2010 Science News of the Year: Science & Society

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Vaccine link to autism dismissed
In February, Lancet formally retracted a 1998 study that had kindled a storm of opposition to vaccines (SN Online: 2/3/10). The research suggested that autism arose in a handful of children after the kids received shots to prevent measles, mumps and rubella. The study’s lead author committed several ethical breaches, and the selection of participants in the study may have been biased, the U.K.