Gleanings of the Week Ending October 01, 2016

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.

Images of the world’s greatest cities before they were cities – Visual history.

Internet addiction may indicate other mental health problems in college-aged students – An Internet Addiction Test was developed in 1998; this study indicates that the test may need to be updates…that there are significantly more students having trouble dealing with their day to day activities because of their internet usage. Also – are mental heal issues a cause or consequence of excessive reliance on the internet?

UK’s Oxford tops world ranking of best universities; US had 3 of top 5 – This UPI article also provides a link to the annual list (here if you want to jump there directly). There is a short blurb for each school as well.

The Good Guide to Milk: Cow: Soy, Nuts & More – I’ve switched from almond to soy milk based on this article. I’d switched to almond milk several years ago when I finally realized that almost all my stomach issues were caused by lactose intolerance.

50-country comparison of child and youth fitness levels: US near the bottom – Not good. The US is 47 out of 50. I wonder how long it has been this bad. So much has changed over the past 50 or so years. Many neighborhoods are not walkable…streets are too busy/dangerous for bicycling…parents are worried about children being outside without direct supervision.

View 3500+ Art Exhibits Online – A blurb from Free Technology for Teachers. Another source for free ebooks, specifically about exhibits at MoMA.

Greenland ice is melting 7% faster than previously thought – The hot spot that feeds Iceland’s active volcanoes is responsible. Uplift is happening a differing rate as well.

Sesame: Little Seeds, Big Benefits – Another seed to keep on hand. I use chia seeds the most but sesame seeds (and tahini) are a close second.

Ancient Skeleton discovered on Antikythera Shipwreck – From 65 BC...and now they can use DNA to learn more about a person that lived 2100 years ago.

Grading the Presidential Candidates on Science – From Scientific America. A compilation of answers on a number of science related issues from all 4 candidates.

Ten Days of Little Celebrations – September 2016

This September includes some unique ‘little celebrations.’ Two of them occurred in Florida.

OSIRIS REx successful launch. This was only my second time to see a launch (Kennedy Space Center/Cape Canaveral). I can’t imagine that every launch I attend will not make it to the celebration list!

Pelicans. I don’t remember every seeing American white pelicans before…or if I did I didn’t realize what I was seeing. They were the highpoint of the drive around Merritt Island National Wildlife Refuge for me.

Happy ‘what if’ thoughts. Both my daughter and son-in-law are close to finishing their graduate work and looking at post docs. September was the first month that there seemed to be a potential ‘what next’ and we all spun all kinds of ‘what if’ scenarios. The celebration will get bigger when we actually settle on a plan – which might not finalize until early spring 2017.

There were things that were not entirely unique – but not things that happen frequently either:

4 hikes with three and four year old children. I was very excited and keyed up while I hiked with each of the groups (about 10 children and 4 adults in each group) talking about trees in the fall and seeds. I celebrated when they were done (I was exhausted) but even more than I’d managed to connect. It was probably my best grandmother-in-training experience to date!

Stream assessment with high schoolers. Putting on boots…checking water quality…identifying macroinvertebrates….with high schoolers that are interested in what they are finding --- celebrating the fall day in the stream as much as I did.

Hummingbird moth. I’m not sure why – but I don’t see hummingbird moths all that frequently. I didn’t see one at all last year. And then there was one at Brookside earlier this month. Celebration (and lots of pictures).

Chipmunk in the garden. I heard some rustling noise in the dried leaves under then bushes then looked around….and saw the chipmunk looking up at me from the end of the drain tube from the sump pump. Yes – chipmunks are rodents…but they are the cutest ones as far as I’m concerned and I celebrate that they survive in my front flower bed.

And then there are the normal things that happen frequently enough…but that I still celebrate when they do:

A rainy day after a long string of hot and dry days. All the plants seem to be celebrating too.

Abundant fall veggies. I celebrate the amount – the colors – the flavors. The harvest time is a special kind of celebration.

Celebration being home. Every time I am away for a few days…or even a week…I celebrate returning. The ‘no place like home’ sentiment rings true for me.

