If you’ve ever flown through outer space, at least while watching a documentary or a science fiction film, you’ve seen how artists turn astronomical findings into stunning visuals. But in the process of visualizing data for their latest planetarium show, a production team at New York’s American Museum of Natural History made a surprising discovery of their own: a trillion-and-a-half mile long spiral of material drifting along the edge of our solar system. “So this is a really fun thing that happened,” says Jackie Faherty, the museum’s senior scientist. Last winter, Faherty and her colleagues were beneath the dome of the museum’s Hayden Planetarium, fine-tuning a scene that featured the Oort cloud, the big, thick bubble surrounding our Sun and planets that’s filled with ice and rock and other remnants from the solar system’s infancy. The Oort cloud begins far beyond Neptune, around one and a half light years from the Sun. It has never been directly observed; its existence is inferred from the behavior of long-period comets entering the inner solar system. The cloud is so expansive that the Voyager spacecraft, our most distant probes, would need another 250 years just to reach its inner boundary; to reach the other side, they would need about 30,000 years.  The 30-minute show, Encounters in the Milky Way, narrated by Pedro Pascal, guides audiences on a trip through the galaxy across billions of years. For a section about our nascent solar system, the writing team decided “there’s going to be a fly-by” of the Oort cloud, Faherty says. “But what does our Oort cloud look like?”  To find out, the museum consulted astronomers and turned to David Nesvorný, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in San Antonio. He provided his model of the millions of particles believed to make up the Oort cloud, based on extensive observational data. “Everybody said, go talk to Nesvorný. He’s got the best model,” says Faherty. And “everybody told us, ‘There’s structure in the model,’ so we were kind of set up to look for stuff,” she says.  The museum’s technical team began using Nesvorný’s model to simulate how the cloud evolved over time. Later, as the team projected versions of the fly-by scene into the dome, with the camera looking back at the Oort cloud, they saw a familiar shape, one that appears in galaxies, Saturn’s rings, and disks around young stars. “We’re flying away from the Oort cloud and out pops this spiral, a spiral shape to the outside of our solar system,” Faherty marveled. “A huge structure, millions and millions of particles.” She emailed Nesvorný to ask for “more particles,” with a render of the scene attached. “We noticed the spiral of course,” she wrote. “And then he writes me back: ‘what are you talking about, a spiral?’”  While fine-tuning a simulation of the Oort cloud, a vast expanse of ice material leftover from the birth of our Sun, the ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ production team noticed a very clear shape: a structure made of billions of comets and shaped like a spiral-armed galaxy, seen here in a scene from the final Space Show (curving, dusty S-shape behind the Sun) [Image: © AMNH] More simulations ensued, this time on Pleiades, a powerful NASA supercomputer. In high-performance computer simulations spanning 4.6 billion years, starting from the Solar System’s earliest days, the researchers visualized how the initial icy and rocky ingredients of the Oort cloud began circling the Sun, in the elliptical orbits that are thought to give the cloud its rough disc shape. The simulations also incorporated the physics of the Sun’s gravitational pull, the influences from our Milky Way galaxy, and the movements of the comets themselves.  In each simulation, the spiral persisted. “No one has ever seen the Oort structure like that before,” says Faherty. Nesvorný “has a great quote about this: ‘The math was all there. We just needed the visuals.’”  An illustration of the Kuiper Belt and Oort Cloud in relation to our solar system. [Image: NASA] As the Oort cloud grew with the early solar system, Nesvorný and his colleagues hypothesize that the galactic tide, or the gravitational force from the Milky Way, disrupted the orbits of some comets. Although the Sun pulls these objects inward, the galaxy’s gravity appears to have twisted part of the Oort cloud outward, forming a spiral tilted roughly 30 degrees from the plane of the solar system. “As the galactic tide acts to decouple bodies from the scattered disk it creates a spiral structure in physical space that is roughly 15,000 astronomical units in length,” or around 1.4 trillion miles from one end to the other, the researchers write in a paper that was published in March in the Astrophysical Journal. “The spiral is long-lived and persists in the inner Oort Cloud to the present time.” “The physics makes sense,” says Faherty. “Scientists, we’re amazing at what we do, but it doesn’t mean we can see everything right away.” It helped that the team behind the space show was primed to look for something, says Carter Emmart, the museum’s director of astrovisualization and director of Encounters. Astronomers had described Nesvorný’s model as having “a structure,” which intrigued the team’s artists. “We were also looking for structure so that it wouldn’t just be sort of like a big blob,” he says. “Other models were also revealing this—but they just hadn’t been visualized.” The museum’s attempts to simulate nature date back to its first habitat dioramas in the early 1900s, which brought visitors to places that hadn’t yet been captured by color photos, TV, or the web. The planetarium, a night sky simulator for generations of would-be scientists and astronauts, got its start after financier Charles Hayden bought the museum its first Zeiss projector. The planetarium now boasts one of the world’s few Zeiss Mark IX systems. Still, these days the star projector is rarely used, Emmart says, now that fulldome laser projectors can turn the old static starfield into 3D video running at 60 frames per second. The Hayden boasts six custom-built Christie projectors, part of what the museum’s former president called “the most advanced planetarium ever attempted.”  In about 1.3 million years, the star system Gliese 710 is set to pass directly through our Oort Cloud, an event visualized in a dramatic scene in ‘Encounters in the Milky Way.’ During its flyby, our systems will swap icy comets, flinging some out on new paths. [Image: © AMNH] Emmart recalls how in 1998, when he and other museum leaders were imagining the future of space shows at the Hayden—now with the help of digital projectors and computer graphics—there were questions over how much space they could try to show. “We’re talking about these astronomical data sets we could plot to make the galaxy and the stars,” he says. “Of course, we knew that we would have this star projector, but we really wanted to emphasize astrophysics with this dome video system. I was drawing pictures of this just to get our heads around it and noting the tip of the solar system to the Milky Way is about 60 degrees. And I said, what are we gonna do when we get outside the Milky Way?’ “Then [planetarium’s director] Neil Degrasse Tyson “goes, ‘whoa, whoa, whoa, Carter, we have enough to do. And just plotting the Milky Way, that’s hard enough.’ And I said, ‘well, when we exit the Milky Way and we don’t see any other galaxies, that’s sort of like astronomy in 1920—we thought maybe the entire universe is just a Milky Way.'” “And that kind of led to a chaotic discussion about, well, what other data sets are there for this?” Emmart adds. The museum worked with astronomer Brent Tully, who had mapped 3500 galaxies beyond the Milky Way, in collaboration with the National Center for Super Computing Applications. “That was it,” he says, “and that seemed fantastical.” By the time the first planetarium show opened at the museum’s new Rose Center for Earth and Space in 2000, Tully had broadened his survey “to an amazing” 30,000 galaxies. The Sloan Digital Sky Survey followed—it’s now at data release 18—with six million galaxies. To build the map of the universe that underlies Encounters, the team also relied on data from the European Space Agency’s space observatory, Gaia. Launched in 2013 and powered down in March of this year, Gaia brought an unprecedented precision to our astronomical map, plotting the distance between 1.7 billion stars. To visualize and render the simulated data, Jon Parker, the museum’s lead technical director, relied on Houdini, a 3D animation tool by Toronto-based SideFX. The goal is immersion, “whether it’s in front of the buffalo downstairs, and seeing what those herds were like before we decimated them, to coming in this room and being teleported to space, with an accurate foundation in the science,” Emmart says. “But the art is important, because the art is the way to the soul.”  The museum, he adds, is “a testament to wonder. And I think wonder is a gateway to inspiration, and inspiration is a gateway to motivation.” Three-D visuals aren’t just powerful tools for communicating science, but increasingly crucial for science itself. Software like OpenSpace, an open source simulation tool developed by the museum, along with the growing availability of high-performance computing, are making it easier to build highly detailed visuals of ever larger and more complex collections of data. “Anytime we look, literally, from a different angle at catalogs of astronomical positions, simulations, or exploring the phase space of a complex data set, there is great potential to discover something new,” says Brian R. Kent, an astronomer and director of science communications at National Radio Astronomy Observatory. “There is also a wealth of astronomics tatical data in archives that can be reanalyzed in new ways, leading to new discoveries.” As the instruments grow in size and sophistication, so does the data, and the challenge of understanding it. Like all scientists, astronomers are facing a deluge of data, ranging from gamma rays and X-rays to ultraviolet, optical, infrared, and radio bands. Our Oort cloud (center), a shell of icy bodies that surrounds the solar system and extends one-and-a-half light years in every direction, is shown in this scene from ‘Encounters in the Milky Way’ along with the Oort clouds of neighboring stars. The more massive the star, the larger its Oort cloud [Image: © AMNH ] “New facilities like the Next Generation Very Large Array here at NRAO or the Vera Rubin Observatory and LSST survey project will generate large volumes of data, so astronomers have to get creative with how to analyze it,” says Kent.  More data—and new instruments—will also be needed to prove the spiral itself is actually there: there’s still no known way to even observe the Oort cloud.  Instead, the paper notes, the structure will have to be measured from “detection of a large number of objects” in the radius of the inner Oort cloud or from “thermal emission from small particles in the Oort spiral.”  The Vera C. Rubin Observatory, a powerful, U.S.-funded telescope that recently began operation in Chile, could possibly observe individual icy bodies within the cloud. But researchers expect the telescope will likely discover only dozens of these objects, maybe hundreds, not enough to meaningfully visualize any shapes in the Oort cloud.  For us, here and now, the 1.4 trillion mile-long spiral will remain confined to the inside of a dark dome across the street from Central Park.

