Event coverage

Coverage begins in 2006 for the ScienceWriters meeting and 2009 for the AAAS meeting. To see programs for past ScienceWriters meetings, go to the ScienceWriters meeting site.

Current precautions to safeguard scientists and consumers from dangerous pathogens used in bioweapons research may be too restrictive, discouraging some researchers from staying in the field, federal officials said on Feb. 20 at the 2011 AAAS meeting in Washington, D.C.

If ancient hominids existed today, they might have a bone to pick with their vegetarian descendants. Meat gave our distant ancestors the brain power that makes higher-level decision-making—like, becoming a vegetarian—possible, according to researchers speaking on Feb. 20 at the 2011 AAAS meeting in Washington, D.C.

As analytical techniques become increasingly sensitive, scientists understand more about environmental chemicals than ever before. And as researchers peer more closely at the effects of pollutants on the lives of their subjects, ethical concerns have arisen, speakers observed on Feb. 20 at the 2011 AAAS meeting in Washington, D.C.

In modern hospitals, doctors rely on ever more sophisticated technologies to perform quick and accurate diagnostics. But chemist George M. Whitesides thinks we're headed the wrong way with high-tech medical devices. For global medicine, cheaper is better, Whitesides claimed on Feb. 20 at the 2011 AAAS meeting in Washington D.C.