Sir — Your News story about theMediterranean Institute for Life Sciences,“Croats protest that science minister is‘meddling’ in MedILS” (Nature 432, 540;2004), alleges that some researchers believeI am trying to stack the advisory boardwith faculty members from the Universityof Split. In fact, I am securing the highestlevel of academic freedom for MedILSwithin Croatian law and European tradition.

Faithful to the contract that the formerCroatian government signed with MiroslavRadman, the current government will doits best to hand him the renovated buildingin Split in May 2005. The total cost ofrenovation, some €4.6 million (US$6million), has been appropriated from theCroatian budget. This is more than thecapital investments in all 26 Croatianpublic scientific institutes for 2005. As

a result, the government is compelled totake a similarly large World Bank loan forthe restructuring of the 700-strong RugjerBoskovic Institute (RBI). But, unlike theunburdened MedILS, the RBI is assumingnumerous obligations to the World Bank.

Some dissenters say that public fundsshould not be allocated to a project thathas no scientific plan, no business plan, nomechanism for supervising the spending of public funds, no pledge to share futureproceeds from intellectual property withtaxpayers and no commitment by Radmanto move to Split from his current base inParis in order to manage MedILS.

To mitigate pressure to put MedILSunder the control of my ministry, I haveloosely associated MedILS with theUniversity of Split. In compliance with thelaw, we formed a board of trustees: two

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publicly appointed (by the university andthe ministry) and three internal (MedILS-appointed). Affiliation with the universitywill assure the public with regard to thespending of public funds, guarantee thehighest level of academic freedom andresult in public trustees being academicsrather than Zagreb bureaucrats. Trusteesdeal with administrative management anddo not ‘meddle’ in scientific matters.

Croatian law requires appointment of aseparate and independent scientific boardto manage scientific affairs. This will consistof international scientists of Radman’schoice. Further details are available on the ministry website, www.mzos.hr.Dragan PrimoracMinistry of Science, Education and Sports,Trg hrvatskih velikana 6, HR-10000 Zagreb,Republic of Croatia

Insect collection ready tospread its wingsSir — Your News story “Curators buggedby museum’s vision for insect collection”(Nature 432, 659; 2004) gave the impressionthat Darwin Centre II (DCII) will beincompatible with a ‘cyber-infrastructure’future for taxonomy.

Although we are certain that taxonomyand collections-based research in generalwill look very different ten years from now,no consensus exists as to the details of thisfuture. Designing the best available work-spaces for such a rapidly evolving science isnot easy. As scientists we are accustomed toloudly debating competing ideas; it is nodifferent with regard to facility design.

The main issue is whether sufficientflexibility exists for research groups ofvaried sizes to have immediate access to specimens of entire taxa. This issue isbeing addressed in a way that balances thebest possible long-term conditions forirreplaceable specimens against efficientaccess during bursts of intensive research.

Far from resisting change, the NaturalHistory Museum is leading the trans-formation of taxonomy into a ‘big science’capable of rapidly advancing ourunderstanding of the natural world. Itsinsect collection is unique, as the onlyplace where one can directly comparespecimens of more than half of all knownspecies. DCII will provide modern researchlaboratories, state-of-the-art conditions forcollections and an opportunity to open thisresearch to the public. Controversy overdetails should not cloud the big picture;

DCII will provide first-rate facilities forworld-class taxonomic research.Quentin D. WheelerDepartment of Entomology, Natural HistoryMuseum, Cromwell Road, London SW7 5BD, UK

Alternative views ofamphibian toe-clipping Sir — In News and Views (“Ethics andamphibians” Nature 431, 403; 2004),Robert M. May discusses a study by M. A.McCarthy and K. M. Parris on the effects oftoe-clipping on amphibians. This is astandard technique for uniquely markinganimals in ecological research (see guide-lines at www.asih.org/pubs/ASIH_HACC_Final.pdf). McCarthy and Parris show thatreturn rates decreased as the number oftoes clipped increased in four frog species;they and May raise ethical and practicalquestions about the technique. There is,however, a fuller picture to be considered.

Several studies have found no negativeeffects of toe-clipping. McCarthy andParris suggest that this may be due to lowstatistical power, but this has not beenshown in all cases in which no effect wasobserved (see, for example, J. J. van Gelderand H. Strijbosch Amphibia-Reptilia 17,169–174, 1996; and J. A. Ott and D. E. ScottJ. Herpetol. 33, 344–348, 1999). Effects oftoe-clipping evidently vary among speciesand so must be assessed accordingly.

Alternative marking techniques oftencannot be used. Many adult frogs are lessthan 20 mm long, as are juveniles of largerspecies. The smallest passive integrated

transponder (PIT) tags are about 10 mmlong, too large for small frogs. Many speciescannot be marked using other approaches,such as elastomers, alphanumeric tags orfreeze-branding, and do not haveconsistent, identifiable markings.

Other techniques may have worse effects,as M. Schlaepfer has shown (Herpetol. Rev.29, 25–26; 1998). Implantation of PIT tagsoften involves surgery on the body cavity;even implantation under the skin carries a risk of more serious infection than in anextremity. Many ecological studies requiretrading the risks of a marking techniqueagainst the gains in understanding. Moreresearch evaluating these risks is needed.

Far from acting with ‘casual barbarity’,biologists who use the toe-clippingtechnique do so after consideringalternative techniques and with theapproval of institutional animal care and use committees. The resulting data are essential for managing threatenedpopulations, as well as for other purposes:toe clippings are sources of DNA forgenetic studies, and act as samples foridentifying the diseases implicated incatastrophic amphibian declines.

We believe it is less ethical to sit backand watch species slip into extinction than it is to use the best available methodsto help to conserve them.W. Chris Funk*, Maureen A. Donnelly†,Karen R. Lips‡*Section of Integrative Biology, University of Texas,Austin, Texas 78712, USA†Biological Sciences, Florida InternationalUniversity, Miami, Florida 33199, USA‡Department of Zoology, Southern IllinoisUniversity, Carbondale, Illinois 62901, USA

Croatian minister rejects ‘meddling’ claimMediterranean Institute’s link with university is intended to ensure academic freedom.

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