NEWS OF THE WEEK
UNIVERSITY R&D SPENDING FALLS R&D SPENDING The federal government provides more than 60% of university research funds.
2011, the downward trend wasn’t true for every field. For example, computer science and mathematical sciences reported higher R&D spending in 2012 than in 2011. For chemistry, however, R&D spending declined 1.9% to $1.75 billion. And chemical engineering was down 1.0% to $909 million. Individual universities also faced different fates in 2012. Johns Hopkins University remained the top R&D spender, but its expenditures nonetheless declined 1.8% to $2.11 billion. Of the remaining top 30 universities, most had small expenditure increases. Harvard University and MIT were outliers, with double-digit jumps. A few institutions saw notable declines, though, including Ohio State University and the University of Florida. Federal funds accounted for $40.13 billion, or 61%, of R&D spending in higher education, down 1.6% from 2011. The decrease, the NSF study shows, is primarily the result of cuts in funding by two agencies: the Department of Health & Human Services (which includes NIH) and the National Aeronautics & Space Administration. Higher education R&D spending from other sources went up, however. The largest increase came from the universities themselves, which provided $13.67 billion in R&D spending, up almost $1 billion from 2011. NSF’s study is based on data from 655 institutions provided as part of its Higher Education Research & Development Survey. For an in-depth analysis of 2011 university science and engineering spending, see page 34.—ANDREA WIDENER
REPORT: Federal funding cuts fueled decline, NSF study shows
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FTER DECADES of growth, R&D spending by
higher education institutions dropped in 2012, by 1.1% from 2011, to $65.76 billion, according to a new National Science Foundation study. This marks the first inflation-adjusted decrease in university spending on R&D since 1974 and Industry ends the average 5% increase Other sources State & local 5% 1% government universities have spent annually 6% since 2009. Federal Nonprofit government The downward trend is likely organizations 61% 6% to continue for 2013, the first year that the across-the-board federal Institution budget cuts known as sequestrafunds 21% tion went into effect, observers note. “This is going backward, not forward,” says Hunter R. Rawl2012 R&D expenditures by ings III, president of the Associauniversities = $65.8 billion tion of American Universities. NOTE: Institution fiscal years. Although overall R&D spendSOURCE: NSF Higher Education Research & Develing fell in 2012 compared with opment Survey
PLASTIC POLLUTION HARMS MARINE LIFE MARINE CHEMISTRY: Pollutants on marine plastics accumulate in fish and marine worms, damaging their health
Microplastic fragments and pellets collected from a European shoreline.
when they eat tiny bits of plastic that float in the ocean or accumulate in marine sediments. Damage happens when marine organisms eat the plastic, but they also consume toxic pollutants the plastics carry on their surfaces. Two new studies show that when fish and marine worms eat such a plastic-toxics combo, some of the pollutants accumulate in their bodies and make them sick. Chelsea M. Rochman at the University of California, Davis, and her colleagues find that fish bioaccumulate flame retardants and other organic pollutants when they eat plastic debris from the ocean, causing hepatic stress (Nat. Sci. Reports 2013, DOI: 10.1038/srep03263). The team fed microplastic fragments to two groups of Japanese medaka in the laboratory. One group ate polyethylene fragments that had been exposed to the waters of San Diego Bay, thereby sorbing a variety of orCEN.ACS.ORG
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CURR. BIOL.
M
ARINE CREATURES get a double whammy
ganic pollutants from the bay, and the other ate virgin polyethylene that had not been in the ocean. After two months of feeding on the plastics, the bodies of fish that ate ocean-exposed fragments had significantly greater concentrations of total polybrominated diphenyl ether flame retardants, as well as two other persistent organic pollutants. Both groups of fish showed liver stress, but it was far greater in the group that ate the ocean-exposed plastic. Mark Anthony Browne at UC Santa Barbara and his colleagues found similar results in lugworms, burrowing creatures that eat sediments often contaminated with plastics (Curr. Biol. 2013, DOI: 10.1016/j. cub.2013.10.012). The group fed the worms bits of polyvinyl chloride containing various chemicals, including common additives to plastic and organic pollutants often found on marine microplastics. The chemicals accumulated in worms’ guts at concentrations 326–3,770% greater than that from control sediments. The worms exposed to the chemicals had lower rates of survival and feeding, and impaired immunity. Both studies show a clear biological response to microplastic pollution, says Hideshige Takada, a geochemist at Tokyo University of Agriculture & Technology. He warns that as the amount of plastics introduced to marine environments increases, the transfer of pollutants to marine life will be “prominent in the near future if we do not take appropriate action.”—DEIRDRE LOCKWOOD
DECEMBER 9, 2013
