Gleanings of the Week Ending July 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.

07/06/2026 Clean Technica Fixing Climate Communications Part 1 - Make consequences such as your insurance bill, your home, and your children’s health urgent and tangible; make the cause concrete by anchoring every message to pollution rather than climate change; and make the cure feel expansive rather than restrictive. Reaching enough people to sustain the transition will require a delivery infrastructure built around genuine community engagement, economically grounded wins, and a willingness to hold accountable the interests that have made this conversation harder than it needs to be.

07072026 Clean Technica Climate Communications — From Losing the Argument to Winning It Part 2 - Telling the climate story with the value proposition of cost, risk management, improved operational performance, supply chain resiliency, and long-term enterprise value is a winning one. It’s a strategy that appeals to the C-suite, is durable, and can be couched in shareholder returns.

07/06/2026 Smithsonian Magazine These 11 Wildlife Images from the Ocean Conservancy’s Photography Contest Showcase the Wonder of Earth’s Waters - The annual contest received more than 1,000 photographs of marine wildlife and habitats this year. The ones that rose to the top were portraits of ocean wildlife, and I think that’s because we crave to see and connect with animals on an interpersonal level.

07/07/2026 The Conversation 3.1 billion‑year‑old rocks in Australia reveal a forgotten chapter of Earth’s water cycle - We learn the water cycle in school as a story of evaporation and precipitation. But Earth runs a second, far slower one deep beneath our feet. On the ocean floor, seawater seeps into the oceanic crust and reacts with the rock, becoming chemically bound inside its minerals, locked into their crystal structures rather than sitting as free water. Over millions of years, sinking tectonic plates carry these water-bearing minerals down into the mantle, the hot rock layer beneath the crust. This sinking of one plate beneath another is called subduction, and volcanoes eventually breathe the water back out. The deep water cycle moderates Earth’s water budget. At the surface, it keeps the oceans from drying up or drowning the continents, while in the interior, it changes how the mantle melts and builds continents.

07/06/2026 NWF Blog Marine Animal Quiz: It’s Plastic Free July! - Take the time to learn more about how plastic pollution in the oceans of the world harms marine life and consider action steps you can take to reduce your plastic waste footprint.

07/04/2026 ScienceDaily The secret to healthy aging may be hidden in your blood - A new study found that centenarians have a unique chemical "fingerprint" in their blood that sets them apart from normal aging, including unusual patterns of bile acids and steroids linked to longer survival.

07/03/2026 Planetizen Lake Powell reaches lowest water level on record - Currently, Lake Powell is around 24 percent full. The last time it was completely full was in 1983. Since then, water levels have fluctuated, but in 2026, they have fallen to a critical point. And there are multiple concerns if the water levels continue to drop. One includes reaching "dead pool," the point at which water levels are so low that water can no longer move across the dam and into the Grand Canyon, which would cause significant ecological impacts and reduce the capacity for hydroelectricity. 

07/03/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Overfished Adriatic Sea, Dolphins Look to Trawlers for Food - Off the eastern coast of Italy, large numbers of bottlenose dolphins are looking to fishing trawlers as a source of food, a sign that dolphins may be struggling to feed themselves in waters depleted by overfishing. Dolphins may also suffer hearing damage that results from chronic exposure to the noise of trawlers. It is risky behavior. However, finding sufficient prey away from trawlers in an overfished sea may be too difficult. It appears that for these animals, taking the risks is better than going hungry.

7/2/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Earth Might Be Home to 20 Million Insect Species—More Than Three Times as Many as Previously Thought – Only about one million species have been named and described, meaning up to 95 percent of the planet’s insect diversity might remain a mystery…. With more than 40 percent of known insect species threatened with extinction. “The library is being burned before the books can be read.”

6/21/2025 YouTube Slicing and Dicing Onions – Learn some practical kitchen knife skills via a video from the American College of Culinary Medicine!

Sustaining Elder Care – July 2026

I made the trip down to Texas and back without taking any pictures. The garden around the Texas welcome center was mulch beds and woody plants (nothing blooming)…even the cone flowers that had been there last month had been removed. The pond near my hotel had no egrets or great blue herons as it had occasionally in the past; trash (plastic) had blown into the pond, and the wind dad swept it into two floating mats.  Both places were a disappointment.

Fortunately, there were some good moments with my dad.

He was asleep when I got there and I didn’t wake him immediately. I could tell he was not soundly asleep because he would move his legs to cause his chair to rock. I talked to him during one of the times he moved and he did wake up. He almost immediately commented that it was very bright outside when he looked toward me (based on where he heard me); there was a window beside me looking out to a bright sunny day. It is a small thing…but magnified since my sisters and I have been thinking that he might be blind. We now think he can see light which helps keep his circadian rhythm going even if it isn’t helpful for him to move around with his walker without running into things he can’t see.

The next morning, I got to the memory care facility when he had almost finished breakfast and was drinking his coffee. I noticed there was some orange juice and realized that he didn’t know it was there! I asked if he wanted it and handed it to him….and he drank the whole thing without stopping! My sisters and I always are concerned that he might be slightly dehydrated because he doesn’t feel thirsty. This time he looked like he did feel thirsty….or he simply really liked the taste of orange juice.

Next – he acquiesced to going for a walk. I opted to do it inside since the day was already heating up. I guided the walker and reassured him that I wouldn’t let him run into anything. He started out very slow but seemed to move easier as he got warmed up….nothing like his rapid walk that I remember from when I was growing up or when he walked in his neighborhood up until about 5 years ago. But – he is still moving with the help of his walker.

We relaxed a bit back in his room – him dozing off almost immediately….and I left for the drive back to Missouri.

Five Years from Now

During my career – there were development plans that addressed ‘what do I want to be doing 5 years from now…and what can I do to prepare myself?” I am trying to apply the idea to my post-career life – which does not have salary as a motivating factor. My overarching goal is to become wiser every year…to care for my family…to contribute to the well-being of my community….to blend the things I do rather than trying to separate them.

In 5 years, I want to be much as I am now…but better prepared for whatever health/infirmity develops as I get older and take more action to leave the world a better place.

Here is my high level “what I can do to prepare myself:”

• Continue doing what I am doing now with some changes

• Consciously increase activities that sustain or improve my physical resilience (i.e. targeted exercise primarily)

• Decrease my carbon footprint. Here are some things I have in mind:

  • Replace my plug-in hybrid car with an electric. This will probably happen in 2027.

  • Put solar panels with battery on my home. This will probably happen in the next 2 years.

  • Eat more from my own yard (I already eat seasonal greens from the yard….and am looking forward to elderberries and pawpaws in the coming years).

