2008 News Blog

Researchers: Tuna Population Decline Similar to Cod Collapse

2008-02-18T17:15:00Z

A panel of marine scientists at a AAAS Annual Meeting press briefing warned that regional tuna populations are being depleted at a dangerous rate, due to population mismanagement and the national palate for juvenile tuna.

If nothing is done to reverse the trend, the 18 February 2008 panel said regional tuna populations may experience a collapse similar to the Atlantic cod -- a favorite dish in Boston, once considered cheap and plentiful, that “shaped the economy of whole nations.”

“We will never know more about a fish than we knew about the Atlantic cod, yet their populations still collapsed,” said Daniel Pauly, a researcher at the University of British Columbia. “We need to make sure the same thing does not happen with tuna.” ]]>
If nothing is done to reverse the trend, the 18 February 2008 panel said regional tuna populations may experience a collapse similar to the Atlantic cod -- a favorite dish in Boston, once considered cheap and plentiful, that “shaped the economy of whole nations.”

“We will never know more about a fish than we knew about the Atlantic cod, yet their populations still collapsed,” said Daniel Pauly, a researcher at the University of British Columbia. “We need to make sure the same thing does not happen with tuna.”

Rashid Sumaila, a researcher at the University of British Columbia, said that the Atlantic cod provides only 1 or 2 percent of the catch it did 50 years ago. While tuna has not yet been depleted to that level, Sumaila estimates that some tuna yields are presenting just 60 percent of catches compared to the middle of last century.

“People who eat tuna need to ask themselves whose fish they are eating,” Sumaila said, “their’s or their grandchildren’s.”

Jose Ingles, a researcher with the World Wildlife Fund, spoke about a '"peace park under development between Indonesia and the Philippines to counter dwindling tuna populations. The protected area, termed the “tuna highway,” allows juvenile tuna to migrate to fishing grounds and mature tuna to return to reproduce.

Barbara Block, a marine scientist at Stanford University, highlighted a tagging program in which scientists are able to track bluefin tuna to learn more about their complex migration patterns. The program recently tagged its 1,000th fish.

The panelists drew attention to the international ban on ivory as a successful program to protect elephants, suggesting that labeling or a regional ban on juvenile bluefin tuna may be effective in protecting threatened population.

Plenary Speakers Discuss Next Steps for Global Health

2008-02-18T16:45:00Z

The AIDS epidemic is far from over, but the fight against the disease has entered a new phase that could contribute to healthier communities around the world if handled properly, experts said at the final plenary session of the AAAS Annual Meeting.

AIDS is the number one cause of death in Africa and the seventh largest cause of death worldwide, and places like Eastern Europe, Vietnam and China are the latest hotspots in the epidemic, said Peter Piot, executive director for UNAIDS and under-secretary general of the United Nations. He called AIDS "the make or break issue of our times."]]>
AIDS is the number one cause of death in Africa and the seventh largest cause of death worldwide, and places like Eastern Europe, Vietnam and China are the latest hotspots in the epidemic, said Peter Piot, executive director for UNAIDS and under-secretary general of the United Nations. He called AIDS "the make or break issue of our times."

But successes like the rise in antiretroviral medicines delivered to people in the developing world -- three million patients now compared to only 200,000 patients in 2001 -- mean that "we are entering a new phase of responsibility because we are seeing results," Piot said.

Jim Yong Kim, director of the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at the Harvard School of Public Health, said it was "the first time in history that the wealthiest, most powerful people have committed to chronic care for chronic conditions to the poorest people on earth."

But the plenary speakers urged the research community to develop a new science of delivering interventions, drawing together evidence on the best ways to bring health care into communities.

"We have the tools already, but we're not delivering them," Kim said, pointing out that the bottleneck between treatment and access to treatment is a significant problem in the United States as well.

Kim said the science of delivering health care is such a neglected topic that his public health students at Harvard don't know how smallpox was eradicated worldwide in 1979. "Anyone in public health should know this like a geneticist knows the double helix," he suggested.

Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund, said his organization is trying to learn from these lessons in their project to eradicate measles, by taking a more systematic approach to health care in the regions they serve.

"We put so many resources into this cure, but what was left behind in doing that?" Wirth said of the smallpox initiative.

