Gleanings of the Week Ending December 14, 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.

Unusual Foods People Used to Eat All the Time – Poke (as in pokeweed) salad, turtle soup, cream chipped beef on toast, limburger sandwich, and vinegar pie. I remember my mother serving cream chipped beef on toast in the 1960s. She also served canned chicken or hard-boiled eggs in cream sauce over toast! It was a quick meal in the days before microwaves.

Incredible Winners of the 2024 International Landscape Photographer of the Year – Take a look and pick a favorite. I like the ‘sunrise on the Atacama Desert’….its crisp lines. The lightning and double rainbow over the Grand Canyons is awesome too.

The ancient significance of the date palm - Phonecia translates to the “Land of Palms” in ancient lands, where palm growth and harvesting dates to approximately 5,000 years ago in ancient Mesopotamia, growing along the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. Date palm trunks and fronds were used as the roof for homes of Akkadians, Sumerians, and Babylonians. Mature palm leaves were made into mats, baskets, screens, and fans.

'One of the greatest conservation success stories': The 1969 mission to save Vermont's wild turkey - Vermont's wild turkeys are a successful restoration story, and one that stood the test of time, unlike elsewhere in the United States where wild turkey numbers are now declining.

Here's how much home prices have risen since 1950 – I bought my first home in 1978…bought subsequent homes in 1983, 1986, 1994, and 2022. I remember the interest rates on mortgages in the 1980s being high (the article says 13.7%) and 1990s (the article says 10.1%). In 2020 the interest rate was low, but we didn’t need a mortgage to purchase our last house! Every house we’ve purchased over the years has been above the median home price (unadjusted).

VA offering 'green burial sections' at national cemeteries – Hopefully ‘green burial’ will become the norm everywhere soon. We don’t need chemicals/embalming fluids leaching into the environment.

When Did People Start Eating Three Meals a Day? - In ancient Roman times, dinner was the one large meal everyone ate, although it was consumed earlier in the day than it is today — sometime around noon. This extended into the Middle Ages in Europe. Laborers often ate a small meal of bread and ale early in the morning before starting a day’s work on the farm. Their main meal of the day, called dinner, was served around noon, and a light snack, known as supper. By the end of the 18th century, many people were eating dinner in the evening after returning home from work. It wasn’t until around 1850 that lunch officially began filling the gap between breakfast and dinner. By the turn of the 20th century, lunch had become a defined meal, typically eaten between 12 p.m. and 2 p.m., and consisting of standard lunch fare even by today’s standards: sandwiches, soups, and salads.

Can we avert the looming food crisis of climate change? - The study integrates key concepts of the dynamics of atmospheric CO2, rising temperatures, human population, and crop yield…and highlights the urgent need to address CO2 emissions to maintain agricultural productivity. It also uncovers a promising strategy to mitigate crop loss caused by climate change: developing crop varieties with a higher temperature tolerance. Next steps for the team involve refining their model to include more variables like insect population, water availability, soil quality, and nutrient levels, which also impact crop yield under climate change.

US Grid Operators Kept the Lights on This Summer with More Solar, Storage, & Wind - In summer 2024, grid operators in all regions maintained enough capacity to keep the lights on during periods of peak demand, even as they retired older generators, and an increasing number of regions used more solar and storage to meet peak demand. Because it is one of the nation’s fastest-growing regions and had near-record peak demand in 2024, the new report concentrates on ERCOT (Electric Reliability Council of Texas) to analyze summer grid operations.

Square Meter Photography Project – Autumn – Macro photography on the prairie.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 09, 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.

Old Growth – Mitch Epstein photographs of very old trees.

The true story of a famed librarian and the secret she guarded closely – Belle da Costa Greene, the first director of New York's historic Morgan Library and Museum.

Inside Turkey’s Mysterious Ancient City That Once Sheltered Thousands—Underground - The Derinkuyu underground city is a sort of gargantuan anthill, except made by and for humans—up to 20,000 of them at a time, in fact. The city descends 280 feet into the earth, divided into eight levels. Upper levels were primarily used for living and sleeping, while lower levels were used for storage, even housing a dungeon. The far-stretched system of interconnected rooms was carved out of the Cappadocia region’s tuff rock. People didn’t live in these underground quarters year-round, however, as they were mainly used for shelter during times of conflict or extreme weather.

Climate change will affect food production, but here are the things we can do to adapt - Farmers can pick crop varieties best suited to different climate condition...production can shift to places with more optimal temperatures…planting and harvest times can shift as the seasons shift…focusing on the right irrigation, fertilizer, pesticides synchronized to climate change. We have the chance to build a more productive and resilient food system, but it’s not guaranteed that we will. It depends on whether the seeds, irrigation, and adaptation practices will be available. That will require real and sustained investment from governments, donors, and private companies.

Toothbrushes and showerheads covered in viruses ‘unlike anything we’ve seen before’ - We live in a richly microbial world. Interactions with bacteria and other microbes in our homes are an integral part of our human biology.

