Curiosity Daily Discovery

Today, you’ll learn about how non-invasive brain stimulation might offer relief to older patients suffering from anxiety and depression, the first known molecular fractal, and a new discovery turning the view of bonobos as peace-loving primates on its head.  
 
Brain Stimulation 
 
“Brain stimulation treatment may improve depression, anxiety in older adults.” by Jill Pease. 2024.  “Mental health of older adults.” WHO. 2023.  “tDCS reduces depression and state anxiety symptoms in older adults from the augmenting cognitive training in older adults study (ACT). by Hanna K. Hausman, et al. 2024.   
Fractal Molecule 
 
“Discovery of the first fractal molecule in nature.” Max Plank Gesellschaft. 2024.  “How Fractals Work.” by Craig Haggit & Yara Simon. 2023.  “Six Sierpinski Triangle Constructions (visual mathematics).” YouTube Video. 2023.   
Bonobos 
 
“Bonobos not the peace-loving primates once thought, study reveals.” by Nicola Davis. 2024.  “Differences in expression of male aggression between wild bonobos and chimpanzees.” by Maud Mouginot, et al. 2024.   
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Today, you’ll learn about a new AI developed to help doctors identify and treat diseases like cancer, why watching sports might give our sense of wellness a boost, and the real reason we blink so much.  
 
AI Medical Research  
 
“Mayo researchers invented a new class of AI to improve cancer research and treatments.” EurekAlert! 2024.  “The Rise of Hypothesis-Driven Artificial Intelligence in Oncology.” by Zilin Xianyu, et al. 2024.  
Watching Sports 
 
“The joy of sports: How watching sports can boost well-being.” EurekAlert! 2024.  “Watching sport enhances well-being: evidence from a multi-method approach.” by Keita Kinoshita, et al. 2024.   
Blinking 
 
“Why do we blink so much?” EurekAlert! 2024.  “Eye blinks as a visual processing stage.” by Bin Yang, 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. 

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Today, you’ll learn about the traits most people value in romantic partners, a new link between a particular gut bacteria and cardiovascular health, and why dogs might make your kids healthier.  
 
Romantic Traits  
 
“Intelligence and kindness are the most valued traits in romantic partners, study finds.” by Eric W. Dolan. 2024.  “What Do Different People Look for in a Partner? Effects of Sex, Sexual Orientation, and Mating Strategies on Partner Preferences.” by Joao Francisco Goes Braga Takayanagi, et al. 2024.   
Heart & Gut 
 
“Scientists link certain gut bacteria to lower heart disease risk.” by Allessandra DiCorato. 2024.  “7 Crazy Facts About The Microbiome And Gut Bacteria.” by Ross Carver-Carter. N.d. “Gut microbiome and metabolome profiling in Framingham heart study reveals cholesterol-metabolizing bacteria.” by Chenhao Li, et al. 2024.  “Cholesterol Metabolism by Uncultured Human Gut Bacteria Influences Host Cholesterol Level.” by Douglas J. Kenny, et al. 2020.  “About the Framingham Heart Study.” n.a. N.d.   
Canine Play 
 
“The Serious Side of Kid And Canine Play.” UMass Amherst. 2024. “America’s Pandemic, Physical Inactivity.” PHIT America. 2023.  “Physical Activity: Children.” CDC. 2023.  “The KID Study (Kids Interacting With Dogs): Piloting a Novel Approach for Measuring Dog-Facilitated Youth Physical Activity.” by Colleen J. Chase, et al. 2024.  
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Today, you’ll learn about how diversifying farms has a ton of upsides and virtually no downsides, the way we tend to predict how something will smell before we smell it, and a universally shared preference for simple rhythms in music.  
 
Diversified Farming  
 
“Major study reports that people and environment both benefit from diversified farming, while bottom lines also thrive.” University of Copenhagen. 2024.  “Joint environmental and social benefits from diversified agriculture.” by Laura Vang Rasmussen, et al. 2024.  “The Green Revolution: Norman Borlaug and the Race to Fight Global Hunger.” by Ray Offenheiser. 2020.   
Sense of Smell  
 
“The sense of smell is influenced by cues from other senses.” Stockholm University. 2024.  “Olfactory categorization is shaped by a transmodal cortical network for evaluating perceptual predictions.” by Stephen Pierzchajlo, et al. 2024.   
Simple Rhythms 
 
“Cross-cultural research reveals universal bias towards simple rhythmic ratios in music.” by Eric W. Dolan. 2024.  “Commonality and variation in mental representations of music revealed by a cross-cultural comparison of rhythm priors in 15 countries.” by Nori Jacoby, 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. 

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Today, you’ll learn about a tantalizing new discovery about dark energy that could change our understanding of the entire universe, how scientists are pulling electricity from raindrops, and the barcode memory tool inside a chickadee’s brain.  
 
Dark Energy 
 
“A Tantalizing ‘Hint’ That Astronomers Got Dark Energy All Wrong.” by Dennis Overbye. 2024.  “What Is Dark Energy? An Astrophysicist Explains.” Ars Technica. YouTube Video. 2023.  “What is Dark Energy? Inside our accelerating, expanding universe.” by Chelsea Gohd. 2024.  “DESI Data Documentation.” Database. 2023.  
Electric Rain 
 
“New green technology harvests energy from raindrops and humidity.” by Robert F. Service. 2024.  “The Amazing Drinking Bird.” by Brian Rohrig. 2024. “Rapid progress of key clean energy technologies shows the new energy economy is emerging faster than many think.” IEA.org. 2023.    
Chickadees 
 
“Chickadees use memory ‘bar codes’ to find their hidden food stashes.” by Jake Buehler. 2024.  “Barcoding of episodic memories in the hippocampus of a food-caching bird.” by Selmaan N. Chettih, et al. 2024.  “Birdist Rule #71: Figure Out What Kind Of Chickadees You’ve Got.” by Nicholas Lund. 2016.  “Somewhere in the brain is a storage device for memories.” by Laura Sanders. 2018.  “A manifold neural population code for space in hippocampal coactivity dynamics independent of place fields.” by Eliott Robert Joseph Levy, et al. 2023.  “Heterogeneous representations in the hippocampus.” by Kazumasa Z. Tanaka. 2021.  
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Today, you’ll learn about some potential good news about whale populations, what decades-old cans of salmon can tell us about the health of the ocean, and how climate change is literally slowing down the world.  
 
Recovered Whales  
 
“Whale population recovers five years after hundreds washed up dead.” n.a. 2024.  “The gray whale die-off on West Coast is over, NOAA declares.” by Karen Garcia. 2024.  “Endangered Species Day Information.” Endangered Species Coalition. 2020.  
Old Salmon Cans 
 
“Decades-old Cans of Salmon Reveal Changes in Ocean Health.” by Rachel Nuwer. 2024.  “Opening a can of worms: Archived canned fish fillets reveal 40 years of change in parasite burden for four Alaskan salmon species.” by Natalie Mastick, et al. 2024.   
Climate Change & Time 
 
“Climate change is changing how we keep time.” by Carolyn Gramling. 2024.  “A global timekeeping problem postponed by global warming.” by Duncan Carr Agnew. 2024.  “50 years ago, timekeepers deployed the newly invented leap second.” by Cassie Martin. 2024.  
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