Hope for Mass Extinction, Mild Fever, Wax Worm Saliva

Today you’ll learn about how climate change research benefits from studying populations instead of species, how sometimes it’s better not to take any medication for your fever, and how worm saliva might solve the world’s plastic problem. Watch the premiere of The Lazarus Project on Sunday, June 4, at 9:00pm on TNT!

Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/hope-for-mass-extinction-mild-fever-wax-worm-saliva

Hope for Mass Extinction

“Study: To save nature, focus on populations, not species” by University of Massachusetts Amherst

• https://phys.org/news/2022-12-nature-focus-populations-species.html

“Greater evolutionary divergence of thermal limits within marine than terrestrial species” by Matthew Sasaki et al.

• https://www.nature.com/articles/s41558-022-01534-y

Mild Fever

• “Mild fever helps clear infections faster, new study suggests.” by Bev Betkowski. 2023.
  • https://medicalxpress.com/news/2023-03-mild-fever-infections-faster.html
• “Fever integrates antimicrobial defences, inflammation control, and tissue repair in a cold-blooded vertebrate.” by Farah Haddad, et al. 2023.
  • https://elifesciences.org/articles/83644

Wax Worm Saliva

• “Was Worm Saliva Is the Unlikely Hero of Fighting Plastic Waste.” by Jacquelyne Germain. 2022.
  • https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/wax-worm-saliva-is-the-unlikely-hero-of-fighting-plastic-waste-180980908/
• “Lowly was worm’s saliva may boost fight against plastic pollution.” by Will Dunham. 2022.
  • https://www.reuters.com/lifestyle/science/lowly-wax-worms-saliva-may-boost-fight-against-plastic-pollution-2022-10-04/
• “Microplastics Detected in Human Blood in New Study.” by Margaret Osborne. 2022.
  • https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/microplastics-detected-in-human-blood-180979826/

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