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 March 22, 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.

In This Storied Egyptian City, Rising Seas are Causing Buildings to Crumble – Alexandria, Egypt. Since 2001, 290 building have collapsed as the rising water table weakens soil and erodes foundations. There are other historic coastal cities with the same problem.

Astronomers Discover 128 New Moons Orbiting Saturn, Cementing the Planet’s Title of ‘Moon King’ – The total number of moons of Saturn is now 274….almost twice as many as all the rest of the moons in our solar system combined.

Microplastics could be fueling antibiotic resistance - Microplastics -- tiny shards of plastic debris -- are all over the planet. They have made their way up food chains, accumulated in oceans, clustered in clouds and on mountains, and been found inside our bodies at alarming rates. Scientists have been racing to uncover the unforeseen impacts of so much plastic in and around us. One recent discovery: bacteria exposed to microplastics became resistant to multiple types of antibiotics commonly used to treat infections. They say this is especially concerning for people in high-density, impoverished areas like refugee settlements, where discarded plastic piles up and bacterial infections spread easily.

How the Development of the Camera Changed Our World - From glass plates to paper prints to digital photograph imaging, the photo revolution's intention remains the same—to immortalize our world.

Alphonse Mucha Helped Define Art Nouveau. A New Show Explores His Lasting Influence – Mucha was undeniably revered in his day, when his posters and advertisements were widely disseminated. His posters lined the streets, and his illustrations graced the covers of major magazines. And to feed the public demand for his work, Mucha even produced smaller posters printed in publications, allowing people to bring his ornately detailed lithographs home without having to rely on the luck of finding one in the wild. The special exhibit will be at the Nelson-Atkins Museum of Art, 4525 Oak Street, Kansas City, Missouri, April 11–August 30, 2026….maybe I will plan a road trip for next spring!

'You look up and see light coming through': The divers venturing under the ice in the name of science - In a remote corner of Lapland, northern Finland…a lake with 28 in. layer of ice with a hole cut in it. Divers are tethered to the surface using a safety rope, with a handler on the surface communicating with the diver via rope signals. The training here on the frozen lake is practice for work that will be done out on the sea ice of the Arctic and Antarctic, where there are added dangers – large seals sometimes gather at the dive holes, preventing divers from leaving the water. In 2017, Alf Norkko, a professor of marine research at the University of Helsinki, and his team discovered big changes on the seafloor under Antarctic sea ice since their previous diving expedition in the same area in 2009.  "There was a remarkable increase in the abundance of life," he says. Norkko says that he and his fellow scientists are so dedicated to this work because they are aware of the urgency of climate change. At present, there is a race afoot to understand it, and to respond to it.

Grave of Roman Twins Excavated in Croatia – Twins that died between birth and 2 months…placed face to face. Suffered malnutrition before birth. Infant mortality was as high as 30% in Roman societies.

Particulate matter levels in air exceed WHO limits in majority of world's big cities - Fewer than one in five global cities met World Health Organization air pollution standards (for PM2.5) in 2024 with Central and South Asia accounting for the nine most polluted metropolitan areas on Earth. Los Angeles and Ontario, California are the most polluted in the US.  Mayaguez, Puerto Rico had the cleanest air of any metro area around the world. Man-made activities such as fossil fuel burning for transportation, generating electricity and domestic heating, industrial processes, fireworks and smoking were the largest sources of pollutant PM2.5, but that natural sources including wildfires, dust, pollen and dirt also contributed to particulate loads in the air.

China’s First Domestic Cats Took the Silk Road 1,400 Years Ago, New Study Finds - The Tang Dynasty (618–907 C.E.), from which the oldest cat in the study hails, saw peak activity along the legendary trade network, which boosted the exchange of goods and ideas between China, India, and Persia. It’s not improbable that merchants from the West could have carried cats on their journey to East Asia.

Can Toxic Mining Waste Help Remove CO2 from the Atmosphere? - On the coast of Newfoundland, waste from a shuttered asbestos mine has been a troubling source of contamination for decades. Now, a company plans to process the waste to draw CO2 from the air — one of several projects worldwide that aim to turn this liability into an asset. A 2022 report by the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory estimated that existing asbestos tailings in Canada and the United States could remove up to 750 million tons of CO2 in total — while also removing an environmental health hazard.

Gleanings of the Week Ending July 15, 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.

See the Rancid, Blooming Corpse Flowers Attracting Hundreds in California – Seeing pictures is good enough for me!

Global diet study challenges advice to limit high-fat dairy foods – Some dietary advice is more impactful that others. New studies show that dairy, particularly whole fat, may protect against high blood pressure and metabolic syndrome.

Dust From the Drying Great Salt Lake Is Wreaking Havoc on Utah’s Snow – Dust makes the snow less white…which means it warms more quickly and melts!

Early Medieval Ivory Pocket Ring Analyzed – The ring was found in the grave of a wealthy Anglo-Saxon woman near Sheffield, England…and it was made from the tusk of an African elephant!

Parts of a Munich synagogue demolished by Nazis are found in a river 85 years later – The site of the synagogue is a parking lot and department store now. About 150 tons of stone columns and a tablet bearing the Ten Commandments were found about 7-8 miles from the site in a river. The synagogue had been built in the late 1800s and had more than 1,500 seats. It was destroyed in 1938.

Cosmetic chemical concerns – Not an exhaustive list/explanation, but worth browsing…there are others that seem to be concerning too (such as sulfates) that manufacturers are saying their products are eliminating.

Astro-tourism – chasing eclipses, meteor showers and elusive dark skies from Earth – We did a trek to Nebraska for the 2017 eclipse…have enjoyed Staunton River State Park Chaos Star Parties. My husband has been to Greenbank and Cherry Springs State Park for similar amateur astronomer events. It would be great if there were more such events but there are fewer people interested (and able to afford the equipment) than birders. Hopefully some of the dark sky sites will enlarge their offerings beyond outreach events for individuals that would like places to set up their own equipment. On the plus side – there are solar eclipses come up!

Native Bees Yield Hardier Flowers Than Honey Bees, Research Finds – When pollinated by native bees, plants produce more diverse offspring….and diversity is increasingly important as our climate changes.

Frogs as pollinators – A previously undocumented interaction…and an example that there are still aspects of the natural world to be discovered.

Older adults who remain more active have a better quality of life, study finds – Not really a new idea…but a study that tried to quantify the impact.