sciencemag.org SCIENCECREDITS: (PHOTO)CHINA DAILY/REUTERS; (GRAPHIC) J. BRAINARD/SCIENCE; (DATA) UNITED NATIONS UNIVERSITY INSTITUTE FOR WATER, ENVIRONMENT, AND HEALTHColombian science head faulted
LEADERSHIP | Some researchers in
Colombia are calling for a little-known
molecular biologist appointed as the
country’s first ever science minister to
resign. They are outraged by reports that
she treated cancer patients with a fungal
extract, without running a formal clinical
trial. “We can only regret that the course of
how to do science in our country has been
left in the hands of pseudoscience,” the
Colombian Association of Medical Faculties
wrote in a statement. In December 2019,
Mabel Gisela Torres Torres was appointed
to lead the newly created Ministry of
Science, Technology and Innovation. In
January, she told a newspaper she did not
seek formal ethical, safety, and efficacy
reviews of her work with patients because
she believed the fungus posed no threat
to human health. Her Ph.D. adviser has
defended her and notes that metabolites
in the fungi Torres studied have shown
potential as a cancer treatment in cell and
mouse studies.Reaping resources from sewers
ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCE | The world’s
growing flows of wastewater offer a largely
untapped, potentially lucrative source of
energy, agricultural fertilizers, and water
for irrigation, a comprehensive study
says. The opportunities will increase as
the annual volume of wastewater—now
380 billion cubic meters—expands by an
estimated 51% by 2050, as populations
and incomes multiply, says a team led by
researchers at United Nations University’s
Institute for Water, Environment, andNEWS
IN BRIEF
“
Employees ... are questioning whether they should post
potentially life-saving info or check tweets first.
”
A September 2019 email by a National Weather Service official, reported by The Washington Post, after
superiors rebuked forecasters for contradicting the president’s inaccurate tweets about Hurricane Dorian’s path.20152030205002004006008001000 billion kilowatt-
hoursElectricity generation Households201520302050050100150200250 millionEdited by Jeffrey BrainardA
s the novel coronavirus that emerged in Wuhan spreads world-
wide (p. 610), China is facing criticism that its initial response was
slow, and questions persist about officials’ openness. People in and
outside of China have praised an early warning about mysteri-
ous illnesses, sounded in a message sent 30 December 2019 by Li
Wenliang, an ophthalmologist at a Wuhan hospital, to his medi-cal school classmates. On 3 January, however, local police summoned Li,
chastised him for spreading socially disruptive rumors, and made him
sign a letter of self-criticism. He has since become infected and was hos-
pitalized. Last week, the country’s highest court faulted Li’s detention
as overreach. China is waging a fierce battle against the virus; it built a
new, 1000-bed hospital in Wuhan in just 10 days, and Chinese scientists
have published several papers on the virus. But in a 30 January state-
ment leaked on social media, China’s Ministry of Science and Technology
urged researchers to pour their efforts into stopping its spread instead.
“Until the task of prevention and control is completed, the focus should
not be on the publication of papers,” the statement says.
Workers in Shanghai wearing makeshift protective suits help residents register to purchase face masks.
INFECTIOUS DISEASE
China virus response criticized as slow
m Poop’s power potential
Converting carbon in municipal wastewater to methane
and burning it to generate electricity could supply
power to 5% of Earth’s population, a study says.606 7 FEBRUARY 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6478
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