Gleanings of the Week Ending November 29, 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.

Everyday microplastics could be fueling heart disease - Microplastics—tiny particles now found in food, water, air, and even human tissues—may directly accelerate artery-clogging disease, and new research shows the danger may be far greater for males.

The Mystery of the Mast Year - Every few years, certain species of trees seem to go buck wild, dropping an extraordinary quantity of nuts, seeds, or fruits all at once. What’s more, this bumper crop tends to extend across vast geographical ranges, so that a white oak in Central Park is shedding buckets of acorns at the same time as a white oak in the Shenandoah Valley. Not all trees mast, but many species dominant in American forests do, such as oak, hickory, beech, and dogwood.

Ultra-processed foods quietly push young adults toward prediabetes - More than half of the calories people consume in the United States come from ultra-processed foods (UPFs), which include items such as fast food and packaged snacks that tend to contain large amounts of sodium, added sugars and unhealthy fats.

Why Should We Avoid Heating Plastic? - When plastic is heated, its molecules will move around more freely and the whole structure will become less rigid. This makes it easier for those additives to detach and migrate into nearby foods or liquids. To reduce your exposure, heat food in containers made of inert materials like ceramic or glass, avoid storing hot, fatty, or acidic food in plastic, and try to shorten the storage time of all food and beverages in plastic containers.

'They're just so much further ahead': How China won the world's EV battery race - In 2005, China only had two EV battery manufacturers. Twenty years later, it produces more than three-quarters of the world's lithium-ion cells. Today, China dominates the production at every stage of the battery supply chain, apart from the mining and processing of some raw minerals.

Obesity-Related Cancers Are Rising in Young and Old - Six of cancers—leukemia, thyroid, breast, colorectal, kidney, and endometrial—increased in prevalence in young adults in at least 75 percent of the examined countries. However, five of these six cancers also showed increased prevalence in older adults. Colorectal cancer was the exception. The cancer types with increased incidence in both younger and older adults were all linked to obesity.

Growth of Wind and Solar Keeping Fossil Power in Check - This year it is projected that new wind and solar power will more than meet growing demand for electricity globally, keeping fossil fuel consumption flat. However, while the world is beginning to keep emissions from power plants in check, overall emissions continue to tick up, rising by 1.1 percent this year.

Researchers Discover ‘Death Ball’ Sponge and Dozens of Other Bizarre Deep-Sea Creatures in the Southern Ocean - Researchers have discovered 30 previously unknown deep-sea species in the remote ocean surrounding Antarctica - an achievement highlighting just how little humanity knows about some of the deepest regions of the planet. Fewer than 30 percent of the expedition’s samples have been assessed thus far so there could be more discoveries to report soon.

Short-Chain PFAS Eclipse Their Longer Counterparts in Blood Serum - The conventional wisdom is that short-chain PFAS are of lesser concern because they don’t bioaccumulate, but what we’re seeing is that they can occur at high levels in people. A new study shows that young adults who ate more UPFs also showed signs of insulin resistance, a condition in which the body becomes less efficient at using insulin to manage blood sugar.

Get Up Close with Alabama’s Rivers – Mac Stone photographing Alabama’s waterways…places full of biodiversity. The post includes pictures: southern dusky salamander, pitcher plant blooms, alligator snapping turtles, swamp lily, brown pelican.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 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.

The Largest Harbor in Ancient Greece Is Centuries Older Than We Thought - A discovery of lead pollution and 5 lumps of brown coals were carbon dated to the days of the Bronze Age.

When This Brilliant Author Died, She Left Behind a Legacy of Grief, Haunting Poetry and Surprising Resilience – I remember reading Silvia Plath books as a teenager.

Maple seeds’ unique spinning motion allows them to travel far even in the rain, a new study shows – Autorotation keeps the seeds in the air for longer, so they travel farther. The researchers studied how raindrops that hit the seeds reduce the time they are in the air. The next part of the study will look at rolling samaras (from tulip poplar and ash trees).

Rare Footage Shows Baby Polar Bears Emerging from Their Den in the Arctic - At birth, polar bears are blind, nearly hairless and weigh just over a pound—about the same as a loaf of bread. But they spend their first few months snuggled inside a snowy den, fattening up on their mother’s milk. By the time they emerge in the spring, the cubs are covered in fluffy white fur and weigh 22 to 26 pounds. Scientists have managed to capture rare footage of a polar bear mother and her cubs leaving their den in the Arctic for the first time.

Summer Heat Wave in South America - In February 2025, an area of high pressure parked over the southern Atlantic Ocean, causing temperatures to soar in parts of South America. As of February 27, Argentina noted that six provinces were under a red-level (very dangerous) alert for extreme heat.

The world's strongest ocean current should be getting faster – instead, it is at risk of failing – The Antarctic Circumpolar Current - five times stronger than the Gulf Stream and more than 100 times stronger than the Amazon River. Fresh, cool water from melting Antarctic ice is diluting the salty water of the ocean, potentially disrupting the vital ocean current.

More Than 1,500 Sandhill Cranes Killed by Bird Flu in Indiana - In recent weeks, biologists with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources have counted hundreds of dead sandhill cranes statewide. At least 500 of the birds were found dead in Jackson County, in the south-central part of the state, in early January. So far, no sick or dead cranes have been reported in Nebraska.

Inside the Clear Waters of England’s Ancient Chalk Streams - A globally rare type of waterway found almost exclusively in England—these rivers’ specific features both create rare biodiverse habitats and make them uniquely vulnerable. Burbling up from aquifers formed in chalk layers that date back to the Cretaceous Period, these rivers exist only where chalk sits close to the Earth’s surface. That’s why of the 200-odd identified chalk streams in the world, nearly all of them are found in England, where 66 million years ago a shallow seabed collected the skeletons of aquatic creatures—the makings of chalk. Ideal habitat for trout and Atlantic salmon.

How our lungs back up the bone marrow to make our blood - Researchers at UCSF found hematopoietic stem cells (HSCs) in human lung tissue that make red blood cells, as well as megakaryocytes, which produce the platelets that form blood clots.

Gold Jewelry Found at Karnak Temple - Karnak was the largest and one of the most important religious sites in ancient Egypt. An Egyptian-French team was investigating the northwest sector of the precinct when they uncovered a ceramic vessel that contained a collection of gold jewelry and statuettes dating to the 26th Dynasty (664–526 b.c.). One of the statuettes depicts the Theban triad of gods: Amun, his wife Mut, and their son Khonsu. Archaeologists also discovered several mudbrick buildings dating to the same era that were likely used as workshops or storage facilities connected to the Karnak temples.