On the Record

“Carbon dioxide. They call it pollution. We call it life.”

Television adverts from the Competitive Enterprise Institute — a group that receives funds from the oil industry — imply that rising levels of CO2 are nothing to be alarmed about.

“The ads are a deliberate attempt to confuse and mislead the public.”

Curt Davis of the University of Missouri, Columbia, criticizes the institute for misusing his findings on the East Antarctic ice sheet.

Sources: CEI, St. Louis Post-Dispatch

Scorecard

Rampaging elephants

Sri Lanka announces plans to tame, rather than kill, unruly wild elephants. It will then use the beasts as tourist attractions.

Race of the clones

The first cloned equines — two mules called Idaho Gem and Idaho Star — are ready to run against each other, and others, in competitive mule races.

Rabbit romance

Urologists develop prosthetic penises for male bunnies. The implants could have human applications, too.

Tracking whales

University of Washington researchers are training failed drug-detecting dogs to sniff out the floating faeces of endangered killer whales.

Overhyped

A golf shot round the world

NASA mission planners have delayed a spacewalk to drive a gold-plated golf ball into low Earth orbit. The publicity stunt, sponsored by Canadian golfing firm Element 21, would have made International Space Station Commander Pavel Vinogradov a sporting celebrity.

But engineers are worried that Vinogradov's hook could lodge the ball in a solar panel or other piece of vital equipment. NASA wouldn't comment on Vinogradov's handicap, saying only that the swing would be put off for a more thorough safety analysis.