How to bore your friends blind

Science writer Cristine Russell: "For a real conversation-stopper at a late-summer cocktail party, forget Tripoli, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the East Coast earthquake, or the threatening hurricane. Instead, you might stump your fellow guests with a casual question: "Hey, have you ever wondered how species of organisms there are on earth?" While they're looking enviously toward the bar, shoot back this quick answer: "8,700,000, give or take a cool million. Oh, and about three-quarters live on land, the rest in the deep blue sea." Heh. But it's true, according to a new study.