The Darkness News Update for July 10, 2025

NAILD

Highlights from this episode:  - The Biggest Camera Ever!  - Extended Stay in the ICU  - Extra-Electoral Political Action  - Passing Gas  Intro and outro music by Doctor Turtle  Sponsored by The National Association of Innovative Lighting Distributors visit https://naild.org/  Headlines and Sources can be found at www.RestoringDarkness.com

Transcript

00:00hi there i'm recording this on july 8th 2025 and that means two things uh the sleep uh loss

00:14epidemic ted talk guy his math is completely full of holes i i wouldn't trust him on anything

00:21and it is also time for the darkness news update presented by nailed.org the lighting and darkness

00:28foundation and me scott walker we are here to provide you with as much information about night

00:35and sleep and light as we can manage uh nailed is a proud supporter we are an organization of

00:42lighting professionals that aim to do better by our clients and their neighbors and that's really

00:49where all this starts let's get into the news the largest camera ever built just took its first

00:58photos this is an observatory in the mountains of chile it is the vera c ruben observatory it is

01:05an 8.4 meter mirror taking pictures at 3200 megapixel pixels it generates 20 terabytes of astronomical

01:17data per day every single one of these pictures is tremendously important uh they'll further our

01:25understanding of space and with that ourselves in a lot of ways it's going to keep grad students and

01:33iterative ai models in in work for decades but it also isn't going to get any better than this

01:43this is the observatory in chile that is threatened by a proposed hydrogen processing plant whose light

01:51would destroy its capacity to take photos and again uh links in the description if you're on the video

01:58version flip to this tab right now because the photos the photos are gorgeous like they're valuable

02:05scientific scientifically but the photos are gorgeous and they're gonna go away we're gonna lose this

02:16knowledge lose this beauty and i'm not sure why this is a remote part of chile why do we have to refine

02:25hydrogen here can't they do it down the mountain from that depressing note let's find another depressing

02:31note which is that here here's a photo of here here's an image of a federal forest that might

02:38be for sale if a senate resolution passes this is the same area this is the same area as light pollution map

02:47and let yeah can if if those federal forests get sold to commercial interests uh i think that light

02:58pollution map gets a lot worse looking it's a lot blotchier like me in high school and

03:06uh all these sales will fund the government for six months unless of course uh the the new owners

03:14get a huge tax break or some sort of incentive program then who knows uh we have a lawsuit from the

03:21friends of the everglades and the center for biological diversity that aims to block uh the use and

03:29expansion of an ice detention center in florida uh their claim is that the concentration camp that is

03:38not in operation right now in south florida is in breach of the nepea act sorry the nep act yeah the

03:47atm machine act sorry and uh as well propose the fact that it uses diesel generators for all its

03:54electricity and the fact that it has prison yard grade lighting mean that uh the sound noise and

04:02air pollution as well as light pollution represent a harm to uh the everglades national park and big

04:09cypress national preserve we have a new test of lighting from uc davis this is a survey that shows that

04:17people report better subjective visibility under full spectrum leds they don't need so they put people

04:26in a box and they used um a specific brand's full spectrum led and then they compared that to a

04:34generic blue rich led and they found that people just felt better saw better under dimmer full spectrum

04:43lights as opposed to very bright blue spectrum lights which uh shows some promise for us i think

04:49we also have a related pre-print study that shows that blue rich leds impair color vision we we are less able

04:59to distinguish colors um under blue rich leds even though in theory they have higher color rendering

05:07indexes indices uh this is again pre-print study so uh peer review might might adjust the findings or

05:17might just throw this whole thing out but they do believe it is related to mitochondrial function in the

05:23eye uh researchers at embri riddle are exploring the possibility of balancing space innovation and

05:31darkness preservation uh this is phd candidate kayla taylor and dr sarah langston making an argument that

05:40yeah we we can we can put some low orbit satellites up and we can have cell phone reception in the woods

