May 17 Fri 2013 NEW YORK ACADEMY OF SCIENCE Conference: Eliminating Global AIDS
The New York Academy of Science moved a few years ago from its cosy roots in the past, a pretty townhouse on the Upper East Side, to 21st Century accommodation at 7 World Trade Center, high on the flat sided, box like building which is now partnered by the diamond cut outline of the replacement to the World Trade Center that was demolished by airplanes on 9/11/2001, now approaching completion.
Out of the windows of the new Academy premises the World Trade Center rebuilding site lies far below in a blue and white vista of sky and downtown buildings with the azure surface of the Hudson and the Statue of Liberty and the shores of New Jersey and Staten Island beyond.
Inside, clean new spacious meeting rooms with similar views beyond the curtains lead off the reception area, where attendees of the full schedule of conference posted on flat screens lining the walls are often served Coke, sandwiches and wine in meeting breaks and at the networking parties that end sessions.
This Olympian ledge high in the Manhattan shy is a fit venue for the many topics discussed at the Academy, which are typically abstract in the extreme as they ponder the details on the cutting edge of the many fields which form scientific research today. Removed from the intensity of lab work and the management problems of large field studies nowadays often done in difficult conditions in underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia ,scientific thinkers and researchers can present papers describing recent work, often as yet unpublished, done by their groups in institutions as celebrated as Memorial Sloane-Kettering, Mt Sinai and Cornell-Weill only a few miles away in Manhattan, as well as Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley and other top institutions farther afield here and abroad.
The meeting on Fri (May 17, 2013) was a typical example of the events scheduled at the Academy this year, a meeting of leading researchers in HIV/AIDS discussing the outlook for combating the disease globally and the chances of reducing the transmission of HIV to zero. Luminaries that have shone in the field for a quarter century included Robert Redfield and John P.Moore, the latter being known not only for his research aiming at the Holy Grail of HIV/AIDS, a successful vaccine to prevent the transmission of HIV, but also for his vehement defense of the standard science of HIV/AIDS against a small number of critics and debunkers of the paradigm that HIV causes the ultimately fatal symptoms of AIDS.
Unfortunately we were prevented by a schedule conflict from listening to Dr Moore present his paper in the morning session, though a biochemist who had heard it admired it as "elegant" work. Dr Moore gave us his card and allowed us to take a portrait as he was leaving, but he emphasized that the content of his presentation must remain confidential until it was formally published in a research journal, a restriction that often applies to papers at Academy meetings on topics which are the focus of scientific attention.
Other interesting papers included two of exceptional moral force, both by women researchers discussing the still horrendous situation around the world where the gentler sex are abused, oppressed, wounded and sometimes killed by male violence.
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From wiki: 7 World Trade Center
7 World Trade Center is a building in New York City located across from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, and is part of the World Trade Center complex. It is the second building to bear that name and address in that location. The original structure was completed in 1987 and fell after the Twin Towers collapsed in the September 11 attacks. The current 7 World Trade Center opened in 2006 on part of the site of the old 7 World Trade Center. Both buildings were developed by Larry Silverstein, who holds a ground lease for the site from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The original 7 World Trade Center was 47 stories tall, clad in red exterior masonry, and occupied a trapezoidal footprint. An elevated walkway connected the building to the World Trade Center plaza. The building was situated above a Consolidated Edison (Con Ed) power substation, which imposed unique structural design constraints. When the building opened in 1987, Silverstein had difficulties attracting tenants. In 1988, Salomon Brothers signed a long-term lease, and became the main tenants of the building. On September 11, 2001, 7 WTC was damaged by debris when the nearby North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. The debris also ignited fires, which continued to burn throughout the afternoon on lower floors of the building. The building's internal fire suppression system lacked water pressure to fight the fires, and the building collapsed completely at 5:21:10 pm.[2] The collapse began when a critical internal column buckled and triggered structural failure throughout, which was first visible from the exterior with the crumbling of a rooftop penthouse structure at 5:20:33 pm.
Construction of the new 7 World Trade Center began in 2002 and was completed in 2006. The building is 49 stories tall (plus one underground floor), making it the 28th-tallest in New York.[1] It is built on a smaller footprint than the original, allowing Greenwich Street to be restored from TriBeCa through the World Trade Center site and south to Battery Park. The new building is bounded by Greenwich, Vesey, Washington, and Barclay streets. A small park across Greenwich Street occupies space that was part of the original building's footprint. The current 7 World Trade Center's design emphasizes safety, with a reinforced concrete core, wider stairways, and thicker fireproofing of steel columns. It also incorporates numerous green design features. The building was the first commercial office building in New York City to receive the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, where it won a gold rating. It was also one of the first projects accepted to be part of the Council's Pilot Program for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – Core and Shell Development (LEED-CSD)
Read MoreOut of the windows of the new Academy premises the World Trade Center rebuilding site lies far below in a blue and white vista of sky and downtown buildings with the azure surface of the Hudson and the Statue of Liberty and the shores of New Jersey and Staten Island beyond.
