Earth Day at City Park

The Berks Earth Day 2023 event will take place from noon to 6 p.m., April 22, at Reading City Park on the 53rd anniversary of the inaugural 1970 event. This year’s theme is “Past, Present and Future.” It also celebrates the city of Reading’s 275th anniversary.

Visitors will enjoy eco-friendly exhibits and vendors, speakers, live music, animals, kids activities, Native American song and dance, and food. Berks Earth Day Committee co-chair Bill Litvin says, “Looking towards the future, we need to do those things today that will make the world a better place for our children and grandchildren. East Penn/Deka Batteries will be collecting car batteries. We will be accepting non-perishable food donations for Helping Harvest Food Bank and we will be giving seedlings in exchange for food donation.”

Earth Day sponsors include the city of Reading, Reading Public Works Department, UGI Utilities (Platinum); Kimber- ton Whole Foods (Gold); East Penn Manufacturing (Deka), Enersys, Natural Awakenings magazine, Visions Federal Credit Union (Silver); and JP Mascaro & Sons, SanCo Sound (Bronze). Bands performing include Mark James, Kim & Paul, of Vuja De, Livin’ in the Rhythm Drum Circle, John King Dance Band and Golden Twine String Band. Earth Day will have a ceremonial tree planting in the Veterans’ Memorial Grove at 11:30 a.m.; speakers throughout the day from Better Path Coalition, Horn Farm, Reading Public Works and other groups; animal exhibits from Pennsylvania Bat Rescue at 1 p.m. and Red Creek Wildlife Center at 4 p.m.; and favorite mascots from local groups and teams.

Admission is free. Location: Reading City Park, 11th and Washington St. To volunteer or to be a vendor, exhibitor or sponsor, visit EarthDayBerks.org. For more information, email EarthDayBerks@ gmail.com. See ad, page 8.

The Hawk Mountain Sanctuary Summer Nature Camp series begins on June 19 and runs for eight weeks through the summer, providing a week of fun and learning on the mountain in the great outdoors. Themed day camps are designed for youth entering grades one through six to help kids create a deeper connection with the natural world through a variety of entertaining and educational activities.

Led by professional environmental education specialists, campers can meet live animals, conduct experiments, create art projects, learn from scientists and special presenters, explore natural areas and more. Weekly themes include Art of Nature, Wild Survivors, Predator & Prey, Surviving in the Wild, All About Animals, Wild Discoveries, Woodland Games and Young Naturalist.

All proceeds from the camp go toward the advancement of scientific research, training the best and brightest biologists, and stewarding the historic Hawk Mountain Sanctuary for generations to come. Help keep raptors soaring, local and globally.

Cost is $300/week, $250 for Mountain members. Location: 1700 Hawk Mountain Rd., Kempton. For more information, visit HawkMountain.org/summercamps or email Dawson@HawkMountain.org.

Write From the Heart will offer its yearly Teen Summer Writing Camp from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. on July 24, 25 and 28 online via Zoom.

Professional writer and writing coach Melissa Greene says, “Classes are meant to reduce stress, bolster confidence and inspire young people to love writing, in school or out. They are relaxed, non-intimidating and free-spirited. There are no grades, tests or judgement, so we can be our best creative selves.”

Taught with compassion, warmth and humor, her workshops emphasize curiosity, playfulness and the art of being present and mindful to the world around us. “Since 2002, we have been a safe, welcoming retreat where young people can slow down, overcome perfectionism and self-doubt, and tune into the calm that writing without anxiety and restrictions brings to our lives,” shares Greene.

A new study published in Molecular Psychiatry has shown that eating more fermented foods and fiber daily for just four weeks significantly lowered perceived stress levels. Forty-five participants with relatively low-fiber diets were split into two groups.

One group met with a dietitian that recommended a psychobiotic diet, which included six to eight daily servings of fruits and vegetables high in prebiotic fibers, such as onions, leeks, cabbage, apples, bananas and oats; five to eight daily servings of grains; three to four servings of legumes per week; and two to three daily servings of fermented foods like sauerkraut, kefir and kombucha. The control group received only general dietary advice based on the healthy eating food pyramid.

