Published online 23 December 2010 | Nature | doi:10.1038/news.2010.690

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Nature looks back on a selection of last year's news stories to find out what happened next.

Hungary's toxic sludge

The early start of winter has halted the clean-up of the toxic red sludge that escaped on 4 October from the reservoir of a Hungarian alumina factory, killing 10 and injuring 200 (see 'Analysis lags on Hungarian sludge leak'). It will probably take the whole of next spring to scrape the remaining mud away from flooded land, but experts hope that the environment will eventually recover from the disaster.

Toxic sludge flooded Hungarian villages and fields in October. AP Photo/Darko Bandic

The alkaline sludge, a by-product of bauxite production, contains high concentrations of heavy metals, including arsenic, cadmium and mercury, but its colour comes from harmless iron oxide (rust). The spill severely contaminated two tributaries of the Danube, killing all wildlife in the small River Marcal. In Kolontár, the worst-hit village, more than 20 flooded houses had to be bulldozed.

But fears that pollution could spread beyond the relatively small disaster area (800 hectares) have not materialized. Hungarian emergency agencies, assisted by environmental chemists from the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, are confident that there will be no lasting damage to human health and the local environment

Independent measurements taken in November by the international environmental organization Greenpeace confirm that tap water and air are free from toxic pollution. But the survey did find excessive arsenic content in local wells, and Greenpeace warns that fine dust pollution might become a problem when the snow has gone.

Whether local farmers will be allowed to sow any crops next year is yet to be established. The Ajkai alumina plant resumed operations two weeks after the spill.

Russian wildfires

Wildfires in Russia are still smouldering, but not burning, after the country was set ablaze during its hottest and driest summer on record (see 'Russia counts environmental cost of wildfires'). According to figures from the Global Fire Monitoring Centre (GFMC), based at the University of Freiburg in Germany and part of the Max Planck Institute for Chemistry, around 7 million hectares — including 800,000 hectares of forest, vegetation and peat land — have burned across the Russian Federation since the fires began in June. More than 50 people were killed and more than 1,500 injured.

Russia forests burned during the country's hottest summer on record. EPA/SERGEI CHIRIKOV

At the peak of the blaze last summer, a major concern was that fires in the Bryansk region, east of Chernobyl — the site of the nuclear power plant that exploded in 1986 — could cause radioactive particles in the soil to be released into the atmosphere. But the fires didn't re-suspend radiation at dangerous levels, says Johann Goldammer, a fire ecologist and director of the GFMC. "But it could happen," he warns, if there are further fires closer to the site.

Goldammer is relieved that the Russian government has said it will take action to prevent wildfires in the future. For example, RIA Novosti, a Russian state-owned news agency, reported in September that the government would allocate 7.5 billion rubles (US$242.5 million) in 2011 to rehabilitate forests and prevent wildfires. "The fires have not been forgotten," Goldhammer says.

A tower in the Amazon

Despite delays caused by a historic drought this autumn, which lowered river levels and stranded equipment, a team of Brazilian and German scientists have installed a small meteorology tower and are currently erecting an 80-metre research tower at a new atmospheric research station in the Amazon rainforest 155 kilometres northwest of Manaus, Brazil. (see 'Atmospheric science: A towering experiment').

The Brazilian authorities have approved a new access road, which is scheduled to be built when the dry season arrives in the middle of next year. Measurements will ramp up next year as the team works to install more towers as well as the centrepiece of the project, the Amazonian Tall Tower Observatory (ATTO).

Initially scheduled for construction this year, the ATTO will provide the first long-term monitoring capacity from a tall tower in the tropics; among other things, scientists will use the data collected to track how much carbon is taken up and released by the rainforest over time. A second set of towers will be used to conduct detailed chemistry experiments focused on forest emissions and their evolution in the atmosphere.

UK libel law's chilling effect set for thaw

On April Fools Day this year, science writer Simon Singh won a crucial round in his libel fight with the British Chiropractic Association (see 'Science writer's victory hailed by UK libel reformers'). Since then, the campaign to reform England's draconian libel laws has gathered pace (Nature has backed this campaign - see 'Unjust burden of proof').

Simon Singh dealt a blow for libel reform in April. Daniel Cressey

In July, the UK justice minister Tom McNally said that the new government was "committed to reforming the law on defamation" to ensure that journalism and scientific research could flourish. A draft bill is expected to go to consultation next year and to reach Parliament in May 2012.

In August, US President Barack Obama signed off a new law making foreign libel judgements unenforceable in the United States — a move widely taken as being a direct response to English libel laws.

In December, speaking at the Libel Reform Campaign's first anniversary, McNally affirmed that currently "English libel law is not fit for purpose".

