Gleanings of the Week Ending October 26, 2024

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 new era of treating neurological diseases at the blood-brain-immune interface – Investigating the connection of neurological diseases and a toxic immune reaction caused by blood that leaks into the brain….in particular, how fibrid (a blood protein) is responsible for setting of this detrimental cascade.

Antifungal resistance is not getting nearly as much attention as antibiotic resistance – yet the risks to global health are just as serious – Just as with antibiotics for farm animals, tons of fungicides are used annually to protect crops, of which some work the same way as antifungals used in humans. And just as bacterial resistance develops…fungi develop resistance too. Combating drug-resistant fungal infections is a complex problem. An important factor is that diagnoses of infections are often delayed – if they are even diagnosed at all. Simple tests for fungal infections are rarely available.

Nikon Small World Contest Celebrates 50 Years of Photographic Excellence Under the Microscope – Great images….the natural world that we can see only with assistance…an art form too.

So Last Season: The Environmental Impact of Fast Fashion and Textile Waste Exports - The last ten years have seen a dramatic increase in the production of single-wear garments—which has contributed to an excess of textile waste and consequent health impacts for the individuals who work in the textile manufacturing industry. Every aspect of the creation of fast fashion garments is unsustainable, from the creation of plastic-derived textiles to the construction of pieces by underpaid and overworked exploited laborers. Up to half of American textile waste is shipped to nations overseas. Adopting more sustainable wardrobe practices not only helps us move away from fast fashion, but also significantly lowers our individual carbon footprints and waste production.

Plastic pollution harms - Nano- and microplastic particles (NMP) are increasingly polluting urban and rural landscapes, where bees and other beneficial insects encounter them… it can damage their organs and cause changes in their behavior, preventing them from properly performing ecosystem services such as pollination and pest control.

British Ecological Society Photo Contest Celebrates the Breadth and Beauty of the World’s Biodiversity – I liked the variety of selections in this photo contest.

Introducing Six Steps to Calm: Our science-backed, stress-busting email course – From BBC…I subscribed…plan to take the course!

Your diet can change your immune system — here’s how - There is still much more work to do to unpick the effects of specific diets on the immune systems of those with different health conditions. However, a growing group of immunologists are optimistic that the mechanistic insights they are uncovering are the first steps towards personalized diets for a range of medical conditions.

US air pollution monitoring network has gaps in coverage - Most of the harmful effects from outdoor air pollution in the U.S. are linked to inhalation of fine particulate matter (PM). These suspended particles, like soot or liquid aerosol droplets, are smaller than 2.5 micrometers in diameter, garnering the designation PM2.5. In February 2024, to better protect Americans from health burdens caused by inhaling particles, the EPA adopted a more stringent standard for PM2.5. The EPA tracks compliance with air pollution standards through a network of about 1,000 costly and highly accurate monitoring stations placed in cities and towns nationwide. People of color and people with low socioeconomic status living in the U.S have fewer monitoring stations than other areas to measure air pollutants, meaning they may not be fully protected by the tighter air pollution standards.

Researchers Parse the Future of Plankton in an Ever-Warmer World - Climate change is hitting our oceans hard, making them warmer and more acidic, while radically altering currents. The outlook for plankton is mixed. As the planet warms, the diversity of the menagerie in many spots is increasing. But certain species are losing out, including big juicy plankton thought to be important for food webs and carbon sequestration. And, in the long term, plankton numbers may plummet as climate change starves them of nutrients. Meanwhile research continues: which plankton species are where but also exactly when, since shifts in bloom timing can also have big knock-on effects for fisheries. And the viruses that attack plankton seem to be on the rise as waters warm — another factor with as-yet unknown consequences.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 28, 2024

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 ancient practice of 'good fire' is reviving Nebraska's birds, bears and berries - In its original shape, the once wide, but relatively shallow Platte River provided an open space for the (sandhill) cranes to roost, while also keeping an eye on predators. These four-to-five-foot tall birds with wingspans of six-to-seven feet found abundant plants and insects to eat on the Nebraskan prairies. Lightning strikes brought occasional wildfires, which cleared out dead material and refreshed native plant life. Fire suppression is not always a good thing…

Giant Slab of Bog Butter Recovered in Ireland – Nearly 50 pounds! It is being analyzed by the National Museum of Ireland. It would be interesting to know how long it had been in the bog.

How Agroforestry Could Help Revitalize America’s Corn Belt – 8,200 hazelnut saplings growing with flocks of chickens in narrow grass paddocks between the rows of fledgling trees…. By combining food-bearing trees and shrubs with poultry production it is an example of agroforestry — an ancient practice that intertwines annual and perennial agriculture. Other forms include alley cropping, in which annual crops including grains, legumes, and vegetables grow between rows of food-bearing trees, and silvopasture, which features cattle munching grass between the rows. An acre of land under agroforestry can sequester five metric tons of CO2 annually, versus one ton for an acre of corn or soybeans. As the region’s vast corn and soybean operations continue hemorrhaging soil and fouling water and climate change proceeds apace, they may find themselves looking for new directions sooner than later.

Humans Pollute the Environment With 57 Million Tons of Plastic Each Year - Uncollected waste is the biggest source of plastic pollution, with at least 1.2 billion people living without waste collection services forced to ‘self-manage’ waste, often by dumping it on land, in rivers, or burning it in open fires. This “self-managed” plastic waste makes up more than two-thirds of the modeled plastic pollution. The study also calculated the largest contributors to plastic pollution in the world: India is in first place, producing 10.2 million tons a year; Nigeria is in second; Indonesia is in third; and China—which had been ranked in first place according to other models—instead comes in fourth. The U.S. ranks 90th, with more than 52,500 tons of plastic pollution produced annually.

One of world's fastest ocean currents is remarkably stable - There is growing scientific and public interest in the global Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation, or AMOC, a three-dimensional system of ocean currents that act as a "conveyer belt" to distribute heat, salt, nutrients, and carbon dioxide across the world's oceans. This study found that Florida Current, the beginning of the Gulf Stream system and a key component of the AMOC, has remained stable for the past four decades. Understanding the state of the Florida Current is very important for developing coastal sea level forecast systems, assessing local weather and ecosystem and societal impacts.

Growth of Solar Continues to Defy Predictions - The world is set to install a third more solar capacity this year than it did in 2023, surpassing forecasts by both industry experts and independent analysts. China is driving the bulk of the growth. Through May, India installed more solar capacity than it did in the whole of last year, and in the U.S., new tax breaks are giving the industry a significant boost. Solar manufacturing has jumped fourfold since the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act in 2022.

Birds Form Surprising Relationships with Other Avian Species During Migration - The researchers found that songbirds tended to show up together rather than avoid each other. American redstarts and magnolia warblers reliably appeared together in the researchers’ nets in spring and fall. The same thing happened with ruby-crowned kinglets and white-throated sparrows. The presence of other birds with similar foraging behavior or similar food preferences may signal to newcomers where the good habitat is, helping them refuel more quickly.

Residents in San Joaquin Valley breathe chemical pesticides - A new study found 22% of adults and 10% of children who participated in an air-quality study in California's San Joaquin Valley were breathing detectable levels of pesticides. Participants in this study served as citizen scientists, going about their normal days while wearing the backpacks to collect the samples.

Creative ways communities are reducing food waste – Returning oyster shells to the water in Alabama, collecting food waste for composting in almond orchards in California, gleaning fruit at the end of the season to supply the needy in New Hampshire-Massachusetts, and using underused land to grow free food in Washington.

