Seven days: 2228 August 2014

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Science adviser The post of chief scientific adviser to the European Commission came under attack again on 19August when nearly two dozen non-governmental organizations called on the incoming president of the commission to scrap the job. In an open letter to Jean-Claude Juncker, groups including Friends of the Earth Europe added their weight to an existing campaign to abolish the science role. The letter argues that the position concentrates too much influence in one person. The mandate of the commissions current chief scientific adviser, Anne Glover, is scheduled to end later this year.

Trial enrolment The US Food and Drug Administration published a plan on 20August to ensure that women and racial and ethnic minority groups are adequately included in clinical trials. The action plan aims to collect data on population subgroups in trials, to encourage and enable more women and minority groups to enrol, and to make the demographic make-up of trials more transparent. It will be implemented in stages over the next five years. The agency also published guidance on evaluating how medical devices might function differently in men and women.

Helm et al./The Cryosphere

Satellites pinpoint ice loss The massive ice sheets in Antarctica (pictured) and Greenland are together shrinking at a rate of 500 cubickilometres per year the fastest pace since satellite altimetry began 20 years ago. The European Space Agencys CryoSat-2 probe collected precise elevation data for both ice sheets (Antarcticas shown on right). The greatest ice loss (shown on left in red) between 2011 and 2014 occurred at Pine Island glacier in western Antarctica and at Jakobshavn glacier in Greenland. The findings were reported on 20August by researchers from the Alfred Wegener Institute in Potsdam, Germany (V.Helm et al.Cryosphere 8, 15391559; 2014).

MERS model Marmosets are the best animal model for Middle Eastern Respiratory Syndrome (MERS). Research on the MERS coronavirus was hindered by the lack of an animal model that showed the same respiratory symptoms as humans when infected with the virus. In two studies published on 21 August, researchers from the US National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases showed that the virus could infect marmosets, and that the animals symptoms mimic the severe pneumonia seen in humans (D.Falzarano etal. PLoS Pathog. 10, e1004250 (2014); N. van Doremalen et al. J. Virol. 88, 92209232 (2014)).

African farming The Alliance for a Green Revolution in Africa (AGRA), a science-based non-governmental organization in Nairobi has helped 1.7million African farmers to rejuvenate 1.6million hectares of land, and to double, or even triple, crop yields over the past five years through its Soil Health Programme. AGRA reported the results on 22 August. The programme tests and teaches techniques to improve soil fertility and makes chemical fertilizers more affordable for poor farmers. Depleted soils cost African farmers US$4billion a year in lost productivity.

Stem-cell go-ahead Regulators in the United States have cleared the way for a clinical trial of a prospective stem-cell-derived treatment for type 1 diabetes. On 19August, ViaCyte of San Diego, California, said that the Food and Drug Administration has given it permission for a phase I/II clinical trial of a product that consists of pancreatic precursor cells packaged in a mesh pouch. ViaCytes treatment could become one of only a handful of human embryonic-stem-cell-derived products to be trialled in people, and will be an important test for the effectiveness of Californias state stem-cell institute, which provided funding to develop the product.

Icelandic volcano After a reported eruption on 23August turned out to be a false alarm, Icelands Brarbunga volcano continued to rumble deep underground. Since seismic activity began on 16August, thousands of earthquakes have shaken the ground north and east of the volcano. They show where magma is squirting up from below and forming a freshly cooled sheet of rock, or dyke, a few kilometres deep. As of 25August, the dyke was thought to be nearly 35kilometres long and to contain 300million cubic metres of magma. Aviation authorities remained on alert in case an eruption spewed ash into the air. See go.nature.com/iidaau for more.

Ebola in fifth nation The Democratic Republic of Congo became the fifth African nation to confirm cases of Ebola, on 24August. On the same day, a Senegalese epidemiologist was reported as the first person working for the World Health Organization (WHO) to contract the disease. On 22August, the WHO said that the official count of 2,615cases and 1,427deaths probably underestimates the true size of the epidemic. It blamed community resistance to reporting cases and a lack of adequate treatment facilities. The agency thinks that the epidemic could last for another 9months. See page355 for more.

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Seven days: 2228 August 2014