Nature (Vol. 434, No. 7029, 03 March 2005)

116 Pages·2005·10.926 MB·English

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3 March 2005 Volume 434Issue no 7029
Why Harvard needs Summers
The head of Harvard University leaves much to be desired in terms of tact and demonstrable respect for those who
disagree with him. But the university should stick with him, at least for the time being.
There are many reasons to argue that Larry Summers,the blunt- departed for Princeton.And he provoked a backlash from academics
spoken head of Harvard University, should step down. But who felt that he had failed to consult them sufficiently on ambitious
there are more compelling reasons for the president ofone of plans for the university’s expansion to a new campus in Allston,Boston.
the world’s premier academic institutions to remain in place than for Ultimately,however,Summers’presidency must be judged by his
him to pack his bags. overall contribution to Harvard and by the academic advances it
Summers’immediate troubles flared up in January after he made makes during his tenure.Many staffmembers,including scientists,
controversial comments suggesting that differences in intrinsic ability believe that the positive contributions he has already made,and the
might partly explain why so few women reach top-tier positions in changes he is planning,count for more than his controversial style or
science.Time will tell whether his comments wreak serious damage his public comments on women in science.
on the institution’s reputation and its ability to recruit female stu- For one thing,Summers has become a champion of scientific
dents and staff.But the resulting uproar tapped a vein ofdeep and research at Harvard.He wants the university to invest heavily in scien-
broad staffdiscontent about Summers’governing style — discontent tific facilities and to establish a better environment for interdiscipli-
on which this publication reported earlier this year (see Nature433, nary research.He wants greater collaboration and synergy between
190–192;2005).Anger peaked at two fiery staffmeetings in February, research groups and departments than some academics would natu-
one ofwhich Summers described as “searing”.But it now seems that rally adopt.And he expects scientific institutions to form the core of
he will be able to ride out the current storm. the university’s massive expansion into the Allston campus.
The economist and former US Treasury secretary has brought a The success ofthese projects will not become clear for some time,
corporate management style to Harvard’s decentralized and scholarly but many ofthe researchers involved are brimming with enthusiasm.
environment.Aggressive,argumentative and domineering are just a Even some ofSummers’critics acknowledge that it is better to have a
few ofthe words used to describe him by foes and fans alike.The onus strong-minded president who makes bold decisions for the good of
is now on Summers to learn some tact and to show greater respect for the university than a faint-hearted head lacking ambition. And
the diverse and gifted scholars who drive his institution.At a recent should Summers resign in the current circumstances,it is highly
faculty meeting,he pledged to listen to staffmore and to temper his unlikely that his successor would display the strong leadership skills
words and actions. that Harvard requires.
Summers’ past actions don’t inspire much confidence in this Summers,however,will need the active support ofhis staffifhe is
regard.Within months oftaking over at Harvard in 2001,he became to drive positive change.Whether or not that support is forthcoming
embroiled in an unseemly public row with Cornel West,the institu- will become clear in the next few months.Ifit is,Harvard can prosper
tion’s best-known African-American academic, who subsequently under Summers’leadership. ■
In pursuit of balance
Sunbelt states that have boomed economically should eventually earn a larger slice of the research pie.
In the past quarter-century,economic and political clout in the specific projects directly.Used selectively,this process corrects the
United States has shifted markedly towards the south and the natural tendency ofresearch dollars always to accumulate in the same
mountain west.Yet research dollars remain heavily concentrated places.Over time,these strengths will fuel the growth oftop-flight
in other parts ofthe country (see page 10).This creates an imbalance research in the sunbelt states.For governors such as Florida’s Jeb Bush,
that political leaders and university presidents in states such as such growth can’t come quickly enough.
Florida,Texas and Arizona are now working energetically to address. There are many ways to encourage it.The best place to start is
When the existing structure ofUS research came into being after perhaps by establishing a robust public university.Arizona has fared
the Second World War,the lion’s share ofgrant funding flowed to the well in this regard.But the more fragmented systems in Florida and
most powerful universities ofthat era — almost all ofthem on the Texas have struggled to attain the status to which the third- and
east coast,in the midwest and in California.Since then,the distribu- fourth-largest states in the union must aspire.
tion ofeconomic activity and population in the country has shifted. Then there’s the ‘big bang’approach,as exemplified by Governor
But the most powerful research departments are still concentrated in Bush’s plan to invest a cool half-billion dollars in a branch ofScripps
the same places. Research Institute at Palm Beach.There is some scepticism about the
To a large extent,that is as it should be.The greatest strength ofthe likely benefits ofthis plan,with critics saying that too many regions are
US system is its meritocracy,with grants distributed on the basis ofa banking on biotechnology as an economic engine.But Scripps Florida
robust peer-review system.Another is its diversity:there are at least a is not without logic.The original Scripps in La Jolla,after all,laid the
dozen agencies that support significant amounts of university foundation of the University of California at San Diego — now a
research. And the system has a third strength, commonly mis- research powerhouse.It is surely right for Florida and other states to
diagnosed as weakness:the occasional willingness ofCongress to fund aim high,and to aggressively pursue a larger slice ofthe science pie. ■
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Word search Body of evidence Welfare state You’ve got male
Physicists in a Hobbit remains Japan debates rules Radio collars see
quandary over prove a thorny issue to restrict animal sons rise for
missing magazines for fossil hunters use in the lab water voles
p4 p5 p6 p8
NIH workers see red over revised
rules for conflicts of interest
Meredith Wadman,Washington H
NI
The US National Institutes ofHealth (NIH)
is facing a revolt by employees over its tight-
ened rules on conflicts ofinterest.
