The leading scientific journals usually have a yearend issue that summarizes the year that was in science.
ITALSScienceEND ITALS magazine has hailed the AIDS treatment therapy study HPTN 052 of Myron Cohen and collaborators as its “Breakthrough of the Year.” This clinical study showed lowered infection rates of HIV-1 (by a factor of 20) between partners using a cocktail of antiretroviral drugs. This treatment, described in a paper in the ITALSNew England Journal of MedicineEND ITALS, combined with other promising clinical trials, may be “The Beginning of the End of AIDS,” as the World AIDS Day (December 1) event last year in George Washington University heralded.

A Filipina cousin of mine who was living 70 kilometers away from the site of the Fukushima nuclear plant sent a message to me through the Internet asking advice on what her family could do about the nuclear accident. It struck me that even if the Philippine government has allayed fears about the direct effect of the nuclear accident, there are Filipinos that are going to be near the site of one of the biggest industrial disasters in record.