Gleanings of the Week Ending August 3, 2024

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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.

Dragonflies Reveal Path of Mercury Pollution – Dragonfly larvae collected from 150 national parks and then analyzed for mercury revealed: in arid regions, mercury comes from snow and rain, while in wetter, more forested areas, airborne mercury clings to leaves, which then fall to the ground, where the toxin spreads.

Komodo dragons have iron-coated teeth to rip apart their prey – A clue to how dinosaurs like Tyrannosaurus rex killed and ate their prey.

COVID-19 devastated teacher morale − and it hasn’t recovered - A National Education Association survey of members found that, as of late 2022, a staggering 55% of educators were thinking of calling it quits because of: eroding sense of safety in the school, intense and unrelenting workload, lackluster leadership and changing expectations, and cuts in jobs and budget. Better pay is a start. I was disappointed that this article did not suggest more than that.

25 Stunning Images of the Cosmos from the Chandra X-Ray Observatory as It Celebrates 25 Years in Space - As NASA continues to grapple with a limited budget this year, Chandra is in danger of ending up on the agency’s chopping block and the program faces cuts in funding.

National Park Fun Facts: Petrified Forest – I’ve been to Petrified Forest National Park several times….still learned something from this post.

Art Bites: Michelangelo’s ‘David’ Was Carved Out of a Flawed Marble Slab – Some history of the famous statue.

8 Tips for Maximizing Your Home Solar Savings in 2024 – I am beginning to read articles like this…we will probably put solar on our house within the next year.

Why Covid-19 is spreading this summer – We’ve got to stop thinking about COVID as something that is like the flu…it isn’t.

Saving Dixie: 24 Hours Caring for a Wallaby Joey – The mother killed along a highway….and the Joey discovered alive…fortunately by someone who was willing to take care of him long enough to get him to an experienced wildlife carer.

Happy 50th birthday to the UPC barcode - While the world has changed a lot since the mid-1970s, the Universal Product Code (UPC) – what most people think of when they hear the word “barcode” – hasn’t. The code first scanned on a package of gum on June 26, 1974, is basically identical to the billions of barcodes scanned in stores all over the world today.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 6, 2024

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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.

Extended maternal care central factor to human other animal, longevity – In species where offspring survival depends on the longer-term presence of the mother, the species tends to evolve longer lives and a slower life pace, which is characterized by how long an animal lives and how often it reproduces.

The 'gene deserts' unravelling the mysteries of disease - Less than 2% percent of the human genome is dedicated to coding for genes which produce proteins, while much of the remaining 98% has no obvious meaning or purpose. But scientists are slowly managing to accrue information about the ‘gene deserts’ apparent purpose and why they exist.

These Stunning Butterflies Flew 2,600 Miles Across the Atlantic Ocean Without Stopping – Painted Lady butterflies spotted in French Guiana where they are not usually found. Sequencing the butterflies’ genome revealed that they were related to African and European painted ladies – not North American. And looking at weather data revealed that wind conditions in the weeks prior to the sighting were favorable for the butterflies moving from Africa to South America.

Simple test for flu could improve diagnosis and surveillance - Fewer than one percent of people who get the flu every year get tested, in part because most tests require trained personnel and expensive equipment. The current version of new test is a low-cost paper strip that distinguishes between influenza A and B and subtypes H1N1 and H3N2. It works at room temperature…takes about 90 minutes. They are working to reduce the time to 15 minutes.

To Save the Red Knots, Look to Blue Carbon – Red Knots migrate over 9,000 miles to the Arctic to breed. Along the way they stop for meals of mussels and clams in coastal areas. This post highlights 6 projects from around the world that are restoring those area…for the red knots and the health of the planet.

Photography In the National Parks: Two Cave Parks Above and Below – Wind Cave National Park and Jewel Cave National Monument. Full of ideas for photographing inside caves and above them! My first thought was to see if there is a trail that goes over the top of Sequiota Cave and Spring near Springfield MO (we did a boat tour of the cave last spring).

Surprising phosphate finding in NASA's OSIRIS-REx asteroid sample – Remembering when we went to the launch of the mission in September 2016.

Swift Parrots and the Heartbreak of Rare Species – Endangered Australian parrots…with only an estimated 500 birds left in the wild. “We conservationists bear witness to so much loss: of species, ecosystems, and the places we know and love. Often, it feels like we’re watching extinction in real time, powerless to stop it. But there is value in staring these losses in the face. Value in bearing witness to a rare parrot with an uncertain future, knowing full well I might mourn its extinction in a few years time. If the worst happens, at least I will have cherished it while it was here.”

A Big Picture of the US Housing Market - High interest rates, supply constraints and growth in home insurance premiums (particularly in states like California and Florida) are all driving housing costs. There is some news that’s more positive. Nearly 450,000 new apartments were finished in 2023, the highest rate in about three decades. However, average rents remain above pre-pandemic levels in most markets.

