Diplomacy:

U.S. Takes Steps to Use Science To Improve Ties to Muslim World

Robert Koenig

In a surprise announcement, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton last week named three prominent scientists as special envoys to assess the potential for scientific partnerships with Muslim-majority countries. The move is the first concrete step in a broader U.S. effort to expand the role of science in diplomacy. Speaking in Morocco on 3 November, Clinton announced the selection of Egyptian-born Ahmed H. Zewail, a chemistry Nobelist at the California Institute of Technology; Algerian-born Elias Zerhouni, a radiologist who stepped down last fall as director of the National Institutes of Health; and biochemist Bruce Alberts, former president of the U.S. National Academy of Sciences and current editor-in-chief of Science.

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Philanthropy:

Wellcome Trust to Shift From Projects to People

Jocelyn Kaiser

The Wellcome Trust, the giant biomedical research charity in the United Kingdom, wants to give no-strings-attached funding to nearly all the independent researchers it supports. This week, Wellcome Trust officials announced that they are phasing out their biomedical research grants for U.K. scientists, which consists of 3-year to 5-year awards focused on a specific problem. Instead, starting in 2011, the organization will put that money, about 20% of its total budget, or $183 million, into a new program called Investigator Awards. The awards will be bigger, more flexible, and longer—up to 7 years.

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Pandemic Influenza:

Europe Reconsiders H1N1 Flu Shots for Children

Martin Enserink^*

Until recently, no European country had included healthy children in the priority groups targeted for vaccination against the H1N1 pandemic virus. But as the outbreak gathers speed and more vaccine becomes available, some countries are now telling families that healthy children—or at least infants—are candidates for vaccination after all. The change of mind did not reassure a jittery public. How many European children will eventually be vaccinated remains to be seen, partly because distrust of the new vaccines is running high.

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Russia:

Restructuring Physics Labs Brings Delight and Despair

Andrey Allakhverdov^* and Vladimir Pokrovsky^*

Four of Russia's most prominent physics labs are to be merged into a new national research center. The institutes, which have languished in the post-Soviet era, have cautiously welcomed the raised profile the merger will bring. But a different reform aimed at separating basic and applied research at one of the institutes—the Kurchatov Institute in Moscow, Russia's premier lab for nuclear energy research—has researchers up in arms.

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ScienceInsider:

From the Science Policy Blog

This week, ScienceInsider explored why academic biomedical scientists report that they are receiving less corporate support for their research now than in the 1990s and reported on the Dutch House of Representatives' rejection of a motion asking the government to sever all ties with virologist Albert Osterhaus, who had been accused of conflicts of interest in his role as a health adviser, among other stories.

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Climate Change:

No Sign Yet of Himalayan Meltdown, Indian Report Finds

Pallava Bagla

Are Himalayan glaciers beating a rapid retreat in the face of global warming? That would seem to be the case, according to a flurry of recent reports by BBC and other mass media. But the picture is more complex—and poses scientific puzzles, according to a review of satellite and ground measurements released by India's Ministry of Environment and Forests earlier this week. The report, by senior glaciologist Vijay Kumar Raina, formerly of the Geological Survey of India, seeks to correct a widely held misimpression based on measurements of a handful of glaciers: that India's 10,000 or so Himalayan glaciers are shrinking rapidly in response to climate change. That's not so, Raina says.

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Climate Change:

Could Glacier Research Help Thaw Himalayan Standoff?

Pallava Bagla^*

On climate change policy, India and China are on the same page: They oppose mandatory carbon emissions reductions. But they don't see eye to eye on the Himalayas. Both countries claim a swath of the mountains as their own, a dispute that sparked a brief war in 1962. Because of lingering tensions, a diplomatic initiative to get Chinese and Indian scientists working together on glaciers has quietly been put on ice.

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ScienceNOW.org:

From Science's Online Daily News Site

ScienceNOW reported this week on expert criticism of a nanoparticle study, additional support for a human role in China's devastating Wenchuan earthquake, and the findings that prosthetic limbs offer no advantage to sprinters and babies cry in their native language, among other stories.

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Climate Change:

Amid Worrisome Signs of Warming, 'Climate Fatigue' Sets In

Richard A. Kerr

This September, the United Nations Environment Programme issued a report that, according to a UNEP press release, showed that "the pace and scale of climate change may now be outstripping even the most sobering predictions of the last report of the ... IPCC [Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change]." In the foreword of the UNEP report, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon delivered the intended take-home message: The report "is a wake-up call. The time for hesitation is over." In the run-up to next month's climate summit in Copenhagen, some researchers have argued that the worsening prospects for Earth's climate system make the negotiations all the more urgent. Others, however, say the picture since the IPCC report is more complicated than that—though no brighter. And some anticipated climate changes are actually behind schedule, at least for the time being, notes the U.K. Meteorological Office.

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Cell Biology:

Internal Affairs

Mitch Leslie

To keep watch for internal intruders, a cell deploys a cytoplasmic surveillance system that parallels the one detecting menaces outside of its membrane. When infiltrating pathogens trip one of these alarms, the cell retaliates with measures that range from instigating inflammation to committing suicide in a way that alerts other cells to the threat. In turn, microbes have evolved a plethora of countermeasures to disrupt, deceive, and dodge these intracellular weapons. The medical importance of our cells' internal defenses goes beyond battling pathogens. Errant responses by these alarm systems underlie illnesses such as gout, Crohn's disease, which is a type of intestinal inflammation, and the lung deterioration provoked by asbestos. Some of what scientists have learned about the mechanisms of such diseases has already made it to the clinic: The discovery that faulty microbial receptors inside the cell are behind several rare but debilitating "fever syndromes" inspired a successful new treatment for those conditions. Researchers have been testing the same drug against gout. Furthermore, scientists have just realized that a chemical long used to boost the effectiveness of vaccines might work by activating one of the cell's internal tripwires. This insight could lead to the production of better, safer ingredients for future immunizations.

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Fusion:

ITER Blueprints Near Completion, But Financial Hurdles Lie Ahead

Daniel Clery

Inside the headquarters of the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, researchers are working feverishly toward one of the project's early milestones: completion of the Project Baseline, a complete description of the machine's scope, design, construction schedule, and cost. This set of documents, which runs to thousands of pages, will be presented for approval on 18 November to the ITER Council, representing the project's seven international partners: China, the European Union, India, Japan, South Korea, Russia, and the United States. The meeting will be a turning point for the project. From the point of view of the project's paymasters, one part of the baseline will be subject to special scrutiny: the cost. ITER seeks to demonstrate that nuclear fusion—the power source of the sun and stars—can be tamed on Earth to generate electricity. In the 3 years since the partners formally agreed to work together on the project, its estimated cost has ballooned. Earlier underestimates, rising construction costs, and design and schedule changes aimed at reducing risks have landed the partners with bills substantially higher than they were expecting. Although all appear committed to the project, tough discussion is likely at this month's council meeting.

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