Gleanings of the Week Ending February 28, 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.

2/16/2026 Journal of Advanced Research Association between exposure to microplastics and lipid disorders: A case-control study – Study with 239 patients aged ≥18 years who underwent fiberoptic bronchoscopy with bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF) collected. Microplastics in BALF were identified and quantified using laser direct infrared spectroscopy. Fourteen main types of microplastics were detected in BALF with PE being dominant. Exposure to microplastics was associated with elevated levels of total cholesterol.

2/16/2026 National Parks Traveler A Day in the Park: Canyon de Chelly National Monument – This article reminded me of a visit to the park in 1983! We hiked the White House Trail, and I remember wading across a stream with the 4 of us holding hands just in case there was a pocket of quicksand. We managed to get through with neither of the two cameras getting dipped in the water.

2/13/2026 Science Daily Scientists make microplastics glow to see what they do inside your body - A new study proposes an innovative fluorescence-based strategy that could allow researchers to track microplastics in real time as they move, transform, and degrade inside biological systems.

2/15/2026 Our World in Data Four minutes of air conditioning - In at least 45 countries, the average residential electricity use per person for an entire day is less than the electricity that is required to power an air conditioner for one hour. In India, the daily electricity budget is sufficient for only 44 minutes of AC. In Nigeria, just 13 minutes; and in South Sudan, just 4. Most people in some of the world’s hottest countries do not use AC. The most recent data from the International Energy Agency suggests that just 5% of households in India, 6% in South Africa, and 16% in Brazil had air conditioning. In the very poorest countries, almost no one has it. In colder countries, we wouldn’t accept people freezing in their homes. The opposite is also true: we shouldn’t accept people working and living in oppressive heat without ways to cool themselves down.

2/15/2026 Planetization South Carolina Mapping Tool Tracks Marsh Migration From Sea Level Rise - A new mapping tool funded by the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation maps South Carolina’s shifting salt marshes, which are pushing inland as seawater levels rise. The mapping tool translates theoretical projections into actionable data. For a more detailed explanation and videos see the article on Governing.

1/23/2026 The Scientist Antibiotic Resistance Is Rising: 4 Trends Could Change That Course - Antibiotic resistance is sometimes framed as an inevitable catastrophe. But I believe the reality is more hopeful: Society is entering an era of smarter diagnostics, innovative therapies, ecosystem-level strategies and policy reforms aimed at rebuilding the antibiotic pipeline in addition to addressing stewardship. For the public, this means better tools and stronger systems of protection. For researchers and policymakers, it means collaborating in new ways. The question now isn’t whether there are solutions to antibiotic resistance – it’s whether society will act fast enough to use them.

2/11/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Ice Fishermen Catch Record-Breaking 244-Pound Atlantic Halibut After Hours-Long Struggle - The fish measured more than six and a half feet long and easily broke the previous record—194 pounds—for the largest halibut caught on the Saguenay, which had been set last winter. The record-breaking Saguenay fish was the 27th halibut hooked this winter as part of the research project. After organs are removed for study, the fishermen will get to keep and split roughly 170 pounds of meat.

2/16/2026 Science Daily Microplastics have reached Antarctica’s only native insect - Scientists have discovered that Belgica antarctica — a tiny, rice-sized midge and the southernmost insect on Earth — is already ingesting microplastics in the wild. While lab tests showed the hardy larvae can survive short-term exposure without obvious harm, those exposed to higher plastic levels had reduced fat reserves, hinting at hidden energy costs.

2/16/2023 Cool Green Science 8 of the World’s Little-Known Wildlife Migrations – Lots of different kinds of animals of this list!

2/16/2026 Yale Environment 360 Despite Rollbacks, U.S. Fossil Fuels Face Tough Road Ahead - The weakening of environmental regulations belies the downward trajectory for fossil fuels under President Trump. Today, the U.S. coal fleet is the smallest it has been in decades, having shrunk roughly in half since 2010. There are no new coal plants under construction. Oil is expected to stagnate as global production outpaces demand. Oil executives say the shale boom may be coming to an end. Natural gas remains a bright spot for U.S. fossil fuels as a recent boom in gas exports continues to drive demand for U.S. gas

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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending February 7, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

1/22/2026 I’m Plastic Free How Geography Impacts Plastic-Free Living - Many people want to reduce plastic, but simply don’t have the tools nearby. In larger cities, it’s often easier to find refill stores, farmers’ markets, and shops that sell loose produce, but the access varies widely between wealthier and lower-income city areas. Living in a city doesn’t guarantee sustainable options. here are a variety of factors that determine the amount of plastic used by consumers. These usually include their location, the system of commerce, and the accessibility of plastic products. Understanding how an area shapes shopping decisions will lead to people advocating for a change where it matters the most.

1/22/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Europe, Wind and Solar Power Overtakes Fossil Fuels - Last year, for the first time, wind and solar supplied more power than fossil fuels to the E.U. In parts of Europe, there are signs that increasingly cheap batteries are beginning to displace natural gas in the early evening, when power demand is high, but solar output is waning.