The monarch butterfly may not be endangered, but its migration is - Migrating monarchs don't fly at night, so they spend their evenings in bunches on trees or shrubs, known as roosts. The study relied on 17 years of data from more than 2,600 citizen scientist observations of monarch roosts along the butterfly's migration route. The researchers found that roost sizes have declined by as much as 80%, with these losses increasing from north to south along the migration route. The evidence shows that when monarchs are reared in a captive environment, either indoors or outdoors, they're not as good at migrating.

World’s Rivers Are Driest They - In 2023, the hottest year on record, the Mississippi River and Amazon River basins were at all-time lows, while the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Mekong rivers, which all have their headwaters in the Himalayas, were also unusually dry. Across nearly half the globe, rivers were drier than normal.

The worrying puzzle behind the rise in early-onset cancer - Over the past 10 years, rates of colorectal cancer among 25- to 49-year-olds have increased in 24 different countries, including the UK, US, France, Australia, Canada, Norway and Argentina. Perhaps the most obvious explanation points to the role of obesity and metabolic syndrome, conditions which have been associated with driving cancer risk through increasing inflammation throughout the body and causing the dysregulation of key hormonal pathways. Or maybe changes in sleep patterns is part of the explanation. Combined with shifts in lifestyle, many cancer scientists believe that a key driving force for these illnesses is the consequences of various toxic changes within the gut (from microplastics). Antibiotics might be involved too. The bottom line…it’s a looming public health crisis.

New research reveals how large-scale adoption of electric vehicles can improve air quality and human health - Computer simulations show that aggressive electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet, coupled with an ambitious rollout of renewable electricity generation, could result in health benefits worth between US$84 billion and 188 billion by 2050. Even scenarios with less aggressive grid decarbonization mostly predicted health benefits running into the tens of billions of dollars.

New study explores how universities can improve student well-being - Six guiding principles for improving student well-being:

  • Embedding well-being into curricula for broader, more accessible adoption.

  • Having each initiative only focus on one or two aspects of well-being, making it easier to create instruction that can also be more immersive.

  • Tailoring initiatives to the student body and university culture.

  • Securing buy-in from faculty.

  • Ensuring new offerings are accessible and don't create additional financial burden for students.

  • Employing an iterative assessment framework at the beginning to make it easier to change or scale up a program.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 28, 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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

American Agriculture in the early 1990s (ebooks)

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Liberty Hyde Bailey edited 4 volumes of the Cyclopedia of American Agriculture between 1900 and 1910. It was a time when horticulture and agriculture were becoming more organized at universities and Bailey was a proponent of America as a ‘great agricultural civilization.’

The books are easily browsed on Internet Archive and the photographs clearly reflect the ‘state of the art for agriculture’ in the early 1900s when they were written. I selected two sample images from each of the 4 volumes. (click on the image to see a larger version)

 Cyclopedia of American agriculture : a popular survey of agricultural conditions, practices and ideals in the United States and Canada V1 Farms

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 10, 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.

Versailles’s Hidden Scientific Legacy to Surface in a Major U.K. Exhibition - The five-mile-squared grounds were mapped out by geometricians and astronomers; keeping the 14,000 fountains bubbling further required developing an unprecedented hydraulic engineering system. AND… Giovanni Domenico Cassini, who headed the Paris Observatory, turned skyward, mapping the moon with a precision that wouldn’t be matched until the late 19th century. AND… Hundreds gathered in the courtyard of Versailles to watch the flight of a hot-air balloon, agronomists developed a hardier potato capable of feeding the masses, and an inoculation against smallpox was discovered.

Air conditioning causes around 3% of greenhouse gas emissions. How will this change in the future? – The article concludes: “Rather than lamenting air conditioning's impact on energy use, we need to accept that demand for cooling will increase, work on making it affordable for those who need it most, and build efficient solutions that ensure electricity grids worldwide can cope.”

Ancient Rome’s Appian Way Is Now a UNESCO World Heritage Site - Rome’s Appian Way, an ancient highway dating to the fourth century B.C.E., has been declared a UNESCO World Heritage site.

Could the shingles vaccine lower your risk of dementia? - The idea that vaccination against viral infection can lower the risk of dementia has been around for more than two decades. Associations have been observed between vaccines, such as those for diphtheria, tetanus, polio and influenza, and subsequent dementia risk. It may be the resulting lack of viral infection creating this effect. We need more research exploring in greater detail how infections are linked with dementia. This will help us understand the root causes of dementia and design potential therapies.

Chickasaw National Recreation Area's Monkey Tree Needs Some TLC - An Osage orange tree estimated to be about 130 years old with three thick spreading trunks that generations of children have played on.

Divers Discover Mesmerizing Roman Mosaic Beneath the Sea – Near Naples…a villa in a city known as the Las Vegas of the Roman Empire…now under water.

Healthy diet with less sugar is linked to younger biological age – The correlations between a diet that is rich in vitamins and minerals, especially one without much added sugar, and having a younger biological age at the cellular level.

Agriculture: Less productive yet more stable pastures - Grassland optimized for high yield responds much more sensitively to periods of drought than less intensively used meadows and pastures.

