The Martian quest for NASA’s roving laboratory Curiosity isn’t all about landings and lasers. Humbler experiments are now giving clues about the makeup and history of the red planet.
Event coverage
Coverage begins in 2006 for the ScienceWriters meeting and 2009 for the AAAS meeting. To see programs for past ScienceWriters meetings, go to the ScienceWriters meeting site.
The Human Genome Project gave us a rough draft of our genetic underpinnings in 2000 and cost taxpayers a cool $3 billion. But just 13 years later, advances in technology are making it possible for anyone to know the A-T-G-C’s of their own genomes at a fraction of the cost, leading to the advent of personalized genetic medicine.
Although humans are the most prominent victims, every vertebrate species is susceptible to lead poisoning. Birds, fish, reptiles, dogs, and cats are all at risk. During a February 16 symposium at the American Association for the Advancement of Science conference in Boston, researchers agreed that lead is pervasive and poses significant threats to living things.
The Minnesota Twins and the Daytona 500 both care about precipitation, and scientists are very happy to use their data.
Ten talented juniors and seniors from across the country gathered in Boston Feb. 14-18 to report on the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting as NASW's undergraduate travel fellows for 2013. During the next several days, we will be posting their reports here.
A lot of hand-waving goes on in the emerging field of archaeoacoustics. The pioneers of this field—which made its debut for the general science community Feb. 17 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver—are perhaps summoning the spirits who occupied the ritual spaces they study.
For decades, tobacco industries and lax standards of societal health kept the true cost of smoking hidden from the public. Today, the consequences of burning coal for energy are emerging—and the lessons could have a much faster impact, according to researchers speaking Feb. 19 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.
European representatives from nuclear power, tobacco and genetically modified organism (GMO) industries pleaded for more transparency and public engagement from global policy makers on Feb. 18 at the American Association for the Advancement of Science meeting in Vancouver.
Science has invested heavily in assessing and predicting the potential manifestations of climate change, but the newest frontier in climate science may emerge from the collective experiences of those people most affected by a changing world.
Peer review has long been the standard for quality science, but recent concerns about fraud among authors, bias among reviewers, and possible hindrance of scientific progress has led some to question the effectiveness of a process that relies on anonymous experts and occurs behind closed doors.