Only Two US Metro Areas Are Affordable for Homebuyers - Before the Covid-19 pandemic, 20 U.S. states were considered affordable home-buying markets for most households. Today, just two metro areas remain ‘affordable’ by that definition issued by the National Association of Realtors — and no entire states fit the bill. The two metro areas are Youngstown and Akron, Ohio. Home prices have increased by 47% nationwide just since 2020, according to a June report by the Harvard Joint Center for Housing Studies. A major factor is that there aren’t many homes for sale.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 7, 2024

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.

Rare ‘Doomsday’ Oarfish Surfaces in California, Just the 20th Discovered in the State Since 1901 - Usually lives as far as 3,280 feet below the surface. Scientists conducted a necropsy, but they couldn’t discern a reason for the elusive fish’s death. Scientists aren’t totally sure why oarfish and other deep sea-dwelling creatures sometimes surface, but they suspect the animals may be disoriented, sick or injured.

Owl-Inspired “Bionic” Fan for EVs Reduces Fan Noise 50% While Improving Efficiency 10% - Making EVs even quieter!

Do you have knee pain from osteoarthritis? You might not need surgery. – Article written by researchers in Australia about the updated treatment guidelines for knee osteoarthritis that stress exercise, increasing physical activity, weight management, and pain medication (in moderation and not opioids). The links at the end of the article include an online exercise program specifically for knee osteoarthritis.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Only Skyscraper Set to Close Amid Controversy – Price Tower in Bartlesville, Oklahoma. Built in 1956. Designated a National Historic Landmark in 2007.

Rebuilding the Genome of Woolly Mammoths - Typically, ancient DNA fragments yield short snippets of DNA and provide an incomplete picture of the genomic puzzle. However, the woolly mammoth skin sample showed promise. The team assembled the first 3D reconstruction of the woolly mammoth’s genome, which had 28 chromosomes; the order of genes was very similar to that of the Asian elephant. They discovered: the specimen was female; differences from modern elephants in the genes related to hair follicle development and, more broadly, hair maintenance; cooling and dehydration can preserve the molecules in their original locations.

Homelessness – From Our World in Data. Interesting…but frustrating too. I was glad that they emphasized when the data is not consistently collected…and the analysis gets very tricky.

Only One Country Is Making Progress on Electrifying Everything – Unfortunately it is not the US…it’s China. The country that electrifies most rapidly and builds the most renewables to power its electrified economy will be the most competitive economy globally.

As Arctic Thaws, New Evidence of Looming ‘Mercury Bomb’ - Scientists estimate that the amount of mercury in the atmosphere has grown sevenfold over the last 500 years, primarily from burning coal. Air currents are carrying airborne mercury toward the Arctic, where it is absorbed by plants, which then deposit the toxin in the soil. Over centuries, mercury has built up in the frozen ground, such that today, Arctic permafrost may hold more mercury than the atmosphere, the oceans, and every living organisms combined. As the region warms, melting permafrost could liberate this buried mercury.

Rare Fossils Give Clues to How Tardigrades Survived Mass Extinctions by Hitting the Snooze Button - Tardigrades are known for being some of the most resilient animals to exist, capable of surviving extreme temperatures, pressure, radiation and starvation—they can even withstand exposure to outer space. Only four known fossils of tardigrades have been found to date, and all of them are preserved in amber, or ancient tree resin; recently they were reanalyzed using confocal fluorescence microscopy. Cryptobiosis is the secret to tardigrades’ incredible resilience, and it appears to have evolved in two tardigrade linages (at least). In survival situations, these hardy creatures will expel the water from their bodies and suspend their metabolism almost completely allowing them to outlast unfavorable conditions of their environment.

Five ways the brain can age: 50,000 scans reveal possible patterns of damage - Results could lead to methods that detect the earliest stages of neurodegenerative disease. Dementia and its precursor, mild cognitive impairment, had links to three of the five patterns. Intriguingly, the researchers also found evidence that the patterns they identified could potentially be used to reveal the likelihood of more brain degeneration in the future. Other patterns were linked to conditions including Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease, and one combination of three patterns was highly predictive of mortality.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 17, 2024

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.

Ultrafine particles (UPFs) linked to over 1,000 deaths per year in Canada's two largest cities – Particles smaller than PM2.5 that primarily come from vehicle emissions and industrial activities. The study was done in Montreal and Toronto neighborhoods from 2001 – 2016. The findings associate long-term exposure to UFPs with a 7.3% increase in the risk of non-accidental death. Respiratory deaths saw the highest increase, at 17..4%, followed by a 9.4% rise in deaths from coronary artery disease.

Eureka: Why Was Monet Obsessed with Water Lilies? - From 1890 to 1927, Monet would create more than 250 paintings of the water lilies. He had found his subject and there would be no need for another. Besides, as the artist said in an interview, “the water flowers are only an accompaniment.” The real subject was that fickle, forever fluid thing called light, which Monet said changed every seven minutes in Giverny.

The History and Mystery of Glastonbury – A satellite image from January 2024. A little history lesson too: Before the Somerset Levels were drained and converted into agricultural land in the 18th century, the region was a flooded swamp. Glastonbury Tor towered above the water as an island, drawing attention as a site of worship for pagans and Christians.

95% of Steel-Related Emissions from Vehicles Can Be Cut Using Green Steel - Procuring primary steel without fossil fuels is the strongest possible pathway to reduce steel-related emissions from vehicles – and this could be done at scale in the U.S. by the end of the decade. Collectively, automakers are among the largest buyers in the steel market in both the U.S. and EU. In 2022, the auto industry consumed 26% of the 82 million metric tons of steel produced in the U.S., and 60% of all domestic primary steel. In the same year, 17% of the 136 million metric tons of steel produced in Europe went to the auto industry, and 24% of all domestic primary steel.

Lyme disease is becoming more common. But its symptoms aren't always easy to spot - Lyme, is a disease with arthritis-like symptoms, but symptoms can get more varied if treatment is not prompt. It's a type of bacteria that penetrates every tissue in the body. Lyme disease can also cause facial paralysis, heart problems, severe fatigue and painful pins and needles in hands and feet.

Static Electricity May Help Butterflies and Moths Pick Up Pollen - Previous studies have found that honeybees, bumblebees and hummingbirds could pull pollen from flowers through the air with their electric charges. This study looked at 11 species of butterflies/moths from 5 continents.

Multiple urinary metals play key role in cardiovascular disease and mortality, study finds - When analyzed together, the 6 metal-mixture including cadmium, tungsten, uranium, copper, cobalt, and zinc was associated with a 29 percent increased risk of cardiovascular disease and a 66% increased risk of death over the study follow up of 18 years.

Your nose has its own army of immune cells — here’s how it protects you – The nose and upper airway — which includes the mouth, sinuses and throat but not the windpipe — serve as key training grounds where immune cells ‘memorize’ intruding pathogens. These memories allow the cells to defend against future attacks by similar microorganisms.

A Record-Breaking 17 California Condor Chicks Hatched at the L.A. Zoo This Year – Condors usually only raise one chick at a time…but the LA Zoo has found that they will raise more than one chick…and these chicks survive better than human raised chicks when released into the wild after 1.5 years at the zoo.

How the rising earth in Antarctica will impact future sea level rise - In Antarctica, melting glacial ice means less weight on the bedrock below, allowing it to rise. How the rising earth interacts with the overlying ice sheet to affect sea level rise is not well-studied. Measurements show that the solid earth that forms the base of the Antarctic ice sheet is changing shape surprisingly quickly. The land uplift from reduced ice on the surface is happening in decades, rather than over thousands of years.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 20, 2024

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 US schools need to shake up the way they teach physics - As the economy becomes more tech-centered, understanding physics is critical. Yet the number of Americans with a solid grasp of physics is dwindling. Learning physics can better prepare you for a role as an aerospace engineer, software developer or environmental scientist, to name just a few. Shifting the way physics is taught so that students see how physics influences their daily lives with examples from sports, extreme weather or baking and cooking rather than rote memorization of formulas with examples from history would increase the number of students mastering physics and prepare them for the future…which is what education should do.

