Gleanings of the Week Ending July 11, 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.

07/01/2026 Clean Technica Southeast Missouri Smelter Announces Intent to Restart This Year - Not mentioned in the release today is how the smelter will be powered, and whether the smelter will be in compliance with the Missouri Department of Natural Resources plan to reduce sulfur dioxide pollution to levels that are safe to breathe. New Madrid County recorded the worst air quality in the United States before idling.

07/01/2026 Yale Environment 360 A Home Battery Revolution Is Reshaping the Power Grid - As residential batteries have become more energy dense, cheaper, and smaller, more households are storing their excess solar power. Now, utilities and energy companies in dozens of countries are buying up those electrons, bundling them together, and using them to balance the grid.

07/01/2026 Planetizen Replacing lead pipes in Chicago costs more than 6 times the national average - Chicago has the nation's largest inventory of lead water pipes. Officials say replacing each one costs about $31,000 on average — more than six times the Environmental Protection Agency’s national estimate of $4,700 a line. The most significant factors driving up costs include inefficient early contracts, cumbersome permitting requirements, and the city’s reliance on one-off replacements rather than undertaking whole blocks at once.

07/01/2026 NPR Lone star ticks are covering much of the U.S. Here's what you need to know - The lone star is spreading across vast regions of the U.S., and the illness it carries, the alpha-gal syndrome, is spreading in more than 30 countries on six continents, often spread by various other ticks. The alpha-gal syndrome is more difficult to diagnose and treat than lime disease, and the symptoms are more severe. In many cases, the victim develops an allergy to all red meat, including nearly microscopic particles of it. The allergy can become so extreme it can kill you.

06/28/2026 BBC What watching the sunset really does for your health - There's growing evidence that sunsets – and sunrises, for that matter – can have a meaningful impact on our brain and mental health: diminishing anxiety and depression while boosting memory, creativity, sleep and even altruism. 

6/25/2026 The Conversation Most bees are solitary and don’t live in hives. Climate change risks them starving - Currently, most of what we know about bee nutrition comes from highly social species such as honeybees or bumblebees. Yet most bees are solitary or communal (group living but with no queens and workers). They might experience the nutritional landscape and nutritional stress in very different ways.

06/22/2026 NASA A Turquoise Tint for the Black Sea - The Black Sea sits at the boundary between Europe and Asia and connects to the Mediterranean Sea via a chain of waterways. Its surface often appears dark, but each spring and summer it transforms into a striking expanse of swirling turquoise. The turquoise color is likely caused by coccolithophores, a type of phytoplankton covered with calcium carbonate plates that can give surface waters a milky-blue appearance. These types of phytoplankton tend to dominate in late spring and early summer. Other times of the year, diatoms—a type of microscopic algae with silica shells—can become more prevalent, and they tend to darken the water rather than brighten it.   

6/24/2026 NWF Blog 7 Moths that Make Butterflies Look Boring – The only one I haven’t seen is the Texas Wasp Moth!

06/30/2026 Artnet These 10 U.S. Landmarks Are At-Risk - As America gears up to mark the 250th year of its independence, the World Monuments Fund (WMF) is throwing a spotlight on 10 historic places that it says are most urgently in need of preservation.

6/27/2026 Science Daily Yellowstone’s supervolcano may be fueled by something unexpected - Instead of a deep plume rising from near Earth’s core, a broad “mantle wind” may push hot rock beneath Yellowstone, generating magma closer to the surface. This process helps create a massive underground magma network and may explain how supervolcanoes remain active for long periods.

Gleanings of the Week Ending June 27, 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.

06/17/2026 Science Daily Scientists say most of what’s in your food is still a mystery - Most chemicals in food are invisible to us in terms of research. We consume them every day, but we have little idea what they do. Projects such as the Foodome Project are now attempting to catalogue this hidden chemical universe. More than 130,000 molecules have already been listed, linking food compounds to human proteins, gut microbes and disease processes. The aim is to build an atlas of how diet interacts with the body, and to pinpoint which molecules really matter for health.

06/17/2026 The Conversation Levels of ‘forever chemicals’ in dolphins and whales are rising globally - Whales and dolphins inhabit some of the largest and seemingly most pristine environments on Earth, from tropical coastlines to Antarctic waters. Yet even they cannot escape PFAS – persistent “forever chemicals” that leak from our homes, factories and waterways into the sea. Whales and dolphins inhabit some of the largest and seemingly most pristine environments on Earth, from tropical coastlines to Antarctic waters. Yet even they cannot escape PFAS – persistent “forever chemicals” that leak from our homes, factories and waterways into the sea. Some dolphin studies have reported changes in immune-related markers associated with PFAS exposure. The highest concentrations tended to be found in coastal dolphins and porpoises, suggesting animals living near urban and industrial areas face greater exposure.

06/15/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Venus Flytraps Snap Their Traps Shut in Less Than a Second - A team reports that the chomping motion happens when rigid walls of cells on the leaves’ outer surface suddenly soften. The findings provide new insights into plant biology and could inspire new robotic designs.

6/16/2026 The Conversation Microplastics are everywhere in Pennsylvania’s water – but the tide may be turning - Microplastics are nearly everywhere, their concentration in sediment has been doubling every 20 years, and some of the most common types are among the most toxic. More than 80% of mismanaged plastic waste - plastic that’s littered, dumped or otherwise not properly contained - is estimated to be transported by rivers to coastal environments. What can you do to decrease your exposure to microplastics and help decrease their spread? You can stay informed about which plastics carry the greatest health risks and check the recycling number on the bottom of containers before you buy. You can also swap out single-use plastic cups, straws and food containers for alternatives, such as glass, stainless steel or unbleached paper.

06/11/2026 NASA Air Pollution’s Daily Pulse Over the Northeast - More than 35 million people live along the New York–Washington corridor and breathe the region’s air. While air quality has improved significantly in recent decades, outbreaks of ground-level ozone remain common, particularly in the warm summer months, when the chemical reactions that produce the pollutant accelerate and stagnant air allows ozone to accumulate. A reminder of this seasonal phenomenon came earlier than usual in 2026, when a mid-May heat wave prompted the New York State Department of Health and the New York Department of Environmental Conservation to issue a health advisory on May 17 over concerns about ozone.

06/13/2026 Clean Technica Solar & Storage Provide Over 90% of All New Power Added to the U.S. Grid in Q1 - The United States added 7.8 gigawatts (GW) of new solar capacity in the first quarter of 2026, surpassing 6 million cumulative installations as solar remained the leading source of new power added to the grid. Despite changing tax policy and regulatory actions targeting clean energy, solar and energy storage represented 91% of new capacity installed in Q1 as utilities, homeowners and businesses seek energy security amid global gas and gas turbine supply disruptions.

03/17/2026 National Geographic To study microplastics, Cassandra Rauert first had to build a plastic-free lab. It wasn't easy - An air-locked, 250-square-foot facility built almost entirely from stainless steel and nicknamed “the submarine”—though it feels less like a sub and more like a starship from a galaxy where plastic never took over modern life. Known as the Minderoo Plastics and Human Health Laboratory

06/09/2026 Science Daily An invisible forever chemical rain is falling across the planet - Researchers found that refrigerants and certain anesthetic gases have generated more than 335,000 tons of trifluoroacetic acid (TFA), a highly persistent "forever chemical," that has been deposited across Earth's surface since 2000. The pollutant is now showing up everywhere from rainwater to remote Arctic ice, and scientists expect levels to keep rising. Scientists are still working to fully understand the long-term effects of TFA. The European Chemicals Agency classifies the chemical as harmful to aquatic life. Researchers have also detected TFA in human blood and urine. In addition, the German Federal Office for Chemicals recently proposed classifying TFA as potentially toxic to human reproduction.