Sheep & Solar: A “Beautiful Symbiotic Relationship” - When solar farms use sheep instead of mowers for vegetation management, they minimize burning fossil fuels, and costs associated with labor are also reduced. Investment costs for a solar farm might include water tanks, troughs, a small water pump to fill the troughs, predator-proof fencing, and dividing into sections for rotational grazing. The sheep eat the tall grass, weeds, and clover, and their chomping inhibits the vegetation from blocking the panels. Their steady consumption of forage on the land prevents grassy plants from growing high enough to block sunlight from reaching the panels, maintaining the productivity of the array. Sheep are the most appropriate ruminant species when it comes to vegetation management on solar farms because they are too small to damage the panels when rubbing against them, and they are not predisposed to chewing on wires or jumping on the panels.

NASA Images from the 1960s

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I did a lot of my growing up in the 1960s; the US space program had an impact on my education and perspective of the world so when I found 3 books of images from NASA in the 1960s available on Internet Archive for easy browsing- I savored the memories of seeing some of those images in newspapers and magazines shortly after they were taken. The images looking back at Earth from space were so different than the previously available aerial photographs taken from planes or balloons. Now we take for granted the satellite imagery in our everyday lives (for example, Google Maps satellite view). The NASA programs in the 1960s were steps along the technological path. A lot has happened in the past 50 years!

(click on the sample images to see a larger version…and the link to look at the whole book of wonderful images)

Exploring space with a camera (1968)

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 13, 2022

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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 a decade of Curiosity has taught us about Mars – Looking for signs of life.

Zion National Park, Utah – A view of the park from the International Space Station. A piece of trivia from the post: Cyanobacterial blooms are a threat to hikers and wildlife – exacerbated by intense summer heat.

Air pollution, including during wildfires, shows ill effects in children -So many questions popped into my mind as I read this article: Does keeping children indoors with modern air conditioning/heating filtered air help? Further air purification required? The children in the study were 9-11 years old; are some of the markers also indicators of stress they may have developed knowing there were wildfires?

Ultra high-speed photography captures hidden human figures in moving water – Eye candy

Heat pumps prove themselves during a harsh Maine Winter – Modern heat pumps do the job even at -21 degrees in Maine!

Neolithic Watermelons may have been valued for their seeds – Snacks! And now most watermelons we buy in stores doen’t have seeds at all!

Nahuku Lava Tube in Hawai’i Volcanoes National Park Closed to study its stability – Also known as Thurston Lava Tube. I walked through it when we were in Hawaii several years ago.

Vitamin K prevents cell death: New function for a long-known molecule – Important for blood clotting….but new research shows it is also a potent antioxidant that ameliorates cellular iron’s role in cell death (ferroptosis). There will probably be a lot of subsequent research following up this finding.

The science of making cheese – Infographic that shows the 4 steps: acidification, coagulation, reducing moisture content, and maturation.

The mysterious inner life of the octopus – Interesting article….or just look at the pictures!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 21, 2022

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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.

Amazing Photo of Wisteria Trees Looks Like a Fireworks Display – Pictures from Japan’s Ashikaga Flower Park.

New Mexico Wildfire Spawns Fire Cloud – A pyrocumulonimbus cloud formed; the vertical plume reached the tropopause….an altitude of about 12 kilometers.

Heatwaves are altering our everyday lives – The new normal but we aren’t very well prepared for it; there are some obvious adaptations that are needed – particularly to electrical networks. No one wants infrastructure to fail at a critical time.

Well-preserved iron age arrow discovered in Norway – The arrow was recovered from a glacier…iron arrowhead, sinew, tar, thread, shaft, and feather fletching was preserved. It is about 30 inches long.

Rigid waterproof coating for paper aims to reduce our dependence on plastic – Interesting…would be great if it could speed the transition away from plastic for food packaging particularly. The article said the chemicals break down over time into harmless components…but didn’t say how long that took.

Chemicals that linger for decades in your blood – So many chemicals introduced in my lifetime are probably still in my blood. I can remember the spraying of DDT for mosquitoes in the ‘60s….one instance particularly of the straying truck going down the farm road near my grandparents house as we played in the back yard. How much of my exposure do I still have…did I pass along to my daughter?

Ultraviolet light reveals radiant hidden beauty of flowers – A project during the COVID-19 pandemic…beautiful results.

Archaeologists Unearth 3,000-Year-Old Giant Statues in Sardinian Necropolis – Over 7 foot tall…with almost emotionless expression, blocky nose and deep-set eyes. The two found most recently were boxers but about two dozen others have been found since the mid-1970s: 16 boxers, 4 archers, and 5 warriors.

Top 25 birds of the week: May 2022! – Bird appreciation….a source of beauty in the world.

Disparities in natural gas leak prevalence in US urban areas – Why can’t pipeline companies do better…not wait around until regulation requires them to do it? We should be more critical of the companies that they are not actively reducing leaks in their pipelines.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 16, 2021

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

How to Easily Catch Spotted Lanternflies Using a Water Bottle – These insects have invaded Maryland, but I haven’t seen them yet. Maybe this is a reason to put an empty plastic water bottle in the car – just in case.

Exposure to deadly urban heat worldwide has tripled in recent decades, says study – On of the topics in the schoolyard field trip for 6th graders was heat islands – it’s a good example of the impact of climate change around the world.

Smoky Clouds That Form Over Wildfires Produce Less Rain – Drought…forests burning…and then less rain. Aargh!

