Missing plague

After reporting several vials of plague bacteria missing from his lab, and then admitting he might have accidentally destroyed them himself, US microbiologist Thomas Butler was sentenced to two years in prison for fraud this March. This is more lenient than the penalty sought by US prosecutors, who called for millions of dollars in fines and at least ten years in prison. But some researchers say it was unfair to make an example out of a 62-year-old, respected researcher with no terrorist ambitions.

For art's sake

A US university geneticist and an artist were accused of mail and wire fraud because of the way they allegedly obtained bacteria for art exhibitions. The investigation began when laboratory equipment, bacteria and books on biowarfare were found in the home of performance artist Steven Kurtz. The bacteria were found to be harmless, but both he and Robert Ferrell were accused of defrauding the supplier by using the organisms for non-research purposes outside the lab. Kurtz's case is set for a hearing on 11 January, while Ferrell's has been put on hold due to illness.

Autism paper ‘flawed’

Medical journal The Lancet took the unusual step of distancing itself from one of its own papers and attacking its findings. In February, editors declared that Andrew Wakefield's 1998 paper linking the measles, mumps and rubella vaccine with autism was “flawed” owing to conflicts of interest and should not have been published. Wakefield said that there was no conflict. The paper caused many parents in Britain to decline the triple vaccine, and, as a result, measles incidence increased.

Cloning paper pulled

Fertility researcher Panayiotis Zavos had a peer-reviewed paper on human cloning pulled — because he publicized his work. Zavos created a fuss in the newspapers in September when he announced that he had created cloned embryos by mixing genetic material from dead people with cow eggs. The Journal of Assisted Reproduction and Genetics then pulled a paper on similar work, although Zavos claims it was a different study.

Locked out

A vetted Iranian physicist was banned from his workplace at the Stanford Linear Accelerator Center, a US Department of Energy lab in California. Colleagues told Nature that no explanation was offered for his expulsion. Shahram Rahatlou suspected his ban resulted from heightened security checks after 11 September 2001. Other Iranians said that it was now harder for them to work at, or even visit, government facilities. Rahatlou has since been offered a four-year position in Rome.