As co-founder of the nonprofit medical organization Partners in Health, Kim has helped to build clinics throughout the developing world to treat HIV and tuberculosis. In the process, the group has seen the positive effects that these clinics can have on the overall health of a population, from maternal care to malaria.

The nature of the AIDS epidemic, fueled in part by economic and cultural forces, has blurred the line between treatment and prevention in these clinics and others, the speakers said.

But Wirth, a former member of the U.S. House of Representatives and U.S. Senate, warned that the distinction between treatment and prevention still exists in the minds of the politicians who fund multibillion dollar health initiatives, even as increasing evidence shows that the two are intertwined. In politics, he warned, "the people who are sick are always a stronger voice than the people that are well."

The plenary session, "Global Health Sessions" was held on 18 February 2008 and moderated by AAAS President David Baltimore, who is the Robert Andrews Millikan Professor of Biology and president emeritus at the California Institute of Technology.

AAAS Town Hall Examines Childhood Obesity

2008-02-18T16:33:10Z

Whole communities, not individuals, should be the targets for understanding and combating childhood obesity across the globe, researchers agreed at a special town hall forum at the AAAS Annual Meeting.

The forum speakers said the childhood obesity epidemic is really twin epidemics of poor nutrition and diminishing physical activity, driven by powerful economic and cultural forces. As the scientists reported, children will lose the battle against these pervasive forces unless they have the support of their schools, families and towns.

"We have to change the environment so it's simple for kids to make a healthy choice," said Steven Gortmaker, director of the Harvard Prevention Research Center.]]>
The forum speakers said the childhood obesity epidemic is really twin epidemics of poor nutrition and diminishing physical activity, driven by powerful economic and cultural forces. As the scientists reported, children will lose the battle against these pervasive forces unless they have the support of their schools, families and towns.

"We have to change the environment so it's simple for kids to make a healthy choice," said Steven Gortmaker, director of the Harvard Prevention Research Center.

Scientists, middle-school teachers, students and the public gathered at the 17 February 2008 meeting to learn more about the epidemics and what communities are doing to combat them. The attendees also did a little collective brainstorming about prevention strategies, participating in real-time electronic polls throughout the session moderated by Sally Squires of the Washington Post, who writes the nationally syndicated column "The Lean Plate Club."

Maura Devaney, head of the physical and health education department for Chelmsford Public Schools, just north of Boston, came to the event hoping to hear more about these strategies. "We have things we're taught to do for kids suffering from anorexia and bulimia, but we don't seem to have a firm grasp on obesity," she said.

Devaney and other school professionals attending the forum received free copies of Planet Health curriculum books, created by Gortmaker and colleagues to improve middle school activity and diet. The group also received interactive "dance mats" to accompany a new nutrition and fitness computer game called "SmartFoot," designed by Bob Hirshon, host of AAAS's long-running Science Update radio show.

The town hall began with a short video presentation on "Shape Up, Somerville," a community-wide intervention to prevent obesity in elementary school children led by Tufts University researcher Christine Economos.

From cooking classes for parents to walking "school buses," the project sought to address all the influences on obesity that students might encounter before, during and after school. The success of the intervention depended on everyone from the town's mayor to teachers, "because we need to think beyond individual behavior change," Economos explained.

But ambitious changes like this can draw resistance, as Boston Mayor Thomas Menino discovered when he recently pushed to removed soda and candy vending machines from the city's public schools. "It was the biggest political fight I ever had," he told the forum, recalling that parents and teachers were especially reluctant to give up the money generated by the machines.

And when children and their families do decide to make healthy changes, it can be tricky to stick with the new plan, admitted Mark Fenton, host of the PBS television series "America's Walking." Fenton said communities can make it easier for families to raise "free-range kids" with simple steps like painting bike lanes, using speed tables to slow traffic, and walking groups of children to school.

At a news briefing held before the town hall, W. Philip T. James of the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine said that re-framing the epidemic as a matter of poor nutrition could help explain the "bizarre circumstance" in which 287 million overweight children share the world with 177 million who suffer from malnutrition.

Children in the developing world are growing up now in the same kind of poor food environment as their peers in the United States and Europe, and James cautioned that the "highest priority for most international food companies is penetration of the Third World."