The Smithsonian Acquires the Earliest Known Photograph of an American First Lady – A daguerreotype of Dolley Madison from 1846 when she was 81.

The Hunt: What Happened to the Great Sphinx’s Nose? – The nose was gone well before Napoleon’s time.

NASA Returns to the Beach: Assateague on the Move – The changes in the barrier islands between 1985 and 2019 shown in images from NASA satellites.

The State of Electric School Bus Adoption in the US – Every U.S. state, except Wyoming, has electric school bus commitments. I hope the adoption has the momentum to continue for the health of child and the environment! As of December 2023, 3,700 electric school buses had already been delivered and 4,800 were awarded/ordered.

Huge firework displays will mark 4 July in the US, but the nation's air quality will suffer - Fireworks generate large amounts of smoke, which can have a visibly negative impact on air quality, but they also release other pollutants that are harder to see. In some areas, the concentration of fine particulate pollution known as PM2.5 can be between 1.5 and 10 times higher than normal on the night of 4 July and the following day. These fine soot particles have been linked to a range of health problems including asthma, heart disease and low birth weight. Another negative for fireworks: One analysis of wildfires on federal land in the US over a 37-year period from 1980 found that 11,294 of nearly 600,000 fires over that period could be attributed to fireworks. Two thirds of these occurred in the two-week period around 4 July. There are concerns that perchlorate (used as a propellent in fireworks) contamination can find its way into drinking water, where high levels of perchlorate can interfere with human thyroid function. --- I hope to see more drone shows available in the coming years.

Weaker Ocean Circulation Could Worsen Warming – A new modeling study finds that slowing currents could disrupt the upwelling of nutrients from the deep ocean to the surface, starving the phytoplankton that absorb carbon. The result is that, not only would the ocean absorb less carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, it would also unleash more carbon dioxide from its depths, leading to further warming.

See Ten Awe-Inspiring Images from the Astronomy Photographer of the Year Contest – Beautiful images. My favorite is the solar prominence image.

Proteins and fats can drive insulin production for some, paving way for tailored nutrition - Production of the insulin is much more dynamic and individualized than previously thought. A subset of the population appears to be hyper-responsive to fatty foods. As a next step, the researchers hope to expand their work into clinical studies that would test insulin responsiveness to carbohydrates, proteins, and fats in a real-world setting, and to begin developing personalized nutrition approaches based on the findings.

Clever pupils don't need to attend academically selective schools to thrive – A study from Australia that followed students for 11 years. At ages 19 and 25 there was little difference between the educational and employment outcomes of children who attended selective schools versus non-selective schools. For example, the study found that while 81% of selective school students went on to secure a job or university place at 19 compared to 77.6% of pupils from non-selective schools, this difference disappeared when the students were matched on key characteristics, including socioeconomic background, gender, and geographical location.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 13, 2024

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.

Pair of Resting Cuckoo Bees Wins the Royal Entomological Society’s Insect Photo Competition – Wonderful images of insects. My favorite is the Wavy-lined Emerald Moth (“A forest gem”).

The Role of Commons in Our Future Resilience - The climate and biodiversity crises will make collective land and water resources the source of future cooperation and conflict. If our commons aren’t governed well, we can have a “future of global violence.” Balancing the needs of local communities and conservation and restoration will require strong relationships between governments and the people who depend on commons for their livelihoods and culture.

Study shows how liver damage from stress and aging might be reversible – The study showed that aging exacerbates non-alcoholic liver disease by creating ferroptic stress, and by reducing this impact, we can reverse the damage.

Extreme Heat’s Far-Reaching Impacts - In addition to the expected impacts — dehydration, heat exhaustion, and heat stroke — heat can also endanger pregnant women, impact sleep patterns, and increase irritability, depression, and suicide rates. Heat is also associated with higher rates of violence and aggression, including intimate partner violence and gun violence.

The chemistry of Polaroid photography – The technology behind taking a picture and printing it instantly.

Cooling Solutions for Cities That Lower Surface & Air Temperatures – Some productive and appealing ways to cool urban heat centers.

Funny Early Entries of the 2024 Comedy Wildlife Photo Awards – Images that will make you smile!

Climate change and sea level rise pose an acute challenge for cities with combined sewer systems - Some 40 million people currently live in areas served by combined sewer systems (in places like Philadelphia, New York, and Boston) that are at increasing risk of being inundated by untreated sewage during floods.

Ancient Egyptian Scribes Were Worked to the Bone - Scribes sat in cross-legged or kneeling positions for long periods of time, hunched over paper and ink. Such activity was bound to overload the jaw, neck and shoulder regions. 30 skeletons of scribes from a northern Egyptian cemetery were examined. Much of the damage was found on the skeleton’s right sides, with the right knee being an especially common point of osteoarthritis, possibly because scribes repeatedly squatted on their right legs, the researchers theorize. And ancient Egyptian iconography commonly depicts scribes writing with their right hands. The posture impacted scribes’ backs.

Pronghorn Place: Preserve Protects Wildlife Migration Route – About the Flat Ranch Preserve on the outskirts of Yellowstone National Park…what has been learned about the Pronghorns migrating through. It reminded me of the pronghorns I saw at Sevilleta National Wildlife Refuge (New Mexico) in 2018.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 18, 2024

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.

25 Years, 25 Images – Celebrating twenty-five years since the launch of NASA Earth Observatory (EO) on April 29, 1999 and the EO website with a slideshow!

Insurance Companies: Consider Climate Risk Events As “Constant Threats” - Up until recently, most people weren’t concerned with how their ability to be insured would change — until catastrophic climate disasters began to wreak havoc on communities around the country. I am very glad I don’t own property in Florida or south Texas or California!

New Constitution Gardens (in Washington DC) Will Be a Biodiversity Mecca – Glad there are plans to improve the area. I always enjoyed it even though it was beginning to show its age in the 1990s and early 2000s when we lived in Maryland and visited with our young daughter.

Stunningly Preserved Ancient Roman Glassware Turns Up in a French Burial Site – Found during construction of a new housing development. I am always amazed at how durable a material we normally thing of as ‘breakable’ can be!

Cicada dual emergence brings chaos to the food chain - Cicada emergences can completely rewire a food web. For predators, these emergences are a huge boom in resources. It's basically like an all-you-can-eat buffet for the hungry predator. A study, published in 2023, found the emergence of periodical cicadas changes the diets of entire bird communities. Scientists have found that wild turkeys, for example, will capitalize on the bounty, leading to a wild turkey boom. However, caterpillars, usually preyed on by birds, were left off the dinner menu and their numbers more than doubled. This in turn led to damage to trees caused by out-of-check caterpillar populations. Rising temperatures will lead to periodical cicada emergences starting earlier in the year, experts believe, as well as an increase in unexpected, "oddly-timed" emergences.

Earlier Springs Cause Problems for Birds - As climate change warms our planet, causing spring to arrive weeks earlier than it has historically, birds are struggling to keep up. It’s not just the green vegetation they miss, but the pulse of protein-rich insects many bird species consume on both their breeding grounds and their migratory stop-over points. Birds will still breed but not quite as successfully because food will be more limited. Instead of chicks hatching as insect populations boom, those chicks may catch the end of the insect pulse.

