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Newsmaker of the year: Chair of the IPCC
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In what will become an annual event, Nature is singling out a "Newsmaker of the Year". The newsmaker in question is Rajendra Pachauri, the Indian engineer and economist who currently chairs the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).
This has been a landmark year for the IPCC, with its mammoth fourth assessment report providing the fullest account yet of the science of global warming, its effects and the policy options it presents. Producing that set of reports was the work of hundreds of scientists, all of whom deserve honour - and all of whom were honoured with the award of the Nobel Peace Prize on 10 December. But a particular burden fell on the chair, and in that capacity Pachauri worked ceaselessly, and sometimes sleeplessly, to create compromise where necessary while refusing to dilute the key messages from the academic community he serves.
The purpose of acknowledging a Newsmaker of the Year is to recognize the role that individuals play in science, and in particular in the role that they play in public debates about science. Dr Philip Campbell, Editor-in-Chief, Nature, says: "In years to come, the Newsmaker of the Year may be someone who had a negative impact and whose actions deserve criticism rather than praise. Happily, in this inaugural instance, that is not the case."
A portrait of Pachauri by the award-winning science journalist Gabrielle Walker will be published in Nature this week.
Method of the year: Next-generation sequencing
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Next-generation sequencing has been selected as the Method of the Year 2007 by Nature Methods and a special feature will appear online this week in the journal.
Next-generation sequencing consists of several methods, which have permitted a drastic reduction in sequencing cost and a dramatic increase in throughput. Although they started to appear on the market in 2005, in 2007 they really came into their own, with several impressive and successful applications. The broad range of uses for next-generation sequencing and the fact that novel applications beyond the original purpose are also in use have earned this development the title of Method of the Year.
The feature recounts the development of these methods and the major events in 2007 that contributed to firmly establish them in the community. A Commentary by Stephan Schuster and another by Barbara Wold and Rick Myers showcase the broad range of applications. Stephan Schuster argues that next-generation sequencing "has brought the field of genomics back into the laboratories of single investigators or small academic consortia".
In addition to celebrating the Method of the Year 2007 the special feature contains a shortlist of Methods to Watch in the years to come.
Authors contact for the two Commentaries:
Stephan Schuster (Pennsylvania State University, Pennsylvania, USA)
Tel: +1 814 863 9278; E-mail: [email protected]
Barbara Wold (California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, California, USA)
Tel: +1 626.395.4916; E-mail: [email protected]
Richard M. Myers (Stanford University School of Medicine, Stanford, California, USA)
Tel: +1 650 725 9687; E-mail: [email protected]
And finally... O come ye, out of the lab
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A search for submissions made to scientific journals on 25 December reveals increasing numbers of scientists are swapping party hats for mouse mats, according to a Correspondence to the Editor in Nature this week. Even taking into account the overall increase in the volume of submissions, there were about 600% more manuscripts received by journals on 25 December in 2006 than in 1996.
Richard J. Ladle, Ana C. M. Malhado and Peter A. Todd suggest four potential reasons for this move towards seasonal workaholism among scientists but urge their fellow scientists to keep their laptops turned off and enjoy a bit of Christmas spirit.
The full Correspondence is available on the Nature press site.
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