Fourth dwarf named
A new dwarf planet has been recognised by the International Astronomical Union. Makemake was discovered in 2005 beyond Pluto, a location which also makes it a plutoid. Named after a creator god of Polynesian mythology, it joins the same classification as Pluto, Eris and the asteroid Ceres.
Hopper hope
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Frog mass extinctions could be halted through captive breeding programmes, thanks to the discovery of gene variants that make tadpoles resistant to a bacterium implicated in their global decline. The variants were found in the tadpoles of African clawed frogs exposed to the Aeromonas hydrophila bacteria (PLoS One, ).
Marburg death
A Dutch tourist died on 11 July from Marburg haemorrhagic fever following a visit to Uganda. Bats are thought to have infected the 41-year-old woman with the virus that causes the disease when she toured caves in Uganda鈥檚 Maramagambo forest on 19 June.
Coastal oil extraction鈥�
Environmentalists fear a return to the days of blackened beaches and oil-sodden seagulls, following President Bush鈥檚 14 July decision to rescind an 18-year ban on offshore oil drilling around the US. The ban has prevented oil firms accessing resources that could boost America鈥檚 known reserves by 60 per cent, according to the US Geological Survey. Congress must back Bush鈥檚 decision before drilling can start.
鈥nd coastal CO2 injection
Geologists have identified a vast undersea region off the coast of Washington and Oregon suitable for storing captured carbon dioxide. David Goldberg of the Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory at Columbia University in New York estimates that 208 billion tonnes of liquefied CO2 could be stored there (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, vol 105, p 9920).