Gleanings of the Week Ending April 4, 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.

3/23/2026 Smithsonian Magazine These Mesmerizing Waterfalls Flow Only Every Few Years. See the Rare Marvel Now in Southwest Utah - A rare red rock waterfall is flowing once again in southwest Utah, leaving visitors in awe of its cinematic beauty.

3/23/2026 Science Daily Scientists discover hormone that may stop chronic back pain at its source - A hormone-based treatment could help ease chronic back pain by reducing abnormal nerve growth within damaged spinal tissue. During spinal degeneration, pain-sensing nerves grow into regions where they normally do not exist. Our findings show that parathyroid hormone can reverse this process by activating natural signals that push these nerves away.

3/14/2026 NPR Reframing Georgia O'Keeffe's legacy and protecting the land she loved - A historic new conservation plan will protect that landscape, with its colorful cliffs and buttes, forevermore.

3/12/2026 Clean Technica Extreme Heat Limits Outdoor Activities for One Third of Human Population -Scientists from the Nature Conservancy have published a study in the journal Environmental Research — Health that finds nearly a third of people alive today are unable to work outdoors safely in the higher temperatures prevalent in much of the world. On average, people over 65 now experience about 900 hours each year when heat severely restricts safe outdoor activity, compared with 600 hours in 1950. The most severe challenges are found in southwest Asia — Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait, the United Arab Emirates, Iraq, and Oman,; south Asia — Pakistan, Bangladesh, and India; and parts of west Africa — Mauritania, Mali, Burkina Faso, Senegal, Djibouti, and Niger.

3/16/2026 National Wildlife Federation Toxins of the Past and Present: Why We Need the EPA - Environmental protections are critical for the health of our ecosystems and communities, and the science and regulatory capacity of the EPA exists to prevent the dire adverse health outcomes caused by environmental pollution–for people and wildlife. Without efforts to protect us, we risk exposure to toxins of the past and present–a fight that has been going on in the United States for decades.

3/26/2026 Yale Environment 360 As It Boosts Renewables, China Still Can’t Break Its Coal Addiction - China is the biggest installer of renewable energy, the biggest emitter of greenhouse gases, and the biggest user of coal.

3/26/2026 BBC An unstoppable mushroom is tearing through North American forests. Fungi enthusiasts are doing damage control - A rogue mushroom native to Asia is ripping through North American forests, after escaping from cultivation. As it runs riot, mushroom enthusiasts are rescuing the native fungi in its path. Native to Asia, the fungus was brought over to the US to be cultivated for food sometime around the early 2000s. Because it fruits so heavily, it proved to be popular with both professional and home growers. It has a high yield, meaning more profit for growers. t's now been found in 25 US states and one Canadian province.

3/24/2026 ArtNet More Than 300 Yayoi Kusama Works Take Over a German Museum – The artist is now 97 years old….lots of polka dots and pumpkins!

3/24/2026 New York Times Wicked Stepmother No Longer, a Female Pharaoh Gets a Reputational Makeover - In the 1920s, while excavating for tombs at Deir el-Bahri in Luxor, archaeologists were confronted with a baffling crime scene: thousands of smashed statues and desecrated reliefs of Hatshepsut, one of ancient Egypt’s few, and most successful, female pharaohs. New scholarship shows that a good portion of the harm was incidental, caused by the physical removal of her statuary from her temples.

3/27/2026 The Conversation A flesh‑eating fly is advancing towards the US border – can it be stopped? - The New World screwworm (Cochliomyia hominivorax) lays its eggs in open wounds and in the orifices of live, warm-blooded animals – including, occasionally, humans. The maggots then devour the animal’s flesh, causing devastating lesions that can quickly kill the infested host. Before the 1950s, it was found in the southern states of the US, where cattle infestations caused heavy financial losses for beef producers. But, during the second half of the 20th century, eradication efforts pushed it out of North and Central America. In the past few years, however, screwworm control has unraveled, with cases spiking across Central America. The fly has now spread north through Mexico, reaching two Mexican states – Tamaulipas and Nuevo Leon – that share a border with Texas. International cooperation is required for management at a geographically relevant scale.