1/23/2025 Smithsonian Magazine United Nations Declares That the World Has Entered an Era of ‘Global Water Bankruptcy’ - Life around the world has been feeling the effects of climate change, land degradation, deforestation, pollution and the overuse of water. Ultimately, most regions are using too much of their renewable “income” of water from rivers and snowmelt and have emptied their “savings” in groundwater and other reservoirs, ushering in an era of “global water bankruptcy.” We cannot rebuild vanished glaciers or reinflate acutely compacted aquifers. But we can prevent further losses and redesign institutions to live within new hydrological limits.

1/21/2026 BBC Future How the nutritional benefits of foods change as you age - The two main nutrients we should focus on in old age are calcium and vitamin D. Eating enough quality protein is also really important as we age.

1/20/2026 ScienceDaily Stanford scientists found a way to regrow cartilage and stop arthritis - Scientists at Stanford Medicine have discovered a treatment that can reverse cartilage loss in aging joints and even prevent arthritis after knee injuries. By blocking a protein linked to aging, the therapy restored healthy, shock-absorbing cartilage in old mice and injured joints, dramatically improving movement and joint function. Human cartilage samples from knee replacement surgeries also began regenerating when exposed to the treatment. Human trials will be launched soon.

1/12/2026 The Daily Show Vitamin Plastic Water: Don’t Just Consume Microplastics, Enjoy Them! – Humor in a plastic world.

1/20/2026 NASA Explore North America’s Greenhouse Hub - In the Leamington (Ontario) area, growers cultivate vegetables and other crops within millions of square feet of greenhouse space. Commercial greenhouse operations began to gain a foothold in this area in the 1960s and 1970s as technology advanced and regional demand for fresh vegetables increased. Since then, the industry has continued to grow, securing Leamington’s reputation as the “greenhouse capital of North America.”

1/20/2026 NPR Polyester clothing has been causing a stir online. But how valid are the concerns? - Though polyester has been around for a while, in many cases, manufacturers have begun using polyester for items that natural fibers would be better suited for. For example, polyester is often found in summer clothes, even though the material traps heat. And people eventually dump clothes that are uncomfortable. Mounds of abandoned clothing are showing up on coastlines in countries like Ghana, India and Chile, Palladino said. Ghana, for example, has a large market for upcycling clothes. But many of the clothes it receives from the U.S. are of increasingly lower quality, so some purchasers dump them in lagoons and landfills, which end up in the oceans. Natural fibers clothing have cost you a little more, but you're going to have it longer.

1/19/2026 ArtNet The Forgotten Designer Who Created America’s First National Parks Posters - Dorothy Waugh was a pioneering Modernist designer who created the U.S. government’s first in-house National Parks poster campaign during the Great Depression, is the subject of her first-ever solo exhibition. After leaving the NPS, Waugh got a job at Knopf, founding and leading the publishing house’s Books for Young Adults Division. She also worked for 25 years as the head of public relations at the Montclair Public Library in New Jersey. In addition, Waugh was an educator, offering the first-ever course in typography at the New York School of Fine and Applied Art, now the Parsons School of Design. On top of all that, she moonlighted as journalist and poet, and even as a radio personality, with her own regional radio program. She also wrote and illustrated many books for children, as well as two scholarly tomes on the poet Emily Dickinson. The last of those was published when Waugh, who lived to be 99, was 94.

1/18/2026 Our World in Data How have crime rates in the United States changed over the last 50 years? - Several crimes fall within the category of violent crimes. In US statistics, this includes homicide (murder and non-negligent manslaughter), rape, robbery, and aggravated assault. Violent crime rates increased during the 1980s, reaching a peak in the early 1990s at around 750 offenses per 100,000. Since then, rates have more than halved. Over the past three decades, rates have fluctuated slightly from year to year, but the overall trend has been downward.

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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 24, 2026

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 17, 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.

12/28/2025 SciTechDaily Microplastics Burrow into Blood Vessels and Fuel Heart Disease - New research led by biomedical scientists at the University of California, Riverside suggests that routine contact with microplastics — tiny particles released from packaging, clothing, and many plastic products — may speed up atherosclerosis, a condition in which arteries become clogged and can lead to heart attacks and strokes. The team studied LDLR-deficient mice, which are genetically prone to developing atherosclerosis. Both male and female mice were fed a low-fat, low-cholesterol diet comparable to what a lean and healthy person might consume. Over a nine-week period, the mice received daily doses of microplastics (10 milligrams per kilogram of body weight). These exposure levels were chosen to reflect amounts considered environmentally relevant and similar to what humans could encounter through contaminated food and water.

1/1/2026 ScienceDaily This 100-year-old teaching method is beating modern preschools - Public Montessori preschool students enter kindergarten with stronger reading, memory, and executive function skills than their peers. These gains don’t fade — they grow over time, bucking a long-standing trend in early education research. Even better, Montessori programs cost about $13,000 less per child than traditional preschool. (My daughter went to a private Montessori school for preschool-kindergarten…she enjoyed it and did very well in her subsequent education/career so I am not surprised by the results of this national trial.)

12/31/2025 Archaeology Magazine Bones of Chaco Canyon’s Imported Parrots Reexamined – A reexamination of more than 2,400 parrot bones unearthed at Chaco Canyon suggests that most of the macaws and parrots that were kept by ancient Puebloans were likely restricted to the large, multistory buildings known as great houses, where they lived in heated rooms with plastered walls.

