Federal authorities in the United states announced on 19 february the conclusion of their investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks,
on the fifth anniversary of the treaty's entry into force. go. nature. com/RMWXIO 1-5 march The 41st Lunar and Planetary Science Conference takes place at the Woodlands,
issues brought up during the legal battle remain relevant. Much of the argument centred on the generic nature of the documents
Remember the food riots in several countries in 2008? We are still trying to understand what happened,
The argument isn't an esoteric dispute among palaeontologists, but speaks to a fundamental theory of human evolution:
These strains pose an even greater threat to wheat than other types of Ug99 because they are more virulent
A 2007 review had recommended restructuring the organization after criticisms that projects such as combat aircraft and guided missiles encountered huge time and cost overruns.
The insects are also emerging as a threat to crops such as green beans, cereals, vegetables and various fruits.
For example, the boll weevil was once the main worldwide threat to cotton. As farmers sprayed pesticides against the weevils,
Nature Newschemists and activists encountered another setback in their battle to see methyl iodide banned from agricultural use last week,
or whether there is an equal distribution of numbers between species. The team looked at the bugs, nematodes and fungi that attack the hated Colorado potato beetle (Leptinotarsa decemlineata).
and assess the potential threat. Next, van den Hurk will compare the sensitivity of the approach with those of other standard methods,
The fellows complained that the 2007 document was too dismissive of attacks on the understanding of climate change.
on 25 may, after years of struggle, Genzyme won FDA approval to market Lumizyme (alglucosidase-Ã Â) for patients with late-onset Pompe disease, a muscle-weakening illness.
The debate over the climate bill is caught up in the mid-term elections and the struggle for power.
the London-based think tank. The report's authors suggest that fighting illegal logging is a cheap way to prevent carbon emissions produced
Her research career began in earnest at Karatepe after the Second world war. In the early 1950s, when the government sought to move artefacts from Karatepe to a museum,¡
With a limited labour force but ample subsidized chemical fertilizer available in most of rural China, dumping this phosphate-rich animal manure into waterways has become an easier and cheaper option than using it to fertilize cropland.
Threats to the world's plants assessed: Nature Newsmore than 20%of the world's 380,000 plant species are at risk of extinction,
is the biggest threat to plants'survival, the study concludes. Existing indicators of biodiversity such as the Red List of Threatened Species of the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) focus mainly on vertebrates,
whether the areas inhabited by particular species are under threat. The study uses IUCN criteria to classify species as threatened.
The researchers plan to reassess the threat status to plants in 2015. Using the data published today as a baseline
Like Hawlena's grasshoppers, the elk of Yellowstone national park in Wyoming were thought to eat differently because of the threat of predation.
Nature News TEL MEGIDDO Fabled as a site of biblical battles and spectacular palaces, Tel Megiddo today is a dusty mound overlooking Israel's Jezreel valley.
Rice research The world's leading rice-research institutions are joining forces to improve rice yields
Nature Newsthe world's leading rice research institutions are joining forces to improve rice yields
would put an end to farmers'costly struggle against the caterpillars. The strategy was intended to restrict the spread of toxin-resistant pink bollworms by flooding the population with sterile moths.
And in the wake of Climategate a year ago and widespread attacks on the IPCC and on climate science in general, the public may be confused more than ever about
It earned her scathing attacks on skeptical climate blogs. They claimed there were serious problems with the hurricane statistics the paper relied on, particularly from before the 1970s,
and accusations of conflicts of interest involving IPCC chair Rajendra K. Pachauri, bodies ranging from the U n. to The british government to individual universities on both sides of the Atlantic launched investigations.
and the law entered into force. But in August, the ministry of agriculture published regulations for the law which seem to allow the contained use of GM plants and animals in education and research
The scientific saboteur Court records show that Vipul Bhrigu, the former postdoc at the University of Michigan, Ann arbor
Sabotage!')'),paid US$5, 000 in restitution in November. This is in addition to the $10, 000 he paid at the time of sentencing
US producers of corn ethanol are encountering increasing scepticism from the legislators on Capitol hill even as producers of the'greener'cellulose-derived ethanol struggle to move beyond basic research and development.
to avoid a similar battle next year, and industry officials say the government still is not giving advanced ethanol companies the kind of support they need to scale up their technologies
Anthrax report The US National Academy of Sciences has delayed releasing a long-awaited report on the investigation into the 2001 anthrax attacks, after a request by the Federal bureau of investigation (FBI.
