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Good morning! It's Sunday, Aug. 2, and welcome to our Sunday Edition. Today, we're learning about what many would consider one of the less fun aspects of summer: mosquitoes. Keep reading to discover the 25 new UNESCO World Heritage Sites (News in Context), the history of US immigration (Civics), the funniest scenes in Mel Brooks movies (Etc.), and much more.
📖 Our Sunday edition digs deep into the context and rabbit holes behind the news. We'll be back with our regular Daily Digest tomorrow through Saturday.
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Itchy Little Fly
Tiny but lethal, mosquitoes are the world's deadliest animal, killing about 760,000 people annually. Though there are more than 3,500 species of mosquitoes and only a very small fraction of them bite humans, the diseases that skeeters carry can be very deadly. Malaria, dengue, West Nile virus, and more sicken and kill humans and other animals, too. Only females bite humans, and they suck our blood because they need blood proteins to sustain their eggs.
> Mosquitoes top the ranking of the world's deadliest animals. (More, w/chart)
> The mosquito's role in the transmission of malaria was confirmed in 1897. (More)
The bugs have been spotted on every continent but Antarctica. Their range is expanding with climate change, and mosquitoes were most recently documented in 2025 in Iceland, the last mosquito-free country until that point. Even as mosquitoes spread to new locales and the bugs develop resistance to insecticides, scientific advances are creating new mosquito control options.
> Genetic analysis suggests Anopheles mosquitoes fed on humans some 1.8 million years ago. (More)
> Anopheles mosquitoes are developing resistance to insecticides. (More)
> Iceland, the last mosquito-free country, detected them in 2025. (More, w/video)
Gene-editing technology could now theoretically render female mosquitoes infertile to wipe out disease-carrying species, though concerns remain about effectively limiting this engineered trait to the target species. Infecting mosquitoes with the Wolbachia bacterium is another option under consideration, since the naturally occurring microbe blocks transmission of various diseases.
> See how gene-editing technology could theoretically make female mosquitoes infertile. (More, w/video)
> The insect drinks a maximum of 0.01 milliliters of blood in a single meal. (More, w/video)
Discover more:
> Using mosquitoes to vaccinate bats could curb the spread of deadly diseases. (More)
> Mosquitoes even have olfactory receptors on their sperm. (More, w/video)
> Some mosquitoes are key pollinators—and eat disease-carrying mosquitoes. (More)
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News in Context
1440 brings you the knowledge and context behind the week's stories:
The Federal Reserve declined to change interest rates at its meeting Wednesday, leaving rates in the 3.50%-3.75% range. (More)
> No institution wields more power in US finance than the Federal Reserve, the central bank of the US.
> Interest rates have historically been an indicator of the US economy's overall health.
UNESCO added 25 new sites to its World Heritage List last month. (More, w/photos)
> The full list of over 1,000 UNESCO World Heritage sites, broken down by country.
> Eight Frank Lloyd Wright works are listed as World Heritage Sites.
A magnitude 7.1 earthquake hit Southwestern Japan Tuesday, killing at least 18 people. (More)
> Tectonic earthquakes are caused by tectonic plates sliding past one another at fault zones, deforming rock through friction.
> The earliest earthquake-detection device—the seismoscope—was invented in China in 132 CE and featured eight ball-wielding dragons facing different directions.
1440 Civics
The question of who can enter the United States has dominated American politics for more than a century. As of June 2025, nearly 52 million immigrants lived in the United States, representing 15.4% of the total population.
> See which country was your state's most common source of immigrants, from 1850 to 2022. (More)
> Before 1965, US immigration law relied on nationality-based bans and quotas. (More)
... and it's likely a myth that inspectors at Ellis Island changed immigrants' names. (More)
> See the impact that immigrants have on the US economy. (More, w/visualization)
Want more? Explore hundreds of our favorite Civics-related resources.
🌐 The Origins of Silicon Valley
Ever wondered why Silicon Valley, not New York, Boston, or anywhere else, became the world's innovation hub? Our favorite episode of the "1440 Explores" podcast unpacks the unlikely chain of events that built the modern tech industry. Watch the episode here or click below:
PS—Click here to listen on Spotify and Apple.
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Etcetera
Watch 10 hilarious scenes from different Mel Brooks films.
Monaco has the world's oldest population.
How common food items are traded around the globe.
Explore an interactive map of strangers' memories around the world.
The International Space Station produces oxygen from recycled water.
An 1844 chess match via telegraph anticipated the board game's online popularity.
🫶 Humankind: Biologist spearheads project to build rope bridges for wildlife in the Amazon, leading to 15,000 safe wildlife crossings and zero roadkill.
"Toy Story" was initially pushed to be an edgy comedy that could appeal to adults.
Spotting a liar may be easier when listening rather than looking.
Discover an animation illustrating the roughly 40 weeks of fetal development.
This lake in the Faroe Islands appears to “float” above the ocean.
"Loud budgeting" involves telling your friends what you can't afford.
Your gut microbiome is composed of six main types of bacteria.
Historybook: Declaration of Independence is signed (1776); American actress Myrna Loy born (1905); Alexander Graham Bell dies (1922); Author and activist James Baldwin born (1924); Iraq invades Kuwait, leading to Gulf War (1990).
"The longer I live, the more deeply I learn that love—whether we call it friendship or family or romance—is the work of mirroring and magnifying each other's light."
—James Baldwin
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