AAAS 2005 Meeting Was Where Science Meets Society, and Sociology Was There, Too

At 125th AAAS Annual Meeting, ASA exhibits, sociological research reigns, and ASA President Duster participates in press conference

Science advocates and national policymakers, scientists and students, parents and children all found common ground at the 2005 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), according to AAAS CEO Alan Leshner. And given the sociological relevance of the theme of AAAS' meeting, "The Nexus: Where Science Meets Society," ASA was a prominent exhibitor at this 125th Annual Meeting, held in Washington, DC.

Following the meeting, AAAS reported, "attendance records were broken in almost every category."

Across the globe, the human genetic blueprint is 99.99 percent similar across individuals. But hopeful that the remaining variations may be predictive of an individual's risk for particular disease and responsiveness to specific treatments, biotech researchers are inspecting these variations closely.

After a close and bitter 2004 presidential election, the dispute over whether the United States is experiencing a de facto "culture war," stubbornly graces the front pages of national media and the headlines of TV news seemingly daily. And like Night of the Living Dead monster creatures, daily news topics continuously resurrect the culture war public debate. Are the "culture wars" actually nothing more than monster creatures of the country's insatiable, 24/7 news-cycle-feeding frenzy?