AAAS Annual Meeting - Day 2

Saturday, 16 February 2008
The second day of the AAAS Annual Meeting...

Worldwide Hunt to Solve the Mystery of Gamma-Ray Bursts
I started out my day by learning a bit about gamma-ray bursts. It turns out far-away stars sometimes send huge amounts of energy in the form of gamma-rays to the Earth. These scientists were looking for more information about when and why this happens.

Coffee with Calestous Juma
This was not an event that was part of the conference, I just made plans with Professor Juma to go out for coffee. I brought my friend Chloe along, who studies science and technology policy, focusing on development. We actually ended up talking almost the whole time about whaling, which is the project Calestous is working on now. He is acting as a special advisor to the international whaling commission. There is currently a moratorium on whaling, and Australia would like to see a complete ban on commercial whaling. However, Japan is not willing to agree to that, and is threatening to pull out of the treaty. It's a very emotionally charged issue. Japan currently is allowed to catch 1000 whales per year for scientific purposes. There are actually a number of compromises that could possibly be arranged, but most parties involved will settle for nothing less that a win - which for the anti-whaling countries (and strong lobbying bodies like Green Peace) means a complete ban on commercial whaling, and for pro-whaling countries (like Japan) means not having a complete ban. It was an interesting discussion, and it was very nice to connect with Professor Juma after not having seen him in about a year.

Information, Computing, and Communications: Keys to Sustainable Global Development
I just caught the end of this talk, which discussed the possibilities for using computers and advanced technology in development programs. On speaker talked about projects that had been developed, such as a braille teaching program and a guided reading program.
My Thoughts: I am very interested in this topic - I believe that technology, science and engineering are the keys to spurring development. However, I think such a focus on computers is a difficult issue, because so many places have no access to computers or the internet - and sometimes even electricity. However, if projects such as the "One Laptop per Child" succeed, perhaps there will be more opportunities for computer programs to be aimed at helping developing nations.

Science and Technology in the 2008 Election
The AAAS arranged to get representatives from the various campaigns to speak about science and technology issues for each candidate. However, only the Clinton and Obama campaigns actually sent representatives. The McCain campaign said they were unable to get someone there in time (there had been short notice for the event - it wasn't even in the agenda). The Huckabee campaign did not respond to the invitation. Each representative described their candidate's views on science and technology, and the specific plans they would like to enact. Both had a strong commitment to supporting science and technology, and believed that supporting research is essential to the growth and success of the U.S. Economy. There was a lot of information given, and most of it is available via the candidates home pages, but I'll mention some highlights here.
The Obama representative noted that though McCain has said some good things with regards to science and technology, such as acknowledging climate change, he has not taken a stand on other issues. Also, he noted that McCains economic plans are based on tax cuts, not on technology policy.
Both candidates agreed that a major issue was de-politicizing the scientific advisers and scientific work. This was especially important on issues like biology and stem cell research, climate change, and other controversial issues.
The talked their space policies - more about this on spacewonks.com.
Both representatives talked about how they had met their candidate, and it was an interesting analogy to how people think of each of the candidates, I thought. Clinton's adviser had met her because he had worked for Bill Clinton for 8 years. The adviser for Obama's campaign met him while he (the adviser) was working with children on the south side of Chicago. Obama, a state senator at the time, was interested in the role of technology in supporting this low-income area. He had a belief in the importance of the role of science and technology in the lives of low-income students, and of the importance of having science and technology skills to compete in the 21st century.
Both were asked how they would make S&T attractive to young people. The Clinton campaign representative said that they would improve the quantity and quality of math and science teachers and would highlight national challenges. The Obama campaign said that the president is mostly able to make symbolic gestures showing the importance of S&T. He believed that Obama would make this a priority - promoting S&T for women, minorities and immigrants. He emphasized that Obama's views on immigrants are very unique. Having a diverse background, Obama is distinctly aware of the ability of immigrants to promote growth in the United States.
When asked how scientists can bring issues into the public sphere, the Clinton campaign noted that there were three things: 1) encourage candidates to speak out about these issues, 2) aim some of the issues at the transition time, and 3) volunteer so that we get high quality people to engage in government service. The Obama representative said that scientists needed to stop being polite and to be aggressive in presenting issues. He also noted that you need to put pressure on representatives who choose not to participate in debates like this one, and to reward those who do.
My Thoughts: Overall it was very interesting to hear the views of these two candidates articulated. More details can be found by reading the information on their websites. The two democratic candidates had very similar points of view on many issues. Chatting with people afterwards, it seemed that many people felt the Clinton representative was more prepared and had more specific, detailed responses. This is a common complaint people have of the Obama campaign, that while it is inspiring and generally good, it often doesn't offer the substance people are looking for. There is a big push to have a "science debate" which would help bring all of these issues to light. I think that would be really interesting to see.

U.S. Civilian Research and Development Foundation Reception
We made a quick stop at the CRDF reception, where we met more people and chatted over the days events.

Nina Fedoroff, U.S. Department of State
Nina Fedoroff is the science adviser to Condoleezza Rice. She gave a very interesting talk about the importance of science and technology policy and its global implications.

Boston
After the last lecture, I headed out to meet up with friends in Boston. I was able to get together a group of new friends from the conference, old friends from MIT, and even my sister who was in town from New York. We had dinner at Vinny T's and drinks at Foggy Goggle. It was great to get people together and keep in touch.