by Mark Henderson

Opening on the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, the 175th conference of the world's largest science society was always likely to have a celebratory feel to it.

There was indeed a palpable buzz yesterday in the subterranean conference rooms of the two downtown Chicago hotels where the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is holding its annual meeting. The real excitement, however, has had much less to do with Darwin than with the most famous former resident of America's second city — Barack Obama.

This AAAS meeting has been a coming-out party for American scientists after eight years in which they have felt marginalised and ignored. Few sections of American society found George W. Bush's presidency quite as dispiriting as its scientists. From climate change to stem-cell research, the White House was at odds with researchers over virtually all the issues they most cared about.

President Obama has changed all that. With an extra $65 billion (£45 billion) promised for energy and research in his stimulus package, with new policies on global warming and stem cells, and above all with a list of appointments that includes some of the most glittering names in American science, he has transformed the mood of the nation's laboratories — and the mood of this conference.

Debates and lectures that would until recently have been ignored by the White House now stand a real chance of influencing policy. Al Gore, for example, was due to give the keynote address last night. The climate change campaigner and former Vice-President is an insider again now, and many scientists attending the AAAS conference are starting to consider themselves insiders too.

In his inaugural address, President Obama promised to "restore science to its rightful place". When announcing his science team, he said that "promoting science isn't just about providing resources — it's about protecting free and open inquiry. It's about ensuring that facts and evidence are never twisted or obscured by politics or ideology." US scientists feel that they finally have in Mr Obama a president who not only supports and values what they do, but who also understands them.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/uk/science/article5728204.ece

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