AAAS Annual Meeting News

William H. Press: The Public Supports Science

2012-03-05T20:03:00Z

As the United States prepares for a year of election-driven partisanship, William H. Press points to something that many Americans share: a commitment to science. He cites polls showing that the public believes science is vital to a strong economy and international presence, and that scientists are trustworthy and prestigious citizens. The public also delights in the discoveries that come from all corners, from medical breakthroughs to breathtaking space missions.

With this in mind, the new AAAS president thinks voters will be very interested to hear what the 2012 presidential candidates have to say about their own plans for science. "There's a broad segment of the American public that's interested in science and innovation, both the beauty and benefits of it," Press said in a recent interview. "One of our goals should be to find ways to allow those things to move forward, and not have them brought down by things we can't agree on." ]]>
With this in mind, the new AAAS president thinks voters will be very interested to hear what the 2012 presidential candidates have to say about their own plans for science. "There's a broad segment of the American public that's interested in science and innovation, both the beauty and benefits of it," Press said in a recent interview. "One of our goals should be to find ways to allow those things to move forward, and not have them brought down by things we can't agree on."

AAAS President William H. Press

Credit: Sara Press

Press, a professor of computer science and integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, said members of both political parties recognize that investments in innovation and education are vital to American success, and generally agree on the need to support basic research. When partisan arguments arise, he said, they reflect political and philosophical differences about government's role in transforming basic research into applications.

However, he added, scientists must continue to "justify science as an essential investment in the future, not a frill to be postponed in each and every budget cycle." He suggested that the scientific community "has been too passive in allowing the case for fundamental research to be framed in purely economic terms, often exemplified in narrow discussions of return on investment."

He proposed that scientists should not shy away from speaking in visionary terms, making the case that basic and applied research can contribute to a future world marked by gains in education, an appreciation for the environment, rising incomes, and resiliency to global events like climate change and disease epidemics.

"Asserting this is not the same as proving it," Press acknowledged, but he thinks AAAS is "the right organization to develop the broader and rigorous justification for federal funding of basic and applied research that current times require." Scientists and policymakers still cite presidential science adviser Vannevar Bush's influential 1945 report, Science, the Endless Frontier, to support federal science spending, he noted, "but the 'use-by' date of that report and its many derivative reports may have expired with the end of the Cold War."

While the organization as a whole can help develop a 21st century blueprint for science policy, Press suggested that individual AAAS members can promote a stronger role for science in the public sphere by visiting congressional offices in their home districts. Although scientists themselves may have partisan leanings, "science is intrinsically nonpartisan," he said. "We can educate our members of Congress and their staffs on what we believe are the facts, and how certain we are about them."

As a member of the President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology for the past two years, Press has played an active role in bringing science to bear on national policies. A noted researcher whose work has spanned a remarkable range of disciplines--from computer science to genomics, statistical methods, astrophysics, and international security--he also served as deputy laboratory director for science and technology at the Los Alamos National Laboratory from 1998 to 2004.

Press succeeded plant biologist Nina V. Fedoroff as president when the AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia closed on 20 February. Fedoroff is now serving a one-year term as chairperson of the AAAS Board of Directors.

Fedoroff stressed the importance of international science collaboration during her presidency, and Press believes that AAAS should expand its strong programs in this area. He said the organization's support for international science is a critical counterbalance against the notion that global collaborations are a "luxury rather than an economic necessity."

"I'm a little worried that the message that international science is mutually beneficial could get lost," Press said, "in a time when the United States and other nations are in tough times and looking inward."

Press noted that developing nations in particular have seized upon science as a way to transform their economies and increase their participation in world affairs. "We may be entering a period of decades when developing nations are on an upward trajectory, and we think science and technology can play an enormously positive role in supporting that trajectory."

U.S. graduate school programs still attract researchers from around the world, he noted, but many organizations--including PCAST and AAAS--are offering ideas about improving undergraduate science education.

"We need to admit that we're not doing a good job in those first two years of undergraduate study," Press said. "People aren't going to be attracted to science by a freshman course in which they're just going to be sitting in a large lecture hall. But they are attracted when we can get them out into research laboratories and they see what research really is."

He's optimistic that the nation is poised to improve K-12 science education, citing bipartisan support for the National Academies' 2007 report, Rising Above the Gathering Storm, which advocated strong investment in science and engineering education. Press also noted that many states now belong to organizations such as the nonprofit Achieve that support standards-based science education reforms like those proposed by AAAS's Project 2061.

Press's mother, Billie Kallick Press, was an educator who advocated for some of the earliest gifted programs in California schools, as the United States became more committed to science education in the years following the Soviet launch of Sputnik in 1957. His father Frank Press was a noted geophysicist and science adviser to President Jimmy Carter from 1976 to 1980. "I've always done science because it's what I wanted to do," Press said. "I've always seen it as this wonderful combination of having fun and benefiting the world."