The group following the psychobiotic diet reported feeling less stressed compared with those in the control group. Moreover, significant changes in the level of certain key chemicals produced by gut microbes were found in these participants. Some of these chemicals have been linked to improved mental health, which could explain why the participants reported feeling less stressed. The quality of sleep improved in both groups, but those on the psychobiotic diet reported greater sleep improvements.

After a systematic review of 39 studies to evaluate the benefits and harms of screening for anxiety disorders in children and adolescents aged 8 to 18, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF), a group of disease prevention and medical experts assembled by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, now recommends that primary care physicians perform such screenings, even if there are no signs or symptoms of anxiety.

A common mental health condition in the U.S., anxiety disorder involves excessive fear or worry that manifests as emotional and physical symptoms. In children and adolescents, it is associated with impaired functioning, educational underachievement and an increased likelihood of a future anxiety disorder or depression. The 2018-2019 National Survey of Children’s Health found that 7.8 percent of children and adolescents aged 3 to 17 had a current anxiety disorder.

USPSTF recommended using screening questionnaires to identify children at risk, noting that studies show that children with anxiety benefit from treatments that may include cognitive behavioral therapy or psychotherapy. They also concluded that there is insufficient evidence to assess children 7 years old or younger.

Researchers in the UK compared the effect that different types of daily movement had on overall cognition, memory and executive function. Their study, published in the Journal of Epidemiology and Community Health, reported that replacing sitting, sleeping or gentle movement with less than 10 minutes of moderate to vigorous activity (brisk walking, bicycling, running up and down stairs, aerobic dancing, jogging, running or swimming) can protect the brain and improve working memory and executive processes like planning and organization. The intensity of the exercise matters, and study participants that engaged in light physical activity, rather than more vigorous activity, saw declines in cognitive performance. However, light activity is still more beneficial than sitting, the scientists found.

The data for these findings was taken from the 1970 British Cohort Study, an ongoing survey that tracks the health of a group of UK-born adults. The group of nearly 4,500 participants consented, at age 46, to wear an activity tracker and complete verbal memory and executive functioning tests, and they were followed from 2016 to 2018.

A Swedish battery manufacturer, Northvolt, in partnership with Stora Enso, one of the largest private forest owners in the world, has developed a battery for electric vehicles (EV) with an anode made of sustainably raised and harvested wood instead of graphite, paving the way for battery production from a renewable source.

The partners figured out a way to extract lignin, a carbon-rich natural binder that comprises up to 30 percent of many trees, and turn it into a material they call Lignode. According to Stora Enso, by replacing graphite or copper anodes with Lignode, lithium-ion batteries will offer faster charging and discharging, higher cycling stability and more efficient performance in low temperature.

More than 50 percent of the EV’s carbon footprint comes from the manufacture of its battery—both in sourcing raw materials and producing the component. Mining graphite is an expensive and labor-intensive process that requires considerable resources that come from parts of the world where workers’ rights are inadequately protected. While Northvolt’s battery is not on the market yet, this development, along with others like solid-state batteries, may help to reduce the carbon footprint of EVs.

Rapid ocean warming and other effects caused by climate change have stressed and degraded corals around the globe, and scientists have been studying ways to rebuild, manage and conserve these vital ecosystems. A new Australian study published in Journal of Applied Ecology tested whether playing certain sounds underwater at reef restoration sites could boost the recruitment of oysters and enhance their habitat-building activities. Australia’s flat oyster is a key reef-building organism targeted for restoration efforts. Previous studies had shown that the sound of healthy reefs differs from that of damaged reefs. Using inexpensive marine speakers, the researchers reproduced the sound of a healthy reef at four sites across two of the largest oyster reef restorations in Australia and compared the results to areas that did not receive this soundscape enrichment. The sonically enhanced areas resulted in the presence of more and larger oysters that formed more three-dimensional habitats atop the reef restorations. The scientists propose that the use of marine soundscapes during early stages of new reef restoration projects could reduce the cost of habitat recovery.