Science - USA (2019-02-15)

NEWS | IN BRIEF

674 15 FEBRUARY 2019 • VOL 363 ISSUE 6428 sciencemag.org SCIENCE

Europe destroys GM crop

BIOTECHNOLOGY | Farmers in France and
Germany were digging up nearly 10,
hectares of fields planted with oilseed
rape last week, after the discovery that a
small fraction of the seeds—estimated to
be less than 0.005%—were of a genetically
modified (GM) variety not approved for
planting in the European Union. Bayer,
which distributed the seeds, recalled them.
It is not known how the GM seeds, which
are herbicide-tolerant and grown in North
America, ended up mixed with non-GM
seed that was grown in Argentina, which
does not plant GM rapeseed. Commingling
of GM and non-GM seed is rare, and it
is even more unusual that the seeds are
accidently planted, says Justus Wesseler,
an agricultural economist at Wageningen
University in the Netherlands. Destruction
of the crops, which could cost Bayer about
$21 million in compensation to farmers,
could have been avoided if EU regulators

had set an acceptable threshold for trace

amounts of unapproved GM seeds, he adds.

Rosalind to explore Mars

PLANETARY SCIENCE | The European-

Russian ExoMars rover heading to the

Red Planet next year has been given a new

name: Rosalind Franklin, after the U.K. sci-

entist who made key, belatedly recognized

contributions that helped unravel the struc-

ture of DNA. The European Space Agency in

Paris announced the name last week, after

the public offered up 36,000 suggestions. In

the 1950s, Franklin carried out x-ray diffrac-

tion of the DNA molecule that aided James

Watson and Francis Crick in figuring out

its structure. She died of ovarian cancer in

1958, at age 37, shortly before Watson, Crick,

and her colleague Maurice Wilkins received

a Nobel Prize for the work. Rosalind the

rover will arrive at Mars in 2021. It will use

a drill to study environments that once, or

still could, support life.

U.S. teens’ use of nicotine soars

PUBLIC HEALTH | Many more U.S. youths

inhaled e-cigarettes in 2018, entirely driving

a jump in their use of tobacco products and

erasing reductions made in recent years,

the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and

Prevention reported on 11 February. The

number who consumed other tobacco prod-

ucts stayed level. In 2018, 4.9 million middle

and high school students reported using a

tobacco product in the past 30 days, up about

a third since 2017. Teens who use e-cigarettes

are more likely to begin to use cigarettes

and other tobacco products, which lead to

preventable causes of disease and death. The

U.S. Food and Drug Administration, which

last year pressured manufacturers and sellers

of e-cigarettes to curb purchases by teens, is

planning additional regulatory steps.

Dingell left mark on science

SCIENCE POLICY | John Dingell, who died

last week at age 92, served a record

59 years in the U.S. House of Representatives.

He was known for his work on civil rights,

health care, and environmental issues. But

many scientists remember Dingell for his

aggressive efforts to expose research mis-

conduct and wasteful science spending. A

“Dingell-gram” summoning a researcher or

administrator to appear before his energy

and commerce committee was a prelude

to hours—or even days—of blunt questions

from the Michigan Democrat. One late-

1980s probe of alleged fraud in federally

funded studies helped push biologist David

Baltimore, a Nobel laureate, to retract his

authorship of a high-profile paper. Dingell’s

work helped make addressing misconduct

a major issue in the scientific community,

and his template for such investigations

remains in use today.

Supplements draw scrutiny

REGULATION | The U.S Food and Drug

Administration (FDA) said on 11 February

it plans to revise how it oversees the dietary

supplement industry. FDA Commissioner

Scott Gottlieb voiced concern that a grow-

ing number of products are adulterated, or

purport to treat or cure disease—a claim not

permitted for such products, which do not go

through the agency’s premarket approval pro-

cess. Last week, FDA issued 12 warning letters

to supplementmakers for such misbranding.

A newly formed public-private partnership

will evaluate new research tools for assessing

supplements’ safety and effectiveness.

PLANETARY SCIENCE

The moon’s far side, with home beyond

T

he far side of the moon, with Earth in the background, looms in this photo

taken 4 February by a simple camera, built by students, on board the Chinese

DSLWP-B/Longjiang- 2 satellite. China placed it in orbit last year to conduct

radio astronomy and then successfully deployed a lander on the far side on

3 January. The image was transmitted to the amateur-operated Dwingeloo

radio telescope in the Netherlands.

SCIENCEMAG.ORG/NEWS

Read more news from Science online. PHOTO: WEI MINGCHUAN (BG2BHC), HU CHAORAN (BG2CRY), TAI MIER (KG5TEP), ZHAO YUHAO (BG2DGR)/HARBIN INSTITUTE OF TECHNOLOGY; CEES BASSA, TAMMO JAN DIJKEMA, VANESSA MOSS/CAMRAS DWINGELOO RADIO TELESCOPE; COMMAND UPLINK BY REINHARD KUEHN (DK5LA)

Published by AAAS

on February 14, 2019^

http://science.sciencemag.org/

Downloaded from