Jelly-fall\JEHL-ee-fahl\ n. A rain of dead
jellyfish onto the seafloor, similar to a
“whalefall” of dead whales. In March,
scientists in Norway photographed the
bottom of a fjord north of Bergen; in
five of 218 photographs they spotted
corpses of Periphylla periphylla medusa
jellyfish (alive, right). Shrimp swarmed
the decomposing jellies, suggesting
the bodies provide important nutrients
in an otherwise sparse environment,
the researchers report in an upcoming Deep-Sea Research Part I. Jellyfish
numbers are up globally, and huge piles of rotting jellies have recently been
found on seafloors off Oman, the Ivory Coast and Japan. — Alexandra Witze
SN Online
www.sciencenews.org
ENVIRONMENT
Plastics sloughed off clothing can pollute coastlines.
See “Synthetic lint ends up
in oceans.”
Arctic sea ice this year was
near its smallest extent on
record. Read “Summer Arctic
melt among worst ever.”
GENES & CELLS
Natural killer cells are
caught in the act of feeding
poison pills ( below) to
tumors. See “News in Brief:
Genes & Cells.”
Science Past | FROM THE ISSUE OF OCTOBER 7, 1961
CHEAPER WATER FROM SEA — Lower cost conversion of
undrinkable sea or brackish water to potable fresh water
will come closer to practicality through use of $75,000,000
appropriated by Congress for the next
six years. Lowest cost achieved so far
is one dollar per thousand gallons compared with the cost from ordinary
sources of 30¢ per thousand. The money
is for research and development in the
Government’s saline water conversion
program. Eventual goal of the program is to supply the
nation with cheap drinking water from the oceans and
brackish water…. The water supply problem is becoming
quite serious in the United States because of increasing
water needs and pollution of available water resources.
Science Future
October 16
Comet Elenin comes its closest to Earth and may be visible
with binoculars. See NASA’s
FAQ at 1.usa.gov/oeX6hP
October 31
Deadline for middle schoolers to enter the Future City
engineering competition. Learn
more at www.futurecity.org
October 18
Get hands-on at the American
Museum of Natural History’s
Family Party in New York City.
See amnh.org/familyparty
A previously unknown species of sea lily has
turned up at seamounts more than 1,600
meters below the waves at sites off Antarctica.
A shirttail cousin to the starfish, the anchored,
filter-feeding organism sports what looks like
a flowerlike fan above a stalk that can be a half-meter long. The 46 sparsely planted juveniles
and young adults seen by scientists from France
and New Zealand belong to a single species,
dubbed Ptilocrinus amezianeae. In the September
Polar Biology, the scientists report witnessing
sea stars and urchins dining on the animals and
conclude that the newly discovered population
appears to be “in decline.” — Janet Raloff
According to a new estimate,
Earth may hold 8. 7 million
eukaryote species, only about
1. 2 million of which have been
cataloged. (Examples of three
major eukaryote groups shown.)
Science Stats
UNDISCOVERED SPECIES
Eukaryote group and
total estimated species
CLOCKWISE, FROM TOP LEFT: DAVID WROBEL/VISUALS UNLIMITED, INC.; G.D. RAK ET AL/PLOS BIOLOGY 2011; DAVID BOWDEN/NIWA
Animals
7. 8 million
Fungi
611,000
Plants
298,000
C. MORA ET AL/PLOS BIOLOGY 2011
Cataloged species
Uncataloged species