Over February half term, twenty two Sixth formers from Oundle School took part in the 15th annual trip to the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) conference this year held in Washington DC.
The AAAS President, Dr Geraldine Richmond gave the opening address on Thursday 11th February outlining the theme of the conference Global Science Engagement and the focus on international collaboration in science and with society.
Undermaster, Physics teacher and Trip organiser, Anthony Burrows commented, “Every year the AAAS Conference never fails to impress, but the announcement of T Cell Therapy and Confirmation of Gravitational Waves made during this year’s conference, was very special and put the conference in the news across the world.
As in previous years all our pupils found something of significant interest and took full advantage of the interesting range of talks.”
The Science Programme included listening to talks on A Problem Shared: Teaming Up to Fight Epidemic Diseases, The CRISPR-Cas9 Genome Editing Revolution and Radiolab – Exploring Big Questions in Science, Philosophy and Human Experience – (these were all mandatory for our pupils) and then they were able to select from some 100+ themed symposia with multiple talks on topical themes including I Can’t Hear Myself Think! Noise and the Developing Brain from Infancy to Adulthood, Evolutionary Biology Impacts on Medicine and Public Health, How the Body Shapes the Mind, Neuroplasticity, Clues to the Chemistry of Addiction and Mood Disorders,