  • Gradually replace my wardrobe with clothes made from natural fibers.

  • Reduce the turf in my yard to 30% or less.

  • Allow an oak to grow in both the back and front yard (they as seedlings now).

• (Maybe) Begin to skew from outreach/education type volunteering toward advocacy. This could mean that I would decide not to continue as a Missouri Master Naturalist.

Now that I have written this down, I realize that my trend is good….that the plan is simply tweaks that will take some disciple/energy to implement.

Sustaining Elder Care – June 2026

I’ve been keeping up with the changes occurring with my dad through text messages with my sisters…my June trip to Lewisville is still a week away.

He fell twice at night (getting up to go to the bathroom). The first time he was examined and then put back to bed…and then when the morning crew arrived, they found his bed was a mess because he had not been taken to the bathroom after he fell! The second time he fell was a few days later. His knees took the brunt of both falls (bruises…some scratches).

My sisters worked with the hospice and memory care staff to make changes. His room was rearranged to make navigation easier, and the memory care staff proactively get him up to use the bathroom at night. He hasn’t fallen again….so perhaps the changes are sufficient for now.

His eyesight has been failing and now he apparently is totally blind – cannot see light. He can’t articulate the change, but events have helped us conclude that it has happen. For example, my sister discovered him in the bathroom facing the back of the shower when she arrived one morning; fortunately, his walker has a seat, and he had thought to sit down. He told her there was nowhere for him to go! The combination of dementia and blindness is probably an insurmountable challenge for him; his blindness is a change, and his mental confusion makes it impossible for him to learn ways to deal with it.

The memory care staff try to include him in activities that he previously enjoyed just a few months ago. They put him in a wheelchair for a live music event, but he slept the whole time.

My sisters have commented that he is sleeping more (his sleeping had already been increasing before the falls). There are times when they visit that he is asleep most of the time now.

We all think he is winding down…and are thankful that when he is awake, he is courteous even when he is frustrated that his body will no longer work well enough for him to move about easily. He still enjoys frozen desserts (ice cream or lemon ice)!

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 06, 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.

05/18/2026 The Scientist How Extreme Heat May Be Raising the Risk of Gestational Diabetes - A growing body of research shows that climate change-driven extreme heat may be increasing the risk of GDM. Studies from around the world are also pointing to critical windows of vulnerability, suggesting that rising temperatures may be shaping maternal health in overlooked ways.

05/19/2026 BBC Japan is gripped by mass allergies. A 1950s project is to blame - Large-scale afforestation after World War II was carried out by public works, funded by tax revenues, to prevent soil erosion. Aiming for rapid reforestation, the government chose to plant reams of only two different native, fast-growing evergreen species that could quickly reforest landscapes and provide wood for future use in construction: the Japanese cedar, sugi, and the Japanese cypress, hinoki.

05/26/2026 Planetizen Two years after California reintroduced beavers, they are transforming the landscape into a 'climate-resilient powerhouse' – Collaboration between California Native American tribes and California Department of Fish and Wildlife….a  beaver created wetland complex created since 2023.

5/26/2026 Yale Environment 360 Warming Is Raising the Risk of Encounters with Venomous Snakes – When I went through Master Naturalist training in Maryland more than a decade ago – we were told that cottonmouth moccasins were not found in Maryland….that they were found as far north as Viriginia. I wondered at the time how long it would take for temperatures to warm enough for them to move northward. The post says that “Cottonmouth moccasins in the US are forecast to head as far north as New York” although it does not say how soon.

05/14/2026 The Scientist Bioelectric Contact Lenses Alleviate Depression in Mice - This wearable, drug-free approach holds promise for transforming how depression and other brain conditions are treated, including anxiety, drug addiction, and cognitive decline. The problem is, sugi and hinoki trees also produce large amounts of lightweight pollen which can easily drift into cities. It's this pollen, often released all at once from the monoculture plantations, that is responsible for most seasonal allergies in Japan.

05/26/2026 Science Daily Scientists say they’ve reversed brain aging with a simple nasal spray - The therapy relies on microscopic biological particles called extracellular vesicles (EVs). These tiny structures naturally transport genetic material between cells. In this case, they were loaded with microRNAs, molecules that help regulate important biological processes in the brain. Once inside the brain, the treatment targeted immune cells involved in chronic inflammation. Scientists also found that it restored activity in mitochondria, the tiny structures inside cells responsible for producing energy. Aging and inflammation can damage mitochondria, leaving brain cells less efficient and more vulnerable to decline. (More work required before the treatment can be testing in humans).

5/26/2026 BBC The hidden dead zones spreading across the Baltic Sea floor - Cod fishing has collapsed. It may take more than 400 years for the maritime environment to recover from factors such as overfishing, oxygen depletion and rising sea temperatures. Some believe it may not happen at all.Areas of the sea floor with little or no oxygen, known as "dead zones", appear to be creeping closer to Bornholm's beaches. This is due to human pollution from fertilizers and sewage creating huge algal blooms, which, when they die, sink to the sea floor and cover it. Their decomposition uses up the available oxygen, kills the living organisms that depend on it, and – as a result – creates dead zones.

5/25/2026 Our World in Data Five million children die every year — what do they die from? – Worldwide 44% die from infectious diseases and 42% die from birth disorders….but there is a huge difference between low and high income countries.

5/21/2026 My Modern Met Amazing Winners of This Scientific Microscopic Imaging Contest Capture the Unseen Beauty of Life – I always enjoy magnified photography of life…the world we cannot see without our technology that often is quite beautiful.

5/22/2026 Artnet A 4,500-Year-Old Building Near Stonehenge Has Been Brought Back to Life - More than 100 volunteers have built a 20-foot high structure using the tools and techniques of Neolithic England - ecreating stone tools, using a woodland management technique known as coppicing, and creating a cement-like mixture of chalk, water, and straw called chalk daub.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 23, 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.

05/10/26 Poets.org Forever Plastics – A poem by Ronald Carson. He says “In this poem, I wanted plastics to speak in the first-person plural, tracing the path from postwar convenience to biological saturation, where the environment is no longer outside us but lodged within us.”

04/22/2026 The New York Times You Paid to Have Old Clothes Recycled. Here’s What That Really Means. - Collection services offer convenience, but most garments are shredded into low-grade stuffing or sent abroad to an uncertain fate. The most important thing, experts and environmental activists say, is to buy less in the first place. It’s easier to deal with clothes responsibly if there are fewer of them to begin with.

05/7/2026 Super Age Life Expectancy Gains Are Slowing. Your Choices Are More Important Than Ever - The future of longevity will most likely be shaped less by sweeping public health revolutions and more by targeted, personalized strategies: slowing biological aging, optimizing midlife health, and extending the years we remain active, engaged, and independent.

