1.
Record response to call for new astronauts
SALT LAKE CITY, Aug. 21 (UPI) -- Mercury levels in Utah's Great Salt Lake are the highest of any body of water in the United States, say scientists studying the effect on animal and plant life.
"All we know is that there is a problem out there, but there's more to understanding how to deal with it," said Manusel Pearce, a spokesman for the Great Salt Lake Alliance.
A study now being completed could help show if mercury is drifting into Utah from Nevada's goldmines, and whether the 9 million to 12 million birds that migrate each year are absorbing mercury from the lake, The Salt Lake Tribune reported Friday.
Mercury levels in the lake typically are double those found in more than 90 percent of water sampled nationally, said state water quality specialist Jodi Gardberg.
The lake's saltiness, low oxygen, high sulfur and dissolved organic carbon help transform elemental mercury into toxic methyl mercury, which builds up in the food chain.
|
|
|
| Additional Science News Stories | |
TACOMA, Wash., Feb. 9 (UPI) --
The mother of Josh Powell, who killed himself and his sons in a fire in Washington state, said in divorce papers he exhibited disturbing behavior as a teenager.
|
NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
Macaulay Culkin is in "perfectly good health," his publicist said after the former child star was photographed looking gaunt and disheveled in New York.
|
GREENBELT, Md., Feb. 9 (UPI) --
NASA's Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has captured the first color image from orbit of the three-petal lander of NASA's 2004 Rover Spirit mission, scientists say.
|
NEW YORK, Feb. 9 (UPI) --
A former Marine's lawsuit against New York says a hospital mix-up listed him as female on his birth certificate and the city is refusing to correct the error.
|
| Stories | Photos | People | Comments |
View Caption
