Trees hold their breath to avoid wildfire smoke

From Atlas Obscura: "As atmospheric and chemical scientists, we study the air quality and ecological effects of wildfire smoke and other pollutants. In a study that started quite by accident when smoke overwhelmed our research site in Colorado, we were able to watch in real time how the leaves of living pine trees responded. Plants have pores on the surface of their leaves called stomata. These pores are much like our mouths, except that while we inhale oxygen and exhale carbon dioxide, plants inhale carbon dioxide and exhale oxygen. On the first morning of heavy smoke, we did our usual test to measure leaf-level photosynthesis of Ponderosa pines. We were surprised to discover that the tree’s pores were completely closed and photosynthesis was nearly zero. We also measured the leaves’ emissions of their usual volatile organic compounds and found very low readings."

WWII pilots who refused missions were designated LMF for Lack of Moral Fiber

From Inside Story: "“Lack of Moral Fibre,” or LMF, was the punitive designation promoted by the RAF leadership throughout the war to stigmatise aircrew who refused to fly on operations, avoided operations or did a boomerang — flew home early from a sortie without a persuasive excuse. By early 1940, senior officers had become concerned that medical staff were excusing too many men from flying duties. A memorandum issued by the air ministry to all commands in April sought to limit the definition of mental incapacity by promoting the alternative, if unspoken, diagnosis of cowardice. The service records of those classified as LMF cases would be stamped with a large red “W” for “waverer.” All would be stripped of their flying badges, sometimes publicly in front of their peers. Officers would lose their commissions and be refused ground jobs."

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She threw a burrito bowl at a Chipotle staffer so a judge made her a deal

From Grub Street: "Something in Hayne cracked. She reared back and threw the bowl in Russell’s face. An older woman jumped out of line to try to stop her, while other people pulled out their phones to film the incident. One customer had been recording when Hayne threw the bowl and uploaded her video. It went viral. But not as viral as what happened next. In late November, two months after the incident, Judge Timothy Gilligan played the video in Parma Municipal Court. The maximum sentence for her crime was 180 days in prison. She didn’t seem especially contrite, but Russell wasn’t badly hurt, and Hayne didn’t have a history of criminal behavior. Gilligan decided to offer Hayne an unusual deal. He was sentencing her to 90 days in prison, but with a chance to shave off 60 days if she spent two months working in a fast-food restaurant."

Engineers have found evidence of primitive hydraulics in an ancient pyramid

From Popular Mechanics: "Hydraulic mechanics may have indeed been the driving force behind the construction of ancient Egyptian pyramids. In a recent preprint paper, scientists concluded that the Step Pyramid of Djoser in Saqqara, Egypt—believed to be the oldest of the seven monumental pyramids and potentially constructed about 4,500 years ago—offers a remarkable blueprint for hydraulic engineering. The hydraulic-powered mechanism could have maneuvered the oversized stone blocks forming the pyramid, starting from the ground up. The research team says the Step Pyramid’s internal architecture is consistent with a hydraulic elevation mechanism, something that’s never been reported before at that place or in that time."

Our parents decided to end their lives at a time of their own choosing

From The Age: "or as long as the blue-eyed Shaw sisters can remember, they knew that their parents planned to one day take their own lives. It was often a topic of conversation. Patricia and Peter Shaw would discuss with their three daughters their determination to avoid hospitals, nursing homes, palliative care units - any institution that would threaten their independence in old age. Having watched siblings and elderly friends decline, Pat and Peter spoke of their desire to choose the time and manner of their deaths. The family had a good line in black humour. The three sisters recall telephone conversations with their mother in which she would joke about the equipment their father had bought after attending workshops from Exit International, the pro-euthanasia group that teaches people peaceful methods to end their own lives. “He’s in the bedroom testing it,” Pat would quip.

There is a ‘gravity hole’ in the Indian Ocean, and scientists now think they know why

From CNN: "There is a “gravity hole” in the Indian Ocean — a spot where Earth’s gravitational pull is weaker, its mass is lower than normal, and the sea level dips by over 328 feet (100 meters). This anomaly has puzzled geologists for a long time, but now researchers from the Indian Institute of Science in Bengaluru, India, have found what they believe is a credible explanation for its formation: plumes of magma coming from deep inside the planet, much like those that lead to the creation of volcanoes. To come to this hypothesis, the team used supercomputers to simulate how the area could have formed, going as far back as 140 million years. The findings, detailed in a study published recently in the journal Geophysical Research Letters, center around an ancient ocean."

Park ranger separates two bucks whose horns are locked together

Acknowledgements: I find a lot of these links myself, but I also get some from other newsletters that I rely on as "serendipity engines," such as The Morning News from Rosecrans Baldwin and Andrew Womack, Jodi Ettenberg's Curious About Everything, Dan Lewis's Now I Know, Robert Cottrell and Caroline Crampton's The Browser, Clive Thompson's Linkfest, Noah Brier and Colin Nagy's Why Is This Interesting, Maria Popova's The Marginalian, Sheehan Quirke AKA The Cultural Tutor, the Smithsonian magazine, and JSTOR Daily. If you come across something interesting that you think should be included here, please feel free to email me at mathew @ mathewingram dot com