Comment in 2014

Researchers are divided over what processes should be considered fundamental.

Average global temperature is not a good indicator of planetary health. Track a range of vital signs instead, urge David G. Victor and Charles F. Kennel.

Irrigation-intensive industries in former Soviet republics have sucked water bodies dry. Olli Varis calls for economic reform to ease environmental and social tensions.

Naivety about promiscuous, assay-duping molecules is polluting the literature and wasting resources, warn Jonathan Baell and Michael A. Walters.

Confront economic differences to strengthen global research, urge P. Wenzel Geissler and Ferdinand Okwaro.

The first step in studying mental-health interventions across cultures is to adjust procedures to participants' needs, says Mónica Ruiz-Casares.

Richard B. Freeman and Wei Huang reflect on a link between a team's ethnic mix and highly cited papers.

Effective clinical studies must consider all ethnicities — exclusion can endanger populations, says Esteban G. Burchard.

Countries should follow China's lead and boost markets for water, wind and solar power technologies to drive down costs, say John A. Mathews and Hao Tan.

Voluntary work alone cannot sustain the assessments carried out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. Thomas F. Stocker and Gian-Kasper Plattner call for institutional support and a longer report cycle.

Europe's €1-billion science and technology project needs to clarify its goals and establish transparent governance, say Yves Frégnac and Gilles Laurent.

Freely available satellite imagery will improve science and environmental-monitoring products, say Michael A. Wulder and Nicholas C. Coops.

We can no longer ignore feedbacks between global warming and how people respond, say Paul I. Palmer and Matthew J. Smith.

To guard against hype, those interpreting research on the body's microscopic communities should ask five questions, says William P. Hanage.

Careless discussion of epigenetic research on how early life affects health across generations could harm women, warn Sarah S. Richardson and colleagues.

Mahlon C. Kennicutt II, Steven L. Chown and colleagues outline the most pressing questions in southern polar research, and call for greater collaboration and environmental protection in the region.

A broader pool of expertise is needed to understand how human behaviour affects energy demand and the uptake of technologies, says Benjamin K. Sovacool.

Tackling pollution and using different grades of water for different tasks is more efficient than making all water potable, say Tao Tao and Kunlun Xin.

By 2050, the number of people over the age of 80 will triple globally. These demographics could come at great cost to individuals and economies. Two groups describe how research in animals and humans should be refocused to find ways to delay the onset of frailty.

Boosting basic medical services and routine immunizations — not travel vaccinations — is the key to ending polio worldwide, says Zulfiqar Ahmed Bhutta.