Gleanings of the Week Ending November 23, 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.

How a Soviet swamp rat scheme for Azerbaijan went horribly wrong – Nutria introduced in the 1930s…..destroying every wetland in Azerbaijan today.

Light Pollution May Be Keeping Honey Bees Up at Night - On hot nights honey bees will sleep outside and slept less/more fitfully if there is artificial light…which could undermine the health of the colony.

The next massive volcano eruption will cause climate chaos — and we are unprepared – The history of large eruptions and what we can determine about the aftermath…though provoking on what it would be like if a massive eruption happened in the modern world.

Carbon recycling instead of plastic trash – Using iron electrocatalysis and producing green hydrogen as a biproduct…can be powered by solar panels. I hope this can be commercialized near term. We are overwhelming our world with plastic trash!

CT Scans Unlock Secrets of Mummified Individuals at Field Museum – Respect for the ancient dead…but still studying their bodies.

How do countries measure immigration, and how accurate is this data? - Three types of migrants who don’t have a legal immigration status. First, those who cross borders without the right legal permissions. Second, those who enter a country legally but stay after their visa or permission expires. Third, some migrants have legal permission to stay but work in violation of employment restrictions. Most high-income nations have a small minority of irregular immigrants in their immigrant population; the exception is the United States which estimates 22% of their immigrants are irregular.

Riding The Rails on Amtrak's Cardinal Line Through New River Gorge – Maybe a relaxing way to see the National Park and Preserve…thinking about next fall.

Mother Tiger Teaching Cub How to Fight Wins Nature’s Best Photo Awards – Great pictures….but Patricia Homonylo’s video is the most thought provoking….the one that is a call to action.

Geologists rewrite textbooks with new insights from the bottom of the Grand Canyon - From the Tonto Group's 500-meter-thick strata, we're learning about sea-level rise and the effects of catastrophic tropical storms -- probably more powerful than today's devastating hurricanes -- during a period of very hot temperatures when the Earth was ice-free.

Quantifying How Urban Trees Cool Cities - The authors of a new study estimate that the city of Baltimore could reduce land surface temperatures by 0.23°C if they increased tree canopy by 1%. To achieve 1.5°C of cooling, they would need to increase tree canopy cover by 6.39%.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 20, 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.

These four challenges will shape the next farm bill – and how the US eats – Thought provoking. Will the author’s dream priorities for investment (organic agriculture as a climate solution, infrastructure to support vibrant local and regional markets and shift away from an agricultural economy dependent on exporting low-vale crops; and agricultural science and technology research aimed at reducing labor and chemical inputs and providing new solutions for sustainable livestock production) be funded….or will Congress stay entrenched in continuing agriculture as it is today.

The Energy Revolution in 5 Charts – 1. The energy transition is a technology revolution (it’s not a brown to green caterpillar…it is a caterpillar to a butterfly; we are moving from a commodity (fossil fuel) to technology-based system). 2) The renewable revolution is exponential, not linear (and we are at or past the knee in the curve). 3) The renewable revolution is led by China (with the US and Europe recently enacting policies to compete). 4) This is the decade of change (exciting times for heat pumps, electric vehicles, solar, and wind). 5) By 2030, the debate will be very different with the renewable revolution obvious to all.

National Park waterfalls being honored on US Postage Stamps – Beautiful places. Would like to see (and photograph) more of them!

The Camouflaged Looper: This Inchworm Makes Its Own Flower “Costume” – Another reason to take a closer look at flowers….the small creatures that might we living (and munching) there!

Our tropical fruits are vulnerable to climate change. Can we make them resilient in time? – The work to help our food plants tolerate and thrive with climate change. The post is specific to Australia but has applicability elsewhere. Techniques have already been successfully applied to chickpeas to make them more drought resistant, survive higher temperatures, and produce better yields!

Commercial Rooftop Solar on Warehouses Could Power All of Them – Commercial rooftop solar on America’s warehouses could provide 185 TWh of clean renewable energy every year. Hurray! Power produced near population centers where it is used….and avoiding taking farmland for solar panels (unless the plan is to grow crops under the panels).

Water arsenic including in public water is linked to higher urinary arsenic totals among the U.S. population – Not good…and water pitcher type filters do not remove it…..it takes reverse osmosis, activated alumina, or ion exchange (anion) resins to do that.

Fashion World Remembers Mary Quant, the Miniskirt Pioneer – I was old enough in the ‘60s to remember wearing Mary Quant type dresses!