05/12/2026 Planetizen 16% of roads that received federal funds remain in poor condition - State DOTs are spending most of that money on highway expansions instead of repair and maintenance work. And "Because increasingly lax reporting standards conceal broken roads from public view, and DOTs routinely mis-categorize expensive expansion projects as simple 'maintenance' or lump them into a mysterious 'other' category, Transportation for America suspects the national highway network is actually even more drastically overbuilt than it appears on paper."

05/11/2026 I’m Plastic Free How to Reduce Microplastics Exposure: The Ultimate Guide & Checklist - This guide breaks down exactly how microplastics enter your system, and provides a practical, but very thorough, science-backed checklist to reduce your exposure across your home, diet, and daily habits.

05/12/2026 BBC 'Fatbergs' are taking over city sewers - scientists are fighting back - Reeking coagulations of grease and debris are clotting sewers around the world on a colossal scale. Cities are deploying new technologies to control this modern menace. New York City – where 40% of sewer backups are due to grease – spends around $18.8m annually degreasing and removing blockages from the sewers beneath its streets. 

5/12/2026 National Parks Traveler Musings About the Parks | Things I Worry About – A list from Kurt Rapanshek. He ends the post this way: “Without question, there are many, many things that are uplifting about exploring the National Park System. But if the Park Service truly is going to preserve these places and their natural resources for future generations, it really needs a lot more help from Congress and presidential administrations.”

5/11/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See 15 Stunning Images That Won the German Society for Nature Photography’s Annual Contest – Beautiful and thought-provoking images.

05/06/2026 YaleEnvironment360 Airborne Microplastics May Be Warming the Planet - Tiny particles of plastic amassing in the atmosphere may be intensifying warming. Darker bits of plastic are absorbing heat. And even though lighter particles are reflecting sunlight, with a cooling influence, in the aggregate microplastics are having a warming effect. The warming impact is tiny, far less than the impact of carbon dioxide emissions, and only a fraction of the impact of soot. The microplastic emissions produced globally each year have roughly the same warming effect as running 200 coal power plants for that year….but more study is needed

05/04/2026 CNN The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a plastic trash nightmare. It could also be part of a much bigger, hidden problem - The Great Pacific Garbage Patch is a significant source of airborne microplastics and nanoplastics, but there are many other places where tiny plastic particles can be whipped up into the skies, including from landfills, roadside litter and car tires. Colored plastics, especially red, yellow, blue and black, absorbed around 75 times more light than pristine, non-pigmented plastics.

05/10/2026 Science Daily Antarctica is melting from below and scientists say it’s worse than expected - Deep beneath floating ice shelves, long channels carved into the ice appear to trap warmer ocean water, dramatically speeding up melting from below. Even regions of East Antarctica once considered relatively stable may be far more vulnerable than scientists realized. Researchers warn that current climate models may be missing this dangerous process entirely, meaning future sea level rise could be underestimated.

Sustaining Elder Care/Road Trip to Texas – May 2026

I made my monthly trek to Texas to see my dad last week. I made the usual stop at the Texas Welcome Center on US75 to eat my salad lunch and note the changes in the native plant garden near the building. The bluebonnets have lots of seed pods forming – with a few blooms remaining. The Texas Mountain Laurel was also producing pods.

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An hour later…I found my dad in the activity room with a lot of other residents. It was ice cream sandwich day! He was soundly asleep! I decided that I would wake him up for the treat since ice cream has always been his favorite dessert. He enjoyed it --- but made no attempt to feed himself. Afterward we walked outside. I guided the walker since he can no longer see well enough to stay on the sidewalk. He moved very slowly but did make it around the courtyard and back to his room without stopping for a rest….and then he wanted to go back to sleep in his chair.

The next morning, I arrived after he ate breakfast. He was asleep in the chair! I noticed that he hadn’t taken his medications, so I woke him up for that. He managed to take them with a little assistance and then agreed to go for a walk. He had more difficulty getting up from the chair than he did in April. We walked indoors since the morning was wet and cool outside. He managed a normal walk, but when we got back to his room he wanted to go to sleep. He seemed to listen when he was awake but the only clear comments he made were about not being able to see.

My sisters are noticing his decline as well. We’re trying to keep him moving on his own (with his walker)…but we all are aware that it might not be possible for much longer.

Ten Little Celebrations – March 2026

Some different types of celebrations in March…

Dad surviving a hospital admission. My sisters and I celebrated that my dad survived an awful hospital experience (bad reaction to drugs he received there, lack of attention to his response to medications and delaying administration of his regular medications). He is back in his memory care residence now and much happier. We have transitioned him to palliative care based on his experience.

Springfield Botanical Gardens. Many of the plants were still in winter form…but there were enough early spring flowers to celebrate the season.

Red-bellied woodpecker. We celebrated when one of the birds came to our feeders. It doesn’t happen often!

Big buds on the red buckeye. The buds on the red buckeye were an early celebration of spring. They were large and they were open with the leaves beginning to expand when there was a hard frost and the celebration turned to sorrow; I am monitoring the plant to see how it recovers.

Earthworm parade. I celebrated that it rained…and the earthworms made a parade across a sidewalk to find new homes.

George Washington Carver National Monument. My husband and I celebrated an early spring day with a day trip to the monument.

Garage door fix. The spring on my garage door opener broke and I was worried that I’d be parking in the driveway for a few days...but a company was able to make the repair the same day we called. I celebrated the quick response!

The Plastic Detox. I viewed the documentary available on Netflix…celebrated that there were indeed babies at the end!

Sunrises. I was in Texas for 5 days….and 4 of those days had wonderful sunrises. I celebrated with my dad in the hospital on 3 days and the last one I was in a hotel! Noticing the beauty at the beginning of the day always lifts my mood.

Baked chicken salad. Days are getting warmer and I find myself wanting salads more than I do in the wintertime. I celebrated combining veggies from the crisper…an apple…diced slices of lemon (including the skin) and green salsa --- with chicken baked in balsamic vinaigrette. Yummy!

Sustaining Elder Care – March 2026

My dad is going to be 95 this month. We had an adventure with him in the hospital before that could happen. The original problem that was causing abdominal pain resolved on its own within about 24 hours, but the ramification of the ancillary medications (primarily to reduce anxiety) had the effect of increasing his anxiety and keeping him awake and active until he was exhausted. An MRI was ordered after the first anti-anxiety dose, but he could not tolerate the machine for enough time to complete it. The drug reaction prolonged his stay in the hospital, and we are/were amazed that the doctors wanted to continue to dose him; my sisters and I had to insist that they stop giving him the drug and allow him to return to his normal.