Why you should let insects eat your plants – I skew the additions to my yard toward native plants….and let whatever insects show up enjoy. My community sprays for mosquitos so there probably is some reduction of other insects because of that. But there are enough left to support a barn swallow (and other insect eating birds) flock in our community.

Quantifying U.S. health impacts from gas stoves - Even in bedrooms far from kitchens, concentrations of nitrogen oxide frequently exceed health limits while stoves are on and for hours after burners and ovens are turned off. All the houses I’ve purchased as an adult, have had electric stoves/ovens except one and I only lived there for 3 years. But – in the 1950s and 1960s, my parents had gas stoves/ovens. Back then the houses were not as airtight as they are now so that might have reduced our exposure; my sisters and I never had asthma or other breathing problems, fortunately.

Inside the exquisite Tibetan monasteries salvaged from climate change – Built in the 1300s, the monasteries are impacted by a significant increase in the intensity of storms and rainfall across the region. Increased rainfall saturates the rammed-earth buildings, as moisture in the soil is drawn upward into the walls, leading to issues such as leaking roofs and rising damp. Local people have gained diverse skills, from reinforcing walls to crafting metal statues and restoring paintings. Over the past 20 years, a team of local Lobas trained by Western art conservationists have replaced the old, leaky roofs of the temples with round timbers, river stones, and local clay for waterproofing, and have restored the wall paintings, statues, sculpted pillars and the ceiling decorations, giving these centuries-old monuments a new life.

Possible Conch Shell Communication in Chaco Canyon Explored - The settlements of Chaco Canyon that spread around each sandstone great house fit into the sphere of sound produced by conch shell trumpet blasts; perhaps the settlements were designed to ensure that every resident could hear the notifications.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 11, 2024

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 new way to quantify climate change impacts: 'Outdoor days' - Noting the number of days per year that outdoor temperatures are comfortable enough for normal outdoor activities. In the North, in a place like Russia or Canada, you gain a significant number of outdoor days. And when you go south to places like Bangladesh or Sudan, it's bad news. You get significantly fewer outdoor days.

Is filtered water healthier than tap water? - Water filters, it seems, are having a heyday – particularly in North America, Europe, and China. I was a little surprised that the article did not mention microplastics in water – even in countries that have relatively high standards for their water supplies.

Baltimore’s Toxic Legacies Have Reached a Breaking Point – “Normal” southwest of the collapsed Frances Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore…one of the most polluted places in the U.S. – a different perspective on the bridge collapse.

European ruling linking climate change to human rights could be a game changer — here’s how - On 9 April, the European Court of Human Rights delivered a groundbreaking ruling: states are obliged to protect their citizens from the threats and harms of climate change. And in that regard, judges said, Switzerland’s climate action has been inadequate. Without prescribing specific years or percentage reductions, the ruling set out how a nation can show it is compliant. It must set out a timetable and targets for achieving carbon neutrality, and pathways and interim targets for reducing greenhouse-gas emissions. Measures must be implemented in a timely, appropriate, and consistent manner. Governments must also provide evidence that they have complied with targets, and update targets regularly.

Positive perceptions of solar projects - A new survey has found that for U.S. residents living within three miles of a large-scale solar development, positive attitudes outnumbered negative attitudes by almost a 3-to-1 margin.

18th-Century Foundation Uncovered at Colonial Williamsburg – Even in much studied areas, there are still new things to discover!

Metabolic health before vaccination determines effectiveness of anti-flu response - Metabolic health (normal blood pressure, blood sugar and cholesterol levels, among other factors) influences the effectiveness of influenza vaccinations….even in people with obesity which the vaccine had previously been documented as being less effective.

The environmental cost of China's addiction to cement - Today, China still accounts for just over half of the world's total annual 4.1bn tons of cement production (52%) – followed by India (6.2%), the EU (5.3%) and the US (1.9%). Little of that cement produced in China is exported. In 2020 the country used an estimated 2.4 billion tons of cement, 23 times the amount used in the US in the same year.

Teotihuacan's Pyramids Damaged by Ancient Earthquakes – Damage from megathrust earthquakes at the site between about AD 100 and 600: fracturing and dislodging of large masonry blocks used to construct the buildings, as well as chipping of blocks that comprised the pyramids' outer stairs.

Mini-colons revolutionize colorectal cancer research - Scientists have combined microfabrication and tissue engineering techniques to develop miniature colon tissues that can simulate the complex process of tumorigenesis outside the body with high fidelity, giving rise to tumors that closely resemble those found in vivo….offering a new path to research colon cancers and their treatment.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 30, 2024

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.

Floating Solar Array Is Designed to Take the Rough Stuff - Rich opportunities for solar co-location with offshore wind. By combining floating solar with offshore wind farms and thereby leveraging the same energy infrastructure and export cables, the resulting energy production capacity per used area could be drastically improved. Prototype has been developed…should be in the water by June 2024.

Lessons In Rewilding the Scottish Highlands – Working with nature…increasing biodiversity…reducing monoculture.

Five Shocking Animal Hybrids That Truly Exist in Nature, From Narlugas to Grolar Bears to Coywolves – I’ve heard about a few of these…the pictures were interesting.

Pregnancy advances your ‘biological’ age — but giving birth turns it back - Brewing a baby leads to changes in the distribution of certain chemical markers on a pregnant person’s DNA — changes similar to those that are a hallmark of getting older. But new research shows that, several months after a person gives birth, the chemical patterns revert to an earlier state.

Did You Know Sandhill Cranes Dye Their Feathers? – The birds rub iron rich mud onto their feathers…staining them. And some trivia about sandhill cranes at the Platte River (Nebraska) in the early spring:

• The birds find a lot of waste corn in farm fields, as well as small invertebrates in marshes near the river. A crane can add 20 percent to its weight during two or three weeks in the area.

• At night, the cranes move to the Platte River for safe roosting in the shallow water.

• Sandhill cranes are the most numerous of the world’s crane species.

• In the Central Flyway, more than 500,000 cranes – more than 80 percent of their population.

The heat index -- how hot it really feels -- is rising faster than temperature - Researchers looked at Texas's summer 2023 heat wave and found that the 3 degree F rise in global temperatures has increased the state's heat index as much as 11 degrees F on the hottest days! Arizona's most populous county, covering most of Phoenix, reported that heat-associated deaths last year were 50% higher than in 2022, rising from 425 in 2022 to 645 in 2023. Two-thirds of Maricopa County's heat-related deaths in 2023 were of people 50 years or older, and 71% occurred on days when the National Weather Service had issued an excessive heat warning. With climate change, the relative humidity remains about constant as the temperature increases, which reduces the effectiveness of sweating to cool the body.

158 Cherry Blossom Trees Will Be Cut Down in D.C. in Effort to Withstand Sea-Level Rise – Part of the project to reconstruct a seawall around the Tidal Basin.

Landscape Architecture Strategies Reduce Impacts of Dangerous Extreme Heat – And these apply to what we do in our yard too!

• Increase tree percentage in parks and green spaces

• Provide shade on sites

• Use plant materials and water instead of hardscape

• Switch to green ground cover, including grasses and shrubs

Plastics Contain Thousands More Chemicals Than Thought, and Most Are Unregulated – Scary! The report also highlights 15 chemical priority groups of concern. These include phthalates, which are used to make plastics more durable and have been found to affect the reproductive systems of animals, as well as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), which break down very slowly over time and have been linked to health issues including reproductive and developmental problems and increased cancer risk.

