Scientific Frontiers at the AAAS 2026 Annual Meeting (Feb 12-14)

Abstract

The 2026 Annual Meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), scheduled to convene in Phoenix, Arizona, represents a pivotal moment in the trajectory of contemporary scientific inquiry. Under the thematic banner of "Science @ Scale," the gathering seeks to address the complex friction that arises when laboratory discoveries are expanded to meet global, systemic challenges. This report provides an exhaustive analysis of the meeting's core scientific tracks, offering deep-dive examinations of the specific fields poised to dominate the discourse: neuromorphic computing utilizing perovskite materials, the next generation of mRNA cancer immunotherapies, the ethical frameworks of Indigenous data sovereignty, and the cosmological implications of string theory. By synthesizing the preliminary program with the broader state of these scientific disciplines, this document serves as a primer for the undergraduate researcher and the academic professional alike, elucidating not just the "what" of the meeting, but the profound "how" and "why" that will define the scientific landscape of the late 2020s.

Part I: The Philosophy of the Meeting

1.1 The Theme: Science @ Scale

The choice of "Science @ Scale" as the 2026 theme by AAAS President Theresa Maldonado is a deliberate provocation.¹ For decades, the primary metric of scientific success was the "breakthrough"—the singular discovery, the isolated particle, the novel gene. However, the crises characterizing the mid-2020s—climate instability, pandemics, and the energy demands of artificial intelligence—are not problems of discovery, but problems of implementation and interconnectivity.

"Scale" in this context is a multidimensional concept. It refers to:

1. Physical Scaling: Moving from the manipulation of single atoms (nanotechnology) to the management of planetary ecosystems (geoengineering).

2. Temporal Scaling: Reconciling the millisecond operational speeds of digital infrastructure with the geologic timescales of the Anthropocene.

3. Social Scaling: Translating personalized medical interventions into global public health protocols that are equitable and accessible.

The meeting posits that the friction encountered during scaling is not merely an engineering hurdle but a fundamental scientific phenomenon in itself. Complex systems behave differently at scale. A single neuron is predictable; a brain is not. A single solar panel is a power source; a gigawatt array is a geopolitical asset. The sessions in Phoenix are designed to interrogate these non-linearities, asking how we can "explore the inconceivable and embrace informed risk" while maintaining ethical fidelity to the public good.³

1.2 The Venue: Phoenix as a Living Laboratory

The selection of Phoenix, Arizona, as the host city is integral to the scientific narrative.⁵ Situated in the Sonoran Desert, Phoenix is the fifth-largest city in the United States and arguably its most climate-vulnerable major metropolis. It exists at the bleeding edge of the "Science @ Scale" challenge.

The city is a study in contrasts that mirrors the meeting’s tracks:

• Water Security: It supports a population of nearly five million people in a region receiving less than eight inches of rain annually, relying on the over-allocated Colorado River—a system that demands hydrological modeling at a continental scale.⁶

• Heat Adaptation: It is a pioneer in mitigating the urban heat island effect, testing materials and urban planning strategies that must be scaled globally as the planet warms.⁷

• Technological Hub: It has become a center for semiconductor manufacturing (the "Silicon Desert"), grounding the abstract discussions of computing hardware in the physical reality of fabrication plants (fabs) that consume vast amounts of water and energy.

For the attendee, the Phoenix Convention Center is not just a building; it is an observation deck for the very problems the scientists inside are trying to solve.²

Part II: The Physics of Intelligence

One of the most technically dense and forward-looking tracks at the 2026 meeting focuses on the intersection of materials science and artificial intelligence. The Discussion Panel "Building Better Neural Networks With Perovskite" ⁶ serves as the anchor for a broader exploration of Neuromorphic Computing. To understand the significance of this, we must deconstruct the current crisis in computing architecture.

2.1 The Energy Crisis of Artificial Intelligence

The modern world runs on the Von Neumann architecture. Proposed by physicist John von Neumann in 1945, this design separates a computer into two distinct distinct domains: the Central Processing Unit (CPU), which performs calculations, and the Memory Unit (RAM), which stores data.

To perform even a simple operation, data must be fetched from memory, transported to the CPU, processed, and then written back to memory. This constant shuttling of electrons—the "Von Neumann Bottleneck"—is the primary driver of energy consumption in computing.