I drove down on his first day in the hospital and spent 4 nights with him. My other three sisters coordinated to stay with him during the day. The window in his hospital room faced the east so I had a good view of the sunrise; there was only one cloudy morning…otherwise the sunrises were gorgeous even with the blinds in the way! They did not make up for the collective angst that my sisters and I experienced at the hospital.

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My dad received some PT later his stay to regain some mobility he had lost the first days of his hospitalization. We realized by the third day that, for him, going to the hospital was never going to be a net positive and we started the process to transition him to hospice care. It was a decision that my sisters and I all agreed on immediately. He was released from the hospital after being there for 5 days/nights. It didn’t take long after we got to his apartment his memory care facility for him to realize that he was home…and smile.

The transition to hospice started out well with a new bed and wheelchair delivered to his apartment before he returned. We are still tweaking the arrangement – adjusting what the memory care and hospice staff will do to support my dad’s situation. It seems to be going relatively well although we are all still in ‘transition’ and seeking to understand what his needs are. There have been several instances where he seems to be making little jokes and looking mischievous as a kid; it helps that he seems happy with what has happened even though he likely doesn’t understand it all.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 21, 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.

3/8/2026 Our World in Data What are the world’s deadliest animals, and can we protect ourselves against them? – Mosquitoes and snakes top the list! In many regions, deaths from mosquitoes have decreased dramatically. Malaria was once prevalent in countries that are now free of it. If we could achieve this in all parts of the world, the number of deaths caused by other animals would be almost six times smaller. If we were to also eliminate deaths from snakes with antivenoms and better diagnostics, the death toll would be again reduced by almost two-thirds.

3/8/2026 Science Daily Scientists stunned to find signs of ancient life in a place no one expected - Chemosynthetic microbes—organisms powered by chemical reactions—creating the mats in the dark depths of an ancient ocean.

2/24/2026 BBC 'It seemed to defy the laws of physics': The everlasting 'memory crystals' that could slash data center emissions -Silica and DNA are "very attractive from a sustainability perspective", acknowledges Tania Malik, assistant professor at the School of Informatics and Cybersecurity at Technological University Dublin in Ireland. "However, these technologies are unlikely to replace conventional storage for everyday computing or AI workloads anytime soon."

2/11/2026 The Scientist Oak Trees’ Drought Resilience is Rooted in Microbes - Oak trees maintained relatively stable microbial communities with subtle shifts in response to drought stress. They observed an increased abundance of Actinobacteriota, which are linked to drought tolerance, and other bacterial and fungal genera, suggesting that the oak trees can recruit beneficial organisms under stressful conditions. These changes could help researchers identify additional bacterial biomarkers as trees adapt to climate change.

3/9/2026 Compound Interest International Women’s Day: Twelve women from chemistry history – 12 women chemists from around the world.

3/8/2026 National Parks Traveler North Kaibab Trail at Grand Canyon National Park Seriously Damaged by Debris Flows - Debris flows in the wake of the Dragon Bravo fire at Grand Canyon National Park last year heavily damaged sections of the North Kaibab Trail, which will require some significant rebuilding in places this spring.

3/6/2026 Clean Technica It’s Time for an Authentic Golden Age of Agriculture - Contemporary industrial agriculture is less about producing food and more about generating animal feed, biofuels, and industrial ingredients for processed food products. Frank Carini of ecoRINews argues that producing more local food requires a series of changes. He offers a series of steps:

• Stop taking farmland out of production;

• Provide better financial support to local and regional farmers;

• Increase funding for federal extension services;

• Approve more bond money for farmland protection;

• Attract young farmers to the profession;

• Make farmland affordable; and,

• Use the land we do have with our future in mind.

3/6/2026 Planetizen Hundreds of Vacant NYC Public Housing Units ‘Taken Over’ by Squatters –Vacancies often result from the need to make extensive renovations before units can be leased out when a prior tenant leaves. That frequently includes costly lead paint and asbestos abatement—required by local law and under NYCHA’s federal monitorship—work which takes an average of four to six months to complete, officials have said. In general, it takes the housing authority an average of 326 days to “turnaround” a vacant apartment for new occupancy, according to the most recent public data.

3/5/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See the New U.S. Postage Stamp Honoring the Bison, America’s National Mammal – A stamp within a stamp design.

3/4/2026 The Conversation Pollution, noise and climate stress all pose a serious threat to heart health - In an unprecedented collaboration, the European Society of Cardiology, the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association and the World Heart Federation have issued a joint statement calling for immediate action against environmental stressors – pollution, noise, climate stress – to reduce cardiovascular mortality. The question is no longer whether pollution causes cardiovascular disease, but how much additional harm we are willing to accept knowing that it is, to a large extent, preventable.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 14, 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.

2/25/2026 The Scientist Forever Chemicals May Accelerate Aging in Middle-Aged Men - The team detected the PFAS perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA) and perfluorooctanesulfonamide (PFOSA) in 95 percent of the participants. PFNA and PFOSA, both invented in the middle of the 20th century, are still used widely today in consumer products designed to be stain-, grease-, and water-repellent. To reduce risk, individuals can try to limit their consumption of packaged foods and avoid microwaving fast-food containers. Looking ahead, we are actively modeling how PFAS interacts with other common pollutants, as we need to understand the cumulative health risks of these chemical mixtures

3/1/2026 BBC Can ‘friction-maxxing’ fix your focus? - While modern technology can streamline day-to-day life, making everything from dating to food delivery more efficient, it may come at a cost: early data suggests that our attention span may be shortening, critical thinking capabilities weakening, emotional intelligence fading, and spatial memory getting worse as we offload human tasks to our devices. Analogue hobbies such as crafting, gardening or reading – which involve friction as opposed to scrolling or streaming – can act as "active meditation", calming the mind and reducing stress. One 2024 study of more than 7,000 adults living in England found that those who engaged in crafting or the creative arts were more likely to report significantly higher life satisfaction, a greater sense that life is worthwhile and increased happiness. 

2/24/2025 The New York Times Plastic, Plastic Everywhere - Peak oil may be on the horizon. But peak plastic is nowhere in sight. In a new book, “Plastic Inc.,” the journalist Beth Gardiner digs into an industry that mostly flies below the radar but has huge impacts on human health, environmental pollution and global warming.

3/5/2026 Yale 360 Species Slowdown: Is Nature’s Ability to Self-Repair Stalling? - When scientists recently analyzed hundreds of studies of ecosystems, they were surprised to see a marked slowing in the rate of species turnover. If new species don’t replace old ones, they say, ecosystems may have less flexibility to respond to habitat loss and climate change.

