Science - USA (2021-11-05)

SCIENCE science.org

PHOTO: JAN LINDBLAD JR./SSAB

Scythians, a nomadic people living on the

region’s steppes around the same time.

The museums wanted them back, but the

Ukrainian government, which owned

the museums until the annexation, claimed

the objects as well. The Allard Pierson

Museum says it has “no opinion” on the

outcome, but is “pleased that a verdict has

been reached.”

Indonesia OKs Novavax vaccine

COVID-19 | Indonesia’s government this

week authorized Novavax’s vaccine, mak-

ing it the first protein-based COVID-

vaccine to win authorization anywhere,

the company said. The small biotechnol-

ogy company and its partner, the Serum

Institute of India, asked the World Health

Organization for emergency use list-

ing in September, but no decision has

been issued. U.S.-based Novavax says it

expects to ask the U.S. Food and Drug

Administration for authorization by

December, after it struggled to meet the

agency’s vaccine purity standards. Twenty-

seven percent of people in Indonesia, the

fourth most populous nation, had been

fully vaccinated against COVID-19 by

31 October, according to Our World in

Data. Since 27 October, Novavax has also

applied for authorizations in Australia,

Canada, and the United Kingdom.

Co-author wins retraction bid

PUBLISHING|A journal retracted a con-

troversial article about plant biodiversity

last week after more than 1 year of effort

by a co-author turned whistleblower who

sought to expose a range of data anomalies

attributed to the paper’s senior author. The

paper, in Biodiversity and Conservation,

purported to show a method of distinguish-

ing plant species by comparing snippets of

DNA—known as DNA barcoding—is more

cost-effective than traditional plant-survey

methods. Ken Thompson, a postdoctoral

fellow at Stanford University, worked on

the paper as an undergraduate in 2014 at

the University of Guelph (UG) with Steven

Newmaster, a botany professor there. But

he eventually asked the journal and UG

to investigate the paper—his first to be

published—asserting in part that the data

bore a dubious similarity to separate data

collected at the Canadian Centre for DNA

Barcoding, also located at UG. The retrac-

tion notice in Biodiversity and Conservation

corroborated several of Thompson’s

concerns. Newmaster, it added, “has not

responded to any correspondence from the

Editor or publisher about this retraction.”

Newmaster did not respond to a request for

comment from Science. A UG spokesperson

says the university “is not in a position to

comment on a decision made by a journal.”

NIH yanks diversity policy

EQUITY|The U.S. National Institutes of

Health (NIH) last week canceled a policy

meant to help bridge a funding gap between

Black and white scientists. A May notice

from three institutes offered to highlight

applicants from groups underrepresented in

science, including people of color and people

from disadvantaged backgrounds, which

could boost a proposal close to the threshold

to win funding. But on 25 October, NIH’s

Office of the Director rescinded the notice

to promote “clarity in communications.”

NIH said institutes already had leeway to

consider “diverse scientific perspectives”

The SSAB AB plant in Oxelösund,

Sweden, is the world’s first to produce

steel with low carbon emissions.

O

n the eve of the U.N. climate summit in Glasgow, U.K., the

United States and European Union this week said they will

negotiate a deal that expands methods to reduce carbon

emissions from the manufacturing of steel and aluminum.

Collectively, steel and aluminum production account for 10% of all

global carbon releases. The pact also calls for an immediate truce

in a trade war between the two parties over those products. The

emissions deal, to be negotiated during the next 2 years, aims to

restrict imports of metals produced with “dirty” methods, target-

ing especially those from China, which are produced largely by

burning coal. The agreement is also expected to contain incentives

to reduce emissions by U.S. and EU producers of those metals.

CLIMATE POLICY

United States, European Union back ‘green’ steel, aluminum

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