To AAAS we go!

By Elizabeth Landau, CNN

A whole lot of science is about to hit your Twitter feeds, with #AAASmtg.

This weekend is the world’s largest general science conference, where up to 11,000 scientists, journalists, educators and general fans of science are descending upon the Hynes Convention Center in Boston. It’s the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual meeting, and it’s a total paradise for a science writer.

For me, having attended the meeting since 2009, it feels a little like college. During the day, in the sessions and press briefings, it is as though we journalists are in “class” together, taking notes for our deadline-driven assignments. Then, in the evenings, we schmooze and catch up on our lives, having made connections already in social media or during other science conventions or fellowships.

This is where you might pick up some Twitter followers, get ideas for future collaborations and hear the adorable foreign accent behind a byline you respect.

Like college students, we are all trying to figure out who we are and why we are here. But this time, I mean that in the broadest sense possible: What is the universe made of and how did individual components come together to create the world that we see today?

“It’s just one of the things that distinguishes humanity, that we can actually answer questions that are deep and fundamental, make predictions and do science, and that it actually works,” said “Knocking on Heaven’s Door" author Lisa Randall, a professor at Harvard University who will be speaking at the conference, told me for a recent article.

Last year, I learned about how scientists are trying to create a meatlesss burger and how cat poo relates to marine life, among other things. I also met renowned primatologist Frans de Waal, with whom I followed up later to produce this piece on chimpanzee fairness and morality.

Follow along at @CNNLightYears for some of the interesting things I'll come across this weekend.