8 Fall Nature Experiences to Enjoy – There are so many things to enjoy in the outdoors during the fall – as the heat of summer fades away.

Exploring The Parks: 10 Historic Sites To Visit This Fall – More ideas for fall activities. I’ve been to all the sites they list that are on the east coast…but not necessarily in the fall.

NASA and USGS Launch Landsat 9 – The first Landsat was launched in July 1972 – the year my husband and I graduated from high school.

A new solid-state battery surprises the researchers who created it – Solid state electrolyte and an all-silicon anode – faster charge rates at room to low temperatures. There is a lot of battery research going on now …coming up with batteries that will help achieve the grid storage and transportation needs of the future.

Young People Are Anxious About Climate Change And Say Governments Are Failing Them – It’s not just young people that have this anxiety. Everyone I know has climate change anxiety….and say governments are failing us all.

Wind energy can deliver vital slash to global warming – It’s a component of the technology we need….it can’t solve everything alone but we have it ready to deploy now – and should just do it as quickly as we can. And it’s cheaper than using fossil fuels!

Yale Climate Change Maps 2020 – Results from a spring 2020 poll about climate change.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 9, 2021

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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.

Earth is dimming due to climate change – Decades of measurements of earthshine indicate that the Earth is becoming less reflective with warmer oceans (and fewer bright clouds).

Kilauea Resumes Eruptions At Hawai'i Volcanoes National Park – Exciting times on the big island…

In UK, Interest in EVs Spikes Amid Fuel Shortages – There have been stories about Ford and GM strategy recently too….lots of indicators that many people will be buying EVs sooner rather than later if enough are produced.

NASA lander records the largest ‘Marsquakes’ ever detected – The lander has been on the surface since 2018!

Dental care: The best, worst and unproven tools to care for your teeth – Hmm….I wonder how much this research will change what dentists advise?

Baby Poo Has Ten Times More Microplastics Than Adult Feces – A scary result…and no ideas on how to reduce exposure (and we don’t know exactly what harms it might cause)….just more research needed. Very frustrating.

Coastal Northeastern US is a global warming hotspot; 2 degrees Celsius of summer warming has already occurred – From Maine to Delaware…the area is warming faster because of climate change linked alterations in the ocean and atmospheric conditions of the North Atlantic.

2021 Nature Conservancy Photo Contest Winners Highlight Global Wildlife and Nature – Beautiful…and thought provoking. My favorite was the artsy one at the end…a high key image.

Paradigm shift in treatment of type 2 diabetes to focus on weight loss – There are probably other chronic ‘diseases’ that have become more prevalent over the past few decades that could be improved with weight loss….but it is hard to lose weight…and keep it off. It requires permanent lifestyle changes.

A Leisurely Trip to Kansas – Another post that includes pictures of a rough green snake. I’ve been on the lookout for them since my son-in-law sent a photo he took with his phone!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 26, 2021

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Top 25 Birds of the week: Habitats! – Birds are everywhere (at least now/recent past). The decline in insect populations could make it problematic for many species to survive.

The Institutions of Extraterrestrial Liberty (Day 1: https://tinyurl.com/4t7zjv72 Day 2: https://tinyurl.com/2f9n4b72 Day 3: https://tinyurl.com/48rbba2k Day 4: https://tinyurl.com/5bbey7pr) – A series of webinars chaired by Charles Cockell (I enjoyed his astrobiology course on Coursera back in 2015 and his “Life in the Universe Pandemic Series’ back in Spring 2020). The subject in these webinars is freedom beyond Earth with talks on everything from liberty in Martian settlements to war in space. This is not about the search for life beyond Earth, but it is about the human future beyond Earth and how human societies might evolve over time. The schedule for each of the days is in the comments section so it is easy to select segments easily.

Gigantic flying pterosaurs had spoked vertebrae to support their 'ridiculously long' necks -- ScienceDaily – Their necks were longer than a giraffe’s…and the vertebrae had internal structure not seen in any other animal. The discovery was made with a CT scan and petrographic sections through the bone.  

Linking Birds, Farmer Attitudes and Conservation – The approach is not as straightforward as it might seem…there are nuances and feedback loops that need to be considered to get a positive result.

A breathtaking treasure reveals the power of the woman buried with it : Research Highlights – Early Bronze Age southeastern Spain…heavy silver diadem, silver ornaments…pots with intricate silver plating and daggers with silver-plated handles.

Challenging Conservation Not to Leave Women Behind – An example from the Solomon Islands….globally relevant.

100-Year-Old Lungs Yield Genetic Samples of 1918 Flu Viruses | The Scientist Magazine®- Lungs of 2 soldiers and a civilian preserved in formalin….from the first wave of the 1918 flu…when it was not as deadly as the later waves.

Why Peru is reviving a pre-Incan technology for water - BBC Future – One of the world’s first efforts to integrate nature into water management on a national scale. Projects include protecting high altitude cushion bogs and shoring up ancient water storage (routing water in the wet season to natural infiltration basins). These are ‘slow water’ solutions…mitigations that should be studied for other areas that are drying out as the climate changes.

An Estimated 50 Billion Birds Populate Earth, but Four Species Reign Supreme | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – And the 4 species are: house sparrow, European starling, ring-billed gull, and barn swallow.

