Gleanings of the Week Ending July 29, 2017

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.

When you can’t remember where you are or how you got there – Transient Global Amnesia. Evidently accident and emergency units are accustomed to seeing 2 or 3 cases a month. The good news is that usually it happens once…and not again…and that the memories return except for the brief period of the episode. Brain imaging studies show abnormalities in the hippocampus during the episode. The description sounds like a hippocampus re-boot.

New Kingdom Egypt: The goldsmith’s tomb – On an island in the Nile River in Sudan, there is evidence of a multicultural settlement: Egyptian and Nubian….with a focus on gold.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week # 97 – My favorite is a Green Bee-eater with a dragonfly.

How to Feed the World Without Killing the Planet? – A thoughtful piece about how we can all eat well into the future and not contribute to mass extinction.

Treated Fracking Wastewater Contaminated Watershed with Radium and Endocrine Disrupters – A study of sediments of Conemaugh River Lake – a dammed reservoir east of Pittsburgh – revealed that the highest concentrations of endocrine disrupting chemicals, carcinogens and radium peaked 5-10 years ago during a peak period of fracking wastewater disposal. High radium levels continued 12 miles downstream from treatment plants. Bottom line: treatment of fracking wastewater is not protecting our water supply. Aargh!

Plant Sources of Protein – This is done by serving size. I wish they had done it by calorie so it would be more obvious which sources are more protein dense. I found a reference that includes a table that shows grams of protein per 100 calories for some foods here although the list is not as extensive as I would like and includes too many highly processed items.

The underground railway that became a secret wartime base – In Bristol.  A railroad built to tunnel up a cliff from the port to a spa area in the late 1800s…that closed in 1934 but then during the bombings of World War II it housed the BBC Symphony Orchestra and a little later an alternate broadcast center. It became the nerve center for the BBC in the west of England for the rest of the war. The tunnel became a derelict by 1960 and is slowly being opened for tours now.

Prairie Noise – Some pictures and a short video of a cicada ‘singing’ – it’s the sound of summer to me both from growing up in Texas/Oklahoma and where I live low in Maryland.

Recovery: Bringing Back Bumble Bees – 46 indigenous bumble bee species in the US are at some risk of extinction. Bumble bees are frequently more efficient pollinators than honey bees. We in the US have been slower than other countries to recognize their importance and act to stop practices that make their survival more difficult.

59 Retro Posers Celebrate the Colorful Diversity of America’s National Parks – Eye candy for the week!

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 22, 2017

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.

View and Print 3D Models of Smithsonian Artifacts – An article about Smithsonian X 3D – a website worth browsing through – a museum available from home!

Deepest dive ever under Antarctica reveals a shockingly vibrant world – From National Geographic – great pictures as usual.

The one trillion-ton iceberg: Larsen C Ice Shelf rift finally breaks through –  Lots of ice…leaving the Antarctica ice shelf.

Periodic Table in Pictures and Words – Hopefully this is use in intro to chemistry courses rather than the older form of the periodic table.

Can the Monarch Highway help save a butterfly under siege? – Making I-35 the safe corridor for Monarch migration. It won’t help the situation in Maryland where the Monarch population as dropped dramatically over the past 10 years.

The Chemistry of Frozen Desserts – Thinking about cool foods for summer heat…

Photography in the National Parks: Favorites for each season – National Parks are always good bets for photography…but going at the right time of year can make them even better.

Preeclampsia: New study documents its enormous economic and health burden – Rates of preeclampsia are rising…driven in part by maternal age and obesity….and it costs a lot. Hopefully continued research will improve prediction and treatment.

Birds around the world in 31 incredible photos –  From National Geographic….Celebrating the diversity of birds.

Study: Bumblebee Species Declining Worldwide – Researchers evaluated 40% of the 260 identified bumblebee species worldwide…and 30% of those evaluated were dwindling. Species that inhabit small geographical ranges appear to be at higher risk…and more vulnerable to warming climates.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 15, 2017

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.

How climate change will transform business and the workforce – The way we work and the skills employers need will be changing…is climate savvy going to be become as important as tech savvy?

How to see if home prices are rising or falling where you live – The link is to an article….that contains the link to a zoomable map of the US. My house is in an area that has seen 20-39% increase in home prices since 2000.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #95 – I liked the picture of the two pintails…the tails clearly visible as they are taking off: matched choreography.