The restrictions,which dramatically alter
a policy set up in 1995,were announced on
1 February (see Nature433,557;2005).They
are the result ofintense pressure on the NIH
from an angry Congress, after a series of
embarrassing disclosures revealed that a
number ofsenior agency scientists had been
making hundreds ofthousands ofdollars as
consultants for commercial firms.
But the move has angered NIH employ-
ees,who say that the rules go too far.They
point to talented young researchers who will
be discouraged from coming to the agency
because their inventions have been taken up
by biotechnology companies (see ‘Caught
between a rock and a hard place’,below).And
they fear for long-standing employees whose Scene ofconflict:revamped ethical guidelines at the NIH are being criticized as too restrictive.
life savings could be hit hard by regulations
on owning stocks. Under the rules, all forms of paid and each limited to $15,000 ofstocks in any given
“Many ofthe rules are frightening,”says unpaid consulting for biomedical compa- biomedical firm.
Abner Notkins,chiefofexperimental medi- nies are banned, and there are numerous Protesters say that the rules will hurt the
cine at the National Institute ofDental and restrictions on teaching and serving on com- agency’s recruiting and retention ofscientists,
Craniofacial Research.“They’ve gone to a pany boards. Senior scientists are not and force significant financial losses on many
damaging extreme.” allowed to accept academic prizes worth employees,especially those who are past the
“The vast majority of NIH employees more than $200.The rules also require some age of easily finding another job. Notkins
have done nothing wrong.We are all being 6,000 senior NIH employees to sell any stock points out that people who bought shares in
punished for the transgressions of a few,” in biomedical companies owned by them- Pfizer a year ago at $37,for example,would be
adds Elaine Jaffe,chiefofhaematopathology selves,their spouses or their children by this obliged to sell them at the current price of$27.
at the National Cancer Institute. July.The NIH’s other 11,500 employees are Raynard Kington,NIH deputy director, ▲
Caught between a rock and a hard place
When Elaine Jaffe read the new ethics rules for part-time while doing his medical residency. Jaffe says that she understands why. “He
NIH employees announced last month, she A patent is pending. won’t be able to continue to work with the
immediately thought of the promising young In the meantime, he applied for a two-year stint company to see the fruition of his effort. If they
physician she was seeking to employ in her as a clinical fellow in Jaffe’s haematopathology called him and they had a question about
lab at the National Cancer Institute in lab. He was enthusiastic about the chance to something and wanted him to take time off and
Bethesda, Maryland. broaden his training, Jaffe says. Then the new come and work on something for a couple of
The physician was so bright that he had NIH ethics regulations were announced. days, he wouldn’t be allowed to do it. It would
already mastered the first two years of course- They bar both temporary and permanent NIH stifle him creatively.”
work by the time he entered medical school. employees from consulting for companies, And yet, she says, “he wouldn’t be working
An engineer by training, he used his spare time whether or not they are paid for their services. in my lab on anything related to his invention”.
at medical school to invent a machine that Coming to the NIH would mean that the Jaffe says that she agrees with consulting
automatically embeds, processes and sections researcher couldn’t be involved in steering the restrictions on senior NIH scientists. But the
pathology specimens. He licensed it to a small development of his invention. He is now ban for temporary employees is, she thinks,
biotechnology company for whom he worked reconsidering Jaffe’s offer of a position. too much. Meredith Wadman
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▲counters that the rules are tough but P
AI
necessary. “The preponderance of the
evidence suggested that our ethics over-
sight system didn’t work,”he says.“Our
number one priority was to ensure the
public’s trust in the integrity of the
science ofthis agency.”
He points out that,like it or not,NIH
scientists can have an impact on financial
markets — as they did in December,when
Pfizer shares fell sharply after the National
Cancer Institute halted a clinical trial
amid safety concerns about the com-
pany’s painkiller Celebrex.
Kington and other NIH officials have
been probing the cases ofsome 100 NIH Paper chase:copies of
scientists who congressional investigators a contentious article were
found were not complying with the old never delivered to Los Alamos staff.
ethics rules.It has emerged that at least
half of these people did not violate Physicists miss out on critical
the rules,but were mistakenly identified
because,for example,they had the same
points as magazines vanish
name as another researcher who had con-
sulted for a drug firm.
“Even if80% ofthem are cleared,”says
Kington,“having 20% on that list who Geoff Brumfiel,Washington rules at the facility.Many researchers were
may have violated the rules says some- Some sensitive material has once again livid about the long shutdown,especially
thing about the system.” disappeared from Los Alamos National after a government investigation concluded
But hundreds of NIH employees say Laboratory in New Mexico — and the that the missing disks never actually existed
that the agency’s response is too extreme. corridors are abuzz with theories about (see Nature433,447;2005).
In an online vote last month,700 ofthem what happened to it. The Physics Todayarticle was an opinion
elected an executive committee for the Gone missing this time are a couple piece by Brad Lee Holian,a theoretical
Assembly ofScientists,a dormant group ofhundred copies ofthe December 2004 physicist at the laboratory.It attacked
ofintramural scientists that has reconsti- issue ofPhysics Today,which contained Nanos’s position by citing statistics that
tuted itselfto try to soften the new rules. an article critical ofPeter Nanos, showed Los Alamos’s safety record to be
The revival was spearheaded by the laboratory’s director. comparable to that ofother national
Ezekiel Emanuel, chairman of the NIH After many physicists at the laboratories (Physics
P
Department of Clinical Bioethics, and laboratory reported that Today57(12),60–61; AI
quickly led to a two-hour meeting late last they had not received the 2004).So when the issue
week between the assembly’s executive issue,conspiracy theories in which it was printed
committee and officials including agency began to circulate about failed to arrive,physicists
director Elias Zerhouni and Kington.The the fate ofthe lost at the lab began to
assembly is also consulting the American magazines. speculate as to the cause
Civil Liberties Union to see whether the Laboratory officials categorically deny ofthe disappearance.
