Seven days: 25 31 january 2013nasa joins Euclid  NASA is joining a  1-billion (US$1. 3-billion) European space agency mission to explore the dark parts of the Universe. On 24  January the US space agency announced that it would join Euclid, a space telescope that will measure the locations and shapes of some 2  billion distant galaxies. The data will be used to probe dark matter and dark energy. Under the agreement, 40 NASA scientists will join the project and NASA will contribute 20 infrared detectors, valued at around $50 million in total, for one of the instruments on the spacecraft. The mission is scheduled to launch in 2020. Reed Schererdrilling team reaches Lake Whillans A US research team drilled through 800-metre-thick ice to reach the subglacial Lake Whillans in Western Antarctica on 28 january. The project is the first to retrieve fully intact samples of liquid water (pictured) and sediment from a subglacial lake, which the team hopes will provide clues to the kind of life that exists in such extreme environments. This is the first time that researchers have probed the water of one of the more than 300  lakes discovered under Antarctica s ice in recent years. See go. nature. com/byj4u8 for more. MIT hacked again The website of the Massachusetts Institute of technology (MIT) in Cambridge was hacked on 22  January for the second time in a week. The attacks are a protest at the suicide of Aaron Swartz, an Internet activist who killed himself earlier this month. Swartz had been charged with using MIT data networks illegally, by downloading millions of academic articles from JSTOR, a scholarly archive; he faced up to 35 years in prison and heavy fines. MIT has asked one of its computer scientists, Hal Abelson, to review the university s conduct in the affair. Abelson expects to complete a report in the next few weeks. Regulator reprieved Britain s beleaguered regulator of human-embryo research, the Human Fertilisation and Embryology Authority (HFEA), was thrown a lifeline on 25 january. The functions of the HFEA and another regulator the Human Tissue Authority were due to be transferred to other bodies as a result of a 2010 government move to cut the numbers of semi-autonomous agencies. After a public consultation rejected the suggestion to close down the two bodies the Department of health announced an independent review to assess whether to merge their activities. See go. nature. com/gciolp for more. 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, the agency s governing board decided on 23 january. The move is in response to an independent review published last month which raised concerns that 13 members of the agency s 29-member board come from research institutions that receive CIRM funds. Board members who represent such institutes will now abstain from votes to approve grants. See go. nature. com/ztij7r for more. Emissions profits Airlines that fly to and from Europe may have profited by up to  1. 36  billion (US$1. 83  billion) last year by raising air fares to cover costs of carbon emissions that they did not actually incur, says a report from CE Delft, a Dutch environmental consultancy group. The European commission had hoped to bring intercontinental flights into its 30-nation emissions-trading scheme, and had given airlines some free emissions allowances. But it exempted intercontinental flights from the scheme for 2012, enabling the airlines to achieve windfall profits. Coffee at risk Costa rica has declared a national coffee-growing emergency. The fungus Hemileia vastatrix which causes coffee rust, looks set to wipe out half the nation s 2013-14 harvest in the most affected areas. On 22  January, the government signed an emergency bill to tackle the outbreak. The disease has attacked already coffee crops in South and Central america. See go. nature. com/epwshp and page 587 for more. Biodiversity panel The Intergovernmental Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services set up in April 2012 to assess the state of the planet s ecosystems has selected a group of 25  international scientists and ecology experts to safeguard the scientific quality and independence of its work. The appointments were made at a meeting ending on 27 january. Abdul Hamid Zakri science adviser to the prime minister of Malaysia, was elected as the first chairman of the panel. Ulrich Baumgarten/Gettyplagiarism inquiry Germany s science and education minister, Annette Schavan (pictured), is being investigated after claims that she plagiarized parts of her Phd thesis in educational science. The University of D  sseldorf announced the inquiry on 23 january after finding that the accusations against Schavan, which were aired last May, are substantive. The minister was awarded her doctorate in 1980 for a study on how conscience develops in people. She denies claims that she quoted the works of others in her thesis without appropriate citation and called on the university to ensure that external experts are involved in the inquiry. See go. nature. com/5phncw for more. Genomicist dies David Cox, a pioneering genomicist and senior vice-president at the UK-based drug firm Pfizer, died on 22  January. Cox s research group at Pfizer aimed to find a way to arrange clinical-trial participants on the basis of their genetic make-up. He was also a member of one of the teams that led the Human genome Project, carried out research on the molecular basis of human genetic disease at Stanford university in California, and was a member of the US National Academy of Sciences. Global Fund boost Germany has announced a donation of  1  billion (US$1. 3  billion) to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS Tuberculosis and Malaria for the period 2012-16, of which  600  million is new money. The donation, announced on 24 january, signals support for administrative reforms and staff changes made by the fund last November to address allegations of corruption among its grant recipients. Other states are expected to announce future contributions to the global fund at a fund-raising meeting in September. Future technologies The European commission announced the two winners of its first high-budget competition for future and emerging technologies on 28  January: projects to simulate the human brain and to develop the potential of graphene. The projects should each receive  1  billion (US$1. 3  billion) over ten years. See page 585 for more. Source: Lux researchgraphene research in Europe has a funding boost (see page  585), but the commercial action is hotter elsewhere. Multilayered flakes or discs of graphene nanoplatelets which may find use in adding strength and conductivity to composites and coatings, are produced mainly in The americas and Asia, according to analysts Lux Research in Boston, Massachusetts. Planned capacity expansion in China could see supply of the platelets outstrip demand, Lux analyst Ross Kozarsky adds. US$1. 7  million Total funding for each winner of the Tang Prize, new science prizes announced by Taiwanese billionaire Samuel Yin on 28 january. Starting in 2014 four biennial prizes of US$1. 35  million each will be awarded in sustainable development, biopharmaceutical science, law and Chinese studies. Winners can also propose five-year research projects each worth $340, 000.7-8 february London s Royal Society hosts a meeting in Newport Pagnell, UK, to discuss challenges in dealing with storing and indexing massive amounts of research data. go. nature. com/e2cn8o7-8 february In Brussels, European union states meet again to negotiate the region s budget for 2014-20, including the amount apportioned to research, for which around  80  billion (US$100  billion) has been proposed. Talks broke down last year. go. nature. com/2kq2ua
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