California just completed an assessment which indicates that the pesticide methyl iodide presents significant health risks to farm workers. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) approved the use of methyl iodide in 2008, after ignoring calls from leading scientists for an independent review. The pending registration of methyl iodide in California will have to wait for an external scientific review, which observers predict will have a significant impact on policy, this fall.Methyl iodide was developed to replace methyl bromide, a fumigant that is applied to soil to kill pests before crops such as strawberries, fruit vines, and nursery trees are planted.

New research is providing clues about possible links between Pfiesteria-like organisms and pollution.

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Taming Toxic Algae Blooms T he trouble began for Toledo, Ohio, in the spring of 2014, when extreme storms washed an unusually high pulse of nutrients into Lake Erie. By late summer, a massive bloom of blue-green algae, otherwise known as cyanobacteria, had shut down the city's drinking water system.Powered by nutrients from agricultural runoff and the warm, calm summer waters, the algae spread across the lake and slowly began releasing toxins into the water. The most common of these, microcystin, showed up at levels of 2.5 μg/L, exceeding the safe threshold of 1 μg/L set by the World Health Organization (WHO). The city has been spending $3 million to $4 million per year treating the water supply.

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B y depositing molten plastic layer upon layer, threedimensional (3-D) printers can crank out almost anything, from toys to guns to artificial limbs. The surging 3-D printer market has made desktop versions affordable for schools and libraries. But the printers' growing prevalence has raised concerns about potential negative health effects from inhaling toxic volatile organic compounds (VOCs) and particles given off by the devices.Although the government has set workplace standards for a few of the VOCs released by 3-D printers, these are for healthy, working-age adults in industrial settings such as tire or plastic manufacturing plants: None of the compounds is regulated in homes or libraries where 3-D printers might be used by sensitive populations such as children. Furthermore, researchers don't know the identity of most of the compounds emitted by printers. "Scientists know that particles and VOCs are bad for health, but they don't have enough information to create a regulatory standard for 3-D printers," says Marina E.

Methylamine uptake in nitrogen‐starved Chlorella pyrenoidosa Beij. follows Michaelis‐Menten kinetics: maximum uptake is about 1.6 nmol μl−1· cells · min−1, half‐saturation occurs at 4 μM methylamine, and the slope in the range where uptake is proportional to concentration is 0.4 nmol μl−1· min−1·μM−1. In cells grown in the presence of a non‐limiting nitrogen concentration, methylamine uptake is directly proportional to concentration up to at least 0.5 mM, and the slope is 1/500 that for starved cells. Similar uptake kinetics have been reported for Penicillium chrysogenum and attributed to an inducible “ammonium permease.” Apparently, a similar permease occurs in algae.