12/31/2025 ScienceDaily Microplastics are leaking invisible chemical clouds into water - Microplastics in rivers, lakes, and oceans aren’t just drifting debris—they’re constantly leaking invisible clouds of chemicals into the water. New research shows that sunlight drives this process, causing different plastics to release distinct and evolving mixtures of dissolved organic compounds as they weather. These chemical plumes are surprisingly complex, often richer and more biologically active than natural organic matter, and include additives, broken polymer fragments, and oxidized molecules. Understanding how these chemicals evolve across different stages of plastic breakdown will be essential for assessing their long-term environmental impact.

1/2/2026 National Parks Traveler A Day in the Park: Assateague Island National Seashore – This was a great get away from where we lived in Maryland until recently. We’d cross the Bay Bridge, visit Blackwater National Wildlife Refuge and then be at Chincoteague and Assateague Island National Seashore after that.

1/2/2026 The New York Times A Study Is Retracted, Renewing Concerns About the Weedkiller Roundup - In 2000, a landmark study claimed to set the record straight on glyphosate, a contentious weedkiller used on hundreds of millions of acres of farmland. The paper found that the chemical, the active ingredient in Roundup, wasn’t a human health risk despite evidence of a cancer link. Last month, the study was retracted by the scientific journal that published it a quarter century ago, setting off a crisis of confidence in the science behind a weedkiller that has become the backbone of American food production.

1/2/2026 Smithsonian Magazine When the Bayeaux Tapestry Makes its Historic Return to England - Created in the 11th century, the delicate, 230-foot-long embroidered textile has been in France since 1077.

12/30/2025 YaleEnvironment360 2025 Was Another Exceptionally Hot Year - 2025 was the second hottest on record, surpassed only by 2024. It continues a recent trend of exceptional, unexplained warming. The last three years have been, by a wide margin, the hottest ever recorded. The recent jump in warming, which exceeded the predictions of climate models.

12/21/2025 My Modern Met Photographer Explores the Rich Complexity of Africa’s Great Rift – Photography of a place --- and an interview with the photographer.

12/17/2025 Washington Post These kitchen items may be contaminating your food with chemicals - Plastic ushered in a new era of convenience and filled homes with cheap, disposable goods. But it also has exposed ordinary people to tens of thousands of chemicals that slip out of those items into household dust, food, water — and from there, into bodies. Some of these chemicals are known to disrupt pregnancies, triggering birth defects and fertility problems later in life; others have been linked to cancer and developmental problems. “The problem is, none of the plastics that we have right now are safe,” said Wagner, of Norwegian University of Science and Technology. “That’s not a very nice thing to hear, but that’s what the data tell us.”

12/15/2025 Nature The best science images of 2025 — Nature’s picks – Educational and beautiful at the same time.

Happy New Year 2026

A new year – and the annual thoughts about beginnings – where do I go from here. I am trying to sustain my lifelong optimism, but it is hard with the continuing world turmoil particularly at the Federal level in the US. It is frustrating that our response to the biggest challenges of our time (climate change, plastic pollution) seems to be lost in the chaos, perhaps more in the US that elsewhere in the world.

Sunrise is also a symbolic beginning of more than just the day. This time of year, it is very easy to be up in time to see it…and take a few moments to savor the beauty of it and the natural world….making an effort to imagine a positive path of the future of human endeavors and our home planet.  

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

View fullsize

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 27, 2025

The items below were ‘the cream’ of the articles and websites I found this past week. Click on the light green text to look at the article. (Note: I have changed the format to include the date and source of the article.)

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Gleanings of the Week Ending December 13, 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.

How extreme weather is making plastic pollution more mobile, more persistent and more hazardous - Rising temperatures, humidity and sunlight break plastic down, making it brittle and cracked, accelerating its disintegration into tiny fragments. A 10-degree Celsius (18 Fahrenheit) rise in temperature during an extreme heat wave could double the rate at which plastic degrades. Extreme storms, flooding and wind also hasten the breakdown of plastic, mobilize it and spread it more widely. Flooding can also help forge “plastic rocks,” created when rocks and plastics form a chemical bond and merge together. These become hotspots for microplastic generation. Wildfires release microplastics and highly toxic compounds into the atmosphere. Global annual production of plastic increased 200-fold between 1950 and 2023 and is predicted to keep increasing as the world moves toward clean energy and oil companies shift investments to plastics.

YMCA: The Swan Song of SROs and the Birth of Modern Homelessness - Single room occupancy hotels played a central role in America’s affordable housing ecosystem for decades, providing cheap, flexible accommodations without government subsidy. They are effectively large-scale boarding houses, offering small private rooms or dorm-style quarters with shared bathrooms and minimal kitchen facilities. The YMCA was the nation’s largest SRO provider, with more than 100,000 units nationwide at its peak. SROs were far from ideal, but without this form of housing or any other low-cost option, homelessness was the inevitable result. It was just as Edith Elmer Wood feared back in 1919: Housing reform had created a housing famine.

