Nature Newsless than 10%of permanent tropical forests are under a sustainable management plan, according to a study by the International Tropical Timber Organization (ITTO) an intergovernmental organization based in Yokohama, Japan,
Nature Newsrainforest nations failed to agree on formal commitments last week during the United nations-backed Summit of the Three Rainforest Basins in Brazzaville, Republic of congo.
says Paul Telfer, head of the Wildlife Conservation Society's Congo programme in Brazzaville. The Amazon basin in South america, the Congo Basin in Central africa and the Borneo-Mekong Basin in Southeast asia are home to about 80%of the world's rainforests and two-thirds of global terrestrial biodiversity.
The New york-based Wildlife Conservation Society a summit partner, estimates that more than a billion people make their living from the three regions.
Nature Newsthe bacterium responsible for the current outbreak of enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) infections in Germany is a strain that has never before been isolated in humans.
Nature Newsmany UK ecosystem services, including fish catches and soil quality, are declining or have already become degraded as a result of over exploitation, poor management and habitat change,
he told Nature. As drivers of change in ecosystem services, climate change and invasive species will become more and more important over the next 50 years,
Nature Newsfor tropical ecologist Greg Asner, it's all about seeing the forest through its trees.
Nature Newsclimate change could increase the number of large wildfires in Yellowstone national park, Wyoming, and the surrounding region in the coming decades.
Nature Newswhen the US Department of agriculture (USDA) announced this month that it did not have the authority to oversee a new variety of genetically modified (GM) Kentucky bluegrass,
These are based not on a plant's GM nature but on the techniques used for its genetic modification.
Nature 459,437-441; 2009). ) Bayer is interested in harnessing other enzymes called'meganucleases'to do the same type of targeted engineering,
Nature Newsafter the Fukushima nuclear disaster spewed radiation across northern Japan in March, some feared that farming there would be shut down for years.
Nature Newskenya is expected to become the fourth African country to allow the commercial production of transgenic crops.
she said to Nature. Kenya has the strongest economy in east Africa and will set an example to other countries in the continent,
Nature Newsa global effort has cracked finally the complex genome of the potato, which is published today in Nature1.
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.
Nature Newsa tough-minded law has boosted Brazil's environmental record in recent years by helping to drive the rate of destruction in the Amazon rainforest to historic lows.
Nature Newsa global agricultural monitoring network moved a step closer to reality this week with a meeting between a small group of academics and potential patrons at Columbia University in New york city.
Nature Newsserious viruses carried by bats pose a considerable risk to people in West Africa,
Andrew Cunningham, a wildlife epidemiologist at the Institute of Zoology in London, and his colleagues fear that the next big epidemic could come from henipaviruses,
says Peter Hudson, a wildlife epidemiologist at Pennsylvania State university in State College. As urbanization spreads we become more exposed.
Nature Newsa desert may need no defining, but desertification is not so easy to pin down.
Safriel supports the secretariat's push for greater involvement of developed nations by highlighting the global nature of the problem.
Nature Newsthe perennial grass Miscanthus giganteus has all the makings of a biofuel superstar. It grows rapidly,
and won't be extended (see Nature 464,154; 2010). ) Many Arabidopsis researchers are now hoping to apply what they have learned from the weed to agriculturally important species with genomes once considered too big to tackle.
Nature News A 580-million-year-old fossil is casting doubt on the established tree of animal life.
Nature Newsmany yoghurts are loaded with live bacteria, and labelled with claims that consuming these microorganisms can be good for your health.
We don't know the nature of the conversation that's occurring.
Antibody offers hope for multiple sclerosis treatment: Nature Newsthe first drug to show signs of not just halting multiple sclerosis (MS),
but actually reversing the nerve damage caused by the condition, has taken a significant step towards clinical approval.
Nature Newsgiant pandas don't digest bamboo by themselves. Microorganisms in their guts may help the endangered animals to subsist on plants
Nature Newsa DNA analysis of ancient storage jars suggests that Greek sailors traded a wide range of foods not just wine,
Nature Newspaired with rice or steeped in feijoada stew, beans are an essential feature of Brazilian cuisine.