As Artificial Intelligence (AI) models have scaled, this bottleneck has become a stranglehold. Training a Large Language Model (LLM) like GPT-4 requires zillions of floating-point operations. The energy cost is astronomical. By 2025, data centers were estimated to consume a significant percentage of the world's total electricity supply.⁸

Table 1: The Efficiency Gap

Metric	Biological Brain	Modern Silicon GPU
Power Consumption	~20 Watts	~250–500 Watts (per chip)
Architecture	Co-located Memory & Processing	Separated Memory & Processing
Signal Type	Ion spikes (Action Potentials)	Continuous electron flow (mostly)
Learning Mechanism	Physical Synaptic Plasticity	Software Weight Updates (Backprop)

The AAAS sessions on neuromorphic computing ask a fundamental question: Can we build a computer that works like a brain?

2.2 The Material Solution: Halide Perovskites

The "Science @ Scale" answer to this energy crisis lies in a class of materials called Perovskites. While famous for their application in solar cells, the AAAS 2026 program highlights their revolutionary potential in computing hardware.⁹

2.2.1 The Crystal Structure

A perovskite is any material with the crystal structure ABX3.

• A is a large cation (positive ion), often organic like methylammonium.

• B is a smaller metal cation, typically lead or tin.

• X is a halogen anion, such as iodine, bromine, or chlorine.

This lattice structure is unique because it is "soft" and dynamically active. Unlike the rigid silicon crystal, where atoms are locked in place, the ions in a perovskite lattice can move.

2.2.2 The Memristor: Emulating the Synapse

In the brain, learning happens at the synapse. When two neurons communicate frequently, the chemical and physical connection between them strengthens. This is known as Hebbian learning: "Neurons that fire together, wire together." The memory is not stored somewhere else; the connection is the memory.

To replicate this in hardware, scientists utilize a component called a memristor (memory resistor). A memristor changes its electrical resistance based on the history of the current that has passed through it.

• High current history = Low resistance (Strong Synapse).

• Low current history = High resistance (Weak Synapse).

2.2.3 Perovskites as Memristors

The research presented by groups like the NeuroSpinCompute Laboratory 9 reveals that perovskites are ideal materials for memristors due to a phenomenon called ion migration.

1. The Stimulus: When a voltage is applied to a perovskite thin film, the halide ions (the 'X' component) physically drift through the crystal lattice.

2. The Filament: These migrating ions form conductive pathways, or filaments, connecting the two electrodes. This lowers the resistance of the device.

3. The Memory: When the voltage is removed, the filaments remain. The device "remembers" that it was activated.

4. The Reset: Applying a reverse voltage pushes the ions back, dissolving the filament and "forgetting" the memory.

This process mimics the biological intricate dance of neurotransmitters and ion channels, but it happens in a solid-state device that can be printed cheaply and operates at extremely low power.

2.3 Scaling Intelligence to the Edge

The implications of this technology, which will be debated in the Phoenix sessions, are transformative for the concept of "Scale." Currently, AI scales by building larger data centers (Centralized Intelligence). Perovskite neuromorphic chips allow for Edge Intelligence.

Because these chips are energy-efficient and can be manufactured at low cost, they can be embedded in "edge" devices: cameras, sensors, phones, and medical implants.

• Example: A pacemaker equipped with a neuromorphic chip could learn the specific, irregular heart rhythms of its host patient in real-time, processing the data locally without draining the battery or needing a connection to the cloud.

• Privacy: By keeping the processing on the device (local inference), user data remains private, addressing one of the key "Social Scale" concerns of the AI era.

The student attendee at these sessions should look for discussions on the stability of these materials (perovskites degrade in moisture) and the toxicity issues (many contain lead), as these are the primary hurdles remaining before global commercialization.¹⁰

Part III: The Immunological Revolution

While the physics track explores the imitation of the brain, the medical track at AAAS 2026 explores the reprogramming of the body. Anchored by the session "Game Changers on the Horizon for Cancer" ⁶ and the plenary lecture by Rebecca Richards-Kortum ¹¹, this section of the meeting examines how the mRNA technology validated during the COVID-19 pandemic is being scaled to target oncology.

3.1 The mRNA Platform: Beyond the Virus

The COVID-19 vaccines proved that messenger RNA (mRNA) could be manufactured at scale and delivered effectively using lipid nanoparticles (LNPs). The "Science @ Scale" challenge is now to pivot this manufacturing capacity from a single target (the viral Spike protein) to the highly variable targets presented by cancer cells.¹²

3.1.1 The Mechanism of Cancer Vaccines

Unlike traditional vaccines, which prevent infection, cancer vaccines are therapeutic—they treat an existing disease. The core difficulty in treating cancer is that tumor cells are not foreign invaders; they are the body's own cells gone rogue. They look remarkably similar to healthy cells, making it difficult for the immune system to distinguish them.

