Polygamy practiced by some 19th century Mormon men had the curious effect of suppressing the overall offspring numbers of Mormon women in plural marriages, say scientists from Indiana University Bloomington and three other institutions in the March 2011 issue of Evolution and Human Behavior.
Simply put, the more sister-wives a Mormon woman had, the fewer children she was likely to produce
The red, metal-laden sludge that escaped a containment pond in Hungary last week could be made less toxic with the help of carbon sequestration, says an Indiana University Bloomington geologist who has a patent pending on the technique.
The bauxite residue now covers 40 square kilometers south of the Danube River, and has caused the deaths of eight Hungarians and injured at least 150. The residue also has caused the extinction of life in a local river and as yet unknown environmental damage elsewhere. While human deaths in the wake of the disaster may have been strictly a result of the containment failure, injuries have mostly been attributed to the chemical properties of the sludge, whose high pH (between 11 and 13) can quickly damage and kill living cells. Bauxite residue is between 10,000 and 1,000,000 times more basic than pure water, which has a pH around 7.
Earth’s largest snake on record is now on display as part of a special exhibit at Indiana University Bloomington’s Geology Building.
Well, the entire snake isn’t present, but rather a cast of the original 60-million-year-old, foot-wide vertebra from Titanoboa cerrejonensis. The boa constrictor is believed to have measured 43 feet from snout to tail tip and to have weighed 2,500 pounds.
Sensing death around them, older bacteria send their progeny out to colonize friendlier pastures. http://bit.ly/9YCFTc
Indiana University Science News is the science news component of Indiana University's Office of University Communications.