See go. nature. com/fg1cx3 and page 6 for more. Montreal impasse Although 108 countries now support a movement to amend the Montreal Protocol to regulate hydrofluorocarbons (HFCS) as greenhouse gases,
and more cheaply using the Montreal ozone treaty (see Nature 479,5-6; 2011). ) Degraded lands A rapid expansion of agricultural production over the past 50 years has left 25%of the planet's land resources'highly degraded',according to a United nations assessment of resources for food and agriculture.
See go. nature. com/lxap2g for more. BUSINESSVIOXX fines Drug-maker Merck will pay US$950 million to settle investigations into how it marketed the painkiller Vioxx,
See go. nature. com/52ixtw for more. RESEARCHGOOGLE ends RE<C Google has axed an initiative that aimed to make renewable energy cheaper than coal by improving solar thermal power systems.
California, launched the RE<C initiative with great fanfare in 2007 (see Nature 450,768-769;
Provisional findings were reported in July (see Nature 475,150-151; 2011). ) As Nature went to press,
the study was due to be published in Alternatives to Animal Experimentation. Anti-HIV gel fails An antiretroviral gel that seemed able to prevent sexual transmission of HIV to uninfected women has failed in a follow-up study.
%Trials of tenofovir tablets in the VOICE study have failed also (see Nature 478,10-11; 2011).
See go. nature. com/zqtiz6 for more. TREND WATCH A European fund aims to raise  4. 5 billion (US$6. 0 billion) for clean-energy projects in 2012 by selling 300 million allowances to emit carbon dioxide on Europe
such credits would have raised only  2. 3 billion as Nature went to press. Analysts forecast that prices will fall further,
See go. nature. com/4xewpb for more. COMING UP4-8 december The triennial World Petroleum Congress the'Olympics of the oil and gas industry'meets in Qatar.
California. go. nature. com/zf3qkl
The problems with emissions tradingm. RALSTON/AFP/Gettyalberta's oil-sands companies are required to reduce the intensity of their greenhouse-gas emissions under the province's emissions trading scheme.
One author of the report, Tekalign Mamo, Ethiopia's minister of state for agriculture and rural development, told Nature that policy-makers at Durban should take examples of good agricultural practice
Nature explores the thinking behind the legislation. Cigarette packets will be almost identical. The only variation will be the vivid image a sickly child on a respirator,
Nature Newsresearch Events Business People Policy Trend Watch Coming up Number crunch Research Fracking tremors A British energy company says that its hydraulic fracturing('fracking')project probably caused the cluster of small earthquakes
See go. nature. com/p5fj1q for more. Events Heavenly kiss China's unmanned Shenzhou 8 spacecraft docked with its Tiangong 1 module on 2 november,
true danger or the pressure and motivation of a real journey to Mars. See go. nature. com/1zquiu for more.
See go. nature. com/ohn6zt for more. How icebergs begin A seasonal ice-survey flight has spotted the birth signs of a large iceberg in West Antarctica:
See go. nature. com/ifphvp for more. People SLAC head leaves Persis Drell is stepping down as the director of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory in Menlo Park
See go. nature. com/ayesl2 for more. Carbon tax Australia will introduce a tax on carbon dioxide emissions from 1 july 2012,
Nature Newswoolly mammoths, woolly rhinos and other large animals driven to extinction since the last ice age each succumbed to a different lethal mix of circumstances.
such as that in Gutianshan National Nature Reserve in Zhejiang Province, China, have confirmed already that plantations can be a haven for biodiversity."