Gleanings of the Week Ending January 10, 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.)

11/9/2025 BBC Seated salsa - the miracle movement to help ease back pain – Wow – easy to do and very effective. I might even be able to do it on road trips….increase the likelihood of no back pain when getting out of the car!

12/30/2025 Clean Technica Maryland’s Largest Solar Project Launches, On Old Coal Mine – In Garret County MD – “helping to preserve our region’s natural beauty while creating new economic value for our residents. It’s a win-win for us and the environment.” Goo for them!

12/29/2025 Yale Environment 360 Sea Ice Hits New Low in Hottest Year on Record for the Arctic - The Arctic endured a year of record heat and shrunken sea ice as the world’s northern latitudes continue a rapid shift to becoming rainier and less ice-bound due to the climate crisis. The Arctic is heating up as much as four times as quickly as the global average, due to the burning of fossil fuels, and this extra heat is warping the world’s refrigerator. We can point to the Arctic as a faraway place but the changes there affect the rest of the world.

12/30/2025 Science Daily Why your vitamin D supplements might not be working - Magnesium may be the missing key to keeping vitamin D levels in balance. The study found that magnesium raised vitamin D in people who were deficient while dialing it down in those with overly high levels—suggesting a powerful regulating effect. This could help explain why vitamin D supplements don’t work the same way for everyone and why past studies linking vitamin D to cancer and heart disease have produced mixed results. (I also learned that dark chocolate is a good source of magnesium from this post!)

12/26/2025 National Parks Traveler Visual Guide Reveals Stunning Fossil Discovery at Lake Powell – A visual guide published this year and compiled by paleontology experts within the National Park System offers a fresh look at paleontological resources across the 13 park units in the State of Utah. It is available online here.

12/19/2025 Smithsonian Magazine Flesh-Eating Screwworms Are Creeping Closer to a Comeback in the United States - Roughly 60 years ago, the United States eradicated the New World screwworm, an insect that feeds on living tissue. A concerted effort led by USDA wiped them out by 1966 by releasing sterile male flies and, since female flies only mate once, this strategy helped diminish their numbers until the population collapsed. The agency estimates the eradication of screwworms saves ranchers $900 million per year in lost livestock. But now, the flesh-eating creature appears to be creeping closer to a comeback. Efforts are ramping up to monitor for screwworms and prepare to fight it back again.

12/17/2025 Archaeology Magazine How did the Roman invasion of Britain impact health? - The health of the women and children declined overall during the Roman period, but mainly among those who lived in urban areas. The decline in health in urban areas can be attributed to overcrowding, pollution, limited access to resources, and devastating exposure to lead in Roman infrastructure.

12/17/2926 The Conversation The US already faces a health care workforce shortage – immigration policy could make it worse - America’s health care system is entering an unprecedented period of strain. An aging population, coupled with rising rates of chronic conditions, is driving demand for care to new heights. The workforce isn’t growing fast enough to meet those needs. For decades, immigrant health care workers have filled gaps where U.S.-born workers are limited. Nationally, immigrants make up about 18% of the health care workforce, and they’re even more concentrated in critical roles. Roughly 1 in 4 physicians, 1 in 5 registered nurses and 1 in 3 home health aides are foreign-born.

12/15/2025 Nature Tracing pollution in the lives of Arctic seabirds – Scientists on Svalbard — the largest island of the Norwegian polar archipelago: there used to be sea ice in the fjord in May when we arrived for the start of the season, but we haven’t seen any sea ice since 2009. They are monitoring the presence of polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in the birds. The years long research has shown that some contaminants transfer to the yolks of the birds’ eggs. High levels of PFASs have been found to lower hatching rates and reduce overall survival rates. In particular, PFASs disrupt hormones and lower fertility rates in male birds.

12/14/2025 The Marginalian A Decalogue for the Dignity of Growing Old: Eva Perón’s Revolutionary Rights of the Elderly – Eva Peron identified 10 rights of elderly people in 1948 to be included in Argentina’s Constitutional Reform the following year; the right to assistance, housing, nourishment, clothing, physical health care, moral health care, recreation, tranquility, and respect.