How humanity has changed the food it eats - BBC Future – Perspectives on the processing of food through our history (and pre-history)…and where we are now. It is still possible to make choices that are healthy for us…but a lot of ultra-processed ‘foods’ readily available that are not.  

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 31, 2020

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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 That Cloud? Your Guide to Cloudspotting – A little tutorial. Maybe a prompt to do some cloud photography too.

This white paint keeps surfaces cooler than surroundings, even under direct sunlight -- ScienceDaily – I remember being at White Sands National Park on a hot day and walking on the sand barefoot (i.e. the sand was not hot!). Hopefully the architectural norms will begin to shift toward white roofs and then durable paints/shingles will be readily available to make it affordable. The heat islands of cities would be reduced…which could be helpful now and an increasing benefit as climate change continues.

Google Maps Gets More Electric-Car Friendly – Android Auto (not the phone app) adding features.

Top 25 birds of the week: Land-birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoy bird images!

NASA's OSIRIS-REx spacecraft successfully touches asteroid -- ScienceDaily – We went down to Florida for the launch back in 2016 so I try to at least scan articles with updates. The sample is now safely stored away and will be heading back to Earth…arriving in 2023.

Why older people are harder to vaccinate - BBC Future – What vaccines can do…what they might not do. For example – did you know that the flu vaccine reduces disease but does not do much to reduce transmission because a vaccinated person can still shed virus particles?

Black Witch Moths: A Night-Time Trick or Treat – Because it’s Halloween….it will be a very quiet one this year with the regular form of trick-or-treating called off in our area.

The rats evicted from paradise - BBC Future – A positive result for humans correcting a problem we caused….only able to succeed because of the resilience of nature (and because we corrected before it was too late for recovery).

Flowers Are Changing Color in Response to Climate Change | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Adjusting UV pigmentation to protect themselves (rising temperatures/thinning ozone)…maybe confusing pollinators.

Nature Nerd Trivia: Wild Canids – Dog relatives from around the world.

Unique Activities for Yesterday:

Firsts for the season at our deck. We saw our first Dark-eye Junco for the season. A small flock has spent the winter in our area – frequently visiting our feeder – for many years. We think they go to the Appalachians/Alleghenies for the rest of the year rather than the far north.

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I finally managed to get a picture of a Red-breasted Nuthatch enjoying the seed spilled under our feeder. There were other times recently that I thought I saw one but was never fast enough with my camera.

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Hawai’i Island Festival of Birds Swag pack arrived. It took more than 10 days for the small envelope to get from Hawai’i to Maryland. I don’t know for sure how long it took because there was no postmark. I will use the field notebook (upper left, a nice fit for one of my photo vest pockets) and the magnet (lower right) is already on our refrigerator to remind us of the virtual festival…and we’ll sign up to go to the festival when it is held ‘in person’!

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Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/21/2020 - Macro Fabrics

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Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Looking at Life Magazine for May 1944 – I found some early work of Chesley Bonestell that launched his space art career…mixed in with the coverage of World War II.

Finished reading Bruntsfield Brook by Charles Cockell. I bought the Kindle version after hearing about it in one of the Life in the Universe Pandemic Series videos. It was a fun way to learn about microbial mats…wound into a story with lots of drama impacting the different kinds of microbes: phages, ice, pollution, and drought.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts  here.

And now for a little project prompted by learning (from Charles Cockell in his Life in the Universe Pandemic Series) that Antonie van Leeuvenhoek first used macro lenses to assess the quality of fabric…then turned the lenses onto other things and became known as ‘the father of microbiology.’ For some reason I had never thought about what prompted him to be using glass lenses originally. So – I did a little project to look at different fabrics with the jeweler’s loupe…taking pictures with my phone through the loupe.

I started with the upholstery fabric on a couch. The colors are more vivid when they are magnified! I don’t know what the fiber content is…but it’s shiny…. that probably means it’s synthetic.

Clothes that I had that were labelled 100% cotton were all tops. 2 t-shirts (normal weight and thin) and a waffle shirt

I also had an older 100% cotton denim shirt. It is old enough to have some worn areas.

Then there were the cotton and polyester blends. The bandana didn’t have a label, but I lumped it with the blends because it was shiny. A pair of jeans and a t-shirt looked like cotton so I assume that the polyester part might be wrapped in cotton.

A quilted jacked had a looser weave and was shiny. A man’s shirt and my photovest were both a tight weave cotton/polyester.

I have a linen-look button front tunic that I have enjoyed wearing for years. I didn’t realize it was 100% polyester until I looked at the label. And it looks very much like plastic when magnified! I’d never thought of it as ‘shiny’ before.

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I had two silk scarves which I included in my pile to photograph.

And then there was acrylic blended with polyester (for a cardigan), with cotton (for a ribbed turtleneck) and nylon for a lightweight unlined sweater jacket. The last one looks like the 100% polyester tunic – although the fiber in the tunic is woven and the sweater jacket is a knit.

Overall – it was an interesting project. I am always keen to apply what I am learning, and this project blended the astrobiology lectures and the Fashion as Design class!

