  Consider the germ of an isolated surface singularity in $(\mC^3,0)$. The
corresponding Milnor fibre possesses the homology lattice (the integral middle
homology with a natural symmetric intersection form). An old question of
A.Durfee (1978) asks: is the signature of this form non-increasing under
degenerations? The present article answers negatively: We give examples of
Newton non-degenerate families where the signature increases under
degeneration.
