Gleanings of the Week Ending March 4, 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.

A tale of four skulls: what human bones reveal about cities – History from a different perspective!

I spent a week exploring how we’ll have to live in a post-water America – We often take water for granted – turn on the faucet and it comes out. This article was about taking a different perspective and might be a shift in thinking we’ll be required to make in the future.

New map highlights bee population declines across the US – Not good. The declines are occurring in key agricultural regions.

10 Must-see Sites of Iran’s Historical Architecture – There are 20 UNESO World Heritage Sites in Iran. Too bad that part of the world is not a safer travel destination. Enjoy the pictures!

Our Water on Drugs – Treatment of water started out focused on sewage…then expanded to include nitrogen and phosphorous. Now the residues of drugs and personal care products are becoming a concern.

Popular heartburn drugs linked to gradual yet ‘silent’ kidney damage – Proton pump inhibitors (like Prevacid, Prilosec, Nexium and Protonix) taken over prolonged periods can have significant risks.

Cocoa, Caffeinated ‘Black Drink’ was Widespread in Pre-Contact Southwest – A ‘caffeine trade network’ brought cocoa and yaupon holly to the southwest….and the residue from the drinks are found in pottery. One of the first analyzed was from Chaco Canyon!

The Country’s Most Famous Bald Eagle Pair Just Laid Another Egg – The Bald Eagles at the US National Arboretum are keeping 2 eggs warm! See them on the nest cam.

6,600 spills from fracking in just four states – Drilling down on the stats – 26% in Colorado and 53% in North Dakota occur at wells that experienced more than one spill…the industry should be using this data reduce the risks of additional spills.

New Discoveries from Cahokia’s ‘Beaded Burial’ May Rewrite Story of Ancient American City – Some of the ‘men’ buried in an elite grave excavated in 1967 were women based on a new evaluation of the skeletons!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 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.

Busy Bees: Patterns of pollen and nectar foraging specialization by bumblebees over multiple timescales using RFID – At the top of my list this week…the paper (link is at the bottom of this post), is authored by my son-in-law and daughter!

Automatically darkening windows in a wide range of colors – Maybe insulating drapes will not be needed in the future…although I like the idea of windows that generate power rather than just changing color.

From Vector to Zoonotic: A Glossary for Infectious Diseases – Some of these words are used in news stories without definition….how strong is your knowledge of what they really mean?

How Blizzards and Extreme Cold Impact Birds – We haven’t had any extreme cold in our area this winter….but it may be happening somewhere. This article talks about the studies about how birds cope with the cold; some succumb to the cold itself and some starve because their food source becomes unavailable.

Why Killer Viruses are on the Rise – An outcome of our increasing impact on environments that previously were wildlife habitats.

Winning images of the Underwater Photography of the Year Contest – Eye candy…but educational too.

NASA’s Osiris REx takes its first image of Jupiter – We saw Osiris REx launched last September so I always take a look at any new news about it.

Torpid Turtles, Tortoises, and Terrapins – Examples from turtles in the US…several are common enough in Maryland that I’ve seen them.

The oldest grave of the Netherlands, “Trijntje” – A facial reconstruction of a woman buried 7500 years ago.

The Feather Atlas – A feather reference. I hope I remember this exists the next time I find an interesting feather!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 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.

Top 10 Winter Warriors – Wild life in winter. The ones I see most frequently are chickadees although most of the ones at my bird bath and feeder are Carolina rather than Black-capped.

When is a black bear actually a blue bear? – Black bears are not always black!

Dynamic Wildlife Duos -  Originally posted just before valentine’s day…liked the pictures.

Experts reveal hidden dangers behind supplements – Over the counter supplements advertised to treat obesity and erectile dysfunction problems were labelled as fully herbal but often included dangerous pharmaceutical ingredients that were not listed on the label…..which are often dangerous and can cause serious side effects. One example: Sibutramine (licensed as Reductil until 2010 when it was withdrawn across Europe and the US due to increased risk of heart attacks and strokes) was found in slimming supplements. These supplements are the 21^st century equivalent of snake oil (or maybe they are worse than snake oil).

