Page 7 - Science

Drilling for water under the mountains
near Cape Town, South Africa,
threatens rare plants, ecologists say.

South Africa drilling plan faulted city’s water supply would be shut off really short-sighted,” he said. Rebecca Keiser,
on “Day Zero” in April, forcing most of the head of NSF’s international office, disagreed
ECOLOGY | As Cape Town, South Africa, city’s 4 million inhabitants to queue for and calls the decision “strategic.” Shuttering
confronts its worst drought in decades, rationed potable water. Although those the offices reflects NSF’s desire to be nimbler Downloaded from
ecologists have criticized a plan to drill fears have receded and Day Zero has been in responding to opportunities “where great
into aquifers to supply water, which they put off, officials say tapping the aquifers science is percolating,” she said. That means
say could drive rare plants to extinction is necessary to alleviate expected shortages. dispatching small teams on trips of up to
within months. Adam West and colleagues a week to explore collaborations. As a pilot
at the University of Cape Town argue that NSF to close foreign outposts test of the new approach, an NSF-led team
tapping groundwater under the Table visited Australia in October 2017 to discuss
Mountain group east of the city would INTERNATIONAL AFFAIRS | A plan by the new research avenues in gravitational
lower the water table that sustains dozens U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) wave physics. http://science.sciencemag.org/
of wetland species, including some found to close its overseas offices is getting mixed
nowhere else, such as Erica bakeri, a reviews in the scientific community. Last Ethics dispute in Croatia
shrublike plant with delicate pink flowers week, NSF announced it will shutter all
native to a single valley. The mountains three of its outposts—in Beijing, Brussels, RESEARCH ETHICS | In an escalating
are in the Cape Floral Region, a UNESCO and Tokyo—by summer. William Chang, who controversy over allegations of scholarly
CREDITS: (IMAGES, TOP TO BOTTOM) HPBFOTOS/ALAMY STOCK PHOTO; NASA; (GRAPHIC) J. BRAINARD/SCIENCE; (DATA) NASA
World Heritage Site recognized for its opened NSF’s Beijing office in 2006 and now misconduct, one of Croatia’s top judges
biodiversity. Water levels in Cape Town’s is special adviser for the Asia-Pacific region says he has filed criminal complaints
reservoirs fell so sharply in recent weeks, for the University of Hawaii system, says against all five members of an ethics panel on March 1, 2018
during the Southern Hemisphere’s he’s perplexed that NSF would voluntarily that found him guilty of plagiarism. In
summer, that officials had warned that the sacrifice on-the-ground capacity. “This is November 2017, the country’s Committee
on Ethics in Science and Higher Education
(CESHE) determined that a 2013 doctoral
Surviving on Mars thesis written by Miroslav Šeparovic´,
In February, NASA’s Opportunity rover (right) passed its 5000th 0th president of the Constitutional Court of the
day investigating the Red Planet. Of NASA probes that landed, d, Republic of Croatia, contained repeated
only Opportunity and Curiosity still function. This chart showsows instances of “incomplete and opaque cita-
each probe’s landing year and its lifetime in martian tions” of other people’s work. Šeparovic´
days, or sols, which are slightly longer than Earth days. told Science he adhered to “unwritten
rules” at the University of Zagreb, where
Days
5500 he obtained his Ph.D., and that members
of the ethics panel are misusing their
4400 positions and overstepping their jurisdic-
tion. CESHE Chairperson Ivica Vilibic´, a
3300 researcher at the Institute of Oceanography
and Fisheries in Split, Croatia, said the
2200 suit is part of a broader effort to weaken
or end the panel, which has embarrassed
1100
many politicians and academics since
the Croatian Parliament created it in 2005.
0
Viking 1 Spirit Curiosity Viking 2 Phoenix Sojourner
Opportunity
lander rover rover lander lander rover SCIENCEMAG.ORG/NEWS
rover
2004 1976 2004 2012 1976 2008 1997 Read more news from Science online.
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