Gleanings of the Week Ending October 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.
10/06/2026 Smithsonian Magazine New Research Shows That These Ancient Egyptian Servants May Have Been Brutally Sacrificed and Buried Alongside Their Pharaohs - Forensic research has identified deliberate and fatal wounds on skulls from simple grave sites near First Dynasty royal tombs in Upper Egypt. by the beginning of Egypt’s Second Dynasty, around 2730 B.C.E., subsidiary graves had all but disappeared.
10/06/2026 Planetizen NYC’s landfills will soon overflow — expanding them invites health risks -New York City’s trash will exceed its landfill capacity within 16 to 25 years. The landfill is already the single largest source of methane emissions in New York state.
10/06/2026 Yale Environment 360 Caribbean Nations Have Installed Twice as Much Solar as Official Figures Suggest - In the Caribbean, energy shocks are particularly pronounced as island nations with little in the way of fossil fuel reserves are heavily dependent on imports. Renewable energy offers a cheaper alternative. Across the Caribbean, people have installed roughly twice as many solar panels as official statistics would suggest. A new report calls on countries to make it easier for new solar installations to connect to the grid.
10/03/2026 Clean Technica Texas PUC Greenlights Coal Plant Closure & Renewables Construction - The Texas Public Utility Commission (PUC) ruled that Southwestern Public Service Company (SPS) can proceed with closing its Tolk coal plant near Lubbock and constructing renewable energy and battery storage to provide reliable, clean electricity to Southwest Power Pool customers. When Tolk closes, it will save abundant water in a drought-prone region, millions of ratepayer dollars, and eliminate millions of tons of harmful pollution every year, making rural West Texas a healthier place to live.
10/03/2026 Science Daily Vitamin C linked to fewer deaths in blood disorder trial - In a phase 2 trial of people with precancerous or low risk blood cancers, daily vitamin C did not slow abnormal cell growth, but it was linked to favorable changes in inflammation and fewer serious complications. An exploratory follow up also found fewer deaths among participants taking vitamin C than among those receiving placebo.
10/2026 Archaeology Magazine A change in Fashion - Ken Hill stands out from the otherwise flat terrain of Norfolk County on England’s east coast. The site is now recognized as having yielded the greatest assemblage of prehistoric jewelry to have been found anywhere in Europe. They may be evidence of a society-wide ritual of retiring an old-fashioned symbol of authority by burying it.
10/07/2026 The Conversation Rising seas threaten the world’s migratory shorebirds - Among the 37 studies that we examined, 21 predicted negative impacts of sea-level rise on shorebird habitats such as declines in habitat area or quality, while 17 predicted negative impacts on shorebird populations or individuals such as decreased survival or abundance. Sea-level rise is expected to drive substantial habitat loss at many sites of international importance for migratory shorebirds. These include San Francisco Bay and Humboldt Bay in the United States, the Colorado River Delta and Marismas Nacionales in Mexico and the Yellow Sea region in East Asia, each of which supports 150,000 to more than one million shorebirds annually. Urgent action will be required to preserve shorebirds and their fascinating migrations for generations to come.
10/7/2026 BBC Future Inside an active Antarctic volcano, gentoo penguins are flourishing with climate change - The global population of gentoos increased by around 11% between 2013 and 2020, with more marked increases along the Western Antarctic Peninsula at 23%. A suite of traits help gentoos deal with climate change. They're not fussy eaters – unlike their two closest relatives, they'll switch their diet from krill to fish and back again depending on what's around. And if their eggs are destroyed by a sudden flood or a freak snowstorm – something growing more common with climate change, Lynch notes – they can simply lay more eggs. Despite its eruptions and industrial past, Deception Island remains a unique wildlife hotspot. The outside of Deception Island is one of the most stunning amphitheaters of penguinness that we have in the Antarctic.
10/7/2026 Clean Technica The Solar Century: Landmark Moments in the History of Solar Energy - Since the creation of the first silicon solar cell 70 years ago, solar leaders have been innovating, improving efficiency, lowering costs, and growing this American-born technology into an essential part of our nation’s energy system. In 2025, solar and storage accounted for 79% of new electricity generating capacity added to the grid, and the industry employed over 260,000 Americans. In May of 2026, solar energy generated more electricity than coal for the first time in American history.
10/7/2026 Smithsonian Magazine A Ship Carrying Stacks of Ancient Dishware Sank Off the Coast of Turkey 2,100 Years Ago. Its Ceramic Cargo Is Still Remarkably Intact - Stacks upon stacks of plates; bowls; and trays purpose-built for different foods, such as nuts, fish and soup. The amphorae were probably made on the Aegean Islands, while the bulk of the plates and bowls were likely manufactured in the port of Rhosus, now the Turkish city of Arsuz.