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/10/2020 - Gleanings

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Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Finishing Vermont Life issues. I finally browsed through the last of the Vermont Life issues. The magazine was published from 1946-2018 and most of the issues are available on Internet Archive. I started at the beginning back in July and just finished the last one (from summer 2018) yesterday. Every issue contains great photography…of beautiful places. It’s a great armchair travel to a place…and through time. I had a friend that had family in Vermont when I was growing up in Texas; she visited there almost every summer. I found myself looking at the pictures from the 1960s and realizing that she probably saw some of those places. I remember her talking about picking blueberries.

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IDing a plant for my sister. She sent me a picture from her Texas yard. I found a reference from Texas Master Naturalists easily enough – and passed along the id: Southern Dewberry (p. 23 of the reference).

Cleaning the filter on the air purifier. We’ve been running the air purifier more in our bedroom to keep the pollen allergies at bay – at least while we sleep. The red light came on to tell use the filter needed to be cleaned….it was an easy job…but we were without it for a couple of nights while everything dried. My husband and I both noticed the difference when we began running it again yesterday afternoon.

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Hearing the wind sweeping through the forest. Yesterday afternoon was very gusty – not stormy…it was a mostly sunny day. The wind came roaring through the forest ripping off small pieces of leaves and bud coverings from the tulip poplars; some of the bits ended up in our gutters.

The red maple is full of seeds – looking golden from afar but reds/greens show when looking closer; the seeds are mostly staying put; they are not ready to helicopter away from the tree.

Links to my previous “filling a day of social distance” posts  here.

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article. 

How to avoid touching your face so much - BBC Future – Something we are all trying to learn to do along with making masks for whenever we venture away from the house.

A more balanced protein intake can reduce age-related muscle loss -- ScienceDaily – My take away -older people (me included) need to have a high quality protein at lunch…not leave it for the evening meal!

Bald Eagles and the Unfortunate Power of Forgetting – When I was growing up, bald eagles were rare. They are not now because people took action and stuck with it. Remembering will keep Bald Eagles around and maybe provide a blueprint for the way we all move forward to a healthier Earth.

Scientists find Earth and moon not identical oxygen twins -- ScienceDaily – The finding may challenge the current understanding of the formation of our Moon…..future modeling will need to explore that possibility. Previously models have tried to account for complete oxygen isotope homogenization between the Earth and Moon.

How to escape the tyranny of the clock - BBC Future – Now that I am retired…the tyranny of the clock is not as overwhelming as it was during my career. Right now – there is even less requirement for me to do anything at a particular time….maybe a Zoom meeting or when my shopper is collecting my groceries. Otherwise I set my own time. Text messages or telephone calls or my husband wanting to talk/assistance with a project are interruptions that are easily handled with whatever I am doing. It’s an easy time to enjoy a loosening of the tyranny of the clock.

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Top 25 birds of the week: Yellow Feathers - Wild Bird Revolution – Just as I was looking at this group of pictures – an American Goldfinch flew to our feeder! I even got a picture! It has quite got the full summer plumage yet.

See Seven New Dazzling, Dancing Peacock Spiders | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A 1.5-minute video.

Does Equinox Sunset Highlight Egypt’s Sphinx? - Archaeology Magazine – The sun sets over the right shoulder on the spring and fall equinoxes!

Regular Exercise Helps Patients Combat Cancer | The Scientist Magazine® - It may benefit both mental and physical health. This is an example of exercise helping – even when you are sick and probably don’t feel like doing it.

Watch Seven Medieval Castles’ Digital Reconstruction – A animated way to learn about castles…and some history.

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 3/17/2020

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Continuing the blog post series prompted by COVID-19….

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

  • Picking earrings to wear that I haven’t worn in a long time. Yesterday I wore some from Orlando FL and today they are from Watkins Glen NY. Earrings are my favorite item to purchase when I travel…small keepsakes that I can wear! Both are over 10 years old, but I still remember where I got them.

  • Maintaining the compost pile and walking around the yard. I’m trying to get out of the house at least once a day….enjoy that it is springtime here!

  • Watching the second installment of the Cincinnati Zoo’s Home Safari (about Rico the Porcupine). They have established a website where all the videos will be available after they air live. I am watching the recorded version, so I don’t have to pay attention to the time to be online at 3 PM EDT!

  • Calling family far away, I had planned to be in Texas this past week…but I was already ‘staying at home as much as possible’ a few days before I was going to get on the airplane. Talking on the telephone is the next best thing for keeping in touch until it is not as risky to be out and about in larger groups of people.

  • Making a Zentangle® butterfly. I was straightening up my office and found a few extra butterfly tiles left from last summer’s experience with summer campers. I couldn’t resist using the tile…thinking that this would be a good activity for anyone needing a quiet calm time. If you want to learn a new pattern, checkout out https://tanglepatterns.com/ . Later in the afternoon. it was warm enough that I saw a real butterfly - a cabbage white.

Previous “filling a day of social distance” posts: 3/15, 3/16

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The Zentangle® Method is an easy-to-learn, relaxing, and fun way to create beautiful images by drawing structured patterns. It was created by Rick Roberts and Maria Thomas. "Zentangle" is a registered trademark of Zentangle, Inc. Learn more at zentangle.com.

