Gleanings of the Week Ending April 18, 2026

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.

4/2/2026 NPR EPA flags microplastics, pharmaceuticals as contaminants in drinking water – A good move….but not enough, by itself, to do what needs to be done to improve water quality. It seems out of step with what the EPA has been doing recently so I am skeptical.

4/2/2026 Science Daily Study finds dangerous lead levels in children’s clothing - Researchers testing children’s shirts from multiple retailers found every sample exceeded U.S. safety limits, raising concerns about toxic exposure—especially since young kids often chew on clothing. Brightly colored fabrics like red and yellow showed particularly high levels, likely due to chemicals used to fix dyes. Simulations suggest that even brief mouthing could expose children to unsafe amounts of lead, a substance known to harm brain development and behavior. None of the items tested met U.S. safety standards.

4/2/2026 National Parks Traveler Seventy-Three Percent of Marine Protected Areas Are Polluted by Sewage - A study by the Wildlife Conservation Society and the University of Queensland (attached) found that nearly three out of four of the world's marine protected areas (MPAs) are polluted by sewage. In the ocean regions most critical for coral reefs and tropical sea life, the problem is even worse: between 87 percent and 92 percent of protected areas are affected, and typical pollution levels inside these zones are ten times higher than in surrounding unprotected waters. Over 16,000 MPAs globally were evaluated in the study.

4/1/2026 Clean Technica U.S. Coal Exports Decreased in 2025 after 4 Years of Growth - The decrease in U.S. coal exports largely reflects a 92% decrease in exports to China in 2025 compared with 2024, after China imposed a 15% additional tariff on imports of U.S. coal in February of last year and a 34% reciprocal tariff on imports from the United States in April. It also reflects a global market characterized by ample supply and soft demand, which caused prices to decline, making it increasingly difficult for U.S. coal exporters to earn profits. Finally, coal generation in the U.S. domestic coal market rose 13% in 2025, leading to a 12% increase in electric power coal consumption after three straight years of decreases.

3/9/2026 The Scientist Nearly Ten Percent of Cancer Papers Flagged as Potentially Fake - Over the last two decades, the scientific literature has been flooded by low-quality research papers produced by for-profit organizations known as paper mills. It is estimated that suspected paper mill products account for two to 46 percent of manuscripts submitted to scientific journals, with the estimated rate of problematic articles in biomedical research reaching nearly six percent in 2023.

4/1/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Humans Might Struggle to Make Babies in Space. Sperm Gets Disoriented in Microgravity - Many of the proteins found on sperm act as mechanosensors, tiny molecular devices that detect physical forces. Remove the force of gravity, and it stands to reason that these sensors would be thrown off, disrupting the sperm’s ability to orient and navigate. As we progress toward becoming a spacefaring or multi-planetary species, understanding how microgravity affects the earliest stages of reproduction is critical.

4/1/2026 National Parks Traveler Study Finds Microplastics on 45 Percent of Beaches - A 2025 study collected samples from 209 beaches across 39 countries and 6 ocean basins, discovering that 45 percent of the beaches contained “suspected microplastics” (those visually identified but not yet confirmed through further analysis). Some of the samples came from Padre Island National Seashore in Texas, where microplastics may indirectly reduce the turtle nesting success of species like the endangered Kemp’s ridley sea turtle.

4/1/2026 NPR The oil industry is betting big on plastics. Here's what that means for the future - Beth Gardiner, a journalist and author of the new book "Plastic Inc.: The Secret History And Shocking Future Of Big Oil's Biggest Bet." In it, she argues that while millions of us have been trying to use less plastic, the fossil fuel industry has been making more. Plasticis Big Oil's plan B. The less we use, the more they make.

4/20/2026 Smithsonian Magazine This High School Student Invented a Filter That Eliminates 96 Percent of Microplastics from Drinking Water - Her current prototype, which is about the size of a standard bag of flour, consists of three modules. The first unit, about a liter in volume, holds the contaminated water inside it, while the second stores the magnetic oil-based ferrofluid. The core process takes place in the third module, which is much smaller. A magnetic field pulls the microplastics out of the water, and the ferrofluid is recovered and reused in a closed loop. --- I hope there is follow-up to this story!

