An environmental extremist has been convicted on two counts of arson for her role in a fire at a university laboratory.

On 6 March, a federal jury found Briana Waters guilty of aiding the torching on 21 May 2001 of the University of Washington's Center for Urban Horticulture in Seattle, where activists wrongly believed that trees were being genetically engineered. The jury could not agree on three other counts of conspiracy, possession and use of a destructive device in a crime of violence.

Waters, who acted as lookout, was one of more than a dozen people indicted in 2006 for a series of arsons with environmental motives (see Nature 443, 498 ; 2006). She faces a minimum of five years in prison.