German science. Board protest stops a shake-up of the Dahlem conferences.

BERLIN—A crisis over the future of the prestigious Dahlem Conferences in Berlin that was brewing into a major furor has been calmed—at least for now. On 14 February, president Dieter Lenzen of the Free University in Berlin, which administers the conferences, agreed to reinstate a staff member whom the administration had dismissed and to protect the meetings from outside meddling with the scientific agenda. Lenzen took these steps after he received a letter from members of Dahlem's scientific advisory board charging that the university was damaging the scientific reputation of the meetings and announcing their decision to resign. Several had said they would try to reestablish the conferences outside the university. But Lenzen's last-minute change of heart appears to have mollified at least some of the critics, who say they will give the university another chance. The Dahlem conferences, named for the West Berlin neighborhood of villas and leafy boulevards where the conferences are held, were founded in 1974 as a way to boost the divided city's scientific reputation. Two or three conferences are held per year on broad topics such as " Genetic and Cultural Evolution of Cooperation " and " The Dynamics of Fault Zones. " During the weeklong, invitation only sessions, roughly 40 participants break into working groups to discuss position papers—often drafted to be as provocative as possible—and prepare a synthesis statement to be presented on the final day. The proceedings are published in book format. More than 4000 scientists from around the world have taken part in 95 conferences over the past 3 decades. Fans of Dahlem say it offers a unique approach to tackling problems and making interdisciplinary connections. " The Dahlem format is such a great alternative " to the standard conference design, says Gerd Gigerenzer of the Max Planck Institute for Human Development in Berlin, who has led two Dahlem workshops. In recent months scientists involved with the conferences charged that the university was undermining their scientific integrity. Specifically, they claimed that members of an International Advisory Board, established in 2003 to raise funds for the meetings, were attending scientific planning meetings unin-vited and that the administration had pres-sured organizers to highlight Free University researchers instead of international experts in the lineup of participants. In early November, administration officials removed the long-time coordinator of the conferences, Julia Lupp, from her position and forbade her from speaking to anyone connected to the conferences. …