https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/coronavirus-fears-cancel-worlds-biggest-physics-meeting/

One of the world’s biggest scientific conferences—the March Meeting of the American Physical Society (APS)—has been cancelled little more than a day before it was scheduled to begin in Denver, Colorado, for fear of contributing to the spread of coronavirus. Although many physicists have been left stranded by the unprecedented decision, some would-be attendees are finding ways to share their talks virtually.

“At first, it was just a shock,” says Nicholas Drachman, a graduate student who works on protein sequencing at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. “It was clear it wasn’t a joke, but it just seemed such late notice that we were all very surprised.” The week-long meeting is the biggest on the physics calendar, and more than 11,000 people had been registered to attend.