Gleanings of the Week Ending November 8, 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.

Childhood Exposure to Plastic Raises Lifetime Health Risks - Scientists analyzed decades of research into the impact on pregnant mothers, fetuses, and children of three chemical additives — phthalates, bisphenols, and perfluoroalkyl substances — that make plastic more flexible, more rigid, or more resistant to heat or water. Early exposure to these chemicals can leave children at greater risk of heart disease, obesity, infertility, and asthma well into adolescence and adulthood. Plastic additives are also believed to affect the development of the brain, with studies linking the chemicals to lower IQ, ADHD, and autism. The widespread use of plastic is exacting a deepening toll, with Americans paying an estimated $250 billion yearly to treat ailments linked to plastic.

Scientists Resurrect 40,000-Year-Old Microbes from Alaskan Permafrost. What They Found Raised Worries About the Future of a Warming Arctic - Roughly 40,000 years ago, microbes went dormant in a rock-like layer of frozen soil near the future site of Fairbanks, Alaska. Now, researchers have successfully “reawakened” the tiny creatures, raising concerns about how those microbes could increase greenhouse gas emissions in a warming Arctic.

The Butterflies of Marinduque: Small Wings, Big Changes - Marinduque supplies about 85% of the Philippine’s butterfly pupae exports. Beyond trade, butterflies have become symbols of livelihood, culture, and conservation for the island.

A simple fatty acid could restore failing vision - Retinal polyunsaturated fatty acid supplementation reverses aging-related vision decline in mice….and systemic lipid supplementation could potentially counteract the effects of age on the immune system. But will in work in humans…that’s still TBD.

Is it possible to lose weight on an 'Ozempic' diet? – Study findings suggest that there's some kind of mechanism we can tap into to restore healthy eating without drugs by limiting the sense of reward and achieving a sense of satisfaction without overeating.

This Chilling Recording Reveals Large Bats Catching, Killing and Eating Birds Midflight – How the greater noctule bat, the largest bat species in Europe, catches and eats its prey.

Fentanyl overdoses among seniors surge 9,000% — A hidden crisis few saw coming - Fatal overdoses among adults 65 and older involving fentanyl mixed with stimulants such as cocaine and methamphetamines have risen dramatically, climbing 9,000% in the past eight years. The rate now mirrors that seen in younger adults. The rise in fentanyl deaths involving stimulants in older adults began to sharply rise in 2020, while deaths linked to other substances stayed the same or declined. Cocaine and methamphetamines were the most common stimulants paired with fentanyl among the older adults studied, surpassing alcohol, heroin, and benzodiazepines such as Xanax and Valium.

Billions of bacteria lurk in your shower, just waiting to spray you in the face - should you be worried? - For most people the risk of catching a bug from your shower head is low, particularly if you are using it frequently. Running the shower for 60-90 seconds, allowing it warm up before stepping under the spray, also means it is also doing some useful work in that time, flushing out many of the microbes. This is particularly advisable after a holiday or any long gap between using the shower. Regular cleaning by running very hot water through the shower, along with descaling your shower head or soaking it in lemon juice can help to disrupt the microbes living there and control the size of biofilms.

Dolphins may be getting Alzheimer’s from toxic ocean blooms - Dolphins washing up on Florida’s shores may be victims of the same kind of brain degeneration seen in humans with Alzheimer’s disease. Researchers discovered that cyanobacterial toxins—worsened by climate change and nutrient pollution—accumulate in marine food chains, damaging dolphin brains with misfolded proteins and Alzheimer’s-like pathology. Since dolphins are considered environmental sentinels for toxic exposures in marine environments there are concerns about human health issues associated with cyanobacterial blooms. In 2024, Miami Dade County had the highest prevalence of Alzheimer's disease in the United States.

Nigeria, a Major Oil Producer, Sees Beginnings of a Solar Boom - For Nigerians, the cost savings from ditching diesel mean that a solar panel pays for itself within six months. Homeowners who can afford the up-front costs are installing rooftop solar in large numbers, while some villages are setting up community solar and battery projects. Solar is making huge gains in Nigeria, with imports of Chinese solar panels growing by two-thirds between June 2024 and June 2025. n Pakistan, high fuel prices, a byproduct of the Ukraine war and the loss of a fuel subsidy, have spurred the mass adoption of solar.

Stunning Microscope Videos Highlight Self-Pollination, Algae and Tumor Cells in the Nikon Small World in Motion Contest – The first and fifth were my favorites of these short videos.

Gleanings of the Week Ending November 09, 2024

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.

Old Growth – Mitch Epstein photographs of very old trees.

The true story of a famed librarian and the secret she guarded closely – Belle da Costa Greene, the first director of New York's historic Morgan Library and Museum.

Inside Turkey’s Mysterious Ancient City That Once Sheltered Thousands—Underground - The Derinkuyu underground city is a sort of gargantuan anthill, except made by and for humans—up to 20,000 of them at a time, in fact. The city descends 280 feet into the earth, divided into eight levels. Upper levels were primarily used for living and sleeping, while lower levels were used for storage, even housing a dungeon. The far-stretched system of interconnected rooms was carved out of the Cappadocia region’s tuff rock. People didn’t live in these underground quarters year-round, however, as they were mainly used for shelter during times of conflict or extreme weather.

