ApocaDocuments (6) for the "Biology Breach" scenario from this week
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Sun, Dec 5, 2010
from Daily Mail:
Jellyfish are taking over the oceans: Population surge as rising acidity of world's seas kills predators
Britain's beaches could soon be inundated with records numbers of jellyfish, marine experts warned today.
Scientists say the number of jellyfish are on the rise thanks to the increasing acidity of the world's oceans.
The warning comes in a new report into ocean acidification - an often overlooked side effect of burning fossil fuel....
The report, written by Dr Carol Turley of Plymouth University, said: 'Ocean acidification has also been tentatively linked to increased jellyfish numbers and changes in fish abundance.'
Jellyfish are immune to the effects of acidification. As other species decline, jellyfish will move in to fill the ecological niche.
Populations have boomed in the Mediterranean in recent years. Some marine scientists say the changing chemistry of the sea is to blame....
The report says acidification may push overstressed oceans into disaster with far reaching consequences the billions of people who rely on fish as their main protein source....
'The basic chemistry of sea water is being altered on a scale unseen within fossil records over at least 20 million years,' the report said.
...
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I hear Ashton Kutcher's mistress has a sex tape, and boy is he pissed!
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Fri, Dec 3, 2010
from New Scientist:
Toxic heavy metals reach top of the world
Dangerous levels of arsenic and cadmium have been found in snow samples from mount Everest.
Both heavy metals were found at levels higher than those the US Environmental Protection Agency considers acceptable, says Samantha Langley-Turnbaugh of the University of Southern Maine in Gorham.... Mountaineers rely on melted snow for drinking water, so the toxic metals "could be a concern", says Langley-Turnbaugh. It is not clear how much of the pollution makes its way into rivers further down the mountain, where it might enter the local drinking water.... Air pollution from Asian industry is probably to blame. Concentrations of both arsenic and cadmium were higher in the soil further up the mountain, as would be expected if high-altitude winds were depositing them. ...
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Would "Into Heavy Air" have made the bestseller list?
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Thu, Dec 2, 2010
from Discovery News:
BPA May Inhibit Pregnancy
Even as women choose to have babies later in life, more are having trouble conceiving, and the chemical BPA might be partly to blame, suggests a new study.
Mice that were exposed to tiny amounts of the common chemical in the womb and shortly after birth had no problems getting pregnant early in their reproductive lives, the study found. But the animals were less likely to get pregnant as they aged compared to animals that had not been exposed to BPA, and they gave birth to smaller litters as time wore on. People come in contact with BPA, also known as bisphenol A, through cash register receipts, canned foods and beverages, hard plastic bottles, kitchenware, DVDs and many other sources. Just about all of us have BPA in our bodies, where it can interfere with the action of estrogen and other hormones. ...
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Actually smaller litters of humans might not be such a bad thing.
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Thu, Dec 2, 2010
from Agence France-Press:
Quarter of HK people 'want to move over bad air'
About 25 percent of Hong Kong's population wants to leave the city to escape its notoriously polluted air, which has been described as a health crisis, said a survey released Monday.
The report by public policy think tank Civic Exchange found that one in four people living in the teeming financial hub are considering emigrating over fears that its bad air could affect their health.
That was an increase from the one in five people who wanted to leave Hong Kong in a similar survey two years ago, the study said. ...
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Only problem is: where to go?
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Wed, Dec 1, 2010
from ScienceDaily:
Transgenic Crops: How Genes Jump from Crop to Crop
A new data-driven statistical model that incorporates the surrounding landscape in unprecedented detail describes the transfer of an inserted bacterial gene via pollen and seed dispersal in cotton plants more accurately than previously available methods.... The transfer of genes from genetically modified crop plants is a hotly debated issue. Many consumers are concerned about the possibility of genetic material from transgenic plants mixing with non-transgenic plants on nearby fields. Producers, on the other side, have a strong interest in knowing whether the varieties they are growing are free from unwanted genetic traits.... Genes can be transferred in several ways, for example by pollinators such as bees, or through accidental seed mixing during farming operations.
Surprisingly, the team found that pollinating insects, widely believed to be the key factor in moving transgenic pollen into neighboring crop fields, had a small impact on gene flow compared to human farming activity, with less than one percent of seeds collected around the edges of non-Bt cotton fields resulting from bee pollination between Bt and non-Bt cotton. ...
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You trying to blame humans again?
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Tue, Nov 30, 2010
from Environmental Health News:
Feminized male fish less likely to be fathers
Male fish feminized by exposure to environmental estrogens do not father as many offspring as their normal counterparts, suggesting the changes may alter wild fish populations.
Male fish with a high degree of intersex produce fewer offspring when competing with normal males, according to a laboratory study that examined reproduction in intersex male fish - those with both male and female attributes.
Although much is known about intersex fish, little is understood about how the condition affects the number of fish in the wild. This is an important question because the consequences of intersex become even greater if it leads to declines in fish population size. ...
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You'd think these more sensitive male fish would get the girl MORE often.
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