Recycling Lead-Acid Batteries Has Significant Health Risks - What happens to the old ones when they are no longer serviceable? They get melted down to recover the lead in them, which can then be used to make new batteries. In the US, that work often gets outsourced to other countries. It’s a patchwork of shoddy factories in places like Ghana, Nigeria and Tanzania providing more lead for new car batteries….and where people die from lead poisoning. Car companies look the other way.

More Than 1,200 Marine Animal Species Eat Plastic. Ingesting Even a Tiny Amount Can Kill Them - Data from more than 10,000 marine animal autopsies. About half of the examined sea turtles, one-third of seabirds and one in eight marine mammals had plastics in their stomachs. The study didn’t examine other ways plastics can hurt wildlife, such as strangulation, malnutrition or toxic effects. It also didn’t look at the harms of tinier pieces of plastics—microplastics—which have been found in the deep ocean and can also affect marine life. Researchers say the best way to protect wildlife from plastic is to reduce the amount of it that enters the ocean, namely through local and national policy.

The Forgotten Roman Ruins of the ‘Pompeii of the Middle East’ – Jerash – ruins near Amman, the capital of Jordan and the country’s second most popular tourist destination after Petra. After spending more than a millennium covered by sand, Jerash has reclaimed its place as a cornerstone of both Western and Middle Eastern civilization.

Just ten species make up almost half the weight of all wild mammals on Earth – Deer and boars account for almost half the biomass of wild land animals.

New research reveals what’s really hiding in bottled water - Each sip may contain invisible microplastics that can slip through the body’s defenses and lodge in vital organs. These tiny pollutants are linked to inflammation, hormonal disruption, and even neurological damage, yet remain dangerously understudied. “People need to understand that the issue is not acute toxicity -- it is chronic toxicity.”

Beavers are Dam Good for Biodiversity, Bringing Bats, Butterflies and Other Critters to Their Neighborhoods - Beavers are famous for being ecosystem engineers, capable of transforming once-dry landscapes into lush, green wetlands that support many other land- and water-dwelling species. Now, two new studies suggest these benefits also extend to creatures who spend much of their time in the air like bats and pollinator insects.

This tiny pill could change how we diagnose gut health - Tiny ingestible spheres filled with engineered bacteria can detect intestinal bleeding by glowing when they encounter heme. Early tests in mice suggest they could become a quick, noninvasive way to monitor gut disease. The work was done by the NSF of China and other sources in China. Will China now dominate this type of research with the funding cuts in the US?

Meet the 7 Swans a-Swimming – There are 7 swan species in the world…which fits very well with The Twelve Days of Christmas.

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 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.

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 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.

7 Foods and Beverages That Have the Most Microplastics (and What to Eat Instead) – A list and a short video. I found myself wondering if we can really avoid the microplastics in apples and carrots…since some of them are from soil/water rather than packaging. There might not be a good choice out there since microplastic is everywhere.

Microplastics are everywhere. You can do one simple thing to avoid them. – Avoid heating plastic (in the microwave…by pouring hot drinks into it…washing synthetic fabrics in hot water…drying synthetic fabrics in high heat).

Bat: It’s What’s for Dinner – The bat predators might surprise you!

This experimental “super vaccine” stopped cancer cold in the lab - A groundbreaking nanoparticle-based cancer vaccine that prevented melanoma, pancreatic, and triple-negative breast cancers in mice—with up to 88% remaining tumor-free. The researchers envision that this platform can be applied to create both therapeutic and preventative regimens, particularly for individuals at high risk for cancer.

World Reaches a Climate ‘Tipping Point,’ Imperiling Coral Reefs - Scientists say that warming has breached a critical threshold for tropical coral reefs, which are expected to see catastrophic losses in the years ahead. The loss of reefs would have ramifications for the hundreds of millions of people worldwide who depend on them for food or income.

The liquid air alternative to fossil fuels - An overlooked technology for nearly 50 years, the first liquid air energy storage facility is finally set to power up in 2026. It's hoping to compete with grid-scale lithium batteries and hydro to store clean power and reduce the need to fall back on fossil fuels. The process works in three stages. First, air is taken in from the surroundings and cleaned. Second, the air is repeatedly compressed until it is at very high pressure. Third, the air is cooled until it becomes liquid, using a multi-stream heat exchanger: a device that includes multiple channels and tubes carrying substances at different temperatures, allowing heat to be transferred between them in a controlled way. When the grid needs extra energy, the liquid air is put to work. It is pumped out of storage and evaporated, becoming a gas again. It is then used to drive turbines, generating electricity for the grid. Afterwards, the air is released back into the atmosphere.

China’s Electric Highways: Awe, Engineering, and the Myths of Invisible Danger - China has built hundreds of thousands of kilometers of high-voltage corridors, connecting wind, solar, hydro, and coal resources spread across a continent-sized nation.

U.S. Whale Entanglements Are on the Rise, New Data Shows - The number of large whales that became entangled in fishing gear along coasts in the United States rose sharply in 2024. Officials were able to trace roughly half of the 2024 cases to specific commercial and recreational fisheries. The other cases involved gear that could not be directly linked to a specific source. Whale entanglements were documented off the coasts of 12 states, but 71 percent of cases occurred off California, Massachusetts, Alaska and Hawaii. A quarter of all entanglements took place off California, primarily in Monterey Bay.

