CU researchers are featured at annual meeting of the AAAS

The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), the world's largest federation of scientists, held its 167th national meeting at the Hilton San Francisco Feb. 15- 20, attracting more than 4,000 scientists, educators and policy-makers to hear and discuss the latest research advances.

Cornell researchers were, as usual, well represented among the 750 speakers in more than 130 symposia, lectures and seminars. The Cornell academics discussed topics ranging from how market contracts, called energy derivatives, might have lessened the recent California blackouts, to concerns about continuing threats posed by former Soviet biological warfare plants.

Among the featured speakers at this year's meeting were Francis Collins of The Human Genome Research Institute and J. Craig Venter of Celera Genomics. The two leaders of the major public and private efforts to successfully map the human genome discussed the consequences of that research for medicine and society.

Founded in Philadelphia in 1848, the AAAS has more than 138,000 members in 130 countries.

AAAS stories in this issue:

• CU's Vogel: Russian biological warfare plants still pose a global threat
• Craighead reports on use of nanotechnology to count biological molecules
• Protter: Use of energy derivatives could have lessened California blackouts
• Lewenstein asserts an author's style can be crucial in selling science
• Harwit discusses tools used in search for habitable planets beyond solar system