The report examines the scientific evidence used by the FBI to accuse microbiologist Bruce Ivins of the attacks,
the FBI said hundreds more pages of previously undisclosed documents should be considered by the investigation,
In 2005, Fenn lost a legal battle over the patent rights to Yale university in New haven, Connecticut,
The other major dispute in Canc  n was between the world's two largest greenhouse-gas emitters the United states and China.
and his wife injured in a bomb attack on 29 november in Tehran. Another nuclear scientist, Fereydoun Abbasi-Davani,
and his wife, survived an identical simultaneous attack. See page 607 for more. Scientist threatened Animal-rights activists mailed razor blades and a'threatening note'to neuroscientist David Jentsch at the University of California, Los angeles, in November, the university said last week.
Nature Newspolicy Research People Business Trend watch Coming up Number crunch Policy Haiti's cholera fight Health officials have outlined plans for a proposed cholera vaccination
As the country struggles to recover from the earthquake that devastated it last January, some experts have pushed for a small pilot project,
NIH conflict clash The US National institutes of health (NIH) should issue regulations governing conflicts of interest for the institutions at which its grantees work
The NIH is revamping rules that address the reporting of potential conflicts by individual investigators
The agency says it is carefully considering comments it has received on institutional conflicts as it finalizes changes to the rules for individuals.
Pollution fight US oil giant Chevron of San Remon, California, says that it will appeal a US$8. 6-billion fine imposed for environmental damages by an Ecuadorian court on 14 february,
might not realize that it also involves walking into a serious stoush that's Australian for fight.
which tells us that the changes are linked to some common global force and are consistent with
often by fostering rare species. But they aren't always a force for good when it comes to conservation, according to a study by Philip Hulme, a weed specialist at Lincoln University in New Zealand1.
or at least knew nothing of the threat they might pose to native ecosystems. So Hulme decided to check
or fungus that might pose a threat. And its shop doesn't sell anything that is considered invasive.
Dire threats to coral reefs More than 60%of the world's coral reefs are threatened directly by local human activities such as coastal pollution and destructive fishing.
Grants aim to fight malnutrition: Nature Newsnearly US$20 million in new grants from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation will be spent on getting nutritionally enhanced rice and cassava to market and decreasing malnourishment in Asia and Africa.
With a limited labour force but ample subsidized chemical fertilizers available in most rural areas, dumping nutrient-rich animal manure has become an easier and cheaper option than using it to fertilize crops.
as well as potential strategies for protecting the insects from a multitude of threats. At the meeting, Cornman presented data showing that hives affected by CCD have higher levels of microscopic gut fungi called Nosema,
but how are they surviving against this onslaught of parasites, he says. The genome offers a window into the bees'immune pathways,
The goal is to identify the genes that are crucial in helping bees thwart attack,
At the meeting, Michelle Flenniken, a virologist at the University of California, San francisco, presented evidence that, in honeybees, it can also trigger a general immune response that might ward off a variety of threats.
comes into force. Lack of political will could also be a major stumbling block for the deal, according to Siakor.
if legislators follow through on threats to trim spending further, Beachy doesn't plan to disappear entirely.
Although fighting continues between government troops and militias in the Darfur region, Cressman says that agricultural officials there should be able to control locusts throughout most of northern Sudan.
and other parties to force utility companies to reduce their greenhouse-gas emissions on the grounds that the emissions are a public nuisance.
Phage on the rampage: Nature Newswomen, beansprouts, cucumbers, bacteria, cows: the cast of the current European Escherichia coli outbreak is already a crowd.
and particle bombardment is less predictable, often yielding multiple, fragmented insertions of the new gene.
and assessing the long-term threat. Their first results, to appear in the Japanese journal Radioisotopes in August,
Nature Newskey weapons in the fight against malaria, pyrethroid insecticides, are losing their edge. Over the past decade, billions of dollars have been spent on distributing long-lasting pyrethroid-treated bed nets and on indoor spraying.
The international community has been slow to respond to the threat despite warnings says Janet Hemingway, director of the Liverpool School of Tropical Medicine, UK,
'But Lines says that the malaria-control community felt too many lives were at stake to let the threat of resistance stand in the way of massively scaling up the bed-net and spraying campaigns.