Ironically, this "standard diet" of high-fat, low-nutrition foods is becoming widespread at the same time that globalization could be opening up new worlds of healthy ethnic cuisines to children, said Shiriki Kumanyika, a University of Pennsylvania researcher who studies cultural influences on obesity.

The town hall was organized by AAAS under the auspices of the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology. More resources on childhood obesity, including the "Shape Up, Somerville" video, are at AAAS's special town hall Web site.

The Sounds of Science

2008-02-18T16:12:00Z

Listen and learn more from the 2008 AAAS Annual Meeting: You can hear from young science explorers who participated in Family Science Days over the weekend, and listen to ScienceNOW editor David Grimm talk about what it's like to cover the meeting on the Science magazine blog, Findings, in a series of Science podcasts here, along with coverage of researchers working on a sustainable bioeconomy. The Findings blog also probes the psychological disconnect between what you anticipate and what really happens, while AAAS radio program Science Update talks to a UCLA researcher about the link between ultrafine air pollution particles and heart disease.

Negroponte: Laptops Key to Global Knowledge

2008-02-18T16:10:00Z

In a AAAS Annual Meeting plenary, Nicholas Negroponte, founder and director of One Laptop per Child (OLPC), detailed how he transformed a desire to provide access to learning into a successful non-profit organization providing low-cost computers to children in the developing world.

At its core, Negroponte said during his 17 February 2008 address, One Laptop per Child uses technology to foster in children a desire to learn and attend school by making education both interesting and useful.
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At its core, Negroponte said during his 17 February 2008 address, One Laptop per Child uses technology to foster in children a desire to learn and attend school by making education both interesting and useful.

Citing a 1992 trip to Cambodia, Negroponte said he observed kids steadily losing interest as they passed through the grades. While some may have dropped out to help with other responsibilities, Negroponte attributes the loss of students to uninspiring learning environments.

“In developing nations, you sometimes have a situation where the students arrive in first-grade with their eyes wide open...and by the fourth grade, their heads are down,” Negroponte recalled. “School for them had not been a joyous experience.”

Negroponte soon sent computers to the Cambodian village and found that school attendance increased by 100 percent. “Kids were telling kids school was cool,” he said.

Following his observations in Cambodia and other experiences, Negroponte set out to develop an easy-to-use and maintain laptop that children can use in school and at home.

The first generation of the laptops, released last year, use less than 2 watts of electricity (compared to between 35 and 40 watts for most laptops), have screens that can be viewed indoors and outside, provide Internet via a mesh network, and are rugged. The target selling price was $100.

Negroponte said his program is currently manufacturing laptops at a cost of around $187 dollars and a rate of 110,000 per month, with plans for total production to reach between 10 and 50 million by the end of next year.

When he first announced his plan to form a non-profit education initiative in January 2005, Negroponte said, colleagues advised starting a for-profit company and donating the money to charity. But he disagreed.

“Being a non-profit was absolutely critical because the clarity of purpose is always there,” he said. “If a head of state meets me, they know I am there about education and humanitarian efforts, not to sell laptops.”

Negroponte said he was able to keep the laptop cost low by identifying the vital functions, suggesting that computers used by children for learning do not need extra features.

One way to cut the price: Using a very simple display. (Displays add up to 50 percent to a regular laptop’s price.) Repair costs also are lower on these maintenance-friendly machines. For example, if a light burns out in the display, you can easily open the unit and replace the bar of LED lights.

Late last year, OLPC established a program entitled “give one, get one” in which North Americans could make a $399 donation in exchange for one laptop for personal use, and one for donation to a child in the developing world.

As of the date of the lecture, Negroponte said he has received orders from nine countries: Uruguay, Peru, Haiti, Mongolia, Mexico, Afghanistan, Rwanda, Cambodia, Ethiopia and the United States, after the mayor of Birmingham, Alabama, requested 15,000 units. In addition, there are keyboards in 12 different languages, with six additional languages under development.

A graduate of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), Negroponte was a pioneer in the field of computer-aided design. He is on leave from MIT, where he is the the Jerome B. Wiesner Professor of Media Technology, and co-founded and directed the MIT Media Laboratory. He also serves on the board of Motorola and has provided start -up funds for more than 40 companies including Wired magazine.

