Gleanings of the Week Ending June 7, 2025

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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.

Warming Linked to Rising Cancer Rates Among Women in the Middle East - As temperatures in the region rose, so did cancer rates in Qatar, Bahrain, Jordan, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Syria, which are prone to extremely hot summers. Increasingly extreme heat is making air pollution worse, weakening our immune systems, and putting additional strain on hospitals. These and other factors could be driving up the risk of cancer.

90-Year-Old Korean Artist Kim Yun Shin Is Finally Going Global – Creative longevity!

Archaeologists Unearth Two Rare African Figurines in 1,500-Year-Old Christian Burials in Israel - The artifacts are carved from rare ebony wood that originated in India or Sri Lanka. Each figurine features a small hole through which a cord might have been threaded, allowing the owner to wear it around their neck.

When Sears Pioneered Modular Housing - In an early iteration of modular housing, kit homes were sold by companies like Sears and Montgomery Ward in the early and mid-20 century - complete with “all the materials that a kit home purchaser needed to build the home, including at least 10,000 pieces of precut lumber to suit the model of the home, drywall, asphalt roof shingles, carved staircases, and the nails, door knobs, drawer pulls, paint and varnish needed to do the job. Electrical, heating systems, and plumbing materials could also be purchased at extra cost.”

Scientific breakthrough brings CO2 'breathing' batteries closer to reality - Scientists have made a breakthrough in eco-friendly batteries that not only store more energy but could also help tackle greenhouse gas emissions. Lithium-CO2 'breathing' batteries release power while capturing carbon dioxide, offering a greener alternative that may one day outperform today's lithium-ion batteries.

Fitness fight: Native bees struggle against invasive honey bee - High densities of European honey bees could be harming Australian native bees' 'fitness' by reducing their reproductive success and altering key traits linked to survival. Has this happened in North America as well?

Ancient pollen reveals stories about Earth’s history, from the asteroid strike that killed the dinosaurs to the Mayan collapse – Missouri rocks: When an asteroid struck Earth some 66 million years ago, the one blamed for wiping out the dinosaurs, it is believed to have sent a tidal wave crashing onto North America. Marine fossils and rock fragments found in southeastern Missouri appear to have been deposited there by a massive wave generated by the asteroid hitting what is now Mexico’s Yucatan Peninsula. Among the rocks and marine fossils, scientists have found fossilized pollen from the Late Cretaceous and Early Paleocene periods that reflects changes in the surrounding ecosystems. The pollen reveals how ecosystems were instantly disrupted at the time of the asteroid, before gradually rebounding over hundreds to thousands of years.

A New, Shape-Shifting ‘Flapjack’ Octopus Has Been Discovered in the Deep Sea Off the Coast of Australia - The tiny cephalopod grows only about 1.6 inches across, but it can survive more than half a mile beneath the ocean’s surface. During the 2022 expedition, the team used high-tech cameras, nets and sleds to collect samples and snap photographs deep below the ocean’s surface. Many of the specimens they found are thought to be new species.

Fast food, fast impact: How fatty meals rapidly weaken our gut defenses - Researchers discovered the gut protective protein, IL-22, was rapidly depleted in mice after just two days of eating high-fat foods.

Where To Go Caving in the National Park System – Mammoth Cave, Carlsbad Caverns, Wind Cave, Crystal Cave in Sequoia, Jewel Cave, Lehman Caves in Great Basin. I have been to all of them except Crystal Cave and Lehman Caves. Mammoth Cave would be the closest for me to see again.

My Missouri Yard – May 2025

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There is always something happening in my yard this time of year. I often notice the mushrooms when I mow. There are several different kinds…most often near the place in our front yard where a tree was cut down sometime before we bought the house. There is still a lot underground that the fungi are decomposing.

I noticed a crane fly in the white pine as I was mowing….right at eye level.

The common saxifrage (Saxifraga stolonifera) was growing in a protected corner flowerbed on the east side of our house when we bought it. The plant has overflowed the bed and bloomed profusely this spring….a benefit of not mowing an area that is very shady and was beginning to be mossy. It is not a native plant, but it has deeper roots….will hold the soil on the slope better than moss…and better than grass too!

The rose bushes are blooming…recovered again from dying back during the winter. The wildflower patch I planted the first year is doing well…although I am realizing that not all the flowers are natives. I am letting it continue this year but will have to begin taking out the non-natives next year.

