中欧环境和微生物科学家：共同担当起保护地球家园的责任

国际科技合作是促进科技进步和人类社会文明发展的重要举措,在环境保护和维护地球生态系统良好运行的目标下,最容易达成共识。中国国家自然科学基金委员会和欧盟委员会2018年和2019年分别发布了在环境生物技术领域合作的项目指南,共同支持环境生物修复技术和塑料降解微生物菌群相关领域的基础研究和成果转化。本专刊邀请了相关项目负责人介绍合作框架内项目的设计思想、主要内容以及获得的进展,并收录了在环境生物修复技术领域的基础研究和成果转化方面的论文23篇。     

By the scientists, for the scientists

My association with the JCB began very early in my scientific career. In fact, it predated my understanding that there would even be a scientific career. In the mid-1970s while still an undergraduate, the JCB published my very first paper, a contribution noted perhaps less so for its reporting the characterization of the first known protein in plant cell walls than for a footnote that called attention to the evolutionary conservation of a relationship between “sex and slime” throughout the plant and animal kingdoms.     

Sinistral snails and gentlemen scientists

A single gene mutation can cause a complete left-to-right and right-to-left inversion of the body axis. This mutation exemplifies a large class of so-called maternal effect genes that regulate key events during early development. This principle was first established nearly one hundred years ago, principally by the work of amateur naturalists.     

Black scientists matter

Most people agree that ethnic minorities are generally under‐represented in science. But is there anything that can be done to correct this injustice and who should do it? Subject Categories: S&S: Economics & Business, S&S: History & Philosophy of Science

The mid‐year eruption of anger and grief over the ill‐treatment of Black Americans by police has focussed attention on the injustices of racial inequality. Although the movement was sparked by an horrific murder, it made us all aware of countless instances of discrimination, abuse and ignorance affecting almost every country on earth, and targeting a huge range of ethnic and other minorities, not just African‐Americans. Unfortunately, the world of science is no exception.The under‐representation of minorities in the higher echelons of academia and at all levels of the scientific career ladder is well attested, both by statistics and by our everyday experience. This is not just a legacy of slavery and colonization. The underlying causes lie very deep in our social structures. And despite the supposed role of universities as bastions of free thought, they have also entrenched the privileges of elites and abetted the suppression of their perceived enemies. In Nazi Germany, the universities were amongst the first institutions to purge their Jewish employees and burn "degenerate" literature. In the American South, many colleges supported or enshrined the exclusion of African‐Americans long after the Civil War, with Black physicians forced to train in separate, much less well‐equipped medical facilities. Even in multi‐ethnic New Zealand, Māori and Pacific Islanders still make up only a tiny proportion of senior academics, despite representing more than 20% of the population. But institutional racism cannot be addressed solely by non‐discrimination clauses in university hiring procedures.I recently watched an item on a French TV channel, based around a documentary film about the lives of disadvantaged youths in the Paris suburbs, most of them Black (Comme un Loup, 2017). One of the protagonists had been discouraged from academic studies in high school and was instead counselled to opt for vocational training. His advisors may have been motivated by a desire to help the student achieve a satisfying career rather than face a lifetime of rejection, but their advice was nevertheless cowardly and disrespectful. However, the student, confident in his abilities, and determined to surmount his invisible prison walls, ignored their advice. He finally achieved excellent graduation scores and qualified for university. Unfortunately, his achievement contrasts with the experiences of the majority of his peers, including many from working‐class backgrounds irrespective of ethnicity, who are steered away from even this basic opportunity, let alone the possibility to join the ranks of professional scholars and researchers.In the name of fairness and upholding basic human rights, all of us scientists and educators, whatever our own ethnicity, nationality, gender or physical ability, should strive in all our professional activity to redress the balance and promote genuinely equal treatment of everyone, including aspiring Black scientists, of course. To do so we must take due account of all of the social pressures that may impair the careers of our students and colleagues because of the colour of their skin, their socio‐economic status, peer‐pressure, gender or any other irrelevant denominators. We obviously cannot undo the history of our societies or correct all of its injustices on our own. But the practitioners of science, the common property of humanity, have a special responsibility to be inclusive. Minority scientists also have a unique role here as pioneers, ambassadors and mentors (Hinton et al, 2020).This is not just a matter of respect and of righting historical injustices. It is also about mobilizing all of the human talent that we can, to improve our understanding of the universe at a time when humanity is facing multiple existential threats.There are many small steps that we can take individually, to empower minority scientists and those from disadvantaged families.For example, schools outreach and recruitment of interns can be targeted on ethnically diverse and economically disadvantaged communities. Those running fellowship or grant programmes in Europe and Asia could follow the example of NIH and NSF and apportion some of the funding specifically to support students, postdocs or young faculty from minority backgrounds. Those of us working in relatively mono‐cultural settings, such as Finland where I am currently located, can contribute by making strenuous efforts at recruiting internationally, thus helping to create role models for currently marginalized groups in the local environment. It is obviously to the good for host communities to learn that some of the dark‐skinned faces amongst them are not refugees fleeing from some war‐ravaged land, but are highly trained scientific experts (whilst some, of course, could be both, deserving of our respect on both counts). Just giving pride of place to minority postdocs to represent the lab at international meetings can also make an impact.Positive discrimination (affirmative action) seems to many just to replace one set of unfair practices with another. But a moment''s thought and actual evidence teaches the opposite. To quote one well‐documented example from the UK, with its highly stratified education system, the performance of those recruited to universities from elite schools is actually lower than that of those with the same grades, who are recruited from the broader state‐education sector (Crawford, 2014). In other words, in order to defeat injustice it is not sufficient simply to "not add to the injustice": active steps to reverse it are also needed. Although a raw quota system is too blunt an instrument and in many jurisdictions may be considered illegal or unconstitutional, a properly targeted system of redress seems, to me, essential.In preparing this op‐ed, I asked several colleagues for their comments. One of them pointed out that this was a plea for equality for Black scientists, but from a white PI addressing other white PIs. Thus, in some ways it embodies the problem, not the solution. Scientists with a minority background should assert their rights, not wait for others in a privileged position to grant them. Whilst I understand this argument, I nevertheless feel that striving for equality is not the preserve of those who are denied it. It is an obligation upon all of us, regardless of our skin colour, socio‐economic status or any other position in the academic or social hierarchy. If all humans are not treated fairly, we are collectively at fault and bear the damaging consequences.Moreover, skin colour, and the specific case of being Black in a still largely white society, is not the only injustice that needs correction in the world of science, just one of the most obvious.     

Automated screening for biological weapons in homeland defense

Biological threat detection programs that collect air samples and monitor for large-scale release of biowarfare agents generate large numbers of samples that must be quickly and accurately screened for the presence of biological agents. An impediment to the rapid analysis of large numbers of environmental biological samples is that manual laboratory processes are time-consuming and require resources to maintain infrastructure, trained personnel, and adequate supplies of testing reagents. An ideal screening system would be capable of processing multiple samples rapidly, cost-effectively, and with minimal personnel. In the present study, we evaluated the Automated Biological Agent Testing System (ABATS) to explore the capability of automation to increase sample throughput, maximize system accuracy, and reduce the analysis costs associated with biological threat agent screening in environmental samples. This study demonstrates the utility of this concept and the potential of an automated system to address the growing environmental monitoring needs of the United States.     

The internet for scientists

by Kevin O'Donnell and Larry Winger, Harwood Academic Publishers, 1997. pound14.50 (pbk)/ pound30.00 (hbk) (xi+309 pages) ISBN 90 5702 221 4.