Anne Boleyn’s Childhood Home Is Restored to Its Tudor Glory – The interiors of rooms restored to the style they had during Anne Boleyn’s time.

Forest carbon storage has declined across much of the Western U.S., likely due to drought and fire – Forests in some parts of the world, like the American West, probably do not have the potential to help curb climate change.

Bailey’s Cyclopedia of Horticulture

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Liberty Hyde Bailey edited the Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture from 1916-1919; the six volumes are available from Internet Archive. According to Wikipedia, he had retired from his career at Cornell (1988-1913) to become a private scholar. These volumes must have been one of his post-retirement projects. His daughter, Ethel Zoe Bailey, had graduated from Smith College in 1911 and evidently worked alongside her father on these volumes. His most significant and lasting contributions were in the botanical study of cultivated plants.

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol I

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol II

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol III

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol IV

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol V

The Standard Cyclopedia of Horticulture Vol VI

I enjoyed the illustrations of familiar plants that were being grown in the early 1900s. Most of the illustrations are black and white photographs but I chose sample images from the few that were in color. The produce aisles of our grocery stores have a more limited selection!

The first decades of the 1900s were when a lot of Colleges of Agriculture were formed. Bailey formed Cornell’s College of Agriculture and secured public funding in 1904. Agriculture was rebuilding for the future – trying to get more production of fertile lands farmed, in many cases, by immigrants that had arrived in the prior 50 years. One side of my family tree arrived from Europe in the 1890s. They wouldn’t have seen these books, but they were assisted by the agricultural extension services, the 4-H movement, parcel post, and rural electrification that Bailey helped initiate.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 23, 2023

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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.

As the Mississippi Swerves, Can We Let Nature Regain Control? - After the lower Mississippi began pouring through and enlarging Neptune Pass in 2019, sediment began flowing into a sand-and-silt-starved Delta Bay. Now the Army Corps of Engineers — breaking with tradition — is considering letting at least part of the river have its way…..a change from always ‘filling the breach’ strategy of years past that has had positive economic impacts but caused environmental problems. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, since 1932, more than 2,000 square miles of land in the Mississippi Delta have disappeared under water.

Babcock Ranch: Florida's first hurricane-proof town - When Hurricane Ian made landfall on the southwest Florida coast, it brought 150 mph winds, 17 inches of rain within 24 hours, and storm surges of up to 18 ft. It was the costliest hurricane in Florida's history, causing more than $112 billion  in damage – and at least 150 deaths. Babcock Ranch is an 18,000-acre development that was sitting in the eye of the storm on the southwest of the state just north of Fort Myers. Built to withstand powerful storms, the town came out relatively unscathed. Is this type of development going to be the only kind economically viable for states like Florida in the future?

Year-round school: Difference-maker or waste of time? – No conclusion in this article….evidently there is renewed interest in the idea in the Southeast. But – the concept is not what most people probably assume. The implementation does not involve more days in school for students and often makes childcare more difficult!

What Are Heat Pump Air Conditioners? - Modern heat pumps are superefficient and can deliver heat down to -15 degrees Fahrenheit…but I had to look to find that they can deliver cool air up to 115 degrees which should have been in the article since it was about air conditioning!

Controversial dwarfism drugs spur growth — but do they improve health? – Hard choices.

Microplastics infiltrate all systems of body, cause behavioral changes – Especially in older mice…behaviors akin to dementia in humans. The changes became more profound in older animals. The microplastics in the study were delivered orally via drinking water…and not in high doses.  It’s scary to think about how microplastics might be impacting humans too.

Can California Cropland Be Repurposed for Community Solar? – Evidently the current farming practices are not sustainable, and some farmland needs to be retired. The idea is that the already disturbed land could be repurposed for new community solar projects. I wondered where the food we now are getting from California will be grown in the future…how robust is the US food production system?

TB research shows a good diet can cut infections by nearly 50% - Improved nutrition in family members of patients in India with lung TB reduced all forms of TB by nearly 40%, and infectious TB by nearly 50%. And…for the patients: An early weight gain in the first two months was associated with 60% lower risk of TB mortality. The other benefits were higher treatment success and better weight gain. During the six-month follow-up period, a remarkable treatment success rate of 94% was achieved.

Top 10 Things You Didn’t Know About Wind Power – How many of these 10 did you know already? I knew 4 of the 10…and knew a little about several others. It’s good to see the progress being made. Kudos to Iowa and South Dakota where over 50% of their electricity generation is from wind energy.

Soils forming on the branches of trees are an overlooked forest habitat – This was a study of a tropical forest in Costa Rica, but it reminded me of a tree along a field trip hiking route in Maryland that I always pointed out to students. It was an old maple that had an indention in its trunk that contained soil about 6 feet above the base of the tree. The tree had grown some roots into that soil and there was moss there. Spider webs filled in. Once we found a shed snakeskin hanging from the area!

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 2, 2023

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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.

Dead trees around the world are shocking scientists – Hotter droughts are impacting forests more than anticipated. According to one 2019 study, global greening stopped more than 20 years ago, and vegetation has been declining since, all because of the drought-amplifying effects of warming. Forests are being forced into a transitional phase as they are impacted by the pressures of warmer temperatures, drought, fires, and insects. Perhaps the forests of the future will look very different from the forests that existed in the late 1900s.