new rules violate the privacy and free- that they are trying to keep the article from “The whole thing is a mystery,”says
dom-of-speech rights ofNIH employees. the staff.“The notion that there was some Holian.He adds that he,for one,doesn’t
In the meantime, the reality of the sort ofan effort to keep Physics Todayout buy the conspiracy theories:“I’m still in the
changes is becoming apparent on the NIH ofthe hands ofsubscribers is ludicrous camp that somebody goofed up somehow.”
campus. Last week, officials at the at best,”says Jim Fallin,the laboratory’s But,he points out,the fact that rumours
National Cancer Institute circulated a chiefspokesman. continue to circulate on e-mail and the
call for nominations for the $50,000 But according to an e-mail survey popular ‘LANL:The Real Story’blog shows
Paul Marks Prize for Cancer Research, published in the March issue ofthe the level oftension between staffand
offered by the Memorial Sloan-Kettering magazine,more than halfofthe laboratory’s administrators.“After the shutdown,people
Cancer Center in New York. “Federal 414 subscribers say that they never received don’t have a lot ofconfidence in laboratory
employees … could accept the honor and their copies ofthe December issue.By management anymore,”he says.
the plaque,but not the monetary prize,” comparison,less than 3% say they didn’t Fallin doubts that Los Alamos’s staff
the e-mail noted. get the February 2005 issue. or its management are to blame for
Kington said last week that the NIH The mystery ofthe missing magazines is the vanishing magazines.“Mailroom
is committed to assessing the impact of just the latest reported disappearance at the employees pride themselves in their
the new rules on recruitment and reten- laboratory:in July oflast year,for example, handling ofPhysics Today,”he notes sternly.
tion, and making modifications if two hard drives containing classified data A thorough search ofthe lab’s mail facilities
“an appropriate evidence base” shows were reported missing (see Nature430,387; has yet to turn up the missing issues,and he
that they are necessary. He asked NIH 2004).The disks,together with the injury of says a more likely explanation may be that
employees to “provide their input as a summer intern,led Nanos to shut down Physics Today’s mailing labels contained
clearly as possible”.Comments from the parts ofLos Alamos for nearly six months errors.The laboratory has contacted the
public are being accepted until 3 April and to accuse lab scientists ofa “cowboy postmaster-general in Albuquerque to
at [email protected]. ■ culture”ofdisregard for safety and security help investigate. ■
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N France lays plans
W
O
R
P.B for premier cancer
centre in Toulouse
Alison Abbott,Toulouse
Europe’s largest centre for cancer
research is to be built on the site ofa
major chemical explosion in France.
More than 30 people died and
thousands were injured on 21 September
2001 in a blast at the Toulouse chemical
company AZF.The explosion was one of
Europe’s worst industrial accidents.
The cancer centre will form the
heart ofone ofFrance’s seven new
‘Cancéropôles’— regional networks
ofcancer research and care.
Small skull,big discovery:Homo floresiensis(left) represents a new branch ofhuman evolution. The 220-hectare site will house many
cancer-research groups and institutes
Fossil finders in tug of war
that are currently scattered throughout
the city,as well as some hospital
departments.These will benefit from
over analysis of hobbit bones
shared facilities,including sophisticated
genomics and microscopy equipment.
An institute for advanced techniques
Rex Dalton,Jakarta Homo sapienspygmies.The one dwarfed skull in life sciences,employing physicists,
The prized bones of a miniature hominin could be explained by a congenital defect, chemists and computer scientists,will
have finally been returned to the scientists Jacob says.Many other leading palaeoanthro- also be built.
who discovered them,after months ofdispute pologists,including Tim White ofthe Univer- The entire project is being directed
with a competing scientist who had taken sity ofCalifornia,Berkeley,and Chris Stringer by Georges Delsol,a cancer researcher
them away. ofthe Natural History Museum in London, at Purpan University Hospital,Toulouse.
The move is being seen as a victory by the disagree with Jacob’s interpretation. “The explosion was not only a terrible
discovery team.But some samples have yet to The dispute worsened when Jacob gave human tragedy,but it also threatened
be given back.And a quarrel over whether the two other researchers access to the bones for the long-term economic well-being of
find really represents a new species continues a week in February. Morwood and Brown the city,”says Delsol.“The Cancéropôle
to haunt the researchers. call the examination ofsamples about which will bring new jobs as well as being very
“It is a complete circus,”says Peter Brown, they have not yet published “unethical”.But good for science.”
an Australian palaeoanthropologist who the researchers in question — Alan Thorne,a Planned public investment in plant
co-led the Indonesian–Australian team that semi-retired anthropologist from the Aus- and equipment at the site will total about
reported the discovery last autumn1,2. tralian National University in Canberra,and €600 million (US$800 million).Two
The skeletal remains are those of Homo anatomist Maciej Henneberg ofthe Univer- French pharmaceutical companies —
floresiensis, a metre-tall hominin species sity of Adelaide — say they only looked Sanofi-Aventis and Pierre Fabre — will
nicknamed ‘hobbit’, whose discovery briefly at these specimens and deny any also move to the site,and say that they
revealed a new branch ofthe human evolu- improper conduct. plan to build labs to develop new drugs,
tionary tree.The bones,found on the island Jacob promised to return the bones in partly on the basis ofthe cancer research
ofFlores,Indonesia,were dated to the unex- both January and February, by deadlines that will also take place there.
pectedly recent time ofjust 18,000 years ago. agreed with the Indonesian Centre.But he But first the land must be cleaned
Within a month ofthe publication,one of twice failed to do so,saying that he had not up.The explosion occurred in a store
Indonesia’s top anthropologists,Teuku Jacob finished with the remains.On 23 February, containing hundreds oftonnes of
of Gajah Mada University, had taken the the bones were at last returned to the centre, chemicals for fertilizer production.