1994 Nature Study

In the summer of 1994, my daughter was almost 5 years old. She was not big enough for most of our yard work chores but she enjoyed being outdoors. I was reminded of her at that age by a picture I came across in my scanning project. My husband had finished mowing and she and I had gone around picking dandelion flowers that had missed being cut. She had a small basket that she put the flowers in. I started trimming some bushes while she arranged grass clippings and dandelion flowers (and a few other things she found) into an arrangement on the garage floor. After she finished – I went inside to get the Polaroid camera and her father took a picture with his camera too. She was thrilled with the near immediate result of the Polaroid; I’m not sure she ever saw this one that came back weeks later.

What a difference digital photography has made!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 24, 2016

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.

World Heritage in the High Seas: The Time Has Come – From National Geographic – pictures and a map of some potential places on the high seas that merit World Heritage status.

Historical analysis examines sugar industry role in heart disease research – A bit of disturbing history….is dietary fat the main culprit when it comes to heart disease? What about sugar and heart disease?

Gentians: part 1, part 2, part 3 – Elizabeth’s series on a particular flower….and not just in Maryland.

Brain’s stunning genomic diversity revealed – Huge insertions and deletions in DNA…surprise.

Scientists Baffled as Hundreds of Dead Horseshoe Crabs Wash Ashore in Japan – Sad…and no definitive reason yet. Theories being investigated include: parasitic infection or disease or oxygen shortage due to higher sea water temperature.

Between a rock and a hard place: biologists unearth sandstone-excavating bees – Bees are amazingly diverse. These are from the west and southwest in the US: Utah, Colorado, California.

Eggs make a comeback – A general overview of eggs in our diet. There is also a link to an article about ‘how to buy eggs.’

How our brain slows down the effects of aging – Elderly people develop a particular selective attentiveness. I wondered if, as we get older, we realize that we are paying more attention to details?

A Newly Explored Undersea Volcano is Teeming with Alien Life Forms – On Earth but very different than what we normally see.

How much do perfumes pollute? – A study of the canals of Venice….looking at the perfumes that are part of products we use daily like soaps, detergents, shampoos and other personal hygiene products. It turns out that the perfumes are in every sample…persistent for the 9 months of sampling. But what impact do they have on the environment – that’s still to be determined.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 17, 2016

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.

Sensory Biology Around the Animal Kingdom – Beyond sight, smell, touch, taste and hearing.

A Variety of Ways for Students to Explore National Parks Online – Not just for students….these resources could be worth a look before traveling to a national park or helping to savor the visit after you return.

Proprioception: The Sense Within – The sense of position and movement of our limbs, the senses of muscle force and effect, and the sense of balance --- easy to take for granted, more important that you might think at first.

Six Snapshots of Geoscience Research from National Parks – Our National Parks highlight the value of these special places for more than recreation…they are often places uniquely suited to increasing our understanding of Earth.

Thanks to this man, airplanes don’t crash into mountains any more – Don Bateman’s terrain mapping device....a long development cycle.

Bumblebees Pick Infected Tomato Plants – And does this compensate to offset the costs of viral infection when it comes to seed production from the tomato plants?

The Flower Sense of Hawkmoths – Olfactory receptors in the proboscis….but what attracted mw to the article was the picture of the hawkmoth (made me think of my recent hummingbird moth observations).

Late boneset: A fragrant late-summer pollinator favorite – Thinking about late blooming plants that sustain pollinators into the fall. Late Boneset is one….goldenrod is another!

“Skeleton Flowers” Turn Beautifully Transparent in the Rain – Botanical eye candy from colder regions of Japan and China

The Value of Water in the Nebraska Sandhills – Water is valuable to every environmental niche on Earth…this blog post focuses on detailing water in one type of place. Water percolates down and into aquifers below the root zone of plants!

OSIRIS-REx Launch

We were on bleachers at the Kennedy Space Center’s Saturn V facility to watch the OSIRIS-REx launch on September 8th.  OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Idenentification, Security – Regolith Explorer) is a mission to fly to, study, and retrieve a sample from the asteroid Bennu and return the sample to earth. The launch happened shortly after 7 PM at the beginning of the launch window on the 8th and the first day in its launch schedule. The clouds built up in the afternoon but were benign by launch time. The evening was still hot and humid – typical for Florida in early September. We arrived about an hour before the launch and watched the outgassing from the fueling process (the white plume to the right of the rocket).

