Reporter's Notebook: AAAS Annual Meeting

The American Association for the Advancement of Science returned to Boston, the city of its birth, for an annual meeting held February 11-16 that drew 5,000 scientists and students, plus more than 700 reporters. The meeting, which seemed to touch upon the entire breadth of science, featured appearances by such science luminaries as Harvard University pop-paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould and cosmologist George Smoot of Lawrence Berkeley Laboratory, who led the group that, in his words, "discover

Scott Veggeberg

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Following, from this reporter's notes, is a sampling of interesting--sometimes surprising--moments that colored the proceedings:

More than 10,000 scientists are expected to attend ACS's 205th national meeting in Denver March 28-April 2. Approximately 4,800 papers and more than 650 technical sessions are scheduled. Meeting Highlights Presidential Event, "Health Awareness Fair." Featured will be aerobics instruction, gym equipment, diagnostic testing, and healthful snacks. (Sunday, March 28, 7 P.M., Convention Center) Media Relations Training Session. Program will guide scientists in handling media interviews. (Sunday, March 28, time to be announced, Gold Room/Cripple Creek Room, Brown Palace Hotel) But despite this outrageous record--which he said "would not pass muster with Congress" today--Geison contended that Pasteur, who spearheaded so many advances in science, should be forgiven. Bringing the Pasteur record into the modern context of AIDS researcher Robert Gallo, who has been accused of stealing the credit for discovering the human immunodeficiency virus, ...

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