The US Secretary of State, Ms Madeleine Albright, the Surgeon General, Dr David Satcher, and the writer and scientist, Prof Stephen Jay Gould, are among the several hundred speakers who will address this year's AAAS annual meeting and science innovation exposition.
Now under way in Washington DC, the week-long science festival gives an opportunity for the public to hear some of the world's top researchers describe their work and explain directions in modern science. The event provides an eclectic mix of the serious and the entertaining.
Today, for example, scientists will be describing how in the coming years we will be able to book seats into space and how mathematics is used to make movies.
There will be papers on the search for drugs in nature and on controlling chronic pain. Researchers will describe the science behind attempts to put an end to landmines and how early intervention could help children with hearing difficulties.
A study of possible solutions to overwork will be presented. Another study will extol the healthy side of eating chocolate.
The annual meeting, like the festival presented each autumn by the British Association for the Advancement of Science, provides a valuable point of contact between researchers and the public, who through their taxes and commercial purchases help fund science.
It facilitates a better public understanding of the contribution made by science and the behind-the-scenes role research plays in our daily lives.
The AAAS was founded in Philadelphia in 1848 and is one of the oldest societies in America. It is a non-profit professional society dedicated to the advancement of scientific and technological excellence across all disciplines and to the public understanding of science. Anyone may join by paying membership dues and it has more than 143,000 members worldwide.