06/09/2026 National Wildlife Federation Data Centers are Driving Up Your Energy Bill - Clean energy has become the cheapest form of energy, but wind and solar still only account for 17 percent of the country’s energy generation. The biggest barrier to deploying clean energy is usually transmission. Without enough transmission to deliver cheaper clean energy to where it’s needed, over 900 GW of solar and wind projects sit waiting in queue, and utilities often default to more expensive fossil fuel generation instead. We can double down on outdated systems that pollute our air and water and drive up prices, or we can invest in the resilient energy solutions that have proven to be the cheapest, build the grid needed to deliver them, and ensure the largest electricity users pay their fair share of the costs they trigger.

06/08/2026 National Parks Traveler Young Mountains, Old Rocks: A Geological Overview of the Teton Range - The Tetons continue to grow. The tectonic forces that built the range are still active, and stress continues to build even if the Teton Fault has not experienced major movement in recorded history. Evidence of ongoing stress appears east of the Teton Range, where the Snake River does not flow down the center of its riverbed. Instead, the river flows preferentially along the western side of its banks as the extensional stress builds and the eastern block of the fault (the block underlying Jackson Hole) tilts more westward.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 9, 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.

4/14/2026 SR+ An Ingenious Vortext Nanoplastics, Human Health & Investigative Science - Investigating here the relationship of microplastic and nanoplastic particles in the human body and the impact these Microplastics (MPs) and Nanoplastics (NPs) and their associated piggybacking chemical additives have as potent endocrine disruptors and other ways they impact human health. Before reading the full text of this report please listen to the Podcast of Dr. Aviva Romm, MD: “a Yale-trained board-certified family physician, midwife, and herbalist specializing in integrative medicine for women and children.

4/27/2026 The Conversation Global supply chains cause environmental harm, but they can help repair it too - When supply chains move beyond traditional markers of performance — efficiency, flexibility and responsiveness — to consider the benefits and harms of their activities, they can become environmentally just. Such supply chains distribute environmental benefits (such as clean air, water or access to land) more fairly while ensuring all stakeholders are included in decision-making.

4/27/2026 Science Daily Pesticide exposure linked to 150% higher cancer risk in major study - To better understand the link between pesticides and cancer, researchers created detailed models showing how agricultural chemicals spread across Peru. The analysis included 31 widely used pesticides. None of these are classified as known human carcinogens by the World Health Organization (WHO), yet their combined presence in the environment was carefully tracked. he team then compared these exposure maps with health data from more than 150,000 cancer patients recorded between 2007 and 2020. This comparison revealed a clear pattern. Regions with higher environmental pesticide exposure also had higher rates of certain cancers. In these areas, the likelihood of developing cancer was about 150% greater on average.

4/25/2026 Clean Technica Drought Could Be Making Antibiotic Resistance Worse - A recent study published in the journal Nature Microbiology found that when soil dries out, it can speed up the natural processes that create and spread antibiotic resistance. In normal, moist soil, bacteria live in a relatively stable environment. But when soil dries out, water gets squeezed into tiny, isolated pockets. Bacteria get crowded together, nutrients become scarce and competition turns brutal. In these conditions, bacteria produce more antibiotics to attack each other, and more resistance genes emerge to help them survive. It’s an arms race fueled by drought.

4/26/2026 BBC Surviving in a poisoned land: Chernobyl's wildlife is different, but not in the ways you might think - Four decades have now past since Chernobyl's reactor number four exploded on 26 April 1986, sending radioactive material far and wide. Tree Frogs inside the exclusion zone were, on average, darker than those outside the zone. Many pine trees, which are especially sensitive to radiation, died after exposure to fallout. Birch trees took over in some locations creating a completely different kind of forest. In areas once frequented by people, wolves, bears and bison now roam. Populations of deer, wild boar and elk have flourished. Species including the Eurasian lynx have also returned to the area after vanishing long before the accident. groups of dogs apparently descended from pets abandoned after the 1986 disaster, are also plentiful in this area.

4/25/2026 Planetizen Finland opens world's longest multimodal, car-free bridge - A new 0.74-mile bridge in Finland is likely the world's longest car-free bridge.  The Kruunuvuori Bridge, which opened last week, serves pedestrians, cyclists and, starting next year, trams. It connects Helsinki's eastern island suburbs with the city center.

4/27/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See the 1-in-50-Million Split-Color Lobster Caught Off the Coast of Massachusetts - The unusual-looking lobster is two-toned, with a line dividing its body into an orange side and a brown side. This can happen when two fertilized, unlaid lobster eggs touch—causing one to absorb the other

4/23/2026 Smithsonian Magazine A Rare ‘Cloud Jaguar’ Was Spotted in Honduran Mountains for the First Time in a Decade- The hefty felines can grow to eight feet long from nose to tail tip and weigh up to about 350 pounds. Jaguars have stocky, heavy bodies with short—but massive—limbs, as well as big heads and teeth that make for a powerful bite. They’re the third-largest cats in the world and the largest in the Americas.

4/22/2026 Yale Environment 360 Sustainable Wood Schemes Failing to Slow Deforestation - Schemes that certify wood or paper as sustainable are doing little to stem the loss of forests globally. The schemes are voluntary, run not by governments but by independent groups. Between 2013 and 2023, the world lost at least 50 million acres of forest each year, an area roughly the size of Nebraska, according to an analysis of satellite imagery. What is striking is that countries with more certified acres saw no less clearing of forest overall.

4/26/2026 The Conversation Soil monitoring: what the new EU‑wide ‘ground rules’ have in store for Europe - The European soil monitoring directive, adopted by the European Union at the end of 2025, aims to achieve healthy soils by 2050. It calls for soil microbial diversity analysis (bacteria and fungi) at six-year intervals based on environmental DNA or “eDNA”. Yet, while eDNA is a powerful tool for detecting biodiversity at scale, it is not enough on its own for interpreting observed changes and identifying their causes.

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 2, 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.

4/22/2026 The Conversation Microplastics have been found to interact with the gut microbiome – here’s what health effects they might have - A recently published study in the Journal of Hazardous Materials, showed that giving mice a group of polystyrene microplastics of various sizes makes the gut vulnerable to IBD.

4/22/2026 The Washington Post More Americans are exposed to polluted air in the United States. See where. - More than 150 million people across the United States, including nearly half the nation’s children, live in areas affected by harmful levels of air pollution.

4/20/2026 Our World in Data Most people care about farm animals — our food system doesn't reflect that - In a recent US survey about common farming practices, at most one in five respondents rated each practice as “acceptable”. The researchers noted that this view was broadly shared across age, gender, income, political affiliation, ethnicity, and region. The practices in question included pigs kept in cages unable to turn around for week, newborn male chicks are killed in meat grinders, newborn calves castrated without pain relief, and chickens bred to grow fast and struggle to walk/stand. In another US survey, around two in five of respondents agreed on banning slaughterhouses and factory farming, and close to a third supported banning animal farming altogether.

4/14/2026 Yale 360 In a First for the U.S., Renewables Generate More Power Than Natural Gas - In a first last month, renewables supplied more power to the U.S. than natural gas, a milestone in the shift to clean energy. However, rising power demand is complicating the transition away from fossil fuels by extending the lives of many aging coal power plants. Together, renewables — including solar, wind, hydropower, and bioenergy — were the biggest source of U.S. electricity in March. Along with nuclear power, they supplied more than half of U.S. power.

4/14/2026 BBC Why wildflowers are moving from meadows to the city - Cities might seem like an unlikely candidate for flowers to thrive – but wildflowers love them.  Cities are often associated with stress – and only the toughest plants can cope in them. Thankfully, wildflowers thrive on stress. This is because stress keeps the competition down and wildflowers can't cope with lots of competition. we need to accept a bit of wildness and untidiness. We can't exist as humans alone; we're part of nature and we need to let nature in.