3/30/2026 CNN Millions of preterm births and thousands of infant deaths linked to plastic chemical - Two chemicals used to make plastic more flexible are linked to nearly 2 million premature births and the deaths of 74,000 newborns worldwide in 2018, according to a new study. Babies who survive may have breathing problems, feeding difficulties, cerebral palsy, developmental delay, vision problems, and hearing problems. he two chemicals in the study — Di-2-ethylhexylphthalate, or DEHP, and its cousin diisononyl phthalate, or DiNP — are part of a family of synthetic chemicals called phthalates. Meaningful protection cannot rely solely on individual behavior. The most effective solutions are upstream, including stronger regulations, safer product formulations, better labeling, and improved environmental management and regulatory oversight.

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 4, 2026

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.

3/23/2026 Smithsonian Magazine These Mesmerizing Waterfalls Flow Only Every Few Years. See the Rare Marvel Now in Southwest Utah - A rare red rock waterfall is flowing once again in southwest Utah, leaving visitors in awe of its cinematic beauty.

3/23/2026 Science Daily Scientists discover hormone that may stop chronic back pain at its source - A hormone-based treatment could help ease chronic back pain by reducing abnormal nerve growth within damaged spinal tissue. During spinal degeneration, pain-sensing nerves grow into regions where they normally do not exist. Our findings show that parathyroid hormone can reverse this process by activating natural signals that push these nerves away.

3/14/2026 NPR Reframing Georgia O'Keeffe's legacy and protecting the land she loved - A historic new conservation plan will protect that landscape, with its colorful cliffs and buttes, forevermore.

3/12/2026 Clean Technica Extreme Heat Limits Outdoor Activities for One Third of Human Population -Scientists from the Nature Conservancy have published a study in the journal Environmental Research — Health that finds nearly a third of people alive today are unable to work outdoors safely in the higher temperatures prevalent in much of the world. On average, people over 65 now experience about 900 hours each year when heat severely restricts safe outdoor activity, compared with 600 hours in 1950. The most severe challenges are found in southwest Asia — Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Oman,; south Asia — Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India; and parts of west Africa — Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti, and Niger.

3/16/2026 National Wildlife Federation Toxins of the Past and Present: Why We Need the EPA - Environmental protections are critical for the health of our ecosystems and communities, and the science and regulatory capacity of the EPA exists to prevent the dire adverse health outcomes caused by environmental pollution–for people and wildlife. Without efforts to protect us, we risk exposure to toxins of the past and present–a fight that has been going on in the United States for decades.

3/26/2026 Yale Environment 360 As It Boosts Renewables, China Still Can’t Break Its Coal Addiction - China is the biggest installer of renewable energy, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and the biggest user of coal.

3/26/2026 BBC An unstoppable mushroom is tearing through North American forests. Fungi enthusiasts are doing damage control - A rogue mushroom native to Asia is ripping through North American forests, after escaping from cultivation. As it runs riot, mushroom enthusiasts are rescuing the native fungi in its path. Native to Asia, the fungus was brought over to the US to be cultivated for food sometime around the early 2000s. Because it fruits so heavily, it proved to be popular with both professional and home growers. It has a high yield, meaning more profit for growers. t's now been found in 25 US states and one Canadian province.

3/24/2026 ArtNet More Than 300 Yayoi Kusama Works Take Over a German Museum – The artist is now 97 years old….lots of polka dots and pumpkins!

3/24/2026 New York Times Wicked Stepmother No Longer, a Female Pharaoh Gets a Reputational Makeover - In the 1920s, while excavating for tombs at Deir el-Bahri in Luxor, archaeologists were confronted with a baffling crime scene: thousands of smashed statues and desecrated reliefs of Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt’s few, and most successful, female pharaohs. New scholarship shows that a good portion of the harm was incidental, caused by the physical removal of her statuary from her temples.

3/27/2026 The Conversation A flesh‑eating fly is advancing towards the US border – can it be stopped? - The New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax) lays its eggs in open wounds and in the orifices of live, warm-blooded animals – including, occasionally, humans. The maggots then devour the animal’s flesh, causing devastating lesions that can quickly kill the infested host. Before the 1950s, it was found in the southern states of the US, where cattle infestations caused heavy financial losses for beef producers. But, during the second half of the 20th century, eradication efforts pushed it out of North and Central America. In the past few years, however, screwworm control has unraveled, with cases spiking across Central America. The fly has now spread north through Mexico, reaching two Mexican states – Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon – that share a border with Texas. International cooperation is required for management at a geographically relevant scale.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 31, 2026

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.