As an astrophysicist at Harvard University from 1976 to 1998, Press was best known for his collaboration on the Press-Schechter formalism, which predicts the masses of galaxies within the universe, as well as his work on supernovae to estimate cosmic distances, which helped clear a path to the discovery that the expansion of the universe is accelerating. The power of computational science is the constant in his career, from his Numerical Recipes books on scientific computing and more recent projects in molecular biology and clinical trials.

"I had such fun, and was productive riding this wave in the physical sciences," he said, "that I just could never forgive myself if I didn't take the opportunity to stay on this same wave and do computational biology."

Press's eclectic interests make him an excellent ambassador for a message that he wants the public to understand: Science doesn't proceed in a neat or linear fashion. Who could have predicted, he asked, that a probability distribution algorithm worked out by Google's founders would become the backbone of a cultural and economic giant?

"When we have a national and global scientific enterprise that is out there building terrain," Press said, "that can become fertile ground on which all kinds of applications can grow."

For Press, the beauty and benefits of science are inseparable. "I think the more we can juxtapose those two ideas and show that they're related," he said, "the better we'll do at making the case that we support science because it's useful, and because it's a part of who we want to be."

Can Carbon Sequestration Go Mainstream?

2012-03-05T14:00:00Z

Carbon capture and storage--a concept that seeks to address climate change by storing carbon dioxide emissions in natural underground vaults, has progressed only in fits and starts. The obstacles have been both technical and political. But in a 20 February symposium at the AAAS Annual Meeting, experts detailed a series of demonstration projects that suggest carbon sequestration may soon have a place in the portfolio of tools needed to limit climate change.

While interest in renewable energy is strong, the reality is that the age of coal will not fade anytime soon. China, Russia, and India are all producing or using increasing amounts of it, and that means more carbon dioxide pumped into the air from power plants and factories.

Hence the interest in sequestration. There are demonstration projects underway in Germany, the U.S. state of Illinois, and Australia. The German project is led by Michael Kuehn, head of the Center for Carbon Dioxide Storage, in Karlsruhe. The effort is looking at “the why and the how,” Kuehn said. “Is long-term and safe storage possible? My conclusion is that carbon dioxide storage is a solution to this global challenge.”

The Wrong Side of the Knowledge Divide

2012-03-04T20:50:14Z

Women globally lag behind men in Internet usage, the science and engineering workforce, and leadership positions, reflecting a troubling divide in the emerging knowledge economy, according to preliminary findings presented at the AAAS Annual Meeting.

“Not only are women on the wrong side of the digital divide in general, they’re also on the wrong side of the knowledge divide,” said Sophie Huyer, executive director of WIGSAT, a non-profit international consulting group. “As the world moves more and more to a knowledge society, women stand a chance of being increasingly disadvantaged.”

Huyer spoke at the annual networking breakfast for women and minority scientists and engineers, held Saturday 18 February. The event received key support from Bosch, a global firm that brings a strong focus on sustainability to automotive and industrial technology, building technology, and consumer goods.

“Addressing the complex issues which face us today and preparing for those of tomorrow...requires a careful orchestration of a passionate, highly sophisticated, multidisciplinary team," said Angela Dragan, Bosch manager for government projects. "And its success will rely on embracing the value of diversity because these grave issues cannot be solved from one perspective alone.”
]]>

Frans de Waal: Roots of Human Morality

2012-02-27T18:00:41Z

Two monkeys, two cages, one cucumber, and a handful of grapes. It's not the set-up for an elaborate joke--it's an elegant experiment designed to show where the roots of human morality may lie.

In a rousing talk backed by engaging and often humorous video, primatologist Frans de Waal said that cooperation, consolation, and even agitation for "fair pay" can no longer be considered human-only qualities.

At the same time, studies with animals from mice to elephants may make people reconsider the pessimistic view of human as hypocrites--clothed in niceties but nasty at the core. Instead, de Waal argued, maybe it's as Darwin suspected: Natural selection has made us nice.
]]>
Speaking at the AAAS Annual Meeting, primatologist Frans de Waal argued that humans share behaviors like cooperation, consolation, and even distaste for inequity with animals from monkeys to elephants to wolves. "Humans would have never developed the moral systems that they have," he argued, "without those kinds of tendencies in place."

Primatologist Frans de Waal discussed the origin of human morality in a plenary address on the closing day of the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver.

[Photo by Edward W. Lempinen]

View full size image

The studies also weaken the idea that people themselves are nasty at the core with only a polite veneer of morality covering their less sympathetic selves, he said. Instead, that trend is is giving way to an idea that Darwin proposed more than 100 years ago: Natural selection probably is responsible for making people nice.

The lessons learned from animals are not applicable perfectly to humans, de Waal told the AAAS audience, but knowing more about why empathy works may help explain why a movement like the Occupy protests take hold, or why it's difficult sometimes to sustain international aid efforts.

De Waal is a behavioral biologist most well-known for his studies of the social intelligence of primates. His books, Chimpanzee Politics--comparing the power struggle of chimp communities and American politicians--as well the more recent The Age of Empathy: Nature's Lessons for a Kinder Society, successfully blend science and social concerns. He delivered the plenary address on Monday 20 February, the closing day of the AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, British Columbia.

