The week in science: 2–8 October 2015: Nature News – Comment
The week in science: 2–8 October 2015
Medicine and physics Nobels awarded; world leaders unveil latest marine reserves; and three fresh neuroscience institutes funded.
Article contraptions
AWARDS
Nobel prizes Three researchers who developed treatments for parasitic infections won the two thousand fifteen Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura discovered a class of compounds called avermectins, which kill parasitic roundworms that cause infections such as sea blindness; Youyou Tu developed the antimalarial drug artemisinin (see page 174). The physics prize was awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald for their discovery of neutrino oscillations (see page 175). Nature went to press before the chemistry prize was awarded, but total details will be made available at go.nature.com/xkfab1.
Carbon XPRIZE A fresh US$20-million prize for technologies that can convert waste carbon dioxide from power plants into useful products was unveiled by the XPRIZE group on twenty nine September. The non-profit organization, based in Culver City, California, said that it hoped to award two $7.5-million ‘grand prizes’ in March 2020. ‘Milestone’ prizes totalling $Five million will be awarded to ten teams in 2017.
Clockwise from top left: Insights/UIG/Getty; Peter Essick/Aurora; Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Soc.; Malcolm Clark/NIWA
EVENTS
Marine-protection bonanza World leaders unveiled plans for fresh ‘marine protected areas’ at an oceans conference in Valparaíso, Chile, on five October. The Chilean government will establish a 631,368-square-kilometre reserve around Easter Island in the Pacific (top left), and the United States will create its very first national marine sanctuaries in fifteen years — one off the coast of Maryland (top right) and another in Lake Michigan (bottom right). On twenty eight September, Fresh Zealand’s President John Key announced the creation of a 620,000-square-kilometre sanctuary around the country’s Kermadec Islands, a region that hosts phat populations of seabirds and marine animals, as well as the world’s longest chain of underwater volcanos (bottom left).
PEOPLE
Forgery sentence A Danish court sentenced neuroscientist Milena Penkowa to nine months in prison on thirty October after finding her guilty of forgery related to research misconduct, but suspended the sentence. The City Court of Copenhagen said that Penkowa faked documents relating to the number of rodents used in experiments for her doctoral thesis. The University of Copenhagen, where she worked until 2010, and the Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty had previously concluded that Penkowa had committed research misconduct. See go.nature.com/adhb1u for more.
NIH appointment Cardiologist Michael Lauer has been appointed chief of the extramural-research office at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which administers funds awarded to non-NIH employees, the agency announced on twenty eight September. The office disburses more than 80% of the NIH’s US$30-billion budget in grants, and sets policy in areas such as research-misconduct regulation. Lauer has headed the cardiovascular-research unit at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute since 2009, and has worked mainly in epidemiology and biostatistics.
FUNDING
Neuroscience boost The Kavli Foundation and its university fucking partners announced on one October that they will spend more than US$100 million on neuroscience research, including setting up three fresh Kavli neuroscience institutes for basic research. The US universities that will host the centres — Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, the Rockefeller University in Fresh York City and the University of California, San Francisco — will co-finance them. Kavli, based in Oxnard, California, will also increase funding at its four existing neuroscience institutes, including that at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, whose scientists collective last year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
US budget passes The US Congress approved a makeshift budget that resumes funding for federal science agencies until eleven December, avoiding a compelled shutdown of work at the US National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and NASA. Had US politicians failed to reach an agreement, funding for federal scientists and other employees would have ended on one October — the commence of the country’s two thousand sixteen fiscal year. But the thirty September decision just “kicks the can down the road”, says Michael Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society in Washington DC. See go.nature.com/rlhoeg for more.
RESEARCH
NASA eyes Venus NASA’s next Discovery-class planetary-exploration missions are targeting Venus and asteroids, the US space agency announced on thirty September. After whittling down twenty seven proposals for its US$500-million venture, the agency has chosen five potential missions. Each one will receive $Three million to develop its plans before one or two are selected to fly. Among those vying for lift-off are an orbiter to map Venus’s surface, a probe to investigate its atmosphere, a telescope to hunt for near-Earth objects, a visit to the asteroid Psyche and a excursion to four asteroids near Jupiter. See go.nature.com/pw723q for more.
POLICY
Climate costs The governor of the Bank of England has warned that climate switch could lead to economic “tragedy”. Mark Carney (pictured) told an insurance-industry meeting in London on twenty nine September that climate switch “will menace financial resilience and longer-term prosperity” by enhancing harm from storms and other natural disasters, and could upset financial markets. Carney is one of the most senior financiers to have taken such a strong stance on climate issues, and his speech has attracted some negative comment in the financial press.
Refugee scientists The European Commission launched ‘Science4Refugees’, an initiative to help link refugee scientists with job openings, on five October. The service permits refugees to submit CV information to a web portal containing postings for jobs and fellowships at European institutions. Places that are open to employing refugees and asylum seekers will be marked with a Science4Refugees label, says the commission. Candidates rival for positions on the same basis as other applicants, and they need to have already obtained visas and work permits. In the long term, the commission intends to add mentoring, language and other training opportunities. See go.nature.com/kzth45 for more.