Only seven nations meet WHO air pollution standards – The US is not one of the seven: Australia, Estonia, Finland, Grenada, Iceland, Mauritius and New Zealand. Bangladesh, Pakistan, India, Tajikistan and Burkina Faso were the top five most polluted countries in 2023 with PM2.5 levels nine to 15 times higher than the WHO's standard. Columbus, Ohio, was the most polluted major city in the United States, while Las Vegas was the cleanest and Beloit, Wisconsin polluted U.S. city overall.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 2, 2024

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.

Apples, Walnuts… and Toast? A New Study Reveals the Flavors of Ancient Roman Wine - Georgian vintners still employ a rustic approach. Grapes are crushed by hand or foot, placed in egg-shaped vessels known as qvevri, and buried for up to six months. It’s a UNESCO-recognized tradition dating back 8,000 years and researchers believe can help reveal the sight and scent of ancient Roman wine.

Mexico is suing US gun-makers for arming its gangs − and a US court could award billions in damages - In January, a federal appeals court in Boston decided that the industry’s immunity shield, which so far has protected gun-makers from civil liability, does not apply to Mexico’s lawsuit. Mexico’s lawsuit alleges that U.S. gun-makers aided and abetted illegal weapons sales to gun traffickers in violation of federal law. According to the lawsuit, feeding demand for illegal weapons is central to the industry’s business model.

Climate change reversing gains in air quality across the U.S.: study - The study finds that climate change is increasing the prevalence of two of the air pollutants most harmful to human health: particulate matter, commonly referred to as PM2.5, and tropospheric ozone. Whereas pollutants from cars and factories could be targeted by regulations over the past few decades, climate-related deterioration in air quality is a much tougher problem to solve.

Avar Grave Offers Clues to 7th-Century Heavy Cavalry - Thought to be a complete set of lamellar armor, which was made from hundreds of small iron plates, was spread out over the warrior.

What Does a Solar Eclipse on Mars Look Like? New, Breathtaking Images, Caught by NASA’s Perseverance Rover, Give Us an Idea – Images of Phobos passing across the sun’s surface…back on February 8.

Benefits of heat pumps - Nationally, heat pumps would cut residential sector greenhouse gas emissions by 36%-64%!

How millennials could give the suburbs a much-needed makeover – The trend is to move to the suburbs and not feel like you need to go to the city to have a great dinner or to see a show or live music or the arts.

The far-reaching impacts of wildfire smoke – and how to protect yourself - One study found that a quarter of the US's PM2.5 pollution was caused by wildfire smoke. In western regions, as much as half was caused by smoke. If there is a wildfire nearby, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention advise taking steps to limit your exposure where possible:

Choose a room to close off from outside air

Wear a tightly fitting respirator, if it is safe for you to do so

Keep track of fires nearby using services such as AirNow's fire and smoke map

Pay attention to health symptoms and seek medical care if needed

Ancient Lipstick Dating Back More Than Three Millennia Is Found in Iran – Analysis of the loose, dark purple fine powder revealed minerals (hematite, quartz, braunite, anglesite, and rare tiny crystals of galena) and vegetal fibers.

In Scotland, Renewable Power Has Outstripped Demand – A milestone for Scotland. The volume of electricity produced by renewables in Scotland was equal to 113 percent of demand in 2022. Fossil fuels still supply some electricity, helping to smooth over gaps in renewable power. Across the U.K., fossil fuel power is at its lowest level in nearly seven decades. Impressive.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 25, 2023

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.

20 Incredible Winners From the 2023 European Wildlife Photographer of the Year Contest – Lots of natural beauty…captured in photographs.

A known environmental hazard can change the epigenetics of cells – Formaldehyde. It is a widespread pollutant - formaldehyde enters our body mainly during our breathing and, because it dissolves well in an aqueous medium, it ends up reaching all the cells of our body. It is associated with an increased risk of developing cancer (nasopharyngeal tumors and leukemia), hepatic degeneration due to fatty liver (steatosis) and asthma.

How forest schools boost children's immune systems – It seems the benefits go well beyond immune systems.  Hopefully this type of school for 3 to 5 year old will increase in availability/popularity.

Circular Maya Structure Uncovered in Southern Mexico - Similar round structures have been found at the Maya sites of Edzná, Becán, Uxmal, and Chichen Itzá.

Health Care Workers Are Burning Out, CDC Says - The CDC researchers analyzed self-reported symptoms of more than 1,400 adults in 2018 and 2022 who were working in three areas: health care, other essential services and all other professions. Workers’ self-reported poor mental health days in the past 30 days was similar across all three groups in 2022, but health professionals saw the most significant jump, from 3.3 in 2018 to 4.5 in 2022. Reports of harassment at work also spiked among health care workers over the five-year period, going from 6.4 percent to 13.4 percent.

How To Bring Back the Prairie, a Tiny Bit at a Time – The use of “prairie strips” on farms in an effort to restore a portion of the Minnesota’s remnant prairie and to soak up polluted water.

These Ten Stunning Images Prove That Small Is Beautiful – From Nikon’s Small World Photomicrography Contest. My favorite was the cuckoo wasp.

Deforestation in Colombia Down 70 Percent So Far This Year - Since taking power last year, leftist President Gustavo Petro has enacted a slate of new policies aimed at protecting Colombian forests, including paying locals to conserve woodland. The recent gains in Colombia mirror similar advances in the Brazilian Amazon, where leftist President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva has cracked down on forest clearing; deforestation is down 50 percent through the first nine months of this year. In 2021, more than 100 countries, from Brazil to Russia to Indonesia, set a goal to end deforestation by the end of this decade, but so far forest loss has declined too slowly to stay on pace for this target.

European wildcats avoided introduced domestic cats for 2,000 years – About 50 years ago in Scotland, however, that all changed. Perhaps as a result of dwindling wildcat populations and a lack of opportunity to mate with other wildcats, rates of interbreeding between wild and domestic cats rose rapidly.

Why grazing bison could be good for the planet - The shortgrass prairie makes up 27,413 sqare miles of remote land straddling the US/Canadian border to the east of the Rocky Mountains. This rare habitat is in ecological decline. Plains bison co-evolved with the short-grass prairie. In the 12,000 years since the end of the Pleistocene, they have proven themselves to be potent ecosystem engineers. An adult bison eats about 25lb (11kg) of grass a day. The grasses adapted to their foraging. Vegetation across the plains uses the nutrients in their dung. Birds pluck their fur from bushes to insulate their nests. Bison also shape the land literally. They roll in the dust and create indentations known as "wallows" that hold water after rainstorms. After the bison move on, insects flourish in these pools and become a feast for birds and small mammals. Pronghorn antelope survive by following their tracks through deep winter snows. Replacing cattle with bison greens floodplains…setting the stage for beavers.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 7, 2023

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.

Nature's great survivors: Flowering plants survived the mass extinction that killed the dinosaurs – Ancestors of orchids, magnolia, and mint all shared Earth with the dinosaurs…and are thriving today.

Woman Uses Hidden Cameras to Get Candid Look at Birds in Her Backyard – Birds (and squirrel, chipmunk, and groundhog) at the food bowl.

Climate Change Hurting Water Quality in Rivers Worldwide – Cycles of heavy rainfall and drought are impacting water quality everywhere.

Large amounts of sedentary time linked with higher risk of dementia in older adults, study shows – The average American is sedentary for about 9.5 hours per day! This study found that the risk of dementia begins to rapidly increase after 10 hours spent sedentary each day for people over 60 years old, regardless of how the sedentary time was accumulated.