The mock strawberry (Potentilla indica) seems to be in several places in my yard. It is invasive but I am not doing anything to get rid of it at this point.

I have a hummingbird feeder on my office window for the first time this year….we don’t have a lot of ruby throated hummingbirds, but enough of them come by to make it worthwhile to keep it clean and full of sugar water!

Chihuly Vicariously

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My daughter texts us pictures when she travels, and she has made two short trips recently that are tempting me to plan trips….maybe for next fall. The first was to Wichita, Kansas in mid-May…with the big draw (for me) being the Chihuly glass in the Wichita Art Museum. There were also wetlands, a zoo and fireworks! It might be easier to convince my husband that planning a similar trip would be worthwhile since he got the texts as well!

The second trip was to Oklahoma City; she was there last week to see the play-off game of the OKC Thunder….enjoyed the game but also enjoyed Myriad Botanical Garden. Oklahoma City might be a good early fall excursion for us….as soon as the heat of summer begins to wane.

Butterfly House after Rain

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One of my shifts at the Roston Native Butterfly House occurred after it rained most of the night and the hours before my shift. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn’t rain for a bit over 2 hours that fit nicely with my scheduled time…only starting again just as the next shift arrived! Not many people ventured out to the Springfield Botanical Gardens during that time and there were only 14 visitors to the butterfly house…so I had plenty of time to sweep the floor and stand up the chairs! There was a cecropia moth on the floor that I moved to a flower bed so it would not get stepped on; it moved a bit when I picked it up.

The high point of the visitors were grandparents their two young granddaughters; they were having a ‘butterfly day camp week’ and the house was on their activity list! They were thrilled that the rain had stopped long enough for them to visit.

The butterflies that were not roosting were feeding on zinnias and musk thistle – probably hungry because they tend to roost when it is raining or dark (and it was cool as well). The oranges that are usually popular were probably waterlogged from all the rain; I didn’t see any butterflies on them. Two pipevine swallowtail caterpillars were actively feeding but most of the others were not very active. I had plenty of time to take pictures of butterflies, caterpillars, and plants.

There were at least 4 cecropia moths (other than the one I moved off the floor) that were in house…a little challenging to see in the foliage. Two butterflies emerged from their chrysalis but neither one dried off enough to fly away from the chrysalis house; the humidity was very high which probably prolonged the process. Some butterflies were on the low brick walls and floor; they might have been puddling although it appears they were on relatively dry places.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 31, 2025

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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.

10 Ways Vincent Van Gogh Continues to Make News, Even Today – An artist that has been ‘newsworthy’ for a very long time. This post about recent instances of ‘Van Gogh mania.’

Measles vaccines save millions of lives each year – Statistics about measles and the impact of the vaccine…history and how the choices we make will have impacts on the future trajectory of the disease.

New River Gorge National Park and Preserve – It became a national park in 2020. I’ve driven through it…stopped at a visitor center…but haven’t experienced it the way I have other national parks.

Forty Years of Change in Louisiana’s Wetlands – Images from Landsat 9 from 1985 and 2024 show that much of the wetland has transitioned to open water….reshaped by storms and sea level rise.

In healthy aging, carb quality counts - The researchers analyzed data from Nurses' Health Study questionnaires collected every four years between 1984 and 2016 to examine the midlife diets and eventual health outcomes of more than 47,000 women who were between the ages of 70 and 93 in 2016. The analysis showed intakes of total carbohydrates, high-quality carbohydrates from whole grains, fruits, vegetables, and legumes, and total dietary fiber in midlife were linked to 6 to 37% greater likelihood of healthy aging and several areas of positive mental and physical health.

Wildlife Photographer Captures Mid-Air Battle of Two Birds Fighting for Dinner – The battle over a vole between a Northern Harrier and Short-eared Owl in British Columbia, Canada. Dramatic photos. Both birds are over Missouri Prairies in the winter too!

How the humble chestnut traced the rise and fall of the Roman Empire - According to researchers in Switzerland, the Romans had something of a penchant for sweet chestnut trees, spreading them across Europe. But it wasn't so much the delicate, earthy chestnuts they craved – instead, it was the fast-regrowing timber they prized most, as raw material for their empire's expansion. And this led to them exporting tree cultivation techniques such as coppicing too, which have helped the chestnut flourish across the continent.