Greenland’s summer ocean bloom likely fueled by iron – It turns the water of much of the Labrador Sea turquoise!

Surf through newly digitized images to see Rome’s ever-changing history – Many images collected by Rodolfo Lanciani and then supplemented. I am looking at this source as well as books by Lanciani on Internet Archive.

Owls’ wing could hold the key to beating wind turbine noise – I guess humans are not keen on wind turbine noise, but will reducing the noise increase the deaths of birds? I include a demonstration for pre-schoolers that includes the sound made by flapping a turkey feather and then an owl feather….and they are always surprised at the silence of the owl feather.

How Abstract Photography has evolved and still continues to inspire art – A little photographic history…and maybe some ideas for you own photography experiments.

Scientists unveil reconstructed face of ancient Peruvian mummified female leader – And she was only in her mid-20s when she died.

Whole Grains: Good for the Gut – And whole grains have more flavor too.

Women of Color Face a Staggering Amount of Harassment in Astronomy – Not good…and it’s even worse in physics.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 8, 2017

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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #94 – There were several parent birds interacting with young in this set. My favorite was the American Oystercatchers!

Ancient concrete: Learning to do as the Romans did -  Looking more closely at 2,000-year-old harbor structures. The work could lead to concrete manufacturing techniques with less environmental impact than those in common use today.

Three Ways the Interstate System Changed America – It started in the 1930s…with Eisenhower leading the way in the 1950s. I remember the develops from the 1960s onward. The highways are convenient but they homogenize the way we travel too. The goal now seems to be to get to our destination as fast as possible rather than really seeing anything other than the highway along the way.

The detectives who investigate food poisoning mysteries – I was surprised that the culprit one of the cases was flour!

Padre Island National Seashore in Early Summer and Hatch and Release at Padre Island National Seashore – I’m reading up on this area of Texas and there seems that a lot is happening there this spring. My husband and I are planning a trip there in the late fall – for the arrival of wintering birds.

10+ Awe-Inspiring Impressionist Masterpieces Painted by Claude Monet – So beautiful.

To buzz or to scrabble? To foraging bees, that’s the question – The first author on this study is my son-in-law (Avery Russell)! Videos here.

‘One of a Kind’ Collection of Animal Eyeballs Aids Research on Vision Problems – The Comparative Ocular Pathology Laboratory at the University of Wisconsin-Madison.

Oregon Wildlife Painter Captures the Beautiful Diversity of Local Birds – Includes an interview with the artist. I like the way he has a lot of detail in the environment around the bird in his paintings.

Sunscreen Myths vs Facts – Summer time…spending a lot of time outdoors…now’s the time to remember the sunscreen.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 1, 2017

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.

Carbon in Atmosphere is Rising, Even as Emissions Stabilize – Are the carbon sinks less able to function as CO2 levels have risen? Still TBD. There is still a lot to understand about our planet and the impact of higher and higher greenhouse gases in the atmosphere.

Cats Domesticated Themselves, Ancient DNA Shows – Cat came into settlements on their own…enjoying the bounty of rodents human settlements contained. They didn’t give up their wild natures to the extent that dogs and other domesticated animals did. There is genetic evidence that they’ve remained largely unchanged for 1000s of years.

Not so pearly whites – Evidence of a filled dental cavity in a 13,000 year old hunter-gather tooth!

43 Incredible Photos of US UNESCO Sites: Present and Proposed – I was surprised that I had visited so many of these places (the ones in the continental US).

Plastic Pollutants Pervade Water and Land  and Microplastics sloughed from synthetic fabrics in the washing machine - Plastics are everywhere in our environment and their  negative impact is probably greater than we realize…but it is surprising how much we don’t know.

In the AI Age, being ‘Smart’ Will Mean Something Completely Different – The author proposes that the new definition of ‘smart’ will be about the quality of thinking, listening, relating, collaboration, and learning…not about the quantity of factoids we remember. It won’t be easy to be the new kind of smart and I often wonder if the way we use current technology has moved us in the opposite direction.

American Icon in the Alaskan Horizon – Birds at the Chilkat Bald Eagle Preserve in Alaska…in snow and ice.

11 Very Different Types of Photography that Each Illuminate Our World – A little eye candy for the week…and a survey of types of photography.

Mars rover Opportunity on walkabout near rim – One of my daughter’s first jobs as an undergraduate student was calibrating images coming from Opportunity…so I always take note when articles come out of it.