See go. nature. com/cdoruh for more. Forest suspense Final voting on a law that would relax forest protection rules in the Brazilian Amazon was delayed last week until March 2012,
See go. nature. com/bdfot2 for more. Chimp research Most biomedical research on chimpanzees is"unnecessary,
Nature reported the first news of the appointment in November. Starting on 4 january 2012, he replaces Ed Weiler,
See go. nature. com/6pg9vv for more. Australian reshuffle Australian Prime minister Julia Gillard took the nation's science leaders by surprise last week
See go. nature. com/6jaak5 for more. CORNELL UNIV. Cornell wins New york science campuslook out Boston and San francisco. New york city has signed off on a US$2-billion science
See go. nature. com/733z3e for more. From air to orbit Rockets bound for orbit could one day be fired not from launch pads,
See go. nature. com/ead2ql for more. F. KRAUSTINIEST frogs This tiny adult female frog (Paedophryne dekot) is the world's smallest tetrapod, according to Fred Kraus at the Bishop Museum in Honolulu
researchers reported on 20 december at a press conference and in Nature (F. Fressin et al. Nature http:/
/dx. doi. org/10.1038/nature10780; 2011). ) Although scientists were delighted with this feat of detection, both planets orbit far too close to their parent star to be habitable.
See go. nature. com/i372nd for more. Variome project A project to log all the genetic variations that cause disease in humans took a step forward last week with the launch of its Chinese arm at a meeting in Beijing.
See go. nature. com/intbvt for more. Preventing HIV Pharmaceutical firm Gilead Sciences wants to sell anti-HIV drugs to healthy people,
Such'pre-exposure prophylaxis'(Prep) has been supported by clinical trials (see Nature 476 260-261; 2011).
from where they will start to map lunar gravity in March 2012. go. nature. com/msewftregulation of aviation's greenhouse-gas emissions is set to start in the European union.
Nature Med. 12,342-347; 2006). ) But in the latest trial, four out of six patients were still making the protein up to 18 months after one treatment,
See go. nature. com/hwxlbd for more. NASA/JPL-Caltech/Cornell/ASUEVENTS Fresh clue to ancient Mars water NASA's Opportunity rover has discovered veins of hydrothermally deposited minerals at the edge of Endeavour crater on Mars. The bright
See go. nature. com/nmsldl for more. People US integrity head After a 22-month search
Awards Mentor awards The annual Nature Awards for Mentoring in Science (go. nature. com/qithms),
See go. nature. com/rutitm for more. Stem-cell appeal A lawsuit seeking to halt US federal funding for research on human embryonic stem cells is not quite dead
although it was thrown out in July by a District of columbia judge (see Nature 476,14-15; 2011). ) On 7 december, the Court of appeals for the District of columbia circuit (one level below the Supreme court) set a date of 23 april 2012 to hear an appeal from the plaintiffs in the case, James Sherley, of the Boston Biomedical Research Institute in Massachusetts,
See go. nature. com/w3343o for more. Fisheries push The United nations has stepped up a push to encourage sustainable fisheries.
The change called for in a Nature Editorial in September (see Nature 477 509-510; 2011) came as part of a new policy on responsible conduct of research,
See go. nature. com/aj2zq6 for more. NOAA integrity It was more than 2 years in the making,
See go. nature. com/ihfjbv for more. Source: NHGRITREND watch The US National Human genome Research Institute (NHGRI) announced a four-year plan on 6 december that focuses heavily on the use of genome sequences in the clinic.
See go. nature. com/jhjz2l for more details of the NHGRI programme. Coming up 16 december The Japanese government is expected to announce that the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has reached cold shutdown a declaration that the stricken reactors have reached stable
Many observers had expected the conference to continue down the path towards voluntary climate commitments that was paved at the climate summit in Copenhagen two years ago (see Nature 479,291-292;
And in answer to growing demands to consider agriculture as a separate sector within the UN climate framework (see Nature 479
Yoshihiro Kawaoka of the University of Wisconsin-Madison and his colleagues have submitted similar work to Nature,
and Nature to publish only the broad conclusions of the two studies, and not to reveal the scientific details,
in a statement jointly published in Nature and Science3, 39 flu researchers declared a 60-day pause in the creation of lab mutant strains of the H5n1 avian flu virus. The hiatus,
such measures could boost global crop production by 1-4%.The United nations Environment Programme explored the potential gains in a detailed assessmentlast June (see go. nature. com/4wcwxf).
