Curiosity Daily

Today, you’ll learn about the pros and mostly cons of using ChatGPT in the classroom, how wild animals responded to the sudden peace and quiet of Covid, and a new contact lens that can help heal eye wounds.   ChatGPT in School  “Is it harmful or helpful? Examining the causes and consequences of generative AI usage among university students.” by Muhammad Abbas, et al. 2024.  “Uses and Misuses of ChatGPT by Academic Community: An Overview and Guidelines.” by Muhammad Abbas. 2023.  Quiet Covid  “Hundreds of photos show animal behaviour during COVID-19 lockdowns.” by Andrew Kurjata. 2024.  “Mammal responses to global changes in human activity vary by trophic group and landscape.” by A. Cole Burton, et al. 2024.  “Scientists say new epoch marked by human impact - the Anthropocene - began in 1950s.” Associate Press. 2023.  “When COVID rules kept humans home, wildlife roamed more freely, international study shows.” by Wallis Snowdon. 2023.   Healing Contact Lens   “Fabrication and Characterization of an Enzyme-Triggered, Therapeutic-Releasing Hydrogel Bandage Contact Lens Material.” by Susmita Bose, et al. 2024.  “Corneal Injury.” NIH. 2023.   Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Today, you’ll learn about why our brains are getting bigger and why that’s a good thing, how the sweet songs of the reef could help save it, and an AI device that gives a voice to the voiceless.   Bigger Brains   “Human brains are getting larger. That may be good news for dementia risk.” UC David Health. 2024.  “Trends in Intracranial and Cerebral Volumes of Framingham Heart Study Participants Born 1930 to 1970.” by Charles DeCarli, MD, et al. 2024.  “Framingham Heart Study.” Framingham Heart Study. N.d.  “Study examines factors behind decline in dementia incidence.” NIH. 2016.   Reef Songs  “Sounds appealing - reef recordings entice coral larvae to start building.” by Ben Coxworth. 2024.  “Life Below Water.” UN. n.d.  “Status of Coral Reefs.” Reef Resilience Network. N.d.  “Soundscape enrichment increases larval settlement rates for the brooding coral Porites astreoides.” by Nadege Aoki, et al. 2024.   AI Speech  “Speaking without vocal cords, thanks to a new AI-assisted wearable device.” by Christine Wei-li Lee. 2024.  “Speaking without vocal folds using a machine-learning-assisted wearable sensing-actuation system.” by Ziyuan Che, et al. 2024.   Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers. 

Today, you’ll learn about a nasal spray that could one day let those with sleep apnea toss out their CPAP machines, house paint that kills mosquitos, and the incredible giant redwoods… of England.   Sleep Spray   “A novel TASK channel antagonist nasal spray reduces sleep apnea severity in physiological responders: a randomized, blinded, trial.” by Amal M. Osman, et al. 2024.  “Obstructive Sleep Apnea.” by Rob Newsom & Dr. Abhinav Singh. 2024.   Insecticide Paint  “Insecticide paint controls mosquito population up to 1 year, experiment shows.” by Stephanie Soucheray, MA. 2024.  “Mosquito-Borne Human Viral Diseases: Why Aedes aegypti?” by Jeffrey R. Powell. 2018.  “Insecticide paints: a new community strategy for controlling dengue and zika mosquito vectors in Cabo Verde.” by Lara Ferrero Gomez, et al. 2024.  “Special insecticide paint may help curb zika and dengue fever outbreaks.” EurekAlert! 2024.   UK Redwoods  “Hidden giants: how the UK’s 500,000 redwoods put California in the shade.” by James Tapper. 2024.  “11 FActs About Coast Redwoods, the Tallest Trees in the World.” by Melissa Breyer. 2020.  “California: visitors to world’s tallest tree face $5,000 fine and possible jail time.” Associated Press. 2022.  

Today, you’ll learn about an effort to create palm oil without burning down millions of acres of forest, the surprising way polyglots’ brains approach their own native language, and new research on how the powerful psychedelic drug ayahuasca extinguishes fear.  Palm-Less Oil  “They Want to Make Palm Oil in a Lab. Without Palm Trees.” by Dionne Searcey. 2024.  “Things To Know About Palm Oil.” WWF. n.d.  Polyglot Brain  “For people who speak many languages, there’s something special about their native tongue.” by Anne Trafton. 2024.  “Functional characterization of the language network of polyglots and hyperpolyglots with precision fMRI.” by Saima Malik-Moraleda, et al. 2024.   Ayahuasca & Fear   “Ayahuasca accelerates fear extinction via its effect on serotonin receptors.” by Eric. W. Dolan. 2024.  “Ayahuasca-enhanced extinction of fear behaviour: Role of infralimbic cortex 5-HT2a and 5-HT1a receptors.” by Isabel Werle, et al. 2024.  “The Therapeutic Potentials of Ayahuasca: Possible Effects against Various Diseases of Civilization.” by Ede Frecska, et al. 2016.   Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.

Today, you’ll learn about a new study shedding light on what species are most vulnerable to extinction from climate change, why species of living fossils take their time evolving, and a new theory about how the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs also impacted birds.   Extinction Risk   “New study reveals insight into which animals are most vulnerable to extinction due to climate change.” University of Oxford. 2024.  “What is mass extinction and are we facing a sixth one?” by Tammana Begum. 2021. Updated 2023.  “Mass extinctions, their causes and consequences: an interview with Douglas H. Erwin and Shuzhong Shen.” by Shucheng Xie. 2023.  “Species and climate change.” IUCN. 2021.  “Humanity’s Fitting Place on the List of Mass Extinction Events.” by Sam Baker. 2018.   Living Fossils  “Study of slowly evolving ‘living fossils’ reveals key genetic insights.” by Mike Cummings. 2024.  “A New Discovery Reveals Why Darwin’s ‘Living Fossil’ Keeps Defying Evolution.” by Tim Newcomb. 2024.  “Giraffe Evolution.” by Adam Atwood. 2024.   Asteroid vs Birds  “An Asteroid Wiped Out Dinosaurs. Did It Help Birds Flourish?” by Carl Zimmer. 2024.  “Dust Might Have Snuffed Out the Dinosaurs.” by Miriam Fauzia. 2023.  “How Did Birds First Take Off?” by Carl Zimmer. 2023.  “Genomes, fossils, and the concurrent rise of modern birds and flowering plants in the Late Cretaceous.” by Shaoyuan Wu, et al. 2024.  