The best surveillance data (see'Resistance on the rise), 'although useful, do not give a complete picture of where resistance is emerging
This is the first step along the line to a public-health threat. Wood agrees. I would be surprised
That absence has hampered global efforts to tackle these problems under the United nations Convention to Combat Desertification (UNCCD) unable to track the impact of their funding,
since it came into force in 1996. Donors must have a clear idea of how big the problem is
a biotechnologist at The swiss Federal Institute of technology in Zurich, adds that plants naturally produce similar RNA snippets to defend themselves from viral attack,
Fish significantly lower the risk of rice sheath blast disease and reduce the amount of weeds and harmful pests such as the rice planthopper.
Australian health minister Nicola Roxon has said repeatedly that the government will go ahead with the plan despite the threats."
and what political and legal battles ensue
The mystery of the magnetic cowse. ELISSEEVA/GLOWIMAGES. COMCATTLE seem to align with magnetic field lines,
After working on radar and the atomic bomb in the Second world war, Ramsey (pictured) moved to Harvard university in Cambridge, Massachusetts,
and ecology of individual species should offer clues as to which are under greatest threat. Others
and would come into force from 2020. The Kyoto Protocol will be extended by at least 5 years. Emotions were mixed after the deal on 11 december
Forest threat Brazil's Senate has approved a new'forest code, 'which scientists fear will weaken strict rules on tree-clearing that have reduced deforestation in the Amazon.
With tensions high, long-simmering disputes between rich and poor countries erupted time and again in Durban
which would come into force in 2020.""These really were very high-stakes negotiations over competing visions of the world,
"India will never be intimidated by threats or any kind of pressure like this. After objecting to stronger wording,
India finally agreed to pursue talks towards a"protocol, legal instrument or an agreed outcome with legal force.
Economic woes have diverted certainly attention from the climate threat and, in the United states, emboldened right-wing politicians who have blocked President Barack Obama s climate agenda.
Flooding currently costs the United kingdom around £1. 3 billion (US$2. 04 billion) per year, presents a serious threat to buildings and infrastructure and contributes to costal erosion.
Surveillance of flu viruses could, they argue, allow health organizations to monitor birds and other animals for the mutations that would provide an early warning of a pandemic
Yet surveillance of H5n1 in poultry worldwide is patchy, particularly in poorer countries, where the virus is prevalent.
Last year, global surveillance resulted in partial sequences from just 160 H5n1 isolates being submitted to Genbank,
"Not with the surveillance we have now. Source: Genbankmoreover, if H5n1 surveillance in poultry is poor,
the situation is far worse in pigs, where there is almost no systematic surveillance, even in richer countries.
H5n1 infections in pigs are uncommon and cause only mild illness, creating little economic incentive to monitor them4.
The relative ease of making H5n1 transmissible between mammals in the lab should now prompt the world to address these glaring inadequacies in surveillance
and genetic surveillance more comprehensive and timely. But building such systems would require sustained political will, financial resources,
H5n1 is far from being the only flu virus that poses a pandemic threat. But he believes that more extensive genetic surveillance could eventually pay off."
"The research points us to where we need to go, rather than where we are today,
the immediate benefit would be in surveillance. But from a logistics standpoint, in the world we live in,
and many politicians have called the oil sands a planetary-scale threat as they fight to prevent further development of the resource.
whether current disease threats justify the facility, which could cost up to $1 Â billion to build."
The DHS says that the NBAF is needed to develop countermeasures against bioterrorism a threat that resonates less now than it did immediately after the anthrax attacks on the United states in 2001.
But the department also cites three threats that receive far less public attention. One is the growing likelihood of foreign animal diseases entering the United states as a result of international animal movement from commerce and smuggling.
as well as the size of individual ash particles, suggest that the volcanic blast occurred more than 100 kilometres away.
groups displaced by conflict, and modern markets for food and other forest products, he says
A Dutch firm s carbon-offset project in Uganda s Mount Elgon National park became unmarketable after sustained conflict with local farmers who contest the group's right to the land.