South africa, delayed setting new targets for emissions reductions (see Nature 480,299-300; 2011). ) Bilateral or multilateral agreements can help to pay for cleaner fuels
or operate such an instrument until at least 2020 (see Nature 479, 18-19; 2011). ) Two rival US projects, the Thirty Meter Telescope and the Giant Magellan Telescope, hope to earn some backing from the government agency,
See go. nature. com/cksmj6 for more. Beijing smog Residents of China's capital can expect to get more realistic assessments of the city's air quality.
See go. nature. com/ubvjvq for more. People MMR lawsuit Disgraced medical researcher Andrew Wakefield is suing The british Medical Journal (BMJ), its editor Fiona Godlee,
the latest version of the Ion Personal Genome Machine that it launched late in 2010 (see Nature 475,278;
See go. nature. com/qjoqfn for more on hepatitis C drugs. Teva rethink Israeli pharmaceutical firm Teva, the world's largest maker of generic drugs, may shift its focus towards branded medicines after it announced a new chief executive.
and report cases of resistance (see Nature http://doi. org/cshmhv; 2011). ) Although it is accepted widely that overusing antibiotics can be a major driver of resistance in microbes,
Vallat told Nature.""There is no control and this is a major risk to animal and human health
Weaver and Swart tried to answer this question in a recent commentary in Nature Climate Change1.
See go. nature. com/uzkmay for more. Nuclear cleanup The Japanese government has threatened to withhold about ¥1 trillion (US$12. 8 billion) in rescue funds for the private company that runs the stricken Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant,
See go. nature. com/tws1oz for more. BUSINESS Biosimilars rules Drug-makers keen to sell generic forms of branded biological drugs such as enzymes and antibodies were excited to finally see draft guidance on the matter emerge from the US Food and Drug
so it is much harder to copy drugs based on them than small-molecule drugs (see Nature 449,274-276;
instead saying that it would judge on a case-by-case basis. See go. nature. com/nhbvik for more.
See go. nature. com/srl2fb for more. LHC schedule On 13 february, operators of the world's most powerful particle accelerator announced their plan for its 2012 run,
See go. nature. com/xivplh for more. Denisovan genome The complete genetic sequence of an extinct relative of humans the Denisovan was posted online (see go. nature. com/vvtcfi) on 6 february,
allowing others to download the data while the work awaits formal journal publication. Researchers from the Max Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Leipzig, Germany, mapped every position in the genome an average of 30 times, improving on the 1. 9-fold coverage in their 2010
Nature 468 1053-1060; 2010). ) A 30,000-50,000-year-old finger bone found in the Denisova Cave, southern Siberia,
See go. nature. com/w3evow for more. PEOPLE China science prize Chinese physicist Xie Jialin, who pioneered the building of China's first high-energy linear particle accelerator in 1964,
See page 289 for more on the flu-virus debate. go. nature. com/pf7bwv20-24 february Marine scientists'responses to the Gulf of mexico oil spill in 2010 are discussed among topics at the Ocean Sciences Meeting in Salt lake city, Utah
The Nature analysis"highlights a global problem: lack of data, says Ian Brown, head of avian virology and mammalian influenza at the Animal health and Veterinary Laboratories Agency lab in Weybridge, UK.
Nature analysed the records of nonidentical sequences from all subtypes of avian and pig flu deposited in the US National Center for Biotechnology Information s Influenza Virus Sequence Database between 2003 and 2011.
Nature also looked at where the sequences come from (see The geography of sampling. The picture that emerges is worse than some experts had thought.
says Nicholas Wilkinson, a Vietnam-based wildlife ecologist at the University of Cambridge, UK, who is working with the conservation group WWF.