Using frequent video clips to illustrate the latest studies--much of the research conducted by de Waal and his research team--the primatologist showed how scientists look for empathy across a variety of animals. Simple experiments--prompting a chimp's yawn by showing her an iPhone photo of another yawning friend, or making a mouse fearful after he sees his companions in pain--demonstrate that many animals can share the emotions of others, he said.

At the same time, an animal like an ape or an elephant has the capacity to distinguish itself as an individual apart from others, which gives it the cognitive ability to know when another needs help or consolation. Testing this "I/you" understanding without a questionnaire is difficult, de Waal admitted. Researchers working with elephants, for instance, build giant mirrors for elephants to find out whether the animals can recognize themselves. After peering at their reflections, the elephants scrub at harmless marks painted on their cheeks and open wide to examine their own teeth.

But the research has also revealed a "sometimes unfortunate" thing, de Waal noted. Strangers in any group of animals are much less likely to receive compassion. "Empathy is much more easily generated between individuals who know each other, or who are close to each other, than individuals who are more distant."

In remarks to reporters after the plenary talk, de Waal said this "in-group bias" has made it more difficult to "stretch empathy and solidarity. We now live in a world where all sorts of groups mingle in a society...so it's something that should be tried, but it's a challenge."

The experiments even reveal that monkeys and apes have a sense of fair play, demanding "equal pay" in the form of grapes rather than cucumber slices when they see their companions getting the sweeter treat.

De Waal compared the scenario to the human frustrations about income equality expressed in the Occupy Wall Street movement. "If you live in a cooperative society where you work together, where you bring in benefits together," he said, "you need to watch what you get."

More News From Vancouver

2012-02-24T20:38:50Z

Test-tube hamburgers and the pros and cons of fracking were hot topics in Vancouver last week, but all kinds of research from the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting hit the headlines.

Reporters from around the world filed stories on wildfire smoke, quantum code-cracking, new autism research, and even a declaration of rights for whales and dolphins. If you missed anything from AAAS's five-day festival of science, here's your chance to catch up on some of the highlights.
]]>
Climate change and the resulting stresses to food and water supplies around the planet were major topics at the 2012 meeting. There were stories about threatening sea level rise along the western coasts of North America; the Wall Street Journal's look at the deadly impacts of wildfire smoke; and Chinese news agency Xhinhua's coverage of international food security concerns.

A declaration of rights for whales and dolphins made many headlines with the idea that the cetaceans should be considered "non-human persons." It's a move that could make whaling and waterpark dolphin shows obsolete, wrote Fiona Macrae of the U.K. Daily Mail. The Canadian National Post even asked the head of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Vancouver what he thought about the declaration.

Canadian journalists also wrote about research on new ways of making radioactive isotopes needed for modern medicine. The CBC and The Vancouver Sun, among others, discussed how critical shortages of the medicine might be addressed without using aging nuclear reactors.

In less healthy news, it may be that everything you know about dieting is wrong, according to the AFP's Kerry Sheridan. Stories from the widely-covered symposium at the Annual Meeting on a new weight loss calculator appeared in The Telegraph and The Globe and Mail, among other outlets.

Other health stories from Vancouver included The Irish Times' report on attempts to track the causes of autism, and Sandi Doughton's Seattle Times story on a promising new vaccine for the cruise ship scourge of norovirus.

Other journalists found the smaller stories at AAAS: the German newspaper Arzte Zeitung covered the meeting's session on the human and environmental aftermath of Japan's Fukushima nuclear disaster; LiveScience reported on the consequences of the United States' growing prison population; and Science News' Rachel Ehrenberg showed how scientists are probing the "Dark Web" for information about terrorist groups.

Physics had its day in Vancouver too, with an ABC Australia story on how quantum computing will crack the best cryptography, and MSNBC.com's report on the latest developments in particle physics.

Of course, just a few days later scientists were discussing how one of those developments--a faster than light neutrino--was probably just a glitch. Maybe everyone can talk about that next year in Boston?

Serageldin: Science and Democracy

2012-02-20T20:21:43Z

Ismail Serageldin said the Arab spring protests that brought a new government to Egypt are an opportunity for the country to join the global scientific community and promote "a better and more humane society."

In a video address Sunday to more than 1000 people at the AAAS Annual Meeting, the director of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina said that the library's promotion of the "values of science" can help guide leaders in the region as democratic movements continue.

The library has always provided a home for discussions about the future of the Muslim world, and a place where scientists, artists, religious, and political leaders can work together to build a civil society, said Serageldin, an eminent Egyptian scientist and author. The library also serves as a reminder that "there is a great Muslim and Arabic tradition of science and tolerance."
]]> Bibliotheca Alexandrina was guarded by the linked arms of Egyptian youth protecting what they believed to be a national treasure of science and art.

"They saw the library for what it was...and the crowds responded," recalled its director Ismail Serageldin in a video address to the 2012 Annual Meeting. "Not a stone was thrown at the library."

