NEWS IN FOCUS DANIEL LEAL-OLIVAS/AFP/GETTY DANIEL

People flood the streets of London on 22 April, sporting signs and chanting support for science.

SOCIETY March for Science attracts thousands across the globe Protesters cite the importance of science and fears for climate change as motivators.

BY ALISON ABBOTT, EWEN CALLAWAY, the US National Institutes of Health. Although says Eli Dueker, an environmental microbiolo- BARBARA CASASSUS, NICKY PHILLIPS, SARA it started in the United States, the march idea gist at Bard College in Annandale-on-Hudson, REARDON, EMILIANO RODRIGUEZ MEGA & soon spread to other countries. New York. He and his sister attended the march ALEXANDRA WITZE The reasons people had for marching were in Washington DC dressed as the Wonder as varied as the signs they carried, but several Twins — characters from the animated 1970s ens of thousands of people gathered themes ran through the crowds. Nature report- TV show Super Friends — complete with pur- on 22 April in Washington DC and at ers visited eight cities around the world and ple jumpsuits and yellow capes. “Pretending least 600 other cities around the world, found that many people were protesting to like science is divorced from people is prob- Tin what may have been one of the largest- stress the importance of science, concerns over ably one of the reasons we’re in this mess to ever demonstrations in support of scientific research funding, the reality of climate change begin with.” research and evidence-based policymaking. and fears for future generations. In Sydney, Australia, Nadia Santini also The March for Science was organized shortly The throngs included working research- came out in support for more engagement after US President Donald Trump’s inaugura- ers, teachers, students and non-scientists who between researchers and the public. “It’s tion in January, largely in response to wide- wanted to show their support. Many scientists important for scientists to get more involved spread alarm about his administration’s attitude said they were speaking out for the first time. in what’s going on in the world,” said Santini, a towards science. Trump has repeatedly called plant ecologist at the University of New South global warming a “hoax”, promised to roll back SCIENCE IN SOCIETY Wales, Sydney. She said researchers need to numerous environmental protection laws and “I feel like as a scientist, I don’t get the luxury of speak out against misinformation and promote proposed double-digit cuts to agencies such as stepping away [from] being a citizen myself,” science’s vital role in society.

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IN FOCUS NEWS

That was the main drive for organizers of the His homemade sign read “WTF?! Where’s the With home-made signs and impromptu march in Paris. “We must explain to citizens funding?!” chants, people mocked those who deny evi- that science is much, much more fragile than Direct political interference in US science dence linking humans to rising temperatures is believed,” said Alain Fuchs, president of the isn’t new, said public-health researcher Simon and swelling seas. National Centre for Scientific Research, the Chapman, speaking to a crowd of about ‘Sticking your head in the sand is not a solu- main French public basic-research agency. The 3,000 in Sydney’s central business district. But tion to global warming. Your ass will still get spread of belief in place of truth “is extremely President Trump’s plan to cut the budgets of very hot’, proclaimed the sign held aloft by serious, even in France”. major science programmes is unprecedented, Frédéric Bayer, a nutrition engineer who now “The line between pseudoscience and science said the retired University of Sydney professor. works for a scientific communications agency isn’t always clearly delineated in our society,” “Many researchers here today have colleagues Protéines in Paris. said Moritz Hertel from the Max Planck Insti- living in Trump’s America who fear for their Colorado governor John Hickenlooper, a tute for Ornithology in Seewiesen, Germany. careers and their future.” former geologist, told the crowd in Denver that Hertel, who studies brain plasticity, carried an For Adhemar Liquitaya, a graduate student “climate change cannot be reversed by silenc- umbrella decorated with dangling pictures of in biochemistry at the National Autonomous ing scientists”. But his speech also highlighted brains to the march in Munich. “Science needs University of Mexico in Mexico City, the fight that march attendees were not united on all to play a stronger role in policy-making — this is is personal. In January 2017, the National fronts. Hickenlooper spoke over the chants particularly important during this election year Council of Science and Technology, the of activists opposed to the drilling practice in Germany,” he said. government agency in charge of implementing known as fracking, which he supports. scientific and technological policies, reduced Across the globe, the gatherings tended to THE FUTURE OF FUNDING the amount of money offered to students like be upbeat, and many participants took it as Many marchers railed against recent him. “If I struggled before with paying my rent their responsibility to look towards the future. moves by governments to slash funding for and buying groceries, now I’m being forced to “I really do believe God made all of this,” said science. They said that cuts threaten not only tighten my belt even more,” said Liquitaya. Janine Schroeder, referring to the planet. She current research, but also the chances of attract- attended the march in Washington DC with ing future generations to careers in science. A CHANGING CLIMATE friends from her Christian church in Arling- Curtis Moon, a graduate student studying Climate change was high on the list of con- ton, Virginia. biosystematics at London’s Natural History cerns among participants across the globe as “It’s our job to take care of this Earth. If you Museum, worries about UK science funding they gathered on Earth Day, an annual event don’t fund these programmes to take care of once the country leaves the European Union. designed to draw attention to the environment. it, then we’re not doing our job as stewards.” ■

