Gleanings of the Week Ending May 16, 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.
5/1/2026 Science Daily A hidden brain “cleaning” effect triggered by movement - Every time you tighten your abdominal muscles—even slightly—your brain may gently sway inside your skull. This subtle motion, triggered by pressure changes in connected blood vessels, appears to help circulate cerebrospinal fluid around the brain, potentially flushing out harmful waste.
4/30/2026 NWF Blog Fighting Toxic “Forever Chemicals” on Our Farms - The Department of Defense has identified over 4,000 high-risk or already-contaminated agricultural sites across the U.S. The PFAS contamination often came from ‘biosludge’ from local wastewater treatment plants that was spread of field as cheap fertilizer before the PFAS danger was understood. But we know how to fix this: ban PFAS at the source, regulate what’s left, and clean up what’s left without leaving the people who have already suffered to pay.
4/30/2026 Clean Technica The Petroleum System Is Entering Its Volatile Decline Phase - he UAE’s decision to leave OPEC+ is not just another Gulf oil story. It is an early signal of what happens when a producer with low-cost barrels, spare capacity ambitions, and a long view of electrification decides that flexibility may be worth more than cartel discipline. Oil demand is beginning to bend under the weight of EVs, electric trucks, efficiency, remote work, substitution, and changing logistics. The petroleum system is more likely to become less stable as it declines, because the institutions, companies, states, supply chains, and fiscal bargains built around oil were built for growth. A declining oil market does not just reduce demand. It changes incentives.
4/29/2026 NPR Baby teeth hold clues to the harms of toxic metals for infants — and older kids – A study of the baby teeth shed by 500 children in Mexico City…. s the children reached adolescence, the researchers also took detailed behavior assessments for some of the kids and MRI scans of their brains. The researchers looked at exposures to nine metals common in the environment. It's not just how much of these metals babies are exposed to that matters, but when that exposure happens. Exposure to this metal mixture during this critical period of around 6 to 9 months of development was strongly associated with negative changes in behavior in these adolescents including inattention and hyperactivity. They also found a strong link to changes in the brain, including a decrease in overall brain volume and changes in the way different areas of the brain connect with each other. They also found abnormalities in the brain's white matter, which is important to the speed and efficiency of thought.
4/30/2026 Archaeology Magazine Skeleton Study Reveals Life on the Frontier After the Fall of Rome – 250 sets of human remains in Southern Germany from between AD 400-700. After the Roman Empire fell in A.D. 476, the study suggests that life expectancy rose to 43.3 years for men and 39.8 years for women. Women are thought to have had a lower life expectancy due to the risks of childbirth, but the overall rise in life expectancy may have been due to fewer violent conflicts in the region. The study also determined that in the late fifth century, after the collapse of the Roman Empire, northern Europeans mixed with diverse Roman provincial groups as people migrated north into southern Germany and away from Roman territory. By the seventh century A.D., the population living in the area had become genetically similar to today’s Central Europeans.
5/1/2026 National Parks Traveler Climate Change Is Altering When Water Is Available - In the Upper Midwest and New England, streamflow has already become more evenly spread throughout the year due to climate change. In contrast, patterns in the western United States are more complex. I n snow-dominated regions of the U.S. West, warmer years tend to produce a wider distribution of streamflow across the year—conditions that may benefit senior water users while disadvantaging junior users. In non-snowy parts of the region, the opposite pattern emerges: warmer years are associated with more concentrated flows, potentially offering a relative advantage to junior water users.
4/29/2026 Yale Environment 360 How the Next El Niño Could Lock in a Hotter Climate - In a world already superheated by greenhouse gases, a strong El Niño during the next 12 to 18 months could permanently push the planet’s average annual temperature past the 1.5 degrees Celsius warming threshold. The potential for more destructive physical impacts raises deeper concerns about how societies that developed under relatively stable climate conditions will function in a world with shifting baselines and sharper swings between droughts and floods, more intense tropical storms, expanded fire seasons, and long-lasting unseasonal extreme heat.
4/29/2026 Smithsonian Magazine Video of a Sumatran Orangutan Crossing a Human-Made Wildlife Bridge in the Treetops - The human-made treetop overpass stretches across the Pakpak Bharat district’s Lagan-Pagindar road, which runs through the habitat of about 350 wild orangutans and separates the Siranggas Wildlife Reserve from the Sikulaping Protection Forest.
4/28/2026 The Conversation A probe into ‘forever chemicals’ in activewear lays bare fashion’s greenwashing problem - While most major brands promised to phase out PFAS by 2020, follow-up testing shows they still appear in leggings and sports bras across the sector. The transition has been slow because finding safer alternatives that perform just as well is both expensive and technically complex. Until we move from a system of voluntary promises to one of legal requirements, “sustainable” will remain a marketing choice rather than a guarantee.
4/29/2026 Science Daily Earth is splitting open beneath the Pacific Northwest - Scientists have, for the first time, clearly captured a subduction zone in the act of breaking apart. These zones form where one tectonic plate sinks beneath another, and they are responsible for some of the most powerful geological events on Earth.
