Winners of 2013 AAAS Student Poster Competition Tuesday, April 30, 2013 The 2013 Student Poster Competition took place at the AAAS Annual Meeting In Boston February 14-18. The student winners' work displayed originality and understanding that set them apart from their peers. The AAAS Poster Sessions provide individuals with an opportunity to present their research, offering an excellent venue for extended informal discussion with meeting attendees. All posters are peer-reviewed, and accepted posters are listed in the AAAS Annual Meeting Poster Book. Abstracts appear on the Annual Meeting Abstract CD, within the Program Book. OSTP seeks nominations for presidential mentoring award OSTP seeks nominations for presidential mentoring award Capitol Connection April 8, 2013 The White House Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) and the National Science Foundation (NSF) are now accepting nominations for PAESMEM, the Presidential Award for Excellence in Science, Mathematics, and Engineering Mentoring. OSTP/NSF seeks individuals and organizations that have demonstrated at least five years of excellence in mentoring students, trainees, and/or early career scientists and engineers from groups that are underrepresented in STEM. Marcia McNutt appointed new Editor-in-Chief of Science Marcia McNutt appointed new Editor-in-Chief of Science Tuesday, April 2, 2013 Marcia McNutt, most recently Director of the US Geological Survey, has been appointed the new, full-time Editor-in-Chief of Science. She will begin her tenure at Science on June 1. McNutt will take over the position from Bruce Alberts who decided to step down at the end of his five-year term. The Alchemist by Joseph Wright The romance of 18th century chemical terminology Scientia March 11, 2013 When Robert Boyle published The Skeptical Chymist in 1661, it marked the transition of the mystical tradition of alchemy to the science of chemistry. But the colorful names employed by the alchemists to describe their various concoctions lived on. The labels on the various retorts and flasks in an 18th century chemist’s lab were redolent with occult associations, which did nothing to improve the public perception of the chemist. VIDEO: Making the molecular movie Video February 20, 2013 There is a camera that has both sufficient shutter speed and sensitivity to capture atomic movies of structural dynamics. The machine built at the University of Toronto was the first to make "Molecular Movies". It uses an extremely "bright" source of electrons to ping off the atoms and report on their motions. This advance has opened up a new kind of microscope to reveal the atomic world to us in motion. R. J. Dwayne Miller, University of Hamburg, shows us several of these movies. VIDEO: 2013 AAAS Annual Meeting reception Video February 15, 2013 Find out what attendees are looking forward to at this year's meeting in Boston. Related Links: AAASMC's complete video coverage from the 2013 Annual Meeting in Boston VIDEO: 2013 Annual Meeting: The president's address Video February 15, 2013 AAAS President William Press, researcher in computer science, genomics, statistical methods, astrophysics, and international security, welcomes attendees to Boston. This year's AAAS Annual Meeting highlights the rich and complicated connections between basic and applied research, and how they bring about both practical benefits and the beauty of pure understanding. Read more about Press's keynote. National Medal of Science AAAS members awarded medal at White House ceremony Monday, February 4, 2013 Fifteen AAAS fellows and members were awarded the U.S's top prize for scientists, engineers, and inventors, the National Medal of Science and National Medal of Technology and Innovation, at a White House ceremony on February 1. President Barack Obama handed out the medals to the nearly two dozen researchers and innovators honored in 2012. Twelve researchers received the National Medal of Science and eleven inventors received the National Medal of Technology and Innovation. VIDEO: Coverage of the 2013 Annual Meeting in Boston Video February 12, 2013 Here is AAASMC's video coverage of the 179th AAAS Annual Meeting in Boston. The program for 2013 highlights the rich and complicated connections between basic and applied research, and how they bring about both practical benefits and the beauty of pure understanding. Programming objects, from sci-fi to 3D printing Scientia July 24, 2012 The original Star Trek series with Captain Kirk featured a nifty device called a food synthesizer that could make juicy-looking steaks de novo, apparently whipped up by rearranging quantum particles. Aside from being a piece of equipment that was suitably high tech enough to suggest the 23rd century, it obviated the need to boldly haul food stores to where no man has gone before. By Star Trek:The Next Generation, the device had morphed into a general purpose replicator. Though the science was never fully explained, the replicator apparently worked in a manner similar to the teleporter—it could replicate (within certain limits) any arrangement of matter for which it had a pattern or program.