On the Record

“ESA is the only space agency to have science operations under way around four planets: Venus, the Moon, Mars and Saturn.”

David Southwood, director of the European Space Agency's science programmes, gets a bit confused about what constitutes a planet.

“It didn't come from a toilet on a plane or anything like that.”

Charles Glass of the Oakland Fire Department in California discusses a mysterious chunk of ice that fell from the sky and left a metre-sized crater in a city park. Meteorologists say that storms could not have made the ice.

Sources: ESA, Associated Press

Scorecard

Freedom of speech

Mark Tushingham, a scientist at Environment Canada, is ordered not to give a public talk about his futuristic novel Hotter Than Hell, in which droughts resulting from global warming cause Canada and the United States to go to war over water resources.

H5N1 preparedness

A survey of public-health workers in the United States reveals that more than 40% say they wouldn't show up at work in the event of an influenza pandemic.

Number Crunch

The potential effects on your health of eating chicken nuggets and fries vary depending on the country they're made in — an effect largely dictated by the cooking oil used, according to a recent survey.

50% of food samples contained levels of trans fatty acids linked to an increased risk of heart disease.

38% was the trans-fatty-acid content of KFC chicken nuggets bought in the Czech Republic, the highest in the survey.

1% was the trans-fatty-acid content of similar nuggets bought in Spain.

Source: Stender, S., Dyerberg, J. & Astrup, A. N. Engl. J. Med. 354, 1650–1652 (2006)