The international community should ban all sales of ivory — including seized tusks and antique pieces that were created when trade was legal — for at least 10 years, argues a peer-reviewed essay published today in Conservation Biology. Without such measures, the epidemic corruption and high demand will ruin attempts to save African elephants, the author says. Read more
Science has ground to a halt at the UK’s Halley Research Station in Antarctica in the wake of a mysterious power failure. Read more
The United Kingdom’s largest biomedical charity is to shake up the way it forks out its funding, with an increased emphasis on ‘high-risk’ research and stronger support for less-experienced scientists. Read more
The official responsible for animal research at Imperial College London (ICL) has stepped down following criticism of aspects of the university’s work with animals. Read more
Government inspections of animal research in the UK should be reviewed, an independent advisory group said today, in a report which also adds to pressure on Imperial College London over its work in this area. Read more
Allowing development of valuable ecosystems in return for protections elsewhere could ruin attempts to protect biodiversity, researchers warned at a major conference in the United Kingdom this week. Read more
The staff association at Australia’s government science agency says research ranging from astrophysics to neuroscience will be slashed and multiple research sites closed, in addition to hundreds of jobs lost, as its management struggle with budget cuts. Read more
The Institute of Physics, a respected academic publisher, has hit back at claims in a newspaper that one of its journals declined to publish a paper because the results in it contradicted the scientific consensus on climate change. Read more
America’s beekeepers lost nearly a quarter of their colonies over the last winter — a dramatic improvement on previous years but still worse than what farmers consider sustainable rates. Read more
The BMJ is modifying, and is considering whether to retract, articles that questioned whether many patients should be given cholesterol-lowering statin drugs. The articles made a critical statement about the rate of side effects that were based on a “misreading” of another study, according to the journal’s editor-in-chief Fiona Godlee. Read more
