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Scientists marching against Brexit say that it will damage UK and European science. Credit: Peter Nicholls/Reuters

Many scientists joined the hundreds of thousands of protesters who took to the streets of London on Saturday, calling for the terms of Brexit to be put to the British people in a vote. “This is a crucial issue for scientists because science relies on rational thoughts, facts, collaborations and openness, and Brexit basically goes against all these values,” says pharmaceutical researcher Jean-Martin Lapointe.

Some scientists also added their names to the 5.5 million (and counting) signatures on a petition calling for Brexit to be cancelled altogether. “Speaking purely personally, I can think of no benefit of Brexit for UK science,” says Venki Ramakrishnan, a Nobel-prizewinning structural biologist and president of the Royal Society in London.

Nature | 5 min read

A controversial paper that showed alarmingly low population numbers for a tiny Texas songbird has been reinstated following accusations of plagiarism. The paper is accompanied by three commentaries in which “dueling research teams trade allegations of sinister motives, censorship, and misuse of data”, reports Science. “And the journal editor admits he is publishing the paper now against his better judgement.” At stake is the protected status of the golden‐cheeked warbler (Setophaga chrysoparia), a status that local landowners aim to have lifted.

Science | 7 min read

Reference: Journal of Field Ornithology paper

FEATURES & OPINION

Statistical significance — don’t ditch the bar, raise it

Debate is raging after 3 scientists and 800 co-signatories called for the entire concept of statistical significance to be abandoned.

• Retiring statistical significance would give bias a free pass and “irrefutable nonsense would rule”, argues physician and metascience researcher John Ioannidis. Careful use of statistical thresholds is useful, he says — as long as the rules of the game are set before a study starts. Nature | 2 min read

• Scientists should raise the bar for what qualifies as statistical significance, rather than retire it altogether, agues statistician Valen Johnson. The more important issue is what constitutes sufficient evidence of a true association, he says. Nature | 2 min read

• Psychologists Julia Haaf, Alexander Ly and Eric-Jan Wagenmakers point out that statistical testing (when done properly) is a necessary hurdle for discovering whether there is any effect worth estimating at all. Nature | 2 min read

Read more: Scientists rise up against statistical significance (Nature, 11 min read)

The memories of the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill “are as deeply embedded in the community as the oil is beneath the beaches”, says writer and teacher Tim Lydon. He explores the ways in which Alaska’s Prince William Sound has rebounded from the disaster and the ways in which it is forever changed.

Hakai | 5 min read

NATURE INDEX JAPAN 2019

Credit: Andrea Ucini

Japan is looking to other countries in its efforts to halt the alarming decline in its contribution to global science.

• Meet Japan’s global connectors: six scientists who stand out for the strength of their international collaboration networks. They share how they are bringing global research to Japan, and taking Japanese research to the world. (14 min read)

• The number of foreign students at Japanese universities is on the rise, but fewer than 5% of full-time Japanese university faculty members in 2015 were from abroad (in the United Kingdom, it’s more like 30%). One Japanese university is taking a radical approach to change, with English as its official language, no separate departments and 50% of its faculty from outside Japan. (8 min read)

• Academia and industry in Japan remain disconnected, despite efforts to bring them together. Chemist Hiroaki Suga shares how he became one of the few researchers in Japan to launch a successful start-up. (8 min read)

• Among Japan’s research population, men outnumber women six to one. Leading researchers Miyoko Watanabe and Masayo Takahashi speak about their experiences and call for change. (8 min read)

Read the whole collection | 4 features

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