2/28/2026 KCTV A ban on mini liquor bottle sales in five Kansas City neighborhoods officially introduced - Mayor Quinton Lucas and Councilwoman Melissa Robinson officially introduced an ordinance Thursday that would ban the sale of certain single-serve alcohol products in five Kansas City neighborhoods - — areas the city said have documented public safety concerns and recurring quality-of-life complaints from residents.

3/5/2026 The Conversation Choosing to buy organic food depends more on trust than taste - Organic labels work only when the system behind them is trusted. This has important implications at a time when food prices are rising and trust in public institutions is under pressure in many countries.

2/2/2026 Washington Post Baggies, retainers and more: 5 microplastics questions, answered - If you only have the bandwidth for a few battles, heating food in plastic is the bigger front. Most experts agree that ultra-processed foods are likely the biggest source overall in our diets. Food that comes packaged in plastic is obvious, but there are exposures during industrial processing that we don’t see. That’s one more reason to lean toward whole foods when you can.

3/4/2026 National Parks Traveler Study Finds Bird Populations Are In Decline As Panel Considers Weakening Key Act - Bird populations are in decline, with billions fewer birds are flying through North America compared to a decade ago, according to a study published in February 2026. The researchers found that about half of the 261 species analyzed showed significant declines from 1987 to 2021, and a quarter showed accelerating declines. The study points out that the declines are primarily because of high-intensity agriculture and warming temperatures. The findings come as a congressional panel is holding a hearing to consider weakening the Migratory Bird Treaty Act. Extinction starts with declines like these, and birds are often the indicators that our environment is too toxic to support other life.

3/4/2026 Science Daily Millions with joint pain and osteoarthritis are missing the most powerful treatment - Despite affecting nearly 600 million people worldwide — and potentially a billion by 2050 — the most powerful treatment isn’t surgery or medication. It’s exercise.

2/26/2026 Canary Media Balcony solar is taking state legislatures by storm - Plug-in solar is already booming in Europe. As many as 4 million households in Germany have installed the systems, which people can order through Ikea. 28 states and D.C. are considering plug-in solar bills.

Road Trip to Texas – February 2026

I made my monthly trip to Lewisville TX to visit with my dad near the end of the month. It was a more structured road trip than my usual. I stopped to meet my sister that had prepared his tax filing on my way down – since I am the one that must sign for him.

Once I got to the memory care facility, I had a meeting with a couple of staff members to work on some outstanding issues. He is starting his 5th month at the place, and I am a little frustrated that there are a few things that seem to not be as easily resolved (for example, they can’t seem to help him shave daily…and the stubble on his face is something he doesn’t like). On the plus side – they consistently cut is food so that it is easy for him to feed himself (something we had been unable to get done in his previous home).

I managed to visit with Dad too. We walked around the courtyard because the day was very pleasant – and then I accompanied him to the assisted living side of the place to visit with a friend and then do some PT in their gym.

Later in the day – about the time he went off to dinner, I joined a group of other families in a dementia support group. There were three other families…and a facilitator. It was a bit of a disappointment. My dad is about a decade older than the other residents that had family members at the meeting! I am realizing that, while he needs assistance for daily living, he is very easy to work with compared to some other situations.

The next morning, he seemed tired when I saw him after breakfast – maybe a result of the amount of activity from the previous afternoon. It was too cool to walk outside in the courtyard, but we did walk in the hallway. I noticed that there are a few St. Paterick’s Day decorations, but they are relatively subdued compared to the Thanksgiving – Christmas – Valentines decorations of the past few months.

I noticed some framed botanical prints in the hallway that I hadn’t noticed before. I wondered how many of these things he can appreciate with his eyesight declining so much in the past 6 months.

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That thought continued when we got back to his room – does he know there is a pinwheel in his potted plant…that the tractor and beagle figure are on the dresser. There is a large screen television that we use to play a slideshow of outdoor places; he seems to notice that the picture is changing but can’t tell what the picture contains. The visual appeal of the environment is likely not as important to him now – but it does make it more pleasant for us when we visit!

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Sustaining Elder Care – February 2026

My dad has been in his new memory care place since mid-November, and we are still not quite settled. He had a visit from a podiatrist, and they sent information on getting into their portal to see the report to me rather than my sister that handles his medical care (i.e. is his Medical POA) …a continuing issue which I have now escalated to the director since it has happened with other providers. My dad has been seen by a Nurse Practitioner and had bloodwork, but my sister had to ask for the results repeatedly before getting them and the question of the physician or medical practice that is monitoring the Nurse Practitioner has not been answered.

On the plus side, the facility has started using a new app to report to families about the activities their person in memory care is participating in like music therapy, hands & nails spa, coffee bar social, and (most frequently) chair exercise. The app has the capability of including pictures but, so far, they haven’t been doing that; it could be that it would take an extra staff person to get pictures during the activity. Since I am not local – I like the daily reports through the app to understand the types of activities he does with other people.

One of my other sisters was able to attend a session held for families of people in memory care and sent us “what NOT to do --- what to do instead.” Since we are all trying to be respectful and accept our father the way he is now, we do reasonably well. Our challenge is to have a conversation with our dad. We’ve come to accept his pronouncements whether they reflect reality or not…encouraged that he is trying to communicate.

It is not easy to watch a person that has been around for my whole life decline. He is a very different person now than he was during my growing up. I’m glad that my sisters and I are staying engaged with his care. We are all learning from his experience…storing away ideas for the way we want to live our own lives. None of us wants to regret anything.

Sustaining Elder Care – January 2026

We moved my father to a new memory care place in early November, and we are just now getting his medical care transitioned to a new provider (since the new place is out of range from the previous one). It has been harder than we expected and there could be other challenges we just haven’t uncovered yet.

He is still having some difficulty finding his way around in the new place without assistance. The size of the place, his worsening eyesight, and cognitive ups/downs are all contributing to our observations and reports from staff of almost daily incidents – him thinking someone else’s apartment is his, him losing the key fob to get into his room, and him saying that he can’t find his room.

One of my sisters noticed that he couldn’t get his belt buckle open…and closed again. Maybe it was threaded around his jeans the wrong way? I hope that was the explanation since, if it is not – we may be approaching a time when he will need assistance in the bathroom. A year or so ago one of my sisters bought him some pull-on pants that did not require a belt – but he didn’t like them at all. He likes his jeans with a belt and a button front shirt (short sleeves for summer and long sleeves for winter)!