To Serageldin, the Bibliotheca Alexandrina and the values of science that it promotes will be more essential than ever as Egypt struggles toward new government and a new global engagement.

Science, he suggested, operates on principles like tolerance and rationality that lead naturally to a "better and more humane society."

The best "defense against extremists is not by censorship or autocracy," he said." It is by embracing pluralism, and defeating ideas with ideas, and here science has much to say."

Serageldin said the library has always provided a home for discussions about the future of the Muslim world, and a place where scientists, artists and religious and political leaders can work together to build a civil society.

For religious leaders in the region who advocate a return to Islamic practice from centuries ago, Serageldin said, the library can remind them that "there is a great Muslim and Arabic tradition of science and tolerance."

The rational approach of historical scholars like Ibn al-Nafis, an Arab physician who described the circulation of the blood during Europe's Dark Ages, "is the tradition that must be revived if the Arab world, Muslim and non-Muslim alike are to rejoin the ranks of the advanced societies of our time," he said.

Serageldin has been an advocate for science in the developing world for more than three decades. An accomplished researcher in biotechnology, sustainable agriculture, and rural development, he has worked at the World Bank and was a chair and member of TWAS, the Academy of Sciences for the Developing World.

Speaking like a proud parent, Serageldin took the plenary audience on a virtual tour of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's multiple institutions, galleries, and research in everything from robotics to Hellenic art. The library is built very near the site of the original Library of Alexandria, a wonder of the ancient world which disappeared entirely more than 1600 years ago.

Especially important, Serageldin said, are the library's community activities like science fairs for children and its science museum. The events often focus on the contributions of Arab and specifically Egyptian scientists, he said, to emphasize to children "that 50 centuries of science stands behind you as you young Egyptians try to make your own contributions."

In some respects, the library's mission follows Serageldin's "Seven Pillars of the Knowledge Revolution" vision, in which the global knowledge community is mobile, digital, and interconnected across disciplines and national borders.

Serageldin said it was a "magic, exulting moment" when the young Egyptians protected the library during the January 2011 demonstrations. Although the protests sometimes have turned more violent and political turmoil has challenged the progress of the revolution, he believes that the library will remain a beacon of rationality and inspiration for Egypt and the world.

"My youthful colleagues and I," he said, "committed to the values of science and armed with a revolutionary ardor, join hands with you as the builders of the global knowledge society of tomorrow."

Can Video Games Be Good for Your Eyes?

2012-02-20T19:52:49Z

Video games get a bad name for a variety of reaso. But developmental psychologist Daphne Maurer of McMaster University in Hamilton, Ontario, and her colleagues found that for people born with cataracts, high-action games can aid vision after surgery.

Maurer presented her work at the AAAS Annual Meeting on Friday 17 February, at a symposium entitled "The Effects of Early Experience on Lifelong Functioning: Commitment and Resilience."

Bob Hirshon has the story for Science Update, AAAS's daily 60-second radio show broadcast on many stations in the United States.

Acid-Washed Genes in Ocean Ecosystems

2012-02-20T18:41:21Z

Marine scientist Gretchen Hofmann has been a leading researcher in the warming and acidification of Earth's oceans. It may be, she says, that people don't immediately associate climate change with a changing pH level in oceans, but the problems are serious, she says. Declining pH levels in the ocean could, in the long-run, harm living creatures with shells.

"Coral reef biologists were the first ones to sit up and say, 'The change in the ocean pH and how it changes the chemistry could really alter the way things make their calcium carbonate hard parts,'" Hofmann explained in an interview before her presentation at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver. "One of the most important ones from and ecosystem perspective are stoney corals that build the reefs that we all love in tropical environments."

]]>
"Coral reef biologists were the first ones to sit up and say, 'The change in the ocean pH and how it changes the chemistry could really alter the way things make their calcium carbonate hard parts,'" Hofmann explained in an interview before her presentation at the AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver. "One of the most important ones from and ecosystem perspective are stoney corals that build the reefs that we all love in tropical environments."

Gretchen Hofmann of the University of California, Santa Barbara

Hofmann is a professor of ecology, evolution and marine biology at the University of California-Santa Barbara. She presented her work at a symposium on Saturday 18 February, "Acid-Washed Genes in Ocean Ecosystems: Biological Tales of Ocean Acidification."

Joining Hofmann at the symposium were:

--Sinead Collins, Royal Society University Research Fellow, University of Edinburgh, United Kingdom;

--Jason Hall-Spencer, associate professor, School of Marine Science and Engineering, University of Plymouth, United Kingdom;

--Shallin Busch, research ecologist, NOAA Northwest Fisheries Science Center, Seattle, Washington;

--Bruce Menge, an ocean ecologist, Oregon State University; and

--Chris Langdon, a biological oceanographer, University of Miami in Florida.