National Park Service History eLibary Additions for February – Another online source for documents about National Parks!

A Crack in an Antarctic Ice Shelf Grew 17 miles in the last two months – Stories keep coming about the giant crack in the Larsen C ice shelf. This one is from 2/7 and has a lot of good graphics and explanation.

20+ National Park Portraits Celebrating the Rainbow – Colored Lands in the US -  Beautiful images from the National Parks

New, long-lasting flow battery could run for more than a decade with minimum upkeep – If only half the new battery technology stories turn out to be true….the energy storage needed daily life could change dramatically over the next decade.

How to avoid falling for lieds and fake news and How to spot misleading health news – Two stories from BBC Future. With the easy flow of ‘stuff’ around the internet, the skills for determining validity of stories are more important than ever before.

Don’t call it wheat: an environmentally friendly grain takes root – Perennial grains…still needing further development but the potential to create a more sustainable way to produce our bread!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 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.

High-Resolution Satellite Imagery at the World’s Fingertips – Interested in archaeology?…here’s an opportunity to contribute as a citizen scientist via the GlobalXplorer community.

The Secret to Living a Meaningful Life – A little self-analysis…can go a long way.

Five Endangered Species Recoveries You’ve Never Heard Of – I’d heard of the brown pelican (and seen some too).…but not the others.

How heat from the Sun can keep us all cool – Another technology that might help us in a warming world.

Pitcher Plant Enzymes Digest Gluten in Mouse Model – Pitcher plant secretion are approximately as acidic as human gastric juices and can snip bonds linking the amino acid proline to other amino acids…and prolines make up 15% of gluten!

19^th Century Experiments Explained How Trees Lift Water – fluids are not supposed to have tensile properties….but that is what the cohesion-tension theory – explaining how water moves up into the tree again gravity.

Inside the Far-Out Glass Lab – The article starts out with a gif of flexible glass bending like a piece of plastic and ends with a picture of an ultra thin glass spiral (looks a little like Slinky). Corning’s research center is full of innovations with glass.

What I learned after banning screens from my home for a month – Maybe this is something we all need to do periodical…get back into the mode of using technology rather than being so addicted to it that it takes control of every moment of our lives.

#ColorOurCollections - Free Coloring Pages from Museums and Libraries – Not just for children. Take a look at the #ColorOurCollections page to see the whole collection.

Hundreds of ancient earthworks built in Amazon – Evidence of ancient agroforestry in the Amazon…and geoglyphs.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 4, 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.

Face of 9,5000-year-old Man Revealed for First Time – A mummy from Jericho. The skull was covered in plaster…with eye sockets containing sea shells. Now just the skull inside, a probably face has been revealed via digital imagining, 3D printing and forensic reconstruction.

Site Diary: What we found inside the Morecambe Urn – A cremation urn…with fragments of bone…painstakingly sorted. At first they thought there was too much bone to be just one individual, but the analysis of the fragments they were all from the same person: young adult, relatively healthy.

Magical Photos of the World’s Oldest Lake Frozen Over – Eye candy….but educational too.

New Publication Reveals Birthplaces of Eastern Monarchs – The whole region east of the Rockies contributes to the Monarchs that make their way to Mexico. I’m glad that so many people are planting milkweed appropriate for their area of the country!

How solar may save Ukraine’s nuclear wasteland – What to do with the area around Chernobyl. There is a project to start installing solar panels. The electric power lines are already there so getting the electricity generated to the power grid.

Eye-opening Photos Capture the Terrifying Beauty of Melting Polar Ice Caps – It’s winter even though we haven’t had any substantial snows in Maryland yet…I’m enjoying photos of ice instead for their beauty but realize that this is an indicator of a warming planet. Some of these lakes are formed from very old ice.

