AP - Government scientists studying the BP disaster are reporting the best possible outcome: Microbes are consuming the oil in the Gulf without depleting the oxygen in the water and creating "dead zones" where fish cannot survive.

AP - Iraq displayed hundreds of recovered artifacts Tuesday that were among the country's looted heritage and span the ages from a 4,400-year-old statue of a Sumerian king to a chrome-plated AK-47 bearing Saddam Hussein's image.

Atom gravimeters and gravitational redshift

Nature 467, E1 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09340

Authors: Peter Wolf, Luc Blanchet, Christian J. Bordé, Serge Reynaud, Christophe Salomon & Claude Cohen-Tannoudji

Arising from: H. Müller, A. Peters & S. Chu Nature463, 926–929 (2010); Müller & Chu replyIn ref. 1 the authors present a re-interpretation of atom interferometry experiments published a decade ago. They now consider the atom interferometry experiments as a measurement of the gravitational redshift on the quantum clock operating at the Compton frequency ωC = mc2/ ≈ 2π × 3.0 × 1025 Hz, where m is the caesium (Cs) atom rest mass. They then argue that this redshift measurement compares favourably with existing as well as projected clock tests. Here we show that this interpretation is incorrect.

Müller, Peters & Chu reply

Nature 467, E2 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09341

Authors: Holger Müller, Achim Peters & Steven Chu

Replying to: P. Wolf et al.Nature doi:10.1038/nature09340 (2010)We stand by our result. The Comment revisits an interesting issue that has been known for decades. Because it applies to all experiments, classical redshift tests and atom interferometry redshift tests are equivalent for all aspects in question.

Can controversies be put to REST?

Nature 467, E3 (2010). doi:10.1038/nature09305

Authors: Helle F. Jørgensen & Amanda G. Fisher

Arising from: S. K. Singh et al.Nature453, 223–227 (2008); Singh et al.replyThe contribution of REST to embryonic stem (ES) cell pluripotency has been uncertain. Two years ago, Singh et al. claimed that Rest+/− and REST knock-down ES cells expressed reduced levels of pluripotency markers, in contrast to a prior and subsequent reports. To understand the basis of this difference, we analysed the YHC334 (YHC) and RRC160 (RRC) gene-trap ES cell lines used by Singh et al., obtained directly from BayGenomics. Both REST mutant lines generated REST–βGeo fusion proteins, but expressed pluripotency genes at levels similar to appropriately matched parental wild ES cells, consistent with expression being REST–independent.

Working days lost due to labour disputes

WORKERS on London's underground rail network begin a strike on Monday September 6th, while across the channel French workers are also on strike in protest at attempts by the government to change the retirement age. Both countries come fairly high on the list of countries that lose working days to labour disputes. South Africa, where Cosatu, a federation of unions with some 2m members, has been on strike since August 18th, also scores highly on this measure. But all of these places are left in they shade by the Canadians, who lost 2.2m working days to strikes last year. Greece, which is also fond of striking, does not appear on this chart as its numbers are not comparable.

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The internet has become too important for governments to ignore

GOVERNMENTS are increasingly finding ways to enforce their laws in the digital realm. The most prominent is China’s “great firewall”. But China is by no means the only country erecting borders in cyberspace. The OpenNet Initiative, an advocacy group, lists more than a dozen countries that block internet content for political, social and security reasons. They do not need especially clever technology: governments go increasingly after dominant online firms because they are easy to get hold of. In April Google published the numbers of requests it had received from official agencies to remove content or provide information about users. For more on how governments and companies are erecting borders in cyberspace see article.

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Galloping inflation in American college fees

FOR decades, college fees have risen faster than Americans’ ability to pay them. Median household income has grown by a factor of 6.5 in the past 40 years, but the cost of attending a state college has increased by a factor of 15 for in-state students and 24 for out-of-state students. The cost of attending a private college has increased by a factor of more than 13 (a year in the Ivy League will set you back $38,000, excluding bed and board). Academic inflation makes most other kinds look modest by comparison. Students may not be getting a good deal in return (see story). ...