“Plastics in daily use are generally assumed to be quite stable. We found that plastic in the ocean actually decomposes as it is exposed to the rain and sun and other environmental conditions, giving rise to yet another source of global contamination that will continue into the future.”

Katsuhiko Saido, of Nihon University in Chiba, Japan, comments on new research on how plastic waste breaks down at sea (BBC).

“You can just engineer a crime scene. Any biology undergraduate could perform this.”

Dan Frumkin, of Tel Aviv-based company Nucleix, explains the implications of his research on fabrication of DNA evidence (NY Times).

“It was a very effective review. I think we’re ready to go fly.”

Bill Gerstenmaier, NASA’s associate administrator for space operations, explains that the shuttle Discovery has been cleared for take off next Tuesday (AFP).

“The gap between white and black life expectancy narrowed by 0.4 years, from 78.2 years (white population) and 73.2 years (black population) in 2006 to 78.3 years (white population) and 73.7 years (black population) in 2007.”

The latest mortality statistics from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention have been released (pdf).