Painkillers and fertility
In 2001, 8.5 per cent of boys born in Denmark had undescended testicles 鈥� which affects sperm quality. They were 1.4 times as likely to have the disorder if their mothers took painkillers while pregnant than if they didn鈥檛 (Human Reproduction, ).
Blood from skin
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Skin cells have been turned directly into blood cells for the first time. This could one day make bone marrow transplants obsolete, as bone marrow cells could be made using a similar technique from a patient鈥檚 own skin cells. Exposure of skin cells to OCT4, a protein for switching on blood genes, is key to the process (Nature, ).
Comet on camera
On 4 November, NASA鈥檚 EPOXI probe whizzed by Hartley 2, a 2-kilometre-wide, dumbell-shaped comet at a distance of 700 kilometres. Though it is the smallest comet visited by a spacecraft, high-resolution images for the first time traced the jets of gas and dust that make up the tail to points on the comet鈥檚 nucleus, which may help reveal how jets are created.
Deepwater graveyard
A graveyard of deep-sea gorgonian corals has been discovered 11 kilometres from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. It could take months to confirm that the spill is to blame, but researchers at Pennsylvania State University in University Park who have calculated the submerged oil鈥檚 movement say the corals were directly in its path.
Sunburnt whales
It is not just humans that get baked red by the sun: blue, fin and sperm whales are all suffering from sunburn. The number of lesions increased between 2007 and 2009, possibly due to thinning of the Earth鈥檚 protective ozone layer ().
