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An international treaty approved on 27 June is a major victory for people with visual impairments. The 186 member states of the World Intellectual Property Organization came to a historic agreement to remove copyright obstacles that have hampered the global availability of textbooks and other published works in accessible formats such as braille, large print and audio. The agreement, which has been a decade in the making, was reached in Marrakesh, Morocco, after more than a week of intense negotiations....

Biofuel makers struggle, utilities wage war against rooftop solar power and fuels knit together by microbes using carbon dioxide and electricity remain firmly in the lab—but at least there are no oil well blowouts to staunch anymore. Chemist Ellen Williams joined the U.S. Department of Energy’s Advanced Research Projects Agency–Energy as its new head in December 2014. And although some energy innovations currently falter that is nothing compared with the events of 2010 when she joined BP, one of world’s largest energy companies, as chief scientist....

By Janet FangFor the first time in a quarter of a century, commercial whaling on the open seas could be condoned–and scientists are working to figure out exactly how much should be allowed.The International Whaling Commission (IWC) released a controversial proposal on 22 April which would allow limited hunting in the hope of achieving an enforceable, consensus agreement that would include Japan, Iceland and Norway, which have caught more than 33,000 whales since the 1986 IWC moratorium on commercial whaling....

By Virginia Gewin of Nature magazineNicotine causes changes in gene regulation that enhance the brain’s subsequent response to cocaine. The finding, in mice, provides the first clear evidence for a molecular mechanism supporting the idea of ‘gateway drugs’.Epidemiologist Denise Kandel at Columbia University, New York, reported back in 1975 that drug-using adolescents had tended to start with cigarettes, which contain the addictive substance nicotine, and alcohol before progressing to more illicit substances such as cocaine....

1969 Evolution Wars “At the end of his Descent of Man and Selection in Relation to Sex (1871), Charles Darwin wrote: ‘The main conclusion arrived at in this work, namely that man is descended from some lowly organized form, will, I regret to think, be highly distasteful to many.’ Half a century later his prediction was fully realized in the U.S., where many Americans waged what is sometimes called the ‘monkey war....

Cape Town, South Africa–Christopher Henshilwood empties a tiny plastic bag and hands me a square of worn blue cardstock to which 19 snail shells no larger than kernels of corn have been affixed in three horizontal rows. To the casual onlooker, they might well appear unremarkable, a handful of discarded mollusk armor, dull and gray with age. In fact, they may be more precious than the glittering contents of any velvet-lined Cartier case....

Among primates, humans are unique in having nearly naked skin. Every other member of our extended family has a dense covering of fur—from the short, black pelage of the howler monkey to the flowing copper coat of the orangutan—as do most other mammals. Yes, we humans have hair on our heads and elsewhere, but compared with our relatives, even the hairiest person is basically bare. How did we come to be so denuded?...

The Secretary of Health and Human Services on Wednesday named Robert Redfield as his choice for director of the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Redfield, a virologist and professor at the University of Maryland School of Medicine, will soon replace Brenda Fitzgerald—who resigned in January amid reports about her investments in tobacco and health care companies. The CDC director job does not require Senate confirmation. Redfield is well known for his extensive AIDS research, and oversees clinical programs offering HIV care to thousands of patients around Baltimore and Washington, D....

Dear EarthTalk: How is it that antibiotics are being “overused,” as I’ve read, and what are the potential consequences? – Mitchell Chase, Hartford, CT The development and widespread adoption of so-called “antibiotics”—drugs that kill bacteria and thereby reduce infection—has helped billions of people live longer, healthier lives. But all this tinkering with nature hasn’t come without a cost. The more we rely on antibiotics, the more bacteria develop resistance to them, which makes treating infections that much more challenging....

By Stephanie Nebehay and Tom Miles GENEVA (Reuters) - People returning from areas where the Zika virus is found should follow safe sex practices or abstain from sex for at least eight weeks rather than just four, the World Health Organization (WHO) said on Tuesday. The recommendation, which doubles the abstinence period the WHO had previously advised, comes after scientists found the virus lingers longer than previously thought in blood or other body fluids, spokesman Christian Lindmeier told a news briefing....

