Science 28Feb2020

SCIENCE sciencemag.org

PHOTO: BEN BIRCHALL/PA IMAGES VIA GETTY IMAGES

widely as weeds become resistant to Bayer’s

glyphosate-based herbicide Roundup. Other

plaintiffs have sued the company alleging

that glyphosate causes cancer; in one such

case, a jury last year awarded $2 billion in

damages, later reduced to $87 million.

Fetal tissue panel sought

BIOETHICS |The Trump administration

is moving forward with a new ethics board

that will review proposed research using

fetal tissue from elective abortions. In a

20 February notice, the Department of

Health and Human Services (HHS) seeks

nominations within 30 days for a 15-member

panel to include experts in ethics, law, and

theology, as well as scientists. The board

will advise HHS on whether to fund projects

that passed peer review. In June 2019, the

administration ended fetal tissue research

in government labs and froze awards for

new extramural projects. The tissue is used

to study HIV, eye diseases, fetal develop-

ment, and other topics.

India’s cow research decried

POLICY |More than 500 scientists have

asked the Indian government to withdraw

a call for research proposals on indigenous

cows and the curative properties of their

urine, dung, and milk, including as cancer

treatments. In a letter, the scientists say the

call, issued 14 February, is “unscientific” and

a misdirection of public money as research

budgets in India are strapped; young

scientists are not receiving their monthly

stipends on time, for example. Hinduism

considers cows sacred, and some petitioners

see the research call as similar to previ-

ous efforts by the ruling Hindu nationalist

Bharatiya Janata Party to validate faith-

based pseudoscience.

Researchers suspect paper mill

MISCONDUCT |Researchers have uncov-

ered what they believe may be a large

“paper mill” in China that generated more

than 400 journal articles with poten-

tially fabricated images and similar text,

suggesting a common source. Elisabeth

Bik—a microbiologist and independent

consultant who with other researchers

uncovered the suspicious activity—

described it last week on her blog. The

papers contain questionable Western blot

and flow cytometry images and similar

keywords, titles, and layout. Bik says all

authors work at Chinese hospitals; she

suspects they may have faked the manu-

scripts to satisfy requirements to publish

in international journals to be eligible

for promotions. Some of the journals that

published the papers, all based in Western

countries, say they are investigating.

A team rescues a man

from his flooded home

in Monmouth, U.K.,

after Storm Dennis.

28 FEBRUARY 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6481 961

T

he United Kingdom’s Met Office will build what would be

the world’s fastest supercomputer for weather prediction,

costing up to £1.2 billion over the next decade, the agency

announced last week. The new computer, expected to have

a peak speed of nearly 100 petaflops when operational

in 2022, will support improved forecasts of severe weather like

Storm Dennis, which caused widespread flooding in the United

Kingdom this month. The U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric

Administration, seeking to return its weather model to world-leading

status, also announced plans last week to purchase two new

supercomputers at a total price of up to $505 million over 10 years,

bringing its capacity to 40 petaflops. That upgrade, although

short of the Met Office’s, will likely put the agency’s capacity on

par with upgrades planned by the European Centre for Medium-

Range Weather Forecasts, widely regarded as producing the best

current weather model.

METEOROLOGY

New computing horsepower to aid forecasts of U.K. storms

Published by AAAS