Hello Nature readers,
Today we hear the first implementation of a pioneering anti-bullying policy, discover how a stack of concrete blocks can store renewable energy and go searching for the researcher behind one of the biggest frauds in scientific history.
Nazneen Rahman.Rebecca Reid/eyevine
Geneticist loses grant over bullying allegations
The Wellcome Trust has revoked a £3.5-million (US$4.5-million) grant awarded to a top cancer geneticist, Nazneen Rahman, following allegations that she bullied people when she worked at the Institute of Cancer Research (ICR) in London. The decision to pull the funding represents the first implementation of the charity’s pioneering anti-bullying and anti-harassment policy. Rahman has resigned from the ICR, which did not take disciplinary action.
Nature | 4 min read
Salk Institute pushes back on lawsuit
Lawyers for the Salk Institute for Biological Studies have asked a judge in California to narrow the scope of a gender-discrimination lawsuit filed by molecular biologist Beverly Emerson. Emerson alleges that systemic bias at the institute in La Jolla, California, limited her pay and access to resources such as laboratory space. Two other female faculty members who remain at the Salk had also sued for discrimination, but settled their cases with the institute on 6 August.
Nature | 1 min read
The concrete battery
Hydroelectric dams turn gravitational potential energy into electricity — and can also store energy by pumping water back up when supply outstrips demand. A prototype energy plant aims to show that a huge stack of blocks can do essentially the same thing. Towers of waste concrete, moved by robot cranes, could store excess power without the need for waterfalls and reservoirs. If it works, it could offer a low-tech way of helping to solve one of the most pressing problems in renewable energy: the cost of storage.
Nature | 7 min read
FEATURES & OPINION
Ageing tips from ancient Greece
Prodigious Greek physician Galen pioneered the idea of the ‘healthspan’ — the length of time a person enjoys optimal health — way back in AD 175. A medically informed translation of Galen’s classic text, written by a former neuroscientist, illuminates how the ancients saw ageing.
Nature | 6 min read
‘Big astronomy’ is leaving the US behind
US scientists could end up locked out of cutting-edge astronomy unless they get their funding priorities straight, argue two presidents of US organizations that manage major astronomical observatories. “We will face an unacceptable dilemma,” they say: “Support existing grants and cede US leadership, or abandon funding for key areas of research to support a few world-leading facilities.”
Nature | 10 min read
Money, murder and vanilla
Vanilla flavour might be ubiquitous, but only a tiny fraction comes from real vanilla beans. The flowers of this precious plant bloom for just one day each year, requiring painstaking pollination by hand — just one of the factors contributing to record-breaking prices of more than US$500 per kilo of the beans. In Madagascar, the vanilla boom is fuelling violence, robberies and environmental devastation.
BBC | 12 min read
The lies live on
Bone specialist Yoshihiro Sato faked the data for dozens of studies whose findings rippled through the field. Science investigates how ‘gift authorship’, failed peer review and reticent journals exacerbated the lie — and how tenacious whistleblowers gave years of their lives to prove it.
Science | 19 min read
QUIRKS OF NATURE
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Thanks for reading, eh!
Flora Graham, senior editor, Nature Briefing