How do you stay optimistic in spite of it all? 6 hopeful souls share their secrets – Thought provoking…maybe we all need to think about the ways keep ourselves positive….not let the pessimism around us overcome us.

The clean energy milestone the world is set to pass in 2023 - Greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector, the largest source of the world's emissions, are expected to fall for the first time!

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 13, 2022

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 March 5, 2022

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.

Scientists develop long lasting anti-fogging coating for plastic surfaces that 'self-cleans' – It seem like the current antireflective coating on my glasses is a little ‘sticky’ – making my glasses collect particles easily…need cleaning frequently. It would be great to have something that is self-cleaning! Somehow I doubt this would eliminate the need to clean my glasses but it would be good to get back to the way glasses were before the fancy coatings!

Rare Baby Ghost Shark Caught in New Zealand’s Chatham Rise – What an odd-looking animal. There is a 3-minute video that shows adult sharks.

Deer Mice: Get to Know North America’s Most Abundant Mammal – So small we might not notice them most of the time. A good overview of deer mice. They are vectors for Lyme disease and hantavirus….but provide food for hawks, eagles, and owls…coyotes and foxes.

Lichens Are in an Evolutionary Race Against Climate Change – They can be found almost everywhere…but are very slow growing. That slow growth makes it more challenging for them to adjust to changing temperatures.

Nearly 300 Million Visited National Park System in 2021, But Most To Just 25 Parks – I’ve been to 17 of the 25!

An insulin patch that sticks inside a person’s cheek – I’m sure most diabetics that must take injections would welcome an alternative.

Covid-19 Community Levels – In case you haven’t seen it already – this site has a map of the US with the counties color coded. The county where I live and the counties around it are green.

Bronze Age burial mound discovered in England – In Oxford…under traces of St. Mary’s College built in the 15th century.

Surprise small-cell lung cancer discovery suggests new treatment – New work from University of Virginia Health System (which was designated a Comprehensive Cancer Center on Feb. 1).

An Ornate, 5,000-Year-Old Stone Drum Is the U.K.’s Most Significant Prehistoric Art Find in a Century – Found buried alongside skeletons of 3 children cuddled together.  

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 29, 2022

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.

Photography In the National Parks: My 10 Favorite Shots From 2021 – I only went to one national park in 2021: New River Gorge (in West Virginia). There are so many beautiful National Parks to see…and they’re worth seeing again and again.

Big Gulp: Blue Catfish Eat Wood Duck – We’ve seen fishermen catch blue catfish at the base of Conowingo Dam (we’re there for the bald eagles). They are huge…sorry to learn that they eat ducks.

Top 25 birds of the week: Raptors! – How many of these live in your area of the world?

Air Pollution Makes It Harder for Bees to Sniff Out Flowers – Not just a problem for bees…also moths, hoverflies and butterflies are having a harder time. This results in a 14-31% reduction in pollination among plants exposed to polluted air.

Ocean microplastic pollution may be greater than estimated – Not a good trend…and this form of pollution that is new enough that the full impact is still being discovered.

With Fewer Animals to Move Their Seeds, Plants Are Stuck in Threatened Habitats – Another way the world is becoming less resilient at a time when climate change is pushing all life to use all the resilience available.

Large Permian Basin Methane Leaks Are Causing As Much Climate Pollution as 500,000 Cars – It’s frustrating that the oil industry has not been a better steward of resources they are extracting for energy. The methane leaks are a waste of the effort put into extraction….and bad for the planet too.

Dinosaur food and Hiroshima bomb survivors: maidenhair trees are ‘living fossils’ and your new favorite plant – Learn more about the ginkgo tree! There is one along my walking route in my neighborhood and others I find in local gardens and parks near where I live. They are so different from other trees…worth noticing.

North Sea Fossil Fuel Companies Plan to Invest More in Wind than Oil Drilling – Hurray! Maybe other companies around the world begin to do this too….a strategic move for Shell, Total and BP.

Antimicrobial resistance now a leading cause of death worldwide, study finds – This challenge will increase over time…if we don’t take action to slow the development of resistance and develop new antimicrobial techniques (maybe we need more strategies than simply trying to develop new antibiotics).

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 7, 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.

A roadrunner taking a dust bath wins the 2021 Audubon photography awards – This gleaning list is big on bird photos! This is the first one.

Top 25 birds of the week: Conservation – This is the second. These posts encourage me to get outdoors in areas near my home to photograph birds!

How giraffes deal with sky-high blood pressure – Multiple differences between giraffes and humans when it comes to blood pressure!