Mapping the potential climate effects of climate change – I look at these types of articles and try to understand the assumptions that are being made. It always seems that there are still a lot of unknowns….and it could be different and worse than they projections. Basically north and west seem to fare better than the south where it is already hot and often dry.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 24, 2017

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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #92  and #93 – These come out every week! I can never resist looking through the photographs and picking a favorite. #92 includes a lot of birds I’ve enjoyed photographing myself…but my favorite is a close-up of a flamingo. In the second one – my favorite is Forster Tern mates.

Frank Lloyd Wright Exhibition at MoMA Celebrates the Architect’s 150th Birthday – A little bit of architectural history

Architecture 101: 10 Architectural Styles that Define Western Society – More architectural history…a broader view. Be sure to look at all 5 pages (at the bottom there is a bar that links to the next page).

A Vessel of Life in the Philippine Seas  and Under the Mangrove Sea – Two 1Fram4Nature pieces…great images and some ideas on what you can do.

Why it’s time to stop punishing our soils with fertilizers – The more we learn about soils, the more it is obvious that applying more and more chemicals (pesticides, fungicides, herbicides, fertilizers) is killing the soil…and making it very difficult to keep it productive over the long term.

Op-Ed – Is it time for a radio astronomy national historic park? – A suggestion for a historic park similar in concept to the Manhattan Project National Historic Park where several sites across the country are part of the park. For radio astronomy, the sites might include Arecibo (Puerto Rico), Green Bank (West Virginia), and The Very Large Area (New Mexico).

2017 Kids Count Data Book – A recently released study of state trends in child well-being. The statistic that surprised me the most was that as of 2015, 65% of 4th graders in the US were not proficient in reading. That is a lot higher than anyone would want it to be.

Infographic: Plastic Pollution – It’s not just bottles and packaging…it’s also synthetic fibers that are shed when we launder our clothes.

Father’s Day Photo Gallery – A week late…but this was a great photographic series from The Cornell Lab of Ornithology

MAVEN’s top 10 discoveries at Mars – We went to the launch back in November 2013 (my blog post here) so I notice articles like this…nice that is has been successful.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 17, 2017

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.

Lost ecosystem found buried in mud of southern California coastal waters – An ecosystem that had existed for 4000 years died off in the early 1900s – destroyed by sedimentation from coastal land use practices from 1769 onward.

Gigantic Aztec Temple Unearthed in Mexico City – Built to look like a coiled snake. A hotel owns the site.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week # 91 – Do you have a favorite from the bird images this week? I liked the cormorant catching the fish.

Prairie Ecologist Photo of the Week – Poppy mallows and yarrow…and the bug drama on them (Hint: it involves a crab spiders and a fly)

The Chemistry Behind the Opioid Epidemic – It’s not just about heroin any more. Many people became addicts from drugs prescribed by their doctors for pain. I listen to stories on this topic trying to understand why the medical establishment in not doing more to keep people from becoming addicted.

Sounds of Nature in National Parks are being Trampled by Noise – Modern conveniences are noisy. Now that I have a car that operates as an EV most of the time, I am realizing how much car noise is almost everywhere. At least there are beginning to be EV options. In my neighborhood, lawn mowers and leave blowers are big nose emitters.

Art History: The evolution of landscape painting and how contemporary artists keep it alive – Eye candy….I like landscapes in general and appreciated the bit of history….also the artists producing landscapes today.

Climate change could make cities 8C hotter – Wow – the urban heat island effect already makes cities a little hotter than countryside….it gets worse as the countryside gets warmer.

Reading the Neandertal Smile – A study of the dental calculus (calcified dental plaque) of 5 European Neandertal specimens revealed that some were meat eaters, others vegetarians depending on whether they lived in a steppe or forest environment.

The Celiac Surge – This article discusses the rapid increase in celiac disease…and potential causes.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 10, 2017

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.

Is air pollution getting worse or better? – Overall, air quality has improved…but we’ve also learned more about the harm air pollution causes…and there is still a lot more that needs to be done both is improving air quality and understanding aspects that are the most problematic.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #89 and #90 – Two groups of bird pictures. Which ones are your favorites? The first group includes the mating display of the great egret. My favorites in the second group are two of birds in flight: a wood duck and a peacock.

Artist uses fire and smoke to create incredible paintings of birds – More birds....images made with fire, soot and acrylics.

