Gleanings of the Week Ending June 12, 2021

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 treatment: Removing hormones with sunlight -- ScienceDaily – Research to find and remove micropollutants. Micropollutants have become more concerning over the past few years as research has shown the potential for health impacts.

Which processed foods are better than natural? - BBC Future – Processed foods are not all unhealthy. Some are better than fresh (for example, canned tomatoes, pasteurized milk). But watch out for ultra-processed foods – ones derived from foods and additives; they can alter gut bacteria, cause inflammation….and many people have a tendence to overeat ultra-processed food.

Top 25 birds of the week: endemic birds – Birds found only in a small area of the world…and no where else. My favorite is the Bee Hummingbird – smallest hummingbird in the world and only found in the Cuban archipelago.

Dietary cocoa improves health of obese mice; likely has implications for humans -- ScienceDaily – Hmmm…maybe my 2 squares of dark chocolate for 1st breakfast is not a bad thing at all…even though I am not obese.

Chipmunk Quest – We have had chipmunks around our house periodically. They are fun to watch. They seem to taunt our cat through the window!

Why Bald Eagle Populations Soared in the Last Decade | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A good news story of species recovery.

Europe’s Drive to Slash Plastic Waste Moves into High Gear – Hope similar efforts are made in the US. As an individual, it is hard to avoid single-use plastic although I have made an effort to avoid plastic shopping bags and buy products in paper/metal rather than plastic when that is an alternative.

Move Over, Cicadas: 5 Other Great North American Wildlife Hatchings (and Emergences) – The Brood X cicada emergence is beginning to wane in our area….it was interesting to think about other emergence type events. Maybe one of the events mentioned in this article will motivate a road trip in the next year or so.

Tropical species are moving northward in U.S. as winters warm: Insects, reptiles, fish and plants migrating north as winter freezes in South become less frequent -- ScienceDaily – Shifts already observable…others projected.

Report exposes power gap at US universities – Only one in ten top-earning faculty members is a woman.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 20, 2021

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 greatest security threat of the post-truth age - BBC Future – The chilling observation that we might be in a period when “Although information is easily available, people cannot tell whether anything they see, read or hear is reliable or not.”

Top 25 birds of the week: Waterbirds! – From around the world…and the first one is a bird I’ve seen/photographed too in Texas, New Mexico, Delaware and Florida: the American White Pelican!

Diets high in fructose could cause immune system damage, study suggests -- ScienceDaily – Another reason to avoid processed foods….

Easy Nature Adventures to Enjoy Near You – Enjoying the place where you are…outdoors! This time of year, there is a lot of things to see close to where I live and I can choose the places/times to avoid any crowds (still a good thing in this pandemic time until the vaccination rates get much higher and infections begin to plummet).

Stealth Chemicals: A call to action on a threat to human fertility – Evidence has been accumulating…and there are a lot more observable problems at this point. I was glad that near the end of the article, there were recommendations for people trying to have children and/or for young children. And we need to move forward on top-down approaches if manufacturers don’t take near term action.

Helping Birds Adapt to Climate Change in the Nevada Desert – Replacing lost riparian areas after removal of invasive tamarisk.

Earth Matters - What in the World Are Moon Trees? – Trees grown from seeds that were taken into lunar orbit 50 years ago!

Climate Change, Deforestation Hurting Monarch Butterfly Migration : NPR – So many problems for the migrating populations of these butterflies. Soon we might only see this butterfly in areas where they don’t need to migrate to survive the winter.

Remnants of Iron Age Settlement, Roman Villa Found in England | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – 15 cone shaped roundhouses dating from 400 BC and 100 BC and then a Roman villa from the 3rd to early 4th century AD. It must have be a good place to call home over a long time period!

Ice Age Carolinas – Carolina Bays….indicators that permafrost extended for several hundred kilometers south of the ice sheet during the last ice age.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 26, 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.

Closing the Racial Inequality Gaps – Citi Global Perspectives & Solutions – The report (summarized by NPR in Cost of Racism: US Economy Lost $16 Trillion Because of Discrimination, Bank Says) details the analysis  done by Citi that calculates the economic impact of racism….and thus puts a value on proposed government and individual actions to close racial gaps.

Top 25 Birds of the Week: Birds in Flight and Bird Interactions – Double the bird photos this week!

Infographic: Dialing Down the Glitz | The Scientist Magazine® - The mechanism that makes dramatic sexual dimorphism in some finches.

How vitamin C could help over 50s retain muscle mass -- ScienceDaily – Another reason to eat Vitamin C rich foods (and take a supplement when that is not possible).

