As the organizers of a symposium on the genetic effects of radiation following the Fukushima disaster — held at this year's annual meeting of the Society for Molecular Biology and Evolution — we object strongly to the headline of your report 'Fukushima offers real-time ecolab' (Nature 499, 265–266; 2013).

In our view and those of many others from Japan and elsewhere who have communicated their objections to us, it conveys a lack of empathy among researchers for the suffering of the people and animals affected by the Fukushima power-plant disaster.

Scientists working on the consequences of the catastrophic events of March 2011, including the symposium panellists and ourselves, always take into primary consideration the pain of people in Fukushima. The researchers would never insult them by branding them or their natural environment as experimental material.

Your headline does not reflect the aims of our symposium or of the panellists' research