Visiting the Grand Canyon will get more dangerous – A heat-related death was reported in July. As the summer days get hotter in the coming years, the risk will increase. I wonder if the peak visitation times at the National Park will shift to spring and fall rather than summer.

Study confirms link between concealed carry weapons and gun homicide rates – The study included 832 counties in the US from 2010 to 2018. "People aren't using concealed guns in public defensively to thwart potential homicides. Rather, having more guns in public through concealed carry appears to be more dangerous and leads to higher homicide numbers.”

This Arrowhead Was Made from a Meteorite 3,000 Years Ago – Found in Switzerland in the 1870s…. examined with X-ray tomography and gamma spectrometry recently. Based on the chemical composition, the researchers say it may have been made from a meteorite that fell in Estonia aroud 1500 BCE; a fragment must have reached Switzerland through trade.

Skin cancer screening guidelines can seem confusing – three skin cancer researchers explain when to consider getting checked - Since the early 1990s, the incidence of melanoma has risen dramatically in the U.S. This increase may be due in part to more emphasis on early detection. Despite this, the rate of death per capita from melanoma has remained unchanged over the last 40 years!

Over one million acres of tribal land submerged by dams in the US, research finds - Over the centuries, colonial settlers and the federal government have acquired over two billion acres from Native nations through various policies, including forced removal, allotment, and the reservation system.

Are You Ready to Have an Immersive Experience — With Your Home Yard? – I am gradually reducing the amount of my lawn…a little this first year in the house….more next year…and every year thereafter until there is very little – if any – grass to mow. Our homeowners’ association has ‘rules’ that I am currently following by simply extending flower beds around the house and making beds in the corners of the back yard. Hopefully by the time I want to turn more of the grassy areas to meadow, the project to create a meadow around the neighborhood ponds will be a success…and the ‘rules’ will change.

Rising methane could be a sign that Earth’s climate is part-way through a ‘termination-level transition’ - Since 2006, the amount of heat-trapping methane in Earth’s atmosphere has been rising fast and, unlike the rise in carbon dioxide (CO₂), methane’s recent increase seems to be driven by biological emissions, not the burning of fossil fuels. Natural variability…or the beginning of a great transition in Earth’s climate?

Wildfires and farming activities may be top sources of air pollution linked to increased risk, cases of dementia - Particulate matter air pollution from agriculture and wildfires might be more neurotoxic compared with other sources.

8 Great U.S. National Parks for Birding – Everglades, Hawai’i Volcanoes, Saguaro, Congaree, Channel Islands, Zion, Redwoods, and Yellowstone. I’ve been to 6 out of the 8!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 20, 2023

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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.

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 March 18, 2023

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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.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 18, 2023

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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.

Farmers Find Wild African Cat Wandering Around Missouri – A serval found when a farming family set a live trap to capture the culprit leaving bones and feathers between their stacks of hay bales! The Turpentine Creek Wildlife Refuge came to the rescue. This is all close to where I live and I was saddened that evidently the new Big Cat Public Safety Act does not include the smaller non-native wild cats…and that someone was cruel enough to release this cat of the African savanna into the wild in Missouri.

Caribou have been using the same Arctic calving grounds for 3,000 years – Analysis of antlers found on the tundra….discovering some of them are 3,000 years old! But the Arctic is warming faster than other parts of the globe. The elders of the village south of the calving grounds comment that they have noticed a lot more trees, less barren tundra. What will happen to the barren ground caribou as this habitat gets converted to forest?

Why fabric fraud is easy to hide – The fashion supply chain is fragmented and very dense….most apparel companies do not track their own supply chain (or don’t go past their immediate suppliers). Organic cotton is one of the prime examples of how end products labelled as organic cotton…might not be. It is hard to determine where the fraud is inserted in the process; the result is that the consumer is paying a premium price…not getting what they are paying for. And to improve the system will require big changes in the fabric/apparel business.

A Field Guide to Unexpected, Out-of-Place Wildlife – Sometimes animals have ranges that are changing or are a lot larger than we anticipate…sometimes birds are in very different places that their usual range!

Dirty Laundry: How much microfiber do we emit with our laundry – A study done in the UK…but probably relevant to the US as well. Microfibers from laundry in the UK weigh 6,850 to 17,847 tons per year. Yes…that’s a lot and pollutes water…however, it is a dwarfed by the 365,000 tons of clothing going into UK landfills per year.

Antibiotic use in farming set to soar despite drug-resistance fears – The increase in bacterial infections that cannot be treated with antibiotics (because of bacteria developing resistance to antibiotics) has been growing in recent years. Overuse of antibiotivs in agriculture is thought to be a major driver of the problem. Governments around the world have attempted to curb the use of antibiotics to promote growth but the use is still expected to grow by 8% between 2020 and 2030. The article includes a chart of agricultural antibiotics by country in 2020…and a projection for 2030.

