News at a glance

SCI COMMUN### Astrophysics The team that in 2019 used a global network of radio telescopes to reveal the first image of a black hole has offered a new twist on that iconic view: the same black hole in polarized light. The thin lines spiraling in toward the black hole's shadow (above) show areas of light that differ in their polarization—the direction in which the light waves vibrate. The light, from plasma near the black hole's edge, was polarized by magnetic fields, and so the new image, described last week in The Astrophysical Journal by the Event Horizon Telescope team, indicates their structure. Researchers hope to learn how the fields help accreting black holes funnel matter and energy into jets emanating from their poles. 69% —Percentage of postdoctoral researchers surveyed in October 2020 by the U.S. National Institutes of Health who anticipate the COVID-19 pandemic will negatively affect their careers. For researchers at all levels, the figure was 55%. ### Conservation Despite the antienvironmental policies of its current leadership, Brazil has become the 130th country to ratify the Nagoya Protocol, a part of the Convention on Biological Diversity that lays out measures to protect countries' biodiversity claims, the CBD announced last week. The ratification, first proposed by a previous administration in 2012, had languished until 2019, when rampant deforestation led pro-environment leaders to push for approval. The current government is seen as having consented because the protocol allows nations to impose rules on the international trade in its plant and animal products; by legitimizing the sales, the regulations are expected to increase exports and tax revenues. For example, money from sales of native plants such as açai ( Euterpe oleracea ) and Brazil nut ( Bertholletia excelsa ) could be returned to help Indigenous communities that use and harvest them. Observers question whether the ratification alone will protect Brazil's biodiversity, perhaps the world's greatest—but hailed the step as helpful. ### Public health The United States and 13 other countries this week criticized a report by a World Health Organization panel that had visited China to investigate how the COVID-19 pandemic started. The 300-page document says the most likely cause was a bat coronavirus that infected another, unidentified animal and then moved to humans, but it recommends further research. The report's most definitive conclusion is also its most controversial: that it is “extremely unlikely” that SARS-CoV-2 came out of a Chinese laboratory. Scientists from China made up half of the 34-member international panel. A joint statement by other countries complained that the investigation was “significantly delayed and lacked access to complete, original data, and samples.” It called for a transparent, “rapid, independent, expert-led, and unimpeded evaluation of the origins.” ### Funding The science committee in the U.S. House of Representatives wants to more than double the budget of the National Science Foundation (NSF) in the next 5 years, from $8.5 billion to $18.3 billion. A sizable chunk of the extra money—$5 billion by 2026—would go to a new directorate, Science and Engineering Solutions, that would accelerate the conversion of basic research into new technologies and products. Last year, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D–NY) proposed growing NSF to $100 billion over 5 years, with roughly one-third of that money going to a new technology directorate. Schumer's vision for NSF is part of still-evolving draft legislation affecting many federal agencies that pinpoints key technologies needed to address economic and security threats posed by China's growing technological prowess. In contrast, the House bill is limited to NSF's programs and is aimed at strengthening basic research across all disciplines that NSF supports. The House and Senate would need to agree on a vision for NSF, and other legislation would be needed to appropriate the money. ### Astronomy Light pollution from space junk and satellites may have already robbed the entire Earth of the dark skies best for sensitive astronomical observations, an analysis has found. Researchers estimated the size and shininess of tens of thousands of objects in orbit as of 2020, before an onslaught of thousands more satellites that companies plan to launch in the coming years. Even at Earth's darkest sites, the sky glows from natural sources such as ionized particles; but the existing orbiting objects reflect and scatter about 10% more of this diffuse light back into the atmosphere, the research team calculates in a paper accepted this week by the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society . That extra amount violates an International Astronomical Union standard for observing sites and could compromise observations of the dimmest galaxies, which scientists study for clues about the physics of galaxy formation and the nature of dark matter. To gather such data, astronomers already need long exposures on the biggest telescopes at the darkest available sites. ### Ethics Harvard University last week penalized quantitative biologist Martin Nowak for his connections with disgraced financier Jeffrey Epstein. Epstein had donated $6.5 million for Nowak's research in 2003; after being convicted in 2008 of soliciting prostitution from a minor, Epstein introduced Nowak to donors who provided an additional $7.5 million. Nowak's actions after 2008—repeatedly hosting Epstein on campus, promoting Epstein on his program's web page, and providing false information about Epstein's support in a grant application—violated Harvard policies, and other actions showed “blameworthy negligence and unprofessional behavior,” Claudine Gay, dean of arts and sciences, wrote in an email last week to faculty members. Nowak will continue at Harvard as a math professor, but his Program for Evolutionary Dynamics will be shut down and he will be barred for at least 2 years from serving as a principal investigator on grants. “I regret the connection I was part of fostering between Harvard and Jeffrey Epstein,” Nowak said in a statement last week. Epstein died by suicide in 2019. ### Archaeology Chinese archaeologists last week reported unearthing more than 500 artifacts, including gold ornaments, bronze heads, ivory and jade tools, and a gold mask dating back about 3000 years at the Sanxingdui archaeological site in southwestern Sichuan province. Sanxingdui, then ruled by the Shu kingdom, has already yielded thousands of bronze relics unlike anything found elsewhere in China, including at sites of the contemporaneous Shang dynasty in the Yellow River region. The new finds, retrieved from what are thought to be sacrificial pits, may shed light on how the Shu kingdom contributed to Chinese civilization. VACCINE LEADER FIRED Moncef Slaoui, who headed COVID-19 vaccine development during the Trump administration, has been fired as chairman of a medical research firm controlled by manufacturer GlaxoSmithKline after he was accused of sexual harassment. The company said an outside investigation substantiated the allegation by a female employee about Slaoui's behavior several years ago when he worked there. Slaoui also stepped down from leadership roles at two other pharmaceutical companies and issued a statement in which he apologized to the woman and his family. RETURNING LOOTED ART Museums in Germany have pledged to return hundreds of artifacts, including bronze statues, looted during the colonial era from the kingdom of Benin in what is now Nigeria. The British Museum and others face growing pressure to join them. PARDON SOUGHT The Australian Academy of Science issued a statement saying a court ignored new genetic evidence when it denied last week an appeal by a woman convicted of killing her four young children. Tests point to a natural cause of the deaths: Two of the children carried a mutation in the CALM2 gene that is associated with sudden death by cardiac failure in infants and children. Prosecutors had accused Kathleen Folbigg of smothering the children but have not presented medical evidence that supports that position. Academy members have signed a petition asking New South Wales's governor to pardon her. AI IN MEDICINE The Broad Institute has received $300 million to study how machine learning can improve the prevention and treatment of disease. Half the sum is coming from a foundation of Wendy and Eric Schmidt, a member of Broad's board and former CEO of Google, and the rest from the Broad Foundation. R&D SPENDING RISE The United States spent more than 3% of gross domestic product on R&D in 2019 for the first time. The 3.07% share is a record and met a goal set by former President Barack Obama a decade ago. Israel led globally with 4.9%, the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development said. Total U.S. spending was more than any other country's.