May 30, 20256 min readInside the Lifesaving Power of Doppler Weather RadarDoppler radar is one of the most revolutionary and lifesaving tools of modern meteorology, which has experts worried about outages because of recent staffing cuts and conspiracy theoriesBy Andrea Thompson edited by Dean Visser Mfotophile/Getty ImagesOutside every National Weather Service (NWS) office around the U.S. stands what looks like an enormous white soccer ball, perched atop metal scaffolding several stories high. These somewhat plain spheres look as ho-hum as a town water tower, but tucked inside each is one of modern meteorology’s most revolutionary and lifesaving tools: Doppler radar.The national network of 160 high-resolution radars, installed in 1988 and updated in 2012, sends out microwave pulses that bounce off raindrops or other precipitation to help forecasters see what is falling and how much—providing crucial early information about events ranging from flash floods to blizzards. And the network is especially irreplaceable when it comes to spotting tornadoes; it has substantially lengthened warning times and reduced deaths. Doppler radar has “really revolutionized how we’ve been able to issue warnings,” says Ryan Hanrahan, chief meteorologist of the NBC Connecticut StormTracker team.But now meteorologists and emergency managers are increasingly worried about what might happen if any of these radars go offline, whether because of cuts to the NWS made by the Trump administration or threats from groups that espouse conspiracy theories about the radars being used to control the weather. “Losing radar capabilities would “take us back in time by four decades,” says Jana Houser, a tornado researcher at the Ohio State University. If they go down, “there’s no way we’re going to be effective at storm warnings.”On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.How Doppler radars workThe NWS installations form a network called the Next Generation Weather Radar, or NEXRAD. Inside each giant white sphere is a device that looks like a larger version of a home satellite TV dish, with a transmitter that emits pulses in the microwave region of the electromagnetic spectrum. Those pulses bounce off raindrops, snowflakes, hailstones—what meteorologists collectively call hydrometeors—and back to the dish antenna. (The pulses also sometimes bounce off bats, birds and even moving trains, which yield characteristic radar patterns that experts can usually identify.)Amanda MontañezThe power of the returning signals lets experts create a picture of size, shape and intensity of any precipitation—and this is what you see on a phone app’s radar map or a TV broadcast.But NEXRAD can do much, much more than show how hard it’s raining. Within its sphere, each unit rotates and scans up and down through the sky, helping forecasters see what is happening at multiple levels of a storm system. These vertical profiles can show, for example, whether a tornado is forming or a storm is creating a downburst—a rapid downward blast of wind. “Doppler radar basically allows us to see in the clouds,” Hanrahan says.And then there’s the “Doppler” part itself. The name refers to a phenomenon that’s familiar to many, thanks to the electromagnetic waves’ acoustic counterpart. We’ve all experienced this, often most obviously when we hear an emergency vehicle siren pass nearby: the pitch increases as the car gets closer and decreases as it moves away. Similarly, the returning radar bounce from a rain droplet or piece of tornadic debris that is moving toward the emitter will have a shorter wavelength than the pulse that was sent out, and the signal from an object moving away from the radar will have a longer wavelength. This allows the radar to efficiently distinguish the tight circulation of a tornado.These two images show how dual-polarization helps NWS forecasters detect a tornado that is producing damage. The left image shows how the Doppler radar can detect rotation. Between the two yellow arrows, the red color indicates outbound wind, while the green color indicate inbound wind, relative to the location of the radar. The right image shows how dual-polarization information helps detect debris picked up by the tornado.NOAAThe nation’s radar system was upgraded in 2012 to include what is called dual polarization. This means the signal has both vertically and horizontally oriented wavelengths, providing information about precipitation in more than one dimension. “A drizzle droplet is almost perfectly spherical, so it returns the same amount of power in the horizontal and in the vertical,” Hanrahan says, whereas giant drops look almost like “hamburger buns” and so send back more power in the horizontal than the vertical.Are Doppler radars dangerous? Can they affect the weather?Doppler radars do not pose any danger to people, wildlife or