The slide show below shows my pictures of the first minute of the launch. Even in that short period of time – I had to adjust the zoom to keep the rocket in the frame!

By 3 minutes after launch – only the drifting plume remained.

My husband took my favorite picture of the launch with distinct Atlas and solid rocket plums. Awesome!

OSIRIS-REx Pre-Launch Activities

Our first day in Florida was spent with check-in as a launch guest, a mission briefing, and touring the Kennedy Space Center. The check-in was at the ATX (Astronaut Training Experience) Center.

It was a busy place with people picking up the packets with a badge/lanyard, information sheets, a paper model, stickers, patches, and pens. We also picked up the tickets for the mission briefing.

We had previously signed up for the 12:30 briefing that would be held in the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Center so we headed there as soon as we had our packets. We made arrangements for a bus tour in the afternoon and then had a quick lunch.

After the briefing we boarded the bus for a tour. We were able to see the OSIRIS-REx capsule atop its Atlas rocket (one booster) on the pad. We didn’t get as close as we did for the Maven capsule back in 2013.

The launch pad where the SpaceX rocket exploded recently was also visible.

We also saw some wildlife while on the tour: some cormorants and an alligator.

The next day we would come back for the launch --- the topic for tomorrow's blog.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 10, 2016

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.

Sunflowers Track the Sun, Like Solar Panels – The behavior was reported in scientific literature in 1898. Now there are studies to understand how the plants do it biochemically and physically. I also liked the picture at the beginning of the article.

Ancient air pockets changing the history of Earth’s oxygen – Ancient air trapped in rock salt shows that earth’s atmosphere contained 10.9% oxygen 813 million years ago….about 300 million years earlier than previously thought. It’s not as much oxygen as in our current atmosphere but a lot of organisms did develop during this time period when there was less oxygen.

Healthy Eating, A to Z – How many of these 26 do you already know?

30 Reason Your Next Car Should Be Electric – I’ve been thinking recently that my next car will probably be electric. It’s good to see that there are a lot of reasons this it is a good idea! Item 29 on this list (kids and grandkids and great-grandkids) is high in my rationale.

How comedy makes us better people – Analyzing humor’s role in our culture – in much the same way as we analyze intelligence.

Exploring How and Why Trees ‘Talk’ to Each Other – An interview with Suzanne Simard.

Closest Living Relative to the Dodo Dazzles with Vibrant Iridescent Plumage – A little eye candy and interesting biology in one article.

As lab-grown meat and milk inch closer to U.S. market, industry wonders who will regulate? – A complex issue and it’s not clear if the USDA or FDA will be responsible. The technology is moving forward quickly in the agricultural biotechnology arena. It is challenging to understand it well enough to propose appropriate regulations for public health and safety.

Newly discovered fossils break record, dating back 3.7 billion years ago – Evidence of microbial life found in Greenland (where there are some of the world’s oldest sedimentary rocks). Another article on the same topic from Science Daily can be found here.

Study assesses climate change vulnerability in urban America – Our area got a wakeup call in this arena with the damage to Ellicott City from recent flooding. It happened very quickly, with very little warning. The planning for infrastructure, human populations and local concerns when it comes to climate vulnerability is in its infancy in many parts of the country.

Photography Gear

I am particularly pleased with the results my current nature photography gear. Whether I’m taking pictures through the window of my office or out hiking – my Canon Powershot SX710 HS on the Oben Monopod with Tilt Head gives me the best overall performance although sometimes I manage with just the camera. I carry an extra charged battery but rarely need it if I start the day with a fully charged battery in the camera.

When I am away from home for more than a day, I take the battery charger and almost always copy my pictures from the SD card to my laptop at the end of each day. That gives me two copies of the pictures while I am traveling. I clean off the SD card when I return home and have at least two copies on other media (i.e. external drives not all in the same location).

I’m very pleased with the images this compact gear allows me to capture – although I’ll probably upgrade to the Canon Powershot SX720 SX (going from 30x to 40x optical zoom). What can I say – I’m drawn to new technology!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 03, 2016

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.

