Gleanings of the Week Ending August 15, 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.

08/01/2026 Science Daily Scientists detect a sharp acceleration in global warming - After removing the effects of El Niño, volcanic eruptions, and solar cycles, researchers found that the planet has warmed at roughly 0.35°C per decade over the past ten years, compared with just under 0.2°C per decade from 1970 to 2015. The acceleration, which becomes visible around 2013 to 2015, appeared across five major global temperature datasets with more than 98% statistical certainty. Whether the acceleration continues will depend heavily on future carbon dioxide emissions from coal, oil, and natural gas.

07/28/2026 BBC Future The devil worm is the deepest-living animal. It's redefining life at its limits - Before the 1980s, most biologists didn't think that life existed more than 30cm (1ft) or so below the ground. The detection of deep-dwelling bacteria – and the 2011 discovery of the devil worm – represented a seismic shift in our understanding of the Earth's depths. The devil worm and its subterranean brethren may well be some of the most enduring kind of life on Earth. Studying the deep biosphere could help us better understand the conditions under which living things first came into existence, and even help inform searches for extraterrestrial life; if there is life on Mars, it's probably lurking under the surface. 

07/30/2026 Smithsonian Magazine A Man Unearthed a Mysterious Metal Object Sticking Straight Up from the Ground. It Turned Out to Be a 2,700-Year-Old Sword - Measuring nearly two feet long, the sword dates to between roughly 900 and 700 B.C.E., according to a statement from the Provincial Office for the Protection of Monuments (PUOZ). At that time, it was likely quite valuable. Experts think that it once featured a handle made from organic materials like wood or bone. The handle hasn’t survived, but the engraved patterns decorating the blade are still visible.

07/27/2026 Clean Technica This New Underground Energy Storage System Supports Wind and Solar Power - Flywheels are marking out space in the somewhat rarified world of long duration energy storage. Going by a benchmark set by the US Department of Energy, that means a capacity of at least 10 hours, though ideally long duration technology can stretch into multiple days and longer.

07/16/2026 Yale Environment 360 In Steel Country, the Fight for Clean Air Faces New Obstacles - A Japanese steel giant has pledged billions in new investment in Pennsylvania’s Monongahela River Valley, raising hopes that it would clean up pollution from its steel mills in the region. But documents show that its plans to ramp up production will worsen local air quality.

07/02/2026 Science Daily Eating less protein could slow aging - The findings suggest that protein guidance may be most effective when it takes both age and activity level into account, rather than applying the same recommendation to everyone.

07/26/2026 Clean Technica Every Day in Every Way, Attribution Science Is Getting Better & Better - The National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine are private, nonprofit institutions that provide independent, objective analysis and advice to the nation to solve complex problems and inform public policy decisions related to science, engineering, and medicine. They operate under an 1863 congressional charter to the National Academy of Sciences, signed by President Lincoln. This week, the organization published a report that claims attribution science — which seeks to define the connection between human activity and alterations in the climate — has made great strides forward since the last report a decade ago. That report backs a growing body of scientific knowledge that could help governments hold oil, gas, and coal companies responsible for the damage caused by extreme weather.

7/19/2026 BBC Future Scientists are regrowing human teeth - A visit to the dentist could one day involve regrowing damaged teeth tissue or even an entire tooth, rather than repairing it with synthetic materials or yanking it out – an appealing prospect not only because of its novelty, but also because teeth play a greater role in health and well-being than many may realize.

07/17/2026 Yale Environment 360 Drained Under Soviet Rule, Aral Sea Has Become a Huge Source of Emissions - The Aral Sea sits between Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan and was once the fourth-largest inland body of water on Earth. For the past 60 years, though, humans have bled it nearly dry irrigating cotton crops, leaving behind a salty plain the size of Ireland. Its loss has long been seen as an ecological and humanitarian problem, but new research shows that it has also been a significant driver of climate change. When a lake dries up, stored carbon from organic matter on the floor of the old lake bed is released as the dust blows away.

07/16/2026 Science Daily New “living plastic” self-destructs in just 6 days without leaving microplastics - Researchers have created self-destructing living plastic that uses engineered bacteria to completely break itself down when activated. The material degrades in just six days without creating microplastics, offering a potential new solution for single-use plastic waste. (Note that this research was done in China with funding from Chinese government.)

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.