China’s Mega Dam Project Poses Big Risks for Asia’s Grand Canyon - China’s plans to build a massive hydro project in Tibet have sparked fears about the environmental impacts on the world’s longest and deepest canyon. It has also alarmed neighboring India, which fears that China could hold back or even weaponize river water it depends on.

Step Into a Painstakingly Recreated 3D Model of the Parthenon, Now Restored to Its Ancient Glory - By combining archaeology and technology, a researcher has shed light on a longstanding architectural mystery: how the ancient Greeks experienced the inside of the Parthenon, the Athenian Acropolis’ largest temple, built and dedicated to the goddess Athena in the fifth century B.C.E.

How Tikal Became One of the Greatest Mayan Cities—and Then Vanished - Nowadays, the ruins of Tikal, an ancient Maya city in northern Guatemala, have been largely reclaimed by the jungle. Howler monkeys jump from pyramid to pyramid. Bats hide in the crevices of abandoned homes. Bullet ants and tarantulas crawl along the forest floor while coatis—racoon-like animals with long, upright tails—search for fallen fruit. Many of the city’s structures remain unexcavated to ensure their preservation. Tikal began life as a series of small, unassuming hamlets. Across centuries, it grew into one of the largest and mightiest cities in the loosely affiliated network of municipalities that made up the Maya civilization. At its peak, which approximately lasted from 600 to 900 C.E., Tikal comprised an area of roughly 50 square miles, 3,000 stone structures, and a population that may at one point have exceeded 60,000 people. While other Maya settlements like Chichen Itza remained inhabited well into the 12th century C.E., Tikal is thought to have collapsed around the year 900.

Ten Little Celebrations - May 2025

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So many places close to home to visit…flowers everywhere. Also a new volunteering activity…with butterflies.

Roston Butterfly House. The native butterfly house at Springfield Botanical Gardens opened in May…and I had my first volunteer shift there…celebrating the butterflies and the people that come to visit them!

Butterfly tour for first graders. There are so many little celebrations to observe and participate in on field trips with first graders: their exuberance at being outdoors, their awe of butterflies in general and joy when on alights on their shoulder or finger…celebration frequently rippling through the whole group.

Harold Prairie. I celebrated  visting a narrow swath of never plowed prairie in need of restoration…the flowers beginning to bloom after the recent mowing and the prospect of volunteer hours in the future.

Noah Brown’s Prairie. Getting to see 3 different prairie situations in a short walk is worth celebrating: a never plowed prairie recently burned, a never plowed prairie that is due to be burned in the fall, and a prairie restoration project. There was plenty to see in all three areas!

Linden’s Prairie. Another never plowed area…celebrating seeing some new species and some ones I had seen in the previous prairies.

Ag Academy. I celebrated the 5th grade Ag Academy students that were selling seedlings as a fund raiser….and getting some milkweed, zinnias, and coneflowers to plant in a big pot for my patio.

Irises. Big beautiful flowers…one of the big celebrations in my yard in May.

More native plants. I added an American Spikenard, red buckeye, and native columbines to my yard in May…celebrating that they were easy to find at a local native plant sale and that I got them planted the day after I bought them.

Successful surgery. Often times things that cause a lot of anxiety (like pending surgery) result in a celebration when the best happens…rather than the worst. That happened for my husband this month.

Young robins. I celebrated seeing fledgling/juvenile robins…and realizing what they were…in my newly creating spikenard/hosta garden. They seem to be finding things to eat in the pine needle mulch!

Zooming – May 2025

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May was full of blooms both in my yard and places I visited close to home: Springfield Botanical Garden, Springfield Nature Conservation Center, road cuts along US 65, Harold Prairie, Noah Brown’s Prairie, and Linden’s Prairie. I am realizing that the work I did to create a new shade garden (with American Spikenard and hostas growing in pine needle mulch) is a magnate for fledgling/juvenile robins….such a joy to see them from my office window. The month was a great one for being outdoors – even if it meant dodging thunderstorms!

Roston Butterfly House

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The seasonal Roston Native Butterfly House at the Springfield MO Botanical Gardens opened in mid-May and I have enjoyed my initial shifts. It will be my primary volunteer activity until September! The mornings are still cool enough that sometimes the butterflies are not as active when my shift starts at 10…. they warm up and are more active before the shift ends at 12:30 PM. I signed up for mornings-only from the beginning but have already learned that in May, the temperature for any of the shifts would not be problematic!

It is easy to get pictures with my phone!

