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.
One small variation in a person's genetic code can be the difference between a drug helping treat a disease—or causing a severe and possibly fatal reaction.
That's one reason why it is vital for scientists to learn how people's genetics translates into differences in physical traits or behaviors, such as how they respond to certain drugs, according to researchers presenting 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego.
How do children learn science outside of the classroom? At a morning symposium on 20 February, titled "Learning Science in Informal Environments," an audience at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego heard about an especially vivid example.
We may never predict earthquakes, but computer models are putting emergency response plans on much more solid ground. In a talk not far from one of the country's seismic hot spots, seismologist Thomas Jordan of the Southern California Earthquake Center discussed "Understanding Earthquakes Through Large-Scale Simulations" on 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego.
The jury is out on the use of neuroimaging as hard evidence in the American courtroom, concluded a panel of legal and academic experts convened on 20 February at the 2010 AAAS meeting in San Diego. The panel, composed of California Superior Court judge Luis Rodriguez, litigators Henry Greely and Robert Knaier, and expert witnesses James Brewer and Michael Rafii, presented a mock trial of the hypothetical Will Johnson, accused murderer and victim of a severe brain lesion.
Three days after the U.S. House of Representatives renewed a 2003 bill that promotes exploration into the adverse health effects of nanoparticles, scientists convened to debate what form that assessment should take. The symposium, "Driving Beyond Our Nano-Headlights?", took place on 14 February at the AAAS meeting in Chicago.
Scott Gaudi has a simple answer when asked about the number of Earth-like planets in the universe. "They're everywhere. Common as dirt," says Gaudi, an astronomer at Ohio State University. He spoke on 15 February at the AAAS meeting in Chicago during a session titled "From Enlightenment to Lunar Theories to Extrasolar Planets."
Charles Darwin received ample tribute at the AAAS meeting in Chicago, which opened 200 years after the scientist's birth and 150 years after the publication of his watershed work On the Origin of Species. One speaker took the talk of origins back to a more primal stage, spotlighting the formation of the first organic molecules in the dusty neighborhoods of young stars.
In a 13 February symposium on "The Cosmic Cradle of Life," Anthony Remijan of the National Radio Astronomy Observatory (NRAO) unveiled a new resource that may help astrochemists trace the genesis of the ingredients for life on Earth -- and possibly life elsewhere in the universe.
Scientists need to look beyond their laboratories to include not just microscopes and beakers but lawmakers on Capitol Hill, said a panel of professors and policy experts on 14 February at the AAAS meeting in Chicago.
Across the country, institutions of higher learning are implementing science policy courses for undergraduate and graduate students. Despite this trend, more programs of study are needed. Together, the panelists encouraged science students, and their institutions, to supplement biological, chemical, or physical science preparation with exploration into the process of policymaking, drafting legislation, and lobbying for a cause.
Civilizations throughout Earth's history have been powerless to prevent floods, earthquakes, and other natural disasters. Today, we can foresee "stealth disasters" of our own making -- and we must respond, said geologist Susan Keiffer of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign on 14 February at the AAAS meeting in Chicago.