AAAS Annual Meeting Newsroom

Public Release: 16-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Previewing the next steps on the path to a magnetic fusion power plant
This is a summary of PPPL physicist George 'Hutch' Neilson's presentation to 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
A closer look at life: X-ray microscopy hits the sweet spot for chemical and elemental imaging
Berkeley Lab's Janos Kirz, who pioneered the development of soft x-ray microscopy and spectromicroscopy, will describe 2-D and 3-D x-ray chemical imaging of biological systems in a presentation at the 2013 AAAS annual meeting in Boston titled "Chemical and Elemental Imaging with X-Ray Microscopy."

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Not your conventional nucleic acids
Northwestern University's Chad Mirkin has invented and developed a powerful nanomaterial that could revolutionize biomedicine: spherical nucleic acids (SNAs). The novel arrangement of nucleic acids imparts interesting chemical and physical properties that are very different from conventional nucleic acids. Potential applications include using SNAs to carry nucleic acid-based therapeutics to the brain for the treatment of glioblastoma, the most aggressive form of brain cancer, as well as other neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's and Parkinson's diseases.

NIH/National Cancer Institute, Northwestern's Cancer Center for Nanotechnology Excellence

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Artificial platelets could treat injured soldiers on the battlefield
When it comes to healing the terrible wounds of war, success may hinge on the first blood clot -- the one that begins forming on the battlefield right after an injury. Researchers exploring the complex stream of cellular signals produced by the body in response to a traumatic injury believe the initial response may control subsequent healing.

National Institutes of Health, Department of Defense

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Climate change's costly wild weather consequences
University of Illinois atmospheric sciences professor Donald Wuebbles will present a talk about how climate change is increasing the number of severe weather events at the 2013 AAAS meeting.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Universal rules discovered that allow anticipation of critical transitions
Sudden shifts in complex systems such as the climate, financial markets, ecosystems and even the human body can be preceded by surprisingly comparable warning signals. It is crucial to be able to predict such transitions, but this is notoriously difficult. Marten Scheffer presents recent work revealing that systems that are on the verge of a critical transition often emit comparable signals.

Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research/Spinoza Award

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Data challenges the APB on BPA
A controversial component of plastic bottles and canned food linings that have helped make a safer food supply has recently come under attack: bisphenol A. BPA has the potential to mimic estrogen if blood and tissue levels are high enough. Now, an analysis of almost 150 BPA exposure studies shows that in the general population, people's exposure may be many times too low for BPA to effectively mimic estrogen in the human body.

