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.

Filling a Day of Social Distance – 4/24/2020 - Gleanings

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

Here are the unique activities for yesterday:

Finishing Fashion as Design Coursera course. The theme for the last module was Expression. It was a good way to end the course. I have enjoyed both courses I’ve done from MoMA and will probably start a third one – What is Contemporary Art – early next week.

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Hearing a piano practice. My husband opted to start up piano practice…not sure why he hadn’t thought to play it weeks ago. What’s not to like about a grand piano? It was tuned last winter just before the coronavirus pandemic, so it is in excellent condition. His playing didn’t last for long, because the cat demanded attention…and has decided that the best place to sleep is under the piano.

Hearing a piano practice. My husband opted to start up piano practice…not sure why he hadn’t thought to play it weeks ago. What’s not to like about a grand piano? It was tuned last winter just before the coronavirus pandemic, so it is in excellent condition. His playing didn’t last for long, because the cat demanded attention…and has decided that the best place to sleep is under the piano.

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

And then there are the gleanings for the past week:

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 Rain Evolved Its Distinct Scent—and Why Animals and Humans Love It | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – The chemical that is the scent of newly moistened soil, geosmin, has been known to scientists since the 1960s….but now we are figuring out its purpose. It is made by 120 of 122 species of bacteria in the genus Streptomyces that have been studied. The scent attracts springtails (tiny arthropods) that eat the bacteria and spread the bacteria’s spores via their excrement or the spores that attach to their body and then fall off. Many other insects, fungi and nematodes are killed by chemicals produced by the bacteria. So – the scent after rain is connected to the lifecycle of bacteria that are one of the most important sources of antibiotics known to science!

Top 25 birds of the week: Terrestrial Birds - Wild Bird Revolution – Enjoying images of birds from around the world.

Long-living tropical trees play outsized role in carbon storage -- ScienceDaily – They used ‘hindcasting’ to validate their model: seeded the model with forest composition data collected at their site in Panama during the 1980s and then ran the model forward to see that it adequately represents the changes that occurred from then until now.  Once that was done…they can use the model to predict what will happen to the forest with climate change. Will the forest continue absorbing some of the excess carbon – or not?

Flamingos in Captivity Pick Favorite Friends Among the Flock | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – 2-4 birds…not limited to mated pairs. Some were together for the whole 5 years of the study! The study found no loners but some bounded between groups.

What do soap bubbles and butterflies have in common? Butterfly breeding gives insight into evolution of iridescence -- ScienceDaily – A 75% increase thickness in the chitin lamina of wing scales turned iridescent gold to shiny blue….the same way a soap bubble iridescence works! And now there is a whole new genetic approach to investigate structural color in butterflies – and may lead to new ways to produce photonic nanostructures for solar panels, paints, clothing, and cosmetics.

How to mine precious metals in your home - BBC Future – Theoretically - the “urban mine” is far richer in high value materials per ton than traditional metal ore mines….but we don’t quite have the way to collect the ‘ore’ or effectively extract the metals.  

Springfield Plateau: Cowbird Eggs – Cowbirds….I’m trying not to be too judgmental. (I’ve included a picture of cowbirds at our bird feeder below. The female is a more frequent visitor than the male.)

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Colorful Image Lights Up Microscopic Guts of 'Water Bear' | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Enhancing our view of a tardigrade with fluorescent stain….and done close to where I live at University of Maryland Baltimore County!

Take a Free Virtual Tour of Five Egyptian Heritage Sites | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – These are best viewed on your largest monitor!

Common protein in skin can 'turn on' allergic itch -- ScienceDaily – Turning off the production of the protein periostin in the skin can reduce the itch from atopic dermatitis (in mice). More research needed to see if it works for humans too.