On a rooftop in New York City’s Chelsea neighborhood, two students are collecting soil samples from boxes planted with species from two native plant communities: Hempstead Plains, which are grasses belonging to a prairie community originally found on Long Island, and Rocky Summit grasslands,which grow on the tops of mountains and ridges throughout southern New England and all of New York State. They carefully place the dirt from the soil core into a plastic bag and seal it up to be taken to the lab for analysis....

This contradictory assessment and many others that arise between distant cultures put in sharp relief a strongly influential yet rarely discussed fact of psychology: cultural norms and values determine which behaviors are socially acceptable. In setting these standards, each society determines which mind-sets and actions may constitute a psychological disorder. And societies do not necessarily agree. Ethnologists have described a wide variety of culturally dependent syndromes, many of which can be categorized as anxiety or compulsive disorders....

Earlier this year when Erik Sorto, a quadriplegic man, used his thoughts to direct a robot arm to bring a beer to his lips, the media went wild. It was an impressive feat. The catch is that the technology behind it—an electrode-laden chip implanted in Sorto’s brain—is expensive and invasive and often requires months of training. Worse, few paralyzed people have the psychological and physical profile the technology requires. There could be a better way....

By Barbara Casassus A row has broken out in France over whether 15- and 16-year-olds should be allowed to create transgenic Escherichia coli bacteria in the classroom. Practical experiments in which students learn how to use plasmids to alter the DNA of the bacteria have been under way for 17 and 18-year-olds in the final year of the scientific baccalaureate at schools across France for the past decade. But this year teachers have for the first time been offered the option of teaching the experiments to younger students....

Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson recently held an alternative hearing on climate change for members of Congress and the public, defying the leadership of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology. Johnson, ranking member of the committee and a Democrat who represents the 30th district of Texas, decided to hold what she calls a “round table” on global warming because she feels that the committee chair—Lamar Smith (R–Texas)—has not allowed real climate experts to speak about their research at the hearings he has run....

“With your permission,” began a letter to the editors of this magazine published in 1855 (pdf), “I will lay before you numerous and scientific readers what I imagine to be the cause of drought. I believe it is caused by the burning of coal; that the smoke arising therefrom is injurious to vegetation, to the soil, to the air and to the clouds.” The editors replied, haughtily but justifiably, “Our correspondent has not given us a single reason for his belief in coal smoke being the cause of drought…....

When students pawn someone else’s work off as their own, they get expelled. But when some professors do the same thing, they get a “pat on the back,” and maybe even a few extra bucks. Scientists credited for research articles that were secretly penned by ghostwriters from pharmaceutical companies often are not reprimanded for their misrepresentations; rather, their ranks and career trajectories often improve. Although this practice of undisclosed authors (with undisclosed commercial interests) writing articles under the pretense of unbiased scientific inquiry raises serious concerns about academic integrity, few institutions have policies to discourage it....

By Jeff TollefsonThe state of California is about to become a giant playground for more than 200 atmospheric scientists. Beginning this week and extending into July, aircraft will criss-cross the skies, measuring an array of greenhouse gases, aerosols and other atmospheric properties as they fly over cities, industrial facilities and agricultural areas. Dozens of scientists will man two ground stations, while a ship monitors the air off the coast and two electric vehicles zip about collecting samples upwind and downwind of selected sites....

A new finding that even took the study’s authors by surprise lends support to the controversial idea that microbes play a role in Alzheimer’s disease. The research, published June 21 in Neuron, found convincing signs that certain types of herpes virus may promote the complex process that leads to the disease that afflicts some 5.7 million Americans. The study points to the viruses as possible accomplices that drive disease progression but does not suggest that Alzheimer’s may begin after they are transmitted through casual contact....

Many of the 1.5 million children in the U.S. whose parents divorce every year feel as if their world is falling apart. Divorcing parents are usually very concerned about the welfare of their children during this troublesome process. Some parents are so worried that they remain in unhappy marriages, believing it will protect their offspring from the trauma of divorce. Yet parents who split have reasons for hope. Researchers have found that only a relatively small percentage of children experience serious problems in the wake of divorce or, later, as adults....