Permafrost Thaw in Siberia Creates a Ticking ‘Methane Bomb’ of Greenhouse Gases – The article is about what happened in summer 2020…made me wonder about what is happening this summer in Siberia. This along with the fires that seem to be worse each season are signs that climate change is happening faster than anticipated…that the models might be optimistic rather than realistic.

Plastic, the Trojan Horse – A study that found plastic accumulation in foods may be underestimated. Not good.

Smoke Across North America – Lots of fires this summer. My husband told me that the local astronomy club has cancelled several nights they’d planned for observing because no stars were visible through the haze here in Maryland.

How the sun affects our skin – An infographic about vitamin D, sunburn and skin cancer.

This catfish doesn’t just move on land, it reffles – Plecos – from the aquarium trade – are now invasive in warmer waters in the US. They do have an interesting way of moving on land (videos of their reffle)…..this means if found/caught they shouldn’t be left on the bank to die (since they will easily move back to the nearest water). The article didn’t say what to do with them (presumable kill them).

Drought, Heat Taking a Toll on National Parks in Southwest – I’ve enjoyed so many of the parks mentioned in this article – Saguaro, Grand Canyon, White Sands, Petrified Forest. It has always been dry there…but now it is getting drier and hotter.

Take a Virtual Tour of Artworks Inspired by Efforts to Preserve Plant Biodiversity – A virtual site of an exhibit not at the Royal Albert Memorial Museum and Art Gallery in Exeter, England. Watch the 5 minute video about the site….then enjoy the exhibit here.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 19, 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.

How Has Photography's Relationship With Nature Evolved Over the Past 200 Years? | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – A little history…that I used as a prompt to look for some of the works on Internet Archive. I’ll post about what I found for Kazumas Ogawa in a post next week.

Infographic: Deciphering Diet from Blood and Urine Samples | The Scientist Magazine® - Full article also available and more interesting that the infographic! The approach is still not perfected…but it may eventually help us get to personalized nutrition plans without as much trial and error that is required now.

Connection between gut bacteria and vitamin D levels -- ScienceDaily – Lots more needed to understand Vitamin D. This study indicated that blood tests for Vitamin D might not be useful at all since they don’t measure active Vitamin D….and active vitamin D is what correlates to gut bacteria…and potentially bone health. “Maybe it’s not how much vitamin D you supplement with, but how you encourage your body to use it.”

Get a Bird's-Eye View of UNESCO World Heritage Sites Across the Globe – Some beautiful places…from overhead.

How Non-Native Plants Are Contributing to a Global Insect Decline - Yale E360 – Insect declines….then birds. Lots of reasons to focus on planting natives a much as we can. I’m glad the forest behind my house is full of native trees and that I’ve replaced 2 bushs in the front of my house with natives. The challenge is to control the small but prolific invasive plants growing on the forest floor and into our yard enough for non-natives to survive. There used to be native jack-in-the-pulpits in our forest until several years ago.

How do we separate the factual from the possible? New research shows how our brain responds to both -- ScienceDaily – This article was frustrating. The study found that factual language is something our brains respond to. That’s not the issue at this moment in our nation’s history. The problem is the use of factual language about something not factual! Maybe this article is why we need to be more worried about public discourse/pronouncements.

It's One Hot Place Deep Down On The Floor Of Yellowstone Lake – About studies at Yellowstone Lake…the sensors and what they are revealing.

Shuttering fossil fuel power plants may cost less than expected -- ScienceDaily – Interesting…but I hope we’ll retire them all well before 2035 with the cost of renewals coming down so quickly. It will make economic sense to just do it!

Keeping Black Bears Wild And People Safe – This article is about black bears in Smokey Mountains National Park and the BearWise program more broadly. We do have Black Bears in Maryland and they occasionally show up in our area; there was one that showed up at our nearby elementary school a few years ago – caused a school lockdown until it wondered off.

Meet the Dipper, the Songbird That Swims – Evidently they are easier to spot in Colorado during the winter when they are concentrated long streams that remain unfrozen…but they are in the Rockies all year round…Dippers are elevation migrants (higher in the summer….lower in the winter). Maybe some post-pandemic trip we’ll look for them!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 15, 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.

All About Feathers – A tutorial on feathers…lots of great visuals (stills, videos, drawings, photos) from The Cornell Lab Bird Academy.

NOAA Research’ top 5 stories from 2019 – Catching up on some reading…the stories featured were the most popular on their site in 2019.