Flu surveillance lackingin addition, the surveillance is sustained typically not, but instead is ad hoc and reactive,
Timely global surveillance of animal flu viruses is crucial not just for identifying pandemic threats,
To assess trends in global genetic surveillance, Nature analysed the records of nonidentical sequences from all subtypes of avian
That s important, says Malik Peiris, a flu virologist and surveillance expert at the University of Hong kong,
The older sequences can inform surveillance by showing how the viruses have evolved, says Peiris, but contemporary data are important"for real-time surveillance,
such as spotting changes that might herald dangerous strains. Many years can pass between the collection
but it is aimed at increasing the genomic knowledge base, rather than real-time surveillance. Researchers, too, are contributing to the lag
and Surveillance a network created by the NIAID in 2007 to boost flu surveillance which has a policy of releasing all sequence data within 45 days of its collection.
Almost all come from just a handful of countries most countries have little or no genetic surveillance in place.
Surveillance of avian flu viruses is bad, but that of pig viruses is worse. Yet pigs are a serious pandemic risk:
so there is little economic incentive for surveillance. Moreover, the pork industry often doesn t want the negative image of having swine flu detected in its farms.
which means that data can be collected for routine surveillance while leaving the source farm anonymous.
as is sustained surveillance. This results in large gaps in data, she says, because"many consecutive years of surveillance are needed to see trends (see page 535).
Poorer countries tend to have inadequate surveillance resources, and farmers often have little incentive to report outbreaks
because they will not receive any compensation for culled livestock. Countries sometimes also fail to look for,
Flu experts say that the dire state of surveillance could be turned rapidly around by, for example, creating a network of sentinel sites,
Such a network would probably even cost less than the fragmented and uncoordinated surveillance efforts in place today
The problem is that no global body has overall responsibility for flu surveillance. The World health organization (WHO) runs a global network of labs for human flu surveillance
and selects human strains to be included in vaccines for seasonal flu. Monitoring animals falls to the FAO,
surveillance could probably be done much more systematically and efficiently
Ancient Swedish farmer came from the Mediterraneangeneticists analysing DNA from Neolithic burial sites in Sweden have made a surprising discovery.
(although not the most toxic) in the defoliant Agent orange, used during the Vietnam war. Researchers are also wary of engaging in a continuing arms race with nature."
The threat of multiresistance has prompted a return to older methods of weed control. Stanley Culpepper, a weed scientist at the University of Georgia in Tifton
To help combat this threat, on 15 Â May the World health organization (WHO), based in Geneva,
But the two largest players in malaria aid the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria,
and the US President s Malaria Initiative (PMI) have not yet pledged additional money to fight resistance.
But some African countries lack the surveillance needed to spur such an approach. To address that deficiency,
and hired at surveillance stations. That could prove the most challenging goal of all.""Nobody wants to fund capacity building,
and scientists monitoring its impacts are on the front lines of a battle between miners, environ  mental campaigners and the authorities.
2012) to show the scale of the health threat from mercury in Madre de dios. She found that in mining zones,
The decision marks the latest chapter of an epic legal battle, in which millions of Brazilian farmers are trying to recover payments made to the company over the past decade.
because regional data compilers are under pressure from two forces: local officials, whose performance evaluation depends on economic growth
China is stepping up its efforts to combat climate change. This week, it launched the National Climate Change Strategy Research
The two sides are bracing for another battle as the reviews move forward. nature. com/rio20the politicized dispute is precisely
increasing the tension in a fierce struggle over political power in Bucharest. Ponta is accused of copying large sections of his 2003 Phd thesis on the International Criminal court (see Nature 486
Some Galapagos tortoises could have their threat categories downgraded. But the Pinta tortoise  still listed as Extinct in the Wild  will be recategorized as Extinct.
"Zoonoses present a major threat to human and animal health. The burden for poor farmers is big,
a finding that conflicts with the idea held by many scientists that the crucible of disease emergence is biodiversity hotspots,
Patchy surveillance and under-reporting is a huge problem in developing countries, where farmers fear they will lose their livestock without receiving compensation
and surveillance networks and training for farmers and veterinarians in spotting and reporting incidents of disease,
Everything except the location of the patent court for ruling on disputes was agreed last year,
and Europe, pose a transmission threat that is harder to control.""Boars don t require visas to move across borders,
African swine fever was especially costly in South Ossetia during a 2008 conflict with Georgia,
Companies set to fight food-label plansource: California Secretary of Statethose in favour of labelling argue that the public has the right to know what is in their food,
stoking consumer hostility to genetic engineering. They also argue that the move would raise food costs,
Those early models predicted no threat to between 47%and 83%of all mammal populations in the northeastern forests
Agent orange The United states launched an effort on 9 august to clean up dioxin-contaminated soil left over from the Vietnam war at a former American airbase near Da Nang city, Vietnam.