Turkey's over-restrictive GM law

In March, the Turkish parliament approved a new law on genetically modified (GM) organisms which threatened to cripple its small but expanding bioscience community (see 'Turkish law could cripple bioscience' and 'An absurd law'). The law was originally intended to control the use of GM plants in agriculture, but evolved to cover all organisms, including widely used laboratory animals such as fruitflies and mice. It banned the breeding of any GM organism — which at a stroke outlawed much useful molecular biological research — and introduced lengthy bureaucratic approval procedures for each experiment that involved genetic manipulation.

Turkey's president did not intervene and ask parliament to reconsider, as some scientists had hoped, and the law entered into force. But in August, the ministry of agriculture published regulations for the law which seem to allow the contained use of GM plants and animals in education and research, and open-field trials with GM plants. Approval procedures for such experiments are in line with those in countries of the European Union. But as these regulations contradict the explicit banning of all GM research in the law, scientists are afraid that the seeming turn for good in their fortunes will be vulnerable to the first legal challenge from Turkey's vociferous opponents of GM.

Seismologists facing manslaughter charges

In June, the public prosecutor in L'Aquila, in central Italy, indicted six scientists of manslaughter, at the end of an investigation on the earthquake that hit the city on 6 April, 2009 (see 'Italy puts seismology in the dock'). At the time of the earthquake, the six seismologists were acting as consultants to the Italian government.

A court in Italy is set to try six seismologists for manslaughter after an earthquake in April. AP Photo/Alessandra Tarantino

On 31 March 2009, as recurring tremors were alarming the local population, they met with the Civil Protection in L'Aquila to assess the risk of a major shock. After the meeting, a Civil Protection official (who was also indicted) told the press that there was no immediate danger. Six days later the earthquake hit and killed 308 people. When notified the indictment, the scientists rejected all charges, arguing that there was no way for them to predict the earthquake.

A letter of support signed by thousands of their colleagues was sent to the Italian President. But in the investigation report, made public in July, the prosecutor wrote that the scientists are not accused of failing to predict the earthquake, but rather of going too far in reassuring the region's population, just as many were preparing to flee their homes. About 30 citizens have also since sued the scientists for compensation. A judge will now have to decide whether to go on with the trial. The first hearing, initially scheduled for December, has been postponed until next year.

The scientific saboteur

Court records show that Vipul Bhrigu, the former postdoc at the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, who sabotaged the work of a graduate student in his lab (see 'Research integrity: Sabotage!'), paid US$5,000 in restitution in November. This is in addition to the $10,000 he paid at the time of sentencing and brings him closer to the nearly $30,000 that he's been ordered to pay. The judge on the case has cancelled a warrant for Bhrigu's arrest in the light of his cooperation.

Bhrigu, who was last reported to be in India, responded to an e-mail from Nature by saying that he intends to pay the rest. In Michigan, Heather Ames, the student whose work was targeted, is still hoping to finish her PhD by spring. Theo Ross, Bhrigu's former adviser, says that, since Nature 's article was published, she has received hundreds of sympathetic e-mails from colleagues and a handful asking for advice on dealing with fraud in their labs. She says that a few colleagues have questioned the wisdom of talking so openly about her lab's problems, suggesting that the fact that it happened, rather than the fact that she dealt with it, would become Ross' legacy. But she encourages more openness, not less, in science. "That's the problem with our culture. People talk about how they're willing to face the truth," Ross says. "But if you start talking about the problems, people turn off." Ross is writing a book about her experiences and hopes that the proceeds might help fund her research.

And finally... A health institute for explorers

Whatever you say about Matt Lewin, he's certainly not boring. When he's not working in the emergency room of a university hospital, the doctor is travelling the world assisting scientists both in the field and when they contract life-threatening diseases (see 'Profile: The field medic').

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His lifelong dream has been to create an institute where scientists preparing for far-flung expeditions can talk to doctors. After Nature 's story, Lewin's institute has got off the ground a year ahead of schedule. Based at the California Academy of Sciences in San Fransisco, its work will serve three constituencies: expeditions wanting medics or consultation; help for scientists getting ill while in the field or on returning; and the training of doctors who want to be expedition medics.

Even before the institute started operation in November, calls were flooding in. Lewin is now the medic for a massive eight-week expedition in the Philippines. He also examined a scientist just home from years in Myanmar who was told that he had lung cancer. Lewin informed the man's doctor about a rare but harmless Asian worm that imitates lung cancer by triggering an immune reaction that produces tumour-like growths. Sure enough, on closer inspection, the scientist has now been found to be cancer-free.

"It's one of the most valuable things I have done as a doctor," Lewin says. "It really made a difference for somebody."