Capturing CO2 from trucks and reducing their emissions by 90% -- ScienceDaily – Research applicable to making transportation friendlier to the environment…retrofitting of existing trucks.

Rising Temperatures Are Stressing the U.S. Corn Belt - Yale E360 – It’s not just rising temperatures…it’s the shift in rainfall causing hydrologic stress during the summer months. Maybe the ‘corn belt’ could shift northward?

Traveler Special Report: Threatened and Endangered National Parks – In Alaska and beyond…we are losing the natural treasures we sought to protect.

The history of candy canes and why they taste so cool – I am late getting around to including this in the gleanings list. I like peppermint candy year round…even if it’s not in the candy cane shape! I have peppermint candy chips to use in snow ice cream…if it will ever snow enough this winter here in Maryland!

Largest Electric School Bus Program in United States Launching in Virginia | CleanTechnica – Dominion Energy partnering with Virginia School districts…to achieve a 50% electric school bus fleet by 2025 and 100% by 2030. Good for the environment and the lungs of Virginia’s school children. I hope other states will move in the same direction.

These infrared images show just how alive butterflies’ wings are – Surprise! Butterfly wings have living cells not just membranes and scales! The living cells can sense heat and the butterfly responds behaviorally.

 Flame retardants and pesticides overtake heavy metals as biggest contributors to IQ loss - ScienceDaily – There are a lot of things that are toxic in our environment these days…and children are the ones that are hurt the most…and the hurt lasts their lifetime. This study looked specifically at lead, mercury, poly-bromated diphenyl ethers (PDBE…flame retardants) and organophosphate pesticides.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Bird Photography – A little eye candy to end the list of gleanings for this week.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 8, 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.

Abstract Aerial Photos of Iceland's Rivers Look Like Watercolor Paintings – A little art photography to start out the gleanings this week.

Tomb Containing Three Generations of Warrior Women Unearthed in Russia | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Evidently research is revealing that warrior women were the norm, not the exception, in Scythian culture. Scythians lived in small tribes, wore trousers (practical since they were on horseback much of the time) and fought with bows and arrows.

Protecting the Sonoran Pronghorn from Extinction – It’s complicated….lots of agencies involved….an international border that is becoming a migration barrier.

Is Notre-Dame Too Fragile to Be Saved? | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Removing the scaffolding that was melted by the fire is evidently going to be a big challenge.

Whooping cough evolving into a superbug -- ScienceDaily – The research was done in Australia…but it probably applies to the US as well. Bottom line: we need to be developing an improved whooping cough vaccine.

One Reason Colorado Playgrounds Are Looking Way More ‘Natural’ | Colorado Public Radio – I like the new types of playgrounds….more than swing sets and slides…bringing in some natural elements.

White Sands National Monument Redesignated As A "National Park" – A beautiful and unique place. I’ve only been there once…but it was very memorable. The biggest surprise for me was that even on a hot day in June, the sand was not hot! Being white really does reflect the heat up and away.

2019 Year In Review: Some Great Photo Tips – So many beautiful places to photograph….take some time in a natural place (National Parks are awesome…but there are other places that are great too).

Striking Portraits of Rare and Endangered Birds by Tim Flach – I tend to like bird pictures from the wild…but these are amazing portraits. Virginia Cardinal – I was surprised to see it in this grouping…as far as I know they are not different than the Northern Cardinal. Cornell’s Allaboutbirds doesn’t have a listing for them.

Mealworms safely consume toxic additive-containing plastic -- ScienceDaily – Not an answer to the plastic problem…more like basic research that could be incorporated into a partial solution. The biggest gain comes from dramatically reducing single use plastics.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 18, 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.

Earth at Night – This is an eBook from NASA that was last updated in December 2019….lots of pictures of the earth at night, analysis, and the technology behind the images.

Genomes Sequenced for Every US and Canada Butterfly | The Scientist Magazine® - Work by an evolutionary biologist at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center. 845 butterfly species were studied.

Adding copper strengthens 3D-printed titanium -- ScienceDaily – Current titanium alloys used in 3D printing were prone to cracking and distortion. The copper alloy seems to overcome that problem.

When the best way to take notes is by hand - BBC Future – I like to take notes by hand….it always seemed easier to me than using a laptop (although I tried using a laptop to take notes in meetings during my career). Now it seems that it is better for internalizing concepts too. No need for me to try to change to anything else!

Blue Whales’ Hearts Can Beat Exceptionally Slowly | The Scientist Magazine® - As low as 2 times per minute! The high was 37 beats per minute.

