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.

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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.

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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.

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