bones to his lab for analysis.These included where they are being held under lock and key. Total,AZF’s parent company,is
the skeletal remains ofeight individuals,some But some samples remain elsewhere. organizing and financing the clean-up
of which have yet to be described officially. Pieces of rib bone given out by Jacob for ofthe pollutants — predominantly
Jacob was given access to the fossils by his genetic analysis are still at the Max Planck ammonia,ammonium nitrates and
friend and co-leader of the discovery team, Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in chlorine.It is selling the land to the
archaeologist Radien Soejono ofthe Indone- Leipzig, Germany, and at another lab in Cancéropôle for the symbolic price
sian Centre for Archaeology in Jakarta. Jakarta.Ifsuccessful,analysis ofDNA should of‘one franc’.
The rest of the discovery team,also led help to pin down the evolution ofthe species. The ministry ofdefence,which still
by archaeologist Michael Morwood of the The discovery team is demanding that owns adjacent land used as a military
University of New England in Armidale, this material also be returned immediately. dump,is cleaning that up and will also
Australia, was furious that Jacob had In the meantime, the researchers are in sell it cheaply to the Cancéropôle.
removed the remains. Indonesia looking for more bones to verify Building work will start in earnest
Tensions built as Jacob began saying pub- and expand their theories. ■ next year,and the facility should
licly that H.floresiensiswas not a new human be opened in 2008,when it will employ
1. Brown,P.et al.Nature431,1055–1061 (2004).
species.He contends that the bones are from 2. Morwood,M.J.et al.Nature431,1087–1091 (2004). up to 2,500 people. ■
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Japanese call for more bite in animal rules
David Cyranoski,Tokyo Accreditation ofLaboratory Animal Y
M
Animal-welfare activists are locking Care International. ALA
horns with researchers in Japan over The SCJ says that ifthese guide- N/
A
H
how strictly the use ofanimals in the lines were in place,there would be AT
N
country’s labs should be controlled. no need for legally binding regula- E.
Friction has built up because the tion ofanimal experiments,which it
Japanese parliament is preparing an claims might be implemented arbi-
updated version of the 1973 animal- trarily by local government officials.
welfare law,which is expected to pass But animal-rights groups, such
by June (see Nature430,714;2004). as All Life in a Viable Environment
Animal-welfare campaigners want to (ALIVE),say that self-regulation by
introduce legally binding restrictions researchers is not enough.A survey
on experiments,but researchers advo- carried out by ALIVE last September
cate voluntary guidelines instead. showed that most university med-
Mounting public concern has put ical departments don’t even keep
pressure on parliament to strengthen track ofthe number ofanimals used.
legislation.The current system is based “They just want to avoid any kind of
on “guesswork”about what is happen- accountability,”says ALIVE director
ing in laboratories, Seichi Kaneda, a Fusako Nogami.
member ofthe main opposition party, The revised law should at least
the Democratic Party ofJapan,told a contain a registration system that
hearing in Tokyo on 24 February. requires experimental facilities or
At the moment,general guidelines researchers to inform a government
are enforced by the environment min- authority that an experiment will be
istry on the basis ofthe 1973 law.But carried out,says Nogami.
ethical questions relating to specific Most other countries have much
experiments,such as whether animals stricter regulations.Britain requires
need to be used in the way proposed by labs to be licensed ifthey do animal
the researchers,are dealt with by the experiments. The United States
ministries funding the research. Guarded optimism:campaigners hope parliament will take action. combines legal measures (including
Researchers acknowledge that the unannounced visits that can result
system could be improved.A representative voluntary guidelines that would cover indus- in fines) with voluntary guidelines.
ofthe Science Council ofJapan (SCJ),a coali- trial as well as academic labs. Japan’s Democratic party hopes that
tion of scientific societies,told the hearing The guidelines proposed by the SCJ negotiations with members of the ruling
that Japan has a reputation “as an outlaw would require institutions to set up commit- coalition will produce a more restrictive draft
country without rules”.The representative — tees to monitor animal experiments. They ofthe law.Momentum for reform is appar-
a neuroscientist who asked not to be identi- would also call for greater use ofthird-party ently strong,although the civil service and the
fied for fear ofharassment by animal-welfare accreditation of labs by bodies such asthe powerful Liberal Democratic party seem to
groups — said that Japan should implement US-based Association for Assessment and be less enthusiastic about such restrictions.■
Agency to bring fast-breeder reactor out of mothballs
Ichiko Fuyuno,Tokyo and a member ofJapan’s Atomic Energy from the reactor’s secondary cooling system.
Japan is taking steps to restart its prototype Commission. Critics ofthe project claim that the state
fast-breeder nuclear reactor,which has been However,India and China are forging only reversed its decision after the central
sitting dormant in the northern state of ahead with fast-breeders,which use mixed government agreed to provide economic
Fukui since an accident in 1995. oxides ofplutonium and uranium as fuel packages and to link Fukui to Tokyo by
In February,the Fukui government and produce more fissile material than they bullet train.
approved plans to restart the Monju reactor, consume.Japan’s determination to press on Japan’s Nuclear Cycle Development
effectively giving the go-ahead for a with the project suggests that in Asian Institute has been working on the project
government plan to spend ¥15 billion nations with limited sources ofenergy the since 1968 and its cost to date is estimated at
(US$140 million) over the next few years to technology still has a future. ¥800 billion.A final obstacle to its resuming
get the prototype running again. “Japan needs to look for new energy operation — a 2003 court ruling that
Critics ofthe move point out that fast- resources,”says Hiroshi Nunota,an official nullified its construction permit — is likely
breeder technology has been abandoned in at the nuclear fuel cycle section ofthe to be overturned during the next couple of
Britain,the United States and Germany. education ministry,which is funding months,say energy analysts.
