A Rite of Science Puts On a Public Face

By RICHARD MONASTERSKY

Scholarly group tries to enliven its 160-year-old annual meeting

This week newspapers in Beijing, radios in Brisbane, and television sets in Berlin will all carry stories springing from Room 112, a windowless cell buried within Boston's Hynes Convention Center. More than 600 reporters and producers from media outlets around the world will be buzzing around that news-briefing room and nearby meeting halls, lured by legions of scientists giving talks about AIDS, climate change, poverty,