The solution discussed in recent breakthroughs ¹³ is the Neoantigen Vaccine.

• Genomic Sequencing: Researchers sequence the DNA of a patient's tumor and compare it to their healthy DNA.

• Mutation Identification: They identify specific mutations (neoantigens) that result in malformed proteins displayed on the surface of the tumor cells.

• mRNA Design: Synthetic mRNA is created that codes specifically for these neoantigens.

• Instruction: When injected, the mRNA instructs the patient's dendritic cells (the generals of the immune system) to produce these harmless fragments of the mutant protein.

• Attack: The dendritic cells present these fragments to Cytotoxic T-cells (the soldiers), effectively giving them a "wanted poster" for the tumor.

3.2 The Synergistic "One-Two Punch"

A major focus of the 2026 clinical presentations is the synergy between mRNA vaccines and Checkpoint Inhibitors.

• The Problem: Even if T-cells are trained to recognize the tumor, the tumor defends itself. It displays proteins (like PD-L1) that act as a "secret handshake" with T-cells, telling them to stand down. This is an "immune checkpoint."

• The Solution: Drugs known as Checkpoint Inhibitors (e.g., monoclonal antibodies) block this handshake, removing the brakes on the immune system.

Research from MD Anderson and the University of Florida, highlighted in the program background ¹³, indicates that neither therapy is fully effective alone for many cancers. The vaccine provides the direction (the steering wheel), while the checkpoint inhibitor provides the activation (the gas pedal).

3.2.1 The Glioblastoma Breakthrough

Of particular interest to attendees will be the data on Glioblastoma, an aggressive brain cancer. The brain is "immune privileged," meaning the immune system is usually barred from entering. However, new lipid nanoparticle formulations have shown the ability to bypass the Blood-Brain Barrier (BBB) or deliver the payload in a way that creates a systemic response strong enough to breach the barrier. Early phase trials suggest that mRNA vaccines can reprogram the immune microenvironment of the brain, turning "cold" tumors (invisible to the immune system) into "hot" ones (actively targeted).13

3.3 Scaling for Global Health

The lecture by Rebecca Richards-Kortum ("Bioengineering to Improve Global Newborn Health: Lessons for Impact at Scale") provides a critical counter-narrative.¹¹ While personalized cancer vaccines are a triumph of high-resource medicine (costing heavily per patient), "Science @ Scale" demands solutions for the Global South.

Richards-Kortum's work focuses on Frugal Innovation—high-tech solutions engineered for low-resource settings. Her lab is famous for creating battery-operated, portable imaging devices that can detect oral and cervical cancers without the need for a million-dollar pathology lab.

• The Contrast: The meeting forces a dialogue between the hyper-expensive, personalized future of mRNA oncology and the scalable, accessible future of global diagnostics.

• The Synthesis: Can the manufacturing innovations reducing the cost of mRNA vaccines (like microfluidic production) be applied to make these treatments accessible globally? This is the central ethical and economic question of the medical track.

Part IV: Decolonizing Data and The Ethics of Sovereignty

In a departure from "hard" science, the AAAS 2026 meeting places unprecedented emphasis on the sociology of data. The Jones Lecture, "The Future of Science is Indigenous," delivered by Krystal Tsosie (Diné), is anticipated to be a defining moment of the conference.¹¹

4.1 The Legacy of Extraction

To understand the current movement, one must confront the history of "Parachute Science" or "Helicopter Research." For over a century, Western researchers would enter Indigenous communities, collect samples (blood, DNA, artifacts), and leave. The communities rarely saw the results, shared in the benefits, or consented to the secondary uses of their biological data.

A landmark case often cited in this context is that of the Havasupai Tribe in Arizona, near the conference venue. Blood samples collected for diabetes research were subsequently used for studies on schizophrenia and migration without the donors' consent—research that stigmatized the tribe and contradicted their oral histories. This breach of trust created a "chilling effect," leading many Indigenous nations to ban genetic research entirely, creating a "data desert" that exacerbates health disparities.

4.2 From FAIR to CARE

The scientific community has traditionally operated under the FAIR Principles: Data should be Findable, Accessible, Interoperable, and Reusable. These principles prioritize the speed of discovery and the openness of science.

