Editorials in 2013

Estimating the scale of the problem may allow us to arrest dangerous levels of overfishing.

Two explosions last week demonstrated the importance of global monitoring.

That robust data are not collected on births, deaths and causes of death is a scandal. A new drive and greater investment are needed to grow the field of health metrics.

Planning for extreme events must incorporate not just infrastructure but societal preparedness.

Stem-cell trials must be made easier, so that treatments can be based on real data.

Leaders have finally thrashed out the European Union budget for the next seven years. But how much money will go to research is yet to be confirmed.

Japan is making an overdue effort to regulate experimental stem-cell treatments. A clearly defined legal framework is needed to protect patients.

The identification of a long-dead king is not simply an academic event.

It is in Britain’s best interests to keep looking for a site for a deep nuclear-waste repository.

Research balloons have taught us much about the atmosphere, and could now fly into space.

Governments and funding agencies must do more to prevent the awarding of grants to research projects with significant overlap.

The United States must boost energy spending to make its mark on the climate debate.

Experiments that make deadly pathogens more dangerous demand the utmost scrutiny.

With the Royal Institution in trouble, Britain’s crowded public-science scene must evolve.

The ability to identify an individual from their anonymous genome sequence, using a clever algorithm and data from public databases, threatens the principle of subject confidentiality.

Age-old field methods can tell us more about animal behaviour than can laboratory models.

A sustained commitment to mental-health treatment for Fukushima evacuees could also help survivors of future disasters.

Institutions must carefully evaluate their researchers’ relationships with Wall Street.

Health-benefit claims for Europe’s foods must at last be substantiated by science.

Demands to analyse Connecticut school shooter’s DNA are misguided and could lead to dangerous stigmatization, or worse.