Hudson Volcano Threatens to Erupt
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SEVEN DAYS The news in brief RESEARCH Higgs hunt halts The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) has finished smashing protons for the year. The particle accelerator at CERN, Europe’s premier high-energy physics laboratory near Geneva, Switzerland, ended its / AP GOVERNMENT REGIONAL AYSEN 2011 run on 30 October, after about 180 days and 400 trillion collisions. Physicists are still trawling through the data for evidence of the Higgs boson — the particle thought to give other fundamental particles their mass. Meanwhile, the LHC is moving on to collisions between lead ions, and between lead ions and protons. Proton– proton collisions will start again in March 2012. See also Editorial, page 6. Hudson volcano threatens to erupt Archives made free Chile’s ice-covered Hudson volcano awoke geologists were monitoring earthquake swarms. Benjamin Franklin’s account from a 20-year slumber on 26 October, raising Mount Hudson’s last eruption, in 1991, was one of his electric kite experiment fears that a major eruption could be due. As of the largest of the twentieth century, although (in 1752) and Isaac Newton’s Nature went to press, three vents were spewing it was overshadowed by an even bigger eruption first scientific paper (1671) are out steam and ash from the volcano (pictured) at Mount Pinatubo in the Philippines, just a few among almost 70,000 historical in the Aisén Region of northern Patagonia, and months earlier. scientific papers now freely accessible online, after Britain’s Royal Society opened up its satellites shut down in 2015. lowers the cost per genome University in California; journal archive. The archive However, faced with funding to no more than $1,000 and Cornell University in Ithaca, goes back to 1665, when shortfalls, NASA is already requires an accuracy of no New York; the University Philosophical Transactions first falling behind on a follow-up more than one error per of Toronto in Canada; the appeared. From 26 October, satellite, scheduled for launch million bases. See go.nature. Technion–Israel Institute of all papers published more in 2016. See go.nature.com/ com/5jx395 for more. Technology in Haifa; and the than 70 years ago are free to mkh4wa for more. Indian Institute of Technology view, and the archive is fully New York campus Bombay. searchable. See go.nature.com/ FUNDING A contest to develop a science wka6bw for more. and engineering campus in Saving San Raffaele Sequencing prize New York City attracted seven Despite accumulating debts of Climate craft The non-profit X Prize bids by its 28 October entry €1.5 billion (US$2.1 billion), In a small but notable success, Foundation is offering deadline, according to city the San Raffaele Scientific on 28 October NASA launched US$10 million to any mayor Michael Bloomberg. Institute in Milan, Italy, will not a polar-orbiting satellite team that can accurately Winners of the competition have to file for bankruptcy. A to collect data for climate sequence 100 genomes will be granted free land in restructuring plan put together researchers and weather from 100 centenarians in the city and US$100 million by the board of the prestigious forecasters. The craft marks a 30 days, starting on 3 January in seed money. Bloomberg biomedical research and new beginning for the United 2013. The competition is a — who said he might choose hospital complex was accepted States’ troubled programme refocusing of the Archon multiple winners — hopes that by a Milan court on 27 October. to create the next generation Genomics X Prize, which in the project will help the city to The plan is backed by a rescue of polar-orbiting satellites 2006 laid down the challenge become a technology-science package led by the Vatican (see Nature 477, 509; 2011). to sequence 100 genomes in hub, akin to Silicon Valley in Bank (see Nature 478, 296–267; It may also help to stave off a 10 days at less than $10,000 California. Fifteen universities 2011). However, some recently gap in data collection expected per genome, but netted no are among the bidding appointed board members when existing polar-orbiting winners. The new competition consortia, including Stanford are connected with the rescue 10 | NATURE | VOL 479 | 3 NOVEMBER 2011 © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved SEVEN DAYS THIS WEEK AP consortium. Worried by financial year, around 22% potential conflicts of interest, of the agency’s total direct the Milan court said that it funding from members. COMING UP would appoint a committee to oversee the restructuring, and BUSINESS 4 NOVEMBER told the board to remain open Six men who have to new rescue offers. Solar subsidy cuts spent 520 days cooped The United Kingdom is up at the Institute of Jackson lab grows cutting incentives to produce Biomedical Problems The Jackson Laboratory, a solar power. On 31 October, in Moscow, simulating medical research centre based the government said that computer time-sharing. “He the isolation of an in Bar Harbor, Maine, will set feed-in tariffs for solar energy was always focused on the expedition to Mars, up a major satellite facility (the price that an electricity future. Always inventing, ‘return’ to Earth. for personalized medicine utility company must pay to inventing, inventing,” said go.nature.com/uupu8s and systems-genomics generators) should be reduced Stanford computer scientist Ed research near the University by more than 50% because too Feigenbaum. 