Issue link: https://www.epageflip.net/i/340913
ByMalcolmRitter The Associated Press NEW YORK U.S. and Jap- anese scientists who re- ported that they'd found a startlingly simple way to make stem cells withdrew that claim Wednesday, ad- mitting to "extensive" er- rors in the research. In two papers published in January in the jour- nal Nature, the research- ers said that they'd been able to transform ordinary mouse cells into versatile stem cells by exposing them to a mildly acidic environ- ment. Someday, scientists hope to harness stem cells to grow replacement tissue for treating a variety of dis- eases. While researchers have long been able to perform such transformations with a different method, the newly reported technique was far simpler, and the papers caused a sensation — and some skepticism — in the research commu- nity. They were also widely reported in the media, in- cluding by The Associated Press. But before long, the gov- ernment-funded Riken Cen- ter for Developmental Biol- ogy in Japan accused one of its scientists, Haruko Obo- kata, of falsifying data in the research. Obokata, the key author of the papers, defended the results dur- ing a televised news con- ference in April while apol- ogizing for using wrong and altered images in the pub- lished reports. She also said she opposed withdrawing the papers, a process called retraction, and the 30-year- old attributed her mistakes to inexperience. On Wednesday, Nature released a statement from Obokata and the other au- thors of the papers that re- tracted the papers, a rare occurrence for the presti- gious journal. The scien- tists acknowledged "ex- tensive" errors that meant "we are unable to say without a doubt" that the method works. They noted that studies of the simpler method are still going on by other researchers. The Riken center also said on its website Wednes- day that it expected a sep- arate statement from Obo- kata and would post it when available. Dr. Charles Vacanti of the Harvard-affiliated Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston, another main au- thor, issued his own state- ment in which he said he believes the further studies will vindicate the method, which produced what the authors called STAP cells. But another author, Yo- shiki Sasai, deputy director of the Riken center, said the errors in the papers meant "it has become increas- ingly difficult to call the STAP phenomenon even a promising hypothesis." In a statement issued by Riken, he said he was "deeply ashamed" of the problems in the papers. The Riken investiga- tion that led to allegations against Obokata also fo- cused on Sasai and two other employees, but they were not accused of re- search misconduct. Retractions of papers in major scientific journals like Nature are unusual. They can come about be- cause of fraud or the dis- covery of honest mistakes that undercut the conclu- sions of research. Publica- tions like Nature routinely have experts review pa- pers submitted by scien- tists to look for problems. But in an editorial released Wednesday, Nature con- cluded that its editors and reviewers "could not have detected the fatal faults in this work." SCIENCE Oops: Scientists retract report on simpler stem cells 'Extensive'errorsin published research By Julie Pace The Associated Press WASHINGTON Conserva- tive Republicans claimed victory this week in the Supreme Court ruling on religious freedom and the White House's accep- tance that an immigra- tion overhaul won't hap- pen this year. Today's vic- tories could haunt the GOP in two years' time, as the party's presidential nomi- nee looks for much-needed support among women and Hispanics in the 2016 elec- tion. With no movement on immigration legislation, a new crop of Republican presidential candidates will be asked to outline their own plans for resolv- ing a vexing issue that is a top priority for many His- panic voters and concerns business leaders who tradi- tionally support the GOP. And Monday's high court decision granting some companies religious ex- emptions from providing contraception coverage gives Democrats a peg to reopen a debate on wom- en's health that tripped up Republicans in the last election. For more moderate Re- publican presidential hopefuls, both develop- ments present a famil- iar conundrum: how to stake out positions con- servative enough to appeal to the voters who domi- nate Republican prima- ries while not turning off those who could be swayed in the general election. It's a challenge 2012 Republi- can nominee Mitt Romney was unable to navigate — he tacked to the right as he outlasted his primary rivals, but could not