Gleanings of the Week Ending April 23, 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.

Cancer’s Vanguard (exosomes) and Immune Influence and Under Pressure – From The Scientist, graphics explains some recent research findings about cancer.

Texas and California have too much Renewable Energy – There have already been instances where spot prices for power have turned negative. Large-scale storage is needed for renewable energy…and does not exist.

Fertilizer’s Legacy: Taking a Toll on Land and Water – Massive amounts of legacy phosphorous has accumulated and will continue to impact aquatic ecosystems for a very long time. The study used data for the past 70 years for 3 rivers.

The Impact of Climate Change on Public Health – Four Infographics…. there is no good news.

Buzz Aldrin’s Plan for a Permanent Presence on Mars – Part biography…part of what ‘going to Mars’ should mean.

Breakthrough Toothpaste Ingredient Hardens your Teeth While You Sleep – Not only new technology to ‘significantly reduce tooth decay’…but new ways of marketing to both professionals and consumers. I thought at first that it was all about new ways of getting the positive action of fluoride in a more effective way but toward the end of the article it says they are working on a fluoride free version.

Behind-the-Scenes…Smithsonian’s Natural History Museum – Warehouses of collections.

8 Great Food Documentaries – Short descriptions and links to trailers for some food related documentaries.

Photographer Michael Nichols on Yellowstone – A place I’d like to visit again…once is not enough.

Effects of BPA Substitutes – Not good at all. Why wasn’t research done on the replacements for BPA before they became replacements?

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 26, 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.

Forests reveal lingering effects of native cultures – The researchers looked at patterns of honey locus in the Southern Appalachian region. The article drew my attention because the native culture in the area was Cherokee (maybe some of my ancestors) and I had read something similar about the native stands of bananas.

Goodbye, America. I’m becoming a nomad (again)! – Mike Elgan is currently in Cuba and blogging about the experience….a lot more about daily life in Cuba that the Presidential visit.

Pregnant T. rex could aid in dino sex-typing – A T. rex with a medullary bone – the same as modern birds (female) have to shell their eggs. It comes and goes with the bird’s reproductive cycle so not only indicates that the fossil was a female --- but that it was also in the egg laying part of its reproductive cycle.

Climate variations analyzed five million years back in time – We have to go back into the geological history of the Earth a very long way to find a climate as warm as what we are heading towards and we cannot detect the detailed variations….but we already know that there were abrupt climate shifts back then.

Artist Paints Elaborately Colorful Scenes Using Only Her Fingers – This is quite different than a child’s finger painting? My favorites are the lily pads with the fish underneath, the deer looking through yellow leaves, and the curled up fox.

Tunable windows for privacy, camouflage – I would enjoy not having to add blinds and/or drapery to windows….but it would have to require very little electricity to be opaque (since that is the mode that probably would be wanted most at night when solar energy was least available).

Bald Eagle Cam (DC) – Just in case you have not seen the story elsewhere. This article has a link for the live cam and the twitter feed. Yesterday when I looked the day was warm enough that a parent was standing to the side of the nest while the babies slept (they are still young enough that they fall over in a ‘food coma’ after they eat!

Potential Zika virus risk estimated for 50 US cities – A very scary map. It has been long enough ago that German measles caused birth defects when pregnant women contracted the diseases…this time we don’t have a large number of people in the population that have immunities from having the disease previously so if the US does have an outbreak it would have traumatic outcomes.

Chocolate Chemistry – On a happier note – chocolate. Dark chocolate is my favorite ‘splurge’

21 Enormous Man Made Holes – Mines, nuclear explosions, wells…lots of reasons humans have made giant holes on the surface of Earth.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 19, 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.

Eyeglasses that can focus themselves are on the way – I’m not sure whether this is the technology that will actually do it….but I sure would like glasses that adjusted to my needs rather than the static versions we have now.

Thickly Layered Paintings Literally Pop Off Artist’s Canvas – Bright and colorful….good paintings to pair with a spring day!