“It was a mistake to build the Monju the project. The institute still needs to win approval
reactor.It is too expensive and time- The government ofFukui had been from the local government and residents
consuming,”says Hitoshi Yoshioka, reluctant to allow the reactor to restart before restarting the operation.But most
a specialist in the history ofscience following public concern about an accident analysts think that this approval will also
and science policy at Kyushu University in 1995,when liquid sodium coolant leaked be forthcoming. ■
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PL Pasteur researchers
RF/S
HA win fight to stay
C
S
D.
in city centre
Declan Butler,Paris
Scientists at the Pasteur Institute in Paris
have won a long running battle over
plans to move labs to a commercial zone
on the outskirts ofthe city.In a report
presented to the management on
24February,external arbitrators said
that the move was “not necessary”.
The mediators were John Skehel,a
virologist and director ofBritain’s
National Institute for Medical Research
in London,and John Wills,the UK
Write stuff:is work on Escherichia colibeing ignored in the scramble to fund bioterror research? institute’s administrator.They said that
the Pasteur’s plans to renovate its labs in
Protest letter accuses health central Paris could be accomplished in
phases,without moving staffelsewhere.
Philippe Kourilsky,the director-
agency of biodefence bias
general ofthe Pasteur Institute,had
planned to move hundreds ofscientists
to a new site at Fresnes,southeast of
Erika Check,Washington Not just funders but investigators are Paris (see Nature432,788;2004).
Hundreds of US biologists have signed a shifting their focus to biodefence-related Staffprotested that the site was in an
letter protesting at what they see as the microbes,it seems.“We have become unbal- undesirable area with poor public
excessive use of bacteriology funds for the anced,”says Martha Howe ofthe University transportation.A petition signed by
study ofbioterror threats. ofTennessee in Memphis,a past president of more than halfthe staffsays that they
The letter,which reflects growing unease the American Society for Microbiology. “understand neither the necessity,nor
among researchers,was due to be delivered Researchers are just not making the basic- the rationale”ofthe move.
this week to managers at the National Insti- science applications,she explains. The report highlights staffconcerns
tutes ofHealth (NIH),US lawmakers and the But Anthony Fauci,director ofthe NIAID, that there should be “minimum effect
leaders ofseven scientific societies. says he disagrees with the premise of the on the progress ofinteractive research
“The diversion of research funds from protest. “Although I have a great deal of programmes during refurbishment”.
projects ofhigh public-health importance to respect for the people who signed that letter,if Additional space could be created,it
projects ofhigh biodefence relevance repre- they understood all the issues and numbers adds,by temporarily moving BioTop,
sents a misdirection ofNIH priorities and a involved I don’t think they would be as con- Pasteur’s biotechnology ‘incubator unit’,
crisis for NIH-supported microbiological cerned,”he says. to one ofParis’s many science parks.
research,”the letter states. Fauci cites the NIAID’s own data,which “The mediators’conclusions are a
Its 750 signers include two Nobel laure- show that the agency funded about the same complete disavowal ofmanagement,”
ates and seven past presidents ofthe Ameri- amount ofresearch in basic bacteriology in says Agnès Labigne,head ofPasteur’s
can Society for Microbiology. The protest 2000 as in 2004.Over that period,Fauci says, Pathogenesis ofMucosal Bacteria unit.
was organized by molecular biologist the number ofgrants increased slightly,from Stewart Cole,senior vice-president for
Richard Ebright ofRutgers University in Pis- 131 to 137,and never dropped below 120, scientific affairs,says management will
cataway, New Jersey. In the letter, Ebright while the funding dropped very slightly, take the report’s advice.“Skehel and Wills
writes that the National Institute ofAllergy from $40,741,867 to $40,502,815,after hit- did a serious job;they came here six
and Infectious Diseases (NIAID) awarded ting a low of$34,168,719 in 2003.Fauci says times,and had complete freedom to go
15 times more biodefence grants between his data are more appropriate than Ebright’s, anywhere,and to speak to anyone,”he
the beginning of2001 and the end of2004 because they track all awards made across the says.“Their conclusions are clear.”
than it awarded during the previous four- institute. Although scientists seem likely to stay
year period. “Ebright’s saying that biodefence is tak- on campus during the refurbishment,a
Meanwhile,Ebright says,the agency cut ing away from non-biodefence infectious broader question remains regarding
grants to study non-biodefence models,such disease and microbiology,”says Fauci,“and the need to expand to a second or new
as Escherichia coli, by 41% and grants to the facts clearly show that is not the case.”He campus — to build high-throughput
study non-biodefence microbes that cause adds that grants awarded outside biodefence biology platforms,for example.Cole says
disease by 27%.He argues that this shift is have dropped across the entire NIH owing to that this will be given “more thought”.
preventing important advances in science tight fiscal restraints in recent years.Just last The mediators’report emphasized
and public health,and actually increases the week,Fauci said that the institute might also that any expansion should be firmly
risk ofa bioterorrism incident. have to cut AIDS research. based on a long-term scientific strategy
“Bioweapons agents cause,on average,zero But for Ebright,that is simply proofthat worked out in full consultation with the
deaths per year in the United States,in contrast biodefence spending is damaging other institute’s researchers.“What we need
to a broad range ofnon-prioritized micro- research.“The main constraint that is plac- now is reconciliation,”says Cole.“The
bial pathogens that cause tens or hundreds of ing pressure on all other components is the report provides us with the framework
thousands ofdeaths per year,”Ebright says. biodefence budget,”he says. ■ to do this.” ■
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news in brief
Pressure group sues
Sex changes seen in radio-collared voles
food agency for
LondonThe use of radio-transmitter collars to Y
M
not adding salt track and monitor animals has dramatically ALA
skewed the sex ratio of a population of N/
O
WashingtonA health-advocacy group endangered water voles, British ecologists have GT
N
is suing the US Food and Drug found. They fear the technology may be further RI
R
Administration (FDA) for failing to endangering this population, and could have HA
A.
classify dietary salt as a food additive. similar effects on other studied animals.
