Gleanings of the Week Ending October 29, 2016
/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 world’s knowledge is being buried in a salt mine – The Memory of Mankind project is creating a modern version of Sumerian tablets discovered in the desert. The storage area is one of the oldest salt mines in the world – in the Austrian mountains.’ Ceramic microfilm’ Is being created to hold the information in a way that can withstand acid and alkali environments…and solar storm.
The Bug’s Camouflage is Very Impressive – A Lichen Katydid. In our area, the pray mantises are almost as good at blending into their environment!
Can wild seeds save us from food apocalypse? – A little history…a little status report…how and why seed banks are needed.
‘Shadow method’ reveals locomotion of secrets of water striders – We often point out water striders to our elementary school hiking groups. They are always intrigued by the insect that can ‘walk on water.’
In new ozone alert, a warning of harm to plants and to people – Snap beans, milkweed, coneflowers, and other plants turn brown and sickly when ozone occurs at ground level – becoming bio-indicators for this pollutant. While pollution controls have brought down the peak ozone levels, the background levels have been increasing.
Photo of the Week – October 14, 2016 – Fall photos from The Prairie Ecologist.
The amazing cloud cities we could build on Venus – With ‘going to Mars’ being so much in the news recently, it was interesting to read about why Venus might have some advantages over Mars for colonialization.
New satellite image database maps the dynamics of human presence on Earth – Data to support the first release of the ‘Atlas of the Human Planet’ – increasing our understanding of urban areas, population density, and the amount of vegetation in urban areas….and more.
Why do octopuses remind us so much of ourselves? – From National Geographic – so great pictures and article. An octopus has about as many neurons as a cat but two-thirds of them are in their arms!
Pediatricians update digital media recommendation for kids – Hopefully pediatricians bring up this topic with parents. The recommendations seem like common sense to me but maybe they are not intuitive to everyone.
