San People Issue Research Code Heavily Studied Indigenous Communities — Known for Their Click Languages — Are the First in Africa to Draft Science-Ethics Guidelines

The prospects for increased support for Korea recently raised nearly 15 million won basic science are encouraging, says Doochul BUDGET BEAKDOWN (US$13,300), exceeding its target by half. Con- Kim. Established in 2011, and modelled after Basic research got short shrift in South Korea’s ventional funding routes have proved difficult 2014 science budget, the most recent for which Germany’s Max Planck Institute and Japan’s gures are available. for research that is not intended for economic RIKEN, the IBS is South Korea’s flagship effort growth, says Tae-Woong Yoon, chair of Engi- Experimental Basic in basic research. development* US$10.6 bn neers and Scientists for Change (ESC), and a There are currently 28 research centres US$38.4 bn systems engineer at Korea University in Seoul. within the IBS, but the original plans called for The ESC promotes research for social pro- 50. With conservatives now out of favour, the gress and sustainability, and led the crowd- IBS must win multipartisan support to secure US$60.5 funding campaign. The group, founded last its expansion, says So Young Kim. BILLION year, seeks to establish a funding route that is Whatever the future of scientific research 2014 not controlled by companies or political par- looks like in South Korea, it’s clear that ties, says Yoon. scientists are trying to change course. Some He is not waiting for the next administration SOURCE: MINISTRY OF SCIENCE, ICT AND FUTURE PLANNING OF SCIENCE, ICT SOURCE: MINISTRY have taken matters into their own hands: to create change. “I think it’s up to us,” Yoon * Materials, product Applied a crowdfunding project to study health and device development. US$11.5 bn says. “We are dedicated and we really want to issues affecting transgender people in South improve the situation here.” ■

ETHICS San people issue research code Heavily studied indigenous communities — known for their click languages — are the first in Africa to draft science-ethics guidelines.

BY EWEN CALLAWAY

he San people of southern Africa are among the most-studied indigenous groups in the world. Legions of research- Ters have investigated their hunter-gatherer lifestyles, click languages and ancient rock art, and San individuals were some of the first from Africa to have their whole genomes sequenced. But some San want a greater say in such OLEKSANDR RUPETA/NURPHOTO VIA GETTY RUPETA/NURPHOTO OLEKSANDR research. On 2 March, three communities in South Africa issued their own research-ethics code — thought to be the first from any indigenous group in Africa. Although the rules will carry no legal weight, their authors hope that scientists will feel compelled to submit proposals for research in San communities to a review panel of community members. And the San may refuse to collaborate with institutions whose staff do not comply, the rules warn. A traditional San dance performed at a living museum in Namibia. The code was developed by traditional leaders of the !Xun, Khwe and !Khomani ethics committees at the scientists’ universities offensive. “No other recent research has been groups of San, which represent around 8,000 in Australia, South Africa and the United States perceived as being so insulting and arrogant to people in South Africa. approved the study. The researchers also filmed San leaders,” says Chennells. “We’ve been bombarded by researchers the San men giving verbal consent with the help He anticipates that communities in Namibia over the years,” says Hennie Swart, director of of a translator. and Botswana will formally adopt the code in the South African San Institute in Kimberley, But some San leaders were upset that the the future. Until then, researchers working which helped to develop the code. “It’s not team did not consult them, and were concerned with those communities will be encouraged a question of not doing the research. It’s a about how the researchers obtained informed to take note of the code, adds Chennells. question of doing it right.” consent from the San men, according to Roger However, Stephan Schuster, a genome scien- The impetus for the ethics code was the Chennells, a human-rights lawyer based in tist who co-led the study while at Pennsylvania 2010 publication, in Nature1, of the first human Stellenbosch, South Africa, who helped draft State University in State College, asks whether genome sequences from southern Africa: those the code (see go.nature.com/2nwyj1m). The the views of San leaders in South Africa are of Archbishop Desmond Tutu, winner of the study was a “massive catalyst”, he says. representative of other San groups. “Why 1984 Nobel Peace Prize, and four San men The paper also used terms, including would a San council in South Africa know from Namibia. The Namibian government and “Bushman”, that some San individuals consider what we are doing in northern Namibia?”