4/22/2026 NWF Blog What in the Hellbender? -Hellbenders (Cryptobranchus alleganiensis) are fully aquatic amphibians, meaning they spend all their lives in water. They primarily feed on crayfish, snails, small fish, tadpoles, insects, and worms, and have long life spans, sometimes up to 30 years. Hellbenders breathe through their skin even though they have gills, but like most amphibians, they lose their frilly external gills once they reach adulthood. heir wrinkly skin allows them lots of surface area to breathe while underwater. There are two subspecies, and unfortunately, both are facing serious conservation challenges. They are the Eastern Hellbender and the Ozark Hellbender.

4/19/2026 Clean Technica We Can Create Food Systems That Enhance Human & Planetary Health -Globally, the food system accounts for roughly 30% of greenhouse gas emissions. Big Ag incorporates large volumes of manure, chemicals, antibiotics, and growth hormones to increase agricultural yields. These can contaminate nearby water sources and threaten aquatic ecosystems, biodiversity, nitrogen cycles and soil health. The world’s growing population will need food systems that can sustainably convert crop production into calories for human consumption. Many agricultural experts concur that support for agriculture needs to focus on soil health, water quality, and climate resilience. By focusing on low carbon methods, enhancing circular nutrient management, and reinforcing soil regeneration, food systems can reduce risk, stabilize yield, and drive long term productivity.

4/18/2026 Science Daily Common cleaning sponge found to release trillions of microplastic fibers - That “magic” sponge under your sink may be hiding an environmental downside. While melamine sponges are famous for effortlessly scrubbing away stubborn stains, they slowly break down as you use them—shedding tiny plastic fibers that wash into water systems. Researchers estimate that globally, these sponges could release over a trillion microplastic fibers every month, potentially entering the food chain and affecting wildlife.

4/14/2026 The Conversation How microplastics hurt the hidden helpers that keep our coasts healthy - Despite bamboo worm’s (Macroclymenella stewartensis)  hidden lives and small size – most measure just a few centimeters long – these New Zealand worms have an outsized influence on the health of the marine environment. But now there are troubling signs that microplastics – tiny but pervasive fragments of broken-down plastic – are disrupting the vital role the worms play, with potentially wider effects we are only just beginning to understand.

4/20/2026 Compound Interest Magnolia molecules: fragrance, pigments and medicines – Last year I learned that the petals of the Southern Magnolia (Magnolia grandiflora) were edible. The infographic includes more magnolia trivia!

Gleanings of the Week Ending April 25, 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.

4/9/2026 Yale 360 A More Troubling Picture of Sea Level Rise Is Coming into View - Sea levels are much higher than we thought. Real-world oceans are making a mockery of flood-risk forecasts based on crude global modeling. And to make matters worse, coastal lands almost everywhere are subsiding faster than anyone realized — often many times faster than the seas are rising. 

4/10/2026 BBC The air throughout our homes is infused with microplastics. But there are things you can do to breathe less of them - Scientists believe the majority of our exposure to microplastics happens when we're indoors. To solve the microplastic pollution crisis will take a lot more than changes within the home – there are plenty of broader sustainability concerns too. If moving to replace synthetic fibers in your home with natural fibers, for instance, there's also the greater water and land use from organic cotton use to think about. Or if choosing to ventilate your home more to usher away microplastics, that pollution is only being pushed outdoors. Short of systemic change and a global reduction from the 460 million tons of plastic made each year, there's only so much individuals can do. 

4/9/2026 National Parks Traveler Deer Test Positive for Chronic Wasting Disease at Catoctin Mountain Park – We enjoyed Catoctin when we lived in Maryland….I’m sad that the deer there and in nearby parks have tested positive for CWD.

4/08/2026 Smithsonian Magazine See the 2,000-Year-Old Ancient Roman Cargo from an Accidental Shipwreck Discovered at the Bottom of a Lake in Switzerland - Roughly 2,000 years ago, an ancient Roman ship sailed across a large lake in what is now Switzerland, transporting supplies ranging from olive oil to chariot wheels. For some unknown reason, the vessel scattered its cargo across the lakebed. The cargo is in good condition, but researchers are concerned it may become damaged or destroyed by erosion, boat anchors, vandals and looters. As a precautionary measure, they decided to bring the most vulnerable pieces up from the depths.

4/10 2026 Artnet How a Hopi Potter Named Nampeyo Became a 19th-Century Art Star - Born in 1859 in the village of Hano, a Tewa village on First Mesa, in modern-day Arizona, Nampeyo (1859–1942) is believed to have learned the art of pottery making from her paternal grandmother. By the 1870s, Nampeyo was selling her works at trading posts throughout the region. Nampeyo’s legacy is a complex one, shaped by ancestry, archaeology, and the shifting trade systems of the still-expanding United States as it entered the 20th century.

4/11/2026 Science Daily Unusual airborne toxin detected in the U.S. for the first time - Scientists searching for air pollution clues stumbled onto something unexpected: toxic MCCPs drifting through the air for the first time in the Western Hemisphere. Although these pollutants have previously been detected in places like Antarctica and Asia, scientists had struggled to measure them in the air over the Western Hemisphere until this study. These chemicals are commonly used in industrial processes, including metalworking fluids and the production of PVC and textiles. They frequently appear in wastewater and can end up in biosolid fertilizer, also called sewage sludge, which is produced during wastewater treatment. The researchers believe the MCCPs they detected in Oklahoma likely originated from nearby fields where this type of fertilizer had been applied.

4/8/2026 My Modert Met Winners of the Scottish Nature Photography Awards 2025 Celebrate Scotland’s Wild Beauty - The winning photos span 10 primary categories, including Environmental, Natural Abstract, Scottish Botanical, and Scottish Wildlife Portrait, among others. I appreciated the beauty among so many other blog posts that were somber….depressing.

4/3/2026 NWF Blog How to Grow More - Conservation outreach professionals are tasked with the challenge of not only clearly explaining conservation programs but also personally connecting with farmers. This combination of technical skills and personal communication skills is rare, since the skills are seldom taught in school and professional development opportunities are uncommon or unsupported.

4/3/2026 The Conversation Toxic dust from California’s shrinking Salton Sea is harming children’s lung growth - As the lake shrinks, wind blowing across the exposed lake bed kicks up toxic dust left by years of agriculture chemicals and metals washing into the lake. That dust makes its way into the lungs of the children of the Imperial Valley. The study began to show that higher levels of dust exposure, especially among those children living closer to the sea, are linked to poorer lung function, as well as reductions in children’s lung growth over time. Reduced lung function increases the risk for chronic respiratory disease, such as COPD, or more frequent respiratory infections, such as pneumonia, as adults.

3/19/2026 Mongabay Should potentially harmful chemicals be appraised by class, not one at a time? - Some scientists and health advocates are pushing for a “Six Classes” framework that evaluates entire groups of chemicals, or chemically related subgroups, together, flagging them for scrutiny before harm is documented rather than after. The framework targets six broad categories of chemicals that share many common traits: PFAS (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances), flame retardants, phthalates and bisphenols, antimicrobials, certain solvents, and certain metals.

Plastic Crisis – The Plastic Detox

The Plastic Detox (trailer) is a documentary that was released by Netflix on March 16th. This documentary follows the research of Dr. Swan and other experts in the field, covering the impact on human development and showing how we can take matters into our own hands. It’s so easy for the microplastics conversation to be doom and gloom ---- this movie hints at a path forward…a hopeful component even while we acknowledge that there is a lot that needs to be done.