Lavau Celtic Prince: 2,500-year-old royal tomb starts to reveal its secrets – A tomb in eastern France…I liked the pictures of the artifacts as they emerged during excavation.

Insects color our world – Beautiful images….and some tips on actions that can help insects in our environment.

The Kid’s Guide to How the Internet Works – When my daughter was in elementary school 20 years ago, they were beginning to teach children about how the internet works and internet safety. Now it seems like this instruction is even more needed – critical to our children’s wellbeing.

Did children build the ancient Egyptian city of Amarna? – An article about the excavation of a cemetery of children, teenagers, and young adults. Based on the analysis of the skeletons, many have traumatic injuries and degenerative conditions caused by frequent heavy labor.

The US Lags Behind in Meteorology – Europe has forged ahead at a time when the US has cut computing power, research budgets and the National Weather Service. The American weather models are increasingly being discounted for forecasts more than 3 days out.

Antarctica is turning green – Antarctica is warming at a faster rate than the global average…about 0.5 degrees Celsius each decade for the past 60 years. Instead of white, there is more and more green!

Kenilworth Aquatic Gardens – A photo guide to common damselflies and dragonflies – A two page quick reference. My husband and I will use it later this month and in July when we visit Kenilworth – attempting to photograph dragonflies.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 3, 2017

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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #88 – My favorite is the roadrunner with the lizard!

American Trees are Shifting West – Based on analysis of tree inventories done between 1980 and one finished in 2015 and included 86 species of trees.

New York Marine Life Revealed at Brooklyn Photo Exhibition – Underwater views by photographer Keith Ellenbogen….raising awareness of the conservation needs of local marine wildlife and their habitats.

An inside view of Hong Kong’s hidden rooftop farms – Born out of fear of contaminated food! Fresh, locally grown vegetables are a luxury in the big city that imports more than 90% of its food.

Monarch butterflies: the problem with herbicides – Research that looks at the many factors that contribute to the decline of this migratory insect. I know that in our areas of Maryland there are a lot fewer Monarch butterflies than 20 years ago.

It’s Not Easy Being a Hatchling – 3 osprey hatchlings…growing fast….the live cam feed is available here.

New Online Database Catalogues 20,000 Threatened Archaeological Sites – Armed conflict, looting, tourists, construction….there are a lot of sites at risk. The link is an introductory article; the site itself is here.

The future of employment – There are quite a few categories of jobs that will be done by computers rather than people in coming decades. Some – like registered nurses and teachers – will still be performed by people.

Extremely Detailed Macro Portraits of Colorfully Exotic Insects – Insects….done with one shot, not stacked images.

Vacation at Toadstool Geologic Park – Sometimes out of the way places hold a charm found no where else!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 27, 2017

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.

US life expectancy varies by more than 20 years from county to county – So many variables…lifestyle, healthcare, poverty. The result is a daunting public health picture.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week # 87 – The kingfisher is my favorite in this group of images.

17 Mummies Unearthed in Egypt – There could be even more. They appear to be from Egypt’s Greco-Roman period. Hopefully more details will be reported as the excavation continues.

Several articles about women’s health that came out reclently: 1) We’re Ignoring Women Astronauts’ Health at our Peril – The surprise is how little we really know about human health risk (there isn’t much even on men’s health although the Twin Study has provided an uptick of information) of long times in space. There is a lot to learn as humanity enters spacefaring. 2) Focus on infants during childbirth leaves US moms in danger – This one came out a few days before Mother’s Day. I was appalled that women are dying during or immediately after childbirth in the US that I thought were well within our expertise to prevent.

The most dangerous highways in America – I am on the one listed for Maryland often!

Mega trends and technologies 2017-2050 – a graphic to display in large form (if you have it up in a browser – click on it to enlarge then scroll up/down and left/right.

Chihuly’s Colorful Glass Sculptures Sprout Up in the New York Botanical Garden – They will be there until October 29, 2017.

Don’t Screen for Thyroid Cancer, Task Force Says – There is enough experience with the results of increased testing over the past decade or so to determine that the ‘harms outweigh the benefits’!

Photography in the national parks: Birds, Beaches, Blooms, and Bottles at Padre Island National Seashore – Padre Island looks like a good destination for a birding trip…maybe next fall.

How to Clean the Eiffel Tower – A 43 second video shows how it is done….approximately every 7 years.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 20, 2017

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.

Million-Dollar Prize Hints at How Machine Learning May Someday Spot Cancer – Hopefully this type of technology will reduce the number of false positives that have been so common as we’ve used advanced imaging to find cancer (too many times when biopsies have been done and it has not been cancer). Note that the winning team was from a Chinese university. No country – even the US – can rest on past innovation for their future.

How farmers put apples into suspended animation – 9 in 10 apples bought in the US are grown in the US. This article talks about how apples are stored so that we have them throughout the year rather than just in the fall.

Frosty Monarchs – This was a post from earlier in May…but it has great picture of the milkweed egg. We had some cooler temperatures here in Maryland after the milkweed came up; there was frost on the rooftops but the it must not have gotten to freezing at ground level since the milkweed was unscathed.

Antarctica’s Blood Falls Helps Unravel the Inner Workings of Glaciers – Briny water flows (i.e. in liquid form) flows under the ice of the glacier!

Golden years are longer and healthier for those in good health in middle age – When I read the headline, my first question was - what did they define as “middle age”? The answer was ages 40-59. It was a 40 year study with 18,714 participants. It makes the point that living healthy in mid-life is important to health later in life.

It’s Raining Blood and Feathers: Catching the Spring Raptor Show – There is so much going on in the spring…and it not just flowers and song birds.

Dragons on the Hunt – Komodo dragons bring down a water buffalo. (5-minute video)

Cost of Zika outbreak in the United States could be high – There is a lot of complexity….but even assuming a lower incidence rate that has been observed in other parts of the world and that only the southern tier of the US would be impacted…still results in high costs. Prevention costs money and treatment even more. The range from the models is $183 million to $1.2 billion. Another article on the broader topic of mosquito-borne illnesses: Researchers analyze what a warming planet means for mosquito-borne illnesses.

The Art of Botanical Illustration, Scientific Botany – Some of these botanists/artists I have found before…I’m going to check what Internet Archive and Hathi Trust have in their scanned collections for each of them.

Serene Photos Highlight the Tranquil Beauty of 100 Japanese Gardens – Eye candy…even better if you have a garden near you to visit.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 13, 2017

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.

Sounding Off on Noise – I’ve been thinking a lot more about noise since I started driving an electric vehicle. I notice and enjoy the quiet of the vehicle even though the noise from the well-maintained gasoline powered cars was something I accepted as ‘white noise’ for all the years of my life up to 2017. I would rather hear natural noises (birds singing, wind in the trees) that noise from a highway or airplanes overhead.

Albatrosses counted from space – Even nests inaccessible to humans (on the Chatham Islands off New Zealand) can be seen in satellite images from the WorldView-3 satellite. The numbers of nesting pairs were lower than expected. Several more years of observations will be needed to determine if it is just a poor year or the numbers of birds are indeed declining.

The Nature of Americans: A national initiative to understand and connect Americans and Nature – There is a lot on this site. I started browsing with the Major Findings and then Recommendations. It is well organized and intended to be actionable.

Foods that Lower Cholesterol – No surprises…but the review is good.

Guggenheim Museum Releases over 200 Modern Art Books Online for Free – I am enjoying browsing this collection on the Internet Archive.

Saber-Tooth Cats, Dire Wolves Found in La Brea Tar Pits Show Wounds from Ice Age Battles – Based on analysis of just under 2,000 bones that revealed signs of trauma sustained in combat….events of lives etched in bone.

2-ingredient no-sugar date caramel sauce – Yum! I made this in my small Ninja – very easy and yummy. I’ve used it as a dip for apple slices and spread on toast. A great treat and counts as a fruit and calcium.

Moose hair and birch bark – Taking a close look at an artifact that will go into the Native American Voices gallery at the Penn Museum later this month – after a bit of treatment in The Artifact Lab.

A first-ever find in Egypt: 4,000-year-old funerary garden at tomb entrance – Before now, this type of garden was only known from illustrations on tomb walls.

The secrets of the Coke and Mentos Fountain – A fun experiment….and chemistry lesson.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 29, 2017

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 Creamy, Sculpted Dunes of White Sands National Monument – I’ve only been there once…but it was memorable. It was a hot day but the sand is so white that it reflects the sun and can be walked on barefoot! (See my post from back in June 2013 here)

Tracking down water pollution through DNA of algae – A new method for rapid and reliable bioassessment of aquatic environments which will allow for synchronous processing of many samples in record time and reduced cost….no more microscopic identification of organisms in samples!