HEALTH
Hit HIV early Treatment for HIV should be provided instantaneously for anyone who is infected with the virus, advises the World Health Organization (WHO) in guidelines released on thirty September. These substitute previous recommendations to embark taking drugs only when immune-cell levels drop below a certain value, and it expands the number of people who are eligible for treatment from harshly twenty eight million to thirty seven million worldwide. The WHO also calls for preventive drugs to be given to all people who are at substantial risk of HIV, rather than just to boys who have hookup with studs. The guidance is based on evidence reported in July that earlier treatment helps both patients and public health (see Nature http://doi.org/73w; 2015).
BP settlement The British oil giant BP will pay US$20.8 billion to resolve civil lawsuits related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the US Department of Justice announced on five October. Under the final settlement, reached with the US government and five states along the Gulf of Mexico, BP will pay $Five.Five billion in fines under the Clean Water Act and $8.1 billion for natural-resource damages. Much of the money will be spent on coastal restoration projects. The company will also pay $Four.9 billion for economic impacts on the states and around $Two billion in other payments.
Source: C. Shen & B.-C. Björk (2015).
TREND Witness
“Predatory” open-access journals with “highly questionable” marketing and peer review are publishing more and more papers, finds a one October explore (C. Shen and B.-C. Björk BMC Med. 13, 230; 2015). These journals charge a fee for articles that fall under little or no editing or review; in 2010, they published 53,000 papers, rising to 420,000 in 2014. Authors paid an average of US$178 per article. The team used titles from ‘Beall’s list’ — which some claim includes legitimate publications (see Nature 495, 433–435; 2013).
NUMBER CRUNCH
The percentage of World Heritage Sites — seventy of two hundred twenty nine — that are threatened by extractive industries such as oil and gas drilling, according to the World Wildlife Fund in a report on one October.
Source: World Wildlife Fund (2015)
COMING UP
Science ministers from the G7 nations meet in Berlin.
Jerusalem hosts the 66th International Astronautical Congress.
The International Cytokine & Interferon Society holds its annual meeting in Bamberg, Germany.
For the best commenting practice, please login or register as a user and agree to our Community Guidelines. You will be re-directed back to this page where you will see comments updating in real-time and have the capability to recommend comments to other users.
The week in science: 2–8 October 2015: Nature News – Comment
The week in science: 2–8 October 2015
Medicine and physics Nobels awarded; world leaders unveil latest marine reserves; and three fresh neuroscience institutes funded.
Article instruments
AWARDS
Nobel prizes Three researchers who developed treatments for parasitic infections won the two thousand fifteen Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. William Campbell and Satoshi Ōmura discovered a class of compounds called avermectins, which kill parasitic roundworms that cause infections such as sea blindness; Youyou Tu developed the antimalarial drug artemisinin (see page 174). The physics prize was awarded to Takaaki Kajita and Arthur McDonald for their discovery of neutrino oscillations (see page 175). Nature went to press before the chemistry prize was awarded, but utter details will be made available at go.nature.com/xkfab1.
Carbon XPRIZE A fresh US$20-million prize for technologies that can convert waste carbon dioxide from power plants into useful products was unveiled by the XPRIZE group on twenty nine September. The non-profit organization, based in Culver City, California, said that it hoped to award two $7.5-million ‘grand prizes’ in March 2020. ‘Milestone’ prizes totalling $Five million will be awarded to ten teams in 2017.
Clockwise from top left: Insights/UIG/Getty; Peter Essick/Aurora; Tamara Thomsen, Wisconsin Historical Soc.; Malcolm Clark/NIWA
EVENTS
Marine-protection bonanza World leaders unveiled plans for fresh ‘marine protected areas’ at an oceans conference in Valparaíso, Chile, on five October. The Chilean government will establish a 631,368-square-kilometre reserve around Easter Island in the Pacific (top left), and the United States will create its very first national marine sanctuaries in fifteen years — one off the coast of Maryland (top right) and another in Lake Michigan (bottom right). On twenty eight September, Fresh Zealand’s President John Key announced the creation of a 620,000-square-kilometre sanctuary around the country’s Kermadec Islands, a region that hosts large populations of seabirds and marine animals, as well as the world’s longest chain of underwater volcanos (bottom left).
PEOPLE
Forgery sentence A Danish court sentenced neuroscientist Milena Penkowa to nine months in prison on thirty October after finding her guilty of forgery related to research misconduct, but suspended the sentence. The City Court of Copenhagen said that Penkowa faked documents relating to the number of rodents used in experiments for her doctoral thesis. The University of Copenhagen, where she worked until 2010, and the Danish Committee on Scientific Dishonesty had previously concluded that Penkowa had committed research misconduct. See go.nature.com/adhb1u for more.