As a Missouri Master Naturalist, I am concerned of the degradation of the environment for wildlife (plants and animals) by plastics. The documentation of plastic impact on human health has a huge audience…and I am hopeful that some of the actions we take to detox for ourselves helps the larger environment as well.

The movie is well-timed for the outreach work the Beyond Plastics Ozarks (the local group of Beyond Plastics that I am part of) will be doing in the next few months! Many people will watch it on their own…and we might plan showing/discussion group sessions several times this year.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 07, 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.

2/20/2026 BBC How ultra-processed foods affect our gut microbiome - The additives added to processed food to keep it fresher for longer might be having an unexpected effect on the health of the microbes in our guts. Research carried out on both animals and humans appears to pinpoint a direct link between emulsifiers and ill health. One French study of more than 100,000 adults in 2024 found those who were more exposed to emulsifiers had a greater risk of type 2 diabetes. Another study of more than 90,000 adults found a potential link between emulsifiers and breast and prostate cancers.

2/20/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Researchers Retrieve the Deepest-Ever Rock Core from Beneath Antarctica’s Ice. It Holds Clues About the Earth’s Past—and Future - The 748-foot-long sediment core contains a record of roughly the past 23 million years, including periods when the planet’s surface temperature was hotter than it is today.

2/20/2026 National Parks Traveler Tidal Basin Gets Hundreds of New Cherry Trees - Paid for by a generous donation from the nation of Japan, the trees represent the most recent chapter in this remarkable cultural exchange dating back to Japan's original gift of cherry trees in 1912.

2/19/2026 Science Daily New sodium ion battery stores twice the energy and desalinates seawater - Being able to use sodium vanadate hydrate in salt water is a really exciting discovery, as it shows sodium-ion batteries could do more than just store energy -- they could also help remove salt from water. In the long term, that means we might be able to design systems that use seawater as a completely safe, free and abundant electrolyte, while also producing fresh water as part of the process.

2/18/2026 The Guardian Hazardous substances found in all headphones tested by ToxFREE project - Bisphenol A (BPA) appeared in 98% of samples, and its substitute, bisphenol S (BPS), was found in more than three-quarters. Synthetic chemicals used to stiffen plastic, BPA and BPS mimic the action of estrogen inside organisms, causing a range of adverse effects including the feminization of males, early onset puberty in girls, and cancer. Previous studies have shown that bisphenols can migrate from synthetic materials into sweat, and that they can be absorbed through the skin. Given the prolonged skin contact associated with headphone use, dermal exposure represents a relevant pathway, and it is reasonable to assume that similar migration of BPA and its substitutes may occur from headphone components directly to the user’s skin.

2/17/2026 The Conversation Air pollution may directly contribute to Alzheimer’s disease – U.S. researchers tracked nearly 28 million older adults over six years nationwide. They found that those exposed to higher levels of fine particulate air pollution were more likely to develop Alzheimer’s. The US study used Medicare insurance claims to confirm Alzheimer’s diagnoses and area data by postcode for fine particle pollution levels. It also looked at other factors that could explain the link, such as the proportion of smokers or overweight people living in more or less polluted areas.

1/15/2026 Science Daily Scientists question the safety of BPA-free packaging - BPA-free is an incredibly misleading label. It usually means one bisphenol has been swapped for another, and there are more than 200 of them. Some may be just as harmful, or even worse. We need to test these compounds before they're widely adopted, not after.

2/11/2026 Archaeology Magazine What Caused Ancient People to Abandon a Fruitful Bison Hunting Site? - For around 700 years, Native people of the American Great Plains hunted bison at a site in central Montana that archaeologists call Bergstrom. Then, around 1,100 years ago, humans abandoned the site even though bison remained abundant in the area. Researchers discovered that drought caused the water supply to process the animals at the site dried up…forcing the hunters to move away.

2/23/2026 Planetizen California Seals 21 Urban Oil Wells in South LA After Decades of Activism – There are too many stories like this – why do we ever trust the oil companies to not walk way and leave a toxic mess? I’m glad the state is stepping in…but the companies that made money from the site over the years need to be held financially accountable.

2/23/2026 Science Daily Babies exposed to far more “forever chemicals” before birth than scientists knew - By using advanced chemical screening on umbilical cord blood, scientists detected 42 different PFAS compounds, including many that standard tests do not routinely check for. These long lasting chemicals are found in common products like nonstick cookware, food packaging, and stain resistant fabrics, and they can build up in the body over time. The study helps show that prenatal PFAS exposure is more complex and widespread than earlier studies suggested

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 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.

2/2/2026 York Daily Record Mountains of plastic turf in limbo after Pa. recycling project falters - A Danish company's plan to build an artificial turf recycling plant in Pennsylvania has failed due to bankruptcy. The state is now responsible for cleaning up thousands of tons of abandoned turf stockpiled across three counties. The abandoned turf, which may contain "forever chemicals," will now be sent to a landfill instead of being recycled.

2/8/2026 Clean Technica Why China’s Aluminum Industry May Have Reached Peak CO2 - Relocation to hydro regions is largely complete. Secondary aluminum is rising into double digit millions of tons. Coal heavy output has already peaked and begun to edge down. Renewable penetration in coal regions continues to rise. Reversing this trend would require renewed growth in coal-based smelting or a collapse in recycling, neither of which fits China’s industrial or energy trajectory.

2/9/2026 BBC Fungi mining and giant waste piles: How to get rare earths without mining rock -Gigantic heaps of coal ash, mine tailings and red mud are traditionally expensive and difficult to deal with. But if new processes allow rare earth harvesters to engage in remediation while hoovering up rare earths, then industry and environmentalists might no longer be at odds over what to do about all that waste.

2/8/2026 Science Daily Scientists finally solve a 100-year-old mystery in the air we breathe - The new model offers a stronger foundation for understanding how airborne irregularly shaped nanoparticles (like soot, microplastics, viruses) move across a wide range of scientific fields. These include air quality monitoring, climate modeling, nanotechnology, and medicine. The approach could improve predictions of how pollution spreads through cities, how wildfire smoke or volcanic ash travels through the atmosphere, and how engineered nanoparticles behave in industrial and medical applications.

2/6/2026 Archaeology Magazine Aqueduct at Early Italian Villa Explored - Based on the construction method of this hydraulic system, it might have been originally created to serve a rural village predating the construction of the villa, during a period before the Romans had fully solidified their control over this region of Italy.

2/4/2026 Yale Environment 360 Seas to Rise Around the World — but Not in Greenland - The reasons are twofold. 1)  the massive Greenland ice sheet, which at its center is roughly a mile thick, compresses the land underneath. As the ice melts, the land rebounds, rising above the sea. 2) the Greenland ice sheet is so large that it exerts a gravitational pull on surrounding waters, drawing them higher. But in a warming Arctic, Greenland is shedding some 200 billion tons of ice a year. As its gravitational pull wanes, waters recede.

2/5/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Air Pollution Can Cause Some Ants to Turn on One Another—and Neglect Their Young - As insect populations decline around the world, the findings further point to air pollutants as a possible cause, in addition to pesticides, light pollution and other factors. The work is especially important given the crucial role ants play in maintaining healthy habitats, such as dispersing seeds, controlling pests and aerating soil.

2/4/2025 Cool Green Science Reading the Tree Rings – Great photographs by Greg Kahn for this article. One of the labs visited for the article was the Laboratory of Tree-Ring Research at the University of Arizona that I visited when my daughter was a graduate student in Tucson in 2015 (my blog post about it here).

2/4/2026 Compound Interest World Cancer Day: How antibody–drug conjugates for cancer work - Our ability to use medicines to target more effectively is improving, and antibody–drug conjugates are an increasingly effective tool in combating cancers. This graphic explains what they are, how they work, and how they might improve in the future.

