Are you tired of hearing about the evils of plastic? I hope not, because there is some new research (and it’s not very good news). When large plastic items like food containers break down, they tend to form microplastics: Small pieces less than five millimeters long. These pieces are so minute they end up everywhere. Consequently,
Do you believe in ghosts? Recall the nuclear disaster at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi power plant in 2011 (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fukushima_Daiichi_nuclear_disaster). Particularly hard-hit was the city of Ishinomaki, with 3,097 deaths and 2,770 residents missing. In 2016, Yuka Kudo, a graduate student in sociology at Tohoku Gakuin University, traveled to Ishinomaki and began asking taxi drivers, “Did you
Tomatoes are an important part of our modern diet. From catsup to soup to sauce to salsa, they pop up in many places. A New World discovery, tomatoes originally grew as wild plants in the Andes Mountains. They were eaten by the Aztecs as early as 700 AD. Today they are grown in thousands of
This is a bit late for Valentine’s Day, sorry, but it’s still news worth sharing. Have you ever wondered why we kiss? Logically, it doesn’t make sense; mouth-to-mouth contact is a great way to spread germs, which would seem more of a danger to the species than the pleasure of the contact. So there must
What object in our solar system is farthest away from the sun? At one time, this honor went to a trans-Neptunian object officially designated 2018 VG18 (but nicknamed Farout) that was estimated to be 124 AU from the sun. To explain, a trans-Neptunian object is any minor or dwarf planet that orbits the sun at a greater average distance than the planet Neptune. And AU stands for astronomical unit,
February 16 is a major cultural milestone in the Western world. On this day in 600 AD, Pope Gregory decreed “God bless you” to be the right response to a sneeze. At one time a sneeze was thought to be a sign of impending death, since many dying people had sneezing fits. Consequently, the usual
For about 1.5 billion people, the Chinese New Year came on February 12, 2021. Also known as the Lunar New Year and the Spring Festival, this holiday really is a festival that celebrates the beginning of another year on the traditional lunisolar Chinese calendar. This celebration has a special significance for me because our family has a
George Pratt Shultz was a dedicated public servant. Trained as an economist, he was a Marine artillery officer in World War II and a businessman. But he is best known for serving three Republican presidents and is one of only two people in history to have held four cabinet positions. He was Secretary of Labor,
One of our more ubiquitous building materials is concrete. It is strong and durable, and has been used since ancient times. Yet it does have limits. Concrete is strong against pushing (compression) forces, but weaker against pulling (tension) forces. To increase strength, it can be reinforced, usually with steel bars or fibers. Now, researchers in
I’ll freely admit I’m not a good housekeeper, and I don’t think I’m alone in that regard. That’s why I was surprised to read a New York Times article entitled “The Joy of Watching Other People Clean” by Ronda Kaysen (https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/29/realestate/cleaning-videos-youtube.html?). It seems there is a YouTube channel, “Jessica Tull: Cleaning Organization and Motherhood,” where
