In the year of Einstein, Cornell explores new frontiers at AAAS

Steve Squyres, Goldwin Smith Professor of Astronomy, delivers one of the five plenary lectures at the AAAS annual meeting in Washington, D.C., Feb. 18. Squyres, the principal investigator for NASA's rover mission to Mars, fascinated the audience by recapping the past year the two vehicles have spent exploring the Martian surface. Michael J. Colella/AAAS

Steve Squyres gave one of the five hallmark plenary lectures, enthralling a large audience with his account of a year on Mars. Andy Ruina brought his robots to a news briefing. Chris Clark related how ocean smog is blocking the breeding songs of whales. And Ron Hoy talked about his novel neuroscience teaching tools called Koé and Firefly.

They were among the Cornell researchers taking part in the 171st annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Feb. 17-21 in Washington, D.C. In total, 10 Cornell researchers presented reports at seminars, and five were featured in news briefings for the more than 1,000 members of the international media attending the conference. In addition, many Cornell students attended the AAAS seminars and workshops.

This year's meeting, "The Nexus: Where Science Meets Society," was, in the words of AAAS President Shirley Jackson, president of Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, aimed both at emphasizing "the link which enables the new," and at commemorating the 100th anniversary of Albert Einstein's "miraculous year." That was the year in which he published five papers -- including two that founded special relativity -- that changed the course of physics. In consequence, the meeting also included a discussion of the impact of 21st-century physics and an exploration of the next frontiers.

The AAAS is the world's largest general scientific society, as well as the publisher of the journal Science. The AAAS serves some 262 affiliated societies and academies of science. The nonprofit professional society is among the oldest in America, having been founded in Philadelphia in 1848.

Full AAAS coverage:

Squyres captivates D.C. audience with story of rovers' year on Mars
Per Pinstrup-Andersen: Warning of the dangers if neglect of Africa continues
Andy Ruina: Simulating life with robotic efficiency, one step at a time
Kurt Gottfried: Making policy in an era of conflicts 'between reality and ideology'
Maury Tigner: Building the largest machines on Earth
Robert Howarth: Nitrogen pollution in coastal water is double previous estimates
David Harris: Changing the melting pot, census categories to a 'matrix of race'
Ron Hoy: Making novel neuroscience tools for the classroom via CD-ROM
Carla Gomes: Teaching computers to solve tough tasks the human way