A guide to natural sweeteners – in C&EN – Compound Interest – A good summary of the chemistry behind natural sweeteners. I am enjoying the stevia leaves I am getting from the CSA’s cutting garden right now – building up my supply a little every week of dried leaves and stems to enjoy even after the cutting garden ends for the year.

Schooling is critical for cognitive health throughout life -- ScienceDaily – Boosting cognitive skills early in life not only expands career opportunities and provides progressively higher salaries…it also pushes back the point at which age-related dementia begins to impact a person’s ability to care for themselves. Education is a good long-term investment for everyone.

Study Tracks Geographical Gene Flow and Ancestry in the US | The Scientist Magazine® - Beginning to get deeper genetic studies that might translate to better understanding of risk of disease across sub-populations within the US.

Scientists use fruit peel to turn old batteries into new -- ScienceDaily – Recycling metals from lithium-ion batteries with food waste…an example of the types of processes we need to develop for a circular economy (zero waste).

Hike in Walnut Canyon – A short video of a special place. I first visited in 1971 in the winter. It was memorable. Maybe I’ll go again after the pandemic is over; it’s high enough elevation I’ll make sure I am acclimated before I hike the trail to see the cliff dwellings up close.

The Undoing of US Climate Policy: The Emissions Impact of Trump-Era Rollbacks – Many young people see climate change as a high priority for the government to address….so do I. This research shows that the actions of the last few years have moved the US in the wrong direction. I usually prefer to focus on solutions and what individuals can do….but the government has a roll to play and, right now, it is moving opposite of the way needed.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Letter sweater. I found my 50-year-old letter sweater (academic…not sports) from high school when I cleaned out the coat closet. It still fits! It’s a little chilly today and I am wearing it. I took the letter off years ago but the flap in the pocket has my name embroidered on it. One of the buttons aged differently than the others – looks reddish rather than black. I’ll wear it as a basic black cardigan (with the odd button) in the fall and winter. I made a small pile of some other things in the closet to give away. My pile is big enough now that I am scheduling a pickup from my front porch!

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 5, 2019

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.

BBC - Future - The desert soil that could save lives – Bioprospecting for antibiotics and industrial biocatalysts from bacteria that survive in extreme environments like the Atacama or Antarctica

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Resident Birds – National Geographic Society Newsroom – ‘Resident’ around the world….beautiful birds.

Global warming may threaten availability of essential brain-building fatty acid -- ScienceDaily – Impacts of climate change go far beyond the climate models…many probably still to be discovered.

Recovery: Restoring the Floodplain Forest – Cool Green Science – I started reading the article since I am always interested in how restoration projects are created and evolve…but the aspect I’ll remember about it was the info about a tree: American Elms. Ones resistant to Dutch Elm Disease are among the trees being planted as part of the restoration. I grew up at a time when the elms were all dying. There were several I remember at my grandparents’ house in Oklahoma and a tree beside the playhouse at the house we moved to in Dallas in the early 1970s. It was already sickly. I wonder if there will soon be enough varieties and availability of elm trees for them to become landscaping trees again.

Interview: Self-Taught Myanmar Photographer Captures People Working – Capturing images of human-made place. Now I am wondering what I would photograph in my part of the world to do something equivalent.

Crying over plant-based milk: neither science nor history favors a dairy monopoly – An article about milk….and the argument about what the word means. The dairy industry wants it to mean milk from cows…but milk has been used more broadly to mean white liquid for a very long time. We even have plants with ‘milk’ in their name (i.e. milkweed)!

Pictures of India's UNESCO World Heritage sites – Rich cultural and natural history…reflected in places selected to protect.

'Report card' on diet trends: Low-quality carbs account for 42 percent of a day's calories: Older people, those with lower income, and those with less education face greater hurdles -- ScienceDaily – With results like this, maybe we should come up with better ways of helping people learn about nutrition. Do our schools help students learn about nutrition? How many adults have logged their food intake into an app and discovered how good (or poor) their food choices are? The current outreach strategies relative to nutrition are not enough. Sometimes even doctors seem to lack any expertise other than knowing that a patient is overweight/obese or their waist is too large.

Create Wildlife Habitat Around Your House – Cool Green Science – I already have a bird bath and feeder, milkweed patch, brush pile and some native trees (maple, sycamore, tulip poplar, oak). Even a spongy compost pile is habitat (this summer I had puddling tiger swallowtails on it)!

Komodo Dragons Have Skin That Looks Like Chain Mail | Smart News | Smithsonian – Four distinct morphologies of osteoderms in the skin of adult Komodo dragons. Another example of the wonderful complexity in the natural world.