The puzzling link between air pollution and suicide - More than 700,000 people kill themselves worldwide every year, according to the World Health Organization (WHO). People in the US might be particularly troubled to learn that the suicides here have increased by around 40% over the past two decades….and the nation now has one of the highest rates of wealthy, developed countries. Suicide disproportionately affects men. In the US, around 80% of suicides last year were male. More research is needed to understand the link between air pollution and suicide…but we already know that "tiny, invisible particles of pollution penetrate deep into our lungs, bloodstream and bodies…and are responsible for about one-third of deaths from stroke, chronic respiratory disease, and lung cancer, as well as one quarter of deaths from heart attack."

Archaeologists discover 1,000-year-old mummy in Peru – Long hair still preserved.

Older adults with digestive diseases experience higher rates of loneliness, depression - While life expectancy rates for older Americans are rising, nearly 40% of adults report living with a digestive disease of some kind.

A Chronic Itch: Burrowing Beneath the Skin - Approximately 20% of people suffer from chronic itch, which is medically defined as an itch lasting greater than six weeks. For many, there is no relief. Itch has historically been one of the most overlooked medical symptoms, reflected in the limited available treatment options, most of which have only been discovered recently.

Puffins Are Making a Comeback in Maine - The fifty-year effort that helped puffins rebound in Maine is cause for celebration!

Capturing carbon in savannas: new research examines role of grasses for controlling climate change - Grasses accounted for over half of the soil carbon content across tropical savannas, including soils directly beneath trees. In general, forests primarily store their carbon in the woody trunks and aboveground leaves. In contrast, a significant portion of carbon in grassy ecosystems, such as savannas and grasslands, is stored in the soil, primarily within the extensive root systems of the grasses as well as decaying organic matter. In the context of long-term carbon storage, carbon retained in soils proves to be more reliable, particularly for a vulnerable future marked by warming and increased likelihood of drought and wildfires.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 30, 2023

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.

Water-quality risks linked more to social factors than money - Low population density, high housing vacancy, disability, and race -- can have a stronger influence than median household income on whether a community's municipal water supply is more likely to have health-based water-quality violations. Many of the water-quality challenges are downstream of demographics, with many community water systems lacking the financial, managerial, and technical abilities to address the water-quality issues.

Step Inside Artist Dale Chihuly’s Stunning Seattle Studio, Filled with an Epic Antiques Collection and His Otherworldly Glass Forms – Interesting pictures.

Archaeological Tropes That Perpetuate Colonialism - We need to start with presence rather than absence. How did Indigenous communities survive, persist, and come to live at the places where they are today? How do Indigenous people conceptualize and engage with the places of their Ancestors? What stories do they share with their grandchildren?

The US is spending billions to reduce forest fire risks – we mapped the hot spots where treatment offers the biggest payoff for people and climate – Where forest-thinning and controlled burns could have the most impact in the western US….for reducing wild-fire caused carbon loss, protecting human communities, and both.

The gold jewelry made from old phones - "We're trying to encourage the idea that one person's waste is someone else's raw material." An article about what is happening at the UK Royal Mint re circuit boards from electronic waste.

Iron Age Child’s Shoe Found in Austria – Found in a salt mine in north-west Austria…a 2,000 year old shoe that once belonged to a child that lived or worked underground.

New Satellite Tracking Air Pollution Releases Its First Images – The TEMPO (Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution) instrument makes hourly measurements of pollutants over North America. NASA will share observations with agencies that provide weather forecasts in hopes of reducing exposure to pollutants such as ozone.

Fine Particulates Are Slowly Killing Us All - People who live in Delhi, the most polluted big city on the planet, are living 11.9 fewer years because of air pollution. People in Bangladesh, the world’s most polluted country, stand to lose 6.8 years of life compared to 3.6 months in the United States. Acknowledging the benefits to society from burning fossil fuels in the past is no reason to continue embracing them in the future. We have created a system that kills people. We have access to clean energy technologies that do not make negative health outcomes one of their embedded features.

New cause of Alzheimer's, vascular dementia - A form of cell death known as ferroptosis -- caused by a buildup of iron in cells -- destroys microglia cells, a type of cell involved in the brain's immune response, in cases of Alzheimer's and vascular dementia.

 Windows to the Past at Great Smoky Mountains National Park – History told through structures left behind (and maintained). Forever Places. A former resident said, ““…it was more like livin’ in the Garden of Eden than anything else I can think of.”

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 16, 2023

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.

Kitchen chemistry hacks explained – How many of these did you know before this article? I knew about lemon juice slowing browning of fruit…I’m going to try the ‘brown onions more quickly’ and ‘chop onions more comfortably.’

Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Distributed Wind Power – Interesting update….and map of annual average wind speed at 30 m. There is so much potential in the center of the country. It would be interesting to see the map extended offshore…but maybe that kind of wind power is only used for wholesale generation rather than distributed wind power.

Dust: how the pursuit of power and profit has turned the world to powder – A review of the book about ‘tiny particles doing terrible things’ created by detonation of nuclear weapons, burning coal, and drying of lakes via irrigation. These tiny particles influence our environment, our health, and our relationship with the world around us. They move around the planet through the air…no one is ‘safe’ from them.

More small airports are being cut off from the air travel network. This is why - A shortage of pilots is partially to blame for major airlines' departure from smaller airports. But changing airline economics means the challenge facing regional airports could become insurmountable. Williamsport PA is the example used in the article.

Health evidence against gas and oil is piling up, as governments turn a blind eye – An Australian perspective…but seems to be applicable to many developed countries, including the US. The methane leaks, water contamination, air pollution…why do we continue to push for gas and oil development rather that pivoting to cleaner (and renewable) sources?

Wyoming and Utah Borderlands – A picture from the International Space Station. I remembered a trip to Utah in 2008 where we drove in the area with a Roadside Geology of Utah book explaining the surface geologic features!

New research explains 'Atlantification' of the Arctic Ocean – Changes coming in the Arctic as a 15-year cycle is ending….and the next phase could result in a faster pace of sea-ice loss.

Stone Case Holding Precious Items Found at Templo Mayor – 15 stone figures found at the temple complex of Tenochtitlán, the capital of the Aztec empire. The figures may have already been 1,000 years old when the Aztecs conquered the Mezcala people that carved them. Also in the case: two rattlesnake-shaped earrings, more than 180 green stone beads, snails, shells, and marine corals.

Workers like it when their employers talk about diversity and inclusion - Research has shown that diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) initiatives improve creativity, innovation, productivity and organizational performance. One of the reasons DEI initiatives have a positive impact is because workers appreciate them. It’s about making sure everyone feels valued and included.

What Does It Take to Photograph a Bat Cave? – Photographer Stephen Alvarez….lots of specialized photographs.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 19, 2023

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.

Risk of fatal heart attack may double in heat wave and high fine particulate pollution days – A study from China that included 202,000 heart attach deaths.

July Was Likely Earth’s Hottest Month on Record – The last sentence of the article: ‘Well, this is probably one of the coolest summers you’ll ever see in your life.’ ... It is quite scary to put it this way.

Climate Change Temperatures Killing Death Valley's Bristlecones – 70% mortality rate over the past decade.

The Australian town where people live underground – Coober Pedy…where most of the people live underground in abandoned opal mines or intentionally excavated spaces!

Looking Down on the Andes – Pacific Ocean, Atacama Desert, Andes…Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia. Image taken from the International Space Station.

Supermarkets to the Rescue — Coles Joins Virtual Power Plant – A grocery chain in Australia. Maybe some supermarkets (and other big box stores) in the US will do similar things.

