TROUBLED WATER: The White House has battled the oil industry all summer over a ban on deepwater drilling in the Gulf of Mexico, but the two sides seemed to agree on at least one thing: The Gulf's shallow-water oil rigs and platforms are much safer than deep ones like the Deepwater Horizon. These shallower varieties have therefore been allowed to keep operating after the Gulf oil spill — provided they meet new safety rules — but a fresh accident this week has now cast a sheen of doubt over all Gulf oil drilling, deep or shallow. This latest snafu struck about 100 miles south of Louisiana Thursday morning, when a fire inexplicably erupted on Mariner Energy's Vermilion 380-A oil platform, forcing all 13 crew members to leap overboard and taking hours for fire boats to extinguish (pictured). The incident has a few key differences from the Deepwater Horizon blowout, namely that no one was killed or seriously injured, and, despite initial reports, no oil spill has been found. It also occurred in only 340 feet of water, compared with the mile-deep BP spill, but that difference is precisely the point, some critics say, since Americans have been told for months that shallow drilling isn't risky. "Since the beginning of this crisis, the Obama administration has attempted to limit the crisis to deepwater drilling and to suggest that shallow-water oil drilling is safe," the head of the Center for Biological Diversity tells the Washington Post. "I'm not in the least bit surprised that we have a big shallow-water drilling explosion right now." Not only are such infernos fairly common in the Gulf — 133 fires or explosions lit up Gulf oil rigs and platforms in 2009, for example — but shallower rigs actually seem more blowout-prone: Of 39 Gulf blowouts between 1992 and 2006, 33 of them were in less than 500 feet of water. And given the recent history of oil drilling in the Gulf, the Vermilion fire has now drawn high-profile scrutiny to shallow-water drilling, too. "What it does bring to light is that there are risks with oil and gas production ... that go beyond deepwater drilling," says Donald F. Boesch, an environmental scientist and member of the presidential commission investigating the BP spill. (Sources: Associated Press, New York Times, Washington Post)

 

COAST UNCLEAR: Hurricane Earl continues to plow north along the U.S. East Coast this weekend, and while it has been downgraded from a major to minor hurricane, it's still enormous — about the size of New England, according to the Boston Globe — and perfectly capable of wreaking havoc. Once a Category 4, Earl weakened to a Category 3 and then a 2 as it battered North Carolina's Outer Banks Thursday night, and is expected to keep gradually weakening as it churns north-northeast toward Canada. But "gradually" is the key word there, because the National Hurricane Center projects Earl will keep its tropical temper for a while, potentially spelling trouble for coastal New Englanders since its projected path cuts dangerously close to Cape Cod. "If it's a perfect forecast, the eye is going to come very close to Nantucket," NHC director Bill Read tells the Globe. "The eye is going to be huge by then." In fact, while Earl may be sparing most of the East Coast by keeping one foot in the ocean, that trajectory is also helping it maintain some of its strength, even as it enters cooler North Atlantic waters. And that could be bad news for Nova Scotia, where forecasters have issued tropical storm warnings, a rarity in Canada. Earl is expected to make landfall in southwestern Nova Scotia Saturday morning, then continue across the Gulf of St. Lawrence and into Newfoundland. (Sources: National Hurricane Center, ABC News, Boston Globe, Toronto Star)

  

STRAWBERRY FIELDS: In one of the most sweeping studies of its kind, scientists from Washington State University have shown that organic strawberries are superior to non-organic ones in a variety of important categories, although the pesticide-free produce also came up short in a few others. A motley crew of WSU researchers — including soil scientists, food scientists, geneticists, statisticians and microbial ecologists — broke down berries and soil from 13 organic farms and 13 conventional farms in California, and compared them based on 31 chemical and biological soil properties, soil DNA, and taste, nutrition and overall quality. Organic strawberries beat or equaled their counterparts in nearly every major contest, boasting better taste, brighter color, longer shelf life, more antioxidants, more vitamin C, more phenols and more dry matter, which means "more strawberry in the strawberry," the researchers say. The organic farms' soil also fared better, "excelling" in nitrogen content, biomass, micronutrients and carbon sequestration, and featuring "dramatically more total and unique genes," a key measure of soil health and resilience. But the organic berries had downsides, too: lower crop yield, smaller fruit size, less potassium and phosphorus, and in one case, worse taste. But overall, the study's leader says it quantifies the perks and practicality of organic farming. "Our findings have global implications and advance what we know about the sustainability benefits of organic farming systems," says WSU soil scientist John Reganold. "We also show you can have high-quality, healthy produce without resorting to an arsenal of pesticides." (Sources: WSU News Service, Los Angeles Times)

 

CHIMP OFF THE OLD BLOCK: Wild chimpanzees in a west African rain forest are learning how to outsmart human hunters, the BBC reports, revealing yet another example of our distant relatives' intelligence. Hunters throughout forested parts of Africa often lay out snare traps for chimpanzees, whose meat is popular in local bushmeat cuisine, and the traps routinely injure and kill chimps as well as other wildlife in both east and west Africa. But very few snare injuries have been reported among chimps in Bossou, Guinea, which has long perplexed scientists, since human settlements are located nearby and snare traps are commonly set in the area. But thanks to an accidental discovery by scientists following the chimps to study their behavior, we now know the Bossou apes' secret: They've figured out how the traps work and how to disarm them. In fact, not only can the chimps take apart the traps, they actively seek them out, an apparent attempt to make the forest safer in the future for themselves and their fellow chimps. They've figured out the traps so well, they even seem to know which parts are dangerous and must be avoided, and which parts are safe to touch. And since one wrong move could potentially end a trap-defusing chimp's life, the feat is even more impressive because it has so little room for rookie mistakes. "We were surprised when we found this behavior," one of the researchers tells the BBC, adding that "the observations indicate chimpanzees can learn some manners without trial and error." (Source: BBC News)

 

— Russell McLendon