Augmented World Expo 2025 will draw more than 6,000 attendees, 400 speakers and 300 global exhibitors to its event June 10 to June 12 in Long Beach, California. The speaker lineup includes Snap CEO Evan Spiegel, Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell and Oculus/Anduril founder Palmer Luckey. If the show is any indication, the XR industry isn’t doing so bad. A variety of market researchers are forecasting fast growth for the industry through 2030. Ori Inbar, CEO of AWE, believes that the XR revolution is “ready to conquer the mainstream.” But to get there, he believes the industry still needs to create “head-turning content that must be experienced.” Of course, the red hot days of the “metaverse,” inspired by Neal Stephenson’s Snow Crash sci-fi novel in 1992, is no longer driving the industry forward. With less focus on sci-fi, the industry is focused on practical uses for mixed reality technology in the enterprise and consumer markets like gaming. But will XR and the metaverse be overrun by AI, or will it carry them to the mass market destination? Much is riding on how committed Mark Zuckerberg’s Meta will be even as it reprioritizes some resources away from XR to AI. Meta, which acquired Luckey’s Oculus back in 2014, has invested billions every quarter in the technology, with no profits so far. But, in a very unexpected turnaround, Zuckerberg and Luckey buried the hatchet on the past differences and set up an alliance between Meta and Anduril — the latter being Luckey’s AI/drone defense company. Zuckerberg has new competition from his own nemesis, Apple, which launched the Apple Vision Pro in February 2024. However, Apple has slowed down its development of the next-generation XR headset, while Zuckerberg has put more emphasis on AR/AI glasses. Spiegel, the CEO of Snap, has focused on augmented reality glasses. His Spectacles are now in their fifth generation, powered by the Snap OS and authoring tool Lens Studio. Nolan Bushnell, founder of Atari and Chuck E. Cheese, will deliver a one-of-a-kind talk on the main stage with five of his children, who are continuing his pioneering vision in gaming through XR. Brent Bushnell, Nolan’s eldest son, recently debuted DreamPark, a new XR startup that turns any park or playground into a mixed reality theme parks. Others speakers include Vicki Dobbs Beck – VP, Immersive Content Innovation, Lucasfilm & ILM Immersive; Ziad Asghar – SVP & GM XR, Qualcomm; Brian McClendon – Chief Technology Officer, Niantic Spatial, Inc.; Jason Rubin – VP, Metaverse Experiences, Meta; Hugo Swart, Senior Director of XR Ecosystem Strategy and Technology, Google; Jacqui Bransky – VP Web3 & Innovation, Warner Records; Chi Xu – CEO and Founder, XREAL; Helen Papagiannis – AR Pioneer and XR Hall of Famer; and Tom Furness – Grandfather of VR and Founder, Virtual World Society. AWE Builders Nexus will be a new program focused on startups this year. Startup founders, developers, designers, product managers, and business leaders alike will get the resources they need to build something extraordinary, get advice and funding, scale through partnerships, and win customers, Inbar said. The event will also feature the AWE Gaming Hub. I also interviewed some companies that are showcasing technology at the show. Here’s some snippets from what they are going to show. Pico VR Pico started out in Beijing, China, in 2015 and is now hitting its 10th anniversary. It is making the standalone Pico XR headsets, and it was acquired by ByteDance, the owner of TikTok, in 2021. In September 2024, the company launched the Pico 4 Ultra Enterprise headset, filling out the high end of its product line in addition to its G3 and Neo 3 legacy headsets. Pico also has its set of full-body motion trackers to its product offerings to allow for full-body and object tracking. That’s helping it with its focus on location-based entertainment in markets such as China. It’s focused on WiFi7, hand tracking and motion tracking. Leland Hedges, head of enterprise business at Pico, said that the LBE market in China has grown by 1,000% in the last six to nine months Pico has an app for PC streaming and another app for managing devices over a LAN. Pico can track play spaces with columns or cordoned-off areas. Hedges said the company will share 15 different user stories at AWE in public places such as zoos, museums, aquariums and planetariums. Convai Purnendu Mukherjee, CEO of Convai, showed me a bunch of demos at the Game Developers Conference where it has been able to create avatar-based demos of generative AI solutions with 3D animated people. These can be used to show off brands and greet people on web sites or as avatars in games. At AWE, Convai will also off learning and training scenarios for education and enterprises through a variety of simulations. Convai can render high fidelity avatars that are effectively coming from the cloud. At GDC, Convai scanned me and captured my voice so that it can create a lifelike avatar of me. These avatars can be created quickly and answer a variety of questions from website visitors. The idea is to enable non-technical people to create simulations without the need to code anything. In a demo, Convai’s avatar of me said, “I’ve been covering the games industry for many years now at games beat I’ve seen it evolve from the arcades to the massive global phenomenon it is today. I love digging into the business side of gaming, the technology, the culture, the whole shebang.” Convai will announce pricing for its self-serve platform as well as an enterprise subscription fee. Doublepoint Ohto Pentikäinen, CEO of Doublepoint, has a technology that detects the gesture you can make with your hand. It captures that movement via a smartwatch and allows you to control things on a TV interface or an XR device. With Android XR, Doublepoint is showing off demos where gesture control can unlock a more intuitive and comfortable augmented reality experience for those wearing AR glasses. Xreal is one of the glasses makers that is using the technology for controlling an AR user interface with gestures. “Our technology is able to fully control a XR system. A stat that we can update you on is that there’s 150,000 people who have downloaded the technology so far, and we have a developer community of over 2,000 people since January 2024,” Pentikäinen said. Now the company is starting its own Doublepoing developer program, and this adds layers on top of the enterprise client. So now the company can provide technology for indie developers or startups that are building augmented reality or AI hardware experiences. “We’re empowering developers in AR robotics and AI hardware, and we’re providing everything that we’re providing the enterprise clients, but for a much reduced price,” Pentikäinen said.

AR developer DreamPark secures $1.1m in seed funding round Investment will support expansion plans, partnerships with established IP, and growing its development team Image credit: DreamPark News by Sophie McEvoy Staff Writer Published on May 30, 2025 Mixed reality developer DreamPark has raised $1.1 million in a seed funding round. DreamPark develops AR experiences at physical locations via markers including QR codes that change real-world spaces with digital features. Led by Long Journey Ventures with participation from Founders Inc., the investment will help the firm accelerate creating partnerships with established IP, expanding the amount of rental Quest headset units it has, and growing its development team. So far, DreamPark has installed experiences in Santa Monica and the LA County Fair, with plans to expand to Seattle, Orange County, and corporate events. "We're not just creating content, we're building a platform that revitalises communities by giving people a reason to gather, play, and connect in physical spaces in real life," said DreamPark CEO and co-founder Aidan Wolf. "DreakPark bridges the digital and physical worlds, creating a new category of play where the magic of virtual worlds enhances real-life connections. We're reimagining what's possible when the spaces around us become canvases for shared adventure and imagination." DreamPark co-founder and business director Brent Bushnell added: "We're building the world's largest theme park – one that exists everywhere and is accessible to everyone. We want to make getting out to play worthwhile again. "This investment allows us to expand our footprint of access points across the country rapidly, develop partnerships with premium IP holders, and continue enhancing our technology to deliver magical experiences that bring people back to real-world spaces."

