Aral Sea blues
Once the world鈥檚 fourth largest inland body of water, irrigation shrank the Aral Sea dramatically, and by 2000, had split it into three parts. Now images from Europe鈥檚 Envisat satellite show that 80 per cent of its large eastern lobe has disappeared, just in the last three years.
Bat cave emptied
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More than 90 per cent of the 30,000 bats living in New Jersey鈥檚 best known bat cave, the Hibernia Mine, have been killed by white nose syndrome, a mysterious disease devastating bat populations in the north-eastern US. Thought to be spread by a fungus, the syndrome has killed an estimated 400,000 bats since it emerged in 2006, says the US Fish and Wildlife Service.
Stem cells from blood
Cells capable of maturing into any tissue in the body have been made for the first time from blood, claims Cellular Dynamics International of Madison, Wisconsin. The company says it made the induced pluripotent stem cells by treating white blood cells with reprogramming factors previously used to make iPS cells from less accessible tissues.
Memories in utero
Fetuses 30 weeks old seem to have short-term memory. Researchers at Maastricht University in the Netherlands produced harmless sounds and vibrations next to the wombs of pregnant women. Fetuses reacted less after 10 minutes than they did initially, indicating that they had become used to the stimuli (Child Development, vol 80, p 1251).
Where lurks the worm?
The search is back on in Idaho for the giant Palouse earthworm, a near-legendary creature said to grow up to 1 metre long, spit at predators and live in burrows 5 metres deep. Conservationists want to protect the worm, though there have been few sightings and little research on it.