The Lifelike Glass Models of Leopold and Rudolf Blaschka – Thousands of realistic models of plants and sea creatures made by a father and son from the 1860s until 1938.

8 everyday foods you might not realize are ultra-processed – and how to spot them – I am cutting back on ultra-processed foods this year. Some of the 8 listed in this article are easy: I don’t eat breakfast cereals, I only eat protein bars as ‘emergency rations’ (i.e. not frequently) and avoid yogurt, meal bases and sauces, processed meats, and margarine. I’m still looking for a soy milk that has fewer ingredients; will give up on soy milk soon if I don’t find one. And I try to buy bakery bread.

Did Philip II bring invasive fish to Spain? – Evidently his efforts to acquire fish and crayfish from afar spanned at least 25 years!

Study reveals that much still not known about cognitive decline - Data came from 7,068 participants in the 1996-2016 Health and Retirement Study. Participants were born between 1931 and 1941. Researchers measured their cognitive functioning at age 54 and how it declined until they were 85. At age 54, socioeconomic status, education and race -- explained only 38% of the variation in functioning. Those same factors explained only 5.6% of the variation in how quickly cognitive functioning declined in people between age 54 and 85. So much we don’t know about cognitive decline although it is pervasive in older adults, even those without dementia.

eBotanical Prints – December 2022

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Another 20 botanical books in December. I started out the month with 12 volumes about mosses of North America published by A. J. Grout; the Wikipedia entry says that he taught at Curtis High School in Staten Island from 1908 to 1930…and evidently kept his primary focus on mosses for his entire adult life.

This month also includes 2 books by Agnes Arber (a British botanist) and one by her husband Edward Alexander Newell Arber (a botanist/paleontologist). The Wikipedia article on Agnes reflects the challenging research situation for female academics of her time.

George Vasey was a British-born American botanist of the US Department of Agriculture. Three of his books about grasses finish out the December botanical print books.

The whole list of 2,532 botanical eBooks can be accessed here. The list for the December 2022 books with links to the volumes and sample images is at the bottom of this post.

Click on any sample images in the mosaic below to get an enlarged version. Enjoy the December 2022 eBotanical Prints!

Moss Flora Of North America Volume I  Part 1 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1936

Moss Flora Of North America Volume I  Part 2 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1936

Moss Flora Of North America Volume I  Part 4 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1939

Moss Flora Of North America Volume II  * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1940

Moss Flora Of North America Volume II Part 1 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1933

Moss Flora Of North America Volume II Part 2 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1935

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1906

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III Part 1 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1928

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III Part 2 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1931

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III Part 3 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1932

Moss Flora Of North America Volume III Part 3 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1934

Moss Flora Of North America Volume II Part 3 * Grout, A. J. * sample image * 1935

Water Plants - A study of aquatic angiosperms * Arber, Agnes * sample image * 1920

Herbals, their origin and evolution; a chapter in the history of botany, 1470-1670 * Arber, Agnes * sample image * 1912

Devonian floras; a study of the origin of Cormophyta * Arber, Edward Alexander Newell; Arber, Agnes Robertson * sample image * 1921

The ferns (filicales) V1 * Bower, Frederick Orpen * sample image * 1928

Plant-life * Hall, Charles Albert * sample image * 1915

Illustrations of North American Grasses V1 - Grasses of the Southwest * Vasey, George * sample image * 1891

Illustrations of North American Grasses V2 - Grasses of the Pacific Slope * Vasey, George * sample image * 1893

The agricultural grasses of the United States * Vasey, George * sample image * 1884

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 19, 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.

Energy crisis: How living in a cold home affects your health – The coming winter is going to be very difficult for many – particularly in Europe.

Parks of the 21st century: new ways to reinvent abandoned land – Parks always are signs of hope…the greening of places that might have been eyesores in the past. I wondered how much toxic remediation had to occur for some of the sites they described; its encouraging that we can clean up the messes we’ve made in the past!

Alcohol caused one in eight deaths of working-age US adults – The data used from the analysis was pre-COVID-19 pandemic. Recently, the CDC has released data for 2019 and 2020 and it shows a larger-than-normal 26% spike in the alcohol-induced deathrate. In 2020, alcoholic liver disease and mental/behavioral disorders were the leading underlying causes of alcohol-induced deaths. Sad numbers….lots of people and their families impacted.

A field guide to the unusual raptors of the Southern US – I was pleased to see the snail kite in this article – a bird I saw on a birding trip to Florida in 2019.

Farmers in China, Uganda move to high-yielding, cost-saving perennial rice – Very positive results. Hopefully we will eventually have perennial forms of other grains (wheat in particular).

The weirdest places you can find wild turkeys – Wild turkeys have made a comeback since the early 1900s…a restoration success story. Part of the Thanksgiving vibe this week!

Breast cancer survivorship doubles – An analysis of Canadian data from the 2007-2001. The study also highlighted the long-term side effects in these survivors…the need for new therapies to improve the health of women after surviving breast cancer.

Permanent Standard Time Could Save Lives, Explained by A Sleep Expert – I don’t like changing to/from daylight savings time; before reading this article, I didn’t care which one we chose to make permanent. Now I am convinced that we should stick with standard time! There are too many negative health impacts to staying on daylight savings.

