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, "discovered the primordial seeds of modern structure in the universe."

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

  • Louis Pasteur, if investigated by science fraud fighter Rep. John Dingell (D-Mich.), might well have had his funding stripped on the grounds of serious scientific fraud and misconduct, according to Princeton University historian Gerald Geison. Geison told the 300-plus attendees at his Saturday lecture--"Louis Pasteur, Laboratory Notebooks, and Scientific Fraud"--that...
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