Commentary in 1991

Greenhouse gas emissions by the United Kingdom could be significantly reduced by replacement of old and leaking gas mains. Such a programme could even be cost-effective for the utility concerned.

How can an efficient climate treaty be framed to accommodate continually developing science? It needs to control widely differing sources and sinks flexibly while explicitly distinguishing those which are well understood and quantified from others.

Could primate retroviruses have been passed on to man or other monkeys as a result of experiments with primate malarias? An answer to this question could explain the origin of the AIDS epidemic.

Methane is often ignored in the greenhouse debate. Reductions of emissions of this gas would be relatively easy to achieve and could have a significant effect on global warming.

An unprecedented collaborative effort is taking place in a remote region of Siberia to investigate the biology of migratory birds.

The last of the hundreds of oil-well fires left in Kuwait by Iraq should be capped this week. Although progress has been remarkable, a mechanism is needed to cope with future large-scale disasters.

Much could be gained by a reform of the system by which doctoral degrees are awarded, not least because of the single European market, due in 1993.

The puzzle of schizophrenia has been approached from many directions. But, despite the development of molecular genetic techniques, the origin of the condition remains obscure.

A recent UNFPA report on world population is full of errors, strongly biased and deceptive. The time has come to close down the agency and start again.

The discovery of penicillin remains one of the greatest advances in medical science. From the success of the discovery the biotechnology industry became established.

The speech by Sir Mark Richmond made at the recent meeting organized by Nature has been much quoted. Here we present the text.

Earlier this year, Unzen volcano erupted, killing 42 people. What follows is an account of how Japan's volcano coordinating committee dealt with this and similar events.

In some respects, things are getting worse, not better, for women in science. Positive measures need to be taken for progress towards genuine equality of opportunity.

Global warming caused by burning fossil fuels could be reduced by the use of biomass for energy. This strategy could be more effective than sequestering carbon by growing more trees.

Our cultural heritage is being destroyed faster today than at any time in the past. An undertstanding of the basic processes causing deterioration of ancient artefacts is urgently needed.

The remarkable story of the discovery of a set of equations at least three times this century shows once again that independent discoveries can occur and exist for some time.

VIPER is the first commercially available microprocessor whose design is claimed to have been proven correct. The controversy provoked by the claim reveals fundamental disagreement about the meaning of 'proof'.

The new national curriculum for England and Wales includes the testing of the scientific ability of seven-year olds. But the tests themselves show evidence of scientific illiteracy.

Japan's ambitious earthquake prediction programme has no hope of success, unless fundamental research is emphasized and data are shared.

Below we republish extracts from the "minority opinion" by Drs Hugh O. McDevitt and Ursula Storb that accompanied the draft report on Weaver et al. by the US NIH's Office of Scientific Integrity.