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A news report in Science magazine for 13 November 2009 describes the US State Department’s goal of “bolster[ing] the department’s science capacity across the board.” The event that brought this goal to public notice was the appointment of three leading scientists to be special envoys with an assignment to foster scientific relationships with Muslim-majority nations.

Speaking in Morocco on 3 November, Clinton said the new envoys will help “to fulfill President Obama’s mandate to foster scientific and technological collaboration” and to “develop the capacity to meet economic, social, and ecological challenges.” She announced the selection of Egyptian-born Ahmed H. Zewail, a chemistry Nobelist at the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena; Algerian-born Elias Zerhouni, a radiologist who stepped down last fall as director of the National Institutes of Health (NIH); and biochemist Bruce Alberts, former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences (NAS) and current editor-in-chief of Science. Clinton said that the State Department is also bolstering its scientific and environmental expertise at embassies around the world.

Science Magazine Cover, 6 November 2009

The 6 November 2009 issue of Science announced the theme for the February 2010 annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science.

This issue of Science includes the program of the 2010 AAAS Annual Meeting. The theme of the AAAS Annual Meeting in San Diego, 18 to 22 February 2010, is “Bridging Science and Society,” and calls on all scientists and engineers to make their work both beneficial and understandable.

A PDF of the program as it appears in this issue is available here; for more information on the meeting (including registration forms and information on accommodations), please visit www.aaas.org/meetings/.