Curiosity Weekly

Today, you’ll learn about how hypnotherapy could be a tool to fight pain after surgery, a discovery that could lead to less mosquito-borne diseases, and how you might have worms to thank for your fall feast.  

Hypno Pain Killer  

• “The Role of Hypnotherapy in Postoperative Cardiac Surgical Patients, A Scoping Review of Current Literature.” by Basil Ahmad, et al. 2023.  
• “Hypnosis.” Cleveland Clinic. 2022. 
• “Direct comparisons between hypnosis and meditation: A mini-review.” by Gabriele Penazzi & Nicola De Pisapia. 2022.  

Mosquito Secrets  

• “Discovery in Mosquitoes Could Lead to New Strategy Against Dengue Fever and Other Mosquito-Borne Viruses.” n.a. 2023.  
• “If mosquitoes were eradicated, what would be the consequences?” by Jane Monroe Arcata. 2021.  

Important Worms 

• “Earthworms contribute to 6.5% of global grain production, according to new CSU research.” EurekAlert! 2023.  
• “Worm Casting Benefits: Why Use This Plant Superfood.” by Eric Vinje. 2022.  

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Today, you’ll learn about how happiness fluctuates with age, a study that suggests compassion fatigue might be a self-fulfilling prophecy, and a possible new revolution in arthritis treatment.  

Happiest Age  

• “At which age are we at our happiest.” Ruhr Universitat. 2023.  
• “The development of subjective well-being across the life span: A meta-analytic review of longitudinal studies.” by Susanne Buecker, et al. 2023.  

Compassion Fatigue  

• “Compassion Fatigue as a Self-Fulfilling Prophecy: Believe Compassion is Limited Increases Fatigue and Decreases Compassion.” by Izzy Gainsburg. 2023.  
• “Moving from compassion fatigue to compassion resilience Part 4: Signs and consequences of compassion fatigue.” by Debbie L. Stoewen. 2020.  
• “Compassion Fatigue.” by Chuck Russo, et al. 2020.  

Arthritis Treatment  

• “Developing a Treatment for Arthritis from Stem Cell Signals.” by Josh Conway. 2023.  
• “Osteoarthritis.” NIH. 2023 
• “The Current State of Osteoarthritis Treatment Options Using Stem Cells for Regenerative Therapy: A Review.” by Michael Thoene. 2023.  

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Today, you’ll learn about the possible return of the Tasmanian tiger, the future of hurricanes, and how one animal shelter made a stunning discovery.  

Tasmanian Tigers  

• “For the first time, researchers decoded the RNA of an extinct animal.” by Katherine Kornei. 2023.  
• “Facts About Tasmanian Tigers.” by Alina Bradford. 2017.  
• “Genome of the Tasmanian tiger provides insights into the evolution and demography of an extinct marsupial carnivore.” by Charles Y. Feigin, et al. 2017.  
• “Historical RNA expression profiles from the extinct Tasmanian tiger.” by Emilio Marmol-Sanchez, et al. 2023.  

Intensifying Hurricanes   

• “What’s driving an increasing number of hurricanes to rapidly intensify?” by Carolyn Gramling. 2023.  
• “2023 Atlantic Hurricane Season.” disasterphilanthropy.org. 2023.  
• “Why the 2023 Atlantic hurricane season is especially hard to predict.” by Carolyn Gramling. 2023.  

Dog-Fox Hybrid  

• “Shelter Rescues Injured Animal - Turns Out To Be World’s First Dog-Fox Hybrid.” by Alice Gibbs. 2023.  
• “Pampas Fox.” animalia.bio. 2023. 
• “Hybridization in Canids - A Case Study of Pampas Fox (Lycalopex gymnocercus) and Domestic Dog (Canis lupus familiaris) Hybrid.” by Bruna Elenara Szynwelski, et al. 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. 

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Today, you’ll learn about the brain mechanisms behind mechanisms behind post traumatic stress disorder, new insights into the effects of dopamine, and where love exists in our bodies.  

