CREDITS: (GRAPHIC) N. CARY/
SCIENCE
; (DATA) Z. FANG AND R. COSTAS,
SCIENTOMETRICS
, 10.1007/S11192-020-03405-9 (2020)
will extend to almost all fish caught in the
gulf using a variety of fishing gear. To be
sold in the United States, species named
in the ban will require certificates show-
ing they were caught elsewhere in Mexico.
But the ban doesn’t address the biggest
problem facing the vaquita: poachers who
gillnet a large fish called the totoaba, sold
in China for its perceived medicinal value.
Mexico banned gillnet fishing in the gulf in
2017, but enforcement is poor.Method could turbocharge drugs
CHEMISTRY | For years, drug discovery
chemists have struggled to streamline a
process that can boost a drug’s potency
up to 2000-fold: “magic methylation.” The
reaction sweeps out single hydrogen atoms
and replaces them with methyl groups—
reshaping the drug molecule to more easily
interact with its biological targets. Now,
a team of chemists reports it has cre-
ated a catalyst that performs this delicate
exchange with ease on a wide variety of
druglike molecules, an advance that could
lead to novel treatments for everything
from cancer to infectious diseases, they
report this week in Nature. Physicians
may be able to give patients lower doses of
higher potency drugs, reducing side effects.Swine fever vaccine reported
AGRICULTURE | Researchers in China say
they have created a vaccine that protects
pigs from African swine fever. Since 2018,
the contagious viral disease has cut the
country’s swine population of more than
400 million by about 40%. Scientists at
the Harbin Veterinary Research Institute
reported this month in Science China Life
Sciences that they created the attenuated
vaccine by deleting seven genes from the
virus and found it cannot revert to the
virulent strain. “There is justification for
guarded optimism,” says Dirk Pfeiffer, a
veterinary epidemiologist at City University
of Hong Kong, although he says more test-
ing of safety and efficacy is needed.Did Twitter give up on civility?
SOCIAL MEDIA | Some researchers who
teamed up with Twitter 2 years ago to
make conversations on its platform less
toxic say progress has stalled and the social
media giant has ignored them, The Wall
Street Journal (WSJ) reports this week.
Other scientists say they struggled to get
some of the data promised. “The impres-
sion I came away with ... is that they
[Twitter] were more sensitive to deflect-
ing criticism than in solving the problemSCIENCEof harassment,” Nathan Matias of Cornell
University told WSJ. Twitter blamed the
delays on employee turnover and shifting
priorities, but vowed to continue the work.Solar storm risks mapped
GEOMAGNETISM | A map released this
week by the U.S. Geological Survey shows
where the U.S. electric grid is most
vulnerable to space weather. Researchers
modeled the effects of a once-in-a-century
solar storm, which can hurl charged
particles into Earth’s magnetic field and
cause electric fields to ripple through
the ground. Those fields, in turn, trigger
electrical surges along power lines that
vary in intensity depending on the type of
rock deep underground. The geoelectric
hazard map shows that power lines in twoU.S. regions are particularly vulnerable:
the northern Midwest and east of the
Appalachian Mountains.Michigan removes provost
#METOO | The University of Michigan,
Ann Arbor, last week removed toxicologist
Martin Philbert as provost as it continues
to investigate allegations that he committed
sexual misconduct. Michigan placed him
on paid administrative leave in January.
Before then, at least three people had told
the university of instances of harassment or
discrimination, and since his suspension,
dozens more have accused him of acts of
sexual misconduct they say occurred during
the past decade, according to the Detroit
Free Press. Philbert remains a tenured pro-
fessor but is suspended from teaching.Cumulative percentage of all mentions0100%0 30 60 90 120 150 180 210 240 270 300 330 360
Days after publicationReddit
Twitter
Facebook
News
Google+
Blogs
YouTube
Wikipedia
Peer-review
platforms
20406080PUBLISHING‘Altmetric’ speeds compared
A
ltmetrics—counts of social media mentions of a journal article—have gained
popularity as a promising and faster way to quantify a paper’s impact, while
adding more texture than its number of citations. Altmetrics provide barometers
of interest within days after publication, whereas authors can wait years to see
citation counts grow. But the reaction speed of the 12 social media platforms
that inform altmetrics scores varies considerably, says a study published this month
in Scientometrics. Sixty percent of tweets about journal articles are posted during the
first 30 days after publication; in contrast, reactions on the Publons and PubPeer com-
menting platforms appear more slowly. The findings suggest the various social media
data used to calculate an altmetric score should not be lumped together, says co-
author Zhichao Fang of Leiden University. The study is among the largest examinations
of altmetric speed across multiple fields; the authors examined 2.4 million articles in
the Web of Science database published from 2012 to 2016. Papers in some disciplines
gained social media mentions faster than others; for example, physical science publi-
cations outpaced those in computer and social science.Tweets beat the rest
The study found that reaction speed differs not just by medium (below), but also by discipline
and document type; mentions increased faster for journal letters than for research articles.20 MARCH 2020 • VOL 367 ISSUE 6484 1285