The Washington-based Center for Science The scientists, led by wildlife researcher Tom
in the Public Interest says there is scientific Moorhouse of the University of Oxford, UK,
evidence that salt raises blood pressure and began fitting a Norfolk population of Arvicola
prematurely kills 150,000 Americans a year. terrestris(pictured) with radio collars three years
But the FDA classifies dietary salt as ago to study their migration and mating
“generally recognized as safe”,giving the behaviour. Over the course of the project, they
agency no authority to limit how much salt observed a 48% decline in the expected number
foods can contain.The advocacy group says of female offspring from tagged animals (T. P. Radio collars were thought to cause some
it hopes the lawsuit will force the FDA to Moorhouse and D. W. Macdonald, J. Appl. Ecol. stress, but few scientists believed that they
change salt’s status. 42,91–98; 2005). They think that stress may be would influence behaviour or reproduction.
Americans consume about 4grams of responsible for the shift: voles raise more males Moorhouse says he will stop using the collars
salt a day — roughly twice the amount in hard times, as they are more likely to survive. after further investigating the effect.
recommended in the US government’s
recent dietary advice (see Nature433,
794–799;2005).Overindulgenceoccurs produce rays ofabout the same energy. to cause variant Creutzfeldt–Jakob disease,
in other countries too.The UK government At roughly US$2.5 million a piece,the the human version ofmad cow disease.The
is currently waging a campaign to cut MIRRORCLE-6X is unlikely to find its way only method proven to rid instruments of
Britain’s salt intake by one-third. into most laboratories any time soon.But prions is bathing them in corrosive chemicals.
Hironari Yamada,who helped to develop In the face ofa tiny theoretical risk ofprion
Future looks bright for the machine at the Ritsumeikan University transmission,the UK government in 2001
in Shiga,says that private businesses — allowed surgeries to use tools that have been
table-top synchrotron
from semiconductor manufacturers to simply washed and heated.
TokyoA Japanese company has developed pharmaceuticals producers — are lining Researchers at the UK Medical Research
a synchrotron light source small enough to up to buy the device. Council Prion Unit in London now say that
fit in a laboratory — although the handy using a biological washing powder,with
technology comes at a hefty price. Indian institute gets added enzymes called proteases,does the
Synchrotrons produce X-rays that can be trick (G.S.Jackson et al.,J.Gen.Virol.86,
cash to aim for the top
used to probe the structure ofmaterials. 869–878;2005).The team hopes that a
Their unwieldy size means that scientists New DelhiThe Indian government has fine-tuned version ofthe process will be
must travel to large facilities and wait their granted Rs1 billion (US$23 million) to available for use in surgeries by the end
turn to use the rays for their experiments. the Bangalore-based Indian Institute of ofthe year.
Researchers have come up with theories Science to help it to develop into a “world
on how to shrink the device (see Nature class university”. Launchsuccess lifts
428,789;2004),and now a working The surprise announcement was made
Japan’s space hopes
miniature is available for sale — the by the finance minister Palaniappan
MIRRORCLE-6X,manufactured by the Chidambaram while presenting India’s TokyoJapan’s space agency is celebrating the
Photon Production Laboratory ofShiga, annual budget on 28 February.He said the successful launch and deployment ofa
Japan.With a storage-ring diameter of60 institute is the first ofmany that will receive weather satellite last Saturday that has put
centimetres,the whole machine easily fits huge funding increases in coming years,as it back in the Asian space race.
in a lab,and generates X-rays ofup to a the government works to boost India’s The launch success comes as a reliefafter
few mega-electronvolts using a novel international competitiveness. a string ofrecent failures,including the loss
electron-injection technology.Large “We were not expecting this generosity,” ofan Earth-observing satellite blasted by
facilities,whose synchrotrons are tens the institute’s director Goverdhan Mehta solar flares,two spy satellites that had to be
to hundreds ofmetres across,typically told Nature.“More than the money,what blown up after a botched launch,and a
B makes us really happy is the recognition mission to Mars that ran out offuel.“We
A
N L that we deserve this.” could not afford another failure,”says
O
TI science minister Naruaki Nakayama.
C
U Enzyme washing powder The space agency says that improved
D
O
R reliability and reduced costs should help
ON P cleans up rogue prions them competewith China for future
T
HO LondonA new way ofdecontaminating commercial launches.
P
medical equipment might reduce the risk Japan’s rocket programme is unusual in
ofprions being transmitted to patients that it is not an offshoot ofa military missile
during surgery. programme.But observers note that it is
Steel surgical instruments are usually increasingly being seen to have potential
Downsized:the MIRRORCLE-6X weighs in at sterilized by washing and heating.But military applications.The country is now
under halfa tonne and easily fits in the lab. studies have indicated that this does not moving to work with the United States on a
remove prions — abnormal proteins thought missile defence programme.
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news feature
The shape ofthings to come:Florida hopes
that the planned development ofScripps
Florida at Palm Beach will provide a
huge boost to the state’s economy.
