California fires close labs as grant hopefuls get fingers burned

San Francisco

No smoke without fire: wildfires have set large parts of southern California ablaze. Credit: J. DESCLOITRES/MODIS/NASA GSFC

The wildfires that ravaged southern California last week came at a bad time for San Diego researchers rushing to file their grant applications with the National Institutes of Health by the deadline of 1 November.

Five days before the applications were due, the smoke from the fires, which have destroyed about 300,000 hectares east of the city, became so dense that several major research institutions were forced to close. Among them were the University of California, San Diego, the Salk Institute for Biological Sciences and the Scripps Research Institute. All reopened within three days, but by then applicants had lost valuable time. Some researchers were also delayed by fire damage to their homes and communities.

The Salk Institute has requested a two-week extension for all of its applicants. But this now appears unlikely to be granted. The NIH stated that it would consider extensions on a case-by-case basis, but that these will not generally be longer than the duration for which the institution was closed.

Climate-change defeat narrower than expected

Washington

The US Senate last week defeated a climate-change bill that would have limited emissions of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gases. But the relative closeness of the vote encouraged many environmentalists.

Introduced by Senators Joseph Lieberman (Democrat, Connecticut) and John McCain (Republican, Arizona), the bill called for immediate cuts in emissions from public utilities and other industries.

It was defeated by 55 votes to 43. But proponents of the bill, who see growing support for such emissions caps, point out that the vote is the closest that the Senate has ever come to acknowledging the problem of global warming. Six Republicans crossed party lines to vote against the Bush administration's policy, which opposes mandatory controls on greenhouse-gas emissions.

Oxford don suspended for political gaffe

London

A pathologist at the University of Oxford has been suspended for two months without pay after rejecting a prospective graduate student who had served in Israel's armed forces.

Andrew Wilkie rejected Amit Duvshani's application because of what he termed “gross human-rights abuses on the Palestinians” (see Nature 424, 7; 200310.1038/424007b). His comments triggered an investigation that led to this week's reprimand by the university. “This ruling reflects that there can be no place for any form of discrimination within the University of Oxford other than on the grounds of merit,” a university statement said.

Andrew Marks, president of the International Academic Friends of Israel, a New York-based non-profit group devoted to fighting academic boycotts of Israel, says that he is satisfied by the ruling. Marks says that Duvshani is now hoping to study at a university in the United States.

Money pours in for work to boost crop yield in droughts

London

Proposals to help squeeze more crops from each drop of rain and river water were unveiled this week in Nairobi.

The details of 50 research projects aimed at tackling the effects of water scarcity on agriculture were announced during the launch of the Challenge Program on Water and Food — a multimillion-dollar scheme spanning nine river basins in Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America.

The plans include a study of how local communities around rivers such as the Niger in western Africa can enclose floodwaters and use that resource to farm fish. Another project will assess the impact of India's multibillion-dollar plans to divert floodwater from eastern rivers to central and western areas of the country by 2016.

The Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research, a Washington-based group that supports research to improve food security, aims to raise US$120 million for the programme. It says that donors have already committed US$60 million.

→ http://www.waterforfood.org

Singapore slings cash at research centres

Sydney

Singapore has officially opened its 'Biopolis' — a S$500-million (US$290-million) biological research centre that will eventually house more than 1,500 scientists.

The opening last week was followed by the announcement that the government will also create a Centre for Molecular Medicine. The centre will be run by the government's Agency for Science, Technology and Research (A*STAR), with the aim of translating basic research into medical applications. It will initially be housed at Biopolis when the centre opens in January 2004, but will later be moved to labs next to the National University of Singapore.

Kong Hwai Loong, executive director of A*STAR's Biomedical Research Council, says that the centre is expected to receive initial funding of at least S$30 million. The centre's first project will be in using stem cells for regenerative medicine, he says.

Women struggle towards top of career ladder

Munich

The proportion of women on senior scientific panels in 2001.

The European Commission has rounded up the statistics on how women are faring in science — and the news is mixed.

The report, entitled “She Figures 2003”, shows that the annual growth rate for women in public research is now 8%, compared with 3.1% for men. But the fraction of women employed as academic or industrial scientists only rose from 33% to 35% between 1999 and 2001.

The number of women who participate on senior scientific panels — which closely reflects the number in top jobs — varies radically from country to country (see chart). “Normally, the higher the prestige connected with the position, the lower the quota of women,” says Rossella Palomba, one of the report's authors and a gender expert at the Institute for Population Research in Rome. In Portugal, the only country to break the 50% barrier, the authors note that the data come from a sample of just 15 positions. “This calls for an urgent review of recruitment strategies and appointment procedures,” says Philippe Busquin, the European research commissioner.