The history of now: Reflections on being a “contemporary archivist”

Although formally a historian of science, I work on very contemporary issues involving the public understanding of science. My interest in science journalism takes me each year to the annual meeting of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, where science journalists in the United States gather. When journalists realize that I am not there to write stories emerging from that year’s meeting, they invariably ask: “Why are you here?” To which I reply: “I’m watching you-you’re my lab rats.”