2/4/2026 National Parks Traveler Florida’s Ailing Reef - The reef is fighting for its very survival, beset by the trauma of climate change and warming water, commercial and recreational fishing, and drainage pollution coming from Florida’s canal system.

Air quality

I’ve been noticing that the air quality where I live (as reported in The Weather Channel app) has not been good during the recent cold weather. The primary pollutant is always Micro Dust/PM2.5. Since transportation sources of pollution (cars, trucks) are, if anything, a little lower during cold and snowy weather – I am assuming that the uptick is from the electricity generating coal plant or wood burning stoves/fireplaces.

I notice that my eyes are the first to register air quality issues. They start to itch or feel gritty – not as bad as a floating eyelash but not comfortable. Saline drops help but time consuming to do frequently. I find myself just forging ahead with my eyes itching and trying not to rub them. Recently I have been wondering if some of my ‘allergies’ (runny nose and sneezing that comes and goes over the course of the day) are PM2.5 related rather than pollen since there isn’t pollen in the air in winter.

If the day is orange – like shown in the screen shot – I try to stay indoors with the filters of my HVAC and some room air purifiers between me and the ‘bad air.’ That is possible for me most of the time since I am a post-career person. I do sometimes have things I do away from home, but they are mostly indoors this time of year and presumably well filtered/ventilated. I am a little anxious about some ‘winter wellness’ hikes I have planned…hoping that the air quality will be ‘green’ when those occur.

I enjoy being outdoors and realize that air quality will impact when I will be comfortable as time goes on (i.e. air quality will deteriorate since there is less being done right not to reverse the trend). Working in my yard won’t be impacted too much since I can simply check the air quality and only go out when it is ‘green.’ I hope I can get through a few more years of volunteering in the Butterfly House at the Springfield Botanical Garden during the summer months; signing up for shifts is done well in advance and the air quality could be problematic when the day arrives…I want to be a dependable volunteer but do I go even if the air quality is poor?

The air quality in Lewisville TX (where I go monthly to visit my dad) is considerably worse than in Springfield MO. This winter it has been orange or red most of the times I’ve been in the area. It’s been too cold to take Dad for a walk outside – and I will always check the air quality before taking him for an outdoor walk even when the weather is pleasant again. There are times that Oklahoma smells smokey (grass fires or power plants?) as I drive through. I am adding a small air purifier to the inside of the car and not doing a lot outdoors when I am there unless I check and the air quality happens to be ‘green.’

I find myself wondering what contributes to the air quality being ‘not green,’ but it is hard to tease out that information. The measurement just reports how much PM2.5 there is. I hope that some organization begins to make the contributors more visible to the public (and it would be great if The Weather Channel added that info in their app). Would it spur more people to push for changes to utilities….to retire coal burning plants a quickly as possible?

Note: To find the hourly air quality forecast on The Weather Channel App, scroll down on the Home screen to find the Allergies – Breathing – Cold & Flu block and select ‘Breathing.’ Scroll down to see the Air Quality Forecast.

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.

Plastics Crisis – The Personal Economics of Less Plastics

I’ve been making changes over the past months to reduce plastic around my house enough that I am now thinking about the benefits we are observing.

Our transition to bar soaps for showers and hand-washing costs less than the myriad of plastic bottled products…and both my husband and I have noticed skin improvements (less itching, less dry skin).

My electric tea kettle (only glass or stainless surfaces touching the water) is better than I imaged it would be – much better for making tea than the old coffee maker (that had a lot of plastic parts). I discovered that our water has enough minerals that the tea kettle developed scale quickly; putting a little lemon juice in the water (i.e. acid) solved the problem. I am using tea bags that are supposedly free of plastic glue but am considering cutting them open and using the tea leaves only. The tea makes it easier for me to cut back on soft drinks too! From a cost standpoint it is about the same as buying a new coffee maker.

I replaced all my plastic leftover and storage containers for food with glass (even though they have plastic lids….I don’t overfill the containers so that food never touches the plastic). The food is preserved as well as before and I find myself also using the containers for some items I previously put in Ziplocs (i.e. plastic) – like cranberries I am freezing and carrots I am taking with me for snacks on road trips. When I can’t buy a veggie except in a plastic bag (like carrots), I am starting to put them in a glass container when I get home from the store with the idea that the longer the carrots are in the plastic bag, the more microplastics they have on/in them. I also like that the glass dries better in my dishwasher!

The Rorra water filter is working well for us. We use it for drinking and cooking and the water fountain for the cats. There is no reason for us to buy bottled water any more. Of course – the Rorra and replacement filters cost something, but we are comfortable with our water at this point.

We replaced the type of humidifier we had with ones that use evaporation rather than creating a mist. This winter our house has about the same humidity level but without the white dust (and microplastics) the mist humidifiers created. Our air purifiers rarely go into ‘high’ mode now whereas last year they did any time we had them on near a humidifier.

Even though I have cut back on soft drinks, I still drink them occasionally….but they are in cans rather than plastic bottles. We have very few plastic bottles in our recycle. We have stopped putting some plastics in recycle even though our curbside service accepts them since we are aware that the materials rarely get recycled; even the milk and soft drink bottles/jugs (which are the most frequently recycled plastics) often end up in landfills…so it is good that we simply buy less in those containers these days.

I have stopped buying salad dressing since it is almost always in a plastic bottle. I am making my own. My favorite right now is a lemon ginger vinaigrette! It costs less and I make only what I need at the time.

I am going to start buying olive oil in glass rather than plastic as soon as I use up what I have. It will be more expensive, but I use it slowly, so I don’t need to buy a large container. I might have to buy it somewhere other than my usual grocery store just as I do my lemon juice(in a glass bottle).

I am buying fruits and veggies that are not packaged when I can - which means that I don’t buy arugula like before. I skew toward cabbage and squash and peppers and cucumbers and broccoli. In the summer I’ll eat violet leaves from my yard! The apples and pears and lemons I buy are not packaged; I do buy organic oranges in a mesh bag because that is the only way they come (and I give my daughter half of them). I take them out of the packaging as soon as I get them home.

In summary – I’ve made some investments (Rorra, glass containers, tea kettle, humidifier, a ladle to replace a plastic one) that are working well for us. They were not too expensive, and they will last a long time. On a week-to-week basis – costs have probably gone down by a little – no plastic water bottles of water, body wash, or hand soap…and less soft drinks overall.

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?

Plastics Crisis – Black Friday Purchases

I did my black Friday shopping online this year…and it all involved reducing plastic at my house!

I bought three stainless steel mixing bowls with handles (replacing plastic mixing bowls), a shampoo bar (to replace plastic bottles of shampoo), and replacement filters for my air purifiers that I have in my office and bedroom (get microplastics out of the air).

Those purchases were small compared to the Rorra Countertop System for water filtration. I have been using a Brita Elite filtration system for the past few years, but the filter housing and the pitcher is plastic, and I was never quite sure how much of the microplastics/‘forever’ chemicals the filter removed; I did discover that I like drinking filtered water all the time…I can taste the difference. The testing for the Rorra is impressive and I am looking forward to having it on my countertop and not lifting any big pitcher; I can use the sprayer at my sink to get the water into the system to be filtered.

…Now to take the boxes of plastic stuff to Goodwill. I feel a little guilty because I really don’t want this plastic around at all – but maybe it is better to not send it to the landfill.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 15, 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.

Inflammation Starts Long Before the Pain in Rheumatoid Arthritis - Millions of people around the world suffer from rheumatoid arthritis, an autoimmune disorder that causes debilitating joint swelling and pain. New research reveals more early biomarkers for rheumatoid arthritis which may lead to ways to prevent, rather than treat, the disease.

