Pollution hot spots mapped

Scientists have created a map of global nitrous dioxide levels in the atmosphere, revealing major areas of pollution around the world. Nitrous dioxide is produced naturally by lightning and some bacteria, but is also produced by the burning of fossil fuels. It can cause lung damage and respiratory problems. The map, based on satellite data collected over 18 months, shows a few spots of heavy pollution around major cities like Mexico City, but reveals most of the pollution to be concentrated around a few areas: Western Europe, in France, Italy and England, the eastern coast of North America (including the GTA), a small region of South Africa (where a great deal of vegetation is burned), and the largest area, over the northeastern corner of China. Surprisingly, distinct traces of nitrous dioxide can be seen along shipping lanes, particularly between India and Indonesia, and in the Red Sea. The levels of gas in the atmosphere were determined by analyzing the quality of light reflected back from the Earth, and determining where certain chemicals were present.

-Zoe Cormier
Source: New Scientist

Square bacteria grown in lab

Biologists have finally succeeded in growing a strange, “postage stamp-shaped” bacterium in a lab. The microbe was discovered in a pond near the Red Sea in 1980, but scientists have had difficulty studying it because they were unable to grow colonies of it in petri dishes, as they can easily do for most other types of bacteria. While a population of lab-friendly E. coli can double in twenty minutes, “Walsby’s square archaeon” only doubles every one or two days. It took researchers two and half years to grow a sizable culture. The microbe also requires very particular growing conditions, and thrives only in very salty conditions, about that of soy sauce. Now that researchers can grow it, they will be able to study it, which may prove very fruitful for those searching for extraterrestrial life. It is extremely tolerant of magnesium chloride, which is abundant on Jupiter’s moons Europa and Gannymede.

-Z.C.
Source: Nature

Gay genetics solved?

Italian researchers think they may have solved the riddle of “gay genes.” Evolutionary biologists, assuming that homosexuality has some kind of genetic basis, have long puzzled over how gay genes could survive over time, if gay people have so few children. Scientists at the University of Padua may have the answer: women who carry the gene for male homosexuality, i.e. the heterosexual sisters and mothers of gay men, are unusually fertile. The researchers think the gene in question might not code for homosexuality per se, but for attraction to men in general. So men who carry it are more likely to be homosexual, and women who carry it prone to being “hyper-heterosexual,” leading to more sex with men and more babies. The researchers stress that genes are not the only factor that determines one’s sexual orientation, just that genes make one more likely to be homosexual.

-Z.C.
Source: New Scientist