PTSD in the Brain  

• “Posttraumatic brain activity predicts resilience to PTSD.” EurekAlert! 2023.  
• “Greater Early Post-Traumatic Activation in Right Inferior Frontal Gyrus Predicts Recovery From Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Symptoms.” by Jony Sheynin, et al. 2023.  

Dopamine Decisions  

• “Dopamine regulates decision thresholds in human reinforcement learning in males.” by Karima Chakroun, et al. 2023.  
• “Dopamine regulates how quickly and accurately decisions are made.” ScienceDaily. 2023.  
• “Dopamine affects how brain decides whether a goal is worth the effort.” NIH. 2020.  

Love Body Connection  

• “Where do we feel love?” n.a. 2023.  
• “What is love?” by Gary Karantzas. 2020.  

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. 

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Today, you’ll learn about how new moms see faces in inanimate objects, why some people think cilantro tastes like soap, and the problem solving prowess of vocal birds.  

New Mom Pareidolia 

• “New mothers more likely to experience pareidolia, when your brain thinks it sees faces in inanimate objects.” by Emily Cooke. 2023.  
• “What is pareidolia?” by Tia Ghose. 2023.  
• “Oxytocin: Facts about the ‘cuddle hormone’.” by Stephanie Pappas & Ailsa Harvey. 2022.  
• “Why new mothers are more likely to see faces in everyday objects.” n.a. 2023.  

Soapy Cilantro  

• “Why do some people think cilantro tastes like soap?” by Donavyn Coffey. 2023.  
• “Why do people like spicy food?” by Donavyn Coffey. 2023.  
• “A genetic variant near olfactory receptor genes influences cilantro preference.” by Nicholas Eriksson, et al. 2012.  

Problem-Solving Birds 

• “Birds with more complex vocal skills are better problem-solvers.” by Darren Incorvaia. 2023.  
• “Cockatoos can tell when they need more than one tool to swipe a snack.” by Erin Garcia de Jesus. 2023.  
• “Songbird species that display more-complex vocal learning are better problem-solvers and have larger brains.” by Jean-Nicolas Audet, et al. 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. 

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Today, you’ll learn about a new tech that will turn buildings into chameleons, a mathematical mystery lurking in our cells, and how to spot gravitational waves.  

Chameleon Buildings  

• “‘Warm in Winter and Cool in Summer’: Scalable Biochameleon Inspired Temperature-Adaptive Coating with Easy Preparation and Construction.” by Yan Dong, et al. 2023.  
• “Chameleon-Inspired coating could cool and warm buildings through the seasons.” EurekAlert! 2023.  
• “Namaqua Chameleon.” Animalia. N.D.  
• “Buildings.” IEA.Org. n.d. 

Math Pattern of Cells  

• “A catalog of all human cells reveals a mathematical pattern.” by Darren Incorvaia. 2023.  
• “Human Cells Display a Mathematical Pattern That Repeats in Nature and Language.” by Margaret Osborne. 2023.  
• “The human cell count and size distribution.” by Ian A. Hatton, et al. 2023.  
• “Body’s bacteria don’t outnumber human cells so much after all.” by Tina Hesman Saey. 2016.  
• “Zipf’s word frequency law in natural language: A critical review and future directions.” by Steven T. Piantadosi. 2014.  

Gravity Waves  

• “Scientists have two ways to spot gravitational waves. Here are some other ideas.” by Emily Conover. 2023.  
• “A newfound gravitational wave ‘hum’ may be from the universe’s biggest black holes.” by Emily Conover. 2023.  
• “Gravity waves from black holes verify Einstein’s prediction.” by Andrew Grant. 2016.  

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Today, you’ll learn about a new way to turn saltwater into drinking water, research that suggests stuffing your bad feelings deep down might actually be a good thing, and an amazing 500,000 year old discovery in Tanzania. 

