Learn about an easy trick for making needles less painful; how ancient Mayans used zeolite to filter water more than 2,000 years ago; and the story behind moonmoons, the hilarious name astronomers have proposed for moons that orbit other moons.

Smiling or grimacing reduces needle pain by Steffie Drucker

• Smiling sincerely or grimacing can significantly reduce the pain of needle injection. (2020, December). Smiling sincerely or grimacing can significantly reduce the pain of needle injection. UCI News. https://news.uci.edu/2020/12/01/smiling-sincerely-or-grimacing-can-significantly-reduce-the-pain-of-needle-injection/
• Pressman, S. D., Acevedo, A. M., Hammond, K. V., & Kraft-Feil, T. L. (2020). Smile (or grimace) through the pain? The effects of experimentally manipulated facial expressions on needle-injection responses. Emotion. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/emo0000913
• Episode on the facial feedback hypothesis: https://www.curiositydaily.com/can-smiling-actually-make-you-happier-and-why-a-clockmaker-figured-out-longitude/

The Ancient Maya used zeolite and quartz to filter drinking water 2,000 years ago by Grant Currin

• Starr, M. (2020). An Ancient Maya City Had a Surprisingly Effective Water Filtration System. ScienceAlert. https://www.sciencealert.com/an-ancient-maya-civilisation-had-surprisingly-effective-water-filtration-system
• Tankersley, K. B., Dunning, N. P., Carr, C., Lentz, D. L., & Scarborough, V. L. (2020). Zeolite water purification at Tikal, an ancient Maya city in Guatemala. Scientific Reports, 10(1). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-75023-7

Moons can have moons called moonmoons originally aired October 16, 2018: https://omny.fm/shows/curiosity-daily/moonmoons-why-you-get-sick-when-seasons-change-and

• Kollmeier, J. A., & Raymond, S. N. (2018). Can moons have moons? Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society: Letters, 483(1), L80–L84. https://doi.org/10.1093/mnrasl/sly219

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