All in all, the mattress is a great choice for those who like a plush sleep experience. “I would highly recommend it, especially if you’re interested in switching to an eco-friendly bed—it’s an amazing alternative to a regular mattress!” Gore says. “I noticed that I tossed and turned less throughout the night while snoozing on this mattress because my body locked into position once I dozed off.”For Firmer-Leaning SleepersMy Green Mattress Natural Escape MattressUpsidesSupportive designShips in a box for streamlined deliveryDownsidesWhite-glove delivery is not an optionSpecsOrganic certifications: GOTS and GOLS certified organic, GreenGuard Gold certifiedMattress type: InnerspringHeight: 11 inchesFirmness: Medium-firmWarranty: Free shipping and returns, 20-year warranty, 120-night sleep trial periodWhen contributor Kristi Kellogg was asked if she would recommend this bed to a friend, her answer was simple: “Ab-so-lutely.” This straightforward response comes after an incredibly streamlined delivery and setup process. “The mattress showed up in a box that was as tall as me, and I was able to push it into my garage without event,” she says.The mattress itself consists of layers of organic latex and wool, plus cotton quilting, which unfurl out of the packaging into a supportive sleep surface. The medium-firm mattress is also just as comfortable as typical firm mattresses, according to Kellogg. “I feel super supported, and haven’t experienced any back pain sleeping on it,” she says. If you prefer a more pillowy experience, she also notes that My Green Mattress sells plush mattress toppers that give you an extra two inches of softness and pressure point relief.Best for a Range of SleepersAvocado Green MattressUpsidesIt has the most organic certifications in this listBoasts over 15,000 five-star reviewsHas a classic firm feelDownsidesThe medium and plush firmness levels cost extraSpecsOrganic certifications: GreenGuard Gold certified, Oeko-Tex Standard 100 certified, FSC Pure Talalay latex certified, GOTS certified organic wool and cotton, climate neutral certifiedMattress type: Latex hybridHeight: 11 inchesFirmness: Firm, medium, plush optionsWarranty: 25-year warranty, one-year sleep trialAvocado is one of the most popular mattress brands out there, and with over 15,000 five-star reviews for its flagship “Green” model, it was only a matter of time before we put it to the test ourselves. Designed for back and stomach sleepers, contributor Katy Olson has it in her space and loves that it’s “firm, but not overly firm.” While she has the standard firmness level, you can also choose between medium feel for a pillow top layer or plush for a pressure-relieving support layer. Plus, she says the high-quality materials have even helped relieve some of her nightly sneezing from allergies. It consists of GOLS-certified organic Dunlop latex, GOTS-certified organic wool and cotton, plus nearly 1,379 individually wrapped support coils. This combination is designed to target seven ergonomic zones that prop your body up while you snooze.For Side SleepersHappsy Organic MattressUpsidesGreat for people who need more supportIncludes four support and soft layersDownsidesLight alfalfa smell upon mattress unboxing, according to our testerOnly two firmness options offered, and may be too firm for certain types of sleepersSpecsOrganic certifications: GOTS certifiedMattress type: HybridHeight: 10 inchesFirmness: Medium-firm and plush-firm optionsWarranty: Free shipping and returns, 20-year warranty, 120-night sleep trialJust like the other bed-in-a-box experience noted above, Kellogg was “shocked and delighted by how easy it was to remove the rolled up, compressed mattress and then watch as it unrolled and sprung to life.” Kellogg says it’s an “undeniably firm” bed that “still has ample cushioning to keep it comfortable” for any sleeping position—especially side sleepers who could use some soft support.She loves her Happsy bed for its use of eco-friendly materials like organic cotton and wool backed by a 100% GOTS organic certification. “Additionally, they are free of the glue and adhesives that are typically found in between a mattress’ comfort layers and coil systems.”More AD-Approved Organic MattressesBirch Natural MattressUpsidesStrong edge supportSoft yet supportive designDownsidesIt has a limited lifetime warrantySpecsOrganic certifications: Fair Trade, GreenGuard Gold, GOLS certifiedMattress type: HybridHeight: 11 inchesFirmness: Medium-firmWarranty: Limited lifetime warranty, 100-night sleep trialEven stripped of its bedding, this mattress makes a great first impression on design alone. “The details in the color and materials made it stand out right out of the box,” says senior digital design editor Zoë Sessums. “It’s firm, but doesn’t feel stiff, and soft without making you sink—to me, it’s Goldilocks perfection.” For context, on a firmness scale of one to 10 on the site, it ranks at about a seven. It’s also designed with cradling comfort in mind. The mattress cover is made with organic cotton, which has a soft and stretchy design as well as a breathable feel. For those who like to sit on the side of the bed, this mattress also has two reinforced side edges for extra edge support.Parachute Eco MattressUpsidesAmple giveStylish constructionDownsidesShort sleep trialSpecsOrganic certifications: While the site doesn’t note specific certifications, the brand claimsthat the bed is made from 100% certified organic cotton, tempered steel, and pure New Zealand woolMattress type: HybridHeight: 12 inchesFirmness: Medium-firmWarranty: 90-day sleep trial, 10-year warranty, and free white-glove delivery and returnsFrom duvet covers to sheet sets, Parachute Home is one of the best places to buy bedding for more reasons than one—starting with its mattress. Like the airy linens the brand is known for, this mattress is breathable from its internal steel pocketed coils—which contains five times as many as a standard bed. It also boasts additional layers of pure New Zealand wool and cotton. Contributor Kristen Flanagan has the bed in her space and considers it just right for her sleep preferences: Not too firm, but not too soft, good motion isolation, and very intentionally made.Although it has a firm design, the actual feel of the mattress took Flanagan by surprise. “There is plenty of give, but you don’t sink into it or leave an imprint. My back feels very supported. The hand-tufting makes the top soft but not too mushy,” she says, adding that its balanced support converted her into a medium-firm mattress person.Coyuchi Natural REM MattressUpsidesGreat for use with or without a box springDownsidesLow-lying heightSpecsOrganic certifications: GOTS certified organic cotton and wool and GOLS certified organic latexMattress type: HybridHeight: 11 inchesFirmness: Medium-firmWarranty: 365-night sleep trial, lifetime warranty, free shipping and returnsSenior commerce editor Nashia Baker sings this hybrid mattress’ praises for its combination of contouring comfort and support. While we’re used to resting on Coyuchi’s soft bed sheets, this mattress is great for its plush hand feel. And despite being the retailer’s first-ever mattress, the bed excels at accommodating all sleep positions, Baker says. As a self-proclaimed combination sleeper, she understands the woes of side, back, and stomach sleepers alike, but praises the blend of materials (like organic wool, latex, cotton, and coils) for keeping her cozy and propped up during sleep. “This bed has just enough give to feel comforting and support from the coils to maintain its shape, which I have a strong feeling will last for many years to come,” she affirms.Brentwood Home Oceano Luxury Hybrid MattressUpsidesIncludes cushy planted-based foamStrong cooling technologyHandcrafted in the U.S.DownsidesLess ideal for those looking for back supportSpecsOrganic certifications: GOTS certified organic wool and cotton, CertiPUR-US certified cooling gel memory foam with BioFoam, natural silk fibersMattress type: Memory foamHeight: 14 inchesFirmness: Medium-softWarranty: 25-year warranty, one-year sleep trialIf you like soft mattresses made of memory foam, this Brentwood bed is a great pick. Contributor Nick Mafi loves this bed for its cradling comfort and the brand ’s manufacturing practices. “Brentwood Home has been around since 1987 and I love that they handcraft their mattresses in their own GOLS-certified factory just outside of Los Angeles,” he says. “By making their products in the US, Brentwood Home can ensure that their environmental, labor, and social responsibility standards are being met.”Mafi notes that its cooling technology is top-notch, as the blend of foam and thousands of individually pocketed coils provide ample airflow to keep him from sweating. Just keep in mind that it’s a true medium-soft mattress, so it’s most ideal for those who are looking for a plush feel like stomach sleepers. “This mattress wouldn’t be a good fit for someone who needs a huge amount of back support,” Mafi says. “It is on the softer side, so I sink in a little (which I personally find super luxurious!).”How We TestedNot to be redundant if you’re a regular AD Shopping reader, but our editors are serious about their beauty rest. We’ve put on Sleep Week for the last five years to prove it—highlighting our team’s favorite sleep must-haves for catching Z’s. Since a mattress is the core of any bedroom, we routinely test beds throughout the year by sussing out the industry’s best and sleeping on them like any reader would in their home. Our editors and contributors slept on the organic mattresses in this list for at least a month (our standard testing period) to give you their thorough reviews on how it affected their sleep.Comfort: From soft beds to mattresses designed for side sleepers, our editors pay close attention to how well they sleep on all of their beds—and this organic mattress story is no different. Our team of writers and contributors noted key callouts like firmness levels, edge support, and motion transfer to assess how easily they were able to fall and stay asleep.Materials: We prioritized beds on this list with certified organic latex, wool, and cotton. For hybrid models, we looked for steel pocketed coils as part of the build. In addition, we looked at the care labels and certifications to ensure there weren’t harmful chemicals or substances like flame retardants or fiberglass included.Temperature Regulation: Another important factor is breathability on the beds. Whether you’re a hot sleeper or just want a bed to keep you cool when summer comes around, most of the beds are naturally temperature-regulating from materials like organic latex. That aside, many hybrid mattresses are already well-ventilated due to the coils at their base that improve airflow.Sleep Trial Period: To get a real feel for the bed before fully committing, most mattress brands offer a sleep trial starting around 100 days with some even reaching up to a year.