Upstart states
The United Stateshas a settled arrangement for distributing its research HIP
RS
E
budget around the country, and the same states have dominated it N
T
R
A
P
for decades. But, as Emma Marris discovers in Florida, the have-nots R
E
DL
have had enough. ZEI
N/
O
KS
Seen from the air, Florida’s Palm federal research funds (see map,opposite) been seeking a share of the spoils,as have C.JAC
Beach looks like paradise.There’s the will be watching Florida’s progress with state governments such as Florida’s.A suc-
aquamarine sea, the sandy line of interest.One way or another,they all want cessful research university is increasingly
beach studded with palms, the pastel cul- the answer to the same question:is it too late seen as a route to economic development.
de-sacs with their deep-blue squares. It is for them to get into the science game? States that have traditionally received little
only as you descend that you realize that the research funding hope that building such
squares aren’t swimming pools,but plastic Prestigious start institutes and encouraging spin-offcompa-
tarpaulins — makeshift repairs after last The basic geography ofresearch funding in nies will create high-paying jobs and attract
summer’s hurricane season.Welcome to the the United States dates from the system’s new companies.
future home ofScripps Florida. establishment after the Second World War. “When a university gets money,the effect
Scripps is the state’s heavyweight con- Scientists,credited with the development of is not confined just to that university,”says
tender in a battle to win promotion to the first the atomic bomb,found their prestige at an Daniel Greenberg, a Washington-based
division ofscience.Jeb Bush,the president’s all-time high, and the agencies set up by journalist and author who has been writing
brother and governor ofFlorida,has helped federal government to support their work about research policy for decades.“When
to arrange $310 million in state funding to had no hesitation in awarding the lion’s you have a university with a thriving chem-
attract the Scripps Institute in La Jolla,Cali- share ofthe money to places where the sci- istry department you might get a paint man-
fornia,to the state.Palm Beach County has entists wanted to live and work.Mostly that ufacturer who says:‘This is a good place to
promised a further $200 million,including a meant Ivy League institutions on the east locate a plant,because we can get consultants
777-hectare former orange grove as a site. coast, the strong public universities in the down the road very easily’.”
Will the arrival of Scripps succeed in midwest,and Stanford and the University of Most federal science funds are distributed
establishing a premier biomedical research California system in the west. by government agencies on a competitive,
centre and nurturing a string of spin-off The amount offunds available has since peer-reviewed basis.Despite occasional carp-
biotechnology companies in this play- expanded to some $23 billion,which the fed- ing that the peer-review system acts as an ‘old-
ground for the rich, tanned and famous? eral government will this year spend on basic boys’network’,most analysts consider it to
It’s not only a question for Floridians.Other and applied research in universities. Hun- be in pretty good shape. In general, good
states that fare badly in the carve-up of dreds of less-celebrated institutions have science is done by the best scientists,who are
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U
A
E
R
U
B
US
NS
E
C
NSF/
E:
C
R
U
O
S
distribution offunding.In general,the top of science projects, from a small, existing
100 institutions get four-fifths ofthe money, medical-device industry to a ‘high-technol-
and everyone else shares the rest.There is no ogy corridor’stretching across the centre of
attracted to the best institutions in search of sign that this will change as funding growth the state from the Gulf of Mexico to the
the best research environment.It’s a fair sys- slows. Yet from coast to coast, Cortright Atlantic and anchored by the University of
tem — but a self-perpetuating one. States notes, relatively obscure universities con- Central Florida in Orlando and the Univer-
such as Texas, Florida and Arizona, which tinue to spin offresearch parks left,right and sity ofSouth Florida in Tampa.
have enjoyed massive growth in their popula- centre, and local politicians are flush with
tions and economies during recent years,are money for scientific initiatives. Attractive prospect
still struggling to make their mark in science. Florida is the fourth most populous US The Scripps project isn’t the first attempt to
The National Institutes ofHealth (NIH) state, and its economy and population are kick-start high technology in the ‘sunshine
has come to dominate the research scene since among the fastest-growing in the nation.But state’. In 1990, Florida unexpectedly beat
its budget doubled to $27 billion in the five in 2000 — the year ofthe most recent census Massachusetts to host most of a national
years to 2003,and it now accounts for two- — it ranked 44th out of50 in a league table of magnet laboratory, a facility supported by
thirds offunding for academic research and the number ofresearch dollars that academic the National Science Foundation. The
development.But the agency’s rise in funding institutions attracted per head ofpopulation. National High Magnetic Field Laboratory
has now flattened out.And some observers say The state’s best-known research facility is (NHMFL) is now well-established,with one
that the boom,which benefited every acade- probably NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, site tucked behind Florida State University at
mic research centre in the nation,has fostered home ofthe space shuttle and assembly point Tallahassee, another at the University of
delusions ofgrandeur in the ‘have-not’states. for the International Space Station.The Uni- Florida in Gainesville, and a third at Los
versity of Florida advertises its science pro- Alamos National Laboratory in New Mexico.
Big ideas grammes as “more than just Gatorade”, The NHMFL is a world leader in very
Joe Cortright,an analyst at Impresa,an eco- referring to the electrolyte-laced sports drink powerful magnets. The Tallahassee site
nomics consultancy based in Portland,Ore- — the Gainesville university’s most famous houses some ofthe world’s largest resistive
gon,says that a study he did in 2002 for the invention that has generated $80 million in and hybrid magnets, which look like out-
Washington-based Brookings Institution licensing income for the university. sized water heaters and use about 10% of
showed a clear trend. Almost everywhere The Scripps initiative is Jeb Bush’s Tallahassee’s entire power supply.The lab is
had twice as much biomedical funding in attempt to transform the state’s scientific used by some 1,000 researchers each year in
2001 as in 1995,he says. reputation in one fell swoop.He hopes that various disciplines to investigate molecules
“What the governor hears is ‘Our state science can become a pillar of the state’s and materials.
doubled its funding.’This has led a lot ofpeo- economy, providing better-paid jobs than Greg Boebinger,who joined the NHMFL
ple to believe,naively,that their community the current big employers:tourism,military as director last year, was as surprised as
is a big player,”Cortright says. bases and citrus farming. anyone when Florida won the laboratory
Yet the boom hasn’t radically altered the Scripps would be the largest ofa number from its previous site at the Massachusetts
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Institute of Technology.“I was among the MFL
people who said:‘What is this?’,”he admits, H
N
laughing.“One ofthe main reasons Florida
got it was state support.”The state put up
about $80 million to get the contract.
