Number 220 (Story #3), April 3, 1995 by Phillip F. Schewe and Ben Stein TITAN HAS HYDROCARBON SEAS OR LAKES separated by continents. This assessment, by Stanley Dermott of the University of Florida and Carl Sagan of Cornell, is a compromise between the notion (derived from photochemical studies) that the hydrocarbon seas are global and the notion (based on recent infrared and radar observations) that such seas are discontinuous. Titan's orbit around Saturn is highly elliptical. Since the tidal effect on large seas would have made Titan's orbit more circular than it is, Dermott and Sagan argue that the seas are small, perhaps more like crater lakes. (Nature, 16 March.)