How to avoid bad choices – The article is about the research on how to teach children ‘decision-making competence’ – not just a measure of raw brainpower but how well someone is able to appraise situations. There are many approaches but the goal is to get children and adolescents to start thinking about risk and danger in a more analytical way….on the way to adulthood.

Blind spots in the monitoring of plastic waste – The amount of plastic waste in rivers could be up to 90% higher that previously assumed. The current measurements are mainly based on surface observations…but plastic can be suspended or sink! This study tracked 3,000 particles from 30mm to larger objects like plastic cup. Knowing where the plastic is helps guide where clean up would be the most effective.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 30, 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.

Furs from Danish Viking Burials Analyzed – Proteins extracted from animal furs found in 6 burials. The accessories/furnishings were domesticated animals. The items of clothing were wild beaver, squirrels, and weasels. The beaver furs were not native to the area so were probably luxury furs obtained by trade.

More Energy on Less Land: The Drive to Shrink Solar’s Footprint – Good ideas…if we must use agriculturally productive land for solar panels. I’d like to see cities with high density solar panels that generate electricity close to where it is needed (i.e., short distance between generation and use). Hopefully that is happening in parallel with the solar development described in this article.

Moths are unsung heroes of pollination – The study was done with red clover…but probably applies to a broader range of plants. Moths are active during the night so have not been as easily observed as pollinators that are active during the day. The work was done with time lapse cameras.

Electric School Buses! – A blog post about the US Department of Energy’s ‘Flipping the Switch on Electric School Buses’ series. There are lots of communities that have been exploring making the transition and I am hopeful that it will be an escalating trend. I always cringed at the fumes that were so obvious when the buses arrived/departed from schools as I was growing up and when my daughter was in school. It would be good for the planet and good for children’s lungs to eliminate the school bus as a source of air pollution!

The habits that help prevent allergies – Studies that are improving our understanding of why allergies are increasing in the children….and strategies for addressing the problem. Evidently the time between 4 and 11 months is very important.

Harm from blue light exposure increases with age, research in flies suggests – Not good news. Maybe the default setting on our ‘screens’ (phones, computers, television) need to reduce blue light rather than it being a setting that everyone must intentionally set. And why don’t LED manufactures offer bulbs that are not so blue shifted?

Giant Snails take over Florida’s Gulf Coast - It is not the first time…probably won’t be the last. These snails are native to Africa and this the third time Florida has battled an invasion.

Water resources to become less predictable with climate change – The study focused primarily on areas that rely on snow for all or part of their water supply. Some of those areas are already relatively dry…and the populations are large enough that the unpredictability of water resources will be very problematic.

The best way to brush your teeth – This is going to take some practice to break old habits. I learned to brush my teeth a long time ago and probably am too sloppy even doing it the way I was taught!

New thought on Cahokia’s ancient wetlands – A large flat rectangular area that was previously thought to have been used as open, communal space might have been under water most of the year!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 25, 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.

Ukrainian Students Are Taking Haunting Grad Photos in Rubble Created by the War – Life going on during war…graduation pictures that reflect a very different year in Ukraine.

The surprising benefits of fingers that wrinkle in water – A lot more questions and research than I expected!

Single brain scan can diagnose Alzheimer’s disease – Faster and earlier diagnosis…a component that could improve outcomes over the long term.

Photographer Captures Colorful “Moonbows” – In Yosemite National Park.

Walking toward healthier knees – “Those who reported walking for exercise had 40% decreased odds of new frequent knee pain compared to non-walkers” --- that’s a good stat to keep in mind as we get older and want to avoid increased knee problems.

Living with the prospect of assisted dying – A post about a man diagnosed with ALS…difficulty with the bureaucracy of assisted dying laws even with a clear-cut terminal diagnosis.

Alaska Ablaze – 5,000 lightning strikes…dozens of wildfires.

How to turn your garden into a carbon sink – Turning more yards into gardens…with more diverse plantings….a few more trees. Sometimes going a little wild is a good thing!

Pollen and Heat: a looming challenge for global agriculture – heat is a pollen killer for canola, corn, peanuts, and rice. It is becoming more important than ever for crops to bloom before the temperature rises…and it is getting more challenging as multi-day stretches of excess heat are becoming more common early in the growing season.

The life of a solitary bee – There are as many as 4,000 bee species in the US….and most of them are solitary. 98% of the native bee species in the US are solitary.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 11, 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: Shorebirds! – Always lots to see looking at birds!

Everglades' Wading Birds Had Mixed Success In 2020 – Overall wading bird nesting in South Florida has increased…but is still a fraction of the target. In 2020, an early arriving rainy season impacted the availably of food for chicks.

De-cluttering may not help people with dementia – People with moderate dementia perform better surrounded by their ‘usual’ clutter!

U.S. Is World’s Top Generator of Plastic Waste – Not surprising. And the US should take the lead in figuring out what to do about it: how to produce less and recycle more.

