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More than 60 Minnesota children, mostly from the state's large Somali-American community, are infected with measles. The outbreak is a direct result of efforts by anti-vaccine activists such as Andrew Wakefield, the discredited researcher behind the film Vaxxed, who has visited Minneapolis and met with Somali parents. According to the Minneapolis Star Tribune, the rate of measles immunization among Somali-American children has plummeted from rates as high as 92% in 2004 to just 42% today. Alarms were sounded in 2008, when it was reported that a disproportionate number of Somali-American children were participating in a preschool program for those diagnosed with autism. Some members of the Somali-American community have been alarmed by claims that autism can result from the measles-mumps-rubella (MMR) vaccine, concerns shared by a significant portion of the general public despite efforts by public health workers to combat that perception. An article in Snopes details how one discredited anti-vaccine study was recently published, then unpublished, by two academic journals, digging into the "suspect statistics and devil-may-care attitude toward methodological design" in the paper. Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar, the first Somali-American legislator in the US, is working with the Minnesota Department of Health to encourage vaccination and rebut myths about autism, an effort that is showing results.

A new paper just published in PLOS ONE examines the motivations and characteristics of people who openly share the results of direct-to-consumer genetic testing using the web platform OpenSNP. The team of authors, who are affiliated with the University of Zurich, University of Cambridge, and Goethe University in Frankfurt, found those who shared their data were motivated by a desire to learn more about themselves; to advance medical research and improve genetic testing; and because they considered it fun. The researchers noted "Whereas most respondents were well aware of the privacy risks of their involvement in open genetic data sharing and considered the possibility of direct, personal repercussions troubling, they estimated the risk of this happening to be negligible." Among the paper's authors was Effy Vayena, who spoke at the Consortium's recent conference on research ethics. You can see her talk here.

Over the past 20 years, a preserve known as Pleistocene Park has been created in Siberia with the goal of restoring grasslands once home to megafauna like mammoths. The theory behind the park, as described in The Atlantic, is that restoring the wildlife inhabiting it more than 12,000 years ago will create an ecosystem that will slow the thawing of Arctic permafrost, which has more carbon locked in it "than there is in all the planet’s forests and the rest of the atmosphere combined." Two scientists, a father and son named Sergey Zimov and Nikita Zimov, have dedicated their lives to clearing the forests that now cover the Mammoth Steppe by reintroducing species such as musk oxen, wild horses and other large herbivores. However, they need mammoths, "a keystone species on account of their prodigious grazing, their well-digging, and the singular joy they seemed to derive from knocking down trees." The project has inspired geneticist George Church to accelerate his research, which uses the CRISPR genome-editing technology to attempt the creation of a close relative of the mammoth. The article notes, "Nikita and Sergey seemed entirely unbothered by ethical considerations regarding mammoth cloning or geoengineering. They saw no contradiction between their veneration of 'the wild' and their willingness to intervene, radically, in nature." According to Nikita Zimov, “Playing God doesn’t bother me in the least. We are already doing it. Why not do it better?” Read the entire article here. 

Marches highlighting the importance of science – both its methods and its goals – attracted massive crowds on April 22. The organizers called for the science march after the successful Women's March drew millions on January 21; the protest was a response to ominous signs from the Trump administration regarding its intention to suppress government activities related to climate change, cut research funding, and slash the budgets of federal agencies with a scientific mission. According to the New York Times, the flagship march in Washington drew large crowds (estimated at 40,000), with similar results being reported from across the nation. In St. Paul, a protest at the Capitol drew more than 10,000, and was one of 13 pro-science rallies held in Minnesota. According to the Star Tribune, "Notable events [were held] in London, Paris and Sydney. . . . Chicago, New York and Los Angeles were among the largest U.S. marches, and smaller events took place across the country."