Gleanings for Week Ending June 27, 2020
/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 if all viruses disappeared? - BBC Future – We are more aware of pathogenic viruses….but there are a lot more that are not pathogenic to humans….and are often beneficial (directly and indirectly).
Scythian Warrior's Genome Analyzed - Archaeology Magazine – Surprise! Discovered in 1988 and assumed to be a young warrior based on the weapons in the grave. DNA revealed it was a girl and was younger than 14 years old.
90 Percent of U.S. Could Be Powered by Renewables by 2035 - Yale E360 – Technically feasible…but do we have the determination as a country to do what we need to do for future generations?
Repetitive negative thinking linked to dementia risk -- ScienceDaily – But can training/therapy to reduce negative thinking reduce the risk? Whether it does or doesn’t – it seems that people who perceive the positives in their lives are more satisfied/happy….so teaching strategies to enhance that kind of thinking is probably worth it.
How Iceland is undoing carbon emissions for good - BBC Future – Examples of how Iceland is pushing the technical envelope for carbon capture even in heavy industry.
What Makes Some People More Resilient Than Others - The New York Times – Tools most common in resilient people: realistic optimism, a moral compass, religious or spiritual beliefs, cognitive and emotional flexibility, social connectedness.
Memory consolidation during REM sleep: Researchers identify neurons responsible for memory consolidation during REM sleep -- ScienceDaily – I remember the babies I’ve known well having frequent REM sleep….they are doing a lot of memory consolidation!
Top 25 birds of the week: Camouflage – They are easy to spot in these zoomed pictures….in the field, their camouflage is highly effective.
Urine test reveals quality of your diet -- and whether it's the best fit for your body – Interesting work. Maybe in the future we’ll get feedback from the toilet about the ‘health’ of our diet as easily as we get feedback about heart rate and sleep quality from wearable devises now.
The Winnowing of the Wilson’s Snipe – A bird that could fit in the camouflage group…but this bird is special – it makes sound with specialized tail feathers!
Unique activities for yesterday:
Three kinds of day lilies. I have three different kinds of day lilies blooming right now. I love having the flowers in my office and something new opening every day!
Ice maker repair. My husband ordered a replacement part for our ice maker once we started having water overflowing the unit and accumulating in the freezer. He’d done some research online and it seemed likely that the new part would fix the problem. It came and after a few days of the box sitting around to decontaminate, we pulled out the refrigerator to install it (using the opportunity to clean the floor too). This is the type of thing we would have called for repair service pre-pandemic. There are areas where we’ve become a lot more resourceful in recent months and I wonder if we’ll continue that trend post-pandemic.
