Extra-salty sea
Increasing saltiness in parts of the Atlantic Ocean is down to us. Salinity is known to have risen in areas of the Atlantic in recent decades. Now a team led by Peter Stott at the UK鈥檚 Hadley Centre for Climate Change has used climate models to show that anthropogenic warming is to blame, through increased evaporation and a decrease in rainfall. The study will appear in Geophysical Research Letters.
Double belt
The nearest known planetary system sports two asteroid belts, one of which could obscure a rocky planet. Dana Backman of the SETI Institute in Mountain View, California, and his team found the belts around the star Epsilon Eridani, 10.5 light years away. 鈥淚 would put money on there being an Earth-like planet in the space between the inner asteroid belt and the star,鈥� he says.
Pig cell boost for diabetics
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Eight people with diabetes will be treated in New Zealand with capsules of insulin-producing pancreatic islet cells from pigs following government approval for the trial on 21 October. Living Cell Technologies of Auckland says it already has 鈥渟trong preliminary evidence of efficacy鈥� in seven people in Russia treated over the past 14 months.
Bluetongue strikes again
Europe has been re-invaded by the ruminant disease bluetongue. The BTV8 strain of the midge-borne virus came from Africa in 2006. Now BTV6, which circulates in Africa, the Middle East and Central America, has appeared. It could become established in livestock before midges die off this winter.
Deaf to voices
A British woman has become the first person known to be born unable to recognise voices, including those of Margaret Thatcher, David Beckham or even her own daughter. Her condition has been dubbed 鈥減honagnosia鈥� (Neuropsychologia, ).