Circadian Rhythms Influence Treatment Effects – There is a lot of evidence that timing of a medication may have a marked impact on effectiveness….yet drug trails did not track time of day information and thus not on drug labels. Simultaneously – understanding a patient’s circadian rhythm is an aspect of precision medicine - find the right drug for the patient at the right dose… administered at the right time. Also see the infographic: Circadian clock affects heart and disease

How Western Civilization could collapse – Doom and gloom scenarios. Do they seem more likely than they have in recent decades?

What’s chemistry ever done for us? – In infographic from Compound Interest that came out prior to the March for Science last weekend.

Incredible photos of Japan’s natural landscape that look like watercolors – Eye candy….and a little geography too.

4 great things the EPA had done for our health – A lot of progress has been made since 1970 when the EPA was created. No one should want to go back to air so filled with smog that your eyes watered when you went outside (like happened in LA) or lakes became sterile from changing pH or rivers caught on fire.

Foreignceuticals: our drugs go global – Scary. It’s often hard to tell where drugs and supplements come from….and there may be little or no quality control along the way.

Climate change is turning dehydration into a deadly epidemic – More very hot days….drinking soft drinks rather than contaminated water to rehydrate…maybe some other factors  - kidney disease rise dramatical in laborers in Latin America.

5 Ways to Prevent Food Waste in Your Kitchen – Probably nothing new here but always worth a quick check…ratcheting up what you do to avoid wasting food.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 22, 2017

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.

Beautiful Easter Eggs Hand-painted with Colorful Folk Art Illustrations – Yes – it’s past Easter…but I was a little late seeing this post. Art on an egg shape!

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #83 and Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #84 – So many gorgeous bird pictures! My favorite in the first section is the male Ruddy Duck; the blue bill is always a surprise! My favorite in the second set is the female Great Horned Owl…sun through the wing and tail feathers.

Maps Show a Dramatic Rise in Health Insurance Coverage Under ACA – I was interested in seeing the trend…and wondered if the decline in uninsured people will correlate to better health outcomes.

Many US Freshwater Lakes could surpass ‘safe’ chloride levels within 50 years – Not good. Road salt is evidently a significant contributor.

Is the world running out of fresh water? – The world’s major aquifers are being drained. Mexico City – built on ancient lake beds, is now sinking in some areas at a rate of 9 inches per year! Global water demand is projected to increase by 55% between 2000 and 2050. So the answer to the question is ‘yes’ --- unless we change the way we currently use water.

Vitamin B diminishes effects of air pollution induced cardio-vascular disease – Interesting study…not actionable yet…but I hope they continue the research.

A Vegan Protein Sources Chart – A good comparison of different kinds of vegetable proteins.

Maryland Food System Map: Version 2.0 has arrived – Read about how the map has been improved…then take a look at the interactive map here. I wondered if other states were doing similar type maps.

Tunable electric eyeglasses bend to the will of the wearer – I hope this technology matures into something looks better. I would much prefer these to the types of static glasses available today.

7 cool facts about Water Striders – I frequently see water striders when I’m hiking with elementary students on field trips. This article has some great pictures…and more that I had known about them previously.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 15, 2017

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.

Strong early education equals better long-term relationships with parents, research shows –  Also more likely to be employed full-time. The study has been going on since 1971.

How vertical farming reinvents agriculture – Will there be a market for vertical growing systems and vertical farms that will grow our veggies year-round close or in our grocery store?

NASA’s Cassini Begins its Final Mission before Self-Destruction – An interview with Linda Spilker, Cassini project scientist.

Japan can teach US how to overcome national rot – A little history about what was happening to Japan 1990s….and how they are recovering. Good leadership of the government and companies have made it happen.

Cars and second order consequences – The big technology changes when it comes to cars (electric and autonomy) have a cascade of consequences.

New technologies shrink wastewater’s carbon footprint – Approaches to reducing fossil fuel demand of water treatment plants…the article details the Metropolitan Water Reclamation of Greater Chicago strategy for be energy neutral by 2023. The East Bay Municipal Utility District in Oakland CA is already beyond net-zero energy and selling energy back to the grid!

Nanogrids, microgrids, and big data: the future of the power grid – For many applications, distributed generation is becoming the least costly way to provide electricity. More changes are coming too.

