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<jats:p> Scientists often face vexing professional decisions: whom to hire, what to fund, what to publish, and whom to promote. Because science is about the unknown and its greatest discoveries are often the least expected, scientists often have little to go by except intuition and experience. For this reason, a seductively simple template has recently been introduced: assessment based on “impact and significance.” Thus, the U.S. National Institutes of Health has elevated “significance” to an explicit criterion in funding decisions. It requires that grant reviewers write a paragraph on “impact,” which it defines as the likelihood that the proposed work will have a “sustained and powerful influence.” <jats:xref ref-type="fn">*</jats:xref> Especially in fundamental research, which historically underlies the greatest innovation, the people doing the work often cannot themselves anticipate the ways in which it may bring human benefit. Thus, under the guise of an objective assessment of impact, such requirements invite exaggerated claims of the importance of the predictable outcomes—which are unlikely to be the most important ones. This is both misleading and dangerous. </jats:p>

<jats:p>In science news around the world, the Nobel Prize is to get a new home in Stockholm, the U.S. Office for Human Research Protections has shelved its decision to sanction the leaders of a controversial clinical trial on premature infants, China and the United States have agreed to cuts in atmospheric warming chemicals called hydrofluorocarbons, and Italian researchers gathered in a flash mob to protest misinformation about science.</jats:p>

<jats:p> The Max Planck Society selected a new president, chemist Martin Stratmann. And <jats:italic>Science</jats:italic> interviews David Altshuler of the Broad Institute, who is leading the planning to create a global alliance of research, health care, and patient advocacy organizations to help researchers securely share genome sequences and clinical information. </jats:p>

<jats:p> Follow the links below for a roundup of the week's top stories in science, or <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6138/1270.1.full.pdf">download a PDF of the entire section</jats:ext-link> . <jats:list list-type="bullet"> <jats:list-item> <jats:p> <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6138/1270.2.summary">Around the World</jats:ext-link> </jats:p> </jats:list-item> <jats:list-item> <jats:p> <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6138/findings.full">Findings</jats:ext-link> </jats:p> </jats:list-item> <jats:list-item> <jats:p> <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6138/1271.1.summary">Random Samples</jats:ext-link> </jats:p> </jats:list-item> <jats:list-item> <jats:p> <jats:ext-link xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" ext-link-type="uri" xlink:href="http://www.sciencemag.org/content/340/6138/1270.3.summary">Newsmakers</jats:ext-link> </jats:p> </jats:list-item> </jats:list> </jats:p>