Gleanings of the Week Ending December 26, 2015

Violet Snail spends whole life drifting on self-made bubbles -  A sea snail that floats around underneath bubbles….a pretty denizen of our oceans that preys on Portuguese man o’ war.

There are twelve different kinds of rainbows – I was hoping there would a reference with pictures of the 12 different kinds…but it isn’t in this post.

Ten Cool Thinks the Kitchen of the Future Will Do – Some things on this list don’t seem that great to me. Printing dinner with a countertop 3-D printer does not seem appetizing at all to me.

10 Truly Guilt-Free Wholefood Vegan Cookies - Many of these cookies look more appetizing to me than the bakery offerings I used to be drawn to. I recently had a slice of carrot cake and left half the icing on the plate because it seemed like there was more icing than cake!

Treating colon cancer with vitamin A – As I read this article – I wondered if the vitamin A rich foods I love in my diet (and think of as ‘good’ for my eyes) are good for other reasons too.

See nature in a whole new light –  17 pictures of bugs!

A historical atlas of America, built for the 21^st century – From the University of Richmond’s Digital Scholarship Lab….the site is called American Panorama: An Atlas of United States History. There are 4 maps now (the forced migration of enslaved people 1810-1860), the overland trails 1840-1860, foreign born population 1850-2010, and Canals 1820-1860) with more to come.

This physicist makes dazzling snowflakes in his laboratory – Wonderful images…Ken Libbrecht has a snowflake machine and photographs the unique snowflakes it creates from water vapor condensing on a sapphire substrate.

Cool roofs in China offer enhanced benefits during heat waves – As people put on new roofs….maybe the lighter colored roofs will become the norm on our warming planet.

Festive underwater creatures look like mini Christmas trees – Even though the Christmas holiday is over…I couldn’t resist including these tropical worms that look like colorful Christmas tree bristles on their calcium carbonate bases.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 28, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Plastic by the Numbers in the Atlantic Ocean – Samples taken during the Atlantic Rally for Cruisers show that microplastics are very common. There were 0 samples without any plastic! On a personal level, I’m reading labels on face washes and toothpastes now and not buying any that have microbeads.

6 Common Activities that Harm Wildlife – One of the six is ‘microbeads’ so another spur to action. The other activities are also thought provoking: sunscreen, feeding bread to birds, bleached products, removing weeds, and plastic bags. Most of them I had heard about before…sunscreen only recently.

Are superbugs deadlier near where you live? – They are everywhere…some places worse than others. Often they are indicators of use (and misuse) of antibiotics.

An easy pill to swallow – Research into a mechanism to deliver mucoadhesive patches via pill through the digestive tract to the small intestine. There is potential that this could change delivery of protein based therapies (insulin, growth hormone, antibodies, and vaccines) from a injections to a pill.

A Flight of Birds – 14 unusual birds…portraits from the Photo Ark project (one of the 14 is a California Condor)

800-Year-Old Ancient Extinct Squash Uncovered during Archeological Dig on Menominee Indian Reservation – I’d like to see this one in my grocery store!

Shenandoah National Park Counting on Beetles to Slow Invasive Insect – The wooly adelgid is killing the hemlocks in Shenandoah (and in our area of Maryland too). Shenandoah is importing a beetle from Japan (where the wooly adelgid came from). Evidently the beetle has already been used successfully in other parks, including Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

1,700-Year-Old Roman Mosaic Discovered During City Sewer Construction Project – Found in Israel by workers upgrading the sewer system.  It was the floor of a large room in a villa during the Roman period.

Pictures: Great Smoky Mountains National Park  and Pictures: Rocky Mountain National Park and Explore the Power of Parks – From National Geographic…lots of great pictures, of course.

Obesity: A Complex Disorder – Graphic from The Scientist with a link at the bottom for the full article. The more we learn about obesity, the more complex it seems to become.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 14, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Globe Is Set to Cross 1 Degree C Temperature Increase Threshold in 2015 – Not good. The averages for temperature and carbon dioxide concentration is the atmosphere are still climbing…and we have done nothing so far to change the trend.

Weight’s the Matter? – The Scientist has an issue on obesity and I am including the articles I found most interesting in this gleanings list. This post outlines the articles available…from causes to the link to cancer (did you know that obesity has replaced smoking as the top preventable cause of cancer death in the US?) to possible side effect of environmental chemicals to weight loss.

Obesogens – Environmental chemicals change cause metabolic changes in animals causing them to gain weight. It is harder to prove for humans…but there are a lot of obese people these days. Maybe sedentary life style and high calorie diets are not the only reason.

Microbesity – Gut bacteria play a role in obesity too.

How to Design within Novel Ecosystems – Strategies when it isn’t possible to restore an area to its natural state….how to create something that still has high ecological value.

Ancient brains turn paleontology on its head – 520 million year old arthropod brains. When the first one was discovered, it was viewed as a fluke. Now there are more and the assumptions that said that brains are never fossilized are falling away.

6 Asian Noodles – Sometimes an article encourages action. This one caused me to add soba noodles to my grocery list and I’ll be trying them this week! I like that they have more protein than most noodles.

Insect Wings Made to Look like Blooming Flowers Explores Natural Concept of Mimicry – Beautiful work by a Paris-based artist….although I have to make an effort to not think about all the insects that were sacrificed.

Scientists Grow Beautiful Designs for First Ever Microbial Art Competition – A different type of media: bacteria and fungi in petri dishes!

The Chemistry of Silly Putty – A simple ‘toy’

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 7, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The Chemistry of Blood – When I do nature hikes for elementary school children about soil or rocks I always ask them what makes soil or rocks look red (some of them know that it is iron) then I comment that there is iron in our blood too….and that locks it for almost all of them. One time a boy answered my original question with one word: ‘blood’ – thinking he would get a disgusted reaction from me and he was really surprised when I told him the red came from iron in both cases!

Vitamin D pill a day may improve exercise performance and lower risk of heart disease – More evidence that more of us probably need Vitamin D supplements. It’s one I have been taking the past few year.

300 million-year-old 'supershark' fossils found in Texas – Lots of things are ‘large’ about Texas.

The Benefits of Getting Older – They define ‘old age’ and any age over 60! Are you surprised by any items on the list?

Greenland is Melting Away – How they take measures of the ice sheet from the ground…supplementing what can be determined from satellites and drones. The graphics of the rivers on the ice sheet are mesmerizing.

Hunting down hidden dangers and health benefits of urban fruit – When I read the headline I was braced for a lot of negative news…but it turns out that urban fruit is good overall.

Butterflies Weaponize Milkweed Toxins and Wing structure helps female monarch butterflies outperform males in flight – There were two stories about Monarch Butterflies in the news this week….and I saw one – probably migrating – as I was hiking with second graders this week!

Be Mesmerized by the Shifting Complexity of our Sun – The full video is a little over 30 minutes…and there is music too!

The Chemistry of Fireworks: Bangs, Crackles & Whistles – Color gets a lot of attention when it comes to fireworks. This post from Compound Interest is about the other things we enjoy about fireworks.

Hungry for Change: Deer Management and Food Security – Our area has a huge deer population and we have the chomped trees and bushes in our yards to prove it! The idea of combining deer management and food security may be something more communities should consider.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 24, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Why being single is much more than handling just loneliness – Even though the number of singles has been increasing in many places (sometimes to over half the adult population), the market has filed to understand the commercial experience of singles by always skewing to the ideal life centered on couples and nuclear families.

The rapid and startling decline of world’s vast boreal forests – Boreal forests are Earth’s single largest biome…up to 30% of the globe’s forest cover. An indicator species of this biome are moose and their numbers in Minnesota have dropped so quickly that some groups want to list them as endangered in the Midwest. The Boreal forest may be shrinking…dying…changing. The boreal forests are warming twice as fast as the rest of the planet. There could be a near term tipping point. Many trees are dying already.

Sweden is on track to becoming the first cashless nation – I’ve noticed in recent years that I use a lot less cash…but not quite cashless. The US has a ways to go.

The Chemistry of Superglue – A little about the history of superglue…and how it works.

The end is in sight for reading glasses – I hope this works! The idea of replacing natural lenses with liquid crystals is also applicable to helping people that have cataracts.

Chaco Culture National Historic Park – Another Dark Sky Park. Now that I’ve been to one star party….I’m looking for other places in the US that have as good or better dark skies! I’ve been to Chaco once….during the day…and thought the isolation of the place made it easier to imagine the people that lived there long ago.

A nap to recap: how reward, daytime sleep boost learning – As I read about the study – I wondered what the results would be with a meditation break rather than a sleep break.

Winners of Nikon's 2015 Small World Contest Reveal the Microscopic Beauty of Our World – Images of things you can’t see so easily with just your eyes.

Orange lichens are potential source for anticancer drugs – Parietin in a pigment in orange lichens and rhubarb…that has the potential for treating leukemia without toxicity to human blood cells.

Study compares traditional, modern views of aging – There seems to be consensus that older people are more respected and perceived as wiser than younger people. However, traditional societies think older people have better memories and modern societies think older people have poor memories.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 17, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

One-Third of Cactus Species Threatened – The main dangers to cacti are illegal trade for horticulture and private collections. I was surprised that development in areas where they grow was not high on the list of dangers too.

How to tangle on glass Christmas ornaments – Wow! This is a project I want to try. I’ve already started practicing by tangling on soft drink bottles. It takes some new skills to work on a rounded surface!

Take Free Online Classes, Get Course Credit at MIT – The experiment is a one year program in supply chain management. The first half is online (and free); the second semester is on campus.

What Those Frost Patterns on Your Car Window Have to Do with Ice in Space – The patterns are like abstract art – I prefer to use the defroster rather than the scrapper…watch them melt slowly.

DuPont Predicts CRISPR Plants on Dinner Plates in Five Years –Improving crops by rapidly introducing beneficial gene variants found in other varieties of the same species.

Microsoft’s Very Good Day – Microsoft has a whole new vibe….that became a lot more apparent in early October.

Postcard from Cape Monarch – It would be wonderful to see this many Monarchs on goldenrod here in Maryland. We have seen the butterflies this past summer – but not in the numbers we observed before the mid-1990s.

Dying at home leads to more peace, less grief, but requires wider support -

9 Germ Fighting Facts – Well timed for the beginning of the cold and flu season!

Not your average peacock – Peacock images collect by National Geographic editors

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 10, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The People and Pueblos of Wupatki National Monument in the 1930s and 40s – The article includes pictures from just after the area became a National Monument. I enjoyed my visit to the monument last winter (see post with photographs here...and the picture below).

A Chart That Shows Where Every Country in the World Gets Its Food – North America is not very self-sufficient! About 90% of our calories come from somewhere else than North America. (Check here for the ‘Degree of Dependence per Country’ table.)

A neuroscience researcher reveals 4 rituals that will make you a happier person – A summary of research findings that can be applied…from Business Insider.

15 Intimate Portraits of Lions – Lions in the wild….pictures from National Geographic.

Aging Workers, New Technology – I was disappointed in the article. The examples seemed lame. For example – better floor mats for jobs that require a lot of standing are good for younger people too! Making technology more intuitive for everyone is important ---- smaller is not always better, and that is true for more than just gaining workers.

How many trees are there in the world? – From Scientific American – the answer is over 3 trillion but we are losing 10 million trees per year.

Martian Life Could Be a Biotech Bonanza – After the announcement of briny water on the Martian surface….what might that mean for the type of life we might find on Mars.

Easy Pumpkin Muffins – I love pumpkin muffins. The recipe I usually use is one that originally was for sweet potato muffins – so if pumpkin is in short supply this year (which I just heard that it might be by Thanksgiving) – substitute cooked sweet potatoes (not the canned ones….the ones from the produce department…bake them) for the pumpkin. Butternut squash will work too.

How to clean and airliner – Maybe I didn’t really want to know this. I’m carrying hand sanitizer from now on when I fly.

Solar-Plus-Battery Systems Can Insulate Customers from Increasing Prices – Solar panels – battery storage – the grid….some ideas about what the future relationship could be.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 12, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Gene leads to nearsightedness when kids read - The incidence of myopia is increasing around the world. In the US 44% of adults are nearsighted, up from 25% 30 years ago. And in some parts of Asia, 80% of young adults are now myopic. There is a lot of research re cause and possible preventions. This is just one.

The lost tunnels buried deep beneath the UK - There are tunnels below Liverpool! They are 200 years old and filled in when people complained of the smell (as they were used as underground landfills. Now they are being excavated.

Midday naps associated with reduced blood pressure and fewer medications - Yet another reason that midday naps are not a bad thing.

Standing on their own four feet: Why cats are more independent than dogs - We are a cat household…ours certainly have an independent nature! This research points out that ‘cats are much more autonomous when it comes to coping with unusual situations.’

Biodiversity belowground is just as important as aboveground - We know that the biodiversity above ground is in peril in much of the world…but the belowground organisms are not as well known or studied.

Intense Aurora Display over Sweden - I don’t live far enough north to see aurora….so videos like this are an opportunity to see the phenomenon and marvel at how finely tuned our planet is.

Check Out Life Spans around the World — and Likely Years of Ill Health - I like the idea of looking at life expectancy and unhealthy years together rather than life expectancy along.

Stunning Macro Photos of Delicate Butterfly Wings Look like Shimmering Petals - I tied to do some macro shots of a butterfly wing (best image is to the left)…frustrating experience. This post motivates me to try again and get rid of the pesky bubbles!

Recovery: Rare Turtle Gets a Second Chance - It’s always good to hear a story about recovery rather than extinction….but we have to do something about people releasing non-native red-eared sliders and hurting the indigenous native turtles.

3-D Printing Breaks the Glass Barrier - I watched the full video from the MIT Media Lab; it’s only about 4.5 minutes. I like glass!  

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 02, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

New blood test for colon cancer improves colonoscopy screening results - It would be great to have a blood test for initial screening rather than a colonoscopy. Eventually it might happen. I have another 6 years before my next one is due….and hoping the blood test becomes the recommendation before then!

Dos and Don’ts to preserve your brainpower - No surprises in the article…suggestion like “Don’t feast on junk food” are common sense but hard to follow 100% of the time in the modern world. That probably says something about cultural aspects that are wearing down the brainpower of the overall population.

The alien within: Fetal cells influence maternal health during pregnancy (and long after) - The interaction between fetus and mother is two way…and complex. Research is just beginning to explain the mechanisms.

How to choose a Black-eye Susan - It’s the state flower of Maryland and grows well in my garden. I’m going to have more of it next year both in pots and in the front flower beds!

Mexico City’s Ambitious Elevated Park - Creating green space in the middle of a city is a challenge. This example is in the planning stages but it references successful projects in other cities around the world that have tried a similar approach….elevation over traffic or canals.

A Guide to Different Types of Fat - A good review of the nomenclature of fats.

DIY: Compost Bin - You don’t have to be an expert to make your own compost bin!

The Stunning Ways Driftwood Builds Landscapes - From National Geographic.

Take a Virtual Tour of Mount Vernon - I’ve been to Mount Vernon many times - still enjoyed the virtual tour!

The metamorphosis of a caterpillar into a monarch butterfly - A short video showing how the Monarch caterpillar forms its chrysalis…and emerges a butterfly.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 29, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Home births save money, are safe, study suggests - I wonder how long it will be before the ideal location for low risk births will be at home. My daughter’s colleagues seem to lean toward birthing centers already (rather than a hospital). Eventually the only people going to a hospital to have a baby will be the high risk pregnancies.

Slow-Mo Lets Us See How Hummingbirds Use Their Tongues like Pumps - Wow! Not something you can see with just your eye. It takes filming with a high speed camera then slowing down the action. This article includes a video.

Glass paint could keep metal roofs and other structures cool even on sunny days - Originally developed for ships….but there are a lot of applications for a paint that is inorganic (will not deteriorate rapidly) and reflects all sunlight (passively radiates heat).

How clean is your spinach? - I think I’ll start washing greens even if the package says they are already washed (not just spinach, it seems like kale would have the same issue).

If These Bones Could Talk: The Stories Human Skeletons Can Tell - A brief article about the collection of skeletons at University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

Inside the mind of a maze maker - Adrian Fisher builds mazes…all kinds of them.

Study: Air Pollution Implicated In 1.6 Million Deaths A Year in China - That is - 17% of the annual deaths in China are related to air pollution.

Warm, pleasant, LED lighting developed: LEDs cut energy use and greenhouse gas emissions - I like lighting that comes closer to nature light rather than being ‘harsh’ like the fluorescents and the LEDs that came on the market earlier. This might actually be the improvement that has me moving my reading lamp to and LED bulb.

Top Protein Sources for the Plant-Based Diet - I am not totally vegetarian but I am getting there. I eat vegetation more frequently that just Meatless Mondays! This is a good reference for protein sources which is one of the more substantial changes when making the transition.

Here be dragons - A collection of images and historical perspective of dragons in art/culture from Europenea.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 8, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Washington, DC sinking fast, adding to threat of sea-level rise - Evidently the sinking is not due to human influence (like groundwater withdrawals)…but the effect of the long ago glacier further north --- a bulge under the Chesapeake Bay from the weight of the ice sheet that covered the area north of Long Island NY. The bulge is now settling back down and will continue to settle for a long time to come.

Money Talks: New Climate Pledge Enlists 13 US Businesses worth $2.5 Trillion - The American Business Act on Climate Pledge. The companies are big ones: Alcoa, Apple, Bank of America, Berkshire Hathaway Energy, Cargill, Coca-Cola, General Motors, Goldman Sachs, Google, Microsoft, PepsiCo, UPS, and Walmart.

Why to babies laugh out loud? - Lots of people (Darwin was one) have been interested in the question. This article talks about a recent study. One finding: babies are far more likely to laugh when they fall over, that when someone else does.

NRDC: EPA’s Clean Power Plan Is Economically Beneficial for USA Due To Health Benefits - The Natural Resources Defense Fund report can be found here. Some of the focus areas in the report are: extreme weather, the health imperative, benefits (which far outweigh the costs), business opportunities, and the moral imperative.

The Healthiest Cities in the US - The criteria for choosing these cities is interesting. But does having higher percentages of people with insurance always mean a city is ‘healthier’ than a city that does not? I am not convinced.

Bering Sea hotspot for corals and sponges - Endangered by bottom trawling…maybe before we even fully know they are there. The research points to Pribilof Canyon as an area that could be conserved without disproportionately impacting the commercial fishing industry.

A Simple Guide to Neurotransmitters - You’ve probably heard the names of the neurotransmitters - the graphic provides a nice summary of their role and structure.

The Wild Alaskan Lands at Stake If the Pebble Mine Moves Ahead - A photo gallery from this area of Alaska.

Black Bears of Yosemite National Park - Includes a video…with lots of bear action about what happened when the park closed the trash heaps in the 1970s….and the continued challenge to keep bears from becoming acclimated to getting people food

Growth (2015) - I enjoyed this video. It is just a little over 15 minutes long...photographyed from overhead.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 1, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The art of the interchange - Where megahighways cross….17 interchanges seen from above.

Mammoths killed by abrupt climate change - Rapid warming….rather than sudden cold…appears to have been the cause of massive extinctions in the past. The research is based on DNA analysis of ancient DNA and improved statistical processing of the data.

Dumbledores and Bumblebees - Take a look at the great pictures…then read the article. Did you know that Dumbledore takes his name from an Old English term for the bumblebee? And this is an upbeat article…pointing to ways individuals can help out the bumblebees! There are about 250 species of which 25% are in that ‘steep decline’ category.

Explore 25 Lost Cities with This Video - How many of these lost cities have your heard about before?

U.S. breast milk is glyphosate free - Good to know.

Summer Bugs that can Bite You - A summary from a medical perspective. I was disappointed that they didn’t suggest Epsom salts soaks and/or baking soda to reduce discomfort. I often find the calamine lotion and/or hydrocortisone cream ineffective for bites - particularly chiggers.

Sea Otters Use Tools and Archaeologists Are On the Case - ‘Tool making’ used to be thought of as a uniquely human trait…but now there are other animals that make tools. In the Sea otter’s case - they use rocks as tools to break open shells of their food. This article discusses how archaeologists are figuring out how far into their past the animals have been using tools.

The Subway Stop to the Underworld - A beautiful spot in Zion National Park.

Link between intelligence and longevity is mostly genetic - The study involved comparisons of fraternal twins….and probably raises more questions than it answers.

Here's the Weird Reason You Get Tartar on Your Teeth - The info about calcium in this article is more interesting to me than the tartar aspect.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 25, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

It's official: Workplace rudeness is contagious and Kids expecting aggression from others become aggressive themselves - For some reason the results of these two studies seemed similar to me. They both found that our environment - and expectation of our environment - have impacts on our own behavior.

This New Map Shows Your Risk of Catching Lyme Disease - Maryland it in the dark blue - not a surprise. I hear often enough about people in our area discovering they have Lyme Disease. Wearing long pants tucked into socks is difficult when it is a hot day.

Iron: A biological element? - Much of the iron of our planet was deposited by bacteria living two and a half billion years ago. At that time in Earth’s development there was little oxygen in the atmosphere and many organisms metabolized iron instead of oxygen.

Intensive End-Of-Life Care on the Rise for Cancer Patients - As the population in the US ages, end-of-life discussion are important to more and more people - not just cancer patients.

What Happens to Your Blog when You Die? Why You Need to Appoint a Social Media Executor NOW - Another ‘end-of-life’ consideration…then one developing because of modern technology.

Let This Video Show You How Air Bubbles Form, Rise, and Erupt in Sand - For anyone that has ever wondered about craters or sand…..high speed video captures more than the eye can detect.

Organization of North America's bird species: List updated - The update includes some reorganization…but also some species new to North America!

E-waste: What we throw away doesn't go away - A problem for just about everywhere in the world…and it is about more than old phones and computers.

5 Simple Tips to Turn Your Yard into Pollinator - Some good basic tips.

The Women Who Rule Pluto - Good to hear that there are technical women behind parts of the Pluto stories in the news recently.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 18, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Toward Blood-based Cancer Detection - Lots of promise….but it is still a work in progress.

Buzz Kill for Bumblebees: Climate Change Is Shrinking Their Range - Bumblebees prefer cooler temperatures than many other insects and they like open areas rather than forest. As the ‘normal’ temperatures get hotter, the bee’s southern range is creeping northward but the forests of the north are a physical boundary to their expansion…thus a shrinking area for bumblebees.

Why can’t we move? - A lot of people in the US spend too long commuting…stuck in traffic or on inadequate public transportation. The US has fallen behind the rest of the developed world in our ability to move people to and from and within our cities.

Solving the Energy Efficiency Quandary - It often hard to measure the efficiency of an improvement that is ‘supposed’ to save energy. Not there are some standards emerging that may help do that. It is something needed for homeowners to finally gain enough data to understand the energy use of their home…and guide their decisions re improvements that will have the most impact.

For the Love of Plants - I enjoy botanical prints in old books…and here are some modern ones from botanical illustrator Mindy Lighthipe! (art work) My favorite one is the Monarch Butterfly with milkweed; it includes the Monarch lifecycle.

How free is Your Produce? - How well do you know your 19th century history? Evidently the free produce movement was a food justice movement propelled by Quakers and other abolitionists who hoped to abolish slavery through food ways. And now we have the Fair Trade movement and Fair Food program which are very similar.  

The Chemistry of Ice Cream – Components, Structure, & Flavor - A favorite warm weather treat!

Dragonflies and Damselflies - Check out Elizabeth’s Wildflower Blog --- this time about insects rather than flowers.

Smoke North and Saharan Dust South - Smoke and dust travel a very long ways across land and ocean.

Photography in the National Parks: Framing Wildflowers in the Parks - Good photography tips…and National Parks offer so many subjects to choose from!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 4, 2015

Hope you are enjoying the 4th of July! We’re going to see the local fireworks display tonight. The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Weight loss, combined with vitamin D, reduces inflammation linked to cancer, chronic disease - And the study was done with postmenopausal women! Quite a welcome change from the days where most medical studies were done with middle aged men.

The Mythology and Art of the American Road Trip - 100 billboards along I-10 from California to Florida.

The Colonial Revival Furniture Made at Eleanor Roosevelt's Val-Kill Industries - I like the old fashioned writing chair. If I had one - would I use it for my laptop? I also liked this article because it reminded me of a road trip to New York (state) a few years ago that included a tour of Val-Kill.

Antarctic life: Highly diverse, unusually structured - Will the high diversity help the Antarctic ecosystem adapt as climate changes?  

Photo Gallery: Scenes from the Golden Age of Animal Tracking -  (click on the ‘View the gallery’ link under the three-toed sloth picture) Animals as subjects and samplers of the environment where they live.

Joe Mangrum's Temporary Sand Paintings Are Pure, Beautiful Magic - Videos of how the intricate paintings are made

This One-Ton Fish Is One of Nature's Most Improbable Creations - I’ve seen ocean sunfish in aquariums…and noted how odd they seemed. They can grow to be quite large (heaviest boney fish in the world!

Frame for displaying tiles - After I fill up all the space under the plastic sheet of my breakfast table with Zentangle tiles® - this is my next display strategy form my ‘tile a day,’

How to Make Vegan Parmesan-Style Cheez - Another recipe to try. I’ve noticed large packages of raw cashews in my grocery store; maybe there are more people trying recipes that call for them - like this recipe.

Presentation: Mobile is eating the world - Trends…..but there is a lot of room for disruption of the ‘mobile’ vision that we have right now.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 27, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

No Bake, No Stovetop Cookie Bites - I’ve always been intrigued about ‘no bake’ cookies. I like all the ingredients in these so maybe it’s a recipe to try.

Electric Motorcycles Used By Over 50 Police Departments - I like technology that is good for the environment and also is has a positive impact on the mission (they are quiet!).

Smart insulin patch could replace painful injections for diabetes - New technology hones delivery of insulin based on when the body needs it….much more like a correctly functioning pancreas.

Once and Future Nut: How Genetic Engineering May Bring Back Chestnuts - These trees once grew in Maryland. It would be great to have them part of scene again after 100 years.

Climate change threatens to undermine the last half century of health gains - Increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events (heat waves, floods, droughts and storms) as well as indirect impacts from changes in infectious disease patterns, air pollution, food insecurity and malnutrition, involuntary migration, displacement and conflict….it adds up.

The rise of Africa’s super vegetables - Indigenous foods…rather than imported…to feed the continent. And trying the preserved the variety available while studying only a few of the species.

Doctors often misdiagnose zinc deficiency, unaware of impact of excess zinc - Wow! I remember a few years ago when it was widely suggested that zinc helped recovery from colds….I wonder how many people developed zinc induced copper deficiency (anemia, low white cell count and/or neurological problems?

The Prairie Ecologist Goes to the Beach - Photos of the gulf coast beaches in Texas.

How the US, UK, Canada, Japan, France, Germany, & Italy Can Each Go 100% Renewable - The article and the comments - lots of potential ways to get it done.

The Best Weather Photos of the Year Will Blow You Away - I couldn’t resist. Good photographs. I was a little surprised that a rainbow picture was not in the group.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 20, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Soft Tissue Detected in Millennia-Old Dino Bones - New ways of looking at very old bones reveals unanticipated results (but not DNA).

Far From Sterile, Some Hybrids May Start New Species - Coyotes in the eastern US are quite different than their western counterparts and they are beginning to fill the niche left by wolves. Maybe they will help control the too large deer population!

Renewables Reach Highest Share of U.S. Energy Consumption since 1930s - Historical stats about renewable energy...with emphasis on the 1990-2014 time period.

Two similar articles: Why doctors should treat the healthy too and Interventions among healthy people save the most lives - The challenge is that most doctors are trained to treat illness and disability…not help people retain their health.

Data scientists find connections between birth month and health - The data for the study was from 1985-2013…1.7 million patients treated at New York-Presbyterian Hospital/CUMC. It interesting result but the researchers point out that the risk related to birth month is relatively minor compared to the more influential variables like diet and exercise.

The Weirdest (And Most Violent) Ways That Plants Release Their Seeds - Short videos. As with so many things botanical…I could not resist including it in the gleaning list. It includes how violets disperse their seeds and I’ve just started noticing the seed pods this year (I have several locations where I am watching the plants to see the seeds disperse).

Global freshwater consumption crossing its planetary boundary - Scary result.

Biodiversity reduces human, wildlife diseases and crop pests - Another reason to worry about the extinctions happening in the world right now.

Sunrise and Sunset Photos Capture Stunning Wildlife Silhouettes - Ending with some great images…and a reminder of the special light at the beginning and ending of the day.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 23, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

New Battery Technology Will Fundamentally Change the Way the Grid Operates - Cost effective storage of energy seems to be on the near horizon. It could overcome the complaint about the intermittent nature of solar and wind power generation.

The Chemistry of Permanent Hair Dyes - There are probably still a lot of people covering grey hair with permanent hair dyes…not me. I’d rather enjoy my natural salt and pepper!

A Gorgeously Detailed View of Antarctica's Churning Ocean Currents  and Antarctica’s Larsen B Ice Shelf Will Likely Disintegrate by Decade's End - Two recent articles about Antarctica. The first one is a visualization of simulations done at Los Alamos National Laboratory.  The second article is bad news since it means global sea level rise will be increasing as glacial ice enters the ocean faster.

From Snapshot to Science: Photos of Biodiversity as Useful Records - Learn about National Geographic’s Great Nature Project. The Belmont BioBlitz observations have become part of the project!

The Birth of a Bee - A short video…well worth watching.

Recommended levels of activity rarely achieved in busy workplace environment - Many workplaces are quite sedentary. This study looked at 83 employees in a hospital. Only 6% of the participants reached the 10,000 steps per day goal even though the jobs of 53% of the participants were assumed to require ‘high’ levels of activity! I know when I started wearing a Fitbit I had to focus on getting steps in after my workday. Now that I am retired, it is easier to get the steps in throughout the day rather than focused at the end of the day.

China Coal Use Continues To Fall “Precipitously” - Now if this trend will continue….

First fully warm-blooded fish: The opah or moonfish - And now we discover that there is an exception to something we all learned in school….fishes are not all cold-blooded.

A Map Showing the "Most Distinctive" Causes of Death by State - It is a very colorful map…but does it mean very much. The most distinctive form of death in Maryland seemed strange to me…and ‘tuberculosis’ was listed for Texas.

How Machines Destroy (And Create!) Jobs, In 4 Graphs - I was somewhat surprised that the ‘services’ sector is not even larger. Looking at the graph historically - white collar jobs became the highest percentage and number of jobs in the 1950s and the trend continues.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 16, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

New app puts the world's biodiversity in the palm of your hand - The Map of Life app makes it easier to identify local wildlife. It’s a location specific reference for amphibians, birds, fishes, mammals, reptiles, turtles, bumblebees, butterflies, dragonflies, and trees. The down side is things you find that are normally in that locality. I’ve already experienced one - a bigleaf magnolia growing in the woods in Patapsco Valley State Park in Maryland. It is a tree that usually grows further south. The app will still provide information but it is not quite as easy as plants/animals that are ‘normal’ for the area.

What happens to our bodies after we die - Maybe some of the concepts in the article are a little familiar from all the CSI programs on television these days….but it’s hard to separate fact from fiction in those programs. This post from the BBC is on ‘fact’ side.

Idle Electronics and Appliances Waste $19 Billion Annually, Study Says - A study done with 70,000 residential customers in California found that 23% of home electricity usage was from always-on but inactive devices. That can’t be good. Appliance designers need to work on reducing that….and maybe consumers need to be content with stoves and microwaves that don’t have clocks!

Harmful algal blooms in the Chesapeake Bay are becoming more frequent - Ugh! Even with all the work being done to reduce the nutrients going into the bay…the growing population of people and animals is overwhelming the progress made.

Everybody Dies: How to Preserve Your Digital Legacy - It is not just about preserving your legacy…it’s also to whoever will be handling things for you. Wills need to include more than they did 50 years ago!

11 Ways to Increase Electric Car Adoption - My next car might be electric. For my day to day driving it would already be acceptable. It would not work for road trips - and that is a problem even though it is only a few weeks a year.

Long-term study on ticks reveals shifting migration patterns, disease risks  with a larger version of the infographic here (click on the image to make it even larger) - Maryland has the dog tick, Lone star tick, and deer tick ---- and Lyme disease…not good. One of the places where I lead hikes is part of a study to identify the diseases ticks carry in the area.

Maryland and Food Self-Sufficiency - More and more people are becoming more aware of where their food is coming from and some are attempting to become locavores. The findings for Maryland are probably pretty typical. The three foods Maryland produces in enough quantity for our entire population are: chicken, lima beans, and watermelon!

Forests at Valley Forge National Historical Park Coming Back After Deer Culling - There are quite a few areas along the east coast that have an overpopulation of deer. I know the forest behind our house has very few small trees because the deer eat the saplings before they grow taller than the deer can browse. I appears that the Valley Forge National Historical Park is having some success with their program…but they are still monitoring to verify that the forest is indeed sustaining itself.

Real Plants and Fungi That Look Like Something from the Monstrous Manual - A series of videos. The Venus Flytrap film is dramatic!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 2, 2015

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

The Best Vegan Milk (Non-Dairy) Alternatives - A good reference about how the non-dairy ‘milks’ are made. My current favorite in unsweetened vanilla almond milk.

Babies as young as 6 months using mobile media - Wow! This is scary. A lot has changed in 25 years. Then again - a lot changed in the 25 years before that. How many 3 year olds watched television on a daily basis in the 1950s…almost none. There were cartoons on Saturday morning by the 1960s. Quite a few children were watching shows like Sesame Street (and other shows too) almost daily 25 years later. Has mobile media replaced television or is it in addition to television?

A New 'Livability Index' to Help Americans Age in Place - AARP has a new tool that takes a number of factors into account to assess ‘livability’ (tool is here….enter your zip code in the box in the right side frame of the page.

Every Breath You Take: State of the Air 2015 - Read the post and then go to the State of the Air site and put in your state. Most cities get an ‘F’ which does not bode well for the health of a majority of the US population.

7 things we've learned about Earth since the last Earth Day - This was posted for Earth Day but I saw it a little late. I’m sure it was hard to choose 7 things…the ones picked were pretty significant.

 Gut Microbes Influence Circadian Clock  and Circadian Clock Controls Sugar Metabolism - Two articles about circadian clock importance to the way our bodies handle food. I’ve noted these articles more since I took a Coursera course on the circadian clock.

The Octopus’ Birthday: Understanding an Intelligent & Elusive Marine Creature - These creatures are so different that they evoke almost the same fascination as dinosaurs with children…and maybe adults too. Did you know that the age of an octopus can be determined by counting the rings in its stylet (rudimentary shell); the number of rings = the number of days the octopus lived.

Why the Tiniest of Fossils Mean Big Things to Scientists - A 6 minute video from the American Museum of Natural History about foraminifera….how beautiful they are and what they tell us about Earth’s past (and maybe the future too).

Living to 100: Lifestyle advice for would-be centenarians - The results from a study of 855 men born in 1913…10 of them lived to 100.

Seven of the Most Beautiful Botanical Mazes on Earth - A collection of videos of mazes.