GM patent win One of the largest ever US patent settlements saw biotechnology giant Monsanto awarded $1 Â billion on 1 Â August in a dispute with chemical company Dupont
He and others say that the biggest threat is forgotten from long samples of virus from past research programmes,
a force thought to be responsible for the Universe s rapid expansion, snapped its first images on 12 Â September.
Rainforest threat Deforestation is on the rise again in the Brazilian Amazon. The amount of clear-cut land hit 522 â°square kilometres in August 2012, up from 163 â°km2 in the same month last year,
Horwitz (pictured) created AZT in the 1960s to combat cancer, but he shelved the drug after it showed little efficacy against the disease.
say that they have been surprised by the"violence and immediacy of scientists criticisms. They argue that most of the critics are not toxicologists,
Need for flu surveillance reiteratedthe emergence of the H1n1 influenza virus that leapt from pigs to humans in 2009,
Vietnam, says that the study"certainly underscores the need for surveillance of mammals. But he adds that humans, poultry,
wild birds and other species are also important targets for surveillance, and endemic countries have limited resources."
"The importance of the surveillance is not in question. The issues are how to undertake it in a smart,
global pandemics and/or deliberate biological attacks? To further improve preparedness, we must continue to invest in the best public health monitoring systems that can be built.
To the contrary, teachers unions are consistently on the front lines fighting against initiatives to attract and retain the best teachers,
bolstered surveillance used to detect contamination problems earlier, and responded to illness outbreaks faster. I am also working to bolster the use of organic farming methods
In one case, James Murray, another geneticist at the University of California, Davis, was told in 2003 that the USDA had rejected his proposal to develop a goat that produces milk rich in human lysozymes enzymes that fight diarrhoeal disease
and camouflaged saboteurs, is about to erupt from the hedgerows. Both sides claim science as their ally.
Animal-rights activists   a potent force in Britain   are furious, and are planning protests,
Battles over wildlife management are hardly unique to England. In the United states, environmentalists and ranchers spar over wolves,
The plan included increased surveillance and security measures on farms, as well as what the government described as a"science-led policy of killing badgers in areas of high bovine TB.
held at a field gene bank in Papua new guinea (PNG), is under threat from a disease outbreak close to the gene bank.
but distinct from, the bacteria that cause the better known Lethal Yellowing disease that attacks palm species. Ironically,
everyone will be placed better to assess the threat both to coconuts and livelihoods in general
Fungus that controls zombie-ants has own fungal stalkeran article by Scientific American. An unsuspecting worker ant in Brazil's rainforest leaves its nest one morning.
A specialized but global threat The ants best known for getting zombified by the Ophiocordyceps fungus are tree-dwelling carpenter ants found in Brazil and Thailand,
fights for females and food with a formidable horn. Thomas Martin, Jean-Philippe Sobczak & Hendrik Dietz, TU Munichentomologist J Â rgen Schmidl collects arboreal insects in San Lorenzo forest by fogging trees with biodegradable insecticides.
It s a serious offence either way
Seven days: 30 november 6 december 2012nasa/JHUAPL/Carnegie Inst. Washington/NAIC, Arecibo Observ. Water ice on Mercury Craters on Mercury may hold as much as one trillion tonnes of water ice,
The move is the latest in a three-year legal battle between Myriad Genetics, a diagnostics company in Salt lake city
Ultimately, Miller and Duren envisage a trio of geostationary satellites that would allow constant surveillance of greenhouse-gas emissions not just over Los angeles,
The attacks are a protest at the suicide of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who killed himself earlier this month.
Stem-cell reforms California s US$3-billion stem-cell agency the California Institute for Regenerative Medicine (CIRM) in San francisco is to reform its governance structure to minimize conflicts of interest,
Global Fund boost Germany has announced a donation of  1  billion (US$1. 3  billion) to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS
Other nations are also stepping up the fight. Last week the Nicaraguan government reportedly declared that it would include coffee rust on a list of special research projects designed to safeguard the country s agriculture.
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