com- pete with President Barack Obama among women and Hispanic voters on Election Day. The struggle to strike the right balance was ev- ident immediately. Chris Christie, the typically out- spoken New Jersey gover- nor, ducked questions this week about his view of the Supreme Court's decision on contraception. "Why should I give an opinion on whether they're right or wrong?" Christie said during an interview Tuesday on CNBC. "In the end of the day, they did what they did. That's now the law of the land un- less people in the elected branches try to change it." Such efforts to avoid the question will be chal- lenged by 2016 hopefuls on GOP's right flank eager to talk about the high court ruling as a victory for re- ligious liberty and the end of the legislative debate on immigration as a win for those who equate creating a path to citizenship for people living in the U.S. il- legally with amnesty. For potential candidates such as Texas Sen. Ted Cruz — he quickly cast the Supreme Court decision as a "repudiation" of Obama — doubling down on those positions may be the best way to rally support in the early voting states of Iowa and South Carolina, where primary voters tilt more conservative. Further complicating matters: the elections that arrive this November. With midterm turnout tradition- ally low and some of the most competitive races tak- ing place in conservative- leaning states, GOP candi- dates are likely to rally be- hind issues that will pay off with a win this year rather than shaping a message for the more diverse electorate faced by Republican presi- dential contenders. Following Romney's loss to Obama, national Repub- licans called for the party to be more inclusive and placed particular emphasis on reaching out to women and Hispanics. The GOP concern reflected the real- ity of shifting demograph- ics and public opinion. On immigration, surveys show that the majority of Americans favorably view a pathway to citizenship for the more than 11 million people living in the coun- try illegally. The issue reso- nates particularly strongly with Hispanics, one of the fastest-growing groups of voters in the U.S., and has broadsupportfromthebusi- ness community and evan- gelicals, groups that tradi- tionally back Republicans. In 2012, Hispanics com- prised 10 percent of the electorate, more than in any other year. More than 70 percent of those voters backed Obama. POLITICS Today's GOP victories might return to haunt them in 2016 THEASSOCIATEDPRESS New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie spoke in Haddon Heights, N.J. in late June. Today's victories could haunt the GOP in two years' time, as the party's presidential nominee looks for much-needed support among women and Hispanics in the 2016election. By Steve Peoples The Associated Press STRATHAM, N.H. Re- turning to the same New Hampshire farm where he launched his last presiden- tial campaign, Mitt Rom- ney on Wednesday insisted he would not pursue a third White House bid but called on voters to punish Presi- dent Barack Obama by giv- ing Republicans the Senate majority this fall. "I know that the pres- ident is not on the bal- lot this November, but the people of New Hampshire have a chance to vote on what they think about the president's agenda," Rom- ney told hundreds of peo- ple gathered under a beat- ing sun as he endorsed for- mer Massachusetts Sen. Scott Brown's New Hamp- shire Senate campaign. Romney criticized Brown's opponent, Dem- ocratic Sen. Jeanne Sha- heen, as a "Simon Says sen- ator" who blindly follows Obama's wishes. The day was supposed to be focused on Brown's quest to defeat Shaheen this fall, part of a larger Republican push to pick up the six seats needed to claim the Senate majority for the final two years of Obama's presidency. But Romney's return to the state where he began and ended his last presidential campaign loomed over the event. POLITICS Romney insists he won't campaign in 2016 By Ken Dilanian The Associated Press WASHINGTON A bipartisan privacy board on Wednes- day unanimously adopted its report that endorses some of the National Secu- rity Agency's Internet sur- veillance programs. The programs provoked worldwide controversy when they were revealed last year by news organiza- tions after leaks from for- mer NSA contractor Ed- ward Snowden. The Privacy and Civil Liberties Oversight Board, whose members were ap- pointed by President Barack Obama, concluded in a lengthy report that the NSA's targeted collection of Internet data within the United States passes con- stitutional muster and em- ploys "reasonable" safe- guards designed to protect the rights of Americans. David