SCIENCE sciencemag.orgPHOTO: GERALD HERBERT/AP PHOTO
Living things incorporate radioactive
carbon-14 from the environment, and the
decay of this carbon after death provides a
clock for dating specimens from the recent
past. The update extends the technique’s
use to about 55,000 years ago. The recali-
brated timeline shows that Homo sapiens
and Neanderthals overlapped in Europe for
centuries longer than once thought. It also
shows the volcanic eruption that devastated
the island of Thera in Greece may have
occurred as recently as 1544 B.C.E., in line
with archaeological evidence.Mathematician’s sentence delayed
CRIMINAL JUSTICE | Eva Lee, an applied
mathematician at the Georgia Institute
of Technology who admitted to making
false statements related to a U.S. National
Science Foundation (NSF) grant, won’t
begin to serve her sentence until next spring
so she can continue to build models to
help control the COVID-19 pandemic. On
12 August, U.S. District Court Judge Steve
Jones rejected the government’s request
for 8 months of immediate home confine-
ment, saying the country “needs her” talents
now. Instead, he ordered Lee confined
for 2 months starting in April 2021 and said
that schedule could be further modified.
Lee pleaded guilty in December 2019 to mis-
representing information to NSF in a report
related to the $40,000 grant and then lying
to federal agents investigating her actions.
She told Jones she didn’t understand the
reporting requirements and that her univer-
sity withheld the necessary administrative
support for her grant, which it has disputed.U.S. academies to study racism
RACIAL JUSTICE | The National Academies
of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine
(NASEM) is gearing up for an in-depth study
of systemic racism in U.S. academic research.
Representative Eddie Bernice Johnson
(D–TX), who leads the science committee in
the U.S. House of Representatives, has asked
it to analyze “the extent to which the U.S.
scientific enterprise perpetuates systemic
inequities to the detriment of society as a
whole, as well as how those inequities are
manifested.” National Academy of Sciences
President Marcia McNutt says such a study
could set the table for needed changes in
the same way that a 2018 NASEM report
on sexual harassment catalyzed discussion
and action. Structural racism in academia
is “hindering our ability to deal with some
of our biggest challenges, including the
current COVID-19 pandemic,” says Freeman
Hrabowski, president of the University of
Maryland, Baltimore County.Trump environmental plans spark new controversies
The White House this month announced it will move ahead with controversial changes
to two major environmental policies, but suffered a legal setback on a third.Arctic drilling OK’d
The U.S. Interior Department on 17 August announced it will move ahead with plans to
sell leases to drill for oil in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The decision followed
an environmental review that concluded drilling on much of the refuge’s 6300-square-
kilometer coastal plain wouldn’t endanger caribou or polar bears, or exacerbate climate
change. Scientists have warned the effects of oil drilling could harm the animals, and
environmental groups swiftly vowed legal challenges.Methane rule relaxed
Several state governments and environmental groups are preparing court challenges
to a new Trump administration rule, finalized last week, that gives oil and gas companies
greater leeway to allow leaks of methane, a potent climate-warming gas, from their
facilities. Critics say the rule has fatal flaws, including how it calculates costs and benefits,
and many larger firms opposed the change, saying it would create uncertainty and
discourage efficiency improvements. If Democrats win control of the Senate and the White
House in January 2021, they could overturn this and other recent regulatory decisions.Bird protections upheld
A federal judge on 11 August overturned an administration reinterpretation of the 1918 Migra-
tory Bird Treaty Act that had helped companies avoid fines for inadvertently killing birds. “It is
not only a sin to kill a mockingbird,” U.S. District Court Judge Valerie Caproni wrote in her deci-
sion, quoting To Kill a Mockingbird, “it is also a crime” under federal law. Conservationists had
objected to the reinterpretation, because it meant businesses could not be fined for failing to
protect birds from foreseeable fatal hazards, such as oil spills and uncovered oil waste pits.A worker aids a pelican
covered in oil from the 2010
Deepwater Horizon accident.TRUMP TRACKER21 AUGUST 2020 • VOL 369 ISSUE 6506 887
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