Monday at AAAS

2012-02-20T15:40:05Z

Monday marks the final of the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting. The schedule is abbreviated, but there are a number of interesting presentations:

Plenary Lecture: "Good-Natured: Primate Social Instincts and Human Morality," by Franz B.M. de Waal, director of the Living Links Center, Yerkes Primate Center at Emory University. 8:30-9:30 a.m., Vancouver Convention Centre (VCC) West Building, Ballroom C.

Rare Isotopes for Medicine, symposium. 9:45-11:15 a.m., VCC West, Room 114-115.

Misreporting Fukushima, symposium. 9:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m., VCC West, Room 118.

Carbon Dioxide Capture and Storage: A Global Solution to a Global Challenge, symposium. VCC West, Room 122.

Illuminating the Obesity Epidemic with Mathematics, symposium. VCC West Room 205-207.

See the full Monday schedule online or on page 21 of the program book.

Forecasting Volcanic Eruptions

2012-02-20T05:09:46Z

Scientists are gradually gathering enough understanding of volcanoes that, within a few decades, they may be able to forecast eruptions, says one of the world's most influential vulcanologists.

Most people think of eruptions as a disaster that occurs somewhere else, usually far from Europe and the United States, said Donald B. Dingwell at the AAAS Annual Meeting. But epic quakes have happened at the current site of Yellowstone National Park in the Western United States, and eruptions in Iceland have caused death and destruction far beyond its shores.

Dingwell heads the Munich Magma Group at the University of Munich, in Germany, and he also serves as secretary general of the European Research Council.

The next big one? It's just a matter of time, says Dingwell.
]]>
"The ascent of magma can be astonishingly fast" once the huge load of rock that serves as a cap falls away, said volcanologist Donald B. Dingwell. "Decompression is all you need. There's a lot of energy there, and there's a lot more energy in the gas."

Dingwell, speaking Sunday at the AAAS Annual Meeting, heads the Munich Magma Group at the University of Munich in Germany. And he is also secretary general of a new research support organization, the European Research Council.

In a 45-minute lecture on volcano science, Dingwell said that the"gas" inside volcanoes includes huge amounts of compounds like sulfur dioxide, nitrogen species, and water vapor, which remain dissolved in the molten rock as it lies cooking deep inside the Earth's crust. And as a result of recent findings, including data from laboratory experiments, "we now have a lot simpler view about how a volcano works."

Once the lid is off, he explained, the magma comes roaring out, regardless of what else happens.

Although that new view is important toward understanding how volcanoes work, it's still not possible to accurately forecast when a volcano will erupt. Educated guesses based on a given volcano's history of repeated eruptions are possible, but good accuracy is still to be achieved.

"Prediction is a heavy word," he added, "but 'forecasting may, in a few decades, be reasonable."

Dingwell also pointed out that volcanic activity has always been a dominant player in the history of the Earth, and it's responsible for the creation of life through the recycling of chemicals it constantly spews onto the land masses and into the air and drops into the seas. Volcanic activity is also evident on the surfaces of other planets, including Mars and Venus. But in both cases the results are different, reflecting the unique physical conditions that have evolved on each planet.

As for volcanism on Earth, Dingwell said that "most people think of it as something that occurs somewhere else," usually far from Europe and the United States. But it's clear that somewhere on this planet there's a volcano going off about once a week. And the activity is constantly adding new chemicals to the planet's surface.

"It's over your head, [and] it also blows out over the ocean" and sinks to the seafloor, Dingwell explained. "Most of it is (volcanic) glass, which is highly unstable and highly reactive" in the air and water. "It's the source of iron for life in the seas; it's a fundamental nutrient for life." Indeed, he added, "if there were no volcanoes, there would be no life."

What's also evident from geological studies is that some terrifically large volcanic eruptions have occurred in the Earth's long history, including many thousands of years ago. Among the tremendous eruptions are those known to geologists as Tambora, Laki, and Yellowstone. And a more recent event, the eruption of Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, in 1991, pushed enough dust and gas into the air to block sunlight and cool the Earth's surface, as measured in Europe, for several years.

When it comes to the dangers involved in eruptions, "there are various ways that a volcano can kill you," he said. One of the most lethal is the phenomenon called a pyroclastic flow, in which the huge column of broiling hot gases collapses and comes sweeping down the mountain's flanks. This deadly cloud can move at speeds of 100 to 200 miles an hour, carrying gases and ash as hot as 500 degrees Fahrenheit, and spreading them for miles.

Dingwell also discussed the various types of lava that are known to flow from volcanos, including some that are thick, pasty and almost rock-solid, or those that are runny and flow readily across the ground. The difference lies in how much nitrate is in the lava--the more nitrate, the thicker the goo.

But perhaps such analysis distracts from the big picture. And on that point, Dingwell lets history guide him to a general prediction. "Eventually there will be another big one," he said. "They seem to recur on a time scale of about half a million years."

The New Meat Revolution

2012-02-20T03:44:20Z

A new generation of grown-in-the-lab meat substitutes are on their way to production and could begin arriving in the next year, agricultural experts said at the AAAS Annual Meeting.