I find myself enjoying being in the butterfly house just as I did in Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy in Maryland (pre-Covid). There is something magical about so many butterflies in a confined space. The Roston Butterfly House is only native species so there no biological containment requirement…which makes it less stressful for volunteers!

In a Waiting Room

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Last week my husband was scheduled of out-patient surgery. The situation had changed significantly from my January 2022 outpatient surgery experience when Covid-19 protocols closed waiting rooms. The expectation now is that patients have a person, usually a family member, that stays at the waiting room during the surgery. We left for the hospital at 5 AM and were home by a little after 11 AM.

We went to the lobby registration desk for initial sign in…and were given a buzzer like restaurants sometimes use. Within a few minutes of sitting down, the buzzer went off and we went with an administrative person to make sure all the payment information was correct. Back in the waiting room for a few minutes…and we were called again by a person to take us back to the pre/post op area. I helped my husband into the hospital gown and socks….put all his clothes in a bag that I would keep (that was the expectation…and I found myself wishing his clothes were not as bulky). The anesthesiologist and surgeon came to talk to us. By 7:15 AM he was prepped and on his way to the OR and I was on my way to the waiting room. I had been given a number so I could track his status on the screens there. I checked in at the desk …in anticipation of the surgeon coming out after the surgery was complete to talk with me.

I filled the time between 7:15 AM and 9:35 AM in that waiting room. Getting a pastry from the bakery/café for breakfast was my first activity. I had loaded some novels on my phone for reading material. I made 3 Zentangle tiles. The time passed relatively quickly. The area was not crowded but it was clear that there were quite a few morning surgeries. One man lay down on one of the longer bench chairs and napped. Most people were reading on their phones; I didn’t hear a single phone ‘ring’ so people must have followed direction to silence them. The green plastic bags with patient’s clothes were near every person in the waiting room! I kept my daughter apprised of the everything via texts.

Everyone must have been a little anxious…most seemed hyper alert (except for the one person that slept) but at the same time relatively calm and appreciative of the quiet, calm demeanor of people at the reception desk in the room….they set the tone.  

The waiting room had small rooms at each end where the conversations with the surgeon could happen in private. There was a picture of a dogwood in bloom on the wall in the room I was assigned. The surgeon came in…reported positive results…talked about the recovery instructions which would be printed and provided to us by the nurse. I was back in the waiting room for a few minutes before they gave me a post op room number where my husband was.

He was groggy still from the anesthesia. He seemed to be very challenged to rank the amount of pain he was feeling. It took about an hour for him to eat a snack and get dressed…meet the criteria for being released.

I called my daughter to meet us at our house since I wasn’t sure how mobile he really was. When we got home, I held onto his arm to go into the house…and used the path with the fewest steps. It was slow going but we managed, and he immediately took a nap. The pain med he was given just before he left the hospital had taken effect!

Fledging Robins

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The first brood of robins in our yard has fledged! I’m not sure where the nest was but I have been seeing the fledglings looking and finding food in the area between our eastern white pine and hollies…among the pine needles, hostas, wild strawberries and violets.

They are smaller than the adults and transitioning to adult plumage. They still have a few white marks on their head and back…and their breast is not all red yet. At first, they are clumsy fliers too; one grabbed onto the screen of my office window and held on for a few seconds before fluttering down to the flower bed below.

I am celebrating that my work to transition the area from grass over the past two years (i.e. adding pine needles collected elsewhere in the yard to those already there from the white pine, transplanting hostas, letting the wild strawberries/violets/lambs ear encroach, and adding an American Spikenard) has resulted in a place the young robins found…and found food!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 24, 2025

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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.

American Schools Have Been Feeding Children for More Than 100 Years. Here’s How the School Lunch Has Changed - The National School Lunch Program is the longest running children’s health program in U.S. history, and it has an outsized impact on nutritional health.

Pompeii’s Most Fascinating Finds of the Decade—So Far - From children's drawings to ancient fast-food counters, new finds continue to reshape our understanding of daily life in the ill-fated Roman city. very year, archeologists come across remains and artifacts that broaden our understanding of what daily life in Pompeii and, by extension, the rest of the Roman Republic was like.

Where in the world are babies at the lowest risk of dying? – Data collected by countries…and then tweaked to be made more consistent so that comparisons can be done. It’s about how to look at statistical data.