Content warning for discussions of sexual violence and harassment.Usually asteroids are distant features of the cosmos, occasionally crashing down to Earth or threatening the planet.Not so for former Texas solicitor general Judd Stone, who's been accused of making the distant space rocks a focal point in violent and bizarre fantasies about a coworker that he regaled to other people.Needless to say, that's wildly inappropriate and unacceptable. As 404 Media reports, Stone has now resigned from his position after a damning letter aired the allegations, which involved — apologies in advance — a phallic asteroid used as a sexual implement, like some sort of grotesque riff on a Chuck Tingle book.According to a letter sent by Texas' first assistant attorney general Brent Webster, Stone — who had at the time taken a leave of absence to defend Texas attorney general Ken Paxton in his impeachment trial — joked during a 2023 lunching with other government employees about a "disturbing sexual fantasy" that involved a "cylindrical asteroid." During the debacle, Stone described using said asteroid to sexually assault Webster while his wife and children watched.That letter, which is five pages long and full of additional allegations of sexual harassment and lies Stone allegedly told, is replete with gory details about this case that we won't regale you with.What's striking to us at Futurism, however, is the "cylindrical asteroid" of it all. Where did Texas's now-former solicitor general get such an idea, and what could it mean about who he is as a person — and, more importantly, how did it affect the people he worked with?While we don't have answers to those first two, it's quite clear from the letter how Stone's gruesome asteroid "joke" affected him and his colleagues. Along with Webster's own concerns about Stone's violent state of mind and his fear that his family could be in danger, the assistant AG added that a female employee who had been present for that stomach-turning lunch discussion had been so upset by the topic that she excused herself — only to return to japes from others at the table who said she "couldn't handle people talking about dicks."That same woman "exhibited emotional distress" when recounting the anecdote to Webster, and also told him, through tears, that she had been sexually harassed on other occasions by Stone and was concerned about the way he treated women.When confronted with the sexual harassment allegations against him, Stone admitted to them all immediately, including the bizarre asteroid fantasy. He was, as 404 notes, given the grace to quit or be fired, and chose the former.More on Texas-based misogyny: In Leaked Text, Elon Musk Harangued Woman to Have as Many of His Babies as PossibleShare This Article

Picking paint comes with a ton of unnecessary pressure, especially in a space like the living room, which is the backdrop for family gatherings, visits with friend, and holiday celebrations throughout the year. Whether you’re a total maximalist that wants to drench the room in the same color or a modern farmhouse-lover who appreciates a more subdued palette, there are definitely foolproof shades that have serious staying power. Below, we’ve gathered the 10 most-recommended no-regret paint colors for living rooms, according to designers. From a poppy pink to the just-right timeless white, plus bolder blues and greens if you’re feeling adventurous, there is something for every home palette. Check Out These Stories For More Paint Color Advice:1Simply White by Benjamin MooreRead McKendree for Country LivingA no-nonsense shade perfect for when you want your fabrics and accessories to do the talking, this Benjamin Moore paint color is exactly as described: Simply White. In this coastal cottage designed by Marynn Udvarhelyi, happy ginghams and soft floral patterns add layers of personality.Get the Look:Paint Color: Simply White by Benjamin MooreTOUR THIS HOUSE2Setting Plaster by Farrow & BallStacy Zarin GoldbergI’ll let you in on a little secret: Warm, pinky-neutral paint colors are almost universally flattering, making them a great choice for a gathering space. Designer Cameron Ruppert paired this ladylike shade with buttoned-up plaids and florals in a grounded jewel-tone palette. Get the Look:Paint Color: Setting Plaster by Farrow & BallAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below3Shamrock by Sherwin-WilliamsLeslee Mitchell for Country LivingFinding the perfect green is no easy task. This deep green, though, might just be the one. With equal undertones of yellow and blue, Sherwin-Williams’ Shamrock works as a true neutral. Get the Look:Paint Color: Shamrock by Sherwin-WilliamsRELATED: These Are the Best Green Paint Colors, According to Designers4Endless Sea by Sherwin-WilliamsBrie Williams for Country LivingNavy blue adds a dapper twist to any living room, especially when paired with perfectly worn-in leather sofas as seen in this space designed by Victoria and Marcus Ford. Get the Look:Paint Color: Endless Sea by Sherwin-WilliamsRELATED: See the Shocking Before & After of This Living RoomAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below5Winter Sunshine by Benjamin MooreAnnie Schlechter for Country LivingIn the year of butter yellow, why not pick a soft yellow shade of paint with serious staying power? In this living room, avid antiques collector Ed Chaudhuri chose a soft lemon yellow to complement his patinaed furnishings. Get the Look:Paint Color: Winter Sunshine by Benjamin MooreTOUR THIS HOUSE6White Dove by Benjamin MooreLincoln Barbour for Country LivingLong beloved by designers, Benjamin Moore’s White Dove is a classic choice for airy living spaces. (Let’s be honest—it’s a classic choice for any living space!) Take a note from these Tennessee homeowners and pair it with warm wood and nubby linens for a cozy space. Get the Look:Paint Color: White Dove by Benjamin MooreTOUR THIS HOUSEAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below7Pigeon by Farrow & Ball Ali Harper for Country LivingDusty duck egg blue is a color lover’s neutral. With just a hint of green, the shade is loved by designers for its chameleon-like ability to blend with a variety of palettes, which is exactly why Jensen Killen of Logan Killen Interiors chose it for this Alabama river cottage's living room. Get the Look:Paint Color: Pigeon by Farrow & BallTOUR THIS HOUSE8Dark Chocolate by Benjamin MooreAli Harper for Country LivingIn need of a super cozy escape? Try this timeless chocolate brown that is equal parts inviting and stylish. Get the Look:Paint Color: Dark Chocolate by Benjamin MooreRELATED: These Are The Best Brown Paint Colors, According to DesignersAdvertisement - Continue Reading Below9Patriotic White by Benjamin MooreDavid A. Land, styling by Karin Lidbeck-Brent for Country LivingEven though it has white in the name, this dusty shade is technically blue. Floral designer Deborah Herbertson paired it with sun-washed orange velvet sofas and bright blue accents to play up the shade’s subtle watery undertones. Get the Look:Paint Color: Patriotic White by Benjamin MooreTOUR THIS HOUSE10Pointing by Farrow & BallRead McKendreeIf you’re looking for a white that is both inviting and crisp, look to Farrow & Ball’s Pointing. In this coastal living room, designer Katie Rosenfeld chose to complement the warm white backdrop with patterns and colors. Get the Look:Paint Color: Pointing by Farrow & Ball Anna LoganSenior Homes & Style EditorAnna Logan is the Senior Homes & Style Editor at Country Living, where she has been covering all things home design, including sharing exclusive looks at beautifully designed country kitchens, producing home features, writing everything from timely trend reports on the latest viral aesthetic to expert-driven explainers on must-read topics, and rounding up pretty much everything you’ve ever wanted to know about paint, since 2021. Anna has spent the last seven years covering every aspect of the design industry, previously having written for Traditional Home, One Kings Lane, House Beautiful, and Frederic. She holds a degree in journalism from the University of Georgia. When she’s not working, Anna can either be found digging around her flower garden or through the dusty shelves of an antique shop. Follow her adventures, or, more importantly, those of her three-year-old Maltese and official Country Living Pet Lab tester, Teddy, on Instagram.  

