The brightest take on this week’s science

That clunky CPAP machine may soon have competition.

A nightly pill for sleep apnea has performed so well in clinical trials that the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) is fast-tracking it for approval.

CPAP machines are very effective at keeping the airways open, but many patients forgo them because they are uncomfortable and inconvenient.

In a phase 3 clinical trial, a nightly drug called AD109 reduced sleep apnea symptoms for almost 42 percent of those enrolled.

Nearly 18 percent of participants stopped experiencing obstructive sleep apnea altogether.

A decision on the drug’s approval should be made by 2027…

Read more.

An active volcano in the Philippines was spewing out bright red lava this week, when suddenly, a bright green fireball in the night sky came streaking out of nowhere.

Onlookers were "shocked" and "stunned”, according to the Philippine Space Agency, but despite what it may look like, the meteor did not actually hit the volcano.

That would have caused massive rockslides. Instead, most of the meteor probably burned up in Earth’s atmosphere, experts say.

An amateur local astronomer calculated the meteor's energy at 6.8 million kilograms of gunpowder.

Luckily, the rare event was caught on livestream, and the footage has gone viral.

Click the link below to see it for yourself.

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A) Microplastics
B) Eggshell
C) Dead skin
D) Volcanic ash

Answer at the bottom.

Mothers may physically carry a pregnancy, but even fathers can undergo dramatic physiological changes when their baby is born.

A brain scan study of 25 new fathers has now revealed a "dynamic pattern of change".

In the weeks after becoming a new father, it seems that the male brain rapidly restructures itself for a fresh role in life.

In the 12 weeks after that, however, other parts of the brain swell in volume.

What these changes mean is still unclear, but researchers suspect they are related to attachment and caregiving.

The brain only has so much tissue to go around, and raising a new baby requires a whole new set of skills – for both fathers and mothers.

Read more.

Earth’s oceans were once home to fearsome octopuses as big as whales.

These giant marine predators could reach up to 19 meters (62 feet) in length, according to their fossils.

They are among the largest invertebrates known to humankind.

Sprint into the weekend.

Microscope answer: Volcanic ash

This is a microscopic image of volcanic ash from a 1912 eruption in Alaska, which still fills local valleys to a thickness of 200 meters. In 2015, the ash shown above was picked up by strong winds and carried south, all the way over the water, to Kodiak Island.