Image of the Day: Ochre Paint | The Scientist Magazine® - Evidently ancient people heated aquatic bacteria mats growing in iron rich water to make a bright red paint which was used for rock art. The paint contains microfossils of the bacteria (Leptothrix ochracea). The red color is highly thermo-stable…something that has applicability to manufacturing.

Crows could be the smartest animal other than primates - BBC Future – Clever crows. Not so long ago we thought humans were the only ones to make and use tools.

Incredible Winners of the 2019 EPSON International PANO Awards – Panoramic photographs…a little eye candy for the week.

Trashed farmland could be a conservation treasure -- ScienceDaily – Interesting idea…but how much land is in this category and what happens to the people that are still trying to eke out an existence on that land.

Future For Silversword Plants At Halaeakalā National Park Dark – Rare plants…have not recovered as well as the Nene (Hawaiian goose) – for several reasons. Plants around the world are having to adjust to changing climate and some will not be able to change fast enough to continue to exist in the same places…some may become extinct. I hope the Silversword survives.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 9, 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.

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 July 27, 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.

Narwhals and belugas can interbreed -- ScienceDaily – It is a unique case….apparently not something that is common at all. It also utilized some relatively recent analytic tools to determine that the hybrid was a first-generation hybrid between a female narwhal and male beluga…and it was a bottom feeder rather than feeding like either of the parents.

Photography in The National Parks: Where Will That Trail Take You? Creating A Theme – For me - themes most often emerge from the experience rather than something I think about specifically in advance.

'Anthropocene Project' Artfully Captures How Humans Change Earth's Landscape: Goats and Soda: NPR – Some photographs from an exhibit currently in Bologna, Italy…depicting obvious, physical incursion on the Earth’s landscape created by humans.

Photographer Explores the Quiet Beauty of Venice at Night – A very different perspective on the city…sinking in its lagoon.

'Bathtub rings' around Titan's lakes might be made of alien crystals -- ScienceDaily – Rings made of solid acetylene and butane – maybe. It’s what happened in the lab. A spacecraft will need to visit Titan to know for sure.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: July – National Geographic Society Newsroom – Birds!  There are so many different kinds out there.

Cholesterol medication could invite diabetes, study suggests: Patient data shows association between statins and type 2 diabetes -- ScienceDaily – A drug prescribed to reduce risk of heart attack and stroke…doubles the risk of diabetes diagnosis which would require other drugs to treat…for the rest of the person’s life. Not a good prospect.  

The Pomological Watercolors: A Collection of Watercolor Fruit Paintings – Watercolors of fruits and nuts created over 56 years beginning in 1886 by the US Department of Agriculture. They have recently been digitized and are available via the Pomological Watercolor Database. It’s not as easy to browse as a book in Internet Archive, unfortunately.

Ice Cores Preserved 1,500 Years of Industrial Lead Levels - Archaeology Magazine – I was surprised that lead levels in the atmosphere now are 60x higher than in the medieval period and that is an 80% decline since the enactment of the 1970 Clean Air act in the US. How is the lead in the air we breathe impacting our cognition – particularly for children?

Found: An ‘Undisturbed’ Roman Ship Near Cyprus | Smart News | Smithsonian – Lots of amphorae. Cyprus’ location would have made it a link on the trade route that spanned the Mediterranean but studying a wreck like this one could fill in more of the details.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 25, 2019

Eye's vulnerability to macular degeneration revealed -- ScienceDaily – All cells of the macula are not the same. The ones in the central part (Muller cells) are smaller and shaped differently than the cells around the edges…and they are the ones involved in macular degeneration. Knowing more about the central cells may lead to more focused treatment.

Dangerously High Air Pollution Levels Found in Most U.S. National Parks - Yale E360 – Our national parks are places to enjoy natural beauty…be outdoors. Its very sad to know that air pollution is a problem.

Banana disease boosted by climate change -- ScienceDaily – Black Sigatoka – a fungal disease impacting bananas – is not virtually worldwide. It’s surprising that bananas are still such a bargain in our grocery stores.

Ten Tips for Being a Good Partner - On the Job - AGU Blogosphere – Good tips…and I liked the illustrative examples from real projects.

Oldest known trees in eastern North America documented -- ScienceDaily – In North Carolina there is a Bald Cypress that it at least 2,624 years old!

Does insulin resistance cause fibromyalgia? A newly confirmed link with insulin resistance may radically change the way fibromyalgia and related forms of chronic pain are identified and managed -- ScienceDaily – Researchers dramatically reduced pain of fibromyalgia patients with medication that targeted Insulin resistance.