Edible food packaging made from milk proteins – I’m not sure how this works to reduce packaging since to be edible it would have to stay clean (i.e. another layer of packaging?). Still – it would be great to reduce the amount of hard-to-recycle plastic packaging.

Zika Infects Adult Neural Progenitors Too  and How Zika infects Mother and Baby – Two articles from The Scientist. Zika is a hot research topic right now…and a public health concern.

Research priorities for the field of atmospheric chemistry – The development of a predictive capability to provide foresight into the consequences of rapid changes in the Earth system is need to help in preparation and decision making. Right now the field is focused on observing, learning and discovering for fundamental understanding…so there is data to support attempt to develop a predictive capability.

New Virus Breaks the Rules of Infection – The Guaico Culex virus that infects mosquitoes has 5 genes and each gene is individually packaged. A mosquito cell has to have 4 of the 5 packages to be infected. The 5^th package may cause the infection to be potent. Once again – a case that shows how little we really understand about life on Earth.

How Aluminum Changed the World – A little history for the week.

Wildflower Wednesday: Chicory – Like the author of this post – I like chicory. The blue color redeems it from being considered a weed for me!

Invasive Species Spotlight: Canada Thistle – Evidently it was introduced accidently to North America in the 1600s!

Photos of Frozen Flowers Capture the Paradoxical Beauty of Preservation and Destruction – Eye candy for the week….maybe an idea for some photographic experiments for this winter.

Hope for reversing stroke-induced long-term disability – What a boon it would be for an aging population where having a stroke often reduce the quality of life.

Actin Architecture (image) – Filaments in a cancer cell imaged via confocal microscopy.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 27, 2016

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.

Dome of Thomas Jefferson Memorial Not As Gleaming As It Once Was – Biofilm is making the dome darken…and it is hard to treat without damaging the marble of the monument.

The Giant Pyramid Hidden Inside a Mountain – It’s in Cholula (Mexico) and the largest pyramid on the planet (base is 4x larger that the Great Pyramid at Giza and nearly twice the volume).

Longest-lived vertebrate is Greenland Shark: Lifespan at least 400 years – The specimens studied were caught as by-catch. I wondered how big the population is and if the by-catch is actually having an impact on the species; no info on that from the article.

365 pounds of Anacostia Park Goose Breast Going to Afterschool Lunch Program – I wonder if geese from nearby areas has filled in the void at Anacostia Park. Our area has a lot of resident Canadian Geese.

SpaceDrafts Vids! – My daughter is part of the group that finds speakers for the Space Drafts monthly events in Tucson…and they’ve made videos of the latest talks available. Most of the speakers are from University of Arizona, Lunar and Planetary Lab.

Invasive Species Spotlight: Devil’s Tail – Another name for mile-a-minute…a very common invasive plant in Maryland. This blog post gives some history of the plant.

How it feels to live in darkness – Dialog in the Dark exhibit in the Children’s Museum in Holon, Israel gives sighted people a 90-minute tour of what it is like to be a blind person.

Let there be LED: The future of light-based technologies for interiors – Anything that gets closer to natural light (for during the day) and can be tuned to not inhibit melatonin production at night would be what the kind of lighting I would want in my house.

Transparent wood windows are cooler than glass: Study –  I would like to have skylights made of this kind of material.

The Killer Flood Made of Molasses – In 1919, a tank holding 2.3 million gallons of molasses collapsed created a 20-feet-high wave of molasses. It flattened buildings and picked up people. 21 people died, 150 were injured.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 20, 2016

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.

Sweat: How to Keep Your Cool – This post seemed to fit with the hot, humid weather we’ve been having since late July here in Maryland.

How millennials are shaping the future of work – I think it is more than just millennials that want these things. I can remember wanting the latest tech for my entire career….and when I didn’t always get it, being frustrated. I remember in the 1990s wanting a laptop rather than a desktop PC as my primary work machine because I was traveling a lot…and being told that laptops could be checked out when I traveled but were not available for in-office use!

From Tree to Shining Tree – The wood-wide-web that is the forest under the forest…made of roots and fungus. A Radiolab Podcast just over 30 minutes long.

