Four years to save the planet

The biggest science conference in the world gets underway here in Chicago later today, but already the President of the American Association for the Advancement of Science has warned we may have just four years to save the planet.

Professor James McCarthy was talking about the weight of expectation that now surrounds Barack Obama.

The new president, he said, had appointed an exceptional team of science advisors, and that presented a great chance to make real progress on issues like energy policy and climate change.

But if president Obama failed to seize the moment then we would have lost an extraordinary opportunity.

"The calibre of scientific advice that is close to this man is truly exceptional, and if in his first term, in the next four years, we don't make significant progress in these areas, then I think the planet is in huge trouble."

It was a barnstorming start to what promises to be an exciting conference. Later today, we'll be hearing about the progress researchers in Germany have made in sequencing the genome of Neanderthal man, and getting an update on the complex chemistry that's a vital pre-requisite for life swirling around the interstellar dust clouds where stars and planets form.

And all this on the 200th anniversary of Charles Darwin's birth, a bicentenary he shares with Abraham Lincoln. While the majority of people across America will be celebrating their 16th President's birthday, here at the AAAS it's the Victorian scientist who holds court.