Gleanings of the Week Ending January 03, 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. (Note: I have changed the format to include the date and source of the article.)

9/15/2025 NIH National Library of Medicine Microplastics in Drinking Water: A Review of Sources, Removal, Detection, Occurrence, and Potential Risks - Microplastics in drinking water systems exhibit multi-source input characteristics, originating from environmental infiltration into water sources; leaching from materials in water distribution systems; migration from bottled water packaging interfaces; and re-release during water treatment processes. The potential hazards of MPs remain a critical concern. Future work needs to integrate research from environmental science, toxicology, and public health to clarify the dose–effect relationships of MPs, improve risk assessment systems, and promote technological innovation and policy regulation to effectively ensure drinking water safety and public health.

12/21/2025 Plantizen Winter Road Salt is Making Waterways Toxic to Wildlife - Salt used to keep roadways free of ice and snow is accumulating in waterways, causing dangerously high salinity levels in water bodies in Pennsylvania, New Jersey, and Delaware - well above the healthy accepted drinking water standard for people on a low-salt diet.

12/22/2025 ScienceDaily This fish-inspired filter removes over 99% of microplastics - Washing machines release massive amounts of microplastics into the environment, mostly from worn clothing fibers. Researchers have developed a new, fish-inspired filter that removes over 99% of these particles without clogging. The design mimics the funnel-shaped gill system used by filter-feeding fish, allowing fibers to roll away instead of blocking the filter. The low-cost, patent-pending solution could soon be built directly into future washing machines.

12/24/2025 The Prairie Ecologist Photos of the Year – From Chris Helzer: “Well, we’ve almost made it through 2025. To say it has been an eventful year seems like a massive understatement. As I’m sure is true for many of you, I tried to manage stress and anxiety by spending time in nature – exploring with curiosity and wonder and giving myself a break from the rest of the world for a little while. It helped.”

12/24/2025 ScienceDaily Scientists reverse Alzheimer’s in mice and restore memory - The damaged brain can, under some conditions, repair itself and regain function. )ne drug-based way to accomplish this in animal models in the study, and also identified candidate proteins in the human AD brain that may relate to the ability to reverse AD and opens the door to additional studies and eventual testing in people. The technology is currently being commercialized by Glengary Brain Health, a Cleveland-based company.

12/22/2025 The Conversation Everyday chemicals, global consequences: How disinfectants contribute to antimicrobial resistance - During the COVID-19 pandemic, disinfectants became our shield. Hand sanitizers, disinfectant wipes and antimicrobial sprays became part of daily life. They made us feel safe. Today, they are still everywhere: in homes, hospitals and public spaces. But….The chemicals we trust to protect us may also inadvertently help microbes evolve resistance and protect themselves against antibiotics.

10/14/2025 All about Vision How microplastics affect your eyes, and what you can do - Microplastics don't go away. They just get smaller and smaller over time. They can come from everyday things like bottles, tires, fabrics and personal care products. Studies have found microplastics on and even inside people's eyes.

12/25/2025 BBC The best nature photography of 2025 - From the depths of the oceans to deserts, mountains and the remote Amazon, this year's most extraordinary nature photography brings us glimpses of the diversity and awe of the natural world. This year we meet acrobatic gorillas, maritime lions and grinning bears. 

12/22/2025 Smithsonian Magazine This Mama Polar Bear Adopted a Young Cub - The bears need all the help they can get these days with climate change. If females have the opportunity to pick up another cub and care for it and successfully wean it, it’s a good thing for bears in Churchill.

12/19/2026 Artnet Inside the 6,000-Year-Old Underground Temple Where the Walls Literally Sing - Ħal Saflieni Hypogeum, an ancient, underground burial complex on the Mediterranean island of Malta. Built around 4,000 B.C.E. this subterranean burial ground amplifies sound at a soothing frequency.

Gleanings of the Week Ending March 15, 2025

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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