However, Tsosie and her colleagues argue that FAIR is insufficient for Indigenous data because it ignores power dynamics. They propose the CARE Principles, which will be the subject of multiple workshops and panels.¹⁶

Table 2: FAIR vs. CARE Principles

FAIR (Data-Centric)	CARE (People-Centric)
Findable: Metadata makes data easy to locate.	Collective Benefit: Data use must support Indigenous well-being.
Accessible: Users can easily download data.	Authority to Control: Indigenous nations govern their data (Sovereignty).
Interoperable: Data integrates with other systems.	Responsibility: Users must show how they support the community.
Reusable: Data can be used in future studies.	Ethics: Minimizing harm and maximizing justice.

4.3 Operationalizing Sovereignty: Biocultural Labels

The sessions will move beyond theory to the technical implementation of these principles. One key innovation is the use of Biocultural Labels (developed by the Local Contexts initiative).¹⁸

• The Technology: These are digital tags or metadata fields attached to datasets in repositories (like GenBank).

• The Function: When a researcher downloads a DNA sequence labeled with a "TK Label" (Traditional Knowledge), they are informed of the provenance of that data and the specific permissions granted by the community.

• The Scale: This system allows sovereignty to scale. It creates a machine-readable infrastructure for ethics, ensuring that the rights of the Indigenous community travel with the data wherever it goes in the digital ecosystem.

This track challenges the undergraduate attendee to view data not just as numbers, but as relations. It argues that "Science @ Scale" cannot be achieved by trampling on local rights; rather, true scale requires a federation of trust.

Part V: Cosmic Architectures

The AAAS meeting has always maintained a strong focus on the fundamental nature of reality. The 2026 plenary session "An Evening with Brian Greene" anchors the cosmology track.⁶ Greene, a renowned theoretical physicist, serves as the bridge between the esoteric mathematics of String Theory and the public imagination.

5.1 The Unification Problem

The central drama of modern physics, which Greene will likely explore, is the incompatibility of our two most successful theories:

1. General Relativity: Einstein’s theory of gravity, which views space and time as a smooth, curving fabric. It works perfectly for stars, galaxies, and black holes (the macro scale).

2. Quantum Mechanics: The theory of the atomic world, which views reality as discrete, jittery, and probabilistic. It works perfectly for atoms and particles (the micro scale).

The problem arises when you try to combine them to describe something that is both massive and tiny—like the Singularity at the center of a black hole, or the universe at the moment of the Big Bang. The mathematics break down, yielding non-sensical answers (infinities).

5.2 String Theory and the Multiverse

Greene is a proponent of Superstring Theory as the solution. This theory posits that the fundamental constituents of reality are not point-particles, but tiny, one-dimensional vibrating strings.

• The Note: Just as a violin string can play different notes depending on how it vibrates, these cosmic strings can appear as different particles (an electron, a quark, a photon) depending on their vibrational frequency.

• The Dimension: For the math to work, String Theory requires the universe to have 10 or 11 dimensions. We only see three (plus time) because the others are curled up ("compactified") so tightly that we cannot perceive them.

The Landscape Problem

A controversial topic likely to be discussed is the "String Theory Landscape." The theory allows for roughly $10^{500}$ different ways to curl up those extra dimensions. Each shape produces a universe with different physical laws (e.g., a universe where gravity is repulsive, or electrons are heavy).

This leads to the Multiverse Hypothesis: Perhaps our universe is just one of many bubble universes. This idea forces a philosophical reckoning with the nature of science itself: If we cannot observe these other universes, is the theory falsifiable? Is it still science?

5.3 Black Holes as Information Vaults

The recent breakthroughs in gravitational wave astronomy (detecting the ripples in spacetime caused by colliding black holes) provide a new observational tool to test these theories.19 The sessions will discuss the Black Hole Information Paradox: When a particle falls into a black hole, is its information lost forever? (A violation of quantum mechanics). Or is it encoded on the surface of the black hole (the Event Horizon) like a hologram?

Recent work suggests the latter, leading to the Holographic Principle: The idea that our entire 3D reality might be a projection of 2D information stored on a distant cosmological horizon.

Part VI: Survival in the Anthropocene – Water and Climate

The scientific program is grounded in the immediate physical reality of its host city. The sessions on Water Insecurity and Climate Resilience ⁶ are existential for Phoenix and the American West.

6.1 The Hydrology of Scarcity

The Colorado River Basin is in a "Megadrought," the driest period in 1,200 years. The session "Beyond the Tap: Water Insecurity in the United States" ⁶ deals with the "Science @ Scale" of water management.