Medine, a former government privacy lawyer who chairs the board, said NSA's Internet surveillance was found to have been "valuable and effective for protecting the national se- curity and producing foreign intelligence information." Privacy and civil liberties activists expressed disap- pointment with the board's conclusions. "This is a weak report that fails to fully grasp the civil liberties and hu- man rights implications of permitting the govern- ment sweeping access to the communications of in- nocent people," said Jameel Jaffer, Deputy Legal Direc- tor for the American Civil Liberties Union. The report stands in con- trast to the board's last ac- tion, when it argued in Jan- uary that the NSA's collec- tion of domestic calling records "lacked a viable le- gal foundation" and should be shut down. At issue were programs carried out under a 2008 provision of the 1978 Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act known as Section 702. The NSA uses court orders and taps on fiber optic lines to target the data of foreign- ers living abroad when their emails, web chats, text mes- sages and other communica- tions traverse U.S. telecom- munications systems. Section 702 includes the so-called PRISM program, under which the NSA col- lects foreign intelligence from Google, Facebook, Mi- crosoft, Apple and nearly every other major Ameri- can technology company. U.S. intelligence offi- cials and members of Con- gress have agreed that Sec- tion 702 has been responsi- ble for disrupting a series of terrorist plots and achiev- ing other insights. The board said the pro- grams have "led the govern- ment to identify previously unknown individuals who are involved in international terrorism, and it has played a key role in discovering and disrupting specific terror- ist plots aimed at the United States and other countries." Because worldwide In- ternet communications are intermingled on fiber op- tic lines and in cyberspace, known as the cloud, the col- lection inevitably sweeps in the communications of Americans with no connec- tion to terrorism or foreign intelligence. Activists have expressed concern that a se- cret intelligence agency is obtaining private American communications without individual warrants. Some have questioned how such a program could be legal un- der the Fourth Amendment to the Constitution. The board, including a Democratic federal judge, two privacy experts and two former Republican Jus- tice Department officials, found that the NSA mon- itoring was legal and rea- sonable and that the gov- ernment takes steps to pre- vent misuse of Americans' data. Those steps include "minimization" that leaves out the names of Americans from intelligence reports unless they are relevant. "Overall, the board finds that the protections con- tained in the Section 702 minimization procedures are reasonably designed and implemented to ward against the exploitation of information acquired un- der the program for illegit- imate purposes," the report said. "The board has seen no trace of any such illegit- imate activity associated with the program." That said, the board was troubled by the "unknown and potentially large scope of the incidental collection of U.S. persons' communica- tions," and collection of com- munications about a target, such as a foreign terrorist or- ganization, that could cap- turetwoinnocentAmericans discussing the organization. SPYING Panel OK with 'reasonable' NSA Internet surveillance THE ASSOCIATED PRESS A sign outside the National Security Agency campus in Fort Meade, Md. Please help sponsor a classroom subscription Call Kathy at (530) 527-2151 to find out how. Through the Newspapers in Education program, area classrooms receive the Red Bluff Daily News every day thanks to the generosity of these local businesses & individuals. • DOLLING INSURANCE • GUMM'S OPTICAL SHOPPE • HOOKER CREEK INC. • CALIFORNIA WALNUT COMPANY • LEPAGE COMPANY INC. • MODERN CLEANERS • OLIVE CITY QUICK LUBE • WALMART • TEHAMA CO. DEPT. OF ED. • JOHN WHEELER LOGGING, INC. • DUDLEY'S EXCAVATING, INC. • HINKLE ROOFING & CONST. • BRETNEY SUTTERFIELD • ETZLER FINANCIAL & INSURANCE • OLIVE CITY TAX PROFESSIONALS • PLACER TITLE COMPANY • AIRPORT AUTO REPAIR • KAY STEPHENS, MD • GREENWASTE OF TEHAMA • LOUISIANA PACIFIC CORP. • NORTH MAIN AUTOMOTIVE • QRC • RED BLUFF VISION CENTER • STEVE'S BACKHOE SERVICE • WARNER ELECTRIC • TRIPLE R GAS • SCHOOL HOUSE MARKET • McDONALD'S THANK YOU FOR SUPPORTING N EWS D AILY RED BLUFF TEHAMA COUNTY H E V O I C E O F T E H A M A C O U N TY S I N C E 1 8 8 5 NEWSPAPERS NIE | NEWS | REDBLUFFDAILYNEWS.COM THURSDAY, JULY 3, 2014 4 B