Photo credit: U. S. Fish and Wildlife Service – Northeast Region via Flickr 

Could removing dead skin cells from your face each night mean doom for perch and other Great Lakes species?  Cosmetics manufacturers use these micro beads, or micro exfoliates, as abrasives in facial and body scrubs. They are too tiny for water treatment plants to filter, so they wash down the drain and into the Great Lakes. The biggest worry: fish such as yellow perch or turtles and seagulls think of them as dinner. If fish or birds eat the inert beads, the material can deprive them of nutrients from real food or get lodged in their stomachs or intestines, blocking digestive systems.

Photo credit: Steven P via Flickr

What The Rise Of Cage-Free Eggs Means For Chickens  The experiment has been running for a year now, and the scientists have released some . Here are just a few: Hens in cages were cleaner, but cage-free chickens kept more of their feathers. Cage-free hens may have had more freedom, but twice as many of them died during the year.