POP goes the theory
The arctic is more polluted than both science and law say it should be
LAST year, scientists discovered that more than 1% of the polar bears on the Arctic island of Svalbard, which belongs to Norway, are hermaphrodites—in other words, they possess both male and female reproductive organs. They attributed the bears' over-endowed condition to PCBs, a group of environmentally persistent industrial chemicals that disrupt animals' hormone systems.
This article appeared in the Science & technology section of the print edition under the headline “POP goes the theory”
From the June 9th 2001 edition
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