ECOLOGY Peru’s floods teach tough lessons Surprise El Niño causes devastation, but presents bounty for ecologists.

BY BARBARA FRASER “Except for the impacts on the people,” says Peru’s dry forests for 25 years, and hopes that the biologist Juan Torres of La Molina National rain will bring respite to the ecosystem. orrential rains pummelled Peru’s Agrarian University in Lima, “this is a One important tree species, known locally northern coastal desert in February meteoro­logically enchanting moment.” as huarango (Prosopis spp.), has been in rapid and March, triggering floods that Once roads are passable, Torres will visit decline, in part because of pressure from Tkilled at least 113 people and destroyed some field sites that he studied after the power- insects and a fungus. The floods may have 40,000 homes. As families grapple with their ful 1997–98 El Niño, which also soaked the washed the insect pests away. Peruvian bota- losses and government officials tally the cost of region. At that time, nist Ana Juárez will survey the area further repair and reconstruction, scientists are gear- Torres found wild “Except for the with Whaley in May, but has not seen any ing up for an unusual opportunity to study relatives of domes- impacts on the insects on the trees near her since the rains. ecosystems that go decades without much rain. ticated crops — people, this is a That’s a good sign, but the ongoing destruc- The rains were spurred by an unusual ‘coastal’ including tomatoes, meteorologically tion of the dry forest seems to have exacerbated El Niño climate pattern, in which warm water peppers, potatoes enchanting erosion and flooding from the storms. pooled off the coast of southern Ecuador and and squash — that moment.” Soil carried by the floods surged down northern Peru — more so than during the had sprouted from normally tranquil rivers. Satellite images show much larger 2015–16 El Niño. Rains fell in dormant seeds. This year, he will again cata- the Tumbes and Chira rivers overflowing and both countries, but the human toll was high- logue wild plants, along with the crops that spreading nutrient-rich sediment over swathes est in Peru’s normally parched northern desert. farmers choose to grow on lands made fertile of farmland. In the now-greening land, plants are growing, by the flooding. That’s what the rivers are supposed to do, bird populations are shifting and rivers are mov- Part of the northern desert is irrigated says Jorge Abad, a civil engineer at the Univer- ing sediments and pollution in ways they haven’t farmland, but there are also patches of a dry sity of Engineering and Technology in Lima. done for two decades. What scientists learn as forest that has been devastated in recent years But these floods caused damage because the they descend on the region could aid conser- by industrial agriculture, urban sprawl and rivers have been channelled, dammed and vation efforts and help people and government the charcoal trade. Oliver Whaley at the Royal dredged without considering sediment flow, officials to prepare for severe weather events. Botanic Gardens, Kew, in London, has studied he says, adding that better modelling would

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