DreamPark, the creator of what it calls “the world’s largest downloadable mixed reality (XR) theme park,” said it has raised $1.1 million in seed funding. The investment will accelerate DreamPark’s mission to make Earth worth playing again by transforming ordinary spaces into extraordinary adventures through mixed reality technology. I got a demo of the game in Yerba Buena Park in San Francisco and it made me smile. It also made me think it was part of a pretty good plan to convince property owners to get more out of their entertainment venues. But we’ll get to that in a bit. Long Journey Ventures led the investment round, with participation from Founders Inc. The company is the brainchild of Aidan Wolf, CEO of DreamPark; Kevin Habich, cofounder; and cofounder Brent Bushnell. They came up with the idea while working at Two-Bit Circus, a zany entertainment venue in Los Angeles run by Bushnell. Bushnell encouraged the idea, incubated it and became a cofounder. The DreamPark founders (left to right): Brent Bushnell, Aidan Wolf and Kevin Habich. Positioned at the forefront of mixed reality innovation, DreamPark said it is capturing a significant early advantage in the global XR (extended reality) live event market, valued at $3.6 billion in 2024 and projected to surge to $190.3 billion by 2034 at a 48.7% compound annual growth rate (CAGR). This explosive growth trajectory presents an opportunity that DreamPark’s technology and business model are uniquely designed to address, the company said. “We’re building the world’s largest theme park – one that exists everywhere and is accessible to everyone. We want to make getting out to play worthwhile again,” said Bushnell. “This investment allows us to expand our footprint of access points across the country rapidly, develop partnerships with premium IP holders, and continue enhancing our technology to deliver magical experiences that bring people back to real-world spaces.” Bushnell is the eldest son of Atari cofounder Nolan Bushnell. And the younger Bushnell knows the costs of investing in physical properties, as he runs Two-Bit Circus in downtown Los Angeles. It’s built inside a physical warehouse, and Bushnell’s company has to pay for that property — even weathering the pandemic. But with DreamPark, he can reinvigorate a physical venue without investing anything in a new property. By contrast, a new virtual reality entertainment venue can cost more than $1 million to open. Hands-on demo DreamPark foundes in Yerba Buena Gardens park in San Francisco. Wolf and Habich, and Bushnell’s sister Alyssa Bushnell, showed me the DreamPark virtual theme park in San Francisco in the park near the Metreon building. There was a concert going on at the time and it was very noisy. But the game worked fine anyway. Looking down at my feet, Wolf said the QR code on the mat on the groun was an “access point.” That’s where you can scan and enter the virtual world. The company is still building a front end for distributing the headsets, but people will be able to bring their mixed-reality headsets from home and play the same content. “We’re setting these up all over,” Wolf said. “Once an area is mapped, it’s there and you just show up and play. The big difference here is that DreamParks are places. They exist in the real world.” Don’t be surprised if you see people doing this soon. The mapped area was around 50,000 square feet in the park, so it was a pretty big game space. Soon, the company will break into 100,000 square feet for the game with another update. That’s about 10 times the restricted size of Meta’s VR headsets. “We’re going way past the usual limits,” Wolf said. “I think this fundamentally changes what mixed reality means. Now it’s not this living room experience bound to the couch. It’s an actual world to walk around and explore and touch. Once we get people there, we’re gonna really see that cognitive shift, where now augmented reality (AR) is something I can go out and experience, like enjoying a concert.” The cofounders gave me a headset to wear. The first one didn’t work, but a second one functioned fine. It was a modified Meta Quest 3 headset that was locked down so it would play just the DreamPark game. It took a short time to load and then I looked through the headset. Thanks to the outward-facing cameras, I was able to see the park in mixed reality. That meant I didn’t trip over anything as I walked around. I held the headset to my forehead and looked around. I could see a Mario-like set of bricks floating in the air, and floating virtual coins along the physical path. I started walking around and picking up the coins and tapping the bricks to collect points in the game. I didn’t go where there were people lying on the grass, but I didn’t manage to navigate to some lava pits in the middle of the park. The founders pointed out that far away from me, on the Carnaval concert stage, there was a boss. Normally, if there was no concert, I could have waltzed over to that location and engaged in a boss fight. DreamPark overlaid on the Third Street Promenade in Santa Monica, California. The graphics were rudimentary, 8-bit style, and yet I didn’t mind it at all due to the novelty of seeing them overlaid on the real world. Still, I was reluctant to go walking in the lava pits, as that was a bad idea in the virtual world and I somehow felt like it would be a bad idea to walk there in the physical world. “Our graphics are more cartoonish, but our Wizard theme has a more realistic look,” Wolf said. “We’re creating four theme parks.” One of them is a sci-fi Crash Course, which is an obstacle course. And DreamPark is working with a partner as well. There’s one with a psychedelic theme and one that is ambient fun. It’s easy to turn the experience into a multiplayer game. You can, for instance, race around the park and complete a timed experience in competition with your friends. The appeal of a virtual overlay on the real world DreamPark mixes the virtual and real worlds. DreamPark transforms physical locations into immersive mixed-reality environments through its network of access points: physical markers, like QR codes, that, when scanned with a Meta Quest 3 headset or mobile device, unlock digital overlays on real-world spaces. The company has already established successful installations at Santa Monica’s Third Street Promenade and The LA County Fair, with planned expansions in Seattle, Orange County and several expos and corporate events. It’s pretty cheap to create new locations. All they really have to do is scan an area, overlay a digital game filled with simple games, and then drop a mat with a QR code on the property so people can scan it and start playing the game. For property owners, this means they can draw people back to their location, getting them to re-engage with the place because people want to play a digital game at the physical place. It’s a way to enhance the value of a physical property, using virtual entertainment. Bushnell pitched the idea for DreamPark on CNBC’s Shark Tank television show. The sharks didn’t go for it, but the publicity from the show helped surface investors, Bushnell said. (The Bushnell family is going to appear at Augmented World Expo in Long Beach, California, in June). “As a longtime investor, I have seen countless pitches promising to merge the digital and physical worlds, and DreamPark is the first that truly delivers on the real-world metaverse,” said Cyan Banister, cofounder and general partner at Long Journey Ventures, in a statement. “Aidan is a visionary builder of immersive systems, and Brent is a pioneer in playful public spaces, making them the perfect team to make emerging tech feel human, accessible, and unforgettable. They’ve cracked the code on location-based AR, delivering a 10x experience that’s as magical as it’s scalable. This isn’t just immersive entertainment; it’s a whole new category.” The funding comes when retail landlords and event venues seek innovative solutions to drive foot traffic and increase engagement. While typical VR venues cost over $1 million to build, DreamPark delivers a fully immersive, multiplayer experience that pays for itself in its first month of revenue. DreamPark in Santa Monica. “Our capital expense is like one of a hundredth of our competitors, which is amazing. And then this lets us move astronomically faster than everyone else. I kind of believe in a Nintendo philosophy, which is, they take antiquated technology, but they use it in a new way that makes it valuable. We’re using access points,” Wolf said. There’s no construction or permanent infrastructure required. It’s a radically more affordable way to turn underused spaces into high-impact destinations. “We’re not just creating engaging content, we’re building a platform that revitalizes communities by giving people a reason to gather, play, and connect in physical spaces in real life,” said Wolf. “DreamPark bridges the digital and physical worlds, creating a new category of play where the magic of virtual worlds enhances real-life connections. We’re reimagining what’s possible when the spaces around us become canvases for shared adventure and imagination.” The seed funding will support DreamPark’s aggressive expansion plans, including deploying access points across new locations, launching partnerships with major IP holders to create branded theme park experiences, and expanding the company’s fleet of rental Meta Quest 3 headsets units nationwide. DreamPark is growing the development team to accelerate content creation and platform capabilities. DreamPark’s leadership team brings deep experience from companies including Two-Bit Circus, Smiley Cap, and SNAP, Inc., positioning them to execute their ambitious vision of creating the infrastructure for worldwide mixed-reality entertainment. Where it’s going What alien technology is this? Bushnell said the team has been working for around two years. But the founders have been involved with AR for more than a decade. They showed up at Two-Bit Circus and started making mixed-reality games, which take into account physical reality as a game space. There are about 10 contractors in the company working on content. They found that players are happy to wear the headsets for 30 minutes at a time, particularly when they are playing with friends. “We see ourselves more as a tech company than like a location based entertainment company. We hope to stay small as a core team while still reaching millions or billions of people,” Wolf said.The games are in a private alpha testing phase now. “I would say that the headset we currently have in our hands is the exact headset we need to bring this to the masses. So the nice part about the company we’re building is we aren’t waiting for some like watershed moment,” Wolf said. “We’re not waiting for anything now. We’re just getting it into lots of places where people already congregate.”DreamPark is coming out with an app that will let users scan their local park and then start using that space as a level, Wolf said. But DreamPark itself will create partnerships with some of the best places itself and get permission to do the game on the properties. At Two-Bit Circus, for instance, DreamPark could extend the entertainment into the outdoor parking lot, giving more square footage for entertainment. Bushnell had a great moment when he was playing an AR game with drift racing on a racetrack in the Two-Bit Circus parking lot. He noted that mixed reality doesn’t have the Achilles Heel of VR, which is that it makes half the people nauseous. “That was really the moment that broke my brain for mixed reality,” he said. “We were on actual drift bikes, pedaling around collecting coins. And I went twice around that thing, chasing after somebody else on a drift bike. And, you know, my heart rate was at 150. And I was just absolutely going bananas. And I took the headset off, and all that world that had motivated me to pedal my ass off was gone. It just really felt like this is not just going to change entertainment. This is going to change therapy and fitness and learning.” Bushnell said so many other kinds of entertainment are based on deploying huge amounts of capital. But this kind of theme park could be up and running in a matter of minutes. Bushnell believes people will be happy to buy tickets to get a chance to play. He said his four-year-old kid loves it, as does his 82-year-old father. DreamPark is adding virtual entertainment to real venues. To me, it felt a bit like the beginning of the world of Cyberpunk 2077, while Bushnell said it reminded him of the Korean drama, The Memories of Alhambra, where people wear contact lenss displays and have an adventure overlaid on real streets. “These are beautiful places naturally. Let’s augment them with a little more cool storytelling, and you’re off and running,” Bushnell said. “The world is lonely and isolated, We think of this a path to being social again, getting people out in public. And we want to invite landlords of all stripes to host DreamParks.” GB Daily Stay in the know! Get the latest news in your inbox daily Read our Privacy Policy Thanks for subscribing. Check out more VB newsletters here. An error occured.