That will be a relief to cows and pigs, of course. But if the new food-engineering works out as developers hope, it could dramatically ease the environmental impact of producing meat while creating a lucrative new global market.

A hamburger created from cow stem cells may be unveiled as early as October, said Maastricht University scientist Mark Post, who is developing the burger in his labs with funds from an anonymous financier. The estimated opening price: €250,000 euros, or about $330,000. ]]>
A hamburger created from cow stem cells, priced at €250,000 euros (about $330,000), may be unveiled as early as October, said Maastricht University scientist Mark Post, who is developing the burger in his labs with funds from an anonymous financier.

Mark Post's lab has grown strips of muscle tissue from cow stem cells

[Photo (c) Mark Post]

Patrick Brown is taking a different approach, putting together meat substitutes from plant materials. He says he's starting with meat but could advance to dairy and other products, imbuing the food with a taste that he says will win over “the hardcore meat- and cheese-lovers who can’t imagine giving all this up.”

The scientists speaking at the AAAS Annual Meeting see modern meat production as an inefficient system that’s long overdue for a technological revolution. “Animal farming is by far the biggest ongoing environmental catastrophe,” said Brown, a biochemist at the Stanford University School of Medicine. Grazing cattle or raising pigs requires intensive energy and land use, he said.

Concentrated animal feeding operations, or CAFOs, also are associated with human health risks such as deadly outbreaks of E. coli infection and, said University of Missouri geneticist Nicholas Genovese.

But people like their hamburger and steak dinners, Genovese said, noting that global meat consumption is expected to rise 60% by 2050. So scientists want to find ways to make meats that are more environmentally friendly, healthy, and in some cases less cruel to animals.

Even traditional meat producers are interested in the new technology, according to Genovese, who said large producers Tyson Foods and JBS have inquired about the possibilities of new meat substitutes.

There’s a significant amount of money to be made by the developers of synthetic meat. According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s Economic Research Service, the retail value of the U.S. beef industry in 2010 was $74 billion dollars.

Brown and Post hope to compete head-to-head with this multibillion dollar industry, and so for now their new products remain mystery meats, at least in terms of the exact science behind their creation and the financial backers supporting the research.

Brown’s process uses plant materials, since he believes plants will be a cheaper and more environmentally more beneficial pathway to a better meat. He said yields from the world’s four major food plant crops—corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans—already provide more than enough protein and amino acids for the world population. But only 4% of the world’s land surface is devoted to growing these crops, he said, compared to 30% for grazing and raising the crops for livestock feed.

Post‘s approach uses cow stem cells, gradually transforming them into tissues that resemble the skeletal muscle that makes up steak or hamburger. Building meat this way, he said, would use about 40% less energy than traditional livestock production.

At the moment, Post’s lab has created small strips of this tissue; he’ll need thousands of these small strips to assemble into a hamburger that will meet the objective of his anonymous financial backer.

The original plan was to develop a sausage, Post said, but with all the fillers in a typical recipe, “it was hardly recognizable as a meat product.”

Doubling The World's Food Supply by 2050

2012-02-20T02:48:15Z

The public hasn't made a connection between climate change and the world's food supply, but the planet faces an unprecedented food crisis in 2050 unless researchers find a way to feed more on land that yields less, AAAS President Nina Fedoroff, a noted plant biologist, said at the AAAS Annual Meeting.

"We will push past 9 billion people by mid-century, but there's no more land," Fedoroff warned in her address. "We need to develop crops that thrive in a hotter world on land we now consider unfarmable, using water we now consider unsuitable for agriculture."

In her wide-ranging talk, Fedoroff described some of the key moments from a life of science that put her on the frontiers of plant genetics, public engagement, and science diplomacy. Today, as she builds a new center for desert agriculture at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, the strands of her career have culminated in a project with global impact.
]]>

AAAS President Nina V. Fedoroff opened the 2012 AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver

"We will push past 9 billion people by mid-century, but there's no more land," Fedoroff warned in her address. "We need to develop crops that thrive in a hotter world on land we now consider unfarmable, using water we now consider unsuitable for agriculture."

Scientists are working on ways to double the global food supply by 2050, she said, but climate change has made the task more urgent. Deaths from the record-breaking 2003 European heat wave were covered widely in the media, she said, but missing from the stories "were the crop yields, which declined by a quarter to more than a third."

"Our major crops--corn, wheat, rice, and soybeans--were sculpted by people over tens of thousands of years in the moderate temperature range that started this century," Fedoroff said, "but yields decline by roughly 10% for each degree of warming."

Fedoroff received the 2006 National Medal of Science for her pioneering research in the fields of plant genetics, plant responses to environmental stress, and genetically modified crops.

In her wide-ranging talk, Fedoroff described some of the key moments from a life of science that put her on the frontiers of research, public engagement, and science diplomacy. Today, as she builds a new center for desert agriculture at King Abdullah University of Science and Technology (KAUST) in Saudi Arabia, the strands of her career have culminated in a project with global impact.