How gardening can help you live better for longer - In 2015, Norway became one of the first countries to create a national dementia care plan, which includes government-offered daycare services such as Inn på tunet – translated as "into the yard" – or care farms. Now, as researchers recognize the vast cognitive benefits of working on the land, more communities are integrating gardening into healthcare – treating all kinds of health needs through socially-prescribed activities in nature, or green prescriptions.

Chasing Unicorns: A Photographer’s Journey Documenting Rhino Conservation - Bringing the rhinos from one conservancy to another was a monumental effort. A photographer documented the work of conservationists and veterinarians.

Gilded-Age Tiffany Window Heads to Auction with Multimillion-Dollar Price Tag - With most surviving examples of Louis Comfort Tiffany’s mastery of mottled glass still affixed to the walls of churches or stately homes, purchasing opportunities are rare.

Pit Stops on the Monarch Flyway: Arkansas Partnership Benefits Pollinators - You just don’t see as many monarch butterflies as you used to. Researchers have documented that eastern populations of monarchs have declined by as much as 80 percent since the 1990s. A partnership in Arkansas is restoring pollinator habitat, providing those critical stops for butterflies to rest and feed. The habitat is also utilized by migratory songbirds and northern bobwhite, a popular gamebird that has seen significant declines.

Vitamin supplements slow down the progression of glaucoma - In glaucoma, the optic nerve is gradually damaged, leading to vision loss and, in the worst cases, blindness. High pressure in the eye drives the disease, and eye drops, laser treatment or surgery are therefore used to lower the pressure in the eye and thus slow down the disease. n experiments on mice and rats with glaucoma, the researchers gave supplements of the B vitamins B6, B9 and B12, as well as choline. This had a positive effect. A clinical trial has been started to see if the vitamins have the same impact in people.

163 Treasures from King Tut’s Tomb Arrive at the Grand Egyptian Museum - The museum one step closer to staging the first-ever complete display of the legendary boy king’s golden treasures. I remember the two King Tut exhibits I have views – in New Orleans and Baltimore.

Sulfur runoff amplifies mercury concentrations in Florida Everglades - Sulfur applied to sugarcane crops in South Florida is flowing into wetlands upgradient of Everglades National Park, triggering a chemical reaction that converts mercury into toxic methylmercury, which accumulates in fish.

Sustaining Elder Care – May 2025

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My sisters had shared with me that Dad seemed to be sleeping more…rebelling at doing physical therapy because he was too tired. But he seemed alert and, while not enthusiastic about doing physical therapy, he acquiesced and did reasonably well. He went outside to sit on the patio while I watered the garden too. When we came back in, he complained that he couldn’t see.

He did go to an eye specialist since my last visit. They confirmed that his vision is one eye is very limited (light/dark only) and that the eye pressure is still too high to preserve the vision in the other. New eye drops were prescribed, and they seem to be reducing the pressure considerably. But….there is already damage. I suspect that coming from bright light (outdoors) to indoor lighting is a problematic time because his eyes don’t adjust to the change very quickly. I guided his walker until we got to the puzzle table.

His eyesight makes the puzzles more challenging than ever, but he still manages to place a few pieces…although I am not sure how he does it. We finished a puzzle that was already mostly done during my afternoon visit. He is still pleased when the puzzle is finished – it’s an accomplishment. This time there was a piece we found on the tray that was obviously too small of the current puzzle (and there was not a hole for another piece)! A little mystery.

The next morning, I arrived before his breakfast. I took a few pictures of the big trees in front of his assisted living residence while I waited for them to open the door. Now that he is not going on walks around the neighborhood, he doesn’t see them very often.

We took the completed puzzle apart and started a new one. He takes longer to find edge pieces (always the first step). I think he is doing it totally by feel now. We made the frame, minus one piece, before breakfast was served and I left to begin my drive back to Missouri while he enjoyed it.

Linden’s Prairie

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Linden’s Prairie was my 4th field trip this spring and 3rd prairie (post about the first three: Harold Prairie, Geology field trip nature center and road cuts, Noah Brown’s Prairie). The prairie walk was sponsored by the Missouri Prairie Foundation. We had been cautioned about ticks, so I wore my bug repellent gators and shirt…sprayed my jeans with OFF! above the gators. I decided to use my point and shoot camera (Canon Powershot SX730 HS) rather than my phone (iPhone 15 Pro Max) for most of the photos. The first picture I took was of the sign near the mowed area where some of us were able to park.

The hike was in the late afternoon – sunny, warm but not too hot, a little breeze. There was a lot more grass on Linden’s Prairie than Noah Brown’s prairie last week. There might have been some armadillo holes, but they were harder to see!