12/5/2025 The Scientist The Ice is Alive: Uncovering the Vanishing World of Glacial Microbes - The ice teems with an invisible and thriving biosphere, lush with bacteria, fungi, and viruses. Scientists have estimated that the glaciers and ice sheets around the globe could contain as many as 1029 cells. The most dynamic … is the surface, where windblown dust mixes with microorganisms to form a dark, granular sediment known as cryoconite. Because this aggregate is darker than the surrounding white ice, it absorbs more solar radiation, melting the ice beneath it. This melting creates water-filled depressions called cryoconite holes that pockmark vast areas of the ice sheet. Cryoconite holes are far from simple puddles; they are oases of life in a polar desert.

2023 NASA History Office NACA to NASA to Now – A book about the history of NASA available free online from the NASA website.

1/14/2026 The Conversation Native pollinators need more support than honeybees in Australia – here’s why - Since the 1990s, the global decline of pollinators due to human activities, climate change and diseases has been a serious concern, especially in Europe and North America. The honeybee is so good at invading and proliferating in Australian landscapes, we now have some of the highest reported densities of feral honeybees in the world. Despite the global pollinator decline, honeybees haven’t disappeared anywhere in the world, even in countries with far fewer resources than Australia. Nor has any plant species gone extinct from a lack of honeybees. In contrast, there is overseas evidence of plant population declines due to the presence of honeybees and lack of native pollinators.

1/13/2026 Yale Environment 360 Photos Capture the Breathtaking Scale of China’s Wind and Solar Buildout - Last year China installed more than half of all wind and solar added globally. In May alone, it added enough renewable energy to power Poland, installing solar panels at a rate of roughly 100 every second.

1/12/2026 Compound Interest What are rubber ducks made from? - Scientists discovered polyvinyl chloride, or PVC for short, accidentally in the 1800s on more than one occasion. A hard and brittle plastic, PVC had little commercial use until it was mixed with softening plasticizers to make a much more moldable material. The modern rubber duck is not made from rubber, but from plasticized PVC colored with a bright yellow pigment.

1/13/2026 Clean Technica EPA Cooks the Books on Industrial Pollution Costs – They (EPA) will henceforth consider only the economic cost of the regulations to corporations, and if they are deemed to be too burdensome, those regulations will be softened in order to avoid undue economic harm to the polluters. This includes fine particulates (2.5 microns or less) that include microplastics and fossil fuel combustion products….contributing to many negative health outcomes.

1/13/2026 UPI U.S. greenhouse gas emissions growing faster than economy - For the first time in three years annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased, climbing by 2.4% in 2025 as federal policy shifted back to fossil fuels. For the first time in three years annual U.S. greenhouse gas emissions increased, climbing by 2.4% in 2025 as federal policy shifted back to fossil fuels.

1/11/2026 Science Daily A room full of flu patients and no one got sick - n a striking real-world experiment, flu patients spent days indoors with healthy volunteers, but the virus never spread. Researchers found that limited coughing and well-mixed indoor air kept virus levels low, even with close contact. Age may have helped too, since middle-aged adults are less likely to catch the flu than younger people. The results highlight ventilation, air movement, and masks as key defenses against infection.

1/15/2026 BBC Rare images of Europe's 'ghost cat' - After several decades, this mysterious little beast is returning to our forests.

1/14/2026 NASA Earth Observatory Fires on the Rise in the Far North - In the far north, wildfires are breaking old patterns. Satellite data show that wildland fires once scattered across the Arctic are now surging in numbers—particularly in northern Eurasia—and many are burning more intensely than before. n the 2000s, fires north of 60 degrees latitude appeared across both North America and Eurasia, but starting in the early 2010s, their numbers skyrocketed, most dramatically in Eurasia. Even the icy island of Greenland entered a new fire regime during this period, experiencing more large fires, though still too few to be visible on these maps. Researchers attribute these trends to rising temperatures, which have made northern landscapes more flammable, along with a poleward expansion of lightning—the primary ignition source for these fires.