In a Chilean Forest Reserve, the Remarkable Darwin’s Frog Endures – The endangered frog is a smallish leaf mimic with a pointy nose. Males whistle to attract mates. After females lay their eggs on the ground, males swallow them, holding them in their vocal sac as the young metamorphose. Six to eight weeks after hatching, small adults make their exit through the males’ mouths!

Moths With 11-Inch Tongues? - More than 150,000 recognized moth species, though likely another 150,000 or so, give or take, remain undescribed. Many of these species feed birds and bats like some form of “aerial plankton.” Out of the hundreds of caterpillars one moth might produce, few survive to metamorphose into moths. But those that do provide a critical service both as food for nighttime predators and as pollinators, often evolving to be the only ones that can get the job done. Every species of yucca in North America, including the famous Joshua Tree, requires pollination exclusively from yucca moths.

Spooky, stealthy night hunters: revealing the wonderful otherworld of owls - Owls occur across all continents other than Antarctica, spanning an environmental gradient from the freezing Arctic (home of the stunningly beautiful snowy owl, of Harry Potter fame) to the hottest deserts (home of elf owls).

What to know about beech leaf disease, the 'heartbreaking' threat to forests along the East Coast – I remember this entering into Master Naturalist conversations in Maryland before the COVID-19 pandemic…but the cause was a total mystery at that point. It was interesting to get an update. There is still no known way to control or manage disease, but progress has been made; large numbers of foliar nematodes cause the disease (the interfere with chlorophyll production and the trees starve). It hasn’t been that long ago that the Emerald Ash Borer killed almost all the ash trees…before that wooly adelgid killed the Eastern Hemlocks….and earlier, in the mid-1900s, the American Chestnut succumbed to blight. The eastern US forests are very different than they were 100 years ago and the pace of diseases seem to be increasing.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 8, 2023

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.

Air Pollution Causes 1 In 6 Human Deaths – Deaths from modern pollution risk factors, which are the unintended consequence of industrialization and urbanization, have risen by 7% since 2015 and by over 66% since 2000. Unfortunately, little real progress against pollution can be identified overall, particularly in the low-income and middle-income countries, where pollution is most severe. It is increasingly clear that pollution is a planetary threat, and that its drivers, its dispersion, and its effects on health transcend local boundaries and demand a global response.

Opioids no more effective than placebo for acute back and neck pain – The study was done in Australia but, hopefully, will lead to stepping away from opioids for back/neck pain. How many became addicted to opioids via doctors writing prescriptions trying to relieve their patient’s back pain?

Antimicrobial Resistance: The Silent Pandemic – The first accounts of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurred 2 years after Alexander Fleming warned about it in his 1945 Nobel speech. AMR is now responsible for nearly 700,000 deaths worldwide each year, and it is projected to kill 10 million per year by 2050.

Early Women Were Hunters, Not Just Gatherers – My favorite statement from the article: “Grandmas were the best hunters in the village.”

Overdose deaths involving street xylazine surged years earlier than reported – Drug death data is gathered and analyzed slowly…not so long ago, it appeared that illicit xylazine use was still largely concentrated in the mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast….but it is not showing up in street samples all across the US and surging in the South and West. US drug deaths hit a new record last year with roughly 110,000 fatal overdoses nationwide from fentanyl and increasingly complex street drug cocktails.

U.S. Wind and Solar Overtake Coal for the First Time - In the first five months of 2023, wind and solar produced 252 terawatt-hours, while coal produced 249 terawatt-hours, according to preliminary government figures. The decline in coal is happening faster than anyone anticipated.

Largest-ever atlas of normal breast cells brings unprecedented insights into mammary biology – 12 major cell types, 58 biological states…differences based on ethnicity, age, and the menopause status of healthy women.

Why our voices change with age – Lots of reasons the sounds we make can change. One habit suggested from the article that I am considering: “Singing or reading out loud daily can give the vocal cords sufficient exercise to slow their decline.”

Cedar Breaks Wildflower Festival Starts Friday – Hmmm…maybe I should look for wildflower festivals (along with birding) when I plan our vacations.

Meltwater is hydro-fracking Greenland’s ice sheet through millions of hairline cracks – destabilizing its internal structure - Earth’s remaining ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are far more vulnerable to climate warming than models predict, and that the ice sheets may be destabilizing from inside. Recent studies have shown that:

• Warming ocean currents are intruding into the Antarctic and Greenland coastlines, flowing under the ice shelves to undercut outlet glaciers and destabilize their calving fronts.

• Increasing rainfall across the Greenland ice sheet not only depletes snow accumulation, it also accelerates surface melting and ice flow.

• Algae and microbes, along with surface snowpack melt, darken the ice sheet surface, absorbing more solar radiation, which also accelerates ice melt.

• Superimposed ice slabs within the snowpack are forming across the accumulation zone, forming an impermeable barrier that depletes meltwater retention and drives extraordinary runoff.

• Water at the base of the ice sheet thaws and softens the frozen bed, thereby triggering basal sliding and accelerating interior ice sheet flow to the margins.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 27, 2023

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.

See the Breathtaking Ocean Life Found at Deep-Sea Vents – A short video is included…worth watching.

Exploring the underground connection between trees – Trees, fungi, and other organisms…all interdependent but not guided by a common purpose.

Vibrant Fungi Photos Capture the Beauty of Nature and Nostalgic Memories of Foraging for Mushrooms – Images to savor.

Traces of a Neolithic Road Discovered in the Adriatic Sea – Stacked stone slabs that connected a settlement to a man-made island…now under water.

Shifting sand spits – Gauging climate change in a high-altitude watershed.

Air pollution from oil and gas production responsible for $77 billion in annual US health damages, contributes to thousands of early deaths, childhood asthma cases nationwide – Another reason to dramatically reduce the burning of fossil fuels. It’s not just about climate change.

An ‘Epidemic’ of Loneliness Threatens Health of Americans – A mounting problem. Social disconnection has multiple types of cost: economic, health, poorer academic achievement/work performance.

The ocean is hotter than ever: what happens next? – Probably more extreme weather and marine heatwaves…problems for marine life from corals to whales.

Cleanup of inactive Gulf of Mexico wells estimated at $30 billion – The life cycle costs of the fossil fuel industry are much greater than we’ve ever paid (i.e. we haven’t generally paid for clean up costs as part of the cost of fossil fuel based products)…the bill will eventually have to be paid.

Photography In the National Parks: The Invitation of An Intimate Composition – Good tips for more than National Parks! It’s a special kind of landscape photography!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 29, 2023

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.

Cold is beneficial for healthy aging, at least in animals – Research with nematodes and cultivated human cells. Both carried genes for ALS and Huntington’s disease. Cold actively removed protein clumps…preventing protein aggregation that is pathological for those diseases. The protease activator that caused the change was discovered…and the impact of temperature explored. Interestingly – “human body temperature has steadily declined by 0.03 degrees Celsius per decade since the Industrial Revolution, suggesting a possible link to the progressive increase in human life expectancy over the last 160 years.”

See Colorful Paintings of the Zodiac Signs from an Ancient Egyptian Temple – Ceiling paintings in a Ptolemaic temple…suggesting Greeks brought the zodiac tradition to Egypt.

 Nearly 1,000 Acres Added to New River Gorge National Park and Preserve – The acres are in the Preserve part of the park. I have visited the park only once…passing through on one of my many trips between Maryland and Missouri. There is a lot to explore there!

Vehicle Exhaust Filters Do Not Remove “Ultrafine” Pollution – Aargh! No wonder there are so many yellow and red air quality days in our cities caused by particulates.