A Mosaic From Caligula’s ‘Pleasure Boat’ Spent 45 Years as a Coffee Table in NYC – Still a lot of mystery about how the mosaic got from its recovery when Lake Nemi was drained by Mussolini and then becoming the top of a coffee table for 45 years. It was seized in 2017 and returned to the Italian government.

Roadrunner: Meet the Real Bird Behind the Cartoon – I can remember seeing one a little north of where my parents live now (north of Dallas) in the 1980s…but they are probably long gone from that area now. I’ve seen them in west Texas more recently; one was at a rest stop between San Antonio and Laredo. They always seem to thrive in relatively harsh environments.

The bustling hidden world of hedgerows – The closest we come in North America to hedgerows are fencerows or windbreaks….and even those have been reduced over the years. Near where I live the advent of glyphosate/Roundup ready crops has eliminated the herbaceous growth along the edges of fields which in the past included milkweed and other plants that were attractive to butterflies and other small animals.

Master Artisans Fixed Mistakes Made by Apprentices at Ancient Egyptian Temple – I enjoyed the 6 minute video in this post…it’s quiet enough to hear the birds in the ruins.

Managing water resources in a low-to-no-snow future – We need to be thinking of adaptations to this manifestation of climate change now rather than waiting since the solutions will be challenging….take time to design and construct.

Old-fashioned rice custard – I have a container of rice from some Chinese takeout…..and plan to make this rice custard. I am anticipating that it will be yummy (and high protein too).

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 19, 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.

Asphalt adds to air pollution, especially on hot, sunny days -- ScienceDaily – Evidently, it’s not just fresh asphalt that pollutes air. In cities, pollution from asphalt is significant enough that it needs to be considered in efforts to reduce pollution. Because it is usually dark in color it also contributes to the heat island effect in cities.

The Peopling of South America | The Scientist Magazine® - Sites along both coasts of the continent…analyzed with modern technologies…teasing out more information about the waves of migration.

The fate of antiques and heirlooms in a disposable age - BBC Future – As we come more conscious of the impact of our lifestyle on the environment….maybe durability of our possessions becomes more important again.

Researchers identify five types of cat owner -- ScienceDaily – In this study…the types are defined in terms of their attitudes toward their pets’ roaming and hunting: conscientious caretakers, concerned protectors, tolerant guardians, laissez-faire guardians, and freedom defenders. My husband and I are in the 1st category although there is a component of the second in our attitude as well. We keep our elderly cat indoors or on the screen enclosed deck.

Think Pigeons Are Boring? Not These Birds – From around the world.

How we sleep today may forecast when Alzheimer's disease begins -- ScienceDaily – The study indicates that the amount of deep sleep (i.e. non-REM slow-wave sleep) is predictive of how restorative sleep is for the brain (as measured by the build up (or not) of beta-amyloid plaques). They haven’t yet done the next step: improving sleep quality and observing the impact on beta-amyloid plaques.

Botanical gardens - where nature meets science and society – A short history of botanical gardens of Europe.

Some of America's favorite produce crops may need to get a move on by 2045 -- ScienceDaily – A third of veggies and two thirds of fruits/nuts consumed in the US are grown in California. In 20 years, climate change will make much of the area hotter and drier. The study looked at 5 crops (lettuce, broccoli, carrots, tomatoes, and cantaloupe) that make up 64% of California’s cash value of veggies/melons. In the future, cool season crops (like broccoli and lettuce) will be grown not just in fall and spring…but in the winter too. It will be too warm to continue growing tomatoes during the summer as that they are grown now and it could be challenging to find a 4 month period where the temperature is in a good range for tomatoes. The main message of the study is that planning needs to be done now to maintain food production in the US.

Eat, Prey, Love: Fast Facts on the Remarkable Praying Mantis – Mantises are fascinating insects. I listened to a video  recently about hummingbirds from one of the birding festivals that talked about mantises sometimes eating hummingbirds!

Playfulness can be trained - here's why you should do it -- ScienceDaily – Applying interventions of positive psychology to playfulness. It appeals to me that the study is coming out now when we have so many people in awkward situations trying to stay healthy. Increasing playfulness was found to improve mood!

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 28, 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.  

Tree Rings, Wildfires, and Climate | The Scientist Magazine® - Evidently the linkage between winter precipitation and fires in the spring in California – long documented in tree ring studies – has disappeared. Wildfires now are as likely to happen after a wet winter as they are after a dry one.

New Research Shows Healthy Agriculture Means Healthier Birds – Honing our understanding of healthy agricultural schemes that promote healthy farmland birds.

How cutting your food waste can help the climate - BBC Future – Over the past few years, I have started composting and reduced my food waste by eating food – never forgetting what I have in the refrigerator. Keeping a mental inventory of fresh fruits and veggies…freezing anything that I might not use before it goes bad….has been key. I enjoy frozen bananas in smoothies more than the unfrozen! This time at home (social distancing) gives me an opportunity for another round of reducing food waste….although it’s harder now since I’ve done all the easy actions.

'Grand Challenge' review stresses global impact of microplastics -- ScienceDaily  - Where major research and discovery are needed re microplastics impact on the environment and health. Recognizing that all plastic is not the same and new tools will be needed.