Fresh look at burials, mass graves, tells a new story of Cahokia – Skeletal evidence was re-evaluated. The publications in the 1960s assumed all the skeletons were male….but they were male and female. And the motifs with the graves have to be interpreted differently too.

Pressure Mounts to Reform Our Throwaway Clothing Culture – I’ve been donating clothing for a long time…but this goes a step further.

Questioning the Presidential Candidates on Science – 20 questions sent to the candidates with answers requested by September 6^th. I’m interested in seeing those responses.

Plastic bag usage has 85% decrease in England after government starts charging per bag – Hurray for England. Wish we were doing more in the US to reduce plastic bags. I’ve been using usable bags for the past few years but there are still a lot of people that aren’t.

Wind power fiercer than expected – I was surprised that evidently there has not been a lot of research on the wind patterns at turbine level over the east coast where a number of wind farms are being planned….including off Maryland’s coast.

The Secret Lives of Horseshoe Crabs – We often see horseshoe crabs on Chesapeake Bay beaches…this was a good post about their life cycle and the current challenges to the species.

New Wondrous Photos of the World’s Beautiful Diverse Fungi – Nature photography and eye candy all in one!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 13, 2016

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.

Desalination could harm Texas bays – It is important to get intake and discharge points for desalination right to avoid adverse environmental impacts.

What’s changed in genetic since your high school biology – My high school biology was at the very end of the 1960s….a lot has happened since. I’ve taken some classes to update myself but it is always interesting to see a summary of the high points in articles like this.

Maintaining healthy forests takes more than planting trees – What about massive wildfires and invasive forest pests. A healthy forest is a diverse mix of young and old trees, dead trees, and openings. Forest scientists are realizing that homogenous and overgrown forests need to change. A follow-on post talked about technology for foresters in the field.

Humans Never Stopped Evolving – A discussion of more recent human traits.

Strange Minerals from Siberian Mine Are Unlike Anything Found in Nature – Naturally occurring metal-organic frameworks (MOFs)?

Toxic blue-green algae adapt to rising CO2 – This does not bode well for fresh water supplies as the CO2 levels rise.

Protein Packed Produce for Meatless Monday – Meat is not the only food with protein…think veggies too: peas, broccoli, mushrooms, Brussels sprouts, asparagus, artichokes, spinach, kale and cauliflower!

The Best Schools in the World Do This. Why don’t we? – An peek into a report from the National Conference of State Legislatures.

The Neanderthal in the Mirror – A short history of our understanding Neanderthal skeletons....seeing them as more and more ‘human’ over the past century.

PDF Quads (from National Geographic) – National Geographic as a web interface that allows anyone to find any USGS quad for downloading and printing!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 6, 2016

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.

Kathleen Clemons Instagram – Instructor for some of my favorite Creative Live classes….sharing photos taken with her iPhone. Beautiful images…mostly flowers.

Milkweed Meadow posts from What’s That Bug? – A cluster of milkweed plants is a great place to look if you want to find insects. This series of blog posts is focused on typical insects you’ll find.

How to Prevent Mosquito Bites – I am paying more attention to articles like this since Florida is reporting more Zika cases…and I’m planning a trip to Florida this fall.

Did We Used to Have Two Sleeps Rather Than One? Should We Again? – Maybe we were not meant to sleep all the way through the night!

The New Green Grid: Utilities Deploy ‘Virtual Power Plants’ – Sprawling networks of independent batteries, solar panels, and energy efficient buildings tied together and remotely controlled by software and data systems….a trend boosted by California’s natural gas shortfall that will become the norm?

Third Severe Flash Flood Hits Maryland/Delaware – The Ellicott City flash flood on the evening of 7/30 (just a week ago) was close to home…lots of destruction of the history main street.

Mystery Mechanisms – Many drugs appear to work…but we don’t know exactly how they work. This post discusses lithium, acetaminophen, and modafinil.

Why do we get bags under our eyes? – No stunning revelations in this article – but interesting that there are multiple reasons that people get them.

Awesome Video Compares the Size of Different Plants and Stars in the Universe – The video is a sequel to Star Size (and distances) which is also included in the post.