Our guide talked about two things that are not around anymore on the prairie: passenger pigeons and elk. There is good documentation that both were plentiful originally. There were enough passenger pigeons that there were market hunters for them; it’s hard to imagine that pigeons were food…until they were hunted to extinction.

The swaths of red color from the Royal catchfly won’t be for a few more weeks across this prairie but there were plenty of flowers to see among the grasses…some almost hidden until they were close at hand. We saw corn salad, yarrow, delphiniums/lockspur, coreopsis, golden alexander, phlox, hoary puccoon, wood betony/lousewort, goat’s rue/hoary pea, lead plant, and wild indigo. The grasses were too hard to photograph…I concentrated on the flowers.

There was some prairie vocabulary too: mima mounds (small mounds in an otherwise gently rolling prairie landscape) and motts (clumps of woody plants in a prairie).

My favorite flowers on this walk were the prairie roses…small plants, lots of buds, grasses waving higher over the pink flowers. One had to be almost stepping on them to see them!

Springfield Botanical Garden – May 2025

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My daughter and I got to the gardens well before the native plant sale started so that we could walk around beforehand. Once we bought plants, we would have to leave so they would not get overheated in the car. We were very glad we did.

The peonies were the standout flower. I took lots of pictures and noticed the different shape and texture of the flower centers. Many of the plants had wire frames under/around them to support the flowers that are sometimes too heavy for the plant!

Of course there were other plants in bloom: alliums, passionflower, tulip poplar, and wild indigo were the ones I photographed.

The water feature in the hosta garden is one of my favorite places; the benches and chairs were not wet this time…we sat for a few minutes to enjoy the sights and sounds of the garden.

The varieties of hens and chicks near the Botanical Center are also a favorite place in the garden.

A blue bird eyed us as we made the final part of our walk…to the plant sale. I bought an American Spikenard, 2 columbines, and a red buckeye. More about them later.

At my daughters, she called my attention to the tiny roses near her driveway; I like their colors; they seem to get pinker as they age!

She had another plant that was blooming; we’d decided that it was a legume in previous years; this year we used the plant look up feature on our iPhones and realized that it was a yellow wild indigo. She will be adding an American Spikenard to her yard under a crabapple tree.

It was a good spring morning to be out and about!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 17, 2025

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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.

Frank Lloyd Wright’s Iconic Hollyhock House Faces Closure Amid City Cuts – Budgets tightening across the board. It seems that cultural things previously funded by governments are among the first to go.

The surprising power of breathing through your nose – The nose can be the first line of defense for your immune system. Mouth breathing has been shown to increase acidity and dryness in the mouth, linking it to cavities, demineralization of the teeth and gum disease. You can think of the nose like a wind chime for the mind; when air moves through your nose, it seems to have a significant influence on your cognitive processes. Nasal breathing has positive effects on the limbic system – the parts of the brain that regulate emotion and behavior – in ways that mouth breathing doesn't.

Spring (Baby) Fever – A baby animals quiz….with cute pictures.

Dust in the system -- How Saharan storms threaten Europe's solar power future - New research reveals how Saharan dust impacts solar energy generation in Europe. Dust from North Africa reduces photovoltaic (PV) power output by scattering sunlight, absorbing irradiance, and promoting cloud formation. Based on field data from 46 dust events between 2019 and 2023, the study highlights the difficulty of predicting PV performance during these events.

In Galápagos, Iconic Giant Tortoises Get a Helping Hand - Fifteen species of giant tortoises — the largest in the world — once roamed the Galapagos Islands but today only 11 survive. Dome-shelled tortoises reach sexual maturity at 20 to 25 and lay 16 to 20 eggs at a time. When the park was established in 1959, some of the tortoise species were heading towards extinction while others were deemed vulnerable or threatened. But a captive breeding program launched in 1965 has shown great success and has released more than 10,000 giant tortoises back into the wild.

Walmart Announces Nationwide EV Charging Network - According to a press release from the company, “With a store or club located within 10 miles of approximately 90% of Americans, we are uniquely positioned to deliver a convenient charging option that will help make EV ownership possible whether people live in rural, suburban or urban areas.”

