Opinion in 2010

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  • Tanzania's iconic national park must not be divided by a highway, say Andrew Dobson, Markus Borner, Tony Sinclair and 24 others. A route farther south would bring greater benefits to development and the environment.

    • Andrew P. Dobson
    • Markus Borner
    • Eric Wolanski
    Opinion
  • Taxonomists should work with specialists in pattern recognition, machine learning and artificial intelligence, say Norman MacLeod, Mark Benfield and Phil Culverhouse — more accuracy and less drudgery will result.

    • Norman MacLeod
    • Mark Benfield
    • Phil Culverhouse
    Opinion
  • The main consumer-targeted certification scheme for sustainable fisheries is failing to protect the environment and needs radical reform, say Jennifer Jacquet, Daniel Pauly and colleagues.

    • Jennifer Jacquet
    • Daniel Pauly
    • Jeremy Jackson
    Opinion
  • New Orleans's recovery five years on from Katrina is a harbinger of how climate change will drive a thicker wedge between the haves and the have-nots, says John Mutter.

    • John Mutter
    Opinion
  • National censuses and surveys are threatened around the world by high costs and low response rates. The demographic data they yield are too valuable to lose, warn Stephen E. Fienberg and Kenneth Prewitt.

    • Stephen E. Fienberg
    • Kenneth Prewitt
    Opinion
  • Although largely unregulated, genetic tests are increasingly used to diagnose conditions, map ancestry or predict disease risk. In this, the first of two related pieces, Arthur L. Beaudet advocates the US Food and Drug Administration banning direct-to-consumer medical tests but leaving the analysis of clinical diagnostics to specialists. In the second, Gail Javitt argues that the agency should implement a regulatory framework for all health-related tests.

    • Arthur L. Beaudet
    Opinion
  • Although largely unregulated, genetic tests are increasingly used to diagnose conditions, map ancestry or predict disease risk. In this, the second of two related pieces, Gail Javitt argues that the US Food and Drug Administration should implement a regulatory framework for all health-related tests. In the first, Arthur L. Beaudet advocates the agency banning direct-to-consumer medical tests but leaving the analysis of clinical diagnostics to specialists.

    • Gail Javitt
    Opinion
  • Telecommunications companies and oceanographers should work together to plug old and new submarine cables into research projects, says Yuzhu You. A global network could monitor climate change.

    • Yuzhu You
    Opinion
  • Unjustified and impractical legal requirements are stopping genetically engineered crops from saving millions from starvation and malnutrition, says Ingo Potrykus.

    • Ingo Potrykus
    Opinion
  • To feed the world without further damaging the planet, Jeffrey Sachs and 24 food-system experts call for a global data collection and dissemination network to track the myriad impacts of different farming practices.

    • Jeffrey Sachs
    • Roseline Remans
    • Pedro A. Sanchez
    Opinion
  • A change in institutional culture is needed to promote responsible scientific behaviour and prevent misconduct. That's unlikely to happen unless money is involved, say Sandra Titus and Xavier Bosch.

    • Sandra Titus
    • Xavier Bosch
    Opinion
  • A new survey shows that informal intervention can often avert much irresponsible scientific behaviour, and is not as risky as people might fear, say Gerald Koocher and Patricia Keith-Spiegel.

    • Gerald P. Koocher
    • Patricia Keith-Spiegel
    Opinion
  • The US government must make the Department of Defense a key customer for energy technologies and make greenhouse-gas reductions a public good, say John Alic, Daniel Sarewitz, Charles Weiss and William Bonvillian.

    • John Alic
    • Daniel Sarewitz
    • William Bonvillian
    Opinion
  • Researchers and regulators need to keep up with the changing risks, and share information, says Arne Jernelöv, as tanker spills decline and pipeline leaks and blowouts become more of a concern.

    • Arne Jernelöv
    Opinion
  • The value of ecosystems is largely invisible to markets. Ricardo Bayon and Michael Jenkins call on governments to drive regulatory and voluntary economic instruments that put a price on the services that nature provides.

    • Ricardo Bayon
    • Michael Jenkins
    Opinion
  • Fifty years after setting foot in Gombe, Jane Goodall calls for urgent action to save our closest living relatives from extinction in the wild. Conservationists and local people must collaborate, she and Lilian Pintea conclude.

    • Jane Goodall
    • Lilian Pintea
    Opinion
  • Lessons on the risks and opportunities of climate change should be directed at future executives, given that many companies rival nations in greenhouse-gas emissions, says Genevieve Patenaude.

    • Genevieve Patenaude
    Opinion
  • To understand human psychology, behavioural scientists must stop doing most of their experiments on Westerners, argue Joseph Henrich, Steven J. Heine and Ara Norenzayan.

    • Joseph Henrich
    • Steven J. Heine
    • Ara Norenzayan
    Opinion
  • As the UK Royal Society prepares for a festival celebrating its 350th year, Yves Quéré urges all scientific academies to welcome women and young scientists and to take part in public and political discourse.

    • Yves Quéré
    Opinion
  • Endemic Chagas disease began as a neglected disease of poor, rural and forgotten populations. Its spread from Latin America to non-endemic countries is a new worldwide challenge, say José Rodrigues Coura and Pedro Albajar Viñas.

    • José Rodrigues Coura
    • Pedro Albajar Viñas
    Opinion