Bottled Water is a Major Source of Microplastics - Nano- and microplastics have been linked in studies to inflammation, immune dysregulation, cardiac events, and metabolic disruptions. Though human data are still emerging, evidence also suggests a connection to respiratory disease, reproductive issues, and even neurotoxicity. 

Traces of Opium Detected on Egyptian Alabastron - Traces of opium have been detected in an ancient Egyptian alabaster vase held in Yale University’s Peabody Museum. It had been previously suggested that such vases held perfumes or cosmetics for royal elites.

Gum disease may quietly damage the brain - Researchers observed that participants with gum disease had significantly more white matter hyperintensities, even after accounting for other risk factors. The findings hint that chronic oral inflammation could subtly impact the brain, especially in older adults.

6 Best Non-Toxic Lunch Boxes That Don’t Shed Microplastics – I am using my glass left-over containers….but I don’t need to carry my lunch every day!

How Air Pollution is Aging People Faster - Long considered mainly a threat to the lungs and heart, air pollution is now emerging as a driver of biological aging at the molecular level. With air pollution’s role in accelerating aging, researchers are exploring interventions ranging from reducing emissions to using protective measures. Alongside identifying the effects of different pollutants, scientists are now investigating the biological mechanisms through which air pollution accelerates aging.

Domestic Solar Manufacturing Booms During Trump Administration with Entire Solar Supply Chain Reshored - New data from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) shows that the entire solar supply chain has been reshored and U.S. manufacturing capacity has grown across every segment of the solar and storage supply chain. With the news of Hemlock’s new ingot and wafer facility coming online in Q3, the United States now has the capacity to produce every major component of the solar supply chain.

Covid 2020: Where cruise ships went to die - Aliağa Ship Breaking Yard in Turkey is the fourth-largest facility in the world for breaking down large ships, and as the effect of cancelled cruises began to bite, it's where many of the cruise companies sent their huge ships to die.

China Has Added Forest the Size of Texas Since 1990 - In many wealthy nations — the U.S., Canada, Russia, and much of Europe — forests are making a comeback, according to the U.N. assessment. As India and China become more developed, they too are seeing forests return. Even as fires and drought destroy some forest, on balance, these countries are adding trees. Over the last three and a half decades China has planted roughly 120 million acres of forest, according to U.N. figures, much of it added to contain the spread of deserts.

How Do Cadaver Dogs Recognize Human Remains? - Someday scientists will understand how cadaver-associated molecules bind to receptors in dog noses and how this binding, in turn, affects the molecules’ structure and chemistry. Knowing the exact stimuli that cadaver dogs pick up may also advance researchers’ efforts in building “electronic noses.” These chemical sensors are not meant to replace cadaver dogs but rather as stand-ins that could go to places that are inaccessible or too dangerous for dogs.

Plastics Crisis: A continuing journey

The past few weeks have been very busy, and I haven’t had time report on my continuing journey.

I attended my first ‘show me less plastics’ bimonthly zoom meeting. Everyone on the call seemed to be in the same initial mode…trying to figure out how to move forward. The largest group was from St. Louis…some from Kansas City and Columbia. There was one other person from Springfield. I will continue to dial into the zoom meetings and use them as a forcing function for myself to have something to report!

CNN did an experiment with three of its reporters (in New York, London, and Hong Kong) wearing chemical-tracking wristbands to find out what kind of chemicals they are exposed to. The video report can be found online - https://www.cnn.com/2025/10/08/climate/video/chemical-monitoring-wristbands-climate-digvid although there is not a lot of detail…it does indicate that people in big cities are probably exposed to a lot of chemicals as they go about their daily lives.

Living near a smaller city (Springfield MO), I do track the air quality. I know that when it is not green, the PM2.5 pollutants are usually the pollutant that is high…and that is made of microplastics and associated chemicals. The air quality where I lived in Maryland (between Baltimore and DC) prior to moving to Springfield was yellow more frequently and, sometimes, even made it to the red level.  So – moving to Springfield probably has reduced my exposure somewhat.

When I had my annual checkup with my doctor, I brought up microplastic exposure and she acknowledged the issue…but didn’t have any specific recommendations about what to do aside from avoiding bottled water and looking hard at getting plastics out of the kitchen, particularly anything that is heated and contacts food.

I have reduced my soft drink consumption to almost zero (avoid plastic bottles) and am drinking more iced tea. But wait….coffee makers (that I was using to make tea) have a lot of plastics and there are plastic fibers in many filters (so they will hold up better) and some tea bags are glued together (a plastic). Obviously there is heat involved in making tea so I changed my process:

• Old Pyrex measuring cup (it was my mother’s and the markings are almost worn off)

• Cut open the tea bag and empty the contents into the water

• Heat in the microwave

• Strain the tea leaves with a metal strainer

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It’s becoming a good routine….and I am aware that making tea is becoming a ritual rather than just a routine because of the old Pyrex. It could be almost as old as I am!

One thing I am noticing…my trash and recycle are trending downward…not as much in the bins. That’s a good thing!

Previous Plastic Crisis posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 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.

Flamingos reveal their secret to staying young - A decades-long study in France reveals that resident flamingos, which stay put, enjoy early-life advantages but pay later with accelerated aging, while migratory flamingos endure early hardships yet age more slowly. This surprising link between movement and longevity challenges old assumptions and offers new insights into the science of aging.

‘Montana Miracle:’ The State Actually Succeeding at Housing Reform - In 2023, Montana passed a series of state laws aimed at increasing housing construction that included allowing ADUs and legalizing multifamily housing in commercial zones. This year, the legislature doubled down, expanding on the 2023 law and eliminating parking requirements for most units in the state’s 10 largest cities. A new law also eases permitting for manufactured home parks to eliminate the need for a subdivision review when these parks are not subdivided into private lots. Another allows single-staircase buildings up to six stories, making it easier to build denser buildings on smaller lots.

Photographers Capture Underground Pools and Passages of Lechuguilla Cave in New Mexico - So far, 150 miles of Lechuguilla Cave have been explored. With every new survey, the cave offers new insights as to how underground chambers like these are formed and the microbial beings found there. Its beauty earned the entire Carlsbad Cavern National Park the title of a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1995. But due to its complexity, entrance is limited, with the NPS restricting explorations to highly trained speleologists with pre-approved plans.

Plastic Free Water Filters: Can We Find Water Purifiers without Plastic? – My daughter and I are looking to upgrade our water filters. I hope the water filter technology improves with emphasis on reducing microplastics in water.

Inside Ukrainian Artist Dmitry Oleyn’s Sculptural Approach to Landscape Painting - Rather than use the traditional approach that embraces the flatness of the canvas, the artist instead builds his pigments so there is an element of bas-relief, leaving the surface rugged and with a marked sense of tactility from the artist’s hand. When they are displayed, the irregular surface casts shadows, which when viewed against the painted shadows, is especially intriguing; it also creates a degree of mutability, as depending on the time of day and where the paintings are hung, the lighting of the space dialogues with the work both physically and compositionally.

Photography In the National Parks: Mesa Verde Revisited – I’ve been to Mesa Verde once….back in the 1970s. This article reminded me that I want to go again.

Map Reveals Toxic Pollution Leaking from U.S. Drilling Sites - Scientists have shown that U.S. oil and gas drilling sites are not just leaking methane but also a host of toxic chemicals that pose an urgent threat to the health of those living nearby. A new interactive map details the impact of hundreds of major leaks. At nearly every oil and gas site, leaks also produced benzene, a known carcinogen, as well as other chemicals that have been shown to harm bone marrow, weaken the immune system, impair the nervous system, as well as cause headaches, dizziness, vomiting, and fatigue. Is the fossil fuel industry so arrogant that they don’t care that they are spewing poison (some of which could be used for fuels and other industrial purposes if captured) that negatively impact the health of people and other life?