His decline – mental and physical – is obvious…but not predictable. There are times that he seems to remember more but those times are happening less often. The decline of his eyesight is related. If he could see better, perhaps he would not get lost so easily even though his short-term memory has not been reliable for quite some time so the move to a new environment has been hard for him.

It is taking more effort for me to stick with my strategy of accepting him as he is in the moments when I am with him….try to encourage him to move about and talk. In the back of my mind when I plan my monthly road trips to visit him, I always think about making the best of the visit because it might be the last one.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 24, 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.

1/3/2026 The Scientist Polio Vaccine History: The Shot That Saved Millions - On April 12, 1955, when the Salk polio vaccine was declared “safe and effective,” church bells rang out, kids were let out of school, and headlines around the world celebrated the victory over polio. When asked whether he was going to patent the vaccine, Salk told journalist Edward R. Murrow it belonged to the people and would be like “patenting the sun.”

1/8/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Hundreds of Flowering Species Bloomed Across Britain and Ireland Last Winter - Citizen scientists in the British Isles documented more than 300 native plant species blooming in early 2025, a phenomenon likely caused by climate change. While it’s lovely to see so many wildflowers in bloom … it’s also a sad reflection of the way our climate is changing and the knock-on effects this might have for all the wildlife—bees and other pollinators, butterflies and all the larger creatures further up the food chain—that depend on plants. If flowering times are increasingly out of sync with insect hatching times, the consequences could be very serious.

1/8/206 People in Brazil are living past 110 and scientists want to know why – Brazil’s highly diverse population harbors millions of genetic variants missing from standard datasets, including rare changes linked to immune strength and cellular maintenance. Brazilian supercentenarians often remain mentally sharp, survive serious infections, and come from families where multiple members live past 100. Together, they reveal aging not as inevitable decline, but as a form of biological resilience.

1/7/2026 The Conversation Surprising number of foods contain microplastics. Here’s how to reduce the amount you consume - While eliminating plastics entirely from our diets may be impossible, making these swaps should help to reduce your exposure.

1/6/2026 Nature Defossilize our chemical world - Achieving net zero means eliminating fossil fuels, not carbon — the chemical element has a crucial part to play in powering the modern world. Defossilization means finding sustainable ways to make carbon-based chemicals. Alternative sources of carbon include the atmosphere and plants, as well as carbon in existing biological or industrial waste, such as used plastics or agricultural residue. In some cases, these chemicals will eventually return carbon dioxide to the atmosphere through burning or biodegradation. In principle, this will occur as part of a circular process, rather than one that has added greenhouse gases.

1/5/2026 Planetizen The Child Population in These Cities is Dropping Fast - The proportion of young children in western U.S. metros is falling faster than in other parts of the country. Lower birth rates can sometimes ease immediate pressure on housing and schools but also lead to challenges in supporting economic growth and elder care, as the ratio of working adults to retirees declines.

1/4/2026 Washington Post What we learned about microplastics in 2025 - For many scientists, 2025 was the year of microplastics. It’s only in the past year or so that we have begun to understand that the tiny plastics — including some that are impossible to see with the naked eye — are in our bodies and food as well.

1/9/2026 Science Alert Study Finds Microplastics Are Widespread in Popular Seafoods - In the Pacific Northwest – a region of North America renowned for its seafood – researchers have found particles from our waste and pollution swimming in the edible tissue of just about every fish and shellfish they collected.

12/18/2025 Yale Environment 360 After Ruining a Treasured Water Resource, Iran Is Drying Up - Iran is looking to relocate the nation’s capital because of severe water shortages that make Tehran unsustainable. Experts say the crisis was caused by years of ill-conceived dam projects and overpumping that destroyed a centuries-old system for tapping underground reserves. 

1/8/2026 BBC The animals saved in Greece's ancient accidental 'arks' - Shielded from development and agriculture, many archaeological sites have now become inadvertent safe harbors for plants and animals. In Italy, rare orchids flower around an Etruscan necropolis. In the ancient Greek religious centre of Delphi, researchers found what they believe is a new species of snail – just 2mm (0.08in) long – suspected to live only in that area. In recent years, two new species of lizard were identified in Machu Picchu that may have once had a wider range and today enjoy the relatively undisturbed conditions of the ancient sanctuary. To better understand the connection between historical sites and nature, in 2022 the Greek government launched the Biodiversity in Archaeological Sites research project. Over two years, 49 specialists in all kinds of plants and animals surveyed 20 archaeological sites that spanned Greek history. 

Snack in Blue Tulip Glassware

I’ve had my set of Blue Tulip depression glassware for over a decade now. It is special because of how I got it – from some friends of my parents (from college onward) that collected it when they retired and sold it to me when they downsized from their last house. Although I don’t use the dinner plates very often – I do enjoy the small pieces frequently because they encourage smaller portions. One piece that I have only started using recently is in the shape of a shell with a center area for dip/sauce; I like pumpkin seeds in the center and fruit/veggies around the edge. It is just the right size of a hefty snack (when I am not hungry enough for a full evening meal).

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The memories are a bonus – summertime visits with their family which included a daughter my age…observing a career dietician for small hospitals in action and the field work of a soil conservation professional in the 1960s. I remember outings with them to amusement parks and overnight visits to state parks in Oklahoma….digging up salt crystals at the lake near Cherokee, Oklahoma. The friends of my parents and their daughter are gone now – the last one going before my mother; my dad doesn’t remember them. I remember…and the Blue Tulip glassware is a wonderful reminder.

Fifty-third Wedding Anniversary

Still together after 53 years….

Our anniversary is not a big celebration in January; we don’t buy gifts; usually we just go out for a nice meal. This year my only requirement was that it be a place with interesting desserts. We chose The Village Inn in Springfield. He got pancakes and I got key lime pie.

I’m thinking about how we are accommodating each other more as we age.

• Right now, he has a wrist bothering him, so I am doing more household chores that require two hands.

• He keeps a pillow in his car for me because I haven’t been able to adjust the front passenger seat to avoid my back hurting on road trips.

• Over the past year we have both sat in medical waiting rooms – doing the driving to and from an outpatient procedure.

• When we travel, we both like to stop about once an hour; neither one of us likes to sit for a long time.

• I do the grocery shopping, and he does the shopping at Home Depot/Loews and Wild Birds Unlimited (although I am loading the bird feeders with seed and putting the groceries away right now because those are two-hand jobs). In years past we shopped together but now we both enjoy the independence.

• He has allergies to a lot of household products which we have been working with for a few years. That is dovetailing with my efforts to reduce plastics/microplastics in our household.

• When one of us is on a solo road trip, the other is tracking progress with the Find My app. This is the one item on the list that we might have done earlier if the technology had been available.

