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RESEARCH

Antarctic lakes A team of US-led Antarctic explorers was preparing to drill through to the subglacial Lake Whillans as Nature went to press this week. The pristine lake is buried beneath some 800 metres of ice at the margin of the West Antarctic Ice Sheet. Meanwhile, Russian scientists who last February reached Antarctica’s largest subglacial lake, Lake Vostok, announced on 10 January that they had recovered further samples of lake water, which had moved up the borehole and refrozen onto the drill bit. See go.nature.com/ut2hxw for more.

US climate audit A US climate-assessment advisory committee released its draft report on 11 January, documenting a range of global-warming impacts across the country and making projections. Issued under the auspices of the inter-agency Global Change Research Program, the document is available for public comment until 12 April, and will serve as the basis for the United States’ third national climate assessment, which is expected to be released late this year or early in 2014. See go.nature.com/k9p4lm for more.

Credit: MARK RALSTON/AFP/GETTY

EVENTS

Record smog blankets Beijing A year after Beijing’s municipal government said that it would report more realistic assessments of the city’s air quality, pollution in China’s capital soared to unprecedented heights. City officials last week asked construction sites and industries to limit their activities and told residents to stay indoors, as concentrations of fine particles (those less than 2.5 micrometres across) rose to record levels many times above what the World Health Organization considers ‘hazardous’. With smog blanketing cities across northern China, state media urged the government to take action on air pollution.

Bush-fire damage A fierce bush fire threatened Australia’s Siding Spring Observatory in New South Wales last week, but initial assessments indicated that no telescopes were seriously damaged, the Australian National University (which runs the site) said on 14 January. Some buildings were severely affected at the observatory, which will be closed for two weeks. The fire was one of many across Australia, where long-standing temperature records were broken last week during a summer heatwave.

Warmest year The contiguous United States chalked up its warmest year on record last year, blowing past the previous record set in 1998. The average temperature, 12.9 °C, was 1.8 °C above the average for the twentieth century and 0.56 °C above the previous record. Global data are not yet available, but the latest analysis by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration suggests that, in 2012, January to November was the eighth warmest period on record.

POLICY

GM transparency The European Food Safety Authority announced on 14 January that it was starting a broad transparency initiative, designed to make data from its risk assessments more widely available. The agency also released the first batch of data: a file containing documents and data submitted by biotechnology giant Monsanto for the 2003 authorization of its genetically modified maize (corn) NK603. See go.nature.com/e7sgdd for more.

Primates grounded United Airlines, the world’s largest carrier, will no longer ship non-human primates to research labs. The airline clarified its policy on 8 January, following pressure from activists at People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals. With the adoption of similar rules by Air Canada last month, only four major airlines now say they will fly research primates: Air France, China Eastern Airlines, Philippine Airlines and Vietnam Airlines. See go.nature.com/agkgbl for more.

Japanese windfall Japanese scientists may benefit from the ¥10.3-trillion (US$120-billion) supplementary budget proposed by the Liberal Democratic Party, which regained power in December and seems set on reversing some of the austerity that has characterized Japan’s leadership over the past few years. Of ¥570 billion requested by the science and education ministry, universities will receive ¥180 billion for technology transfer, and research on induced pluripotent stem cells could receive ¥20 billion. The budget is expected to be passed next month. See go.nature.com/7lhmxg for more.

California increase California’s public universities, which have suffered years of funding cuts, were awarded a US$500-million boost in the state’s proposed 2013–14 budget, announced on 10 January. The generosity comes after voters last year approved a temporary tax increase to stave off deep cuts to public education. Despite the rise, general state funds stand more than $1.2 billion lower than in 2007–08, a shortfall that universities have made up for by increasing student tuition fees (see Nature 480, 164; 2011). Both Democrats and Republicans expressed support for the budget, which the state legislature must approve before it comes into effect in July.

Red–Dead link A proposal to construct a 180-kilometre-long conduit from the Red Sea to the Dead Sea is economically and environmentally feasible, according to draft studies posted online last week. Israel, Jordan and the Palestinian Authority had asked the World Bank to look at the plan in 2005, with the idea that channelling water downhill to restore the salty and rapidly shrinking Dead Sea would also generate hydroelectricity to run a desalination plant (see Nature 464, 1118–1120; 2010). The World Bank recommended a pipeline as the best option, at a cost of around US$10 billion. See go.nature.com/if8uyu for more.

US energy hub The US Department of Energy has launched its fifth Energy Innovation Hub, a research centre focusing on rare-earth minerals and materials that are crucial to the energy system, including advanced batteries, wind turbines and solar panels. Based at the department’s Ames Laboratory in Iowa, the Critical Materials Institute will receive up to US$120 million over five years. The institute, announced on 9 January, follows earlier hubs focusing on advanced nuclear reactors, energy storage, energy-efficient buildings and the development of fuels from sunlight. The hub model was the brainchild of energy secretary Steven Chu.

Credit: Noah Berger/REUTERS

PEOPLE

Open-access tribute A campaign on Twitter is calling for researchers to post their papers openly online, at hashtag #pdftribute, in commemoration of Aaron Swartz, a 26-year-old programmer and Internet activist who committed suicide on 11 January. Swartz (pictured), who pushed for open access to court records, scholarly material and other web information, was facing criminal charges for downloading some 4 million articles from the not-for-profit scholarly archive JSTOR. Academics have joined a wave of indignation at the charges, which many argue contributed to his suicide. See go.nature.com/5wmeld for more.

BUSINESS

Energy spending Global investment in clean energy fell by 11% to US$268.7 billion in 2012, according to figures from analysts Bloomberg New Energy Finance on 14 January. Around $30 billion of investment went to research and development, with the rest mainly financing energy projects. China’s spending rose 20% to $67.7 billion, mostly owing to greater investment in solar energy. Policy changes such as expired subsidy programmes led to lower investment in the United States (down 32% to $44.2 billion), Italy (a drop of 51% to $14.7 billion) and Spain (a 68% reduction to $3 billion).

Arctic drilling  US secretary of the interior Ken Salazar announced a federal review of the offshore drilling programme in the Arctic on 8 January, focusing on a series of problems encountered by oil-and-gas giant Shell. Late last month, Shell lost control of a drilling rig, which ran aground in the Gulf of Alaska; the company briefly lost control of another rig in July. The review will focus on these issues as well as on challenges that the company has faced in implementing its oil-spill-preparedness plan. A report is scheduled for completion in early March.

Credit: Source: human mortality database

TREND WATCH

Human health and life expectancy are poorer in the United States than in other high-income nations, according to a 9 January report by the National Research Council in Washington DC. Compared with 16 peer countries, including France, Japan and the United Kingdom, the United States has some of the highest rates of infant mortality and obesity. The death rate in the United States is higher than average for most ages, with the largest disparities at younger ages (see chart).

COMING UP

20–25 January In Tromsø, Norway, politicians and researchers discuss the geopolitics and changing ecosystems of the Arctic, in the ‘Arctic Frontiers’ conference. go.nature.com/kjorrb

24 January The Natural History Museum in London launches its year-long celebration of the work of Alfred Russel Wallace — the co-discoverer of evolution by natural selection. This year is the centenary of his death. go.nature.com/dxbt9r