Earth’s ‘Annual Physical’ Lists Symptoms of a Hotter World – State of the Climate in 2015 from NOAA (and internationally peer reviewed). The indicators of a warming planet that are: greenhouse gases highest on record, global surface temperature highest on record, sea surface temperatures highest on record, global upper ocean heat content highest on record, global sea level highest on record, extremes were observed in the water cycle and precipitation. The post includes links to download the report – chapter by chapter.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 30, 2016

We finally got some rain after a dry spell and I’m enjoying the flowers on my deck this morning.

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.

Human intelligence measured in the brain – A study that used resting-state MRI analysis on 1000s of people around the world…areas of the brain which are associated with learning and development show high levels of variability (i.e. they change their neural connections with other parts of the brain more frequently, over a matter of minutes of seconds). Further studies using the new technology may rapidly improve our understanding and diagnosis of debilitating human mental disorders such as schizophrenia and depression.

Common Foot Problems (and what to do about them) – Most of my foot problems went away when I stopped wearing high heels!

Postcards provide link to Edwardian social media – A different perspective of the early 20^th century. There is a searchable archive that is available here; I enjoyed doing searches with some family names and locations. The two most common topics that people wrote about were the weather and health!

Amazing spider silk continues to surprise scientists – Phonomic crystals – that’s new vocabulary for me this week. Evidently research on spider silk has shown the potential of new materials (to synthesize) to dampen sound or provide insulation.

Hundreds of years later, teeth tell the story of people who didn't get enough sunshine – Dentin layers formed during a time when a person did not get enough Vitamin D to fully mineralize the structures that form dentin (and bone) provide a window into that aspect of nutritional health long after the person dies…longer lasting that the bones. Dentin layers are also a better indicator because they are not constantly remodeled during life as bones are.

The key to conservation is not what you think – A thoughtful piece about the lack of diversity, equity, and inclusion in the environmental community.

NASA’s Kepler confirms 100+ exoplanets during its K2 mission – Lots of validated exoplanets to pick from for further study by NASA’s upcoming missions: Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite and James Webb Space Telescope!

The mystery of why you can’t remember being a baby – A summary of research on the topic….and we still don’t really know the answer.

How the body disposes of red blood cells, recycles iron – It happens in the liver, not in the spleen as previously thought…and requires bone-marrow-derived immune cells as the recycling cells.

Orangutan Imitates Human Speech – 500 vowel-like sounds…more vocal fold control that we previously thought could be exhibited by a non-human ape.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 23, 2016

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.

Microplastics – a cause for concern – Lots of questions…only a few answers. It seems like there have been a lot of articles on the topic recently.

Biodiversity has fallen below ‘safe’ levels – We don’t actually know what the ‘safe’ limit is…but do we want to actually find out when there is no recovery? This report is pointing out that 58% of the world’s land has lost more than 10% of its biodiversity. 10% biodiversity loss is the value that was deemed ‘safe’ limit within which ecological function is relatively unaffected.

Early preschool bedtimes cut risk of obesity later on – Another good reason for preschoolers to be regularly tucked into bed by 8 PM!

Electricity generated with water, salt and a 3-atoms-thick membrane –

Splattered Watercolor Paintings Capture the Beautiful Vibrancy of Delicate Flowers – I like just about everything botanical…eye candy too.

Jupiter and Juno – What do we already know about Jupiter’s chemistry? – An infographic from Compound Interest – background for understanding what we already know about Jupiter’s chemistry and what we hope to learn about it from Juno.

From the Earth’s Oceans (images) – From The Scientist. These images reminded me of how different live in the oceans really is than what we experience on land.

Photo of the Week (from The Prairie Ecologist) – Actually – several photos…of little things that thrive in the prairie.

How Type 2 Diabetes Affects the Brain – Two recent studies that have increased our understanding of the cognitive effects of diabetes – refining not only the description of effects but also how the structures of the brain are changed by diabetes.

Yeast emerges as hidden third partner in lichen symbiosis – Wow! This is something I’ll include in my talk with hikers about lichen. They are always fascinated that lichen grows on rocks and tree trunks….that it’s a combination of fungus and algae…and now we can add that there is usually a yeast there too that is often the part producing chemicals to defend the other two organisms in the symbiotic relationship (and sometimes it changes the appears of the lichen too)!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 16, 2016

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 Bell Peppers – Green to Yellow to Red….the chemistry of the pepper’s color change.