20+ Photos of a Snow-Covered Winter Wonderland in the Forest and 15 Incredible Finalists of the Smithsonian Magazine Photo Contest – So many beautiful pictures. I needed the boost of natural images this week.

Dragonflies are efficient predators: They consume hundreds of thousands of insects in a small area -- ScienceDaily – Exploring predation in the insect world…its impact on prey species and the community.

A Naturalist’s Guide to the South African Cape – Some unique species.

Top 25 birds of the week: Migratory birds - Wild Bird Revolution – I always enjoy the 25 bird pictures each week.

Sinking ships to stop erosion - The Landslide Blog - AGU Blogosphere – The example shows ships sunk after World War I to stop erosion…and now more than 100 years later – it’s obvious that it worked!

Staying in? Keep learning with science activities that kids and families can do at home | National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration – Some resources from NOAA….ocean and atmosphere topics to explore without leaving the house!

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 14, 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.

The Two Genomes in Every Eukaryotic Cell | The Scientist Magazine® and Infographic: How the Mitochondrial and Nuclear Genomes Interact | The Scientist Magazine® - A lot has been discovered about mitochondrial DNA (and genetics) since I was in college in the 1970s!

Yellowstone's Wolves: Infusing Wildness into The Landscape – The story of wolves in Yellowstone over the past 25 years – the positive impact on the ecosystem as a whole

Sunlight-Tracking Polymer, Inspired by Sunflowers, Could Maximize Solar Power | Smart News | Smithsonian – Another way that solar panels can gain efficiency.

Springfield Plateau: Yellowjacket Nest – A yellowjacket tale from Springfield MO. I was surprised that ice was the treatment for a sting. I’ve always used baking soda with ice as the backup plan if there isn’t any baking soda available.

Why biodegradables won’t solve the plastic crisis - BBC Future – There are only pieces of a solution at this point….nothing comprehensive. It seems like the best strategy for at home is to reduce all single use plastic as much as possible. There are some easy things like reusable shopping and produce bags, but it becomes hard quickly. So many groceries and toiletries only come in plastic containers.

Remote Sensing Data Advances Soil Health Science – Cover crops and no-till practices were an advantage in record-breaking rainfalls of spring 2019.

How the House Finch Conquered Your Feeder…and A Continent – A little history of House Finches – originally from the southwest and Mexico…now in found widely across North America.

How the Aztecs could improve modern urban farming: Chinampas: An old technique might provide new solutions to sustainable urban agriculture -- ScienceDaily – The article made the multiple harvests per season seem feasible in tropical wetlands…not so much in the temperate zone where the artificial islands would go through a real winter although maybe it would just mean the use of cover crops during that time period.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: December – Bird photography to enjoy!

Listening to Nature: The Emerging Field of Bioacoustics - Yale E360 – An up and coming technology for remote sensing of birds, insects, frogs and other animals.

Gleanings of the Week Ending August 24, 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.

‘Off-the-charts’ heat to affect millions in U.S. in coming decades – How will public health be impacted by warming climate? This article summarizes a county-by-county analysis of likely temperature and humidity over the coming decades.

Waist size is a forgotten factor in defining obesity -- ScienceDaily - Waist size is just as important as BMI in defining obesity-related health risks. The study used data from 156,000 women ages 50-79 from 1993-2017 and confirms a similar study published in 2015 based on a much smaller population.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: Little Brown Jobs (LBJs) – National Geographic Society Newsroom – Not as colorful as usual…but I still enjoyed the pictures. I also like the acronym (LBJs)

Algae living inside fungi: How land plants first evolved -- ScienceDaily – And the study was done with algae and fungi that produce high amounts of oil…could be useful growing together for bioproduction (reduce costs).

Food insecurity common across US higher education campuses -- ScienceDaily - Lack of access to reliable supply of nutritious food may affect student's ability to succeed, researchers say. Is it more a problem now that it used to be….or are we just recognizing it? Universities are scrambling to set up programs to address the issue.

With New Perennial Grain, a Step Forward for Eco-Friendly Agriculture - Yale E360 – How can the ideas for prairie and forest sustainable agriculture be moved into the mainstream faster? It seems like there is still a lot to learn about how to do it on a large scale.

Non-native invasive insects, diseases decreasing carbon stored in US forests -- ScienceDaily – It seems like more of these problems are cropping up….and at a time when we need our forests to retain carbon. In our area, the emerald ash borer has killed all the ash trees in the past 5 years…a noticeable change in our forests.

Focus on Native Bees, Not Honey Bees – Cool Green Science - Lots of beautiful bees out there…pollinating right along with the honey bees. We need to support all the pollinators to build (and sustain) health environments for us all.

Solar Panels on Farmland Have Huge Electricity-Generating Potential - Yale E360 – A vision to think about….agrivoltaics (a new vocabular word for me!).

Arctic permafrost is thawing fast. That affects us all. – I was intrigued by the pictures of landscapes of melting permafrost – collapsing land, methane (enough to burn) bubbling from a thawing pond, crumbling cliffs.