Back from AAAS 2010 Meeting, as expected, a disappointment
I've been to three AAAS meetings in the past 20 years, the first in San Francisco, about 14 years ago, the second in Seattle, about 6 years ago and now this past week in San Diego. I am a Medical Oncologist / Hematologist and go to one or two major meetings a year, usually in Clinical Oncology or Basic Science Oncology.
I guess I am spoiled by the annual meetings of the American Society of Clinical Oncology and the American Association of Cancer Research because they actually teach one about Medical Oncology at those meetings. For the most part, AAAS meetings discuss the politics (in a very broad sense) of Science rather than Science itself.
Now, of course, that is not entirely true. There were a few seminars on basic science and the family series event was much about science and the lectures on Neutrinos was a fairly decent review of neutrino science. But the seminars on Neutrinos was very much the exception. One has only to read the titles of the lectures to see that the subject matter was bent towards politics, or economics of science rather than reviewing science itself.
And it seems that every AAAS meetings is the same.
Now perhaps I misunderstand the intent of these annual meetings. Maybe I should go (or not go) to the annual meeting with the understanding that the purpose of the meeting is that of learning the political aspects of science in today's society. That is, I should welcome understanding what can be done, what should be done about marine estuaries, how science is taught in some other country or rumors of doomsday from the large hadron collider.
I would rather learn science. Look, I have several textbooks on oncology and hematology. Take any chapter in the textbook. Say, take the topic "Multiple Myeloma." Now, I go to the annual oncology conference. What are the chances that there will be an "up to date" seminar on "Multiple Myeloma?" One hundred percent. They would never miss it. What are the chances that there will be a review seminar on "Sickle Cell Anemia" at the annual Hematology Conference? 100 percent. They would never miss it. What are the chances that there will be a review seminar on "Latest information on particle physics" at the AAAS meeting? Not much of a chance. What is the likelihood of finding a lecture on superstring theory at the AAAS meeting? Hardly any. What chance is there to learn about linguistics? Plate tectonics? Improvements in energy sources? New trends in Agriculture? Cell biology? Deep space astronomy? Unfortunately not likely.
I am a scientist oncologist. I know oncology pretty well. I have an interest in other areas of science, but I don't have time to become an expert in plant biology, particle interactions, astrophysics, linguistics and many other subjects that I read about in Science magazine, Nature, Science News and 5 other science journals.
I would like an annual conference that could give me some "up to date" information in those fields. Unfortunately the AAAS meeting disappoints me every time.
home of the 2010 Science / AAAS blogging contest.
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For coverage of the meeting by Science staff, see our AAAS 2010 news page.
