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a commission to explore issues of women the following day, hundreds more turned out one of the complainants filed a separate report and gender in academia. to protest in front of the university library. alleging that Jaeger had engaged in retaliatory Jaeger, who works on developing compu- Jaeger’s behaviour came under scrutiny in behaviour against her. The university commis- tational frameworks for language production early 2016, when he allegedly said at several sioned an external investigator, who found no and understanding, will remain off-campus for faculty meetings that he saw no problem with evidence of retaliation. the rest of the current semester. He declined an faculty members dating students. Aslin and In its EEOC filings, the wider group of eight interview request from Nature. other faculty members began discussing the complainants alleges further acts of retaliation. “This is a very extraordinary case,” says subject and discovered what they say is a string In one instance, they allege, the chair of the Ann Olivarius, a senior partner at the of sexual predations by Jaeger over the years. department disparaged them in front of the McAllister Olivarius law firm in London who Aslin and Jessica Cantlon, an associate entire department faculty; in another, provost is co-leading the legal case against the univer- professor in the department, led the formal Robert Clark sent a memo to the department’s sity. “It’s the first time in all the decades that complaint to the university on behalf of stu- faculty criticizing what he called “rumors” and I’ve worked in this area that senior faculty dents, arguing that “misinformation” about the investigation. combined with junior faculty to make a stand.” “It shows that Jaeger had violated its The university will now look into these new The group filed its eight identical complaints the original policy against discrimi- allegations. “I think it shows that the original — one per complainant — with the US Equal investigation nation and harassment. investigation was flawed,” Cantlon says. “The Employment Opportunity Commission was flawed.” The university inves- university’s claims and actions don’t pass the (EEOC) beginning on 30 August. The com- tigated and concluded smell test.” (The university says, “We do not mission’s duties include enforcing federal laws — initially, and again after an appeal — that believe the original investigation was flawed.”) that bar discrimination against employees Jaeger had not violated any university policies. The complainants now also allege that because of gender. The EEOC will now inves- The complainants say that the investigation Rochester administrators searched their uni- tigate the complaint — and a response yet to did not gather enough information to accurately versity e-mails without their knowledge, a step be filed by university administrators — and assess whether Jaeger had violated university that Cantlon says was the last straw for her. She determine whether discrimination occurred. policies. The 11 women from whom the group is looking for a new job. Richard Aslin, a developmental psychologist gathered witness statements allege acts by Jaeger Erika Marín-Spiotta, a biogeochemist at the and member of the US National Academy of that include sending photographs of his geni- University of Wisconsin–Madison, says that Sciences, resigned from the university in talia and having loud sex with students within sexual harassment can derail or even end the December in protest over its handling of the earshot of other students. careers of many researchers. She is leading a Jaeger investigation. Six of the seven other “The problem isn’t being sexual — the US$1.1-million initiative funded by the US co-authors of the complaint have also left, problem is doing that across boundaries that government to help scientists respond to and or plan to leave — most for reasons directly involve power and authority over people,” says prevent such harassment. The Rochester case, related to the incident. Elissa Newport, a cognitive psychologist at she notes, is rare in having so many faculty In a 10 September statement, Seligman Georgetown University in Washington DC. As members come forward on behalf of their wrote that the core allegations “were head of the University of Rochester brain and younger colleagues. investigated, appealed and found to be cognitive sciences department from 1998 to Newport says that she and the other com- unsubstantiated”. But the university response 2010, she hired Jaeger there; she is now among plainants went public because they want the did not go down well with many students. On the complainants. university to reform its processes. “It wasn’t 12 September, hundreds of them participated After the initial investigation found that meant to be about Florian,” she says. “It’s meant in a heated three-hour meeting with Seligman; Jaeger had not violated any university policies, to be about harassment and retaliation.” ■

MARINE BIOLOGY Sharks can live a lot longer than researchers realized Errors in past studies could undermine conservation plans.

BY DANIEL CRESSEY distinctive pairs of bands inside, which are often University in Townsville, Australia, reviewed assumed to show age in the same way as the evidence for age underestimation. He reports any sharks are living much longer rings of a tree. But a growing number of cases in Fish and Fisheries that of 53 populations of than was thought, says a major review suggest that the method can be problematic. For sharks and rays with good data, 30% have prob- of studies on these important and example, a 2014 study showed that sand tiger ably had their ages underestimated (A. V. Harry Moften endangered top predators. This means sharks (Carcharias taurus), which were thought Fish. Fish http://doi.org/cc79; 2017). “Current that many estimates of how threatened species to live for around two decades, can actually sur- evidence points to it being systemic, rather than are — and decisions about whether they can be vive for up to twice that (M. S. Passerotti et al. restricted to a few isolated cases,” says Harry. fished safely — could be based on faulty data. Mar. Freshwater Res, 65, 674–687; 2014). “We really can’t ignore it any more.” Scientists usually estimate how old sharks To investigate the scale of the problem, fish- Growth rings are used to determine age in are by slicing into their spines and counting eries researcher Alastair Harry of James Cook fish of all kinds. In bony fish, researchers tend to

