The American Association for the Advancement of Science puts on one of the biggest science shindigs of the year, and Nature journalists will soon be blogging from the meeting to bring you the freshest morsels of research news and gossip.
With the meeting wrapping up today, the celebrated researcher Frans de Waal brought Darwin’s legacy into the modern world at a symposium on the evolution of morality.
Whenever I see Elaine Ostrander talk about dogs, I feel sorry for human geneticists. Ostrander, a researcher at the U.S. National Human Genome Research Institute on Bethesda, Maryland, studies the hundreds of dog breeds that exist in the world. And because human breeders have simplified dog genetics enormously, it’s a lot easier to answer questions about the genetic basis of all kinds of traits in dogs than it is in humans.
With this being the big old Darwin anniversary extravaganza year, one of the issues scientists are talking about at this meeting is how evolution shaped human beings into what they are. What’s fascinating to me is the emerging debate over whether some uniquely human traits may have resulted from what is essentially genetic detritus.
A leader of the the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change told the meeting today that the world’s climate is likely to change much faster than predicted, leaving the world with two choices: start cutting carbon emissions earlier, or make the cuts deeper.
The comments came the morning after former U.S. Vice President Al Gore called on scientists at the meeting to help convey a sense of urgency about climate change to policy makers and the public.
Since it’s Valentine’s Day tomorrow, you know what I’m talking about. That’s right, it’s love. Valentine’s Day always happens some time during this conference, to the eternal consternation (or relief?) of conference-goers forced to spend the holiday apart from their adored ones. But it usually means we get treated to some “science of romance” stories, and this year is no exception, as the conference organizers thoughtfully organized a press conference on the science of kissing.
Posted on behalf of Karen Kaplan
A terrific session about global partnerships that’s part of the American Association for the Advancement of Science’s annual meeting this week fell a bit afoul of US visa regulations this morning. The panel presentation, “New Partnerships for Science in the Cradle of Humanity,” aimed to address and discuss existing and developing industrial, governmental and academic partnerships throughout Africa and with other nations. Great topic, great content. The problem? One of the session’s co-organizers, Thomas Egwang, executive director of the African Academy of Sciences in Nairobi, Kenya, couldn’t be here for it — because he couldn’t get a US visa.
Sarah Banas, AAAS program organizer, says Egwang’s Ugandan passport tripped him up — he wasn’t able to update it in enough time to get the visa. Banas points out that Margaret Kigozi of the Uganda Investment Authority was able to step in to moderate the session, which ran smoothly despite Egwang’s absence. But the fact he was shut out from the very presentation he co-organized adds weight to a rising chorus of voices calling for a major overhaul of existing US visa laws.
With the meeting wrapping up today, the celebrated researcher Frans de Waal brought Darwin’s legacy into the modern world at a symposium on the evolution of morality.
Global warming stories are a mainstream media mainstay now, and the Obama-for-Bush swap in Washington means the climate change beat is heating up. But the media world is going through radical changes of its own. With science and environment reporters often the first cut from dying news organizations, what’s in store for climate change coverage?
Synthetic biology is edging ever closer to curing disease, scientists told the meeting today.