Inside, clean new spacious meeting rooms with similar views beyond the curtains lead off the reception area, where attendees of the full schedule of conference posted on flat screens lining the walls are often served Coke, sandwiches and wine in meeting breaks and at the networking parties that end sessions.
This Olympian ledge high in the Manhattan shy is a fit venue for the many topics discussed at the Academy, which are typically abstract in the extreme as they ponder the details on the cutting edge of the many fields which form scientific research today. Removed from the intensity of lab work and the management problems of large field studies nowadays often done in difficult conditions in underdeveloped countries in Africa and Asia ,scientific thinkers and researchers can present papers describing recent work, often as yet unpublished, done by their groups in institutions as celebrated as Memorial Sloane-Kettering, Mt Sinai and Cornell-Weill only a few miles away in Manhattan, as well as Harvard, Stanford, UC Berkeley and other top institutions farther afield here and abroad.
The meeting on Fri (May 17, 2013) was a typical example of the events scheduled at the Academy this year, a meeting of leading researchers in HIV/AIDS discussing the outlook for combating the disease globally and the chances of reducing the transmission of HIV to zero. Luminaries that have shone in the field for a quarter century included Robert Redfield and John P.Moore, the latter being known not only for his research aiming at the Holy Grail of HIV/AIDS, a successful vaccine to prevent the transmission of HIV, but also for his vehement defense of the standard science of HIV/AIDS against a small number of critics and debunkers of the paradigm that HIV causes the ultimately fatal symptoms of AIDS.
Unfortunately we were prevented by a schedule conflict from listening to Dr Moore present his paper in the morning session, though a biochemist who had heard it admired it as "elegant" work. Dr Moore gave us his card and allowed us to take a portrait as he was leaving, but he emphasized that the content of his presentation must remain confidential until it was formally published in a research journal, a restriction that often applies to papers at Academy meetings on topics which are the focus of scientific attention.
Other interesting papers included two of exceptional moral force, both by women researchers discussing the still horrendous situation around the world where the gentler sex are abused, oppressed, wounded and sometimes killed by male violence.
=======================================================================================
From wiki: 7 World Trade Center
7 World Trade Center is a building in New York City located across from the World Trade Center site in Lower Manhattan, and is part of the World Trade Center complex. It is the second building to bear that name and address in that location. The original structure was completed in 1987 and fell after the Twin Towers collapsed in the September 11 attacks. The current 7 World Trade Center opened in 2006 on part of the site of the old 7 World Trade Center. Both buildings were developed by Larry Silverstein, who holds a ground lease for the site from the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
The original 7 World Trade Center was 47 stories tall, clad in red exterior masonry, and occupied a trapezoidal footprint. An elevated walkway connected the building to the World Trade Center plaza. The building was situated above a Consolidated Edison (Con Ed) power substation, which imposed unique structural design constraints. When the building opened in 1987, Silverstein had difficulties attracting tenants. In 1988, Salomon Brothers signed a long-term lease, and became the main tenants of the building. On September 11, 2001, 7 WTC was damaged by debris when the nearby North Tower of the World Trade Center collapsed. The debris also ignited fires, which continued to burn throughout the afternoon on lower floors of the building. The building's internal fire suppression system lacked water pressure to fight the fires, and the building collapsed completely at 5:21:10 pm.[2] The collapse began when a critical internal column buckled and triggered structural failure throughout, which was first visible from the exterior with the crumbling of a rooftop penthouse structure at 5:20:33 pm.
Construction of the new 7 World Trade Center began in 2002 and was completed in 2006. The building is 49 stories tall (plus one underground floor), making it the 28th-tallest in New York.[1] It is built on a smaller footprint than the original, allowing Greenwich Street to be restored from TriBeCa through the World Trade Center site and south to Battery Park. The new building is bounded by Greenwich, Vesey, Washington, and Barclay streets. A small park across Greenwich Street occupies space that was part of the original building's footprint. The current 7 World Trade Center's design emphasizes safety, with a reinforced concrete core, wider stairways, and thicker fireproofing of steel columns. It also incorporates numerous green design features. The building was the first commercial office building in New York City to receive the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) certification, where it won a gold rating. It was also one of the first projects accepted to be part of the Council's Pilot Program for Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design – Core and Shell Development (LEED-CSD)