Dogs Sniff Out Invasive Mussels at Chickasaw National Recreation Area – In the early 1970s, my husband and I often visited this area of Oklahoma (also visiting what was then Platt National Park). Kudos to the people trying it keep Zebra Mussels out of the Lake of the Arbuckles!

Soaking up pharmaceuticals and personal care products from water -- ScienceDaily – A new acronym (PPCPs = Pharmaceuticals and Personal Care Products). These are being detected in water everywhere usually in low concentrations but increasing…so it’s good that research is underway to develop ways to remove them from water.

A New View of Bird Vision – Cool Green Science – The article describes ways bird vision is being studied and provides examples of specific UV sensitivities in turkeys and red-winged black birds.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: May – National Geographic Society – Last but not least for this week --- enjoy some bird pictures.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 23, 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.

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 March 9, 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.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: January and Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: February and Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Feathers and Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Forest Birds – From National Geographic. There are multiples this week since I seemed to have a backlog in my gleanings holding area. Enjoy the colorful, graceful images.

'Upcycling' plastic bottles could give them a more useful second life -- ScienceDaily – Now that many countries that used to take our recycle waste have stopped accepting it, we are suddenly facing the problem of what to do with ‘recyclables’ closer to home. Making materials that have higher value is one way to keep more of it from ending up in landfills.

Soundscapes of Arizona’s Aravaipa Canyon – Cool Green Science – Listen to some nature audio…if it’s too cold to get outside and into the wild right now! These would make great backdrops to a meditation practice.

Image of the Day: Prickly Legs | The Scientist Magazine® - Froghoppers gain traction for jumping by piercing plant surfaces with their spiny legs! (Note: froghopper nymphs are spittlebugs!)

Photography in The National Parks: A Winter Shutdown Stay in Olympic National Park – I want to go! This is a national park I haven’t visited.

What kind of bug is a bug? | The Prairie Ecologist – A little entomology lesson.

Alaska in Flux: Slumping Coastlines – A comparison of a coastline between 1992 and 2018 …showing land slumping in to the Beaufort Sea. An airport is closer to the water now than in 1992.There is also a map showing that quite a bit of Alaska is wetter that is was in 1984. Lots of changes in the Alaska land.

Work Underway to Return the Shine to Thomas Jefferson Memorial – The Jefferson Memorial is probably my favorite in DC. I’m glad it’s getting the renovation it needs to look good into the future.

14 keys to a healthy diet | Berkeley Wellness – A little update based on most recent recommendations (for example, dietary cholesterol is not something to worry about since it has little effect on most people’s blood cholesterol).

Infographic: How Ginger Remodels the Microbiome | The Scientist Magazine® - I like ginger and am including it more consistently in my diet. It’s another food to boost gut health!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 2, 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.

Good News for Eastern Monarch Butterfly Population - The National Wildlife Federation Blog – Now to sustain the improvement into a trend….and stop the decline for the western population.  

Joshua Trees Could Take 200 to 300 Years to Recover from Shutdown Damage | Smart News | Smithsonian – A very sad result of the shutdown.

Physician-targeted marketing is associated with increase in opioid overdose deaths, study shows -- ScienceDaily – Hopefully with the opioid crisis getting more attention…the targeted marketing is reduced or eliminated. The study used data from before 2016. Things have gotten a lot worse since 2016 but maybe there is a lag between prescription opioid use and opioid overdoses.

Rocking Improves Sleep, Boosts Memory | The Scientist Magazine® - A research topic….and maybe a trend in new bed purchases.

America colonization ‘cooled Earth's climate’ - BBC News – More than 50 million people died and close to 56 million hectares (an area the size the France) they had been farming returned to forest. The drop in CO2 is evident in Antarctica ice cores and cooler weather.

The World’s ‘Third Pole’ Will Lose One-Third of Ice by 2100 - Yale E360 – The Himalayas and Hindu Kush mountains are the source of water for nearly 2 billion people. The region has lost 15% of it’s ice since the 1970s. The current estimate is the river flows will increase until 2060 (flooding) but then will decline. There will be more and more bare rock rather than snow covered rock.

Oregon Launches First Statewide Refillable Bottle System in U.S.: The Salt: NPR – It’s starting with beer bottles. Reuse is better than recycle is better than landfill. If given a choice between buying something in glass or plastic…I choose glass.

BBC - Future - The ‘miracle mineral’ the world needs – Phosphorous. Thermic compost piles rather than mineral fertilizers. It’s economical and environmentally a better way.