World’s Tallest Douglas Fir Tree Damaged in Mysterious, Multi-Day Blaze, but It’s Alive After Firefighters Extinguish Flames – It burned from August 16 to August 21. The tree is estimated to be around 450 years old and has a diameter of 11.5 feet. It no longer holds the title of the tallest Douglas fir in the world. However, officials are hopeful the old tree will rebound from the damage wrought by the fire. It’s possible the fir will even grow a new crown.

Six tips from the Middle Ages on how to beat the summer heat – Save the ideas for next summer: work flexibly, wear the right hat, eat to lower body temperature, try wild swimming, use aftersun, or flee.

8 Hints to Reduce Your Food Footprint - You can make food decisions today that change your food footprint. Eight ways you can reduce your food footprint so it’s more environmentally food-friendly: limit ultra-processed foods, curb waste, eat a primarily plant based diet, buy local, compost your food scraps, avoid plastic food packaging (sometimes difficult to do), lose the gas stove, call out Big Ag for its polluting practices.

Plastics Crisis: As an Individual

We cannot eliminate micro and nano plastics from our lives. They are in the air we breathe, the water we drink, the food we eat, and the toiletries we use. They are in us – our lungs, our heart, our kidneys, or brain…everywhere. The impact on our health is something that develops over long exposure/accumulation; research studies are just now beginning to clarify their impact. It is possible to reduce our exposure, and we probably need to do what we can to stay healthy as long as possible. This post is about my initial strategy to reduce micro and nano plastic exposure for myself and my family.

Air

The air purifiers that we bought during the COVID-19 pandemic are still running in our bedroom and my office. They help with seasonal allergies and take out some of the plastics in the air.

I try to reduce time outdoors when the air quality is yellow and avoid going outside if the air quality is red. The PM2.5 (Particulate matter less than 2.5 microns) is almost always the major contributor to the air quality ‘color’ in the area where I live and it includes microplastics. It might not be counting nano-plastics effectively and there are probably some in the air; those are the plastics small enough to move through capillaries in our bodies; hopefully these smaller particles will start being monitored more effectively.

Water

I currently filter the water we drink with Brita Elite water pitchers. They get some of the plastics out of our water. My daughter and I are talking about upgrading…perhaps all the way to reverse osmosis filtration. I have a glass carafe for filtered water in the bathroom since I am always thirsty when I first get up.

We always carry stainless steel water bottles with us when we are out and about. When we leave home they contain filtered water.

On overnight trips, we are taking a filtration pitcher with us so that we can easily refill our water bottles with filtered water. If we need to buy something to drink, we strive to buy it in a can, glass, or paper container….but sometimes that is difficult. I am tempted to ask if I can buy a drink but use my refillable stainless steel container rather than a Styrofoam or plastic cup.

We try to avoid plastic water bottles completely. The plastic sluffs off microplastics – particularly if the bottle has ever been warm.

We don’t use plastic glasses at home…and don’t eat out frequently except when we travel.

Food

Micro plastics are often found in soil and can be absorbed by plants as they grow so they can be in the veggies and fruit we eat, and they accumulate in the animals that provide meat that we eat. Organic foods will have microplastics too; they might even have more plastic since organic farms sometimes use plastic sheeting to avoid the need for chemical weed control and to conserve water around the base of plants. There is not much that can be done to reduce the microplastics that are integrated into our food in this way.

Packaging is another way microplastics can be incorporated into food and there are actions that can be taken to reduce this source of microplastics.

• Buy fresh fruits and vegetables unpackaged. Use reusable produce bags. Don’t store them in the bags either – particularly if the bags are a synthetic fabric.

• Buy in glass rather than plastic jars and bottles. Prioritize fatty and acidic foods to buy in glass if you are on a budget. Peanut butter and olive oil are examples of fatty foods. Lemon juice, soft drinks (not a health food ever but even less healthy in plastic), spaghetti sauce, and salad dressing/vinegars are examples of acidic foods. Sometimes this is difficult since some stores only carry the commodity in plastic packaging.

• Meats are almost always packaged in plastic now, so it is almost impossible to avoid. I buy some meats frozen so that the plastic is not closely touching the food and when there is a canned version (canned chicken, canned chili, canned tamales), I take that option sometimes.

• Consider making some condiments from scratch (salad dressing, marinade). I already make my own marinade with basaltic vinegar and olive oil. I am going to experiment with making salad dressing so that I can forego buying it pre-made in a plastic bottle.  

• Avoid plastic bags of things like popcorn (I rarely use the pre-packaged microwave popcorn), pumpkin seeds, or beans. Buy them in bulk (often you can use produce bags to get them from the store to home) and load up glass or metal canisters once  at home. Frequenting a store with a bulk food section will be a continuing experiment for me…the goal will be to reduce plastic containers touching food in my home.

• Store leftovers in and eat from  glass or ceramic or stainless steel rather than plastic. Use stainless steel or wooden utensils. My cutting board is bamboo.

• Cook in stainless steel – uncoated – pans.

• Don’t heat or reheat food in plastic. Glass or ceramic always.

• Buy eggs in pulp paper cartons rather than Styrofoam or plastic cartons. The eggs probably don’t get much microplastic from their container, but the pulp paper is generally the superior carton, and, like all the above measures, it reduces the plastic trash/recycle load to the environment.

Toiletries

Some plastic is small enough to be absorbed through the skin. There are two sources of plastics in toiletries: packaging and ingredients.

I try to buy cosmetics in glass. Usually this is possible for moisturizers and foundation makeup. There don’t seem to be good alternatives to plastic packaging for most items like shampoo, toothpaste, lotion, lipstick, or lip balm. I have started using bar soap which usually comes in paper wrapping or a box for hand washing and in the shower.

The ingredients in many cosmetics are sometimes microplastics or contain the same chemicals as microplastics. It’s very confusing…I don’t have a good strategy yet to fully understand the risk or how to avoid the worst offenders. I do realize that fewer ingredients is generally better and that maybe some ‘make your own’ would be better (for example, a water – glycerin – essential oil mixture in a glass bottle might be a good replacement for setting spray).

Previous Plastic Crisis posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending May 03, 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.

Foraging Violets – I have a lot of violets growing in my yard…and I am going to start harvesting them for salads. Why buy fresh greens when there is such a plentiful supply that I can pick just before I eat them?

The Unexpected Science of Staying Happy – An article about the World Happiness Report. The U.S., Canada, and Switzerland—all once top 10 contenders—have dropped out of the top 20 for the first time since the report began. That decline is linked to a drop in social trust and a rise in what researchers call “deaths of despair,” especially among men over 60​.

The 120-Year-Old Tiny Home Villages That Sheltered San Francisco’s Earthquake Refugees – A different perspective on history….more substantial than tents.

Exquisite Street Photography Celebrates the Different Moods of New York City at Night – More umbrellas than I expected.

Emily Cole, Daughter of Hudson River School Icon, Shines in Overdue Museum Show – She became a porcelain painter (botanicals) and painted in her father’s studio…. exhibiting her work a what is now the Thomas Cole National Historic Site.

Relics of a Red World in Bighorn Basin – Satellite image of “red beds” in northern Wyoming and Southern Montana formed when the land was part of Pangea and there were extreme wet/dry seasons causing hematite in the rocks to oxidize (rust). The area is rich in fossils and oil/gas reserves.

Tree Rings Bear Witness to Illegal Gold Mining Operations in the Amazon, New Study Finds – The miners use liquid mercury which is then burned to obtain the gold….releasing toxic mercury into the air. Core samples from trunks of fig trees show the mercury levels…when they ramped up and how substantial they were/are.

Smoke from US wildfires, prescribed burns caused premature deaths, billions in health damages - Researchers estimated that smoke from wildfires and prescribed burns caused $200 billion in health damages in 2017, and that these were associated with 20,000 premature deaths. Senior citizens were harmed the most.

