Nightlight Plight, Cancer Stinks, Literal Green Energy

Today, you’ll learn about how that light coming in through your window at night is in fact ruining your sleep, how some diseases—including cancer—can be smelled by dogs and we’re on the verge of being able to smell them with modern technology, and how algae may one day provide the power for our smallest devices.

Close your blinds.

• “Light exposure during sleep impairs cardiometabolic function” by Ivy C. Mason, Kathryn J. Reid, Chloe D. Warlick, Roneil G. Malkani, Sabra M. Abbott, and Phyllis C. Zee
  • https://www.pnas.org/doi/full/10.1073/pnas.2113290119
• “Sleeping with a light on may be bad for your heart and blood sugar” by Nicoletta Lanese
  • https://www.livescience.com/sleep-in-lit-room-worse-heart-metabolic-health
• “Sleeping with the light on may be harmful to you” by Erin Blakemore
  • https://www.washingtonpost.com/health/2022/03/20/sleep-lights-health/
• “What is the difference between lux and lumens?” by Waveform Lighting
  • https://www.waveformlighting.com/home-residential/what-is-the-difference-between-lux-and-lumens
• “Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes” by the National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases
  • https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/what-is-diabetes/prediabetes-insulin-resistance

What’s that smell?

• “Cancer has a smell. Someday your phone may detect it.” by Noam Hassenfeld
  • https://www.vox.com/unexplainable/22323113/unexplainable-smell-mystery-nanonose
• “Dogs Are Teaching Machines to Sniff Out Cancer” by Asher Jones
  • https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/dogs-are-teaching-machines-to-sniff-out-cancer-68469
• “The Quest to Make a Bot That Can Smell as Well as a Dog” by Sara Harrison
  • https://www.wired.com/story/quest-to-make-robot-smell-cancer-dog/
• “What DARPA Does” by DARPA
  • https://www.darpa.mil/about-us/what-darpa-does

Get used to algae-power.

• “Algae-powered computing: Scientists create reliable and renewable biological photovoltaic cell” by Eureka Alert
  • https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/952203
• “Algae-powered computing: scientists create reliable and renewable biological photovoltaic cell” by University of Cambridge
  • https://www.cam.ac.uk/research/news/scientists-create-reliable-biological-photovoltaic-cell-using-algae
• “Scientists create algae computer powered by photosynthesis” by James Vincent
  • https://www.theverge.com/2022/5/16/23074715/algae-computer-chip-photosynthesis-arm-cortext-iot-biophotovoltaics
• “A Potato Battery Can Light Up a Room For Over a Month” by Tuan C. Nguyen
  • https://www.smithsonianmag.com/innovation/a-potato-battery-can-light-up-a-room-for-over-a-month-180948260/

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Find episode transcripts here: https://curiosity-daily-4e53644e.simplecast.com/episodes/nightlight-plight-cancer-stinks-literal-green-energy

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