05:46but we can also still have see the stars and still research the stars plan b has issued their policy agenda on

05:56light pollution this is a set of academics issuing new strategic guidance for eu light pollution that

06:02they hope will turn into actual red uh regulations in yorkshire in the uk uh the university of sheffield

06:09has found that property crime happens more often after dark uh this is a breakdown of a bunch of crime stats

06:17and crime reporting that shows that yeah property issues i i e non-violent non non non non

06:25you know non-violent non-sexual crime does rise after night and uh one of the things that the

06:33architect that wrote this literally he has a phd in architecture not like me poetically referring

06:40to him as the architect of the report uh says that lighting might be a solution but let's take a walk over

06:46to leeds where we have a new study that shows that uh between 2005 and 2013

06:54uh the region of leeds swapped out nearly 80 000 street lights to white leds and they found that over

07:03the course of that period there was no change to crime incidents at night or no meaningfully change

07:12over that period uh property crime at night did rise by one to four percent but that's not really

07:19really a change except it did go up a little except it did go up a little didn't it uh the other thing

07:28to note is that uh because this study took place in leeds it is a great thing it's a great comparison

07:35case because the best most thorough study of the presence of streetlight at all streetlight at all

07:45and how it relates to crime was also conducted in leeds in the 90s so we have this data set from

07:51the 90s as leeds modernized all its infrastructure and added more typical sort of high high power high

08:00high pole street lighting and found that in that case you know even even just hps adding hps at higher

08:07heights compared to what they were using before with old old scale let old style lampposts crime didn't

08:13change there either so we have this continuing data set of light not changing crime i repeat

08:21the town of leeds changed its street lights twice and no one noticed difference if they were doing

08:29crimes let's go to korea uh because uh keist the uh korean institute of technology uh science and

08:38technology uh were able to cut light pollution from indoor sources with smart windows they were using

08:45a very special structure called a reversible a reversible electro deposition and electrochromic

08:52mirror that changes how much light it reflects when with the power of electricity and they were able to

09:00cut glare on the way out cut glare from indoor sources going out and cut infrared radiation coming in

09:08so this is a device that cuts light pollution and saves you on heating and cooling costs and that's

09:16neat uh we have a new database uh for chronomedicine this is a new resource called

09:23crotobiotics db and it will automatically synchronize all data from cam spider drug bank

09:33campbell ch ebi engage uniprot and pub cam all of these databases are about um using pharmaceuticals

09:43or pharmaceutical related data but it will create a single unified data set that will reinforce our

09:49knowledge of when to apply medicine not just how much medicine to apply we have found uh we have a new

09:59study from the university of manitoba that shows that shift work during pregnancy pregnancy not only

10:06harms the parent but the child uh it is raising concerns over increased incidence of heart disease

10:13and stroke not only during the pregnancy term but later in life again both for the parent and the child

10:20uh des moines university has examined sleep in surgical suites they partnered with researchers at

10:27the university of missouri school of medicine to manage sleep before and after operations for

10:33better outcomes through a number of different interventions some of them it just pharmacological

10:39like offering melatonin or other sleeping pills offering people eye masks noise cancelling headphones

10:46and they found that yeah guess what if you're sleeping better before and after surgery

10:50it's good for you this is going to be a theme in a minute because we have a new study that affirms

10:57a need for sleep quality in cardiac recovery icus specifically emphasizing that yes

11:04offering melatonin like like over-the-counter melatonin even in small doses is good for patient outcomes but

11:11also nursing schedules need to be maintained across the recovery period we also have a study from

11:18l'institut mondor de recherche biomedical that shows that melatonin melatonin low dose pharmaceutical melatonin

11:27just just a little over-the-counter pill reduces delirium in the icu we also have found that

11:35melatonin supplements are good for neurodegenerative disease which is again to say a pharmaceutical

11:42intervention uh in circadian cycles improves sleep quality and therefore slows the progression of

11:50alzheimer's parkinson's and huntington's disease we also have a study from the university of syria in

