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A woman receives dialysis, a common treatment for people with kidney disease. Black people in the United States are almost four times as likely to experience kidney failure as are white people.Credit: AB Forces News Collection/Alamy
Algorithm might delay health care for some
A sweeping analysis suggests that a controversial ‘race-based correction factor’ in an algorithm used to diagnose kidney disease is delaying specialist care for one million Black adults in the United States. Researchers introduced the correction factor in the late 1990s to account for results showing that, on average, Black people in the United States tend to have higher blood levels of a molecule called creatinine than do white people — despite having similar kidney function. Creatinine levels are a marker of how well a person’s kidneys filter waste from the body, and feed into the algorithm. Most researchers agree the correction is problematic, although the medical community is still debating how to eliminate it. Many advocate simply dropping it. “A population that is marginalized and much less likely to have necessary resources and support is the last group we want to put in a situation where they’re going to have delays in diagnosis and treatment,” says nephrologist Keith Norris at the University of California, Los Angeles.
How Biden can rebuild the ravaged EPA
Scientists at the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have high expectations that incoming president Joe Biden will restore the primacy of science at the agency and bolster weakened pollution regulations. There are clear and positive steps he can take, according to more than a dozen current and former EPA scientists interviewed by Nature, but it will take time. “There's been an enormous loss of trust; people are exceptionally edgy, and they’re not going to bounce back quickly,” says one senior EPA scientist. “Biden has a lot of terrific policies he wants to carry out, but the first job will be to bring the agency back to health.”
Chang’e-5’s Moon rocks have landed
A capsule containing lunar dust collected by China’s Chang’e-5 spacecraft landed in the grasslands of northern China this morning. The mission team recovered the capsule shortly after, ending a complex three-week mission to bring back lunar rocks for the first time since the US and Soviet missions in the 1960s and 1970s. The samples could contain some of the youngest volcanic lava returned from the Moon.
Read more: China set to retrieve first Moon rocks in 40 years (Nature | 5 min read, from November)
Features & opinion
WHO’s chief scientist reflects on a tough year
Soumya Swaminathan, the head of scientific work at the World Health Organization, reflects on the challenges and achievements the agency has faced as it navigates the COVID pandemic. “This year has been a roller coaster — a challenging, humbling and painful time,” writes Swaminathan. “In many ways, the pandemic has driven the WHO’s Science Division to work out how to do what it was meant to do — only much faster.”
The sun sets on Horizon 2020
Although imperfect, history will look kindly on the world’s biggest funding scheme, says science journalist Alison Abbott. Horizon 2020, the European Union’s €74-billion (US$90-billion) research programme, will soon come to the end of its fixed term. Abbott looks at how the programme won over the continent’s scientists by stripping away bureaucracy and creating a dedicated funding stream for excellence-driven fundamental research.
The biggest retractions of the year
The Surgisphere scandal looms large in the year’s top retractions, as chosen by Ivan Oransky and Adam Marcus of Retraction Watch. Both The Lancet and The New England Journal of Medicine removed articles that were based on a questionable data set from the company. And allegations that a biologist fabricated data set off an avalanche of spider-paper retractions — eight so far.
Image of the week
Eight years in the making, this image captures 2,953 Sun rises and Sun sets starting in August 2012. The image was taken with a simple pinhole camera made from a beer can and secured to the outside of the Bayfordbury Observatory at the University of Hertfordshire, UK. “It could be one of, if not the, longest exposures in existence,” says photographer Regina Valkenborgh. (Vice | 4 min read)Regina Valkenborgh