Water Breakthrough 

• “New method for purifying drinking water could be used in disaster zones.” EurekAlert! 2023.  
• “Desalination.” by Water Science School. 2019.  
• “Tuning and Coupling Irreversible Electroosmotic Water Flow in Ionic Diodes: Methylation of an Intrinsically Microporous Polyamine (PIM-EA-TB).” by Zhongkai Li, et al. 2023.  

Suppress Stress 

• “Suppressing negative thoughts may be good for mental health after all.” by Z. Mamat & MC Anderson. 2023.  
• “Suppress Negative Thoughts to Improve Mental Health, Study Says.” by Lisa O’Mary. 2023.  

Ancient Wood 

• “‘Oldest wooden structure’ discovered on border of Zambia and Tanzania.” by Ian Sample. 2023.  
• “Evidence for the earliest structural use of wood at least 476,000 years ago.” by L. Barham, et al. 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. 

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Today, you’ll learn about a teensy tiny cure for zits, superpower spider webs, and how scientists have begun having conversations with plants. 

Nano Zit Zapper 

• “Tiny nanocarriers could prove the magic bullet for acne sufferers.” by UNISA. 2023.  
• “Why is acne *so* hard to get rid of? Dermatologists explain.” by Maddy Sims. 2023.  
• “Nanotechnology and narasin: a powerful combination against acne.” by Fatima Abid, et al. 2023.  

Super Strong Silk   

• “High-Strength and ultra-tough whole spider silk fibers spun from transgenic silkworms.” by Junpeng Mi, et al. 2023.  
• “Spider silk is spun by silkworms for the first time, offering a green alternative to synthetic fibers.” EurekAlert! 2023.  

Plant Communication 

• “Conversations with plants: Can we provide plants with advance warning of impending dangers?” EurekAlert! 2023.  
• “Highligher: An optogenetic system for high-resolution gene expression control in plants.” by Bo Larsen, et al. 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. 

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Today, you’ll learn about how swabbing leaves could save biodiversity, the science of saltwater taffy, and how some of our memories are surprisingly accurate.  

Leaf Swab Tell All 

• “A new DNA leaf swab technique could revolutionize how we monitor biodiversity.” by Darren Incorvaia. 2023.  
• “Kibale: The primate capital of the world.” n.a. N.d. 
• “Detecting a vast diversity of rainforest animals by swabbing their DNA from leaves.” ScienceDaily. 2023.  
• “A ‘Crossroads’ for Humanity: Earth’s Biodiversity Is Still Collapsing.” by Catrin Einhorn. 2021.  

Taffy Science 

• “The physics of saltwater taffy.” by Jennifer Ouellette. 2023.  
• “The rheology of saltwater taffy.” by San To Chan, et al. 2023.  

Persistence of Memory 

• “How accurate are our first childhood memories?” by Joe Phelan. 2023.  
• “Infantile Amnesia: A Critical Period of Learning to Learn and Remember.” by Cristina M. Alberini & Alessio Travaglia. 2017.  
• “The Truth Is Out There: Accuracy in Recall of Verifiable Real-World Events.” by Nicholas B. Diamond, et al. 2020.  

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. 

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Today, you’ll learn about the sounds that make some people want to run for the hills, how our sense of self determines what we find beautiful, and an ancient naval cannon with some secrets of its own. 

Misophonia 

• “A symptom network model of misophonia: From heightened sensory sensitivity to clinical comorbidity.” by Nora Andermane, et al. 2023.  
• “Misophonia: When sounds really do make you ‘crazy’.” by James Cartreine, PhD. 2019.  

Self-Relevant Artwork 

• “In the ‘I’ of the beholder: People believe self-relevant artwork is more beautiful.” EurekAlert! 2023.  
• “Art and Identity: The Profound Link Between Self-Relevance and Aesthetic Appeal Unveiled by AI.” by Niharika Singh. 2023.  
• “Self-Relevance Makes Art More Appealing.” n.a. 2023.  

Ancient Artillery  

• “Early Artillery Piece Recovered Near Sweden.” n.a. 2023.  
• “The Marstrand Cannon: The earliest evidence of shipboard artillery in Europe?” by Staffan von Arbin, et al. 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. 

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