What it really takes for Asia to get to net zero – Home to 5 of the 10 largest emitters: China, India, Indonesia, Japan, and South Korea. An article posted ahead of the BBC’s Sustainability Summit in Singapore. "The perception of higher cost for sustainability practices remains," says An (chief sustainability officer of City Developments Limited in Singapore). "But companies are starting to wake up to the fact that achieving climate goals is an "investment, not a cost."

Thread-like pumps can be woven into clothes – My first thought was maybe these will be commonplace in clothes – enabling us to work outdoors even on very hot days.

Sabertooth cat skull newly discovered in Iowa reveals details about this Ice Age predator – Almost as iconic as dinosaurs when it comes to childhood curiosity about extinct animals. One piece of trivia about modern cats: 40% of lion skulls in a study had survived head trauma to hunt another day. One of the ‘sabers’ of the Iowa Sabertooth was broken not that long before it died…might have even caused its death. Prey fights back…the predator does not always ‘win.’

Europe's unique trials in food 'social security' – Two projects: Montpellier, France and Brussels, Belgium. Run by collectives. The idea that quality, nutritious and organic food should be accessible to everyone.  Each citizen receives a monthly allowance enabling them to buy food meeting certain environmental and ethical criteria. The trials are running for 12 months. The big challenge is changing the way society thinks about food.

The Beauty of Bugs – The picture at the beginning of the article jogged my memory – of the necklace made from insect exoskeletons I saw at the Edge of Cedars State Park Museum when I visited Utah in 2013! I posted about it and took a picture back then…and am pleased to learn more about it and the possible implication it might have re the Basketmaker II culture.

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Scientists discover a way Earth’s atmosphere cleans itself – It’s surprising that we don’t know more about how the Earth’s atmosphere works!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 1, 2023

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.

Climate change threatens spring wildflowers by speeding up the time when trees leaf out above them – Evidently the trees and wildflowers in eastern North America are the ones getting the most out of sync.

The mystery of Alice in Wonderland syndrome (AIWS) – AIWS (or Todd’s syndrome) affects the way people perceive the world around them and can distort the way they experience their own bodies and the space it occupies. There are 40 types of visual distortions that characteristic of the syndrome. It was formally described as a distinct syndrome in 1955. Up to 30% of adolescents reported mild or transient experiences. Cough medicines and illicit hallucinogenic substances are also known to trigger it.  Sometimes medical conditions like strokes or brain tumors can cause the syndrome as can infections.

Chinook salmon fishing season canceled off coasts of Oregon, California – Dwindling numbers of Chinook salmon in the states’ largest rivers following years of drought.

In Florida, an invasive snail is helping save an endangered bird – We heard about this during a birding trip to central Florida pre-pandemic. It probably is one of the few examples when an invasive species has produced a positive outcome.

Garbage to Guts: The Slow-Churn of Plastic Waste – Lots of microplastics in the world…and they are in our food chain. Ongoing exposure decreases beneficial gut bacteria and increases pathogenic species. A lot more research needs to be done since, right now, we don’t know very much about impacts of microplastics – not just to the overall environment but to our own bodies.

 With Heat from Heat Pumps, US Energy Requirements Could Plummet By 60% - Thinking about heat….and the ‘rejected energy’ (mostly heat) in our current energy consumption. The idea is to use heat pumps to dramatically reduce ‘rejected energy’ in future energy consumption.

Entire populations of Antarctic seabirds fail to breed due to extreme, climate-change-related snowstorms – Evidently the December 2021 - January 2022 breeding season for south polar skua, Antarctic petrel, and snow petrel was so disrupted that there were almost no young produced.

Why don’t humans have fur – Interesting…but we really don’t know. The genetic research associated with the question could have practical application for people that need to stimulate hair growth (like after chemotherapy or balding).

2021 Was A Very Good Year for Nesting Wading Birds In The Everglades – Hurray! Some good happening in the Everglades. There are so many stories about the impact of invasive species (like Burmese pythons) that this is welcome news.

Meet the sargassum belt, a 5,000-mile-long snake of seaweed circling Florida - In the open sea, sargassum can soak up carbon dioxide and serve as a critical habitat for fish, crabs, shrimp, turtles, and birds…all positive. But when sargassum gets close to shore it can smother coral reefs, alter the water’s pH…and then onshore it begins to rot within 24 hours releasing irritants like hydrogen sulfide which smells like rotten eggs or manure and can cause respiratory problems. And it often contains significant amounts of arsenic so not a great addition to a compost pile. The mass of sargassum has been increasing since 2011 --- probably in response to elevated nutrients (runoff from fertilizer, burning biomass, increasing wastewater from cities, etc.) we have released into the ocean. Sargassum has come ashore in Yucatan and Key West recently.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 18, 2023

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 mixture of trees purifies urban air best – Conifers do a better job at gaseous components of pollution…and they do it all year round; this is particularly important since pollution can be at its highest in winter. Broadleaved trees are more efficient at cleaning the air particles, perhaps because of their larger surface area.

Once the Callery pear tree was landscapers’ favorite – now states are banning this invasive species and urging homeowners to cut it down – Back in the 1980s, the neighborhood I lived in organized to plant Branford pears along our streets. The neighborhood I moved to in the mid-1990s had mature Bradford pears; they were knocked down by Hurricane Isabel in 2003 (the trunk of the one in our neighbor’s yard broke close to the ground with a loud crack) and not re-planted. My neighborhood in Missouri was built in the late 1990s and there are some mature trees near the entrance.

Assessing the risk of excess folic acid intake – Too much or too little of a good thing (folic acid) may not be such a good thing.

School choice proposals rarely go before voters – and typically fail when they do – Public schools have been the backbone of American greatness. How do parents make choices to do otherwise? I suspect that sometimes a Charter School that looks great turns out to be something completely opposite because it is so difficult for individuals to gather enough information to evaluate a school. So - why are legislatures keen to support non-public schools?

The East Coast Whale Die-Offs: Unraveling the Causes – There have been headlines on this as a new challenge; this article includes some data collected so far. There have been periodic whale strandings earlier (back in 2016-2017) too. Almost all the carcasses this winter in New York and New Jersey had clear signs of vessel strike and many were juveniles. It appears that the feeding areas for whales have shifted due to warmer water and that shift has put them in areas with more ships (i.e., ports of New York, New Jersey, and Philadelphia).

Mary Wollstonecraft: an introduction to the mother of first-wave feminism – A little history…but not just about feminism. “Liberation from oppression means being able to define ourselves and the direction of our lives. And this requires access to the intellectual resources and knowledge needed to develop independence of mind. This is Wollstonecraft’s most important message, and one that should speak to everyone regardless of gender.”

Cornell Study Finds Solar Panels Help Crops Grow & Crops Help Solar Panels Last Longer – Not all crops can grow under solar panels but enough of them do (like tomatoes and soybeans) that there is no reason for solar panels to reduce farmland!

Global warming is changing Canada’s boreal forest and tundra – It’s complex. In general, as temperatures warm, trees will colonize further north…but not at uniform rates in all regions.

Greater gender equity helps both women and men live longer – The study looked at 156 countries between 2010 and 2021 to assess the gender gap in life expectancy around the globe. The three dimensions included in the study were political, economic, and educational. Of the three, education has the strongest association with longer life expectancy. The study authors summarize: “the evidence demonstrates that enhancing women's representation across multiple sectors contributes to wealthier and, hence, healthier societies for all."

Less Than 1 Percent of People Globally Breathing Safe Levels of Pollution, Study Finds – Focusing on particulate pollution: particulate pollution has fallen in Europe and North America over the past two decades, but risen in sub-Sharan Africa, India, China, Southeast Asia, Australia, New Zealand, Latin America, and the Caribbean. (see Lancet article with maps here).