Climate change will affect food production, but here are the things we can do to adapt - Farmers can pick crop varieties best suited to different climate condition...production can shift to places with more optimal temperatures…planting and harvest times can shift as the seasons shift…focusing on the right irrigation, fertilizer, pesticides synchronized to climate change. We have the chance to build a more productive and resilient food system, but it’s not guaranteed that we will. It depends on whether the seeds, irrigation, and adaptation practices will be available. That will require real and sustained investment from governments, donors, and private companies.

Toothbrushes and showerheads covered in viruses ‘unlike anything we’ve seen before’ - We live in a richly microbial world. Interactions with bacteria and other microbes in our homes are an integral part of our human biology.

The monarch butterfly may not be endangered, but its migration is - Migrating monarchs don't fly at night, so they spend their evenings in bunches on trees or shrubs, known as roosts. The study relied on 17 years of data from more than 2,600 citizen scientist observations of monarch roosts along the butterfly's migration route. The researchers found that roost sizes have declined by as much as 80%, with these losses increasing from north to south along the migration route. The evidence shows that when monarchs are reared in a captive environment, either indoors or outdoors, they're not as good at migrating.

World’s Rivers Are Driest They - In 2023, the hottest year on record, the Mississippi River and Amazon River basins were at all-time lows, while the Ganges, Brahmaputra, and Mekong rivers, which all have their headwaters in the Himalayas, were also unusually dry. Across nearly half the globe, rivers were drier than normal.

The worrying puzzle behind the rise in early-onset cancer - Over the past 10 years, rates of colorectal cancer among 25- to 49-year-olds have increased in 24 different countries, including the UK, US, France, Australia, Canada, Norway and Argentina. Perhaps the most obvious explanation points to the role of obesity and metabolic syndrome, conditions which have been associated with driving cancer risk through increasing inflammation throughout the body and causing the dysregulation of key hormonal pathways. Or maybe changes in sleep patterns is part of the explanation. Combined with shifts in lifestyle, many cancer scientists believe that a key driving force for these illnesses is the consequences of various toxic changes within the gut (from microplastics). Antibiotics might be involved too. The bottom line…it’s a looming public health crisis.

New research reveals how large-scale adoption of electric vehicles can improve air quality and human health - Computer simulations show that aggressive electrification of the U.S. vehicle fleet, coupled with an ambitious rollout of renewable electricity generation, could result in health benefits worth between US$84 billion and 188 billion by 2050. Even scenarios with less aggressive grid decarbonization mostly predicted health benefits running into the tens of billions of dollars.

New study explores how universities can improve student well-being - Six guiding principles for improving student well-being:

• Embedding well-being into curricula for broader, more accessible adoption.

• Having each initiative only focus on one or two aspects of well-being, making it easier to create instruction that can also be more immersive.

• Tailoring initiatives to the student body and university culture.

• Securing buy-in from faculty.

• Ensuring new offerings are accessible and don't create additional financial burden for students.

• Employing an iterative assessment framework at the beginning to make it easier to change or scale up a program.

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 25, 2021

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.

New copper surface eliminates bacteria in just two minutes – One of the emerging technologies to fight bacteria (and viruses) without antibiotics. Copper is already being used in some applications, but this materials research developed a new structure of copper that is more effective and faster. The article didn’t comment about durability…but still very promising finding.

Home Battery Storage: The (Solar) Rich Get Richer – There is beginning to be more equity in solar panel installation….but storage is still a challenge at lower incomes. Some states have programs that may be the wave of the future and there are incentives in pending legislation. Hopefully a positive momentum will build over the next few years.

California Readies Launch of Largest Food Waste Recycling Program in the U.S. – Part of the county where I live in Maryland has curbside pickup of food waste for composting…but not the part where I live. I have a backyard compost bin…but many people do not so there is still considerable food waste going to the landfill.

10 Winter Birds to Spot During the Christmas Bird Count – Seen any of these in your area?

Why is snow white? – 3 videos…the last one with more ‘bonus’ explanations (such as why polar bears are white).

Top 25 birds of the week: Bird Pigment – This post was a bit confusing since it wasn’t explicit about which colors were from pigments ( as in the red of cardinals) and which were from light scattering caused by the physical structure of the feathers (for example, in blue jays). Read more about this non-pigment phenomenon particular for blue feathers here.

Winter is coming: Researchers uncover the surprising cause of the little ice age – New research shows that the little ice age in the early 1400s occurred when the Atlantic Meridional Overturning Circulation (AMOC) collapsed after a warming period which flushed Arctic ice into the north Atlantic, cooling it and reducing its saltiness. Could the AMOC collapse again with ice melting because of climate change? Existing climate models do not model the impacts of ice melt (making the north Atlantic cooler and less salty)!

