the U.K.'s National Institute for Medical Research.

The Philip Hauge Abelson Prize: Richard A. Meserve, president of the Carnegie Institution for Science.

The Scientific Freedom and Responsibility Award: Drummond Rennie, M.D., journal editor and educator.

Thousands of the world's most accomplished science experts are convening in Chicago for the 2009 AAAS Annual meeting--and many of their events will be free and open to the public.

At Family Science Days this weekend, you can fly a kite indoors and meet a hip-hop mathematician. At lectures and speeches, you can learn about climate change, evolution, space exploration, high-energy physics, and other issues that are among the most fascinating of our time.

Five South American journalists are arriving in Chicago for the 2009 Annual Meeting  under a fellowship program organized by EurekAlert!, the global science news service operated by AAAS and sponsored by Elsevir.

"I think this meeting will be a good update to inform journalists about the main issues concerning the scientific world today and a wonderful chance to meet qualified experts," said Maria Paz Sartori, science and technology reporter with Semanaria Búsqueda. "The AAAS Meeting will, through this program, allow journalists to continue improving as professional, specialized science reporters."

Last year, fellowship recipients came from the Middle East. In 2007, they came from China.

Fourteen colleges and universities have been selected for awards from the Merck/AAAS Undergraduate Science Research Program. The program awards provide up to $60,000, paid over three years, for use by the biology and chemistry departments at the award-winning institutions.

This year's winners: Harvey Mudd College; University of Wisconsin at Whitewater; Otterbein College; Bowdoin College; University of Colorado at Colorado Springs; Ashland University; Siena College; Kean University; Furman University; Lebanon Valley College; Niagara University; University of West Florida; State University of New York at New Paltz; and Colorado College.

The AAAS Science Journalism Awards, among the world's most prestigious prizes for science writing, have received a major endowment: $2 million from the Kavli Foundation.

The California-based foundation is dedicated to the goals of advancing science for the benefit of humanity and promoting increased public understanding. The awards henceforth will be called the AAAS Kavli Science Journalism Awards.

"The association with the distinguished Kavli Foundation will add to the stature of the awards and put the program on a self-sustaining basis at a time when there is more need than ever for journalism that explains and illuminates the role of science in our changing global society," said AAAS CEO Alan I. Leshner.

"Today, the warming of our planet is unequivocal, and human activities are a primary cause," says James J. McCarthy, president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). "Within the next few human generations, the effect of these climate changes could put the survival of many species at risk."

McCarthy, the Alexander Agassiz Professor of Biological Oceanography at Harvard University, presides from 12-16 February over America's largest general scientific conference. It is expected to draw up to 10,000 scientists, policymakers, educators, communicators from 60 nations gather to Chicago for the 175th AAAS Annual Meeting.

For five days, strategies for leveraging science and technology to help solve pressing world problems will take center stage.

It was an epochal event, drawing some of the nation's most influential researchers and inventors to a celebration of new discoveries and new technology. It captured the public imagination and announced to the world that America was a powerhouse of innovation.  The event: The World's Columbian Exposition in 1893, which marked the 400th anniversary of Christopher Columbus' arrival in the New World. The place: Chicago.

In the years since, the Windy City has established itself as a world capital of science--home to two national laboratories, major research universities, and one of the world's finest collections of science museums. This week, thousands of the world's top researchers, along with science and technology policymakers, educators and journalists, will gather in Chicago for the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting. The meeting celebrates the birth 200 years ago of naturalist Charles Darwin, and the publication 150 years ago of his masterwork, "On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection." It will be a five-day feast for the mind: nearly 175 speeches, symposia, seminars, and workshops from every field of science and engineering, many focused on the most urgent issues of our time.

The AAAS Annual Meeting News Blog will be a window onto the event. AAAS blog editor Edward W. Lempinen, along with writers Benjamin Somers, Becky Ham, and others, will provide extensive coverage. The blog also will guide you to coverage from other points on the AAAS dial: the journal Science, the Science Podcast, and the Science Update radio show. And it will feature a sampling of meeting coverage from newspapers and broadcast stations from around the world.

Check back often--you don't want to miss something good!

Read breaking news, interviews, and fun facts from the meeting on Science's news blog.

Podcasting from the AAAS meeting, hear interviews with scientists and journalists.

AAAS' daily radio feature and podcast: the latest discoveries in science, technology and medicine in 60 seconds.

AAAS Annual Meeting resources for reporters, including press releases, newsroom information, and access to speaker papers, presentations, bios, and multimedia