Editorials in 2012

Japanese scientists deserve support in their bid for the next big collider.

Unregulated drug marketing stifles science and harms patients. To suggest otherwise is an affront to liberty — not a protection of it.

Despite some shortcomings, a global study of health metrics should be applauded.

The political inertia that characterizes the world’s response to global warming cannot continue. Politicians and policy-makers must follow the climate’s lead — and change.

Evidence for the first land life is controversial, but the fossil record has a tendency to surprise.

The energy expended by US biomedical scientists on complaining about grant-application limits would be better directed at the real problem: stagnant funding.

Wrangling over scientific misconduct could influence Romania’s general election.

US science would benefit if Congress improved the predictability and stability of funding.

An influential US advocacy group has set a deadline to beat breast cancer by 2020. But it puts public trust at risk by promising an objective that science cannot yet deliver.

With climate talks inching along, gains in energy efficiency could slow the rise in emissions.

Researchers should lobby against heavy cuts to pan-European research funds.

Environmental protections must not wait until a population is about to disappear.

The editors of this publication need to improve how we reflect women’s contributions to science. For this, we must inject an extra loop into our thinking.

A market-based malaria-control programme may not be perfect, but it deserves to continue.

The push to conserve cultural-heritage sites must not leave out areas of interest to science.

Japan still has lessons to learn from Fukushima if it is to convince the public about nuclear energy.

As looming tax increases and budget cuts threaten to plunge the US economy back into recession, Congress should take a hard look at introducing a carbon tax as an important part of the solution.

Donors and African governments must invest in advanced science and maths education.

The US National Ignition Facility has so far failed to generate fusion energy, but repurposing it as a tool to study nuclear weapons and basic science could be its saving grace.