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IN FOCUS NEWS

PLANETARY SCIENCE LONG IN THE TOOTH Many shark and ray populations are living longer than conventional ageing methods suggest*. Apparent maximum age Cassini’s science still True maximum age

HTTP://DOI.ORG/CC79 (2017) Great white shark (Carcharodon carcharias) has secrets to spill FISH. Porbeagle (Lamna nasus) The spacecraft is dead, but its data could help to reveal the School shark (Galeorhinus age of Saturn’s rings and the origin of its magnetic field. galeus)

SOURCE: A. V. HARRY HARRY SOURCE: A. V. Sand tiger shark (Carcharias taurus) BY ALEXANDRA WITZE Many discoveries about Saturn’s moons, rings and interior are likely to emerge in the Thresher shark (Alopias vulpinus) t 4:55 a.m. California time on 15 Sep- coming months. From April until its death, tember, hundreds of scientists watched Cassini carried out a series of 22 orbits, loop- Winter skate their life’s work go up in flames. The ing between the giant planet and its rings — a (Leucoraja ocellata) ACassini spacecraft disintegrated in Saturn’s perspective never before captured. 0 20 40 60 80 atmosphere in a mission-ending move meant During these orbits, Cassini’s Cosmic Dust Age (years) to keep the probe from contaminating any Analyser, which looked at the size and com- * Data for great white shark, thresher shark and winter skate populations from northwest Atlantic; sand tiger sharks from of the planet’s moons, including Titan and position of small particles, directly measured South Africa; school sharks and porbeagle sharks from Australia/New Zealand. Enceladus, that could harbour signs of life. the composition of material in Saturn’s main Cassini’s final images, transmitted in the rings for the first time, says Sascha Kempf, a hours before its death, included a sequence space physicist at the University of Colorado look at otoliths, lumps of calcium carbonate showing Enceladus setting behind Saturn, as Boulder. “The data set is rich and surprising,” in the inner ear that build up layers through- well as a close-up look at some of the planet’s he says. “Stay tuned.” out the fish’s life. But cartilaginous sharks rings. The dust data could answer a long-standing and rays don’t have otoliths, so research- The spacecraft’s last radio signal died as question: how old the rings are. By studying ers often use sections of vertebrae instead. planned when the probe entered Saturn’s atmos- how dust falls onto the rings’ icy particles and Sometimes, when sharks stop growing, so do phere at about 113,000 kilometres per hour, dirties them, the team can estimate their age. their vertebrae, which means that counting roughly 10 degrees north of the planet’s equa- Some scientists argue that the rings are bil- the rings can make an animal seem younger tor. As Cassini plunged to its death, it sent back lions of years old, whereas others think that than it is (see ‘Long in the tooth’). a burst of data from its Ion and Neutral Mass they are of the order of 100 million years old Harry’s paper looked at two ways of Spectrometer. This instrument measures the or younger. Kempf says that his team should checking whether estimated age is correct: chemical composition of gases, and provided have an answer soon, and that the knowledge chemical marking and bomb-carbon dating. scientists with their first direct taste of Saturn’s will help researchers to narrow down how the In the former, researchers inject an animal atmosphere. Those data “will be the most excit- rings formed. with fluorescent dye that is taken up by its ing result scientifically” from the end of the mis- Cassini’s gravity measurements are helping spine, making a permanent mark. When the sion, says Ralph Lorenz, a planetary scientist at scientists to pinpoint other key information. By animal is recaptured, they count how many the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics analysing the gravitational effect of the rings on bands have formed since this known date. In Laboratory in Laurel, Maryland. Cassini — a force best measured as the probe the second method, scientists check animal specimens for traces of 1950s nuclear-bomb tests, and use these to estimate age. Harry has done “a very nice job”, says shark scientist Steven Campana of the University of Iceland in Reykjavik, who has worked on more than 100 ageing studies in sharks and rays, as well as in bony fish. “I

ROBYN BECK/AFP/GETTY IMAGES BECK/AFP/GETTY ROBYN fully agree with his conclusions.” The study has wide-ranging implications. Key processes such as growth, mortality and reproduction change with age. If age information is wrong, so are models that guide fisheries’ decisions about how many animals can safely be caught. Living longer might mean that animals mature and start reproducing later in life, so are more vulnerable than has been realized. By contrast, longer lives might mean more breeding years, making a population more robust. Such effects haven’t yet been dem- onstrated, says Harry, but “I would expect the impacts to be generally negative”. ■ Cassini team members console each other as the spacecraft’s final signal fades away on 15 September.

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