Down the Drain: Here’s why we should use rainwater to flush toilets – Good rationale but it seems like the retrofit for an existing house would be expensive. Our house had 3.5 bathrooms and they are not close together. The logistics of getting the collected rainwater to the toilets would take some design work.

Time to rethink your vegetable oil? – Research about what is good about linoleic acid. The study was funded by NIH (better than if it had been funded by lobbyists pushing grapeseed oil).

World Average Temperature Could Rise by 1.5 Degrees as Early as 2020 – This is close enough to be in the lifetime of the majority of us.

On-the-spot diagnosis of certain cancers and other diseases is closer to becoming a reality thanks to sensitive biosensor – If this technology is effective and done for a lot less cost than current methods (mammograms, colonoscopies, ultrasound, x-rays, biopsies, etc) – it will be quite a boon for patients. But will the vested interests of our medical system allow it to replace all that infrastructure in place for diagnosis?

An Interactive Timeline of the History of the Earth – A resource listed for the Big History Course I am taking. After landing on the page – click on the red triangle on the left of the screen and the timeline beginning with the Big Bang appears. Click and drag the triangle to the right and see more details on the progression along the timeline. When the triangle gets to 1 billion years ago, another bar will appear below with a new triangle on the left. Continue in this mode to the present. The page gets very busy!

Potential new therapeutic target for hypertension may offer less side effects – This therapy seems to be focusing on something closer to the ‘cause’ for age related hypertension which is very appealing. The more we understand about the body as a biological system, the more therapies will be of this type.

These 27 Solutions Could Help the U.S. Slash Food Waste – When I saw the picture of the food scraps at the top of the article – I realized how far I’ve come in the way I prepare food. Some of those green ‘scraps’ (stems and green leaves) looked good enough to go into a stir fry or soup! If everyone learned to use the produce they buy more completely – there would not be as much waste to deal with.

Facebooks is a growing and unstoppable digital graveyard – In 2012, 30 million users with Facebook accounts had died…some estimates claim that 8,000 users die each day. Just as Facebook has changed the meaning of ‘friend’ and ‘like’….it leaves digital legacy of its users.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 9, 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.

Here’s how climate will affect what we eat – Several alarming items from this post: “High quality chocolate will be less available in the future, and if you want it, you’ll have to pay a lot more for it” and crops that grow in small geographic areas (most things besides stables) will be most severely impacted. It appears that diets will become more standardized (maybe boring too).

A Breathtaking view of the World’s Oldest River System – The New River Gorge in West Virginia…maybe a vacation destination?

Mapping the National Parks – Topographic maps, national scenic trails, geologic maps, and remote sensing…there is a lot of information best displayed on a map!

Ancient city of Pompeii unveils restored homes – The results of 12 projects done by a 2012 partnership been the EUs European Commission and Italian authorities. I was glad to see that some restoration work is being done; the many tourists take a toll on the site.

The Best of Cool Green Science: Birds & Birding Edition – Pointers to 10 birding posts from 2015 on The Nature Conservancy web site.

The Year in Food: Artificial Out, Innovation in (And 2 More Trends) – How many of the trends have you noticed? Some of the labeling (‘all natural’ and ‘clean’) is not well defined but it is pretty clear that consumers are voting with the dollars – which forces the food system to respond. I know that we don’t go out to eat as often as we used to, do most of our grocery purchases around the periphery of the store, and compost the small amount of food parings we don’t eat.

Mapping 260 years of Global Carbon Emissions – A short video map of the world that shows the global emissions from fossil fuel burning from 1750-2010.

Chocolate + Fresh Fruit = Easy, Impressive Vegan Desserts – All of these desserts look good to me….and they are on the healthier end of the spectrum for desserts!

These Are Our Favorite Earth Images of 2015 – The image of earth from space – awesome!

Appliance upgrades that save the most water, energy and cost – Thought provoking article. Sometimes deciding the ‘best bargain’ is more complex that we realize. One surprising result: one of the best appliances to update for water efficiency was the gas furnace, not the more intuitive shower head or dishwasher, because of the water associated with producing energy.