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A Bit Here and There

While science funding in the UK is set at £4.6 billion (US$7.6 billion) a year for the next two years, the Nature News Blog reports that UK chancellor George Osborne has "continued his trend of throwing small crumbs of funding to science and technology" while avoiding long-term funding plans.

Osborne announced £42 million over the next five years for a big data and algorithm research institute named after British mathematician and codebreaker Alan Turing, the Guardian adds.

Osborne also unveiled £55 million over five years for a cell therapy manufacturing center, £19 million to aid small companies to research and develop graphene-based products, and £106 million for 20 or so additional doctoral training centers.

Critics, though, says this is too little and doesn't replace the need for a long-term funding plan. As the Nature News Blog notes, Manchester Business School's Kieron Flanagan, who studies science policy, tweets that the budget "follows established pattern: a few small S&T announcements given name 'institute' or 'centre' to make them seem significant."

The Scan

RNA Editing in Octopuses Seems to Help Acclimation to Shifts in Water Temperature

A paper in Cell reports that octopuses use RNA editing to help them adjust to different water temperatures.

Topical Compound to Block EGFR Inhibitors May Ease Skin Toxicities, Study Finds

A topical treatment described in Science Translational Medicine may limit skin toxicities seen with EGFR inhibitor therapy.

Dozen Genetic Loci Linked to Preeclampsia Risk in New GWAS

An analysis of genome-wide association study data in JAMA Cardiology finds genetic loci linked to preeclampsia that have ties to blood pressure.

Cancer Survival Linked to Mutational Burden in Pan-Cancer Analysis

A pan-cancer paper appearing in JCO Precision Oncology suggests tumor mutation patterns provide clues for predicting cancer survival that are independent of other prognostic factors.