If the incidence of AIDS had continued to grow at the rate of 1980s cases, the majority of hospital beds today would have been filled with HIV-positive patients within a decade. According to former NIH Director Elias Zerhouni, the cumulative cost would have exceeded $1.4 trillion. Instead, $10 billion of federally funded research helped turn a certain death sentence into a manageable disease. Giving that statistic a public face, Magic Johnson, who announced his HIV status more than 20 years ago, joined Anthony Fauci, Director of the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, in the opening panel of A Celebration of Science on Friday. This morning, Dr. Fauci, considered one of the world's leading AIDS experts, expands on his recent lead article in the Journal of the American Medical Association in which he was optimistic that an AIDS-free generation is within sight.