8 NOVEMBER of Connecticut Health Center many solar installations were Russia’s Phobos-Grunt in Farmington. The move was being planned. The new tariffs Weapons lab head mission — which it confirmed on 26 October, are subject to consultation, but Penrose ‘Parney’ Albright is hoped will return when Connecticut’s state would bring down government will be the eleventh director a sample of soil from legislature approved support roughly in line with of the Lawrence Livermore the Martian moon US$291 million in bonds to that in Germany, which National Laboratory in Phobos — is scheduled fund the new laboratory. The announced its own 15% tariff Livermore, California, the lab to launch, together with lab had tried for more than cuts on 27 October. France, announced on 27 October. China’s first probe to a year to site its facility in Spain and Italy have all cut their Albright, a doctoral physicist Mars, Yinghuo-1. Florida, but the state would solar tariffs in the past year. who has spent much of his not provide funding. career working in defence and 8–9 NOVEMBER PEOPLE homeland security, replaces The European Gender US cuts off UNESCO George Miller, who spent Summit in Brussels The United States says that it AI pioneer dies six years as director, from discusses how to will stop all payments to the John McCarthy (pictured), 1 December. support women’s United Nations Educational, a visionary computer scientific careers, and Scientific and Cultural scientist who coined the US solar woes how to tackle gender Organization (UNESCO) after term ‘artificial intelligence’, One of the United States’ factors in research. the Paris-based organization died on 24 October, aged 84. largest solar-panel companies, www.genderinscience.org voted on 31 October to In 1958 — two years after First Solar, abruptly and give full membership to the organizing the first conference unexpectedly lost its chief Palestinians, who are seeking on artificial intelligence executive on 25 October. by 65% in 2011. This year has statehood. Existing US — McCarthy invented the Robert Gillette has left after seen several bankruptcies of legislation says that no UN computer programming two years at the helm of the solar firms after the price body making such a move can language LISP. He spent firm, based in Tempe, Arizona. of solar panels plummeted in be funded. In total, the United most of his career at Stanford First Solar is a leader in the response to weak demand and States was due to contribute University in California, thin-film photovoltaic market, a surge in low-priced modules $80 million to UNESCO this and developed ideas for but its share price has dropped from China. Psychology fraud A preliminary investigation TREND WATCH REAL AUTHORS WANTED has revealed massive fraud by BR. MED. J. Ghost and honorary authorship in high-impact biomedical a prominent social-psychology Inappropriate attribution of journals has declined only slightly since a 1996 survey*. researcher, Diederik Stapel, SOURCE: authorship plagues research who faked data in at least papers, according to a study 30 published studies. The Ghost 1996 published on 25 October authorship report was released on (J. S. Wislar et al. Br. Med. J. 2008 31 October by a committee 343, d6128; 2011). A survey from Tilburg University in the of 6 high-impact biomedical Honorary Netherlands, together with authorship journals found that 21% of committees at the universities articles published in 2008 had Honorary of Groningen and Amsterdam. either honorary authors (who or ghost In September, Tilburg authorship, were named as authors but or both suspended Stapel on suspicion hadn’t contributed enough of research misconduct. See 0 5 10 15 20 25 30 35 to take responsibility for the Prevalence of articles with inappropriate authorship (%) page 15 for more. work) or ghost authors (who *Survey of authors of 896 articles in Annals of Internal Medicine, Journal of the American had contributed to the work but Medical Association, Lancet, Nature Medicine, New England Journal of Medicine, PLoS Medicine NATURE.COM weren’t named). For daily news updates see: www.nature.com/news 3 NOVEMBER 2011 | VOL 479 | NATURE | 11 © 2011 Macmillan Publishers Limited. All rights reserved.