Correspondence

Save Iran’s cheetah Act of 1992. The act bans high- from extinction level waste and spent nuclear fuel from WIPP to ensure that The Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx the repository does not become jubatus ssp. venaticus) is classed a magnet for all manner of FRANS LANTING/FLPA as critically endangered on the nuclear wastes. Red List of the International You state that “by and Union for Conservation of large, WIPP has functioned Nature, with just 43 individuals as designed”. However, the left in Iran. Conservation construction and operation of efforts were dealt a major blow WIPP for a few decades does last month when the United not confirm its long-term Nations Development Program performance over 10,000 years, announced its withdrawal from particularly for proposals that the Conservation of the Asiatic would increase or change the Cheetah Project (see go.nature. type of waste. The disposal of com/2zrgyjx). long-lived fission products Management of the project could require the extension of will now fall mainly to Iran’s WIPP’s compliance period to Department of the Environment, hundreds of thousands of years, the head of which has declared An Asiatic cheetah (Acinonyx jubatus ssp. venaticus): just 43 are left in Iran. as at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. the cheetah “doomed to Rodney C. Ewing Stanford extinction” on the basis of its in the Excellence Initiative for groups that made it to the final University, California, USA. declining numbers since 2001. Germany’s universities (see cut, and to the universities and [email protected] We urge Iran’s government not to Nature 551, 15; 2017). In my federal states that supported give up on cheetah conservation. view, the outcome hints at the them. It should instead look to the success, rather than the failure, Inna Sokolova University of Scrap very useless example of the giant panda of the programme to promote Rostock, Germany. qualifiers (Ailuropoda melanoleuca) in research excellence. [email protected] China. The Chinese government The Excellence Initiative is Eric Blackman bemoans the and its partners undertook to more than ten years old — long misuse of ‘obviously’ and ‘clearly’ develop breeding programmes in enough for universities aiming Gauging the risk in scientific publications (Nature the 1950s and to protect bamboo- for research excellence to invest from nuclear waste 550, 457; 2017). He might forest habitats in the 1980s. The in their intellectual capacity and also have mentioned another strategy was so successful that infrastructure, and to stimulate You suggest that the United hackneyed adverb that conveys pandas were last year downlisted research programmes that States should modify its strategy so little to the reader: ‘very’. from endangered to vulnerable can compete with those in the for nuclear-waste disposal As an editor and reviewer, it (see go.nature.com/2hizc6w). elite universities. The fact that according to the “risk it poses” is one of my life’s tasks to delete Bringing the Asiatic the 88 research groups in the (Nature 550, 429–430; 2017). this overworked word from any cheetah back from the brink final round of the Clusters of That risk would first need to be scientific manuscript I handle. of extinction will require Excellence competition cover determined. I once found it eight times in a close cooperation between a large geographical area and The risk calculation is paragraph; I felled seven and governmental organizations, involve newcomers is a reason for a function of the type of reluctantly showed a single act non-governmental organizations celebration, not disappointment. radiation, and its intensity and of mercy. and grass-roots stakeholders. It is healthy for the scientific radiotoxicity. It also strongly Stephen K. Donovan Naturalis The government’s wholehearted enterprise to invest in new depends on the mobility of Biodiversity Center, Leiden, the support is crucial. research areas as well as in specific radionuclides in different Netherlands. Jamshid Parchizadeh Tehran, different universities and groups, geological environments. The [email protected] Iran. as long as the proposed research potential release and transport Samual T. Williams University is innovative and the capacity to of radionuclides that are highly of Venda, Thohoyandou, South carry it out is evident. mobile in the geosphere, such CORRECTION Africa. This philosophy is embedded as long-lived iodine-129 and The cover line on the [email protected] in the review criteria of the selenium-79, have to be part of 30 November issue of Nature highly successful US National the risk evaluation. This risk (Nature 551, issue 7682; Science Foundation. Scientific varies from site to site. 2017) wrongly made reference Celebrate results of excellence thrives on diversity Concerning the Waste to ‘limb regeneration’. The excellence initiative and does not necessarily spring Isolation Pilot Plant (WIPP) in cover line should have read from earlier accomplishments, so New Mexico, it is not the state ‘How different types of I respectfully disagree with your it must be continually reasserted. that has “tied the DOE’s hands” muscle fibre help to direct interpretation of the results from Kudos is due to all of Germany’s by banning the disposal of tank regeneration’. the latest round of competition new and established research wastes, but the Land Withdrawal