Top 25 Wild Bird Pictures of the Week – Raptors – As usual – great photographs of birds from around the world.

What happens to the natural world if all the insects disappear? – Big perturbations of food chains. The article ends with a question: If we dispossess them, can we manage the planet without them? It would be a very different planet.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 26, 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.

Learning Rule: Quantity, then Quality | Scott H Young – Quantity as an initial strategy is probably what I do most of the time….but I throw in a healthy dash of variety of mediums as I go after quantity. And I push myself to actively apply while I am learning all along the way.

Serious loneliness spans the adult lifespan but there is a silver lining: Feeling alone linked to psychological and physical ills, but wisdom may be a protective factor -- ScienceDaily – Most of the time we hear only about the negative impacts of loneliness (the emotion….not necessarily the physical situation). But there are many people physically alone but who don’t feel lonely. This study had a broad age rage of participants and looked at loneliness from multiple perspectives.

Aerial photos of U.S. national parks from space – National treasures…hope that the damage during the government shutdown is not widespread. Joshua Tree has been in the news….very sad.

Nutrients in blood linked to better brain connectivity, cognition in older adults -- ScienceDaily – Reinforcement that we need to eat foods with omega-3 and omega-6 fatty acids, carotenoids, lycopene, riboflavin, folate, vitamin B12 and vitamin D. The fatty acids and carotenoids are particularly linked to better functional brain network efficiency.

The Biggest Science News of 2018 | The Scientist Magazine®  - Just catching up on some end-of-2018 interesting posts. I had heard about some of these during the year – but missed some too.

The immune system's fountain of youth: Helping the immune system clear away old cells in aging mice helped restore youthful characteristics -- ScienceDaily -Early days…a lot more research needed. But an interesting idea…helping the body clear out old cells.

There’s a huge and hidden migration in North America — of dragonflies - The Washington Post – It appears that dragonflies migrate. The Monarch is the ‘poster insect’ for migration but it seems like there are more and more articles coming out about other insects that migrate too.

Meeting the Challenge of Feeding 10 Billion People Sustainably in 2050 - News | Planetizen – Land and water to grow food for an expanding population. It’s going to be challenging.

I Dug a Green Grave and Learned the Truth About the Dirty Death Industry – There is a Green Death Movement…and an example is in the Adirondacks called Spirit Sanctuary. In this case the goal is to return bodies to the Earth and preserve a landscape. Interesting…and far more sustainable that the more common burial practices (that include preservatives and waterproof vaults, sealed caskets) and cremation.

The Surprising Evolution of 'The Great Wave of Kanagawa' by Hokusai – A little art history.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 29, 2018

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.

From High Above, A New Way of Seeing Our Urban Planet - Yale E360 – Cities – growing and growing. It is mind boggling that urban population has grown from 751 million in 1950 to 4,200 million today.

How changing labs revealed a chemical reaction key to cataract formation: Researchers studying eye lens find a new function for a protein previously thought to be inert -- ScienceDaily – Learning more about the chemistry behind cataract formation….not a treatment yet but better understanding can be the path toward slowing or more targeted treatment of cataracts.

Curious Kids: What are some of the challenges to Mars travel? – A series from The Conversation (in Australia) for children…but interesting to adults too. Kids ask the best questions!

A DOZEN WAYS FAMILIES CAN #OPTOUTSIDE EVERY DAY OF THE YEAR | Children & Nature Network – I’m on a role with the child focused gleanings right now…I would add to the list: find easy access natural spaces (near where you work or live) and visit them as often as possible.

VIDEO: We Hope Your Day Is As Great As This Snow-Loving Panda’s: NPR – Pandas are such a visual treat. This is Bei Bei at the Smithsonian’s National Zoo back in November.  My husband and I missed the snow (we were in New Mexico).

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Owls – National Geographic Blog – 2018 was my first sighting of barn owls in the wild…awesome.

Ragweed Is on The Move – National Geographic Blog – Not such a big change in the south….in Kansas City the season is prolonged by 23 days. For those people allergic to ragweed…that is a miserable trend.

Some health related posts: Blood pressure: Early treatment advised by US guidelines has no survival benefits -- ScienceDaily and Your heart hates air pollution; portable filters could help -- ScienceDaily – At least the second one was actionable; I now have a portable filter in my bedroom and I think it is reducing my cat allergy – maybe more.

Aerial photos of U.S. national parks from space – I love national parks. Everyone I have been to has had something spectacular to offer. It’s sad that they are all mostly closed (if the bathrooms and visitor centers are not open….they are closed) for this week (partial government shutdown).

