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576 NATURE | VOL 417 | 6 JUNE 2002 | www.nature.com/nature

Michael Cherry, Cape TownSouth Africa is to proceed with a contro-versial plan to merge institutes of highereducation that taught blacks and whitesseparately under apartheid (see Nature 417,377–378; 2002).

The cabinet accepted the merger plan latelast month after Kader Asmal, the educationminister, made concessions that will allowtwo of the nation’s best-known historicallyblack universities — the University of theWestern Cape and the University of FortHare — to retain their separate identities.

The country’s 21 universities and 15 technikons (polytechnics) will now bestreamlined into 11 universities, 6 tech-nikons and 4 comprehensive institutionsthat will offer both university and technikonprogrammes. The government says that this will create “a system that is equitable,academically and financially sustainable,and productive”.

The government also hopes to counterfalling registration numbers by increasingthe participation rate — the percentage of20–24-year-olds enrolled in higher educa-tion — from 15% to 20% over the next 10 years. This will involve an estimated additional 200,000 students, most of whomwill need to be supported by increased government allocations to the National Student Financial Aid Scheme — althoughthe government also hopes to recruit morestudents from other countries in the region.

The South African government is alsocommitted to reducing the percentage of

enrolments in the humanities from 49% to40% over the next five to ten years, whileincreasing those in business or commercefrom 26% to 30%, and those in science, engi-neering and technology from 25% to 30%.

Derrick Swartz, rector of the University ofFort Hare, said in a statement that the cabi-net’s decision had vindicated its long cam-paign against the merger, and that he hopedit would make the “new Fort Hare the majorplayer in the region”. But others were less satisfied. “These are senseless proposals thatamount to merely tinkering with the statusquo,” Itumeleng Mosala, Rector of the Technikon North-West and chairman of theAssociation of Historically DisadvantagedInstitutions, told the Johannesburg dailyBusiness Day. ■

South African cabinet backsmerger plan for universities

Rex Dalton, San DiegoA Chinese-born scientist has been held in a Californian jail for nearly three weeks,after being arrested for allegedly stealingmaterials and methods used to grow cornealcells which, police files claim, he intended toexport to China.

Veterinary researcher Bin Han was jailedon 17 May after police searched his homeand found records of stem-cell experimentsand serum samples allegedlymisappropriated from the University ofCalifornia, Davis, where he is employed.They also found a ticket for a round-trip toChina for the following week.

The jailing of Han — who was born inChina but has been a US citizen since 1999— is the latest example of the increasinglyhard line US authorities are taking withresearchers who stand accused of exporting

biological samples or information withoutpermission. Last May, for example, twoJapanese researchers were charged withindustrial espionage for their allegedinvolvement in such exports (see Nature 411,225–226; 2001).

At a state court hearing on 4 June in asuburb of Sacramento, California, a judgeallowed Han to be released after authoritieshad taken possession of his passports. Hannow faces a preliminary hearing on 16 Julyon at least one felony charge ofembezzlement.

Since 1990, Han has worked in variouslaboratories at the University of California,Davis, after coming to the United States in 1989. During one period, according touniversity records, he also said he wasrunning an investment firm on behalf ofChinese financiers.

Two years ago, Han became apostdoctoral fellow in the laboratory ofophthalmologist Ivan Schwab anddermatologist Rivkah Isseroff — who areinvestigating how to make stem cells growinto corneal epithelial cells to replacedamaged eye tissue. The technique mightalso have wide application for making otherepithelial cells, researchers say.

Early last month, court records show,officials at the University of California,Davis, became suspicious of Han afterlearning that he was setting up a stem-cellresearch laboratory in China, where hefrequently travelled. Police raided Han’shome after vials of human sera used inSchwab and Isseroff ’s research went missing.

If convicted, Han could face a prisonterm. Neither he nor his attorney could bereached for comment. ■

▲

Chinese researcher accused of stealing cell samples

detected. But the CDMS detector is onlyaround 10 metres below Stanford Univer-sity’s campus, and background noise wastoo high for researchers to draw unam-biguous conclusions.

The latest results were obtained byresearchers working on the Edelweiss detec-tor at the Modane Underground Labora-tory, located 1,700 metres below the Alps.

Edelweiss has lower levels of back-ground noise than the CDMS detector.And, by virtue of using germanium insteadof iodine, it is more sensitive than DAMA.Germanium allows the measurement oftwo properties of any potential inter-actions — temperature change and an ion-ization signal — rather than just one.

“The results reported by the DAMAteam could have been generated by back-ground events or could have been statisti-cal fluctuations,” says Gilles Gerbier of theSaclay Centre of the French Atomic EnergyCommission near Paris, and a member ofthe Edelweiss collaboration.

Other researchers agree. “The DAMAresults were hard to believe, but also hardto disprove. The Edelweiss results are veryconvincing,” says Yorck Ramachers, whoworks on another dark-matter experimentat Gran Sasso. But Bernabei is sticking toher guns, insisting that the DAMA WIMPsare real, and that experiments using differ-ent detectors are not comparable.

The search for WIMPs with other characteristics will go on. Edelweiss will beable to extend its search after two moredetectors are installed in the next ninemonths — a total of 21 will be online by theend of 2003. In addition, the CDMS experi-ment will soon move to a deeper site innorth Minnesota. ■

➧ http://edelweiss.in2p3.fr

The historically black University of the WesternCape is set to retain its separate identity. U

WC

© 2002 Nature Publishing Group