• When we travel, I always make the hotel reservations and pack the ice chest (mostly things for him these days). He always makes sure the car is ready to go and does all the driving; I keep volunteering to trade off driving, but road trips are generally more restful for me since he still wants to do it all.

As we get older, there will be plenty more accommodations we’ll develop for ourselves and each other. We’re already a lengthy marriage…have no plans of cutting it short!

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 10, 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. (Note: I have changed the format to include the date and source of the article.)

11/9/2025 BBC Seated salsa - the miracle movement to help ease back pain – Wow – easy to do and very effective. I might even be able to do it on road trips….increase the likelihood of no back pain when getting out of the car!

12/30/2025 Clean Technica Maryland’s Largest Solar Project Launches, On Old Coal Mine – In Garret County MD – “helping to preserve our region’s natural beauty while creating new economic value for our residents. It’s a win-win for us and the environment.” Goo for them!

12/29/2025 Yale Environment 360 Sea Ice Hits New Low in Hottest Year on Record for the Arctic - The Arctic endured a year of record heat and shrunken sea ice as the world’s northern latitudes continue a rapid shift to becoming rainier and less ice-bound due to the climate crisis. The Arctic is heating up as much as four times as quickly as the global average, due to the burning of fossil fuels, and this extra heat is warping the world’s refrigerator. We can point to the Arctic as a faraway place but the changes there affect the rest of the world.

12/30/2025 Science Daily Why your vitamin D supplements might not be working - Magnesium may be the missing key to keeping vitamin D levels in balance. The study found that magnesium raised vitamin D in people who were deficient while dialing it down in those with overly high levels—suggesting a powerful regulating effect. This could help explain why vitamin D supplements don’t work the same way for everyone and why past studies linking vitamin D to cancer and heart disease have produced mixed results. (I also learned that dark chocolate is a good source of magnesium from this post!)

12/26/2025 National Parks Traveler Visual Guide Reveals Stunning Fossil Discovery at Lake Powell – A visual guide published this year and compiled by paleontology experts within the National Park System offers a fresh look at paleontological resources across the 13 park units in the State of Utah. It is available online here.

12/19/2025 Smithsonian Magazine Flesh-Eating Screwworms Are Creeping Closer to a Comeback in the United States - Roughly 60 years ago, the United States eradicated the New World screwworm, an insect that feeds on living tissue. A concerted effort led by USDA wiped them out by 1966 by releasing sterile male flies and, since female flies only mate once, this strategy helped diminish their numbers until the population collapsed. The agency estimates the eradication of screwworms saves ranchers $900 million per year in lost livestock. But now, the flesh-eating creature appears to be creeping closer to a comeback. Efforts are ramping up to monitor for screwworms and prepare to fight it back again.

12/17/2025 Archaeology Magazine How did the Roman invasion of Britain impact health? - The health of the women and children declined overall during the Roman period, but mainly among those who lived in urban areas. The decline in health in urban areas can be attributed to overcrowding, pollution, limited access to resources, and devastating exposure to lead in Roman infrastructure.

12/17/2926 The Conversation The US already faces a health care workforce shortage – immigration policy could make it worse - America’s health care system is entering an unprecedented period of strain. An aging population, coupled with rising rates of chronic conditions, is driving demand for care to new heights. The workforce isn’t growing fast enough to meet those needs. For decades, immigrant health care workers have filled gaps where U.S.-born workers are limited. Nationally, immigrants make up about 18% of the health care workforce, and they’re even more concentrated in critical roles. Roughly 1 in 4 physicians, 1 in 5 registered nurses and 1 in 3 home health aides are foreign-born.

12/15/2025 Nature Tracing pollution in the lives of Arctic seabirds – Scientists on Svalbard — the largest island of the Norwegian polar archipelago: there used to be sea ice in the fjord in May when we arrived for the start of the season, but we haven’t seen any sea ice since 2009. They are monitoring the presence of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the birds. The years long research has shown that some contaminants transfer to the yolks of the birds’ eggs. High levels of PFASs have been found to lower hatching rates and reduce overall survival rates. In particular, PFASs disrupt hormones and lower fertility rates in male birds.

12/14/2025 The Marginalian A Decalogue for the Dignity of Growing Old: Eva Perón’s Revolutionary Rights of the Elderly – Eva Peron identified 10 rights of elderly people in 1948 to be included in Argentina’s Constitutional Reform the following year; the right to assistance, housing, nourishment, clothing, physical health care, moral health care, recreation, tranquility, and respect.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 27, 2025

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. (Note: I have changed the format to include the date and source of the article.)

12/4/2025 American College of Emergency Physicians Opinion: Physicians Must Reduce Plastic Waste - Waste audits in the emergency departments (EDs) of Kent Hospital in Warwick, Rhode Island, and Mass General Hospital in Boston found that four pounds of waste is generated per patient, per encounter, and about 60 percent of the waste is plastic…. If we consider our plastic footprint with everything we are doing, we can adjust our habits to give our patients and our world healthier care.

11/19/2025 Consumer Reports Consumer Reports announces winners of its Microplastics Detection Challenge - Contest challenged participants to develop simple and inexpensive at-home tests to enable people to detect microplastics in their food. 

12/12/2025 Yale Environment 360 Dozens of Countries See Their Economy Grow as Emissions Fall - Historically, more industry meant burning more fossil fuels. But renewable energy has made it possible to generate more wealth without producing more emissions. The U.S. and most of Europe, have completely decoupled growth from emissions over the last decade. Fortunes rose, while emissions fell. Together, these countries account for 46 percent of the global economy.

12/12/2025 Science Daily Scientists find dark chocolate ingredient that slows aging - Scientists have uncovered a surprising link between dark chocolate and slower aging. A natural cocoa compound called theobromine was found in higher levels among people who appeared biologically younger than their real age.

12/11/2025 Clean Technica Drones, Diesel, & Policy: Two Countries, Two Agricultural Futures - China’s rapid adoption of agricultural drones is one of the most interesting examples of technological divergence between two major food producers. The contrast is striking. Chinese pilots are now treating an amount of land with drones each year that is larger than the total farmland base, which means multiple drone passes on the same fields to handle weeds, pests, fertilizer and sometimes seeding. At the same time, the United States is advancing a policy coalition that targets DJI with composite national security concerns and proposes to ban the most widely used spray drones in the country. This fight matters because the ban would remove the only cost effective and widely deployed option for seeding and spraying. It would also shut down a path for lower diesel use and lower chemical demand in a sector that does not have many easy ways to cut operating costs.