Meeting Closes with Salon-Style Plenary on Global Health

2008-02-18T13:30:00Z

The final day of the 2008 AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston opens with a 8:00 a.m. salon-style plenary on global health challenges moderated by AAAS President David Baltimore.

The panel will feature Jim Young Kim, MD, director of the Francois Xavier Bagnoud Center for Health and Human Rights at Harvard University; Peter Piot, MD, executive director of the UNAIDS program; and Timothy Wirth, president of the United Nations Foundation and Better World Fund.

Beginning at 9:15, the final symposia include presentations on a possible link between air pollution and cardiovascular disease, new strategies for protecting tuna populations, and the evolving definition of a planet.

A call for symposia proposals is underway for the 2009 AAAS Annual Meeting, with the theme of "Our Planet and Its Life: Origins and Futures," which will convene 12-16 February 2009. See you in Chicago!

Scientists: Air Pollution Increases Risk for Heart Disease, Stroke

2008-02-17T20:58:30Z

Speaking at a AAAS Annual Meeting press briefing on 17 February 2008, a panel of researchers said air pollution could lead to the hardening of arteries – atherosclerosis – with an impact similar to smoking.

While the results remain preliminary, the researchers said small-particles air pollutants, including gasoline and diesel exhaust, appear to cause increased plaque production in vascular systems of studied mice.

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While the results remain preliminary, the researchers said small-particle pollutants, including gasoline and diesel exhaust, appear to cause increased plaque production in vascular systems of studied mice.

In his presentation, Lung Chi Chen, a researcher at the New York University School of Medicine, described research in which he engineered mice with a limited ability to remove fat from their blood, making them similar to obese people. He then exposed one set of mice to cigarette smoke and another to air pollutants. Chen found that both sets showed a hardening of the arteries.

“Everybody knows secondhand smoke is bad for your cardiovascular system,” Chen said at the 17 February 2008 briefing. “But less people know about the effect of small particles in air pollution.”

While the precise mechanism remains unknown, Jesus Araujo, a researcher at the University of California, Los Angeles, said the small particles might inflame the lungs, causing them to release chemicals that affect the vascular system.

“Apparently, the smaller the particle, the larger the damaging effect,” Araujo said, adding that the pollution and other genetic factors appear to have a “synergetic” affect on hardening arteries.

The researchers urged regulatory agencies to pay more attention to air quality in cities, especially to ultra-fine pollutant particles.

“The research is tremendously important because a lot of people live in cities with poor air quality,” Araujo said. “A lot of people’s health is at stake.”

Astronomers Look for Earth-Like Worlds

2008-02-17T20:08:45Z

To learn more about the solar system’s formation and the potential for extraterrestrial life, speakers in an AAAS Annual Meeting press briefing said debating what makes a planet is not as important as finding bodies that have planet-like characteristics.

At the 17 February 2008 briefing, Michael Meyer, an associate professor and astronomer at the University of Arizona, cited a paper he authored in the 1 February issue of The Astrophysics Journal in which he estimates between 20 and 60 percent of stars contain rocky planets similar to Earth around them.

These rocky planets, he said, might contain the necessary conditions to support life.

“I do not know exactly what a planet is, nor am I interested in a precise definition,” Meyer said. “I am much more interested in finding the characteristics of bodies in space.”

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At the 17 February 2008 briefing, Michael Meyer, an associate professor and astronomer at the University of Arizona, cited a paper he authored in the 1 February issue of The Astrophysics Journal in which he estimates between 20 and 60 percent of stars contain rocky planets similar to Earth around them.

These rocky planets, he said, might contain the necessary conditions to support life.

“I do not know exactly what a planet is, nor am I interested in a precise definition,” Meyer said. “I am much more interested in finding the characteristics of bodies in space.”

Deborah Fischer, a researcher at San Francisco State University, said extraterrestrial life is most likely to be found on planets of a certain mass and distance from a star. When a planet meets the two characteristics, Fischer said, it is possible the planet could support carbon-based life because the climate “will not be too hot or cold and water could pool.”