TED Dialogues: An urgent response to a dangerously divisive time – I’ve signed up to be notified of the events. The first one will be on 2/15 at 1PM EST. The speaker for the first one will be Yuval Noah Harari. I enjoyed his class on Coursera – A Brief History of Humankind.

Seven heart-health habits could save billions in Medicare Costs – $14 billion per year in Medicare costs could be saved if all beneficiaries achieved ideal levels in 5-7 heart-healthy habits (the 7 are: cigarette smoking, physical activity, diet, body mass index, blood pressure, cholesterol and glucose levels). Of course – it all starts before you get to Medicare age. How many of the 7 habits are you achieving?

What Peter Pan Teaches us about Memory and Consciousness – Barrie was an astute observer of how we learn to think.

Peacock colors inspire ‘greener’ way to dye clothes – 3-D colloidal crystals (polystyrene nanoparticles and polyacrylate for mechanical stability. It does not produce contaminants…but are the particles themselves problematic? The article didn’t say but microbeads and plastics have been in the news as problems in the oceans – already.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 28, 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.

Danish Study Raises More Questions about Mammograms’ Message – Evidently doctors can’t yet tell which tumors really need to be treated and which might be able to just monitor. There is a tendency to think that breast cancer screen is better than actually is….and that leads to a lot of potential unneeded (and traumatic) treatment.

Watch Geologic Machinations in Motion at Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park – About a year ago, I visited the Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park so I am always looking at items with news from the place. I don’t know that I would be up for an 8-mile hike to see the new viewing area.

An Iceberg Larger than Rhode Island is Poised to Break from Antarctica – When it goes – the Larsen C Ice Shelf will lose more than 10% of its area….and the maps of Antarctica will need revision.

Stunning photos of trains roaring through picturesque landscapes – Eye candy for the week.

Recovery: Saving the Lake Erie Watersnake, a lesson in outreach – Not poisonous but ill-tempered and smelly. Only found in the lake’s western basin on islands…French explorers found them sunning themselves in heaps, knots and snarls. It turns out that people killing the snakes was a bigger factor the reduction of numbers than habitat loss….and thus an education campaign is helping increase their numbers!

The Chemistry of Popcorn -  Probably my favorite snack. We have a special bowl that allows us to pop it in the microwave (no weird chemicals like in the bags of microwave popcorn).

Why America is Growing the Most Sweet Potatoes since WWII – I’ve always liked sweet potatoes….and it seems that more people do these days since it has become a popular crop for former tobacco farmers and over 11% of the crop is exported!

Arctic melt ponds form when meltwater clogs ice pores – In the field (of ice) and an experiment to discover how melt ponds forms on porous ice.

Ten more field guides and references for the serious naturalist – I think I might buy the one about bees.

Obesity is barely covered in medical students’ licensing exam – Not good since nearly 40% of adults and 20% of children and adolescents are obese in the US.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 21, 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.

What’s Your Sleep Animal? Find out with this quiz. – A little self analysis…about how you sleep. I’m a lion!

What teeth reveal about the lives of modern humans – It turns out our teeth are not adapted very well for modern diets. And it not just cavities and plaque buildup. It also has to do with jaw growth.  Did you know that wisdom teeth (third molar) impaction became 10 times more common after the Industrial Revolution?

The Chemistry of Bodily Fluid Colors – An infographic summarizes how blood, bile, urine, and feces get their color.

Appendix may have important function – I thought the diagram of the appendix shapes of different animals was as interesting as the idea that the appendix may serve as a reservoir for beneficial gut bacteria.

It’s Time to Give Nature the Credit It Deserves – Nature as water infrastructure! Hopefully more areas of the US will include these strategies in their long-term water planning. Good for people, the economy, and the planet!

20 of the Most Stunning Photos Captured by Drones in 2016 – Eye candy that I couldn’t resist sharing.