6.1.1 Direct Potable Reuse (DPR)

The frontier of water science in Phoenix is Advanced Water Purification. Traditional systems treat wastewater and release it into rivers. DPR systems turn sewage directly into drinking water.

• The Treatment Train: This involves a multi-barrier approach:

• Microfiltration/Ultrafiltration: Removes suspended solids and bacteria.

• Reverse Osmosis (RO): Forces water through a semi-permeable membrane at high pressure, removing dissolved salts, viruses, and pharmaceuticals.

• Advanced Oxidation (UV/H2O2): Uses ultraviolet light and hydrogen peroxide to break down any remaining organic molecules.

• The Science: The result is H2O so pure it is corrosive and must be re-mineralized. The challenge is "scaling" this technology to handle hundreds of millions of gallons per day while managing the energy cost of the high-pressure pumps required for RO.

6.1.2 The Brine Problem

A key physics/engineering problem discussed is Zero Liquid Discharge (ZLD). RO produces a waste stream of concentrated brine. In inland cities like Phoenix, you cannot dump this in the ocean. The focus is on new crystallization technologies that can recover useful minerals (like lithium or salts) from this brine, turning a waste liability into an economic asset.20

6.2 The Human Exposome

The intersection of climate and health is explored in the session "How the Human Exposome Will Unlock Better Health".⁶

• Definition: The exposome is the cumulative measure of all environmental exposures (chemical, biological, psychosocial) an individual experiences from conception to death.

• The Desert Context: In Phoenix, the exposome includes extreme heat (temperatures over 110°F), particulate matter from dust storms (Haboobs), and biological agents like Coccidioides (the fungus causing Valley Fever).

• The Research: Scientists are using satellite data combined with wearable biosensors to map the "Heat-Health" nexus at a granular scale, identifying which neighborhoods are most vulnerable to heat stress and designing "Cool Corridors" using reflective pavements and strategic canopy cover.

Part VII: The Undergraduate Guide to AAAS 2026

For the undergraduate attendee, the AAAS meeting is a professional rite of passage. It is structured to facilitate the transition from student to scientist.

7.1 Rising Minds Workshops

On Thursday, February 12, prior to the main scientific sessions, the "Rising Minds" workshops provide a boot camp in soft skills.²²

• Science Communication: Workshops on "Communicating with the Media" teach students how to distill complex datasets into narratives that resonate with the public and policymakers—a crucial skill in the age of misinformation.

• Policy Writing: The "Science Policy Writing Workshop" ⁶ teaches the format of the "Policy Memo"—a brief, actionable document used to brief congresspeople. This highlights a career path often overlooked by science majors: the Science Policy Advisor.

7.2 The E-Poster Competition

The centerpiece of student involvement is the E-Poster session.²⁴

• Format: Unlike static paper posters, these are digital, interactive presentations on high-definition touchscreens. This allows students to embed videos of animal behavior, scrollable code for computational projects, or rotatable 3D molecular models.

• Strategy: Successful students use this format to tell a dynamic story. The competition is judged not just on data, but on the ability to handle cross-disciplinary questions.

• Recognition: Winners are published in Science magazine, providing a significant boost to their early career CVs.

7.3 Networking in the Expo

The Exhibition Hall is a nexus of opportunity. It hosts graduate school recruiters, federal agencies (NSF, NASA, NIH), and private biotech firms. The "Networking Hubs" and specific "Student Receptions" ²⁵ are designed to break down hierarchies.

• Advice: Students are encouraged to prepare a 30-second "elevator pitch" of their research. The culture of AAAS is open; it is common for a student to find themselves drinking coffee next to a Nobel Laureate. The "Science @ Scale" theme implies that every contribution matters, and students are viewed as the scalability engine of the future workforce.

Conclusion: The Horizon of Inquiry

The 2026 AAAS Annual Meeting in Phoenix is an architectural blueprint for the next decade of inquiry. By centering the theme "Science @ Scale," the Association acknowledges that the romantic era of the solitary genius is over. The future belongs to the system-builders.

Whether one is observing the migration of ions in a perovskite crystal to build a greener brain, engineering a lipid nanoparticle to breach the defenses of a glioblastoma, coding a digital label to protect Indigenous heritage, or calculating the vibration of a cosmic string, the message is uniform: We are all interconnected.

The science presented in Phoenix demonstrates that the boundary between the "natural" and the "artificial" is dissolving. We are building artificial synapses that learn like biology; we are using biological mRNA to engineer artificial immunity; we are using artificial satellites to monitor natural aquifers.

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