Alan Stern, associate administrator for space exploration at NASA, said that searching space to find new planets and life is like “looking for a needle in a haystack.”

“It’s like we want to explore all of North America, and we are on the Eastern Seaboard and we only know about the first 100 kilometers,” Stern said. “We really don’t know what we will find.”

The panelists -- who presented new findings from the Hubble, Spitzer and other telescopes and discussed what could be achieved with the next generation of optical telescopes-- agreed that more research is needed and called for increased funding to explore space.

“With more research, we will get more data that can create more effective exploration programs,” Meyer said.

Research, Meeting Reports Fill Blog, Podcasts

2008-02-17T16:01:59Z

Findings, the Science magazine news blog, lives up to its name this week with reports on research presented at the 2008 AAAS annual meeting on pesticide mixtures' impact on salmon and satellites aiding human rights efforts, and podcasts on emerging chemical contaminants, the evolution of morality, and the engineering challenges of the 21st century. But the blog also moves beyond the sessions to single out faces in the crowd for attendee interviews; lets you listen in on a cocktail hour conversation about historic figures in the Royal Society, which celebrates its 350th anniversary in 2010; and tells you five more things you didn't know, this time about AAAS president-elect and climate scientist James McCarthy. Meanwhile, the AAAS radio program Science Update is reporting on the impact climate change may have on reintroducing predators to the Antarctic.

Fedoroff: A Call For Science Diplomats

2008-02-17T15:45:00Z

The world needs more science diplomats who can lend their expertise and passion to solving global problems of environmental degradation and poverty in developing nations, said Nina Fedoroff in her AAAS plenary address on 16 February 2008.

Fedoroff, science and technology adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State and adviser to the Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said scientists are already roused to work on these problems, but may be paralyzed by the thought that they have nothing to contribute. (See a video of the plenary address.)
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Fedoroff, science and technology adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State and adviser to the Administrator at the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), said scientists are already roused to work on these problems, but may be paralyzed by the thought that they have nothing to contribute. (See a video of the plenary address.)

The AAAS Annual Meeting plenary talks on the challenges of globalization can "stir the imagination and the indignation and the desire to do something, but for most of us, the impulse passes," she noted.

Fedoroff wants the impulse to linger, and she discussed a number of examples of the work that scientists can do to bridge the digital divide in information technology in poor communities, foster a new green revolution in architecture for the world's hungry, and restore peaceful research activities in regions recovering from war.

She praised a speech given by Microsoft founder and philanthropist Bill Gates at the Davos World Economic Forum earlier this year, where Gates said market forces and traditional philanthropy are not enough to help the world's poorest citizens. Instead, he said, the most promising projects combine the expertise of those who know the needs of the developing world with scientists who understand the breakthroughs that can help.

"But the idea of serving as science diplomat is only beginning to get on the radar screen of the average scientist or engineer," Fedoroff said.

She pointed to two examples of scientists who have made the transition to diplomatic service, both of them recent AAAS Diplomacy Fellows. Jason Rao, a molecular biologist from Johns Hopkins University, is a member of the U.S. State Department's Office of Cooperative Threat Reduction. Over the past three years, he has helped turn former anthrax factories in Russia, Georgia and Kazakhstan into new facilities for vaccine production and disease surveillance in those countries.

Diplomacy Fellow Alexander Dehgan put his law degree and Ph.D. in evolutionary biology from the University of Chicago to work in Iraq soon after joining the State Department, redirecting that country's weapons scientists into civilian research.

Dehgan also helped build a natural history museum -- "dodging bombs and attacks in and out of the Green Zone" in Baghdad, Fedoroff said -- and created an Internet portal to give Iraqi researchers full access to scientific literature after many library collections were destroyed in the war.

The State Department's Jefferson Science Fellows program, now in its fifth year, is also attracting a group of more established researchers, Fedoroff said. She thinks scientists are drawn to the program in part because they are seeing the connections between "the rising tide of resentment" against the United States and global disparities in wealth.

"But our science and technology are eagerly sought after, even by countries that have lost respect for our culture and our politics," she added.

