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Science 29 November 2002:
Vol. 298. no. 5599, p. 1726
DOI: 10.1126/science.298.5599.1726a
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Viewpoints

Note from the Editor-in-Chief

In this issue, which coincides with World Aids Day, we explore the scientific background for the discovery and initial characterization of the HIV retrovirus. Not only was that search aimed at one of history's most threatening public health challenges; it also generated an acrid scientific rivalry with serious political consequences, and garnered widespread media attention--not all of which aided public understanding of a complex and important scientific issue.

We'd like to promise Science's readers that we're now about to dispel the fog and bring out a "true history." Alas, we cannot. What we have done is to ask the two most deeply involved protagonists, and a relatively neutral scientific observer, for their versions of that history. Sometimes it is hard to be a witness to one's own history, nevertheless, we think that these historical Viewpoints will be an important addition to a valuable archive. For coverage of these events see a collection of Science's news articles at www.sciencemag.org/feature/data/aids2002/articles.shtml.

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Science. ISSN 0036-8075 (print), 1095-9203 (online)