Pocket Lint Is Changing Antarctica

Almost like Noah's Ark:

Scientists painstakingly sorted through the pocket fluff and candy wrappers collected, and found more than 2,800 seeds — on average, about 9.5 seeds per tourist, far more for scientists. The team also identified what family the inchoate plants belonged to in nearly 90 percent of the seeds collected.

Chown said that not only was it surprising just how many seeds were making it to Antarctica, but that "so many of them are from cold climate areas such as the sub-Antarctic and Arctic," making it far more likely they'll be able to establish themselves on the Antarctic continent.

Indeed, he said, perhaps the most surprising thing the research revealed is that an alien plant — Poa annua, an annual grass common across the United States and one often treated as a weed — has already invaded the Antarctic Peninsula, the long finger of land that points toward South America.