Why We Sleep Badly on Our First Night in a New Place

"Other animals can straddle the boundaries between sleeping and wakefulness. Whales, dolphins, and many birds can sleep with just one half of their brains at a time, while the other half stays awake and its corresponding eye stays open. Sasaki wondered if humans do something similar, albeit to a less dramatic degree. Maybe when we enter a new environment, one half of our brain stays more awake than the other, so we can better respond to unusual sounds or smells or signs of danger. Maybe our first night in a new place is disturbed because half our brain is pulling an extra shift as a night watchman. “It was a bit of a hunch,” she says. “Maybe we’d find something interesting.”" (Image: Nicky Loh) 
 

The Long Decline of the Dinosaurs

"Around 66 million years ago, the sky fell on the dinosaurs’ heads. An asteroid smashed into the Yucatan Peninsula, causing cataclysmic climate changes that marked the end of the Cretaceous period, and killed off some three-quarters of animal species. A small proportion of hardy birds survived, but the other dinosaurs went extinct. They were, however, already in decline. Manabu Sakamoto from the University of Reading has shown that dinosaur species were going extinct faster than new ones were appearing, for at least 40 million years before the end of the Cretaceous. The dinosaur opera had already been going through a long diminuendo well before the asteroid ushered in its final coda." (Image: Darren Staples) 
 

Florida’s Dragon Problem

"But the other species of Nile monitor is another matter. It can survive through the cold and frosty winters of southern Africa by hibernating. If it got into the U.S., Dowell’s simulations predict that it could make itself comfortable across the eastern and western seaboards, especially if the climate continues to warm. “If, for example, we decided to crack down on the trade in West Africa, and the exploitation shifted to south Africa, that lineage could spread very quickly,” says Hekkala. “Its invasiveness is much greater. It is so pre-adapted to the North American climate that it could spread almost to Chicago, even without climate change.” (Image: Bernard Dupont) 
 

How to Survive a Fast, Venomous, Flesh-Destroying Snake

"The saw-scaled viper is a rare exception. It’s aggressive and hard to spot. It’s common to parts of the world that are densely populated by humans. And it has a potent venom. Toxins in the venom can break down the membranes that line our blood vessels, and max out our ability to clot, leading to catastrophic bleeding. But the venom doesn’t just kill; it destroys." (Image: imageBROKER, Alamy) 
 

More good reads

• Scientists have discovered a 600-mile coral reef at the mouth of the Amazon River. By Robinson Meyer
• Julie Beck on the future of menstruating in space (or maybe, not menstruating in space)
• The dark tales of the world's most epic sleep-talker. David Robson on “somniloquies”
• "Each particle interaction takes about 4 microseconds, so we have to sift through data to find the 50 microseconds a year of data we actually care about." J. M. Porup on a frozen neutrino observatory. With amazing pics.
• Beautiful cryptic cards and chromascape art from Immy Smith
• My friend Kathryn Schulz won a Pulitzer prize for her incredible earthquake piece, and I couldn’t be happier.
• A Snow Leopard showing off.
• On feeding the trolls, or not. Wonderful insightful piece by Adrienne LaFrance
• Great piece on a long collaboration between British, US, and North Korean volcanologists. By Sarah Zhang.
• What It's Like To Be The Only Painter In Antarctica. By Cara Giaimo
• “This is an unprecedented event that has never been done before in the world.” Maryn McKenna on swapping out a new polio vaccine. 

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And that's it! Thanks for reading.

-Ed