The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) lists both species as data deficient because scientists know so little about their populations or habitat.
and the Wildlife Conservation Society in New york intends to include leeches in its upcoming surveys of Laos."Everyone is excited, unsurprisingly,
algal blooms and damage to important wetlands, eucalyptus forests and wildlife. To address these problems,
Prosser told  Nature that he hoped the report s findings would balance the public debate over the plan,
Laurance told Nature. These forests were left out of the moratorium because they had previously been logged
A study published today in Nature Communications suggests that the latter is more likely, and that the effect is significant.
The authors of the Nature Communications study hypothesize that cows display fewer symptoms because the fluke alters their immune response.
Researchers are also wary of engaging in a continuing arms race with nature.""A number of analysts feel that such an approach is sighted short
and Shell did not respond to Nature's questions. In the past decade growing concerns about climate change, rising energy consumption and dependence on foreign oil  have prompted countries
The link is suggested today in a Nature Correspondence by a US undergraduate student with a broad interdisciplinary background and a curious mind1.
Santa cruz, was listening to the Nature podcast when he heard about a team of researchers in Japan who had found an odd spike in carbon-14 levels in tree rings.
or heard of were religious texts and'chronicles'that listed kings and queens, wars and things of that nature.
Jonathon Allen discusses his discovery with the Nature podcast team. Scientists in the field are impressed.
John Jeremiah published an article in Nature that referred to the same wording from the Anglo-saxon Chronicle.
The Nature podacst team talks to Richard Evershed about finding 7, 000 year old milk in clay jars."
which will examine high-energy X-rays produced at the thresholds of black holes (see Nature 483,255;
See go. nature. com/dcye8k for more. Chinafotopress/Gettychina celebrates space-station success In a milestone for China s space programme,
by 2020 (see Nature 473,14-15; 2011). ) The mission carried China s first female astronaut, Liu Yang.
See go. nature. com/f5qkka for more. Marine reserves Australia s government has unveiled its final plans to create
Researchers were worried by draft proposals last year (see Nature 480,14-15; 2011), but the plans released on 14 Â June addressed their concerns by including small but significant extensions to the reserve boundaries,
See go. nature. com/vnq8fw for more. US research thrift Research universities in the United states need to become more efficient and more productive, a 14 Â June report from the US National Academies urges.
See go. nature. com/6ppdtj for more. Fisheries reform Europe s attempts to overhaul its much-criticized fisheries policy took a step forward at a meeting in Luxembourg on 12 Â June.
See go. nature. com/tn8oea for more. Ocean acidity The International atomic energy agency (IAEA), based in Vienna,
Unethical research A US court has dismissed a lawsuit by Guatemalan citizens against US officials over American researchers who intentionally infected Guatemalans with sexually transmitted diseases in the 1940s (see Nature 482
See go. nature. com/1ffh6l for more. W. Greenblatt/Sygma/Corbisnobel chemist dies Organic chemist William Knowles (pictured), who shared the 2001 Nobel prize in Chemistry,
See go. nature. com/ukgegy for more. GM soya levy The biotechnology giant Monsanto is one step closer to losing billions of dollars in revenues from its genetically modified (GM) Roundup Ready soya beans in Brazil.
See go. nature. com/mowmyh for more. Fossil smuggling A nearly complete tyrannosaurid fossil that sold for US$1 million was smuggled illegally out of Mongolia
marine scientists plan out an international network to monitor the acidification of the oceans. go. nature. com/lopgt6
China's emissions estimates don't add upthis week in Nature Climate Change, Guan, an expert in sustainability science at the University of Leeds, UK,
which is published today in Nature Communications1.""One-size-fits-all policies, like bed nets, are great,
President Dilma Rousseff vetoed a dozen sections of the revamped forest code passed a month earlier by the lower house of Brazil s National Congress (see Nature http://dx. doi. org/10.1038
/nature. 2011.9584; 2011). ) Although Rousseff denied environmentalists push for a full veto, she removed many of the bill s contentious provisions,
The two sides are bracing for another battle as the reviews move forward. nature. com/rio20the politicized dispute is precisely
See go. nature. com/rzkbwg for more. Romania plagiarism Two investigations into the case of alleged plagiarism by Romania s prime minister, Victor Ponta, have reached opposite conclusions,
Ponta is accused of copying large sections of his 2003 Phd thesis on the International Criminal court (see Nature 486
and paste large sections of his thesis. See go. nature. com/mfm8x8 for more. Science education US President Barack Obama announced a plan on 17 july to create a corps of exceptional,
See go. nature. com/fhslei for more. Child study revamp  Leaders of the US National Children s Study have released a revised design for the ambitious effort to track influences on the health of 100,000 American children from before birth to age 21.
