15,000 Scientists

New Yorkers got a good idea last week of what scientists look like. Fifteen thousand of them converged on Manhattan for the 116th convention of the "Triple-A S" (American Association for the Advancement of Science). They were predominantly male, on the average surprisingly young (thirtyish), and anything but grave. They streamed from meeting to meeting, interrupted the speakers, held sub-conclaves in corners. Even a casual glance at the Triple-A S gave proof that U.S. science is on its toes, confident and properly concerned with running down facts.

Only a few of the 2,100 papers presented were general enough to interest the general public. One of the most striking was a movie on the churning, boiling surface of the sun, shown by Harvard's Dr. Donald H. Menzel. Taken through a special telescope at Climax, Colo., the pictures showed enormous filaments of luminous gas spurting out into space (see cut). One subject looked tough, even to the A.A.A.S. In a secluded auditorium the mathematicians, happily browsing among stochastics and open Riemann surfaces, were cornered by reporters who wanted to know the exact meaning of Einstein's Super-relativity (TIME, Jan. 2). The mathematicians queried took to cover.

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