Science News - October 8, 2011

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