The Most Precious of Gifts – About gold, frankincense, and myrrh…from the Manchester Museum

The Chemistry of Fireworks Pollution – Wow….there are a lot of bad things that are exploded into the air by fireworks. I’m glad there are efforts to make ‘greener’ fireworks. No one ones a celebration to lead to respiratory problems and exposure to toxic metals.

Designation of Bear Ears National Monument in San Juan County, UT – Some great pictures of one of our newest National Monuments.

Meet Your Newest Organ: The Mesentery – I’m taking a Coursera course on the anatomy of the abdomen and pelvis…and the mesentery is part of the discussion. I just finished a module about how it develops with the gut from an embryological perspective. It’s quite a complex membrane – and now maybe it will be researched as an organ.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 14, 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.

Why some companies are trying to hire more people on the Autism Spectrum – The pilot programs in companies like SAP and Microsoft are net positive – for the companies and the high functioning autistic people they employ.

Ancient Chaco Canyon population likely relied on imported food – There is physical evidence that timbers, pottery and chert in Chaco came from the Chuska Mountains which are some 50 miles west of Chaco Canyon; corn probably did too. The soils in the canyon and the its tributaries are too salty to grow enough to feed any sizable population.

Researchers record trillions of migrating insects swarming through the skies – A study monitored insects flying over southern England above 500 feet. There were a lot more than expected – insects that move north in the spring and south in the fall. 70% of the migration takes place in daylight hours. A similar study of insect migration has been started in Texas…and had been overwhelmed by the sheer number of invertebrate they are finding!

The Next Big Thing: Healthy Homes – Important to think about for long term health….and maybe not as expensive as it once was.

What have the world’s oldest mummies kept under wraps? – Digital reconstructions of 7,000 year old bodies from South America is in its initial stages. The mummies are deteriorating because of microbes that are more active as the climate of the Atacama becomes more humid.

2016: Compound Interest’s Year in Review –  I like this site…and have included some of these postings when they originally came out…but there were more that were interesting.

United Stated of Cookies – A cookie for each state….and the recipe for it. Maryland is the Berger Cookie.

Scientists can now make lithium-ion batteries last a lifetime – Sometimes small changes make a big difference!

How the world’s biggest cities are fighting smog – There are techniques to take smog out of city air…technologies to apply in parallel with reducing pollution at its source. In many cities – both strategies are urgently needed.

Twelve new tombs discovered in Gebel el Silsila, Egypt – Even with so much focus on archeology in Egypt…there are still new finds.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 7, 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.

Shortest-possible tour of 49,603 sites from the National Register of Historic Places – Who knew there were that many? There is a 38 second movie to show the route for the whole US and then individual state maps. Take a look at your state!

The Scientist’s Year in Review – Links to the cover story and one news highlight for each of the 12 issues.

The Robotic Grocery Store of the Future is Here – Oh no! I enjoy grocery shopping….not sure I want this future. I particularly like picking my own fresh fruit and veggies from the bin.

2016 Year in Science – From Visionlearning. There could be others added…but here are 6 with a succinct description of each.

Vibrant Paintings of Colorful Fish Merged with Their Coral Environments – Eye candy!

Mining 24 hours a Day with Robots – Another example of automation that reduces the need for manpower. The mine where these huge self-driving trucks are used is in Australia….but it could soon be anywhere in the world.

The Best of Cool Green Science 2016: Birds and Birding Edition  and The Best of Cool Green Science 2016: From the Field Edition and The Best of Cool Green Science 2016: Celebrating Nature Near You – Three year end posts from The Nature Conservancy….with great pictures!

3-D Models Capture Endangered Species Before They Go Extinct – A few years ago I too an archaeology course (via Coursera) and they talked about capturing objects with 3-D techniques (notably merging multiple pictures of an object into a rotatable image). This project is doing it with living animals….with a “Beastcam.” There is a link to the slide show about 1/3 of the way through the article.