More than 5,000 scientists of every professional persuasion descended on Philadelphia last week for the 138th annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science. Despite the locale, the five-day-long extravaganza was notable for an absence of brotherly love. As in the past few years, the traditional A.A.A.S. post-Christmas gathering was long on the verbiage of political protest by radical young scientists and short on reports of noteworthy scientific progress.
The tone of the proceedings was established early in the week during an appearance by former Vice President Hubert Humphrey, who...