A pioneering researcher in plant and evolutionary biology, Fedoroff divides her time between diplomatic duties and her role as head of The Huck Institutes of the Life Sciences at Penn State. She was introduced at the plenary session by Norman Neureiter, director of AAAS's Center for Science, Technology and Security Policy and the first S&T adviser to the U.S. Secretary of State.

Clinton, Obama S&T Advisers Square Off At AAAS

2008-02-17T15:33:00Z

Science and technology advisers to the U.S. presidential campaigns of Senators Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama outlined their candidates' S&T plans and took questions from a standing-room-only audience at the AAAS Annual Meeting on 16 February 2008. ]]>
The venue lacked the television-friendly red, white and blue bunting, but the advisers in this tightly contested race for the Democratic nomination did their best to discuss how they would handle S&T issues differently from their primary opponent, the current administration and their Republican challenger.

Many of their proposals were similar in spirit: double the amount of federal funding for basic science; reduce the "politicization" of federal research; push for increased information technology to streamline health care; and support science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education as a way to build a 21st century workforce.

But Thomas Kalil, adviser for science, technology and innovation for Clinton's campaign, said that, compared to Obama, Clinton "has been a lot more specific about steps she would take to restore the prominence of science and technology...and more specific on the types of research investments she thinks are necessary to restore American economic competitiveness."

Alec Ross, adviser on technology, media and telecommunications for Obama's campaign, disputed that claim, saying Obama has produced a "dense," detailed platform on technology issues in particular. From broadband Internet access to alternative energy sources, Obama "really gets into the weeds," according to Ross, who repeatedly urged the audience to visit Obama's Web site to read the campaign proposals.

Kalil is special assistant to the chancellor for science and technology at the University of California, Berkeley, and served as deputy assistant for technology and economic policy for President Bill Clinton. Ross is co-founder of the One Economy Corporation, a nonprofit organization created to bring information technology to low-income people.

Both candidates have promised to raise the profile of S&T advisers in their administrations. Kalil said Clinton would rescue the director of the Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) from "bureaucratic Siberia" and make her or him a direct assistant to the president again.

If Obama is elected, Ross said, he would be the first president to appoint a chief technology officer to ensure the safety of the government's information networks and work with "each arm of the federal goverment to make its records open and accessible."

Kalil and Ross both spoke extensively about the need to restore scientific integrity to federal agencies and governmental advisory boards, in response to numerous accounts of suppressed research and political manipulation of science under the current administration. Kalil noted that Clinton has been the only candidate to devote an entire speech to the problem, speaking at the Carnegie Institution for Science in 2007 on the 50th anniversary of the Sputnik launch.

"The current administration has the same relationship with advisory committees that exists between a drunk and a lamppost. That is, it's used for support rather than illumination," Kalil said, to the audience's applause and laughter.

Claudia Dreifus, the New York Times science journalist who moderated the forum, asked the advisers how their candidates would match up against the presumptive Republican nominee, Senator John McCain from Arizona. McCain "is no George W. Bush," she noted, pointing to the senator's record of engagement on issues like global climate change.

"I think that the contrast on issues specific to science and technology would be a sharp one," Ross said, recalling a comment by McCain during the primary campaign that the Arizona senator would hand over "less important" issues like technology to his vice president.

"It's not a question of specifically disagreeing with positions that he's [McCain] taken, it's a question that he's been silent on these issues," Kalil agreed.

The advisers fielded questions from the audience on a range of topics, from the future of manned missions to the Moon and Mars, federal investment in nuclear energy, and genetic testing privacy protections. Ross said the Obama campaign will make a major announcement related to space policy next month, but did not give details.

The Annual Meeting forum was organized by AAAS's Center for Science, Technology and Congress; the Association of American Universities (AAU); and the National Association of State Universities and Land Grant Colleges.

In January, AAAS, in partnership with the Richard Lounsbery Foundation and the AAU, launched a Web site that tracks the presidential candidates' positions on a wide range of S&T issues. Al Teich, director of AAAS Science & Policy Programs, said the overwhelming number questions posed by the audience at the forum would be archived on the site.

The advisers' forum was prompted by the Web site, Teich said, and representatives from all the major campaigns were invited to attend. The McCain campaign "sent regrets for not being able to get an adviser here on such short notice," and the remaining Republican campaigns did not respond to the invitation, Teich said.