Get the Popular Science daily newsletter💡 Breakthroughs, discoveries, and DIY tips sent every weekday. Earth and space mingle in stunning ways for the 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year contest. From the “geological masterpiece” of Coyote Buttes, Utah to the sandstone terrain of desolate Ennedi, Chad to a lava-spewing volcano in Guatemala, this year’s entries dazzle from all corners of the globe. We even get a view of the Milky Way from off-planet with a photograph from NASA astronaut Don Pettit taken aboard the International Space Station. “The Wave”Coyote Buttes, UT, USAOne of my greatest passions is visiting stunning natural wonders and paying my personal tribute to them through night photography. This image was taken at Coyote Buttes, a geological masterpiece located in Arizona, where special access permits are required to protect it for future generations.Despite the intense cold during those days, it was incredibly exciting to visit the great sandstone wave for the first time and enjoy its spectacular shapes and colors.To capture this 360° panorama, I planned for the Milky Way and focused on creating a balanced photographic composition. It’s hard to put into words the beauty of this place, but I hope my photograph manages to convey it.Credit: Luis Cajete / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill The Milky Way contains an estimated 200-400 billion stars, but we can only see a fraction of the celestial bodies with our naked eyes. Photography opens up the skies to the staggering light show floating around us. (Click to enlarge images.) “Echiwile Arch” Ennedi, ChadWhen one first Googles information about visiting Chad, the results aren’t very encouraging from a safety perspective. Nevertheless, the intrepid astrophotographer in me decided to take the chance and visit this landlocked country, specifically the Ennedi Massif in the north.Sparsely populated and completely devoid of light pollution, the three-day drive from the capital, N’Djamena, was well worth the troubles and risks involved. The region is filled with numerous rock formations, shapes, and arches, offering an abundance of options for foreground elements to frame the dramatic night skies. Seen here is a small arch in the shape of a hoof in the Ennedi region.Credit: Vikas Chander / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Fortress of Light”Jujuy, ArgentinaSince I started shooting the night sky, I’ve always sought out landscapes that feel like they belong to another planet — remote, untouched, and far from light pollution. That’s exactly what I found in “The Cathedral,” a surreal rock formation in Jujuy, Argentina.Photographing at over 4,000 meters (13,000 feet) presented its challenges, but when I arrived and saw the rock formations, I was completely blown away. The landscape felt like something from a fantasy world, and the towering cliffs instantly reminded me of a giant stone fortress sculpted by nature.As twilight gave way to full darkness, the core of the Milky Way appeared high overhead, shining with incredible clarity. I patiently waited as the galactic center slowly descended toward the horizon, perfectly aligning above the cliffs.While capturing the panorama, the camera picked up bands of orange and green airglow, adding a unique glow to the horizon.This image captures everything I love about photographing the Milky Way — the silence of remote places, the peace of standing under a pristine sky, and the deep connection I feel to the moment, fully present and grateful to witness it.Credit: Mauricio Salazar / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “The Night Guardians” Easter Island, ChileEaster Island had been on my bucket list for a long time, and it once seemed almost impossible to reach. On our first night there, the weather forecast looked promising, so we decided to go ahead with the tour our group had booked 4–5 months earlier. However, Rapa Nui sits in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, where the weather is notoriously unpredictable. When we woke up at 3 a.m. in our hotel, the sky was completely covered in clouds. Still, we decided to take the risk, knowing the forecast for the next few nights was even worse.An hour later, we were frantically photographing the statues at Rano Raraku—the quarry where nearly all of the island’s 900 statues were carved—when the sky suddenly began to clear. By 5 a.m., it was completely clear, and we had less than two hours to capture all the shots we wanted. We felt incredibly lucky to be in the right place at the right time.Credit: Rositsa Dimitrova / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Blossom”Hehuan Mountain Dark Sky Park, TaiwanAfter three years of waiting, the Yushan alpine rhododendrons are finally in bloom once again on Taiwan’s 3,000-meter-high Hehuan Mountain. On this special night, distant clouds helped block city light pollution, revealing an exceptionally clear view of the Milky Way. A solar flare from active region AR3664 reached Earth that evening, intensifying the airglow and adding an otherworldly touch to the sky.Together, these rare natural events created a breathtaking scene—vivid blooms glowing softly beneath a star-filled sky.Credit: Ethan Su / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Spines and Starlight”Kanaan, NamibiaOn our second Namibia Photography Tour, we began our journey once again at one of our favorite spots in Kanaan. Last year was an incredible experience, but this time, we decided to explore more of this vast land.During a scouting trip, I stumbled upon the perfect composition—two quiver trees standing tall with a large cactus in the foreground, all beautifully aligned with the Milky Way. I had always wanted to capture the Milky Way alongside a big cactus, so in that moment, it felt like a special gift.Getting everything in focus was a bit challenging, as I had to get extremely close to the cactus without getting poked. To achieve perfect sharpness, I used focus stacking. Additionally, I shot with an astro-modified camera and a GNB Nebula filter to enhance the details of the night sky.Credit: Burak Esenbey / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Galaxy of the Stone Array” Moeraki Boulders, New ZealandThe Milky Way hangs over the sea. The night sky of the Southern Hemisphere condenses the poetry of Li Bai, a poet from China’s Tang Dynasty, into eternity. On a clear night, the Milky Way pours down over the sea like a waterfall from the sky, intertwining with the atmospheric glow on the water’s surface.Credit: Alvin Wu / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “One in a Billion ”ISS (International Space Station)I float in the Cupola, looking out the seven windows composing this faceted transparent jewel. While my mind is submerged in contemplation, my eyes gorge on the dim reflections from a nighttime Earth. There are over eight billion people that call this planet home. There are seven of us that can say the same for Space Station. What a privilege it is to be here. I used an orbital star tracker to take out the star streak motion from orbit.Credit: Don Pettit / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Winter Fairy Tale”Dobratsch Nature Park, AustriaUndoubtedly my wildest location this winter: Austria’s Dobratsch mountain! If I had to describe it in two words, it would be a “Winter Fairytale”!Despite a 5 a.m. work shift, I drove to Austria by 1 p.m., worried about my fitness and lack of sleep. After a 2-hour hike through the snow with a 22kg backpack and sled, the stunning views kept me energized.Arriving at the cabin (where I had planned my winter panorama two years ago), I was greeted by untouched snow, completely free of footprints. I spent the evening exploring compositions, and this is my favorite: a panorama of the winter Milky Way with reddish nebulae, stretching above Dobratsch Mountain.I captured the Zodiacal light and even the Gegenschein glow! The sky was magnificent, with Jupiter and Mars shining brightly. In the foreground is the cabin, where I spent 3 freezing hours (-12°C), waiting for the perfect shot of the Milky Way’s core. It turned out exactly as I envisioned—a true winter fairytale.Credit: Uroš Fink / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Valle de los Cactus” San Pedro de Atacama, ChileA panoramic shot of the Milky Way in a remote area of the Atacama Cactus Valley, known for its large concentration of cactus plants. I love this place with its countless possibilities. The panorama was taken just as the galactic center began to rise, with the spectacular Gum Nebula visible on the right.It was an especially bright night with a breathtaking sky. The valley isn’t easy to navigate, but it’s always worth trying to find new compositions in such stunning locations beneath the night sky.Credit: Pablo Ruiz / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Cosmic Fire”Volcán Acatenango, GuatemalaOn