Environmental Protection Agency

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Most comprehensive report in 50 years on education of key scientists
In the most comprehensive report in a half century, experts today described fundamental changes needed in the education of the scientists whose work impacts medicine, drug discovery and virtually every other discipline. The result of a year-long project of a presidential commission of the American Chemical Society, the world's largest scientific society, the report was the topic of a symposium here at the 2013 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Genetic components of political preference
Rose McDermott, professor of political science at Brown University, will explain the role that genes play in political preferences, an area of study that has begun to draw significant attention in the last decade. McDermott will participate in a Feb. 15, 2013, panel discussion, "The Science of Politics," during the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
'The Scars of Human Evolution' briefing explores physical fallout from 2-footed walking
From sore feet to backaches, blame it on human evolution. Learn more during news briefing and "The Scars of Human Evolution" on Friday, Feb. 15. during the 2013 American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting in Boston.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
The science of uncertainty in genomic medicine
In both translational science and clinical practice, the substantial uncertainty in interpreting genomic information serves as an important barrier to application. Coping with uncertainty can be addressed quantitatively, but how the information is so far understood, presented, and interpreted by physicians and patients has been best addressed qualitatively. Interdisciplinary teams of professionals may be best suited to study the many facets of uncertainty in genomic medicine.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Climate change is not an all-or-nothing proposition, researcher says
An Ohio State University statistician says that the natural human difficulty with grasping probabilities is preventing Americans from dealing with climate change.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
To feed the world, give women equal rights
To feed a global population projected to reach 9.6 billion by 2050, we will need to increase food production by as much as 70 percent. Achieving that goal requires civilization to address overpopulation and overconsumption through a bottom-up movement focused on agricultural, environmental and demographic planning, among other strategies, argues Stanford biology professor Paul Ehrlich.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Wild plants are infected with many viruses and still thrive
Researchers have studied viruses as agents of disease in humans, domestic animals and plants, but a study of plant viruses in the wild may point to a more cooperative, benevolent role of the microbe, according to a Penn State virologist.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Quantum devices: Building an innovative future for Canada
Quantum information processing promises not only breakthroughs for computing, communications and cryptography, but it can also help us devise tools for navigating and controlling the nano-scale world. Sensors that operate according to quantum mechanics may achieve sensitivity, selectivity, precision and robustness far beyond their classical counterparts.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Is there a Neanderthal in the house?
Bunions bothering you? How about lower back pain, or impacted wisdom teeth? As we humans evolved over the millennia to walk on two legs, grow larger brains and shorter jaws, bear big babies and live longer, we've also experienced some negative consequences. But keeping our evolutionary history in mind can help us better deal with issues from obesity to difficult childbirth in a much more productive way, according to University of Delaware anthropologist Karen Rosenberg.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Evolutionary origins of human dietary patterns
William Leonard has conducted extensive research on the diets and ways of prehistoric populations. He will discuss his research, which shows that the transition from subsistence to a modern, sedentary lifestyle has created energy imbalances that have increased rapidly -- evolutionarily speaking -- in recent years and now play a major role in obesity -- Friday, Feb. 15 at the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Deja vu all over again? Cultural understanding vs. horrors of eugenics
Scientific efforts to explain feeblemindedness, delinquency and racial inferiorities date to the Spanish Inquisition. And while the horrors of Nazi Germany exposed fatal flaws in science’s quest to build the master race, the ethical dilemmas posed by the science of eugenics are far from behind us, warns an anthropologist from Washington University in St. Louis.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Evolutionary biologists urged to adapt their research methods
To truly understand the mechanisms of natural selection, evolutionary biologists need to shift their focus from present-day molecules to synthesized, ancestral ones, says Emory University biologist Shozo Yokoyama. Yokoyama will present evidence for why evolutionary biology needs to make this shift at 1:30 pm on Friday, Feb. 15, during the AAAS annual meeting in Boston.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Statistics help clear fog for better climate change picture
Statistics is an important tool in sorting through information on how human activities are affecting the climate system, as well as how climate change affects natural and human systems, according to a Penn State statistician.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Open-source software can help find the right space for offshore wind turbines
A Stanford economist pitches open-source software for evaluating potential offshore wind turbine sites for optimal energy production and minimal disruption of other marine industry.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Stanford ecologist uses social media data to gauge recreational value of coastal areas
A Stanford ecologist advocates using social media data to determine the recreational value of coastal ecosystems in order to better direct conservation efforts and funds.

Public Release: 15-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting
Avoiding virus dangers in 'domesticating' wild plants for biofuel use
In our ongoing quest for alternative energy sources, researchers are looking more to plants that grow in the wild for use in biofuels -- plants such as switchgrass.

Public Release: 14-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting

Journal of Computer Mediated Communication
Trolls win: Rude blog comments dim the allure of science online
The trolls are winning. Pick a story about some aspect of science, any story, scroll down to the blog comments and let the bashing begin.

Public Release: 14-Feb-2013

2013 AAAS Annual Meeting

Science
Clues to the mysterious origin of cosmic rays
Very detailed new observations with ESO's Very Large Telescope of the remains of a thousand-year-old supernova have revealed clues to the origins of cosmic rays. For the first time the observations suggest the presence of fast-moving particles in the supernova remnant that could be the precursors of such cosmic rays. The results are appearing in the Feb. 14, 2013 issue of the journal Science.


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