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Welcome to the Scientific American Podcast Science Talk posted on March 7, 2012.

I'm Steve Murski. Two intrepid scientific American

staffers, Michael Moyer and Mark Fischetti, were at the recent annual meeting of the American

Association for the Advancement of Science, a treasure trove of discussions about research.

Upon their return, Mike and Mark briefed each other on sessions they'd each attended.

Topics include fracking and its associated environmental issues, tantalizing evidence of the Higgs,

but not from the LHC, the question of cetacean rights and Twitter and the upcoming election.

Take it away, guys.

My name is Michael Moyer.

I'm here with Mark Fischetti, and the two of us were covering the American Association for the Advancement of Science Conference in Vancouver, Canada.

And we're here to talk about what we saw.

So, Mark, what did you see?

Well, there are a number of interesting

sessions. One that I was in had to do with fracking, breaking deep shales to get natural gas.

And there's been a lot of controversy about fracking. But there was a new study from the University

of Texas at Austin. There was a whole session built around this study that basically said that the most worrisome sources of potential contamination

...