Shingles vaccine lowers the risk of heart disease for up to eight years - There are several reasons why the shingles vaccine may help reduce heart disease. A shingles infection can cause blood vessel damage, inflammation and clot formation that can lead to heart disease. By preventing shingles, vaccination may lower these risks. Our study found stronger benefits in younger people, probably due to a better immune response, and in men, possibly due to differences in vaccine effectiveness. The study was done in South Korea.

Hikers Make Stunning Discovery of $340,000 Gold Hoard in Czech Mountains - Most of the coins are French with the overall hoard broadly dated from 1808 to 1915. There is, however, a notable exception: the Austro-Hungarian coins. Small markings on the coins, known as countermarkings, indicate that they were reissued in 1921 in an area of Yugoslavia most likely encompassing modern-day Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. The hoard remains under investigation and archaeologists hope that with the aid of archival records they will be able to work out the full story behind the treasure.

All of the biggest U.S. cities are sinking - The fastest-sinking city is Houston, with more than 40% of its area subsiding more than 5 millimeters (about 1/5 inch) per year, and 12% sinking at twice that rate. Some localized spots are going down as much as 5 centimeters (2 inches) per year. Two other Texas cities, Fort Worth and Dallas, are not far behind. Some localized fast-sinking zones in other places include areas around New York's LaGuardia Airport, and parts of Las Vegas, Washington, D.C. and San Francisco. Massive ongoing groundwater extraction is the most common cause of these land movements. In Texas, the problem is exacerbated by pumping of oil and gas. Droughts will also likely worsen subsidence in the future. Some buildings in the Miami area are sinking in part due to disruptions in the subsurface caused by construction of newer buildings nearby.

How Herbicide Drift from Farms Is Harming Trees in Midwest - There’s growing evidence that agricultural herbicides — which are also used on golf courses, lawns, and rights of way — are inflicting widespread damage on trees and other vegetation across the Midwest and upper South and perhaps doing broader ecological harm as well. The problem is causing increasing concern and even alarm among landowners, state forestry officials, and scientists. In 48 percent of the cases, researchers found damage more than 1,000 feet from the nearest farm field; six samples showed herbicide damage at more than a mile. 

A Picture Book of Insects

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My ‘book of the week’ is one published in the waning days of the Soviet Union in 1989: A Picture Book of Insects by Vitaly Tanasyichuk with drawings by Ruben Varshamov. Like many Raduga Publishers books that came out in the 1980s, it is not now available on Internet Archive.

The illustrations (4 samples below) are the motivation to browse the book!

A Picture Book of Insects

Volunteering – April 2025

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April was a month of volunteering and training for some new activities in the upcoming months. I was glad to use my tree materials again at the Scouting event, find 23 puzzles for my dad as I volunteered twice with Friends of the Library (at a used book sale and sorting books for the next sale), talk to people visiting Nature Touch Tables as part of Earth Day, and do another month of Feeder Watch (citizen science). I also worked on the programs (planning, prep, and follow-up) for the Master Naturalist Chapter. I am looking forward to Butterfly House related volunteering beginning in May.

I am thinking about my motivations in volunteering. After I retired more than a decade ago, volunteer activities became one of the best sources of interaction with a broader range of people. That is still the case. I chose to become a Maryland Master Naturalist since I also wanted at least some of the volunteer work to be outdoors; becoming a Missouri Master Naturalist is the same. In Maryland, the reactions of school groups on field trip hikes, conversations with other volunteers before and afterward, and positive feedback from non-profits that organized the events were the appreciation/acknowledgment that what I was doing mattered. In Missouri, it is the same although there is the added dimension of the Master Naturalist Chapter. I’m not sure what I expect….it could just be more ‘icing on the cake’!

Volunteering is good for my community and for me too!

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 10, 2025

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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.

Bees, fish and plants show how climate change’s accelerating pace is disrupting nature in 2 key ways – Moving to higher latitudes/altitudes and emerging earlier to avoid phenological mismatch. Will it be enough for their survival?

Adventurous Bird Crashing into a Waterfall Wins Nature Photography Contest – From members of the German Society for Nature Photography….beautiful images of the natural world.

'We planted trees among the rubble': The dark WW2 history written into Germany's parks – Finding saplings in the gardens of Dresden’s ruined buildings and houses after World War II…and transplanting them along the city streets. Today, some of those rubble-sourced street trees still stand.

