My Virtual Reading Room

Photo contest reveals strange beauty of the microscopic world, from MSN

(via minoanmiss --many thanks!)

Three from Dr. Andrea Love on Substack:

The word "toxic" is meaningless without context

People who don't understand biology weaponize this word to scare you

Measles: Is it Immune or Human Amnesia?

People have really forgotten the impact of preventable illness

The appeal to nature fallacy is the false belief that "natural" is better

Plenty of natural things can be extremely harmful at tiny exposures

From the NYT (gift link):

Mildred Thornton Stahlman, Pioneer in Neonatal Care, Dies at 101

She developed one of the first modern intensive care units for premature babies, helping newborns to breathe with lifesaving new treatments.

(fascinating story, do take a look)

Her hearing implant was preapproved. But she still received multiple $139,000 bills, from NPR

(crazy story, and great advice at the end of the article)

Anthropological trivia from Sapiens

Did he want a cat scan? Mountain lion makes surprise visit to Arizona hospital, from USA Today

What are red sprites, blue jets, and other Transient Luminous events?, from Paul M. Smith Photography

(check out their FB page btw--amazing photos)


and three from Medium:

How to Become the Best in the World at Something

With skill stacking, you don’t need to be at the top to be extraordinary

(an interesting perspective)

We live to compete. What I learned by winning the Duolingo diamond league

Common side effects of not drinking

By rejecting alcohol, you reject something very human, an extra limb that we have collectively grown to deal with reality and with each other. Getting around without it is not painless.

(I was a bit puzzled by this one actually, but I suppose, as with many things, it depends on one's experience and social circle...)

(from spikesgirl58 )

Four from The Marginalian:

Kurt Vonnegut’s Life-Advice to His Children

Turning Loss and Loneliness into Wonder: How the Victorian Visionary Marianne North Revolutionized Art and Science with Her Botanical Paintings

The Blue Hour: A Stunning Illustrated Celebration of Nature’s Rarest Color

How the Great Zen Master and Peace Activist Thich Nhat Hanh Found Himself and Lost His Self in a Library Epiphany

And one from Google Books:

Krylov's Fables, translated into English verse

www.sciencealert.com/curious-canine-in-brazil-turns-out-to-be-a-first-of-its-kind-hybrid

Wishing everyone a great weekend and a good week ahead!

Here's Why Hibernation in Space May Not Be Possible For Humans After All, from ScienceAlert

(or, one would truly need cryo-sleep)

Some Animals Don’t Actually Sleep for the Winter, and other Surprises about Hibernation--a fascinating article from The National Geographic
~~~

And then I decided it was high time to find out from what tree these annoying dry spiky things fall in such profusion, every autumn. And I found this article:

Which Trees Produce Spiky Round Balls? Here's How to Identify Them, from Better Homes and Gardens

...obviously, others must've been curious too. And thus, I found out that the tree I thought was a North American variety of maple is not a maple tree at all but a sweet gum tree, aka Liquidambar styraciflua, from which the spiky seedpods fall.

Fascinating stuff, really--some medical and manufacturing uses; and there are many posts about the uses for the seed pods, for rituals--"Hexing, protection, and also silence/quiet neighbors, more polite neighbors" and crafts and more crafts

(and people actually sell these spiky balls by the dozen on Etsy and Ebay...I had no idea... :P)

The case of RaDonda Vaught highlights a double standard for nurses and physicians, from StatNews

(Indeed, I found both of these cases rather surprising, especially in comparison to each other...)

Canadian doctors are prescribing free passes to national parks to treat patients

She Invented Adulting. Her Life Fell Apart. She Wants You to Know That’s Okay., from VanityFair

Best-selling author Kelly Williams Brown reflects on coining that now dreaded phrase, her 700 worst days, and the millennial mythos of having it all together.

Why is it so hard to control our appetites? A doctor’s struggles with giving up sugar, by Raj Telhan, from The Guardian

We’ve become convinced that if we can eat more healthily, we will be morally better people. But where does this idea come from?

Eating Avocado Linked to Lower Cardiovascular Risk, from Medscape


And to finish off, also from Medscape:

This Week in Cardiology, aka, Dr. M. tells it like it is:


"...Espresso and TC

• Espresso Coffee Associated With Increased Total Cholesterol

The journal Open Heart published a nutritional epidemiology observational study on different types of coffee and their association with total cholesterol. I have several observations.

• We have enough coffee, blueberry, chocolate, raspberry, etc studies. I’ve written about this before.
• This world has a lot of health problems we need solved. These sorts of studies do not move the needle.
• Because of huge amounts of confounding plus recall bias of food questionnaires, studies like this that look at one macronutrient with observational methods is simply not going to advance our knowledge base. It’s not worth the effort...."

Taylor Swift Just Got a Twisted-Claw Millipede Named After Her

The study's authors mention why they honored Swift with a millipede, "in recognition of her talent as a songwriter and performer and in appreciation of the enjoyment her music has brought DAH [lead author Derek A. Hennen]." Hennen said Swift's music helped get him through the highs and lows of graduate school. Hennen also named another millipede -- Nannaria marianae -- after his wife, Marian Winsor Hennen.

A flower was named after its own extinction — then it was rediscovered

Botanists found patches of rainforest in Ecuador long believed to have been wiped out

Viewers Delighted by Plant That Can Be Used to Blow Bubbles in Viral Clip

And here's a video of it: