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Writing in the August edition of Environmental Science and Technology Letters, Jason Nolan and Karrie A. Weber of the University of Nebraska report unsafe levels of uranium in groundwater from California's San Joaquin Valley and from the Ogallala Aquifer underlying Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma, Colorado, Kansas, Wyoming and South Dakota.
In Natural Uranium Contamination in Major U.S. Aquifers Linked to Nitrate they note a correlation between concentrations of uranium and nitrate ions in the groundwater samples they tested. They theorize that the nitrate, a major component of fertilizer, can oxidize uranium from U(IV) to U(VI), making it water-soluble. They found that in the San Joaquin Valley, uranium reached as much as 180 times the maximum contaminant level (MCL) set by the Environmental Protection Agency, and nitrate was as much as 34 times the MCL. Samples from the Ogallala Aquifer had as much as 89 times the MCL of uranium and 189 times the MCL of nitrate.
Water from these aquifers is used for drinking and for irrigation. Soluble uranium is bioaccumulated by certain food crops; uranium in the human body can result in cancer and kidney damage.
The Associated Press also reported on the story.
(Score: 4, Insightful) by GreatAuntAnesthesia on Wednesday December 09 2015, @12:38PM
> There seems to be a perception with many people that evolution always results in 'better' organisms.
It all hangs on your definition of "better". Evolution can (over sufficient millions of years) turn fish into humans but it can also turn a T-Rex into a chicken. Would you say that a chicken is "better" than a T-Rex?
Evolution tends to (ie, not always) produces populations (not the same as individual organisms) that are, on average, more suited to the challenges of their environment and ecosystems than the generations that preceded them. If that's your definition of "better" then yes, evolution produces "better" populations of organisms.
However, most laypeople work with a definition of "better" that they got from watching X-Men movies. This leads to a false idea that evolution is some ever-escalating progression towards some kind of supreme superbeing, which in turn implies a grand cosmic plan to breed gods from plankton. There is no "progress" because there cannot be progress without a goal, and there cannot be a goal without a plan, and there is no plan. Evolution does not plan its actions any more than a river plans to carry water from the mountains to the sea. That's what the reference to the blind watchmaker is all about.
(Score: 2, Funny) by riT-k0MA on Wednesday December 09 2015, @12:45PM
Personally, I think a chicken would taste better than a T-Rex, and be easier to raise for meat.
Then again, I don't particularly enjoy the taste of reptile and/or carnivore.
(Score: 2) by arulatas on Wednesday December 09 2015, @03:25PM
How do you know that T-Rexes don't taste like chicken? Imagine the hot wings.
----- 10 turns around
(Score: 2) by Kromagv0 on Wednesday December 09 2015, @05:26PM
Imagine the hot wings.
I would imagine that they would be about the same size as the ones I can already get.
T-Shirts and bumper stickers [zazzle.com] to offend someone
(Score: 1) by riT-k0MA on Wednesday December 09 2015, @06:26PM
Have you ever tested reptile meat (Birds excluded)? Not my favourite.
(Score: 2) by mcgrew on Wednesday December 09 2015, @10:18PM
Dinosaurs weren't reptiles, as was previously thought. They were, unlike reptiles and like birds and mammals, warm blooded. Get a newer encyclopedia, that old 1964 Brittanica is a little out of date.
mcgrewbooks.com mcgrew.info nooze.org
(Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday December 10 2015, @02:47AM
First, T.Rex barely had arms--forget wings.
It appears that you are talking about a dragon (a mythical creature).
That said, if giant wings ever do appear on the menu, don't have the carhop hang your order of those on the side of your car.
That may cause your vehicle to tip over.
-- gewg_
(Score: 2) by Celestial on Wednesday December 09 2015, @05:26PM
Are you telling me that none of my descendants will recover near-miraculously from any wounds, live for centuries, develop claws, and call people "bub?" Then why is life worth living? :(