Too many "and"s and commas in a sentence [duplicate]

Sometimes when I write some scientific papers, I feel there are too many "and"s and commas in a sentence which might lead to some confusion because usually the logic in scientific papers is quite complex.

E.g.,

• Today, I wet met my friends, Aaron, Bob, and Carlo, and we had a lot of fun talking about science, philosophy, and politics.

First are the comma before "and"s mandetory. I heard different versions. I am confused. How to avoid them? Or this is clear for most people?

Solution 1:

The colon can be used for introducing a list and the Oxford comma is useful for separating the last item from its predecessor. Finally, I would advise the OP to split their sentence into two:

Today I met my friends: Aaron, Bob, and Carlo. We had a lot of fun talking about science, philosophy, and politics.