Science's role in ensuring a stable global food supply was a major focus of her tenure as science and technology adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State from 2007 to 2010, Fedoroff said. She recalled attending a 2009 conference on climate change and food security at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault in Norway, when "the detailed analysis of climate impacts on agriculture were just beginning, and the results were chilling."

While public concerns about a global food crisis seemed to peak in 2008, food shortages returned in 2010 and showed no signs of abating in 2011, she said. The events of the Arab spring, she suggested to the audience, are "not just about freedom and democracy," but also about soaring prices for grain and food staples across the region.

Hunger and unrest are borderless challenges, Fedoroff said, and they will be solved only through stronger collaborations between the developed and developing world. In keeping with the meeting's theme of "Flattening the World," she described several efforts that are bringing together scientists in a global knowledge society.

Fedoroff described an organization she helped found called the Global Knowledge Initiative that brings together developed and developing world scientists. She described one project that is bringing experts to Rwanda to study an insect-borne fungus that is compromising the flavor of the nation's coffee beans.

"Such projects address local needs," she said, "and seek to introduce the latest science and technology through training programs."

Long before her appointment as science adviser, Fedoroff was fostering her own international outreach as an adviser to Moscow's Englehardt Institute of Molecular Biology, as a key player in the organization of the International Science Foundation after the fall of the Soviet Union, and as a mentor to international students in her lab.

Her experiences with GMOs--defending the technology as a safe and essential innovation--made her reconsider whether science is enough to convince the public and policymakers. "Belief systems, especially if they're tinged with fear, are not easily dismantled with facts. This isn't a new problem, but it's a growing problem."

She also recalled the ups and downs of her early education and research experiences, but "doing experiments got me hooked," she said. A chance meeting with Nobel Prize laureate Barbara McClintock at Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory in 1978 paved the way for her own groundbreaking work in plant molecular biology.

Fedoroff said she was "blown away" by McClintock's "clear, logical, and beautiful" discovery of transposition, the mechanism by which DNA sequences can be cut and pasted or copied and pasted within a cell's genome. "She'd given words a long time ago to things that no one was ready to see."

The work changed the way that genes and chromosomes were viewed in the mid-20th century, from static "beads on a string" to a dynamic system of genes mutating, duplicating, deleting, and mobilizing, Fedoroff said. "Evolution is a much more boisterous affair than we ever imagined."

The AAAS Presidential Address is the traditional opening of the Annual Meeting. Fedoroff was preceded by the meeting's three local co-chairs: Andrew Petter, president and vice chancellor of Simon Fraser University; Stephen J. Toope, president and vice chancellor of the University of British Columbia; and Neil Turok, director of the Perimeter Institute for Theoretical Physics. The evening began with a welcome and song from Gibby Jacobs, chief of the Squamish Nation, and Carla George, councilor of the Squamish Nation.

On 20 February, at the end of the 2012 meeting, Fedoroff will turn over duties to AAAS President-Elect William H. Press and begin a one-year term as chair of the AAAS Board of Directors. Press is a professor of computer science and integrative biology at the University of Texas at Austin, and a member of the U.S. President's Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.

How to Communicate Controversial Science?

2012-02-20T01:06:36Z

Debate over crucial issues of public policy often suffer from confusion and polarization fed by the news media and policymakers. But when the topics are especially controversial, like nuclear power, genetically modified food, or even tobacco, it's a challenge to clear space for a constructive policy discussion, experts said at the AAAS Annual Meeting.

At symposium Saturday, a panel of European scientists and policy experts urged earlier involvement and more effective use of scientific insight in hopes of achieving more effective outcomes.

The speakers came with different areas of expertise, their arguments were provocative, and they faced tough questions. But all agreed on the need for clear, accurate information, especially in times of emergency or social stress. That, they said, could reduce public apprehension and opposition to important new technologies and create a stronger foundation for public policy.
]]> Debate over crucial issues of public policy often suffer from confusion and polarization fed by the news media and policymakers, making the challenges more difficult to solve. At symposium Saturday at the AAAS Annual Meeting, a panel of European scientists and policy experts urged earlier involvement and more effective use of scientific insight in hopes of achieving more effective outcomes.

In a symposium titled “Exploding Myths on Reactor Security, Harm Reduction and Genetically Modified Organisms,” the speakers came with different areas of expertise, and their arguments were provocative, and they faced tough questions. But all agreed on the need for clear, balanced, and accurate information, especially in times of emergency or social stress. That, they said, could reduce public apprehension and opposition to important new technologies and create a stronger foundation for public policy.

The panel focused on three controversial topics: nuclear power in the aftermath the earthquake and tsunami that decimated Japan's Fukushima power plant; continued strong resistance in Europe to growing and marketing genetically-modified foods; and policies and perceptions on tobacco use and its associated hazards.

The panelists were nuclear power expert Roland Schenkel, former head of the Joint Research Centre (JRC), which serves as the in-house science service to the European Commission; Guy van den Eede, head of molecular biology and genomics for the JRC’s Institute for Health and Consumer Protection; and David O’Reilly, scientific director and member of the board of directors of the British American Tobacco Company. The panel was moderated by Patrick Cunningham, chief scientific adviser to the government of Ireland.