The Erie Canal Turns 200 - Cutting 363 miles (584 kilometers) across the state of New York, the Erie Canal was the engineering marvel of its day when it opened in 1825. The waterway was built over 8 years through the toil of humans and animals, new tools and techniques, and plenty of ingenuity. It established a navigable route from Lake Erie to the Hudson River, forming a vital connection between the U.S. Midwest and the Atlantic Ocean. Commercial traffic on New York’s canals plummeted when ocean-going vessels could travel between the Great Lakes and the Atlantic Ocean via the St. Lawrence Seaway starting in the late 1950s. Two hundred years after the Erie Canal officially opened on October 26, 1825, it still handles a small amount of commercial shipping, but recreational boaters are its primary users.

How to Photograph Flat Prairies – Lots of ideas for photography on prairies!

Intimate Portraits of the Nenets Capture the Faces of Indigenous People in the Russian Arctic - Herders still live in chums and migrate several times a year with their reindeer. And yet they aren’t outside the modern world. Education is universal, snowmobiles are common, and some even post parts of their daily life on social media. Meanwhile, the region is developing fast thanks to its vast natural gas reserves.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 25, 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 maritime lions hunting seals on the beach - In Namibia, a group of desert lions have left their traditional hunting grounds for the Atlantic coast, to become the world's only maritime lions.

Progress on Africa’s ‘Great Green Wall’ Stalls as Seedlings Die Off - The African Union launched the project in 2007, planning to create a 10-mile-wide strip of trees that would stretch from coast to coast, across 11 countries in the Sahel. By stopping desertification, the project aimed to protect farmers, help shore up the supply of food, stem migration, and even fight extremism. But as of last year, the project was estimated to be only 30 percent complete.

The Red Sea that vanished and the catastrophic flood that brought it back - The Red Sea once vanished entirely, turning into a barren salt desert before being suddenly flooded by waters from the Indian Ocean 6.2 million years ago. The flood carved deep channels and restored marine life in less than 100,000 years. The Red Sea is a natural laboratory for understanding how oceans are born, how salt giants accumulate, and how climate and tectonics interact over millions of years.

Pumpkin: A favorite sign of fall, with a bit of shady history - When European settlers reached the present-day Americas, they encountered Indigenous people growing pumpkins — a useful source of food that's easy to grow and can be stored in cold weather. In precolonial times, Indigenous people in the Americas domesticated different types of these sort of pumpkin precursors at least six different times.

Egyptian Pharaoh’s Tomb Opens to the Public After 20-Year Restoration – Amenhotep III. The huge tomb is in a secluded part of the Valley of the Kings outside the southern city of Luxor and was in severe need of work following centuries of neglect. The tomb was discovered in 1799 whereupon its contents were looted. At its center, visitors today encounter the pharaoh’s giant granite sarcophagus lid, which is covered in hieroglyphics and was too heavy to be carried away.

New Solar Glass Cranks Up Lettuce Crop Yields by Almost 40% - The new solar glass (the performance of quantum dots integrated with passive solar glass) was field tested by researchers at the University of California – Davis. If the performance of lettuce is a bellwether for other crops.

The rise of ‘nightmare bacteria’: antimicrobial resistance in five charts - Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is projected to cause 39 million deaths worldwide over the next 25 years. But global efforts to find treatments for drug-resistant infections are not going to plan. The reports show that the global antibiotic drug-development pipeline is facing a dual crisis: a scarcity of drugs in development and a lack of innovation in methods to fight drug-resistant bacteria. Awareness of this issue is increasing; however, it is still a silent pandemic with many deaths not being attributed to AMR.

A Search for the Cassia Crossbill, Idaho’s Endemic Bird - Searching for an endemic bird brings you fully immerses you in the complexity of the world. What might look like just another set of hills from the highway is revealed to be a habitat shaped by a lack of squirrels and abundant woodpeckers and thick pinecones. And that place offers you a glimpse of this special bird, one that exists only here, as if clinging to a lodgepole life raft in the desert.

Brain cancer that eats the skull stuns scientists - Glioblastoma isn’t confined to the brain—it erodes the skull and hijacks the immune system within skull marrow. The cancer opens channels that let inflammatory cells enter the brain, fueling its deadly progression. Even drugs meant to protect bones can make things worse, highlighting the need for therapies that target both brain and bone. The discovery reframes glioblastoma as a whole-body disease, not just a brain disorder.

Babies take a lesson from soldiers in the war against malaria - For years, the U.S. military has treated uniforms with insecticide to repel mosquitoes and the malaria they can transmit. In a rural part of western Uganda, 200 mothers with kids between 6 and 18 months got a permethrin-soaked baby wrap, while 200 others got a wrap just soaked in water. All participants got a brand-new treated bed net too. Over 6 months, 34 kids in the permethrin-wrap group tested positive for malaria, compared with 94 in the water-soaked wrap group. About 8.5% of babies had a mild rash in the treatment group compared with 6% in the control.

Plastics Crisis – Miscellaneous thoughts

There is a lot about microplastics in the news; I’ve added some of the articles to my Gleanings posts. Microplastics are an overwhelming challenge to every living thing…and thus an overwhelming challenge to us. It is hard to find truly effective means to do something about them – to reduce their prevalence in our lives and in our broader environment. The actions I have taken so far seem small but maybe they are a place to start….there need to be bigger actions to make a difference. In this post I in including some of my thoughts over the past few weeks…as I search for the path beyond changes I can make to reduce microplastics (somewhat) in my own life.