NISE

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Update: This blog post is about a visit to Robinson early in March. Like all Howard County Recreation and Parks facilities it is closed today as part of the strategy to slow the spread of COVID-19. Check the county web site for more information.

One of the things about volunteering – there are always new things to try. Robinson Nature Center recently got some kits from the NISE (National Informal STEM Education) Network which is a community of informal educators and scientists dedicated to supporting learning about science, technology, engineering, and math (STEM) across the United States. Before I signed up for the training Robinson was offering, I looked at the NISE site. It offers many program and activities with great documentation (some kits). I was thrilled to know about the site and enjoyed the hands-on experience at the Robinson training.

Then I tried the “Exploring the Universe: Orbiting Objects” one Sunday afternoon. It included the ”gravity well” apparatus (made with PVC pipes and elbows, slip tees, PVC snap clamps, and 4-way stretch fabric). The picture shows the heaviest sphere representing the star/sun. The idea was to use spheres of various sizes and weights to simulate planets.

The activity is designed for ages 4 - adult. During the hour I was doing the activity with people coming to the nature center, the age of the children skewed young. If there were 2 children in the visiting family, the youngest was younger than 4. But it was still fun. We simply had some escaping planets and the children were not quite old enough to understand the content --- other than direct observations of the different size/weight of orbiting planets/balls and the star ‘wobble’ particularly with the heavier planet/ball orbiting. It was a learning experience for all!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 21, 2019

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Waterbirds and Camouflage and Forests and Birds in Pairs – Starting out this week’s list with some bird pictures….catching up the backlog

Liver cancer deaths climb by around 50% in the last decade -- ScienceDaily – Survival rates are low too. Obesity and smoking are two preventable causes.

How Climate Change Will Affect Maryland's Birds | Audubon – I looked at the page for Maryland because that is where I live. The red-headed woodpecker is on the ‘high vulnerability’ list. The data is available for other states as well (scroll down on the ‘home’ page and select by state or zip code). The red-headed woodpecker appears on the high vulnerability list for Texas and Missouri too (those are two other states I checked).

First Global Map of Saturn's Moon Titan Reveals Secrets of Earth's 'Deranged' Twin | Smart News | Smithsonian – There are plains, sand dunes, mountains, labyrinthine valleys…and lakes of methane.

'Self-cleaning' concrete could keep buildings looking new -- ScienceDaily – Maybe a new building material…but can it be made in a ‘green’ way?

Everything You’ve Ever Wanted to Know About Turkeys – I’m just catching up on some reading…this would have been more appropriate for the Thanksgiving week gleanings…but better late that never. Turkeys are interesting birds!

Air Pollution Tied to Brain Cancer: Study | The Scientist Magazine® - Combustion-related nanoparticles can reach our brain! The concentrations of these particles in highly polluted areas are also causing other health related problems as well. For example, the air pollution in Kabul, Afghanistan may be causing more deaths than war in that area

Owling: A Field Guide to Finding Winter Owls – Seen any owls? They are often easier to hear than see.

Slideshow: Images from The World Beneath | The Scientist Magazine® - A few pictures from a new book about sea creatures and coral reefs. Lots of vibrant color and camouflage.

Eating in sync with biological clock could replace problematic diabetes treatment: An early-morning, carb-filled meal improves glycemic control among diabetics -- ScienceDaily – We are shifting our meals…largest one at midday…smallest one at night. If we eat a high carb meal it will be at breakfast. I had gingerbread cake this morning!

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 9, 2019

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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.

Infographic: How Air Pollution Could Affect the Brain | The Scientist Magazine® - A quick and disturbing summary. The evidence of harm: particles like those produced by vehicle engines found in frontal cortex (postmortem), reduced volumes of white matter, slowed development of children, inflammation related damage to brain cells, and higher accumulation of Alzheimer-associated proteins.

Happier Babies Have an Edge - Scientific American Blog Network – The more children experience happy emotions, the more time they spend building skills and relationships that help them in the future.

900 Pythons Removed from South Florida – That’s a lot of snakes. Kudos to the Python Action Team. There are other organizations (government and non-profits) working on this too. I wish the article would have included information about what they do with the snakes after they are captured. Presumable they are killed.

Study: 95 percent of baby food contains traces of toxic metals - UPI.com – Not good. The full report referred to in the article is available here. I wonder if pediatricians are changing their recommendation when it comes to some foods (like rice cereal for babies).

Newly discovered virus infects bald eagles across America -- ScienceDaily – Over 1/3 of America’s Bald Eagles are infected…and it might be causing a fatal disease – Wisconsin River Eagle Syndrome.

BBC - Future - What life might be like in alien oceans – Lots of possibilities. It will be interesting to get some probes (submersibles, etc.) out to the moons of other planets in our solar system that have alien oceans…maybe life.

From quills to typewriters: how the industrial revolution changed our writing culture | Europeana Blog – A little history lesson.

National Science Board highlights Skilled Technical Workforce shortage in new report - The Bridge: Connecting Science and Policy - AGU Blogosphere – “Without immediate action, the US risks falling behind other nations that are making significant investments in their Science and Engineering workforce and the Science and Technology enterprise.”  The whole report can be found here.