NIH appointment Cardiologist Michael Lauer has been appointed chief of the extramural-research office at the US National Institutes of Health (NIH), which administers funds awarded to non-NIH employees, the agency announced on twenty eight September. The office disburses more than 80% of the NIH’s US$30-billion budget in grants, and sets policy in areas such as research-misconduct regulation. Lauer has headed the cardiovascular-research unit at the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute since 2009, and has worked mainly in epidemiology and biostatistics.
FUNDING
Neuroscience boost The Kavli Foundation and its university fucking partners announced on one October that they will spend more than US$100 million on neuroscience research, including setting up three fresh Kavli neuroscience institutes for basic research. The US universities that will host the centres — Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, the Rockefeller University in Fresh York City and the University of California, San Francisco — will co-finance them. Kavli, based in Oxnard, California, will also increase funding at its four existing neuroscience institutes, including that at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim, whose scientists collective last year’s Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
US budget passes The US Congress approved a improvised budget that proceeds funding for federal science agencies until eleven December, avoiding a compelled shutdown of work at the US National Institutes of Health, National Science Foundation and NASA. Had US politicians failed to reach an agreement, funding for federal scientists and other employees would have ended on one October — the embark of the country’s two thousand sixteen fiscal year. But the thirty September decision just “kicks the can down the road”, says Michael Lubell, director of public affairs at the American Physical Society in Washington DC. See go.nature.com/rlhoeg for more.
RESEARCH
NASA eyes Venus NASA’s next Discovery-class planetary-exploration missions are targeting Venus and asteroids, the US space agency announced on thirty September. After whittling down twenty seven proposals for its US$500-million venture, the agency has chosen five potential missions. Each one will receive $Trio million to develop its plans before one or two are selected to fly. Among those vying for lift-off are an orbiter to map Venus’s surface, a probe to investigate its atmosphere, a telescope to hunt for near-Earth objects, a visit to the asteroid Psyche and a tour to four asteroids near Jupiter. See go.nature.com/pw723q for more.
POLICY
Climate costs The governor of the Bank of England has warned that climate switch could lead to economic “tragedy”. Mark Carney (pictured) told an insurance-industry meeting in London on twenty nine September that climate switch “will menace financial resilience and longer-term prosperity” by enhancing harm from storms and other natural disasters, and could upset financial markets. Carney is one of the most senior financiers to have taken such a strong stance on climate issues, and his speech has attracted some negative comment in the financial press.
Refugee scientists The European Commission launched ‘Science4Refugees’, an initiative to help link refugee scientists with job openings, on five October. The service permits refugees to submit CV information to a web portal containing postings for jobs and fellowships at European institutions. Places that are open to employing refugees and asylum seekers will be marked with a Science4Refugees label, says the commission. Candidates challenge for positions on the same basis as other applicants, and they need to have already obtained visas and work permits. In the long term, the commission intends to add mentoring, language and other training opportunities. See go.nature.com/kzth45 for more.
HEALTH
Hit HIV early Treatment for HIV should be provided instantly for anyone who is infected with the virus, advises the World Health Organization (WHO) in guidelines released on thirty September. These substitute previous recommendations to commence taking drugs only when immune-cell levels drop below a certain value, and it expands the number of people who are eligible for treatment from toughly twenty eight million to thirty seven million worldwide. The WHO also calls for preventive drugs to be given to all people who are at substantial risk of HIV, rather than just to fellows who have hookup with studs. The guidance is based on evidence reported in July that earlier treatment helps both patients and public health (see Nature http://doi.org/73w; 2015).
BP settlement The British oil giant BP will pay US$20.8 billion to resolve civil lawsuits related to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010, the US Department of Justice announced on five October. Under the final settlement, reached with the US government and five states along the Gulf of Mexico, BP will pay $Five.Five billion in fines under the Clean Water Act and $8.1 billion for natural-resource damages. Much of the money will be spent on coastal restoration projects. The company will also pay $Four.9 billion for economic impacts on the states and around $Two billion in other payments.
Source: C. Shen & B.-C. Björk (2015).
TREND Witness
“Predatory” open-access journals with “highly questionable” marketing and peer review are publishing more and more papers, finds a one October investigate (C. Shen and B.-C. Björk BMC Med. 13, 230; 2015). These journals charge a fee for articles that fall under little or no editing or review; in 2010, they published 53,000 papers, rising to 420,000 in 2014. Authors paid an average of US$178 per article. The team used titles from ‘Beall’s list’ — which some claim includes legitimate publications (see Nature 495, 433–435; 2013).
NUMBER CRUNCH
The percentage of World Heritage Sites — seventy of two hundred twenty nine — that are threatened by extractive industries such as oil and gas drilling, according to the World Wildlife Fund in a report on one October.
Source: World Wildlife Fund (2015)
COMING UP
Science ministers from the G7 nations meet in Berlin.
Jerusalem hosts the 66th International Astronautical Congress.
The International Cytokine & Interferon Society holds its annual meeting in Bamberg, Germany.
For the best commenting practice, please login or register as a user and agree to our Community Guidelines. You will be re-directed back to this page where you will see comments updating in real-time and have the capability to recommend comments to other users.
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