Ancient Brazilians occupied the same homes for centuries – Homes that were never abandoned…just extended with new floors on top of old ones, different types of ceramics and new building techniques.

Photography in the National Parks: Don’t Forget to Pack Your Flash or Reflector for Some Fill Light – This post shows images in bright sunlight with and without flash/reflector….a good ‘lesson’ in improving photos of flowers particularly.

Discover Your World with NOAA: An Activity Book – For kids and educators. The Earth Origami activity was one I looked at. This is quite a treasure trove of activities…all available online.

How to Raise Brilliant Children, According to Science – An interview with the author of Becoming Brilliant: What Science Tells Us About Raising Successful Children. She defines 6 Cs: collaboration, communication, content, critical thinking, creating innovation and confidence spread across 4 levels of development (summarized as seeing is believing, multiple points of view, opinions, and evidence/mastery/intricacies of doubt).

Professor finds positive effects for bringing physical activity to the desk – A positive link between mood, motivation and physical activity without detracting from work or study effectiveness…what’s not to like. For me – the Swopper chair seems to have these effects.

The People vs Coloring Books: The verdict is in – For children…the overall message may be to ‘step away from the coloring book’ and celebrate difference rather than conformity. When I was cleaning out my daughter’s papers from 1^st grade (over 20 years ago) I found a lot of lightly used coloring book type pages; it appears that she didn’t like them very much. She recognized them for what they were – busy work.

Incidence of cancer in patients with large colorectal polyps lower than previously thought – 92% of the colorectal patients referred for operation were noncancerous! My family had this experience and it is interesting to find out that it is not uncommon. Hopefully the more advanced endoscopic techniques can replace the traditional operation in some of these cases.

7 ways to find things to do in nature near you (US Edition) – Good ideas!

Butylparaben can have several endocrine disrupting effects – This is an ingredient (preservative) in many cosmetics and skin care products. Whatever testing was done in the past on the chemical probably did not even check for this kind of issue. And now we have a pervasive chemical that is impacting our biology in a negative way.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 9, 2016

The machines that run the internet – A short film.

A Murder of Crows: When Roosting Crows Come to Town – We don’t have large number of crows in our area – but we are seeing more than we were a few years ago when West Nile Virus killed so many of them.

Picky Eaters: Bumble Bees prefer plans with nutrient-rich pollen – The protein to lipid ratio makes a difference to bumble bees!

Ocean Acidification and Chemical Signaling – How ocean acidification impacts chemical signally of shell fish…an infographic about research on peptides that are involved in detecting predators, homing, and reproduction.

How one of history’s bloodiest wars eventually saved lives – By the end of World War I, combatant deaths has reached 10 million. Twice as many were injured. Post-traumatic stress disorder was recognized for the first time – called ‘shell shock.’ Blood transfusion, oxygen and treatment on the front lines became the norm. See some of the devices developed and used during that time period in this post or at the Wooded exhibition at London’s Science Museum.

Floating Solar: A Win-Win for Drought Stricken Lakes in the US – Will this idea become reality? It seems that in places where water is scarce that reducing evaporation and producing power at the same time would be a positive thing.

Humans artificially drive evolution of new species – Human drive extinction but also speed up evolution of new species as well. For example – a common house mosquito has evolved into a new species that thrives in subterranean environments – like subway stations; it can no longer interbreed with its above ground ancestor species.

Beyond Sightseeing: You’ll Love the Sound of America’s Best Parks – A project to record the (non-human) sounds of national parks.

Boosting potency of broccoli-related compound for age-related macular degeneration – Macular degeneration impacted the last few years of my grandmother’s life and I still notice articles about current research on prevention and/or remediation…. macular degeneration might happen to many of us as we get older.

Vanishing Act: Why Insects are declining and why it matters – Another example of the importance of biodiversity to our future…and the future of the planet.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 2, 2016

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.

8 Ways to Protect your Eyes if you stare at Screens All Day – You probably have heard of most of these before….but how many do you actually include in your day to day screen time? I just recently got computer glasses…now wish I would have done it years ago.