Also in January, AAAS announced that it would join ScienceDebate 2008, a major effort by scientists and policymakers in both political parties to mount a presidential debate on S&T issues before the November election. Kalil and Ross declined to say whether their candidates would participate in such a debate, although Kalil encouraged researchers to keep speaking out to ensure a prominent place for S&T in the next administration.

Ross's advice was a bit more blunt: "Don't be so polite. At the end of the day, if what you're trying to do is elevate your issues, then you've got to be aggressive about presenting those issues."

Childhood Obesity and Nutrition Town Hall, Negroponte Delivers Plenary

2008-02-17T12:00:00Z

A free town hall-style event on understanding obesity and childhood nutrition at 1:15 p.m. will bring teachers, students, public health professional, and scientists to the Boston Marriott Copley Place. The event will cover key topics including childhood nutrition worldwide, nutrition instruction in the K-12 science curriculum, and finding time for exercise.

Invited participants include: Boston Mayor Thomas Menino; Sally Squires, Washington Post health reporter; Mark Fenton, PBS host of “America’s Walking;” and Virginia Stallings, MD, professor of pediatrics at the University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.

This special event—planned under the auspices of the AAAS Center for Public Engagement with Science and Technology—is free and open to the public as well as all AAAS Annual Meeting registrants.

At 6:30 p.m., Nicholas Negroponte, chairman and founder of One Laptop per Child, will deliver a plenary address also in the Boston Marriot. Negroponte’s non-profit association was launched in 2005 to provide low-cost laptops and Internet access to poor children in developing countries. A graduate of Massachusetts Institute of Technology, he has provided start-up funds for more than 40 companies, including Wired Magazine.

Young Engineers Serve Up Fun at Family Science Days in Boston

2008-02-17T11:59:00Z

At AAAS Family Science Days, children could discover the science behind the “walking the dog” Yo-Yo trick, explore underwater earthquakes and tsunamis through Second Life, and learn how racecar drivers use science to cross the finish line first.

But perhaps the most inventive display at Family Science Days – which ran 16-17 February 2008 at the AAAS Annual Meeting -- was an exhibit with two machines dispensing candy and lemonade. These were not your average vending equipment. They were Rube Goldberg Machines designed by four aspiring engineers in the Science Club for Girls.

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But perhaps the most inventive display at the event, held on 16 and 17 February 2008 at the AAAS Annual Meeting, was an exhibit with two machines dispensing candy and lemonade. These were not your average vending equipment, but Rube Goldberg machines designed by four aspiring engineers in the Science Club for Girls.

Named after the famed cartoonist, Rube Goldberg machines are incredibly intricate machines that perform surprisingly simple tasks like breaking an egg, turning on a light switch, or flipping the page of a book. Typically, a long series of mechanical devices trip the next lever until the task is finally accomplished.

For their machines entitled “The Love Machine,” a candy dispenser, and “The Minute Maid Lemonade,” a lemonade dispenser, the four young women designed a contraption that used mechanical or simple machines, electrical components, and magnets.

To help them build the machines, the young engineers worked with two local engineering students from Olin College who wanted to help the next generation of potential engineers learn about their field.

“We got involved with the Science Club for Girls because we did not have an opportunity like this when we were younger,” said Katarina Miller, a sophomore who plans to major in computer and electrical engineering. “I think it’s important to attract younger people to engineering by allowing them to work on projects like this.”

Science Club for Girls is a free afternoon and Saturday program that increases self-confidence and science literacy of girls in K-12th grades, with a special emphasis on those traditionally underrepresented in math and science.

Through the program, the young participants work with mentors who model leadership, affirm the importance of higher education, and promote careers in science and technology.

The program is currently active in eight sites around Boston and has been featured in local and national media.

So You Think You Know Baseball? New Ways to Use Statistics

2008-02-16T22:35:00Z

Speakers at a 16 February press briefing at the AAAS Annual Meeting weren't sure when we would see laptops in baseball dugouts, but explained teams are increasingly relying on advanced statistics to evaluate player performance.

While the use of advanced statistics in baseball--also known as sabrmetrics--is not new, the panel said teams will soon be using them to evaluate overall defensive talent, fielding range, and managerial strategies.

