THE CREATION of robots controlled directly by the brain is one of the top items for discussion at the 177th annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), which gets under way in Washington DC today.
The five-day event brings together hundreds of scientists and thousands of visitors, all wanting to hear about the latest advances in scientific and social research.
Covering more than 150 subjects in a diverse programme, including the causes of stuttering, creating the ultimate battery and the ethics of surgery conducted for psychiatric disorders, the event also features lectures by leading scientists such as John Holdren, US president Barack Obama’s adviser on science and technology.
The theme for this year’s event is “Science without Borders”. It seeks to express the increasingly globalised nature of scientific discovery and the need for international collaboration.
“It challenges us to break down barriers and embrace diversity so we can leverage science to solve the urgent global problems we face and advance society,” said AAAS president Prof Alice S Huang in advance of the meeting.
The annual gathering always throws up unusual stories, with research into snoring among the items on the programme. There are sessions on the search for “other earths” orbiting faraway star systems and how bat swarms can be tracked using technology used in weather forecasting.
On Saturday, the Government’s chief scientific adviser Patrick Cunningham will deliver a lecture entitled Growing the Knowledge Economy: An Irish Perspective.
The Irish Times will provide daily coverage of the event, which continues until Monday. There will also be a Twitter feed from Washington – @dickahlstrom, #aaas – providing further coverage from the event.