Also, it was not a serious rival like the cave lion or cave bear, and it lacked the impressiveness of the mammoth or woolly rhino.
When a country or a culture -- not unlike the ancient civilization of Rome -- becomes more interested in vomitoriums than the growing disparity and disaffection in its populace, it runs a serious risk of caving in on itself.
Although a pile of dung from a cave poses serious analytical challenges, it's probably not the most difficult specimen researchers are sequencing now.
"It is a serious challenge to survey this cave," says Thomas Arbenz, a Swiss speleologist and cave topographer.
The death of Saman - a highly trained diver - on Thursday underscored the danger of moving from the chamber to mouth of the cave, and raised serious doubts about the safety of bringing the boys out through the cramped, flooded passageways.
The oldest and most precious objects suffering from serious fungal invasions are rock art caves, such as the caves of Lascaux in France (Bastian and Alabouvette 2009).
Tourism, however, has threatened the preservation of the caves; the most serious problem is the algal growth that has formed in the wall paintings because of the installation of electric lights.
(There have been more serious problems as well: car accidents, caved-in roofs. This weather is especially hard on the city's homeless).
Hypercapnia can be deadly, but even a mild case may cause confusion and disorientation, which in a deep cave is liable to have serious consequences.
There is a serious risk, however, that the EPA will cave to intense industry pressure to weaken the standards, allowing much of this pollution to continue indefinitely.
