Tuesday, December 23, 2008

Eating fish is good for you and bad for you at the same time. Omega-3 fatty acids are brain food for fetuses, babies and children, and they promote cardiovascular health in adults. But fish also are contaminated with mercury, a toxin which interferes with the development of the nervous system in those same fetuses and babies. I wrote about the science behind a controversy brewing between two federal agencies that regulate fish for consumption -- the FDA and the EPA -- in a two-part article for the Los Angeles Times.

After carbon dioxide, methane is the second biggest contributor to the greenhouse gases involved in global warming. A new natural source of methane was identified by a monitoring station in Greenland during freeze-up in the fall of 2007. Results were published in Nature earlier this month and I interviewed the lead author, Torbin Christensen of Sweden, about the story behind the story (subscription only) for Nature's Authors Page.

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