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NEWS IN FOCUS

asks Schuster, who is now at the Nanyang must typically gain approval from groups that another San organization, the Working Group Technological University in Singapore. After represent local or regional indigenous commu- of Indigenous Minorities in Southern Africa. the genome paper came out, San leaders held nities. A 2011 study2 reporting the first genome The researchers communicated their findings workshops with scientists, ethicists and law- of an Aboriginal Australian (taken from an to San communities and told individuals what yers to draft research guidelines. The TRUST early-twentieth-century hair sample) was nearly they had learnt about their genetic ancestry. Project, a European effort to promote global scrapped because the scientists had not initially Emma Kowal, an anthropologist at Deakin research ethics, funded the drive. sought the endorsement of an Aboriginal group. University in Melbourne, Australia, who works The process for endorsing research under “We are learning from Australians,” says Swart. on indigenous research ethics, thinks the code the guidelines is still taking shape, says Swart, “If researchers want to work among the San will encourage scientists to consider the inter- but researchers will be encouraged to submit and that’s the protocol, they should honour ests of San communities. “Our experience in proposals to the South African San Council. it. That’s what social justice is all about,” says Australia is that researchers will come to the The council “undertakes not to unduly curb or Himla Soodyall, a geneticist at the Univer- table and change the way that they practise,” hinder good research”, adds Chennells. sity of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg, she says. ■ Both Chennells and Swart hope that the South Africa, who co-authored a 2012 paper3 1. Schuster, S. C. et al. Nature 463, 943–947 (2010). research code will achieve the same influence analysing the genomes of San individuals. 2. Rasmussen, M. et al. Science 334, 94–98 (2011). as guidelines for working with Aboriginal That team sought permission for its research 3. Schlebusch, C. M. et al. Science 338, 374–379 communities in Australia. There, researchers from the South African San Council and (2012).

AWARDS Wavelets scoop maths prize Yves Meyer wins the Abel Prize for role in theory with multiple applications in data analysis.

BY DAVIDE CASTELVECCHI entertainment, to encode high-resolution films data set to extract transient signals — such as into files of manageable size. the ‘chirp’ of two black holes colliding, which rench mathematician Yves Meyer After groundbreaking work — in the ‘wavelet the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-wave has won the 2017 Abel Prize for his revolution’ — spearheaded by Meyer in the Observatory (LIGO) picked up in 2015. “pivotal role” in establishing the theory 1980s, textbooks were rewritten, Morel says. In the 1900s, researchers developed Fof wavelets — data-analysis tools used in Wavelets are an extension of the toolkit of algorithms that made Fourier analysis more everything from pinpointing gravitational Fourier analysis, named after Joseph Fourier, practical for applications such as seismol- waves to compressing digital films. who initiated the field in the 1800s. He discov- ogy. Among these were waveforms invented The prize of 6 million Norwegian kroner ered that a complex waveform can be broken in 1981 by French geophysicist Jean Morlet (US$710,000) — hailed as mathematics’ Nobel down into simpler, sine-wave components. at CNRS in Marseilles. These could replace prize — was announced by the Norwegian That is, a piece of information such as a musi- Fourier’s sine waves and were of finite Academy of Science and Letters on 21 March. cal note or a seismic signal can be expressed in duration, making them more efficient for Following the Nobel tradition, Meyer learnt a compact way using dealing with transient signals. Morlet called that he was the winner only when he received “There are not Fourier techniques. them ondelettes — wavelets in English. But a call on the morning of the announcement. many examples But Fourier’s until Meyer entered the field, these tools did “There are not many examples of math- of mathematical mathematically ele not have the full power of Fourier’s theory. ematical discovery that have directly influenced discovery that gant formulae did Meyer made his serendipitous encounter society so much,” says Jean-Michel Morel, an have directly not easily apply to with Morlet’s wavelets in 1982, while waiting applied mathematician and Meyer’s colleague influenced many types of real- for a photocopier at the École Polytechnique in at the École Normale Supérieure Paris–Saclay. society so much.” world data, explains Paris, where he then worked. A colleague was Wavelet-based computer algorithms are John Rognes, a copying a paper on Morlet’s wavelets, and the among the standard tools used by researchers mathematician at the University of Oslo two struck up a conversation. to process, analyse and store information. They who chairs the Abel Committee. Fourier’s Meyer, a researcher in functional analysis, also have applications in medical diagnostics, techniques were helpful for steady signals, was so captivated that he took the first train to where they can help to speed up magnetic such as a continuous note played on a violin. Marseilles to talk to Morlet and his colleagues. resonance imaging, for example; and in But they were not efficient for sifting a noisy He decided overnight to change fields. “It was