Pining for cleaner air in the Norwegian fjords – Norway’s ferries are converting from diesel to electric or hybrid. No more diesel fumes!

7 Surprising Ways Your Body Changes with Age – I was surprised they didn’t include teeth moving toward the front.

Digital Augustan Rome – Explore what Rome was like in the time of Augustus via an interactive map. This was a site referenced in the Coursera course I am enjoying: Roman Art and Archaeology from the University of Arizona.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 8, 2017

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 Skeleton Revealed – Vertebrates! Did you know that the hood of the cobra is created by ribs?

How to Photograph an Orchid – Good ideas for photographing other flowers as well as orchids.

What happens when diagnosis is automated? – As there is more data to consider…as time is of the essence for treatment…automation becomes more important in medicine. An article about the state of the art and the technology.

Deer Culled from Civil War Battlefield Parks Provide 8 Tons of Venison for Food Banks – The parks are in western Maryland (Antietam, Monocacy and Catoctin). Like the area where I life in Central Maryland there is an overabundance of deer. Catoctin has conducted deer management efforts since 2010 and has seen a return of native tree and shrub seedlings.

Our aging scientific workforce raises concern – The aging of the science and engineering workforce is aging more rapidly than the general workforce as a whole --- what impact will that have?

Pinkies up! A local tea movement is brewing – Tea grown in the US!

Hair testing shows high prevalence of new psychoactive substance use -Testing hair samples to detect usage of psychoactive substances by nightclub/festival attendees…and finding a about 25% are using…many unknowingly. Scary finding.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #81 – Two favorites in this set: the American Kestrel and Sandhill Cranes (with babies)

Brave New World of Nanotechnology – It is surprising how little is understood (yet) about the impact of nanoparticles in our environment – at a time when they are becoming more and more prevalent.

Teacher resignation letters paint bleak picture of US education – Teachers writing about what they see as a broken education system. I hope this analysis from Michigan State University will be factored into actions that can make a difference for children in the US.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 1, 2017

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.

Articles on women in STEM, March 2016-2017 (Women’s History Month) – A collection of links to articles that examine gender (in)equality and (in)equality in science.

Embrace Spring with Pictures of Japan’s Cherry Blossoms –  From National Geographic.

Carbon Dioxide emissions are flat for a third year running, but the economy continues to grow – Economic growth doesn’t require an increase in greenhouse gases! The US actually had a 3% reduction in emissions in 2016 and a 1.6% growth in the economy.

20+ Stunning Nature Tunnels – From around the world. The main street in my neighborhood seems like a tunnel with the trees meeting overhead during the summer.

Top 25 wild bird photographs of the week # 80 – Which one is your favorite in this set of bird pictures? Mine is the red-tailed hawk about mid-way through although the green heron is a close second.

World Tuberculosis Day – 1.8 million people died from tuberculosis in 2015. Article and infographic from Compound Interest.

Target Ruin & Ballroom Cave – A hike with young children in Bears Ears National Monument.

How noisy is your neighborhood? – Read the story then check out the interactive version of the map here. If you live in the US – zoom in on an area you are familiar with. Where I live is light orange because of the airport noise.

Rare ‘Super Bloom” Bursts California Desert to Life with Vibrant Wildflowers – A little rain…and the desert blooms.

Plant Evolution & Pollinator Type Much More Intimately Associated Than Supposed – What does it matter that the Earth is losing bumble bees? The article talks about one of the implications.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 25, 2017

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.

Un-sweetened: How a Maryland County Cut Soda Sales Without a Soda Tax – A story from the county where I live…how soda sales were reduced by 20%...fruit drinks by 15% --- via TV, outdoor advertising, social media, health care professionals and a new local law that promotes access to healthier food and drink options on local government property (such as vending machines at parks and other government buildings).

The biggest energy challenged facing humanity – One point that this article makes: in the future, some appliances (like dish washers) will run when electricity is most available/least expensive. I already have that situation with my Prius Prime – I charges in the middle of the night when electricity from our utility is at the lowest rate. If I had solar panels on my house….I would charge it on sunny days!

Painting the National Parks with Wildflowers – Spring is a great time to get out and explore not just national parks…but local natural areas at well. Finding wildflowers is the joy of spring!

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #78 and #79 – Lots of great bird pictures. My favorite in the first set is the kingfisher with the tadpole. In the second set, I like the spotted owlet peeking out from the trunk of a tree

Picturing Birds at Risk – More birds….these are ones that were once common in the US…but have declined dramatically recently.