Today, you’ll learn about a compelling study on twins and the nature versus nurture debate, how scientists solved a 60-year-old mystery about bees, and why you shouldn’t go last.   Twin Trauma  “One Twin Was Hurt, the Other Was Not. Their Adult Mental Health Diverged.” by Ellen Barry. 2024.  “Adverse Childhood Experiences and Adult Mental Health Outcomes.” by Hilda Bjork Danielsdottir, et al. 2024.  “Recognizing the importance of childhood maltreatment as a critical factor in psychiatric diagnoses, treatment, research, prevention, and education.” by Martin H. Teicher, et al. 2022.  “Relationship of Childhood Abuse and Household Dysfunction to Many of the Leading Causes of Death in Adults.” by Vincent J. Felitti MD, FACP, et al. 1998.   Bee Mystery   “A decades-old mystery has been solved with the help of newfound bee species.” by Darren Incorvaia. 2024.  “Canopy specialist Hylaeus bees highlight sampling biases and resolve Michener’s mystery.” by James B. Dorey, et al.   Sequence Bias  “A new study finds that the later we meet someone in a sequence, the more negatively we describe them.” by Douglas Heingartner. 2024.  “Differentiation in social perception: Why later-encountered individuals are described more negatively.” by Alex Koch, et al. 2024.   Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers. 

Today, you’ll learn about a new plan to use waste from beer brewing to clean metal out of our water supply, a study that puts languages like Orc and Klingon to the test, and a discovery about the direction our memories travel in our brains.   Brewer’s Yeast   “The same beer waste that gives us Vegemite could help us recycle metal waste.” n.a. 2024.  “Spent brewer’s yeast as a selective biosorbent for metal recovery from polymetallic waste streams.” by Anna Sieber, et al. 2024.  “What Is E-Waste Recycling and How Is it Done?” by Tin Lok Wu. 2023.   Constructed Languages   “From Star Trek’s Klingon to Tolkien’s Orkish: Unraveling the auditory aesthetics of constructed languages.” by Eric W. Dolan. 2024.  “Does Orkish Sound Evil? Perception of Fantasy Languages and Their Phonetic and Phonological Characteristics.” by Christine Mooshammer, et al. 2024.   Memory Direction  “Brain Waves Travel in One Direction When Memories Are Made and the Opposite When Recalled.” by Grant Currin. 2024.  “Theta and Alpha Oscillations Are Traveling Waves in the Human Neocortex.” by Honghui Zhang, et al. 2018. “The direction of theta and alpha travelling waves modulates human memory processing.” by Uma R. Mohan, et al. 2024.   Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers. 

Today, you’ll learn about a medication that can successfully treat frostbite, the study of bloodsplatter in space, and a surprising finding about the supposed benefits of small class sizes.  Frostbite Treatment  “The U.S. now has a drug for severe frostbite. How does it work?” by Saugat Bolakhe. 2024.  “Frostbite.” NIH. 2023.  “FDA Approves First Medication to Treat Severe Frostbite.” FDA. 2024.   Blood in Space   “Bloodstain pattern dynamics in microgravity: Observations of a pilot study in the next frontier of forensic science.” by Zack Kowalske, et al. 2024.  “How Did NASA’S ‘Vomit Comet’ Get Its Name? A Brief History.” GoZeroG. 2023.   Small Classes  “Small Class Sizes Not Better for Pupils’ Grades or Resilience, Says Study.” Taylor & Francis. 2024.  “Typologies of secondary school student academic resilience in science with classroom and school context predictors.” by Tao Jiang, et al. 2024.   Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers. 

Today, you’ll learn about a skin printer that could lead to scar-free surgeries, the possibility of bringing the wooly mammoth back to life, and how to work at being happy.   Printed Skin  “Scar-free surgery prints living skin (and maybe hair) right into wounds.” by Paul McClure. 2024.  “New bioink promotes growth & regeneration of 3D-printed muscle tissue.” by Paul McClure. 2023.   Mammoth De-Extinction  “Wooly mammoth de-extinction inches closer after elephant stem cell breakthrough.” by Sascha Pare. 2024.  “Scientists Are Reincarnating the Woolly Mammoth to Return in 4 Years.” by Tim Newcomb. 2023.  “Why Are Scientists Trying to Bring Back the Woolly Mammoth?” by Teresa Ehrlich. 2022.  Learning Happiness  “Happiness can be learnt, but we have to work at it - study finds.” University of Bristol. 2024.  “Unit information: Science of Happiness.” University of Bristol. Course catalog.  “The Science of Well-Being.” Coursera Course.  “The Science of Happiness Course.” Greater Good Science Center. N.d. “Managing Happiness.” Harvard. Ongoing.    Follow Curiosity Daily on your favorite podcast app to get smarter with Calli and Nate — for free! Still curious? Get exclusive science shows, nature documentaries, and more real-life entertainment on discovery+! Go to https://discoveryplus.com/curiosity to start your 7-day free trial. discovery+ is currently only available for US subscribers.