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A Japanese laboratory illustrates the benefits of autonomy (and the responsibility that goes with it) and budgetary predictability in creating a framework for productive research.
An article on page 748 of this issue raises the question whether remaining stocks of smallpox virus should be physically destroyed. That option, chiefly symbolic, should not be followed — just yet.
The debacle of the US space programme is the consequence of the insecure, publicity-seeking policies of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration.