Gleanings of the Week Ending December 19, 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 future of medicine is testing our body fluids at home – Will the ‘annual physical’ become a thing of the past as this testing becomes more widely available?

The Coming Winter Part Two: The Elephant in the Room – The second part of Dan Satterfield’s explanation of the long range forecast for the winter.

Living Alone Now the Most Common Type of Household – Analysis of US households from 1930-2010. The over 60 population accounts for the majority of population that lives alone so the expectation is that the number of ‘living alone’ households will continue to increase.

Storing Electricity in Paper – Made from  nanocellulose and a conductive polymer….the basic research is promising…not to develop a production method for the power paper.

Improving Tools for Quantifying the Effectiveness of Conservation – Trying to quantify the effectiveness of conservation efforts is hard. This post is about the work of environmental economists to do it.

Pesticide found in milk decades ago may be associated with signs of Parkinson’s – I was reading this article while I was in Hawaii…and that is where the study was done. The pesticide heptachlor epoxide was used in the pineapple fields in the early 1980s in Hawaii and made its way into milk of that era in Hawaii.

Top 10 Winter Wildlife Experiences to Enjoy near You – Some ideas for getting outdoors in the winter. My husband and I are planning several jaunts to Conawingo Dam to photograph bald eagles this winter. And if we get snow (so far we have had a very warm winter hear in Maryland), we’ll look for tracks and look for wildlife in the morning/evening around our house.

Native Spotlight: American Holly – An item for the season. Holly is a plant often associated with Christmas. My picture is from a holly at Belmont Manor and Historical Park

Explore Machu Picchu in Google Maps Street View  and Artifacts from Machu Picchu from Google’s Cultural Institute – Another place for virtual travel.

One Million Icequakes – Data was collected from a glacier in Greenland for 2 years…one that produced 20 icequakes every 60 seconds. The icequakes offer a window into the glacier bed where the ice meets the sediment.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 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.

'Bionic' eye allows man to see wife for first time in a decade - The system is not yet advanced enough to provide high resolution vision - but it is enough to improve quality of life….and sets the stage for more development of similar devices. Certain types of blindness (caused by retina problems, not the optic nerve) are candidates for this type of ‘bionic’ eye.

Global Pesticide Map Shows Large Areas of High Water Pollution Risk - Enlarge the map in this article; what is the risk in the area where you live? In mine is high/very high…..that’s not good.

Economic models provide insights into global sustainability challenges - Making decisions based on simplifying assumptions - which is what we normally do - may not be wise. The advent to models that can help us integrate what we know about global economics, geography, ecology and environmental sciences may provide some surprising insights and lead to better decisions.

Twelve Milkweeds for Monarchs - Wow! There are a lot more different kinds of milkweed than I anticipated.

Food Additives Linked to Inflammation - Yet another reason to reduce the amount of processed food you consume.

Special Tours Offered At Mesa Verde National Park - Something to remember about Mesa Verde. My husband I enjoyed our visit almost 40 years ago and have been talking about visiting again.

Lab-on-paper developed for rapid, inexpensive medical diagnostics - Point-of-care testing is projected to expand over the next few years. Imagine not having to wait for several days to get lab results for your annual physical!

Nine steps to survive 'most explosive era of infrastructure expansion in human history' - Bottom line: The builders of infrastructure need to consider the full context of their projects….not just who will benefit.

The Chemistry of Colored Glass - Glass is one of my favorite materials. This post includes a graphic that talks about what is added to the basic soda-lime glass to create different colors of glass.

Seven strategies to advance women in science - Good points. We’ve been trying some of these things for at least the past 40 years…..maybe it is doing ALL of them that will make the difference.

F. Kaid Benfield: How to Create Healthy Environments for People - There seem to be quite a few articles this week with lists. Here is the last one! All these ideas seem to make sense….so why are they not already part of the way development takes place?