This is Kureausity Daily from Discovery, the best place to get smarter in just a few minutes.

I'm Nate.

Welcome back, all of our loyal listeners and our new friends.

My name is Callie.

Today you'll learn about a new anxiety-free way to collect blood samples

modeled on the sucking power of leeches, the super carbon gobbling power of

blue-green algae and a new understanding of how asthma happens

and maybe how to stop it.

Ooh, interesting, let's jump in.

Everyone at some point in their lives has to get blood drawn. It's really just a fact of our

modern world. But some people, well let's just say some people aren't a huge fan of

needles. Yeah, no, I have a friend who will literally faint if she sees a needle from across the room.

It's me, I'm the friend.

Yeah, yeah, there it is.

Well, believe it or not, you are not alone, by some estimates around a quarter of all American adults have a fear of needles, and that fear causes somewhere around 16% of us to skip procedures altogether.

And that can have huge impacts for our health outcomes.

Yeah, I mean, if you're feeling sick or something's wrong,

you could miss an important diagnosis

and all the treatment that comes with it if you're

skipping the doctor's office just because of that fear of needles.

That finger prick or draw from the arm is often the first step in a proper diagnosis.

But researchers in Zurich think they have a

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