11:57brazil that shows circadian rhythm has been linked with leukemia so circadian gene expression and its

12:04disruption spreads leukemia that's cancer guys that's cancer uh mohammed the fifth university tested sleep

12:13quality in icu patients their study was actually uh trying to determine if the richards campbell sleep

12:20questionnaire translated to morocco because again sleep quality is often culturally culturally constructed

12:28so they did find that yeah no um the same sort of questionnaire and the same sort of sleep sleep

12:34quality questions and reports do still hold up over there uh we have a study from uh the upk

12:43in basel that tested timed lighting brightness interventions with teens and found that their

12:50results were really muddy compared to conventional wisdom that they were giving teens bright light in

12:55the afternoon and evening at various different points and the the assumed thing where oh just any

13:02light at a specific time any any light after you know say 4 p.m was just bad for sleep and actually it

13:11turns out it's really relative it's it's much more complicated than that and they're calling for more

13:15detailed models and better dosimetry when we do these sort of tests let's get small for a minute

13:23because we have found that light at night impairs the metabolism of rats uh this is from the

13:30comenius university in slovakia and they found that rats are experiencing liver issues that directly affect

13:35their metabolism if they are kept under constant light at night meanwhile we have a study that shows

13:42that light modulation uh decreases the circadian disruption of mice if you place them on the night

13:50shift this is just 15 adult male mice that were kept awake at night under varied light so varying

13:57amounts of brightness throughout the night and that was better on their circadian metrics than 15 that

14:02were kept under constant light we have found that timed dim light at night is better than um total

14:10darkness at night for the circadian rhythms of zebra finches um something that i had to i have to remind

14:18myself i had an opportunity to learn is that you know night is also varies like there are twilight

14:27periods and the amount of light does change and so adding a bit of dimmed light at the right time

14:33it's it's good for these birds and it might be good for us further on we have a new study from this

14:40university of luck now that found that light pollution harms the immune symptoms of passerine finches

14:47uh not only did they exhibit signs of stress but they also had a greater reproductive response like they

14:55were more not sexually active but more likely to engage in mating behavior under alan which is weird

15:04uh we have a study of 62 species of mammals on six continents and found that the mammals

15:10that lived closer to people like their habitats are becoming urbanized are more likely to start

15:17developing nocturnal habits to avoid people we have a study of sea anemones that found that they

15:25don't like light pollution either well okay not the anemones but their friends uh they have

15:32a symbiotic relationship with a single-celled organism called the zooxanthelae i'm pronouncing

15:39that wrong i'm sorry but they live on the surface of their bodies in a symbiotic relationship and that

15:45light pollution causes those single-celled organisms to die off similar to coral bleaching and that's bad for

15:52them honeybee hives have circadian rhythms individual we've known for a while that individual bees have

16:01circadian rhythms but no living in a colony the bees living together share a rhythm the entire colony the

16:11entire hive develops one shared rhythm if you let them in the region of samburu kenya a hotel specifically

16:21the samburu sopa lodge will offer an astrotourism package if you book a hotel they will drive you

16:28out to a nice starcasing spot they'll offer some telescope time select some lessons about astronomy

16:34as well as some lectures on local mythology related tonight over there sounds like a pretty good time

16:40we have new advocacy advocacy groups forming in india as more urban indians are experiencing more and more

16:49light pollution and they would really like that to not be the case we have a study from hong kong

16:55specifically of earth hour a period in march where for one hour we turn off all unnecessary lights

17:02a thing people keep reinventing or insisting on on twitter and then i'm like no we already have one

17:09but okay setting that aside they they were able to track earth hour light data from 2011 till 2024

17:17and they really noted uh that the frequencies of light that come off when earth hour is on is related

17:25to decorative lighting or advertising and that big drop does indicate that yeah a lot of our light

17:32at night especially in urban environments is kind of frivolous we have new dark sky friendly lighting

