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 July 8, 2023

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.

Air Pollution Causes 1 In 6 Human Deaths – Deaths from modern pollution risk factors, which are the unintended consequence of industrialization and urbanization, have risen by 7% since 2015 and by over 66% since 2000. Unfortunately, little real progress against pollution can be identified overall, particularly in the low-income and middle-income countries, where pollution is most severe. It is increasingly clear that pollution is a planetary threat, and that its drivers, its dispersion, and its effects on health transcend local boundaries and demand a global response.

Opioids no more effective than placebo for acute back and neck pain – The study was done in Australia but, hopefully, will lead to stepping away from opioids for back/neck pain. How many became addicted to opioids via doctors writing prescriptions trying to relieve their patient’s back pain?

Antimicrobial Resistance: The Silent Pandemic – The first accounts of antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurred 2 years after Alexander Fleming warned about it in his 1945 Nobel speech. AMR is now responsible for nearly 700,000 deaths worldwide each year, and it is projected to kill 10 million per year by 2050.

Early Women Were Hunters, Not Just Gatherers – My favorite statement from the article: “Grandmas were the best hunters in the village.”

Overdose deaths involving street xylazine surged years earlier than reported – Drug death data is gathered and analyzed slowly…not so long ago, it appeared that illicit xylazine use was still largely concentrated in the mid-Atlantic states and the Northeast….but it is not showing up in street samples all across the US and surging in the South and West. US drug deaths hit a new record last year with roughly 110,000 fatal overdoses nationwide from fentanyl and increasingly complex street drug cocktails.

U.S. Wind and Solar Overtake Coal for the First Time - In the first five months of 2023, wind and solar produced 252 terawatt-hours, while coal produced 249 terawatt-hours, according to preliminary government figures. The decline in coal is happening faster than anyone anticipated.

Largest-ever atlas of normal breast cells brings unprecedented insights into mammary biology – 12 major cell types, 58 biological states…differences based on ethnicity, age, and the menopause status of healthy women.

Why our voices change with age – Lots of reasons the sounds we make can change. One habit suggested from the article that I am considering: “Singing or reading out loud daily can give the vocal cords sufficient exercise to slow their decline.”

Cedar Breaks Wildflower Festival Starts Friday – Hmmm…maybe I should look for wildflower festivals (along with birding) when I plan our vacations.

Meltwater is hydro-fracking Greenland’s ice sheet through millions of hairline cracks – destabilizing its internal structure - Earth’s remaining ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica are far more vulnerable to climate warming than models predict, and that the ice sheets may be destabilizing from inside. Recent studies have shown that:

• Warming ocean currents are intruding into the Antarctic and Greenland coastlines, flowing under the ice shelves to undercut outlet glaciers and destabilize their calving fronts.

• Increasing rainfall across the Greenland ice sheet not only depletes snow accumulation, it also accelerates surface melting and ice flow.

• Algae and microbes, along with surface snowpack melt, darken the ice sheet surface, absorbing more solar radiation, which also accelerates ice melt.

• Superimposed ice slabs within the snowpack are forming across the accumulation zone, forming an impermeable barrier that depletes meltwater retention and drives extraordinary runoff.

• Water at the base of the ice sheet thaws and softens the frozen bed, thereby triggering basal sliding and accelerating interior ice sheet flow to the margins.