• Plastics are not part of any heritage…they are too new for that. They are damaging our environment in ways that degrades our health slowly. By the time we think of plastics as part of our heritage, it might be too late to stop our decline as a species.  

• It is time that we realize that there is a price for plastics’ convenience in our lives that we are just now beginning to pay.

• Hotels use plastic glasses in their rooms now….wrapped in more plastic. Not that long ago they were glass. Ice buckets are plastic and there is a plastic bag liner. We assume that the plastic makes it ‘clean’ but is that true?

• The plastic pots the small plants were purchased in were very flimsy. They cracked as I flexed them to get the plants out as I planted the seedlings into my yard. They are another source of single use plastic.

• Spaghetti sauce is easy to find in glass jars…unlike a lot of other foods. It seems not that long ago that it was easy to find mustard and lemon juice in glass. Not anymore.

• Why aren’t cosmetic companies advertising products that are free of microplastics/endocrine disruptors?

• Why aren’t retailers demanding less plastic packaging particularly when it adds little or no value. For example: multiple plastic layers around larger packages of toilet paper, the plastic insert in tissue boxes that has to be removed before the cardboard can be recycled, and the little window in paper bags of cookies that makes that bag unrecyclable.

When I bring up microplastics in conversation, everyone seems somewhat aware of the problem, and many are as alarmed as I am. At the same time, everyone seems to be anxious but doesn’t know what to do. There appears to be no leadership from any level of government. Maybe the pervasiveness of microplastics puts them into a new category of issues that our modern cultures do not know how to address…and that is resulting in no action. Climate change is another such issue and the experience to date has been frustrating to everyone. Again – the default seems to be to forge ahead toward a dystopian future because the magnitude of the issue is too overwhelming.

Previous Plastic Crisis posts

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 18, 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.

ACHOO Syndrome: A Strange Reflex That Causes Sneezing in the Sun - The photic sneeze reflex—also called autosomal dominant compelling helio-ophthalmic outburst (ACHOO) syndrome - affects almost a fourth of people worldwide.

They’re smaller than dust, but crucial for Earth’s climate - Coccolithophores, tiny planktonic architects of Earth’s climate, capture carbon, produce oxygen, and leave behind geological records that chronicle our planet’s history.

An E.U. Plan to Slash Micropollutants in Wastewater Is Under Attack - Earlier this year, a European Union directive mandated advanced treatment of micropollutants in wastewater, with the cost to be borne by polluters. But the pharmaceutical and cosmetics industries, which are responsible for most of those contaminants, are now pushing back.

Researchers Crack the Lost Origins of an Ancient Egyptian Temple - In a 4,000-year-old creation myth from ancient Egypt, god manifested as high ground that rose out of watery chaos. New research suggests this myth of the primeval mound may have inspired the first temple to Amun-Ra at Karnak, a site in the religious capital of Thebes that over the course of millennia became one of Egypt’s most important complexes. Across the entire Theban area, the land on which the Amun-Ra temple was built was the only high ground permanently surrounded by water. Its connection to the creation myth would have been apparent as the Nile floodwaters rose and receded each year, creating the illusion of the mound rising out of the river.

Ancient bathhouse unearthed in Türkiye's Olympos reveals life of Byzantine bishop - The bathhouse was not only for the bishop’s private use. It had entrances both from the main street and from the house. On certain days of the week, the bishop allowed ordinary townspeople to use it free of charge, both for hygiene and for health purposes.

Hawaii Hits Milestone in Rooftop Solar - Hawaii has the highest rate of rooftop solar power adoption in the US, on a per capita basis. Rooftop solar has hit 44% penetration among single-family homes on Oahu, the state’s most populated island.

The remarkable rise of eBird – the world’s biggest citizen science project - In the month of August this year, 123,000 birders submitted 1.6 million lists of sightings. It has now hit a total of 2 billion bird observations since inception. The data is showing in sobering detail how the abundance of many species is changing, almost always downwards.

Electricity Use Is Becoming More Common for Residential Heating in USA - An increasing share of U.S. households are using electricity for heating, although natural gas remains the most common heating fuel. In 2024, 42% of U.S. households reported that electricity was their main space heating fuel, according to annual estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau’s American Community Survey. Natural gas was the main heating fuel in 47% of homes last year, a decline from 49% in 2010.

Scientists suggest the brain may work best with 7 senses, not just 5 - The memory of humans and other living beings is an enigmatic phenomenon tied to the property of consciousness, among other things. Advancing the theoretical models of memory will be instrumental to gaining new insights into the human mind and, perhaps, recreating humanlike memory in AI agents.

For the First Time, Renewables Supplying More Power Globally Than Coal - In the first half of this year, renewable energy grew faster than power demand, leading to a small drop in the consumption of coal and natural gas. In a first, renewables generated more electricity globally than coal, fulfilling a 2020 prediction by the International Energy Agency, which saw clean energy surpassing coal this year.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 11, 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.

What Makes Bruises Change Color Over Time? - What appears as a red or purplish skin contusion in the beginning, slowly transitions to green, yellow, and finally brown, before disappearing entirely. What are the mechanisms that produce this bouquet of bruise colors?

Scientists finally explain the real reason pregnant women get morning sickness - According to the National Institutes of Health, up to 80% of early-stage pregnant mothers experience some nausea, vomiting and aversions to certain foods and smells. A unique mix of inflammatory responses function to prevent the mother's body from rejecting the fetus, alongside adaptive behavioral mechanisms, like nausea, that encourage the mother to avoid foods that are potentially harmful, especially in the first and second trimesters when the fetus is most vulnerable.

This company is turning empty offices across America into farms - Area 2 Farms is a three-year-old company based in Arlington, Virginia, that’s taking the concept of indoor farming to unusual spaces. Its first farm, in Arlington, grows dozens of varieties of crops (including lettuce, spinach, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes, and mushrooms, as well as more niche items like amaranth microgreens and purple shamrock) in a low-slung brick building tucked between a dog day care and a car repair shop. The goal is to eventually build indoor farms within 10 miles of 90% of the U.S. population.

Bird Soaring Below a Total Solar Eclipse Wins 2025 Bird Photographer of the Year – Some beautiful…some thought provoking.

In Her Final Interview, Jane Goodall Issued Urgent Call to Protect the Planet - “We need to protect this planet and think about the future,” she told The Wall Street Journal. “Because if we don’t, that’s the end of our species. Humans are not exempt from extinction.”

Leaf Layer Safari: How to Spot Hidden Moth Cocoons in Your Backyard - This autumn, instead of raking, try exploring. Step carefully, look closely, and you may discover a miniature safari happening right under your feet.

Scientists Studied the Genes of a Woman Who Lived 117 Years - The findings point to a combination of genetic luck and lifestyle choices.

The Secret Apartment Atop the Eiffel Tower - Around 1,000 feet above Paris’ streets perches Gustave Eiffel’s apartment, complete with a bathroom, a kitchen, and wax sculptures of Eiffel, his daughter, and Thomas Edison. At the very top of the tower, Eiffel allotted himself a 1,075 square foot private office, and with it the best view in Paris. After all, he had footed three-quarters of the bill.

Winter Transforms the Mississippi River Delta - The Mississippi River’s watershed drains 41 percent of the United States (spanning all or part of 31 states) and reaches into two Canadian provinces. Its nutrient-rich waters support fertile agricultural lands along its shores and throughout the deltaic basin. The river also plays a role in the U.S. economy by providing transportation shipping routes. To maintain these functions, engineers have implemented channelization to help maintain navigable shipping lanes and, in recent decades, launched sediment diversion projects aimed at returning vital sediments to the wetlands.

How to future-proof your knees - After back pain, throbbing aches in the knees are the most cited musculoskeletal ailment in older adults. The post shows five quick, home-based exercises which will all help.

Gleanings of the Week Ending October 4, 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.

Why Does the Immune System Struggle When the Weather Changes? - Warmer environments promote better immune responses because less energy is diverted to regulating the body’s temperature. At colder temperatures, more resources are shuttled toward homeostasis, leaving less fuel available for immune cells. The cold temperatures are anti-inflammatory. The immune response just doesn't work as well and, molecularly, the adhesive interactions don't really bind as well. Seasonal shifts also bring changes in humidity and wind, which can affect the skin and mucosal barriers, and in turn, the immune response. Drier conditions can lead to more pathogens or other irritants entering the body, driving inflammatory responses. In contrast, excessive humidity can reduce the evaporation of sweat, thus preventing the body from being able to cool itself. Cold temperatures drive people indoors, where pathogens spread more easily. Meanwhile, warm days draw individuals outside, where people can be exposed to pollutants and allergens, which can render immune responses less prepared to fight actual infections.

Toxic-Free Future 2024 Report Card – How does your grocery store rank?

Your kitchen is full of microplastics. Here's how to eat less of them – Now that I am aware of the microplastic issues…there seem to be a lot of articles on the topic. I liked this one because it pointed to some real research and there were actions one could take to reduce microplastic exposure.

What Are Microplastics Doing to Our Bodies? This Lab Is Racing to Find Out. – This article is from last April, but it provides some information about the type of research that is being conducted…trying to understand the impact of microplastics on our bodies.

Why Alaska’s salmon streams are suddenly bleeding orange - Warming Arctic permafrost is unlocking toxic metals, turning Alaska’s once-clear rivers into orange, acid-laced streams. The shift, eerily like mine pollution but entirely natural, threatens fish, ecosystems, and communities that depend on them—with no way to stop the process once it starts. (Climate change…the US denial of its existence does not stop it.)

Inouye Solar Telescope Captures Most Detailed Images Ever of Powerful Solar Flares - Scientists hope that this new imaging can lead to improvements in solar flare modeling and a better understanding of the magnetic field in the sun’s corona. But even the most casual viewer will find much to enjoy in these photos: deep-red ribbons arch and swirl across a fiery plain, with bright flares peppered throughout.

This EV Sales Chart Really Embarrasses The USA – The US has become the laggard of the world in EV sales. It does not bode well for the future of our country.