The Rabies Vaccine Backstory – A little bit of medical history for the week.

Ten simple rules to use statistics effectively – The report is intended for the research community – but it seems like just about everyone needs to understand these. We are bombarded by statistics at every turn…and many times they are coming from outside our area of expertise; we have to make a conscious decision about how ‘real’ what they reveal might be.

Are your pipes made of lead? Here’s a quick way to find out – With Flint, Michigan’s problems with lead in their water supply being in the news, why not do a quick check to see if the pipe bringing water into your house are made of lead?

CDC to Track Algal Blooms – Evidently algal blooms have become enough of a health hazard to warrant this step.

4,200-year-old Egyptian Temple Discovered to have Remarkably Well Preserved Artwork – Images of the same temple from several photographers. One show half the ceiling cleaned…half still covered with soot. I wondered if the soot actually served to protect some of the pigment from being scoured by sand over the years.

Journey Through the Largest Cave in the World – It’s a cave discovered in 2009 in Vietnam. There are sinkholes that allow light into parts of the cave…a jungle inside the cave.

No association between ‘bad cholesterol’ and elderly deaths – Systematic review of studies of over 68,000 people…questions about the benefits of statin drug treatments for them. Older people with high level of a certain type of cholesterol (low-density lipoprotein) actually live as long, and often longer, than their peers with low levels of this same cholesterol. This implies that what is true for cholesterol for young and middle-aged people is not for older people!

A virtual field trip to the Giant’s Causeway, Northern Ireland and Siccar Point, Scotland – Some online geology!

Hubble Images of Jupiter’s “Northern Lights” are Amazing! – Something new to know about Jupiter – it has a much stronger magnetic field than Earth…and Aurora’s along with it.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 25, 2016

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.

What the rising light pollution means for our health – Circadian disruption from ill-timed electrical lighting (particularly at night) may contribute to poor sleep, obesity, diabetes, certain cancers and mood disorders. The night time lights are shifting to LEDs in our cities which has the effect of shifting that lighting toward the blue wavelengths which are most disruptive to our circadian rhythms.

Vitamin D may not be the great solution to health problems – I remember when the testing for vitamin levels revealed that many people were low and doctors started recommending supplementation – sometimes megadoses of the vitamin. Now the results are being reviewed --- and it is obvious that it is not a panacea and may not be of very much benefit at all.

What if the coolest thing about a 21^st-century school wasn’t technology? – The results of a TED workshop on creating a new healthy school from scratch. What do you think of their ideas?

Lightning Strikes: How to Stay Safe – Hopefully most of these recommendations are familiar to you - we’ve been having a lot of thunderstorms recently so I took a look to refresh my knowledge.

Garlic mustard populations likely to decline – I hope this begins to happen soon in our area. Right now we seem to have a lot of this plant around our area of Maryland.

Ancient satellite busts massive gas storage leak, fracking could be next – I’ve always wondered how we could detect leaks more effectively – conserve our resources by reducing leakage – and maybe this is a solution! It’s another example of a NASA instrument (and satellite) working long after its original mission was complete.

Americans are getting heart-healthier: Coronary heart disease decreasing in the US – Hurray! The study compared 2001 and 2012. The prevalence of smoking decreased during that same time period although high blood pressure and abnormal cholesterol have not (although control rates have improved). Obesity and diabetes rates have increased significantly but overall control of glucose levels has improved significantly.

Meet an Artist with no Hands – A historical piece about Matthias Buchinger – but with discussion about how the brain accommodates physical challenges such as being born without hands and learning to use feet with exceptional skill.

Flow: What is it and how to find it – How much of your day is in “flow”? I think quite a lot of mine is. The key for me is realizing that I often have more choice in the way I want to be…the way I want to do everything.

Study offers explanation for why women leave engineering – I’m not surprised by the results of this study. I was at the peak of women graduating from computer science programs in the 1980s (mine was in a math department rather than engineering) and was surrounded by so many interesting projects early on that I didn’t get into a marginalized (or menial tasks) role until later when I was strong enough to recognize it and get out it on my own – back into a place I wanted to be.