William Morris: new exhibition reveals how Britain’s greatest designer went viral - How did this Victorian designer and socialist, known for championing craftsmanship and preferring substance over style, become an icon of consumer culture? Morris began spreading thanks to the commissions he received from aristocratic and royal clients. The earliest Morris merchandise was printed for a centenary exhibition at the V&A Museum in 1934. One of its patterned postcards appears in a display case, the souvenir of Morris’s own daughter, May, whose handwriting is on the back. In 1966, Morris’s designs went out of copyright, marking a watershed. Pop Victoriana and Laura Ashley floral dresses depended on it for their reproductive freedoms.

See the Flower Paintings of Rachel Ruysch, Whose Stunning Still Lifes Are Finally Getting the Attention They Deserve - No Dutch flower painter was more renowned in her time than Rachel Ruysch, whose exquisite still lifes sold for even more than masterpieces by contemporaries like Rembrandt. Born in the Hague in 1664, Ruysch was the eldest daughter of Frederik Ruysch, a prominent botanist and anatomist. The Toledo Museum of Art has an exhibit of her work running from April 12 to July 27.

Saltpetre, Tuberculosis, Eminent Domain, Cave Wars, And the CCC – Some history of Mammoth Cave National Park.

In US, saving money is top reason to embrace solar power - Financial benefits, such as saving on utility payments and avoiding electricity rate hikes, are a key driver of U.S. adults' willingness to consider installing rooftop solar panels or subscribing to community solar power.

Stirrings at Mount Spurr - Mount Spurr lies on the northeastern side of the Aleutian Arc, which makes up a significant portion of the Ring of Fire. The 11,070-foot (3,374-meter) peak is located within the Tordrillo Mountains, west of Cook Inlet, and is bordered on the south by the Chakachatna River valley and the river’s headwaters, Ch’akajabena Lake. In 2025 gas emissions, earthquakes, and ground deformation in March suggested that an eruption was likely. Several of these indicators lowered slightly in April, reducing the relative likelihood of an eruption.

What Caused the Downfall of Roman Britain? - A team from the University of Cambridge has studied oak-tree rings and found that there were periods of extreme drought in the summers of A.D. 364, 365, and 366. They suggest that these extremely dry conditions affected the Romans’ main crops, spring-sown wheat and barley, and set the stage for the rebellions.

Deadly rodent-borne hantavirus is an emerging disease with pandemic potential – The new study found 6 new rodent species of hantavirus hosts…some with have higher prevalence of the virus than deer mice (the host known previously). The number of human cases is largely unknown because many infections may be asymptomatic, or the symptoms are mild/mirror other diseases.  Climate change can cause population changes in rodents…so there is potential change in the risk hantavirus poses.

Geology Field Trip (1)

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The geology field trip associated with the university class I took this spring was cancelled because of weather, but the one that was a follow-up to a Missouri Master Naturalist lecture happened on a beautiful spring day in early May! We started out at the Springfield Conservation Nature Center…the longest hike of the trip with stops along the way to see examples of

  • (Chert nodules)

  • Sedimentation – erosion and deposition

  • Soil creep

  • Bluffs and rock fall

  • Spring

  • Sinkhole

  • River meandering

Most of my pictures were not about geology! I noticed the turtle and water plants in the sedimentation area. It is easier to take pictures of landscapes than geologic features. The hike was over boardwalk and forest trails. The only place the trail was muddy/wet/slippery was where the spring water ran over it. Overall, it was a great hike…and I was ready for lunch afterward. If I do the hike again on my own, I will take it a bit slower; I’ve learned that my knees get sore with a lot of walking on uneven surfaces.

The botanical highpoint of the day was wild ginger in bloom!

A jack-in-the-pulpit was a close second.

From a tree perspective, seeing a young sassafras and a black locust in bloom was great too.

Near the nature center – there are plantings of native wildflowers. They had a cage around the lady slipper orchid that was blooming.

More tomorrow on the rest of the Geology Field Trip…

Project FeederWatch Finale

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We made our last Project FeederWatch observations on the last day of April…the end of  this Citizen Science activity until we start again next fall.

The birds we had seen since we started are still around: the house finches, the cardinals, the mourning doves.

Some like the white-throated sparrows and the juncos have migrated north. The white-crowned sparrows were still coming to our feeders but they will probably leave soon.

And there are birds that have returned with the spring – the grackles and robins and red-wing blackbirds (female).

The barn swallows have returned too. They don’t come to the feeders but do start nests at various places under our deck. They are difficult to photograph because they tend to not sit for long!

We’ll continue watching birds…but it won’t be in an organized way like is has been since last October. It was a routine we enjoyed.