Archived newsblog
Nature’s news team is no longer updating this newsblog: all articles below are archived and extend up to the end of 2014. Read more
Nature’s news team is no longer updating this newsblog: all articles below are archived and extend up to the end of 2014. Read more
The World Health Organization (WHO) announced plans on 24 October to produce millions of doses of two experimental Ebola vaccines by the end of 2015. Read more
The state of Western Australia is abandoning a controversial shark-culling programme, but has also gained the right to deploy deadly baited lines for animals that pose an “imminent threat”. Read more
As the US public frets about the recent transmission of Ebola to two Texas healthcare workers, the US government has turned an eye on dangerous viruses that could become far more widespread if they escaped from the lab. On 17 October, the White House’s Office of Science and Technology Policy (OSTP) announced a mandatory moratorium on research aimed at making pathogens more deadly, known as gain-of-function research. Read more
A sceptic of traditional Chinese medicine is challenging practitioners of the age-old craft to prove themselves by putting his own money on the line. One has accepted the challenge. At stake is the claim that practitioners can discern whether a woman is pregnant by her pulse. Read more
One door to publishing in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) has slammed shut. In an editorial this week, Editor-in Chief Inder Verma said the prestigious US journal will no longer accept submitted papers that come with a pre-arranged editor (who is a member of the National Academy of Sciences). Read more
Sea ice cover in the Arctic Ocean last week dropped to an annual minimum 5.02 million square kilometres according to satellite observations by the National Snow and Ice Data Center in Boulder, Colorado. Read more
The US Senate passed a stopgap spending bill on 18 September that includes US$88 million to fight the Ebola outbreak in West Africa. Read more
A Colombian biology student is facing up to 8 years in jail and a fine for sharing a thesis by another scientist on a social network. Read more
A former PhD student at the University of Coimbra, Portugal, has been arrested after allegedly attacking an ex-colleague with an axe. Read more
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