See go. nature. com/immsvq for more. Gene therapy Europe s drugs regulator has recommended for the first time a gene therapy for approval.
See go. nature. com/ieekkp for more. Sequencing prize A US$10-million contest to sequence the genomes of 100 Â centenarians in 30 Â days has its first entrant:
See go. nature. com/vtcifa for more. Gene patents redux A court ruling that allows companies to patent DNA was challenged again in a WASHINGTON DC appeals court hearing on 20 Â July.
because they were based on laws of nature (which cannot be patented in the United states). See go. nature. com/8pklwr for more.
Journalism award Freelance journalist Stephen S. Hall last week won the American Geophysical Union s Walter Sullivan award for Excellence in Science Journalism-Features
Nature 477,264-269; 2011), which examined why seismologists were placed on trial after an earthquake devastated L aquila, Italy, in 2009.
See go. nature. com/ouxnfg for more. 29 july-3 august Europe s largest congress on plant science takes place in Freiburg, Germany;
and genetically modifying plants to feed the world s population. go. nature. com/m128l22 August The governing board of the Cancer Prevention
that were sidelined in March amid controversy over the institute s review process (see Nature 486,169-171;
) go. nature. com/qzpdov
The legacy of Lonesome Georgeeven in death, Lonesome George s star power burns brightly. After the iconic giant tortoise died last month,
Last week, Nature joined experts in Puerto Ayora on the island of Santa cruz for an international workshop dedicated to the memory of Lonesome George. The meeting aimed to galvanize efforts to prevent the loss of other Galapagos tortoise
In 2008, Ecuador was the first country in the world to amend its constitution explicitly to grant basic rights to nature and its inhabitants.
will be a single set of recommendations that can be delivered to the Galapagos National park. The meeting also began work to review the status of the Galapagos tortoises on the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) Red List of threatened species
His research has focused on the fundamental nature of the relationships between plants and insects and the development of tools for managing insect pests.
Two months into his new role Ramaswamy chatted with Nature about NIFA research, working with a tight budget,
See go. nature. com/beu3ww for more. NIH funding The US National institutes of health (NIH) will fund an initiative to help extramural researchers to diagnose mysterious maladies
See go. nature. com/7cspmy for more. Obesity pill The US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved a new weight-loss drug on 27 june
See go. nature. com/vajfqe for more. Pharma closure About 1, 000 Â jobs are to be lost with the closure of pharmaceutical company Roche s research site in Nutley
See go. nature. com/yuiw8v for more. Health act upheld The US Supreme court on 28 Â June voted narrowly in favour of upholding the Patient Protection
See go. nature. com/nrdjp2 for more. Nuclear restart Japan restarted its first nuclear reactor at the Ohi plant in Fukui prefecture, on 1 july despite last-ditch protests against its reopening (see go. nature. com/tjylu4.
Another Ohi reactor unit should also start this month. All of Japan s 48 other working reactors remain shuttered after the Fukushima nuclear disaster in March 2011.
See go. nature. com/5iizko for more. Journalism awards Helen Pearson Nature s chief features editor, last week won the Association of British Science Writers best feature award for her article Study of a lifetime (Nature 471,20-24;
2011). ) And in Britain s Online Media Awards (for all forms of journalism), Nature s website and Twitter feed both won commendations.
Source: Belfer Centerseveral years of high prices are driving what could be the largest surge in global oil production
five of the world s largest societies for studying evolution and ecology team up for their first joint congress on evolutionary biology. go. nature. com/hwsqna11-15 july Europe s largest
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