Boebinger is a great believer in the eco-
nomic value of basic research.The magnet
lab is like most scientific investments, he
says:it repays into the community “an order
ofmagnitude”more than it cost the state to
build it.Federal funds for the NHMFL flow
on into the local economy. An economic
assessment conducted for the state last year
by Florida State University’s Center for Eco-
nomic Forecasting and Analysis reported
that Florida had got back three-and-a-half
times its initial investment in the facility.
The NHMFL has also been mentioned BIS
R
by Scripps officials as a possible collabora- CO
M/
tor.Pat Griffin,head ofdrug discovery for Ray ofhope:Florida has already carved out a U
E
Scripps Florida,visited the facility in Janu- scientific niche by hosting the National High US
M
ary to discuss this idea.Florida officials are Magnetic Field Laboratory (above). TY
N
betting that Scripps can replicate the mag- U
O
net lab’s success on a far grander scale. relations at the University ofCentral Florida, E C
K
thinks that Florida should be able to exploit LA
Sunny outlook? its reputation as a land ofsun,beaches and
Last September,at a meeting ofthe eco- easy living.He hopes that scientists can be
nomic development organization Enter- lured from “the tundra of the midwest,the
prise Florida, several speakers argued that cost ofliving in California and the winters of
Scripps could act as the centrepiece ofa coor- tive.“To get them to stay in Florida,they have the northeast”.
dinated plan for the development ofthe life to be Florida-bred, but Floridians are not Yet attempting to boost a regional econ-
sciences in Florida.Presentation after presen- being educated in science,”she complains, omy with science is a risky move,perhaps
tation forecast a rosy scientific future for the adding that school science and mathematics riskier than some realize.Many state initia-
state.An analyst from Ernst & Young assured education is weak. But she remains opti- tives, including Florida’s, are focusing on
the audience,for example,that biotechnology mistic.“We have these pockets ofscience.It’s biotechnology.In Cortright’s judgement,the
in the United States was “clearly on the road more than meets the eye.” game in this sector is over and the winners
to profitability for the first time”, and pre- are already in:San Francisco,Boston and San
dicted it would be reach that goal in 2008. Digging deep Diego, plus pockets around the NIH in
But some speakers were more cautious. Now the state seeks a larger pocket ofexcel- Maryland and at Research Triangle Park in
Kenneth Kirby,now president ofTransDer- lence.In October 2003,Palm Beach County North Carolina.“Anyone pursuing it now is
mal Technologies,said he had encountered spent $60 million buying a large family throwing their money away,”he thinks.
difficulties in starting up his drug-delivery farm for the Scripps site. What was once Feller is less dismissive.“If a region can
company in Lake Park,Florida. wetlands,and then rows ofcit- pull together the faculty and provide the
He identified a funding gap “If a region can pull rus trees,is now a muddy field resources, the opportunities are there,” he
for start-ups in the state, together the faculty and surrounded by slash pines and says.Larger states that are trying to punch
saying that venture capital there provide the resources, palmettos. But lawsuits from their weight in science will only do so iflocal
is relatively under-developed. the opportunities are environmentalists have put the institutional rivalries within the states are
Another speaker hit a nerve by there.”— Irwin Feller choice of the site into some kept at bay,he suggests.But history shows
joking that Florida universities, doubt, and Scripps may now that it is possible for states with little scien-
conditioned by years ofcompetitive football, consider at least one other site near Palm tific activity to work their way up into the sys-
can’t seem to collaborate very well. Beach for the complex. tem over decades.“The system isn’t rigid,”he
Indeed, several competing universities Cortright isn’t convinced by the ambi- says.“It’s just very stable.”
would like to be champions ofFlorida’s scien- tious Scripps Florida project.“I am extremely Greenberg generally agrees. He also
tific future,and their rivalry could hold the sceptical that it will produce any kind of points out that projects funded by Congress
state back,suggests Irwin Feller,an economist biotech industry there.Just because they do without peer review — known as ‘earmarks’
and science-policy specialist at the American research doesn’t mean that companies will — can give a leg-up to institutions in the
Association for the Advancement ofScience open up.The money they are spending on have-not states.These are generally absent
in Washington.Florida,he says,“fits the pro- Scripps moves it from way,way,way below to from the National Science Foundation and
file of a state where politics is in the way”. just about where everyone else is,”he says. the NIH,he says,but even these agencies have
Feller adds that local politicians tend to Griffin,who moved to Palm Beach from programmes aimed specifically at states that
expect an unrealistically quick return on their New Jersey to work at Scripps,is cautious attract little peer-reviewed funding.
investment.“All their interest is economic.” too.“It’s definitely not a guaranteed success,” Still, any movement tends to be glacial
Sena Black,a vice-president ofEnterprise he says,“and I think the next few years will in pace. “The country and its scientific
Florida,notes that science-based companies determine whether Scripps can do what it enterprise are both very mature now,”says
started by researchers from outside the state wants.”In the meantime,he is enjoying living Greenberg. “These are not the gold-rush
can depart as soon as they become large where he used to go on holiday. days anymore.” ■
enough to hire an experienced chiefexecu- Greg Schuckman,director ofgovernment Emma Marris is a reporter for Naturein Washington DC.
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