Three-Minute Take-Home Test May Identify Symptoms Linked to Alzheimer’s Disease Years Before a Traditional Diagnosis - In 2021, 57 million people across the planet were living with dementia. This class of memory-related diseases is the world’s seventh greatest killer, and Alzheimer’s disease is its most common form. In a study published this month in the journal Brain Communications, researchers say the experimental test, called the Fastball EEG, can detect Alzheimer’s significantly earlier than a traditional clinical diagnosis would. In the study, each participant put on a cap that monitored the brain’s electrical activity as they viewed a series of images on a tablet. Some of the images belonged to a set that participants were shown before the start of the test, while others were entirely new. The Fastball test is just three minutes long and passive, meaning all that is required of the patient is to watch the images—they don’t have to follow instructions or actively remember anything. The results of the at-home test are sent directly to a patient’s doctor. Hopefully - Fastball EEG can one day be used as a screening tool for patients over 55 years old, though more research is needed to identify the best time to take the test.

Harnessing the superpowers of the most resilient life form on Earth - While water bears often must cope with drying out, it's less clear why they would need to survive baking hot temperatures, being cooled to just above absolute zero, or radiation only found in outer space.

The Secrets Behind the Roman Colosseum’s Enduring Engineering - Measuring roughly 615 feet in length, 510 feet in width, and 157 feet in height, the Colosseum was the largest amphitheater anywhere in the Roman Empire. Its capacity rivals that of modern stadiums; it can seat as many as 90,000, on par with London’s Wembley Stadium. Ancient texts and archeological studies both indicate that the construction of the Colosseum, which lasted from 72 to 80 C.E., was a meticulously planned and highly coordinated affair. The Colosseum hosted not only gladiatorial games, but also animal hunts, mock naval battles, public execution of criminals, and theatrical performances. Inside, seating was divided by social class, with the emperor and senators seated in the front rows and the plebeians, or common people, farther back. Although the structure survived the test of time, the Colosseum we know today is but a shadow of its former self. During the Early Middle Ages, following the fall of the Western Empire, almost all its moveable interior furnishings, including statues, wooden scaffolding, and marble seats, were removed and sold—an unceremonious end to a monumental history.

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.

Gleanings of the Week Ending September 13, 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.

Can Italy Protect Its Cultural Heritage from Naughty Tourists? - Each summer, as millions of tourists swarm into historic towns full of monuments and museums, a predictable kind of headline is sure to follow about badly behaved tourists putting cultural heritage at risk.

Bans on highly toxic pesticides could be a simple way to save lives from suicide - Pesticide poisoning is a common method of suicide in many low- to middle-income countries. Substituting highly toxic pesticides for less fatal ones can save lives. A cast study from Sri Lanka.

Federal Hurricane Forecasting Saves Lives & Money - A 5-day forecast in 2025 is roughly equivalent to a 2-day forecast in 2005, meaning lead times and path estimates have significantly improved, to the tune of 50% in the past 20 years. This helps save lives and has also led to an estimated 2 billion dollars in savings per storm. NOAA’s research arm, the Office of Oceanic and Atmospheric Research (OAR), houses not only the laboratories that help improve predictions, but much of the monitoring and observation infrastructure — like ocean buoys and gliders — that feed real time data into hurricane models, improving their accuracy and saving lives. The U.S. fully relies upon NOAA for our hurricane forecasts, including sea level rise and flooding. There is no other body ready or funded to pick up that work. The President’s budget proposed completely eliminating the research arm of NOAA.

Bison Benefits - A new study out this past week explains why bison are more beneficial for grasslands than traditional livestock, and the benefits increase as herd size does. A podcast from National Parks Traveler.

4 Reasons to Choose Plastic Free, All Natural Fibers Over Synthetic Fibers - Manufacturers give our fabrics trade names, so even when we look at the fiber content label inside our clothing, it isn’t clear that it is made from plastic. Buying clothing that is made from natural fibers is the fastest and safest way to save our planet.

An Explosive Beginning for Lake Bosumtwi - Bosumtwi’s exotic geology has drawn attention to the crater for economic reasons as well. When the asteroid struck, the shockwave fractured the crust around the crater, creating an extensive network of faults and cracks that allowed hot fluids to circulate. The event helped concentrate gold and other minerals from a gold-bearing rock layer called the Birimian Supergroup near the surface and primed the area around the crater to become a target of small-scale gold mining.

Common painkillers like Advil and Tylenol supercharge antibiotic resistance - Researchers discovered that these drugs not only fuel bacterial resistance on their own but make it far worse when combined with antibiotics. The findings are especially troubling for aged care settings, where residents commonly take multiple medications, creating perfect conditions for resistant bacteria to thrive.

See the Rare ‘Electric Blue’ Lobster Found Off the Coast of Massachusetts – A video showing a vibrantly colored shell that results from a genetic mutation affecting pigmentation.

New Jersey Cats Caught on Camera – Bobcats caught on camera traps…and other animals in the wilds of New Jersey.

Traveling Photographer Spends 17 Years (And Counting) Documenting Indigenous Cultures – Faces and clothes from around the world.

The surprising foods that lead to better sleep - It seems that a plant-rich diet is the most beneficial for sleep, for numerous reasons – and that eating at consistent times throughout the day – for those who can – may also help.