Each speaker described ways in which conflict and polarization over an important issue obscures options for resolving conflict and improving existing policy.

For example, Schenkel said, “nuclear power is quite competitive” in the context of modern power generation. It generates a significant proportion of Europe’s power, while producing only minimal amounts of the heat-trapping greenhouse gases that cause climate change.

But longstanding public worries over nuclear power have been deeply aggravated by Fukushima. What’s often lost in the discussion, Schenkel said, is that the Japanese reactors were poorly managed and the Japanese government had little actual authority over the plant’s operations, while obvious mistakes in reactor siting, control, and safety systems contributed to the disaster.

At Fukushima, he added, the reactors suffered from “a lack of state-of-the-art safety systems, and why they were not retrofitted is not understandable.” Also, the danger from tsunamis was well- known, even centuries ago. Schenkel showed a photo of a old stone marker—many of which are found in the area—which indicated the reach of tsunami waters in times long past. The markers served as history’s warnings against building in the area.

The disaster and the resulting social displacement have been a global setback for nuclear energy, Schenkel said. And yet, he added, to replace nuclear power soon with solar, wind and other sources of clean energy “is today almost impossible.”

As for genetically modified organisms (GMOs)—specifically plants and animals—van den Eede pointed out that the long-standing opposition among some groups “misses the profound interconnectivity between decades-long advances in science and addressing global challenges in addressing in climate, energy, agriculture and health.” And, he said, the GMO story in Europe, versus other regions of the world, lays bare how government decisions are ultimately political—with science (being) just one element in decision-making.”

O’Reilly said similar concerns extend to issues of tobacco science. While cigarette use is declining in Europe and the United States, he said, it is rising in China and India. The question arises: Should research explore ways to grow tobacco or make tobacco products that are less dangerous than today’s tobacco and products? But the current polarized environment makes such “harm-reduction” approaches all but impossible, he said.

Carl-John Sundberg, a communications expert at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, was a discussant at the panel. He suggested that in the storm of conflicting information that surrounds many problems—especially disasters such as Fukushima—“information and misinformation are instant” as stories get transmitted worldwide in seconds. Once simplistic or erroneous news is transmitted, it has an impact on policy and public opinion. And the genie can’t be put back in the bottle.

As a bottom line, the scientists called for the scientific community to pursue clarity in its communication to foster deeper public understanding of issues that, while complex, may be of global significance.

Song of the Singing Glove

2012-02-19T23:39:41Z

Sidney Fels and his colleagues at the University of British Columbia (UBC) have developed an electrical device that, in essence, uses hand movements to create voice-like sounds. They call it a gesture-to-voice synthesizer, but you can think of it as a talking glove, or singing glove.

Fels, with UBC colleagues Johnty Wang and Bob Pritchard, appear to have harnessed familiar electronic squeals and squawks into a subtle, controllable electronic voice. It's being used to make some oddly compelling harmonies.

In a symposium Sunday at the AAAS Annual Meeting, Fels and other scholars described the evolution of a new era in sign, gesture, and interactive communication. But to really understand the glove, and the strangely beautiful sounds it can make, you have watch, and listen.
]]>
Fels, with UBC colleagues Johnty Wang and Bob Pritchard, appear to have harnessed familiar electronic squeals and squawks into a subtle, controllable electronic voice. It's being used to make some oddly compelling harmonies.

But to really understand how strange the device is, and how strangely beautiful the sound that can be made with it, you have watch, and listen. In a symposium Sunday at the AAAS Annual Meeting, Fels and other scholars described the evolution of a new era in sign, gesture, and interactive communication.

The briefing in Vancouver, British Columbia, was entitled, "Gesture, Languagge, and Performance: Aspects of Embodiment."

Also speaking at the symposium were:

Eric Vatikiotis-Bateson, director, UBC Cognitive Systems Program, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada; and
Martha Tyrone, Long Island University, Brooklyn, New York

The Physics of Superheroes

2012-02-19T22:48:26Z

James Kakalios runs a unique physics class: There's not a pulley or lever in sight.

Instead, the University of Minnesota professor talks about how he uses superheroes to engage students. At the AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Kakalios spoke at a symposium entitled "Using Pop-Culture Icons To Slip Science into the Mainstream."

The symposium also featured Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University discussing the physics of Star Trek and E. Paul Zehr of the University of Victoria in British Columbia exploring whether Batman and Iron Man are instructive on the field of neuroscience.]]>
Instead, the University of Minnesota professor talks about how he uses superheroes to engage students. At the AAAS Annual Meeting in Vancouver, Kakalios spoke at a symposium entitled "Using Pop-Culture Icons To Slip Science into the Mainstream."

The symposium also featured Lawrence Krauss of Arizona State University discussing the physics of Star Trek and E. Paul Zehr of the University of Victoria in British Columbia exploring whether Batman and Iron Man are instructive on the field of neuroscience.