12/11/2025 Smithsonian Magazine Gas Stoves Are Poisoning Americans by Releasing Toxic Fumes Associated with Asthma and Lung Cancer - A new study, published this month in the journal PNAS Nexus, suggests that gas stoves are the main source of indoor nitrogen dioxide pollution in the United States, responsible for more than half of some Americans’ total exposure to the gas. The gas can irritate airways and worsen or even contribute to the development of respiratory diseases like asthma. Children and older individuals are particularly susceptible to its effects.

12/7/2025 Cool Green Science Family, Survival and Change: The Secret Life of the Red-cockaded Woodpecker - In the heart of the longleaf pine forests of the southern United States, a quiet drama plays out each spring. Inside tiny nest cavities high into pines, red-cockaded woodpecker (RCW) parents work tirelessly to feed their chicks. They live in family groups where everyone, even older offspring, helps care for the young. That’s what makes them special; they’re cooperative breeders, families bound not just by instinct, but by teamwork. These woodpeckers remind us that recovery isn’t just about numbers. It’s about understanding the subtle, interconnected forces that make life possible in the first place. 

11/30/2025 The Conversation 56 million years ago, the Earth suddenly heated up – and many plants stopped working properly - Plants can help regulate the climate through a process known as carbon sequestration. However, abrupt global warming may temporarily impact this regulating function. What happened on Earth 56 million years ago highlights the need to understand biological systems’ capacity to keep pace with rapid climate changes and maintain efficient carbon sequestration.

12/8/2025 The Planetary Society The year in pictures 2025 - This collection of images, going as far back as late November 2024, captures some of the highlights of humanity’s exploration of space over the past year.

11/6/2025 The Scientist What Happens When a Fly Lands on Your Food? - How many microbes does a single fly typically carry? How many microbes does it take to get people sick?

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 6, 2025

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.

Vitamin C Rejuvenates Aging Ovaries in Primates - A long-term primate study suggests vitamin C may slow ovarian aging by reactivating antioxidant defenses—though fertility effects remain untested. Oxidative damage contributes to aging not only in ovaries but also in the brain, heart, and kidneys—raising the possibility that similar interventions might benefit other organs.

Rings of Rock in the Sahara - In northeastern Africa, within the driest part of the Sahara, dark rocky outcrops rise above pale desert sands. They are thought to have formed as magma rose toward the surface and intruded into the surrounding rock. Repeated intrusion events produced a series of overlapping rings, their centers roughly aligned toward the southwest. The resulting ring complex—composed of igneous basalt and granite—is bordered to the north by a hat-shaped formation made of sandstone, limestone, and quartz layers. Photo taken from International Space Station.

How your hormones might be controlling your mind - Hormones are chemical messengers released by certain glands, organs, and tissues. They enter the bloodstream and travel around the body, before binding to receptors in a specific place. The binding acts as a kind of biological "handshake" which tells the body to do something. For example, the hormone insulin tells liver and muscle cells to suck up excess glucose from the blood and store it as glycogen. We still don't understand exactly why some people are so sensitive to hormonal fluctuations, while others aren't. We know that hormones impact mood and mental health, but we need to figure out how they do so before we can come up with the proper treatments.

Texas Voters Approve $1 Billion per Year for 'Critical' Water Infrastructure – Wise move by Texas voters; hopefully it will be enough to keep up with the state’s growing population and resulting demand for water. More details here.

How Does Sugar Affect Our Oral Microbiome and Teeth? - Less processed foods, especially those high in fiber, are often less sticky, which decreases bacteria’s ability to adhere and overgrow at a surface. Additionally, the fiber acts like miniature brushes. “These fibers constantly remove plaque from your tooth surfaces. The additional chewing of these types of foods also increases saliva production, which washes out the oral cavity, removing excess bacteria from the mouth surface to limit the formation of biofilms. Meanwhile, additional sugar from candy and other sweet products disrupts this whole community. Not only are these processed foods stickier, giving the bacteria a place to latch onto, but they also form biofilms.

How Satellite Imagery Reveals Plastic Pollution Hotspots in the Ocean - Plastic pollution isn’t just a sad environmental story we scroll past on the news anymore; it has become a personal health emergency. It is a genuinely scary reality that microplastics, those tiny, unseen fragments, have made their way into our lungs and bloodstreams. To grasp the sheer scale of this threat, researchers are turning to Sentinel satellite imagery, utilizing it as an essential “eye in the sky” to track exactly where these hazardous accumulation zones are growing. However, mapping is just the diagnostic tool; the ultimate cure lies in fixing land-based waste management.

The photos showing why pink dolphins are the Amazon's 'great thieves' - As fishermen cast their nets into the river, suddenly a sleek pink shape emerged from the depths, swimming toward the trapped fish. Moving quickly, the creature – an Amazonian pink river dolphin – poked holes in the net and stole a catfish. Known locally as boto in Portuguese and bufeo in Spanish, the pink river dolphin is a funny sight. With its melon-shaped head, rose-colored skin, and slender, hundred-toothed snout, it is the largest freshwater dolphin in the world, growing up to 2.5m (8.2ft) long and weighing as much as 200kg (440lbs). Four types of pink river dolphins live in the Amazon River basin. All of them are endangered, facing significant population declines in recent decades due to hunting, entanglement in fishing nets, pollution and droughts.

Half of heart attacks strike people told they’re low risk - A new study led by Mount Sinai researchers reports that commonly used cardiac screening methods fail to identify almost half of the people who are actually at risk of having a heart attack. People who appear healthy according to standard assessments may already have significant and silent atherosclerosis. Because of this, depending solely on symptoms and risk calculators can delay detection until meaningful prevention is no longer possible. Doctors should shift their focus from detecting symptomatic heart disease to detecting the plaque itself for earlier treatment, which could save lives.

Clogged Glymphatic System Linked to Dementia Risk - The brain’s built-in clearance system, called the glymphatic system, removes toxins from the brain through the flow of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) via minuscule channels that trace blood vessels. Scientists have suspected that the glymphatic system may play a role in processes such as sleep and recovery from traumatic brain injury. MRI scans from nearly 40,000 people revealed biomarkers linked to defective toxin clearance in the brain predicted the susceptibility to dementia later in life.

Ansel Adams Photos Capture Daily Life Inside Japanese Internment Camps During WWII - The establishment of Japanese internment camps is arguably one of the darkest moments in American history. Between 1942 and 1946, about 120,000 people of Japanese descent were forcibly relocated into these concentration camps. This was done out of unfounded suspicions that Japanese Americans might act as saboteurs or spies following the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941. In 1943, celebrated American photographer Ansel Adams visited the Manzanar War Relocation Center in California, creating a timeless document of the daily life on this site. The 244 photo collection can be browsed on the Library of Congress website.