The Platypus Is Weirder Than You Ever Imagined – Cool Green Science – They don’t have a stomach, their venom can help treat diabetes, their milk can help fight antibiotic resistance….the list goes on.

Photography in The National Parks: Your Armchair Photography Guide To Olympic National Park, Part 2 – The Forests – National Parks….always a great destination for nature photography.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 1, 2019

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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.

Flu virus' best friend: Low humidity -- ScienceDaily – Yet another reason to have a good humidifier in our homes during the winter.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Seabirds – National Geographic Society Newsroom – I saw a few of these during the Cape May trip in May: American Oystercatcher, Northern Gannett, Laughing Gull, and Forster’s Tern.

Novel 5-minute workout improves blood pressure, may boost brain function -- ScienceDaily – Preliminary results….have to wait to see if it holds up. It would be great to have another option than medication (that often has side effects).

More Megalithic Jars Mapped in Laos and A Singular Landscape - Archaeology Magazine – Plain of Jars in Laos. The jars were created 1,500 to 2,500 years ago. Excavations are revealing a bit more about the people that created them.

Common food additive found to affect gut microbiota: Titanium dioxide nanoparticles E171 may impact human health -- ScienceDaily – It’s a whitening agent used in foods and medicines in high quantities. I checked the jar of mayonnaise in my refrigerator and it didn’t list it on the ingredients list but evidently some brands do contain titanium dioxide. Maybe I will cut back on the mayo.

Solar System and Beyond Poster Set | NASA Solar System Exploration - Beautiful posters suitable for printing in 11x17 format.

Ancient Egyptians Enjoyed Sweet Watermelons - Archaeology Magazine – All melons in ancient Africa were not the bitter cucurbitacins found wild in Africa today!

Walnuts may help lower blood pressure for those at risk of heart disease -- ScienceDaily – Walnuts are tasty too.

The Bird Conservation Program You’ve Never Heard Of (And the Birds It Saves) – Cool Green Science – Going beyond the Migratory Bird Treaty Act to improve neotropical habitat the birds require during their annual migrations.

Escaped pet parrots are now naturalized in 23 US states, study finds -- ScienceDaily – 25 species! They are not native to North America, but many are thriving, and those populations become critical to the survival of their species.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 18, 2019

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Beautiful Photos by Manuelo Bececco Captures the Essence of the Forest – Awesome views of the forest…mostly looking upward.

IYPT 2019 Elements 023: Vanadium: Hardened steel and yellow blood | Compound Interest – Vanabins are vanadium-binding proteins that make sea cucumber blood yellow!

Titanium: Sunscreens and space stations | Compound Interest – Lots of makeup and other cosmetics have titanium (for its sunscreen properties) and fighter jets do too!

Marine Viruses Detailed from Pole to Pole | Technology Networks – There are a lot more viruses than previous cataloged in the ocean. The are in roughly 5 groups based on location and depth. The Arctic Ocean has high viral diversity…higher than at the equator.

NASA's Cassini reveals surprises with Titan's lakes -- ScienceDaily – The data from Cassini’s final flyby of Titan in 2017 has revealed that the lakes in its northern hemisphere are more then 300 feet deep and are methane. Lots more science still to come as more analysis of the Cassini data is done.

Could high-flying drones power your home one day? - BBC News – How could this not cause problems with aircraft if it was widespread? Both the drone and the tether could cause problems.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Passerines – Always room on the gleanings list for bird photographs!

Four ways to attract birds and butterflies – Native plants, bird bath, brush pile in my yard….3 of 4 is not bad!

Black, Hot Ice May Be Nature’s Most Common Form of Water – Superionic ice – a new kind of ice crystal with the oxygen atoms forming a cubic lattice and the hydrogen atoms flowing like liquid through the rigid cage of oxygens.

We’ll soon know the exact air pollution from every power plant in the world. That’s huge. –It won’t just be regulators and politicians that can see the data…it will be accessible by the public too. It will become a lot clearer to everyone which power plants are negatively impacting air quality.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 23, 2019

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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.

Salt Could Play a Role in Allergies | The Scientist Magazine® - Atopic dermatitis has increased more than 2-fold since the 1970s….and researchers do not attribute the increase to greater awareness or diagnosis. Now comes the observation that people with lesioned skin from atopic dermatitis (but not psoriasis) had a 30-fold higher salt level in their lesions than in their unlesioned skin or skin from healthy controls. The connection to diet is speculative at this point…but we do have higher salt in our diet now that most people had in the 1970s.

In Siberia, Toxic Black Snow Reveals the Toll of Coal Mining | Smart News | Smithsonian – Yuck! Pollutions from open-air coal pits…in the extreme. Another reason, I’m glad we’re moving away from coal powered electricity generation. I wondered if the people living in the area of black snow develop terrible lung problems.  

See the best pictures from Bill Ingalls, NASA's official photographer – 30 years of photography

What makes joints pop and crack and is it a sign of disease? – A little lesson in joint anatomy

Piling Up: How China’s Ban on Importing Waste Has Stalled Global Recycling - Yale E360 – China’s plastic imports have plummeted by 99%, mixed paper has dropped by a 33%. Recycled aluminum and glass are less affected by the ban. So now we are sending plastics to landfills, incinerators or littering the environment. Communities across the US have curtailed or halted their recycling programs. That hasn’t happened (yet) where I live in Maryland. We must learn to produce less recycle (waste) and process it more locally…not ship is someplace else in the world.

