This Week’s Odd and Amusing Environmental News Roundup

To help you ease into the weekend, here are links to a few lighter stories that caught my attention this week. A two-headed lizard with sibling rivalry issues, applying deodorant to landfills, a water aerobics class disrupted by a crocodile, and more.


--Each year, asks a different person to create a cover image based on a capital 鈥楢鈥 for the annual May. This year鈥檚 letter was grown in an immunology lab, using pollen cells. The folks over at Nature鈥檚 suggest a name for the new font: 鈥淐ell-vetica鈥.

-- Biologists have found a 鈥ith sibling rivalry issues: It eats from both heads, but apparently the head that鈥檚 bigger has tried to attack the smaller one.

--Deodorant covers up body odor, so why not apply it to smelly landfills? That鈥檚 what Beijing is doing. 鈥淎fter a dousing from the spray鈥攚hich is made from plant extracts鈥攖he rubbish is then covered with odour-eating sheets,鈥 the .

--Many people will use the flimsiest excuses to avoid exercising, but the women in an Australian water aerobics class merely waited for a ranger to collect the l before getting on with their training. [Photo: Benchill, Wikimedia Commons]

--Here鈥檚 the description from a popular YouTube video posted on Monday, April 19: 鈥淥ne squirrel lies dead in the road but his friend fights off the crows who come to eat him.鈥 That鈥檚 right, a squirrel drives off a murder of crows. Aw, sweet. Or is it? Given that squirrels are omnivores (check out this ), this critter might be protecting its meal, not its buddy鈥檚 body.