US vaccine payout provokes confusion

The US Vaccine Injury Compensation Program (VICP) will pay over $1.5 million to the family of a child whose parents allege was harmed by a vaccine in YEAR-TK. CBS called the payment to the family of Hannah Poling the “first court award in a vaccine-autism claim,” (9 September 2010, CBS).

However, the payment does not acknowledge a vaccine-autism link.

On Nature News

Publisher retracts paper by Iran’s science minister

Iranian scientists press for plagiarism inquiry.

BRIEFING: Climate summit fails to address key challenges

Lack of progress threatens global deal.

Plans for UK research assessment revealed

Peer review remains key for determining the distribution of university cash.

SPECIAL REPORT: German science looks to new political players

Coalition change could affect policies, reports Quirin Schiermeier.

Gold rush for algae

The second of four weekly articles on biofuels describes how oil giants and others are placing their bets on algae.

Climate summit fails to address key challenges

Are the global leaders listening?

Protein burns its evolutionary bridges

Mutations can set genetic change on an irreversible path.

Indian ancestry revealed

The mixing of two distinct lineages led to most modern-day Indians.

Buoy damage blurs El Niño forecasts

Missing data from the eastern Pacific Ocean may hinder predictions of this year’s event.

Research chief steps down over fake data

Peter Chen’s integrity ‘undamaged’ by incident, says boss.

First ALMA telescope occupies the high ground

The first antennae of the Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) began the array’s slow invasion of Chajnantor, a 5000-metre high plateau in the Chilean Andes, aboard a bright yellow crawler yesterday. The final ALMA observatory will link 66 such antennae in changing configurations on the 5000-metre-high plateau. The site’s dry, thin air will enable the observatory to make very precise measurements of millimetre-wavelength and submillimetre-wavelength sources in the universe, including “cold clouds of gas and dust where new stars are being born and remote galaxies towards the edge of the observable universe,” according to the ESO.

Quotes of the day

“The extensive authorship list and comprehensive acknowledgments would imply that the entire peer group is now supportive of the Rodinia [supercontinent] hypothesis.”

Geophysicist John D. Piper of the University of Liverpool, who is not (USA Today).

“I realised if I was playing Superman, they’d put me on wires and fly me.“

Paul Bettany on getting over the intimidation of playing Charles Darwin in the film Creation (Metro).