“Fielding is a very important part of a player's performance, but it poses challenges if you want to statistically compare or model players,” said Shane Jensen, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. “The defensive statistics are just not as apparent as counting home runs, hits, or runs.”

]]> AAAS Annual Meeting weren't sure when we would see laptops in baseball dugouts, but explained teams are increasingly relying on advanced statistics to evaluate player performance.

While the use of advanced statistics in baseball--also known as sabrmetrics--is not new, the panel said teams will soon be using them to evaluate overall defensive talent, fielding range, and managerial strategies.

“Fielding is a very important part of a player's performance, but it poses challenges if you want to statistically compare or model players,” said Shane Jensen, a researcher at the University of Pennsylvania. “The defensive statistics are just not as apparent as counting home runs, hits, or runs.”

Using data that records the location of every ball hit into the field as well as the outcome of that play, Jensen has built a model for evaluating different fielders according to the league average.

Jensen says that, according to his model, the Yankees have the American league's best shortstop, Alex Rodriguez, playing third base, and the league's worst shortstop, Derek Jeter, playing shortstop.

“The [Yankees] have the best shortstop playing out of position, and the worst playing in position,” Jensen said.

Steve Wang, a statistician at Swarthmore College, has created multi-dimensional graphs to study managerial strategies. With the graphs, Wang said, people can determine which managers are most aggressive on base paths by telling their players to steal bases, which use their pitch bullpens in unorthodox ways, and which play “small ball” more often.

The speakers said their applied research has both economic and statistical importance.

“A lot of money is spent on baseball players for their performance,” said David Pinto, an online writer for Baseball Musings, who cited skyrocketing player salaries. Pinto said he was contacted by a baseball team to serve as an advisor, but declined to offer any additional details.

Focus on "Remarkable Women" At Networking Breakfast

2008-02-16T22:30:00Z

From left: Janilee Benitez, Kiah Sanders and Sara Ritchie

At the Women and Minorities in Science Networking Breakfast at the 2008 AAAS Annual Meeting, attendees were introduced to a collection of inspiring stories from famous and not-so-famous "remarkable women" researchers.

Published by the AAAS/Science Business Office, the booklet "Beating the Odds: Remarkable Women in Science" shares the secrets of women who juggle family and career, make their careers in industry and share their love of research with their communities, explained Science commercial editor Sean Sanders, who helped compile the volume. The booklet was created in partnership with the L'Oreal Foundation, which also supports the L'Oreal USA Fellowships for Women in Science program administered by AAAS.

As in years past, the breakfast was a mixture of old friends greeting each other over their coffee and students looking for a way to meet and learn from their future colleagues.

"We're part of the choir," joked Krishna Athreya, director of the Engineering Leadership Program at Iowa State University and repeat participant at the breakfast. "There's always new faces, and it's a good chance to re-energize on these issues."

Athreya and Anice Anderson, head of the engineering management department at the Rose-Hulman Institute of Technology, said they have attended the AAAS Annual Meeting regularly for the past five years. "I look at it not as a general meeting, but as an interdisciplinary one" that reveals the linkages between scientific fields, Anderson said.

A few tables over, a group of first-time attendees was also impressed by the broad scope of Annual Meeting offerings. "I think science should be general to solve the problems in communities, instead of just being focused on results in one area," said Janilee Benitez, a physicist at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratories.

Kiah Sanders, a biochemistry and molecular biology undergraduate at University of California, Irvine, traveled with a group of UC Irvine students to the meeting. She and fellow biological sciences undergraduate Sara Ritchie said they often discuss the challenges of underrepresentation of women and minorities at their school, and were glad to get a chance to network with researchers about these issues. "It's nice hearing what older and wiser people have to say about all this," Richie laughed.

The group also watched a short video produced by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) on an agricultural sciences fellowship program for women in East Africa. The video, which follows the transformation of "Thelma" from curious girl to highly-trained researcher, was introduced by Marla McIntosh, professor of natural resource sciences and landscape architecture at the University of Maryland.

McIntosh lamented the "triple bind" felt by minority women in agricultural sciences, a field that receives little notice despite the significant number of women farmers in the developing world. "But for you young people, it makes one hell of a career," she said.