Check Out the First Confirmed Footage of the Colossal Squid, a Rare and Enigmatic Deep-Sea Species – This was a young one….only a foot lot. They can grow to be 23 feet long

The Only Ancient Greek Theater on the Ionian Islands Is Finally Unearthed – It was discovered in 1901 but was reburied after their survey…and olive groves and makeshift warehouses eventually covered the site. The site was abandoned during the reign of Roman Emperor Augustus.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 22, 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.

In This Storied Egyptian City, Rising Seas are Causing Buildings to Crumble – Alexandria, Egypt. Since 2001, 290 building have collapsed as the rising water table weakens soil and erodes foundations. There are other historic coastal cities with the same problem.

Astronomers Discover 128 New Moons Orbiting Saturn, Cementing the Planet’s Title of ‘Moon King’ – The total number of moons of Saturn is now 274….almost twice as many as all the rest of the moons in our solar system combined.

Microplastics could be fueling antibiotic resistance - Microplastics -- tiny shards of plastic debris -- are all over the planet. They have made their way up food chains, accumulated in oceans, clustered in clouds and on mountains, and been found inside our bodies at alarming rates. Scientists have been racing to uncover the unforeseen impacts of so much plastic in and around us. One recent discovery: bacteria exposed to microplastics became resistant to multiple types of antibiotics commonly used to treat infections. They say this is especially concerning for people in high-density, impoverished areas like refugee settlements, where discarded plastic piles up and bacterial infections spread easily.

How the Development of the Camera Changed Our World - From glass plates to paper prints to digital photograph imaging, the photo revolution's intention remains the same—to immortalize our world.

Alphonse Mucha Helped Define Art Nouveau. A New Show Explores His Lasting Influence – Mucha was undeniably revered in his day, when his posters and advertisements were widely disseminated. His posters lined the streets, and his illustrations graced the covers of major magazines. And to feed the public demand for his work, Mucha even produced smaller posters printed in publications, allowing people to bring his ornately detailed lithographs home without having to rely on the luck of finding one in the wild. The special exhibit will be at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri, April 11–August 30, 2026….maybe I will plan a road trip for next spring!

'You look up and see light coming through': The divers venturing under the ice in the name of science - In a remote corner of Lapland, northern Finland…a lake with 28 in. layer of ice with a hole cut in it. Divers are tethered to the surface using a safety rope, with a handler on the surface communicating with the diver via rope signals. The training here on the frozen lake is practice for work that will be done out on the sea ice of the Arctic and Antarctic, where there are added dangers – large seals sometimes gather at the dive holes, preventing divers from leaving the water. In 2017, Alf Norkko, a professor of marine research at the University of Helsinki, and his team discovered big changes on the seafloor under Antarctic sea ice since their previous diving expedition in the same area in 2009.  "There was a remarkable increase in the abundance of life," he says. Norkko says that he and his fellow scientists are so dedicated to this work because they are aware of the urgency of climate change. At present, there is a race afoot to understand it, and to respond to it.

Grave of Roman Twins Excavated in Croatia – Twins that died between birth and 2 months…placed face to face. Suffered malnutrition before birth. Infant mortality was as high as 30% in Roman societies.

Particulate matter levels in air exceed WHO limits in majority of world's big cities - Fewer than one in five global cities met World Health Organization air pollution standards (for PM2.5) in 2024 with Central and South Asia accounting for the nine most polluted metropolitan areas on Earth. Los Angeles and Ontario, California are the most polluted in the US.  Mayaguez, Puerto Rico had the cleanest air of any metro area around the world. Man-made activities such as fossil fuel burning for transportation, generating electricity and domestic heating, industrial processes, fireworks and smoking were the largest sources of pollutant PM2.5, but that natural sources including wildfires, dust, pollen and dirt also contributed to particulate loads in the air.

China’s First Domestic Cats Took the Silk Road 1,400 Years Ago, New Study Finds - The Tang Dynasty (618–907 C.E.), from which the oldest cat in the study hails, saw peak activity along the legendary trade network, which boosted the exchange of goods and ideas between China, India, and Persia. It’s not improbable that merchants from the West could have carried cats on their journey to East Asia.

Can Toxic Mining Waste Help Remove CO2 from the Atmosphere? - On the coast of Newfoundland, waste from a shuttered asbestos mine has been a troubling source of contamination for decades. Now, a company plans to process the waste to draw CO2 from the air — one of several projects worldwide that aim to turn this liability into an asset. A 2022 report by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory estimated that existing asbestos tailings in Canada and the United States could remove up to 750 million tons of CO2 in total — while also removing an environmental health hazard.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 1, 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.

Scientists Investigate Smell of Egyptian Mummies – A systematic study of the smells of 9 Ancient Egyptian mummified bodies. Odors are from pine, cedar, juniper, frankincense and myrrh.

'Healthy' vitamin B12 levels not enough to ward off neuro decline – The conclusion: “we need to invest in more research about the underlying biology of B12 insufficiency, since it may be a preventable cause of cognitive decline.”

Rethinking Fire-Resistant Landscaping: Which Trees Should We Plant? – After the recent wildfires across Southern California - Experts recommend replacing highly flammable trees with fire-resistant alternatives such as oak, sycamore, toyon, lemonade berry, and lilac. While the idea of removing iconic palm trees may be met with resistance, fire safety advocates argue that proactive changes in landscaping are necessary to adapt to the increasing wildfire risks in California.

Floods Swamp Tennessee – Satellite image from February 17 of the flooding after the February 15-16 storm. The area of western Kentucky to the north had more severe flooding….but clouds prevented a similar image on the 17th.

Learn COVID pandemic lessons — before it’s too late - “The science will deliver if we have a new emerging infectious disease,” says Joanne Liu, a pediatric emergency-medicine specialist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, and a former international president of the medical-aid organization Médecins Sans Frontières (also known as Doctors Without Borders). “I think it will be the people who aren’t going to deliver…..None of us thought about the case scenario in which we would have leaders and a large part of the population that do not believe in science.” Yet that scenario is here. It means that researchers in public health and infectious diseases must work closely with social scientists who have been studying how another disease — misinformation — spreads and how best to counter it.

In many countries, people breathe the cleanest air in centuries. What can the rest of the world learn from this? – Lots of graphs….focused on sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxide emissions….and the relationship to coal and catalytic converters.

The Science of Snakehead Slime - One of this fish’s most reported habits is its ability to move about on land. The answer, according to new research, may lie at least in part with another of the snakehead’s infamous features: its slime.

Wide-Eyed Fly Wins the 2024 Royal Entomological Society Photography Competition – Macro photography of insects…great work my amateur photographers. My favorite was the ladybird larva feeding on a colony of aphids.

How much protein do you really need to get strong? – A concerning take away: In 2018, a nonprofit group called the Clean Label Project, based in Broomfield, Colorado, released a report about toxins in popular brands of protein powders in the US. Researchers screened 134 products for 130 types of toxins and found that many protein powders contained heavy metals (lead, arsenic, cadmium and mercury), bisphenol-A (or BPA, which is used to manufacture plastic), pesticides, or other contaminants with links to cancer and other health conditions. Interestingly, one certified "organic" product had twice the contaminants of non-certified ones. Plant-based protein powders were the most contaminated, while egg and whey-based powders were found to be the cleanest.

Dust from Car Brakes More Harmful than Exhaust – Brake dust evidently causes greater injury to lung cells than diesel exhaust. Brake pads on the market now include copper which can aggravate asthma when inhaled. Note: the shift to electric vehicles could curb pollution from brake pads. Most electric cars use regenerative braking that limits the need for conventional brake pads.