How do different light bulbs work? – in C&EN | Compound Interest – Light bulbs have changed a lot during my lifetime. Hopefully now we are on track to have bulbs that are closer to the natural sunlight spectrum so that the light does not cause eye or sleep problems.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 1, 2018

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.

Poor sleep triggers viral loneliness and social rejection: Lack of sleep generates social anxiety that infects those around us -- ScienceDaily – Yet another reason that getting enough sleep is important to us as individuals and society at large.

The Armchair Photography Guide to Canyonlands National Park – Island in The Sky | National Parks Traveler – So many of the pictures had snow! It would be good to go when it was not terrifically hot….so any time but summer and even better close to the beginning or end of winter (a little now…not enough to be hazardous).

Stunning Underwater Photos of Microscopic Plankton by Ryo Minemizu – Beautiful, small life.

In Eastern US, adult trees adapt and acclimate to local climate: Tree cores reveal flexibility, more work needed to understand mechanisms -- ScienceDaily – 14 species of trees were analyzed using tree cores from 1940-1980….shouldn’t we look at more recent tree cores too?

Bed Bugs: When Biodiversity Bites – Cool Green Science – Informative….maybe I should check for bedbugs more consistently when I travel. I shouldn’t keep relying on ‘luck’ to avoid a very bad experience.

A Record Year for Measles Cases in Europe | The Scientist Magazine® - When I was a child, the measles vaccines didn’t exist yet. It was awful. Everyone got sick with them and, for some, there were lasting consequences. I was fortunate and survived without lasting damage except for missing enough school that I never quite understood certain volumetric measurements because I completely missed when it was taught.

Which country has the most expensive education? - Are the comparisons really apples and apples…or are there some pears and oranges thrown in? It is about educations but there are a lot of variables beside cost. All countries and parents and teachers struggle with how to make education relevant to students for now and into the future.

Air Pollution Linked to Decline in Cognitive Performance – The study was done in China but I wondered if it was true in other areas of the world with high levels of air pollution (like India). The US could be vulnerable if we relax our clean air standards.

NASA’s OSIRIS-REx begins asteroid operations campaign – We were in Florida in September 2016 for the launch…so I always notice the updates about its progress.

50% of Industrial Climate Change Emissions Tied to Fossil Fuel Companies – An interview with the two authors of a recently released report: Decarbonization Pathways for Mines.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 21, 2018

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.

Some visual feasts: Peep the Stunning Winners of the Audubon Society’s Photo Contest | Smart News | Smithsonian and National Park Service Releases Iconic Paintings of Parks and Stunning Drone Photos of Venice Show Unique View of the City  and Winners of the 2018 National Geographic Travel Photographer of the Year  – Starting out the gleanings list this week with images!

Fossil Fuels Account for Lowest Share of U.S. Energy Consumption in More than a Century - Yale E360 – Hurray for some positive news about trends and the environment…but there is still a tremendous effort needed to shift toward a sustainable future for our planet.

Air pollution contributes significantly to diabetes globally: Even low pollution levels can pose health risk -- ScienceDaily – Clean air is something every living thing needs for a healthy life – even humans.

New Website Unearths Amsterdam’s History Via 700,000 Artifacts Spanning 5,000 Years | Smart News | Smithsonian – If you can’t travel…there are lots of ways to look artifacts via the web. This is one of them and includes bits and pieces of just about everything.

Rivers and Streams Compose Much More of Earth’s Surface Than Thought | The Scientist Magazine® - The results of a study using NASA’s Landsat images.

BBC - Future - How your age affects your appetite – Food is fuel…and a social/cultural experience. How well does your experience of food link with your age?

Net-zero emissions energy systems | Science – A scholarly article about what it will take to achieve net-zero emissions…what existing technologies can do and what still needs a lot of development.

Germany’s "Stonehenge" Reveals Evidence of Human Sacrifice | Smart News | Smithsonian – Maybe Neolithic circles were more common that originally thought and they weren’t always made of stone. This one was wood and was torn down about 2050 BCE.

Opinion: Rise of the Robot Radiologists | The Scientist Magazine® - A white color job that might give way to artificial intelligence…soon. If it does – will it help slow the rise of medical costs?

Mummification Workshop Excavated in Egypt - Archaeology Magazine and Mummification Workshop and Trove of Burial Relics Found in Egypt | Smart News | Smithsonian – Two sources for the same story…different perspectives/details.