17:39going up in kendall in the uk uh this is a historic district with 200 year old streets

17:45uh that have new historic styled lamp posts on timed dimmers that's right at 11 they cut by half

17:53and they look pretty darn good actually in utah the town of bluff near monument valley has secured a

18:01certification from dark sky international as a dark sky community it's home to 240 people

18:07little bit little bit at a time inch toward daylight as it were oaks park in oregon has sparked a debate

18:15about light pollution because they are across the river from a wildlife refuge specifically the oaks

18:21bottom wildlife refuge and this theme park would really like to add a 134 foot drop tower uh this is

18:29the one where it's just you know a single pole you take a you take a chair up goes down real fast

18:36it's all on magnets and uh local experts are pretty sure that having something that tall

18:42lit up with theme park lighting wouldn't be so great for the birds across the river

18:46garden city idaho has passed new river lighting rules they have a bunch of new lighting rules but

18:54specifically there are new protections for lighting for trails along the river

18:58nevada county in california has new requirements for construction probably uh range lee main is debating

19:06pursuing a dark sky project there are issues about phrasing but also related to whether uh the timeline

19:14on adjusting existing lighting is fair enough and what code enforcement would look like but they'd

19:21really like dark sky town status as well in torrington connecticut the entire town council met on a light

19:29trespass issue because good lighting makes good neighbors and right now there's a zoning code

19:34enforcement between two neighbors uh one of whom is just blasting the bright lights over the fence

19:40and uh town council now has to decide who is in the right or wrong we have a new trail in fairfax city

19:47virginia that will be using shielded fixtures all along the way clarkdale arizona residents are

19:54protesting an led project a proposed one at least the town is considering switching their parks over to led

20:00and locals are hoping that we will see dimmer warmer options prevail there in colorado breckenridge

20:08is beginning fixture enforcement uh this is part of the creeping aspen trend aspen got recognized by dark sky

20:16and all the neighboring towns and counties are looking to expand on that work but they have

20:23a new set of lighting standards and the deadline for client compliance was the first uh and right now

20:31bylaw officers will be out on the prowl if you have break their current by lighting bylaws

20:37they'll be 250 on the first offense 500 on the second and on the third you get to sit in front of a

20:44municipal judge and make your case in logan north dakota a wind farm is going to have to add more

20:51light per faa rules a 92 turbine farm will have to keep nine of those turbines lit permanently not just

21:01with anything that uh detects movement above and flashes them on that's a shame in brunswick georgia

21:07there is a bucky's a gas station on i-95 that is so bright it is a hazard to see turtle nests

21:1712 miles away so bucky's are a very large they're a chain they're a large chain of very large gas

21:26stations we're talking dozens of pumps as well as a full sir a full restaurant and souvenir stand

21:34and uh people tend to like them they tell me the food's good but also that's real bright guys that's

21:41real bright the state of texas has resolved to observe dark sky day this is a non-binding gesture

21:48from the state legislature that will happen in april if they're in session in april uh truckie nevada

21:57and nevada city california are holding a night photography contest submissions for that are due

22:04on the 27th a judge has allowed marin county high schools specifically the kent field school

22:11to illuminate their baseball field after decades of lawsuits looks like that team can finally play

22:19night games with some restrictions on how bright and their directionality in something that is not

22:26sponsored but i do want to mention is that in con a lighting company has expanded their turtle safe

22:33product line so now there are more options for that and they would also like you to know that they

22:38are build and buy american compliant lastly dark sky international is seeking submissions for their 2025

22:46awards these are for academic work conservation work advocacy work there are categories across the world

22:54and across age limits age categories those are all due on the 15th and if you happen to know a

23:01handsome podcaster that keeps you informed about what matters in night conservation maybe recommend

23:09him for an award anyway i have been scott walker i want to thank you for your time i want to thank you

23:15for your attention i want to thank mailed for supporting it i'll be back in two weeks until then take care of yourself

23:22your attention you are

23:35you

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