Health & Science blog

The American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting – the world’s biggest and most diverse scientific conference – kicks off tonight in San Diego.
The AAAS president this year, Peter Agre, mixes modesty with humour in his opening question-and-answer session with the world’s science journalists, who always flock to the annual meeting.
He expresses sympathy about the decline in their trade, particularly in the US, as newspapers and broadcasters slim down in a desperate attempt to survive in competition with new web-based media. Science is suffering along with most other journalistic specialities.
“Newsrooms across the US are being gutted,” laments Agre, who won the Nobel chemistry prize in 2003 for discovering how water gets through cell walls. “Visiting a newsroom is sometimes like visiting an empty warehouse.”
On the issue of climate change Agre, now head of the Malaria Research Institute at Johns Hopkins University, is concerned about the damage to the reputation of science caused by the “climategate” scandal over emails stolen from the University of East Anglia and by assaults on the reliability of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
“It has caused significant damage and an investigation is urgent,” he says. “Scientists cannot tolerate misconduct.” At the same time he says climate sceptics have unfairly exploited the situation.
“The evidence shows an unequivocal human component in climate change but to quantify it is difficult,” Agre says. “I think we [scientists] have to stick with our game plan.”
He thanks President Barack Obama for the extra financial support his economic stimulus package has given to research, though he worries about what will happen next to science funding. “The package has been beneficial, giving short-term funding for current projects, but a two-year investment in science is not the same as long-term investment. There will be a downside later.”
As an example of what can be achieved through sustained investment in science Agre mentions Singapore. “It has no natural resources at all but has a thriving science-based economy,” he says.
And he praises Chinese science, which is now making an impact on every field of research and leading to papers in the top journals such as Science and Nature: “The best of their best young people are going into science.”