Should we manage for rare species or species diversity – The challenges of managing ecosystems…species diversity and ecological resilience can be counter to management for rare or conservation species.

The controversial plan to tunnel beneath Stonehenge – Not directly under….but close…and new discoveries around Stonehenge extend the area of the ancient site. It becomes a complicated project!

Twelve Famous Female Chemists – An Infographic that came out for International Women’s Day. How many of these women have you heard of?

1.7 Million Children Died Every Year from Unhealthy Environments, WHO Reports – “A polluted environment is a deadly one – particularly to young children.” 1 in 4 deaths that occur before the age of 5 are not related to environmental problems.

Are you pre-sick? and Do you need an annual checkup? – Both of these articles came out from Berkley Wellness recently. It is worth considering over checking… and then unnecessary treatment…when it comes to our health.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 18, 2017

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.

WHO’s First-Ever List of the Dirty Dozen Superbugs – Bacteria resistant to our antibiotics are appearing more and more often…and the development of new antibiotics to treat them is not keeping pace.

Hotter days will drive global inequality – We’ll probably be seeing more of these types of projections as we see hotter weather. The temperature has an impact on so many things….some can be positive up to a point (like corn yields which increase up to a point…then decline sharply).

Ah-Choo! 11 Fun Facts about Sneezing – How many of these ‘fun facts’ did you already know?

Why China’s internet use had overtaken the West – The number of internet users in China exceeded the US in 2008…and they are leaping ahead using technology in a way that supports their culture rather than merely copying from elsewhere.

US Wind Energy Provided 5.5% of Nation’s Electricity in 2016, over 20% in 5 heartland states – Oklahoma, where I visited last weekend, generates 25.1% of their electricity from the wind. Hurray for them!

A tiny bug is upsetting Shenandoah National Park’s ecosystem – Aargh! The Hemlock Woolly Adelgid (invasive insect) is killing hemlocks. The trees at Belmont Manor and Historic Park where I volunteer with the Howard Country Conservancy are infected….and dying too.

Why we can’t look away from our screens – I seem to be noticing more articles recently about addiction to modern digital products.

The Chemistry of Daffodils – In honor of spring. We got to enjoy our daffodils for a little while. Now most of them have been pushed into the mulch by the ice and snow that came along over the past week.

The last things that will make us uniquely human – In recent decades, we discovered that humans are not the only organisms to use tools…some we thought was once uniquely human. Now the ability of Artificial Intelligence maybe encroaching on what we think makes us unique. What will our value – our niche – be in the ecosystem of the future?

Diet and global climate change – Making dietary changes could dramatically reduce the risk of coronary heart disease, colorectal cancer and Type 2 diabetes (and associated health care costs) and greenhouse gases!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 11, 2017

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.

Making “Kate Tectonics” – A short video about the history of geology.

Melting Glaciers in Canada Now Major Contributor to Sea Level Rise  and Climate-driven permafrost thaw – It’s been so warm this winter in our area….and elsewhere as well.

Elite ‘Dynasty’ at Chaco Canyon Got Its Power from One Woman, DNA Shows – DNA analysis is having an impact on our understanding of prehistory. This is an example from Chaco Canyon.

How Tibetans survive life on the ‘roof of the world’ – The Tibetans manage survival in thinner are differently than the people of the Andean Altiplano.

Could you survive on just one food? – I wouldn’t want to…how boring. But is it interesting to think about the pluses and minuses of single foods. Potatoes turn out to be a viable choice – hence the Irish population boom that busted when the potato blight came along.

Waxwings really have wax wings – We don’t have enough berry producing plants in our neighborhood to attract these birds….wish we did.

Delivering on spider silk’s promise – I’ve been hearing about spider silk coming to the market (shoes, jackets) but it hasn’t happened yet and it may not except for specialty products where cost is not a key driver.

What you don’t know about the Vikings – An article with pictures from reenactments and artifacts – from National Geographic.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week #77 – It’s been two years since the #76 was published…I hope they come out with more frequency. My favorite of this group is the Northern Pintail. I like the light on the wings…and the water droplets splattering from the feet.

What happens when a massive redwood tree falls – 10-12 coast redwoods have fallen at Muir Woods National Monument during past two months…lots of work for the trail crew…but also new forest homes in the now horizontal tree trunks.