the early morning of June 2, 2024, I summited Acatenango Volcano for the first time, hoping to witness the fiery beauty of the neighboring Volcan de Fuego against the Milky Way’s backdrop. That night, the volcano was incredibly active—each thunderous explosion reverberated in my chest, while glowing lava illuminated the dark slopes. Above, the Milky Way stretched diagonally across the sky, a mesmerizing band of stars contrasting with the chaos below. As the volcano erupted, the ash plume rose vertically, forming an acute angle of about 45 degrees with the galaxy’s diagonal path, creating a stunning visual contrast between Earth’s fury and the cosmos’ serenity.Capturing this required a fast, wide-angle lens (f/2.8), an ISO of 3200, and a 10-second exposure to balance the volcanic glow with the starlight. The challenge was timing the shot during a new moon and aligning the right moment for the Milky Way to cross the frame next to the volcano. I used Lightroom as the editor. This image is special for its storytelling—the raw power of Volcan de Fuego meeting the tranquil expanse of the galaxy.Credit: Sergio Montúfar / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Lake RT5” Zanskar, HimalayasLake RT5 is a pristine alpine lake nestled at 5,700 meters above sea level. My passion has always been to capture the unseen Himalayas in their rawest form. This journey led us through rugged mountains and glaciers, where we discovered several unknown alpine lakes and named them along the way.We endured multiple nights in extremely cold, unpredictable conditions. Due to the ever-changing weather and limited time, I used a blue hour blend to achieve a cleaner foreground. Since my campsite was right beside the lake, I was able to capture the tracked sky shot from the exact same position later that night.I was in awe of the incredible airglow illuminating the Himalayan skies. The raw image had even more intense colors, but I toned them down to stay true to reality. This was undoubtedly one of the most unforgettable nights I’ve ever spent in the heart of the Himalayas.Credit: Tanay Das / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “A Stellar View From The Cave” Saint Raphael, FranceFramed by the rugged mouth of a coastal cave, this image captures the heart of the Milky Way rising over the Mediterranean Sea. Taken during the peak of the Galactic Core season last May, it blends the natural beauty of the foreground with the awe-inspiring vastness of the cosmos. A winding road, illuminated by passing cars, creates a dynamic trail of light that guides the eye toward the stars above.This photo is a reminder that magic often hides in the most unexpected places. All it takes is a little patience, planning, and passion.Credit: Anthony Lopez / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Boot Arch Perseids” Alabama Hills, CA, USAThe Perseid Meteor Shower occurs every August, raining down hundreds of meteors over a few nights. In 2024, I had planned to photograph it from the Canadian Rockies, but wildfires forced me to change my plans at the last minute. After checking wildfire maps, I found a safe haven in the Eastern Sierra Nevada.After three full nights of capturing meteors, I created this image. Sitting on the rock is my friend Arne, who often joins me on these adventures, gazing up at the magnificent core of our galaxy. Each meteor is painstakingly aligned to its true location in the night sky. The final depiction shows all the meteors I captured, combined into one frame—as if the Earth hadn’t been rotating and all the meteors had fallen at once.Credit: Mike Abramyan / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Starlit Ocean: A Comet, the setting Venus, the Milky Way, and McWay Falls” – California, USACapturing this image was a race against time, light, and distance. With Comet Tsuchinshan–ATLAS (C/2023 A3) making its approach, I knew I had a rare opportunity to see it with the naked eye before it faded into the cosmos. I embarked on a five-hour round trip to McWay Falls in Big Sur, one of the few Bortle 2 locations accessible along California’s coast. My window was narrow—just six precious minutes of true darkness before the Moon rose and washed out the night sky. But those six minutes were unforgettable.In that brief span, the Milky Way arched high above the Pacific, Venus shimmered as it set over the ocean, and the comet streaked quietly across the sky—a celestial visitor gracing this iconic coastal cove. The soft cascade of McWay Falls and the stillness of the starlit ocean created a surreal harmony between Earth and sky. It was one of the most vivid and humbling naked-eye comet sightings I’ve ever experienced—an alignment of cosmic elements that felt both fleeting and eternal.Credit: Xingyang Cai / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill “Diamond Beach Emerald Sky”Great Ocean Road, AustraliaWith a clear night forecast and the Milky Way core returning for 2025, I set out to explore the Great Ocean Road. After a few setbacks—such as a failed composition and getting the car stuck on a sandy track—I almost gave up. However, I pushed on and found a great spot above the beach to capture the scene.The night was full of color, with Comet C/2024 G3 Atlas and a pink aurora in the early hours, followed by the Milky Way rising amid intense green airglow near dawn. Despite the challenges, the reward of this stunning image and the memory of the view made it all worthwhile.Credit: Brent Martin / 2025 Milky Way Photographer of the Year Daniel Zafra Portill

While you can invest in high-quality sheets, the best cooling mattresses are a great foundation for a good night’s sleep. These beds are often equipped with proper air flow and temperature-regulating technologies that might just end the tossing-and-turning in the middle of the night, especially if you’re sleeping hot.To help along the way, AD editors and contributors set out to test the best in their homes. Cooling features our team kept an eye out for include everything from gel-infused foam to pocketed coils that help with motion isolation. We also looked at different mattress types (latex, hybrid, memory foam) and considered a variety of firmness levels. Below are some of our favorites, many of which come with a lengthy trial period, solid warranties, and even white glove delivery. Take a peek at the best cooling mattress options to suit your needs.Our Top Picks for the Best Cooling Mattresses:Best Overall Cooling Mattress: Cocoon by Sealy The Chill Mattress, $1,389 $899A Smart Option: Sleep Number i8 Mattress, $3,999 $2,799Best Hybrid Mattress: Saatva Latex Hybrid Mattress, $2,499 $2,199The Budget Pick: Allswell Supreme Mattress, $487Best Memory Foam Mattress: GhostBed Luxe Foam Mattress, $1,499Browse by CategoryFor consistency, all of the prices in this list reflect queen sizes.The Cooling Mattress, OverallCocoon by Sealy Chill MattressUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesAffordableIncludes free Sealy Sleep Bundle (up to $199 value)Memory foam layers adjust to sleep positionDownsidesLeans more firm than medium, according to our testerSpecsMattress type: Memory foamMaterials: Cooling cover, memory foam, cushioning foamFirmness: Medium-FirmWarranty: 100-night sleep trial, 10-year warranty“While my previous mattress was on the firmer side, it was not a memory foam or very cool mattress,” says contributor Cade Hiser in his review. “With the Cocoon Chill memory foam mattress, I do not wake up in the middle of the night like I used to, tossing and turning. I also stay sleeping at a comfortable temperature throughout the night.” The mattress clearly prioritizes body temperature control—hence the name. Hiser did note that since this memory foam mattress is a bit firmer, it may take a moment to adjust if you’re used to purely soft beds. The mattress comes in a box and is ready to be rolled out.A Smart OptionSleep Number i8 Smart BedUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesPressure-relieving supportCeramic gel to release excess heatAdjustable firmness levels for different sleepersDownsidesDifficult to move and requires unplugging the pump that needs to be reset via the appSpecsMattress type: Smart bedMaterials: CertiPUR-US certified foam, ceramic gel layerFirmness: AdjustableWarranty: 100-night trial; 15-year limited warrantySleep Number mattresses are lauded for their adjustable nature, and the i8 is a smart bed that also happens to help keep you from overheating thanks to its ceramic gel layer. The Responsive Air feature amps up the sleep quality by responding to movement throughout the night. “This mattress is exactly the firmness that I want on one side and exactly how my husband prefers on the other,” says Lisa Aiken, the senior vice president of commerce at Condé Nast. “It is easily changed and adjusted on the App, which links your phone to the bed via Bluetooth so you can adjust at any time to suit your