SCIENCE IN THE NEWS WEEKLY
Water: Toxic, Spicy, Chaotic, and Saturated
Wells all over Bangladesh tap into shallow aquifers with high concentrations of arsenic. Now researchers report that they may have identified a primary source of this contamination: manmade ponds near houses used for raising fish and bathing.
In a related story, a team of researchers in Washington State has found traces of cooking spices in the waters of Puget Sound that become more pronounced during certain holidays. The study is one of several ongoing efforts to investigate the chemicals that find their way into the global water supply.
In other news, supercomputers have enabled researchers to study moving fluids as never before. They say that the emerging picture of fluid dynamics is more subtle and more complex than anything dreamed of even a decade ago.
New research suggests that the world's oceans cannot function as a "carbon sink" indefinitely as humans generate heat-trapping gases linked to global warming. Scientists report that the oceans have recently grown less able to absorb such emissions, due to a gradual change in ocean chemistry.
In other environmental news, entomologist David Mausel is enlisting a small black beetle as an ally in the battle to save hemlocks in New England forests. The beetle feeds on the woolly adelgid, which is killing the region's hemlocks.
And success in getting U.S. chlorine plants to stop spewing mercury has led to a new environmental problem. Hundreds of tons of mercury acquired for use by the plants may be on the global market, where it could ultimately be used in unregulated gold mining.
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