Meet the Bizarre American Bittern – Cool Green Science – It’s a type of heron that makes a strange sound (listen to the recording in this post). It is so well camouflaged that you are more likely to hear it than see it!

Photography in The National Parks: Capturing the Grandness of The Grand Tetons – Reminds me that this is a National Park I want to see again. Last time we went, I wasn’t doing any photography yet.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Interactions – National Geographic Society – Pictures that are more than just a bird.

Prehistoric Microbes Inhabit an Oasis in the Northern Mexican Desert | The Scientist Magazine® - Fish, diatoms, and bacteria in lagoons in the Chihuahua Desert and cannot be found anywhere else on Earth. More than 5,000 species of bacteria and archaea have been documented.

Owls against owls in a challenge for survival: Researchers forecast interactions between two owl species and the quality of their habitat in the Pacific Northwest -- ScienceDaily – I learned at the Festival of the Cranes (New Mexico) last fall about Barred Owls moving into Northern Spotted Owl (NSO) territory….and winning the competition. That further reduces the NSO populations which is already endangered because of over-logging of the old growth forests.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 02, 2019

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The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Camouflage – Lots of birds can hide in plain sight! Owls are the ones I think of first in this category.

When 'alien' insects attack Antarctica: Terrestrial ecosystems are vulnerable to single introduced insect species -- ScienceDaily – A threat from a tiny flightless midge

Anak Krakatau: Planet Labs imagery of the aftermath of the landslide - The Landslide Blog - AGU Blogosphere – Imagery of the landslide that caused the deadly tsunami just before last Christmas.

What is the most commonly found ocean litter? – Yuck! Another reason that cigarettes are a bad thing.

A series of posts from NOAA’s 2018 Arctic Report Card: Visual highlights , Multi-year stretch of record and near-record warmth unlike any period on record, Reindeer and caribou populations continue to decline, Less than 1 percent of Arctic ice has survived four or more summers, Red tides and other toxic species expanding across the Arctic, increasing risks to marine mammals and humans – Quantifying the changes occurring in the arctic

Image of the Day: In Sync | The Scientist Magazine® - Infants playing with their parents…syncing of brain activity

New Ultima Thule discoveries from NASA's New Horizons -- ScienceDaily – A space mission to something we’ve never seen before….the aptly named ‘New Horizons’

Why are biology classes ignoring insects? · john hawks weblog – When I was in high school, insects were a big deal for biology classes; many students created an insect collect the summer prior to the biology year. I don’t remember too much about insects in my first courses as an undergraduate in biology I the 1970s…but there was probably more coverage than in the more recent textbooks.

Keeping fit: how to do the right exercise for your age – A good summary…although the key message is to keep moving…sustained exercise is the best strategy.

Our bodies may cure themselves of diabetes in the future -- ScienceDaily – It’s at the basic research level…but could be an approach to ‘diseases’ caused by cell death in the future (diabetes, Alzheimer’s and cells damaged by heart attacks, etc.)

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 15, 2018

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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.

Stunning Abstract Aerial Photos of Namibia's Desert Landscape – A part of the earth with almost no vegetation. There are parts of the US that would be just as stark.

Anopheles mosquitoes could spread Mayaro virus in US, other diverse regions -- ScienceDaily – Another mosquito born disease that may increase in North America as the climate warms. There are already mosquitoes capable of transmitting it here – Andopheles species.

Bad molars? The origins of wisdom teeth – I’ve always wondered why so many people must have their wisdom teeth out. All 4 of mine were pulled when I was 19 because they were impacted. It turns out that eating a crunch/chewy diet when we are young may help the jaw grow long enough to accommodate these late molars. Wish I would have known that; I might have fed my daughter a bit differently. Too late now.

Climate Smart Farming CSF Climate Change in Your County and Climate Smart Farming – Cornell Institute for Climate Smart Solutions – The first link is a county by county look at the history of temperature and precipitation in the Northeast. The second it about the research being done to help farmers plan for extreme weather events…that have become more common in recent years.

How tracking people moving together through time creates powerful data – A discussion of how cohort data is helping us understand health and disease. The example used in the article is the Framingham Heart Study.

Air Pollution from California Wildfires 60 Times Above Safe Limit - Yale E360 – Air quality is impacted by fires. In areas where the frequency of fires is increasing, fire may overtake all other kinds of air pollution for a time.

Can Tourism Save the Ocellated Turkey? – Cool Green Science – What an unusual looking bird! It’s a tropical turkey (Mexico, Belize and Guatemala) that behaves like the North American Wild Turkey.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: November – National Geographic Blog – And more birds.

Forage Wild Nuts for Your Holiday Feast – Cool Green Science – Nuts native in our forests. Too bad the American Chestnuts are no longer plentiful…maybe some of the recent hybrids will survive to repopulate our forests.

BBC - Future - A 'samurai' swordsmith is designing a space probe – Creating corers to use for sampling an asteroid using metallurgy learned making samurai swords.