From blood clots to infected neurons, how COVID threatens the brain – An overview of the research into how COVID-19 impacts the brain; there is still a lot more to be learned about this - probably one of the most devastating aspects of ‘long Covid’. It appears that the cognitive impact experienced by some COVID-19 survivors improves over time, but half the patients in one study were not back to normal after a year. It is a very sad prospect for individuals and for or society.

Watch This Giant Phantom Jellyfish With 33-Foot-Long Arms Float Through the Deep Ocean – The video is less than a minute…worth watching.

AAA Electric Vehicle Infographic — The Good & The Bad – My current car is a plug-in hybrid….the next one will most likely be an EV.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 13, 2021

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.

Self-controlled children tend to be healthier middle-aged adults -- ScienceDaily – Benefits include younger brains and bodies, better outlook in the years ahead. This finding is from a study done in New Zealand with 1,000 people tracked from age 3 to 45 (i.e. they were born in 1972 and 1973). Hopefully they will continue to be tracked as they get older….to determine if they remain healthier as they age. The finding makes sense to me based on my observations of my own life and people I have known over many years.

An Invasive Wild Edible Winter Rose – Natural History Society of Maryland – Multiflora rose…it’s a plant that takes over – climbing over everything around it…and it is prickly. One redeeming quality might be the RoseHips that can be used to make tea. Birds eat them too and that propagates the plant – so maybe more harvesting by humans would reduce this invasive!

College campuses are COVID-19 superspreaders, new study suggests -- ScienceDaily – My daughter and son-in-law are very aware that this could happen at the university where they teach and have research teams. They are offering blended classes so that students can be in person or virtual…and providing higher quality masks for their themselves and their research teams.

The 'megascale' structures that humans could one day build - BBC Future – Some history and observations…the realization that there are existing ‘megascale’ structures: terracing of parts of Southeast Asia, land reclamation from the sea by the Netherlands, the internet, the US Interstate Highway system.

SolarEV City concept: Building the next urban power and mobility systems: Unlocking the potentials of EV batteries with roof-top PVs for urban decarbonization -- ScienceDaily – Calculations done for 9 Japanese urban areas…CO2 emissions in these urban areas could be reduced by 53-95%!

The state of the climate in 2021 - BBC Future – Looking at CO2, record heat, Arctic ice, permafrost, and forests. We need to make progress toward drawdown rather than continuing actions that cause the upward ramp of planetary warming.

Are monarchs in trouble? | Science – In my area of Maryland…the decline has been dramatic.

A Tweak to Immune Cells Reverses Aging in Mice | The Scientist Magazine® - Interesting but so far has not be translated into humans. Evidently a drug to specifically block the EP2 receptor is not easily developed.

Tiny hard drives that are alive — and multiplying : Research Highlights – Experiments with data encoding in the E. coli genome. Evidently the data is protected from degradation in the presence of dirt and other contaminants…but what about changes that would occur over many replications?

Top 25 birds of the week: February 2021 – A grand finale to the gleanings….bird photographs!

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 1, 2020

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.

Unusual Urban Bobcat Spotted in Washington, D.C. | Smart News | Smithsonian Magazine – Wow! There is more open area where I live (between Washington DC and Baltimore)…maybe there is a bobcat around here too.

Low doses of radiation used in medical imaging lead to mutations in cell cultures -- ScienceDaily - Discovery that radiation creates breaks that allow in foreign DNA must be confirmed in animal studies. Maybe this is just a pathway to learning more about how cells cope with natural amounts of DNA damage….or maybe we need to look again at the risk/benefit of some routine diagnostic testing.

Stunning Chronophotos of Powerful Osprey in Mid-Hunt – Very dramatic!

Surprising Beauty Found in Bacterial Cultures – The video is less than a minute…worth watching.

Top 25 Wild Bird Photographs of the Week: #Feeding – National Geographic Society Newsroom – They all must eat. I kept track of what they were eating in the pictures: snail, insect or other small invertebrate, frog, rodent, fish, lizard, algae, carrion, nectar, skink, or seeds.

Walnuts may be good for the gut and help promote heart health -- ScienceDaily – I like walnuts….now just to eat them more consistently!

HEADING TO THE FOREST: Bringing Joy, Accomplishment & Hope to Children | Children & Nature Network – Forest days for kindergarteners and nature kids from preschool to high school…backyard to back country. More examples of how education in nature is happening. This was part 2…the earlier article can be found here.

America's most widely consumed oil causes genetic changes in the brain: Soybean oil linked to metabolic and neurological changes in mice -- ScienceDaily – Start reading labels….there is soybean oil is in a lot of processed foods like mayonnaise and salad dressings….the list goes on and on. Evidently other soy products (edamame, soymilk, tofu, etc.) don’t cause the same changes observed with soy oil.

Blue Jay: A New Look at a Common Feeder Bird – Our feeder is not accessible to blue jays….but we see them at our birdbath frequently….and hear their calls in the forest and our yard trees.

Macro Photography Shows Stunning Details of Carnivorous Plants – Some botanical pictures to finish out the gleanings for this week.