mood.”Aiken was also impressed by the “exceptional customer service and delivery experience,” which not only included a smooth process that included the mattress setup, but also assistance with explaining how to use the Sleep Number App and all its capabilities so she could get the most out of her sleep experience.Best Hybrid MattressSaatva Latex Hybrid MattressUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesTemperature regulatingMinimal motion transferIdeal for those with back painBotanic antimicrobial treatmentOld mattress and box spring removal is included in deliveryDownsidesDoesn’t ship in a boxSpecsMattress type: Latex hybridMaterials: Natural latex foam layer with vented airflow channels, individually wrapped coilsFirmness: Medium-firm, buoyant feelWarranty: 365-night home trial; lifetime warrantyGlobal editorial director and US editor in chief Amy Astley loves quite a few things about her Saatva mattress—the five ergonomic zones for support and the bed’s pressure-relieving qualities—and does not overlook the cooling component. The mattress is hand-tufted, hypoallergenic, and made of organic natural latex with organic cotton and New Zealand wool covers to promote cooler sleep. “[My husband and I] both sleep warm and appreciate the vented airflow channels, which allow for circulation and breathability,” she says. “ When my husband shifts, I cannot feel the bed moving–heaven. Ultimately, we are both so happy to tuck into this bed and don’t really want to get out of it in the morning.”Astley refers to the Saatva as “mattress gold” because of its comfort, body heat regulation, and the ability to make her lower back pain disappear. She notes that it is firm, but not rock hard, and is suitable for back sleepers (as vetted by her husband) and side-sleepers such as herself.The Budget PickAllswell Supreme Cooling Hybrid MattressUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesCustomizable to fit a variety of mattress foundationsEasy setupBreathable top layerDownsidesThe delivery process was not smooth for our testerShorter mattress return window than competitorsSpecsMattress type: HybridMaterials: Six layers including copper-infused memory foam, high-density support foam, and pocketed spring coils for cooling comfortFirmness: MediumWarranty: 90-day returns; 10-year warrantyAt 14 inches thick, the Allswell Supreme Mattress certainly makes a statement, but it’s the copper foam layer that contours and has cooling properties that make it stand out. “I feel supported yet super comfortable, and, as promised, it keeps me very cool,” says contributor Rebecca Grambone in her review. “Their cooling technology actively draws and releases excess heat away from your body.” The 1.5-inch quilted top further ensures that you will sleep cool.Note that Allswell skews on the firmer side and if you’re not used to this, an adjustment period might be in store. Grambone did like that the company prizes customization for different beds, such as those with a box spring, a flat platform bed frame, an adjustable bed frame, or a slatted frame.Best Memory Foam MattressGhostBed Luxe Foam MattressUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesCombination between graphite- and gel-infused memory foamPressure reliefSoft quilted coverDownsidesIncompatible with box springWeight limit 750 poundsSpecsMattress type: Memory foamMaterials: Cooling gel memory foamFirmness: Medium-firmWarranty: 101-night sleep trial; 25-year warrantyThe tagline for GhostBed luxe is “The coolest bed in the world.” And while we haven’t tested every mattress there is, we are noting that it has patented Ghost Ice technology (a combination of graphite- and gel-infused memory foam) that absorbs and redistributes body heat and promises that the quilted cover has five times the cooling power.Tester Diane Dragen, the global content strategy and operations director at AD, who also reviewed the GhostBed luxe in our best mattresses for side sleepers guide, discovered the gel memory foam delivered on its promises to gently soothe her into sleep. “It’s very soothing and meditative, and it does feel like a luxury experience,” Dragen explains. Sleeping on this bed is a “very pleasant feeling,” especially because her vulnerable hip, shoulder, and back areas are lightly cradled as if she is slumbering on a beach.More AD-Approved Cooling MattressesCariloha Resort Bamboo MattressUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesSide wedge supportsWhite glove serviceSustainableDownsides72-hour decompression periodSpecsMattress type: Memory foamMaterials: Gel-infused memory foamFirmness: MediumWarranty: 100-night sleep trial; 10-year warrantyCariloha bamboo mattress has Resort in its name because you’re supposed to feel like you’re on vacation when you sleep. “The mattress is constructed from bamboo memory foam with five distinct layers that adapt and mold to your body shape, resulting in a sleep experience that is both very supportive and pleasantly soft,” Aiken says. Additionally, the mattress has a moisture-wicking feature in its Flex-Flow Base Foam that promises to improve airflow and keep you 3 degrees Fahrenheit cooler. The removable and washable cover is also made with bamboo, which is something we know and love when it comes to cooling bed sheets.Aiken also highlights that the side wedge supports “contribute to a feeling of a wider sleep surface (Cariloha claims a 25% increase) but also provide excellent additional structure and reinforcement along the edges and even in the center of the mattress.”Brentwood Home Oceano Luxury Hybrid MattressUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesComes with free pillows and sleep masksIncludes GOTS-certified organic wool and cottonBioFoam cooling gelDownsidesPriceySpecsMattress type: HybridMaterials: Cooling gel with BioFoam and coilsFirmness: Medium-softWarranty: 365-night sleep trial, 25-year warrantyBrentwood Home Oceano hybrid mattress is what you might dream about if you sleep hot. It is constructed of nine layers, including cooling gel made with BioFoam. The GOTS-certified organic wool and cotton further add to the breathability. “This mattress feels so luxurious after a long day running around NYC,” says contributor Nick Mafi in his review of the best mattress brands. “This mattress has that perfectly deluxe feel and best-in-class support. I love sleeping on this mattress, but it’s also perfect for reading and editing manuscripts (my main activity!), working on a laptop, and lounging around watching TV with friends.”Then there is the support. With nearly 2,700 coils (1,722 micro-coils and 975 pocketed coils around the perimeter), you will never feel as if you’re sinking into some sort of abyss. Compared to other mattresses on the list, this one does not have a firm feel. In fact, Mafi was initially wary of the 4.5 out of 10 firmness scale. “I’ve never considered myself someone who loves a soft bed, but boy was I wrong!” he explains. “I love this mattress. It’s squishy, but still supportive. Perhaps it's the Air Luxe foam, which helps with pressure relief, at play.Amerisleep AS3 MattressUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesEco-friendlySmooth delivery processEasy setupNo off-gassingDownsidesNo contact deliverySpecsMattress type: Memory foamMaterials: Plant-based memory foam with four layersFirmness: Medium-SoftWarranty: 100-night sleep trial, 20-year warrantyThe AS3 is Amerisleep’s best-selling mattress. You can sleep cooler in part because it is made with a plant-based memory foam with an open cell design called Bio-Pur, and it also incorporates HIVE technology to amp up the airflow. To top it off, it comes with a scientifically engineered Refresh cover that uses minerals to manage body heat and is said to keep you 7 degrees cooler than a polyester cover. When it comes to plushness, the mattress is “definitely on the softer side,” says tester Rachel Logie, senior analytics manager. “The memory foam bounces back faster than most memory foam mattresses I’ve tried, so you don’t get that ‘stuck’ feeling.”Puffy Cloud MattressUpsides & DownsidesUpsidesArrives in a box, easy transportComes with free pillows and sleep masksOur tester says it has “cloud-like” comfortDownsides:The bed is not sustainably made like some others in our listSpecsMattress type: Memory foamMaterials: 6-layer memory foamFirmness: Medium-firmWarranty: 101-night sleep trial; Lifetime warrantyThe Puffy Cloud is meant to feel like bliss, and it lives up to its name not only in the comfort category but also because the six-layer memory foam mattress incorporates cooling technology that allows the air to circulate, so you never feel like your torso is a prisoner of night sweats. “The light, supportive cradling of the foam layers is comforting and cool,” says Dragan. “It really is cloud-like! Unlike other mattresses I’ve tested, your body doesn’t sink into the layers of foam as much as it rests lightly on the surface.”