structures—and they cannot affect the weather.Along the electromagnetic spectrum, it is the portions with shorter wavelengths such as gamma rays and ultraviolet radiation that can readily damage the human body—because their wavelengths are the right size to interact with and damage DNA or our cells. Doppler radars emit pulses in wavelengths about the size of a baseball.Amanda MontañezBeing hit by extremely concentrated microwave radiation could be harmful; this is why microwave ovens have mesh screens that keep the rays from escaping. Similarly, you wouldn’t want to stand directly in front of a radar microwave beam. Military radar technicians found this out years ago when working on radars under operation, University of California, Los Angeles, climate scientist Daniel Swain said during one of his regular YouTube talks. They “had experiences like the candy bar in their pocket instantly melting and then feeling their skin getting really hot,” he said.Similar to how a microwave oven works, when the microwave signal from a radar hits a hydrometeor, the water molecules vibrate and so generate heat because of friction and reradiate some of the received energy, says Cynthia Fay, who serves as a focal point for the National Weather Service’s Radar Operations Center. But “microwave radiation is really not very powerful, and the whole point is that if you stand more than a couple dozen feet away from the dome it's not even really going to affect your body, let alone the global atmosphere,” Swain adds.At the radar’s antenna, the average power is about 23.5 megawatts (MW) of energy, Fay says. (A weak or moderate thunderstorm may generate about 18 MW in about an hour.) But the energy from the radar signal dissipates very rapidly with distance: at just one kilometer from the radar, the power is 0.0000019 MW, and at the radar’s maximum range of 460 kilometers, it is 8.8 x 10–12 MW, Fay says. “Once you’re miles away, it’s just really not a dangerous amount” of energy, Swain said in his video.A supercell thunderstorm that produced an F4 tornado near Meriden, KS, in May 1960, as seen from the WSR-3 radar in Topeka (left). A supercell thunderstorm that produced an EF5 tornado in Moore, OK, in May 2013, as seen from a modern Doppler weather radar near Oklahoma City (right).NOAAAnd Doppler radars spend most of their time listening for returns. According to the NWS, for every hour of operation, a radar may spend as little as seven seconds sending out pulses.The idea that Doppler radar can control or affect the weather is “a long-standing conspiracy [theory] that has existed really for decades but has kind of accelerated in recent years,” Swain said in his video. It has resurfaced recently with threats to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration radar system from an antigovernment militia group, as first reported by CNN. The Washington Post reported that the group’s founder said that its members were carrying out “attack simulations” on sites in order to later destroy the radars,—which the group believes are “weather weapons,” according to an internal NOAA e-mail. NOAA has advised radar technicians at the NWS’s offices to exercise caution and work in teams when going out to service radars—and to notify local law enforcement of any suspicious activity.“NOAA is aware of recent threats against NEXRAD weather radar sites and is working with local and other authorities in monitoring the situation closely,” wrote a NWS spokesperson in response to a request for comment from Scientific American.What happens if weather radars go offline?NOAA’s radars have been on duty for 24 hours a day, seven days a week and 365 days a year since 1988 (with brief downtimes for maintenance and upgrades). “It’s amazing what workhorses these radars have been,” Hanrahan says.The image on the left shows a reflectivity radar image of a supercell thunderstorm that produced several tornadoes on April 19, 2023, near Oklahoma City, OK. The hook shape present often indicates rotation within the storm. The image on the right show velocity information that corresponds to the reflectivity image. Very strong inbound winds (green colors) are next to very strong outbound winds (bright red/yellow colors). This very strong inbound/outbound “couplet” indicates the very strong rotation of a tornado.NOAABut they do require that periodic maintenance because of all the large moving parts needed to operate them. And with Trump administration cuts to NOAA staffing and freezes on some spending, “we just got rid of a lot of the radar maintenance technicians, and we got rid of the budget to repair a lot of these sites,” Swain said in his video. “Most of these are functioning fine right now. The question is: What happens once they go down, once they need a repair?”It is this outage possibility that most worries weather experts, particularly if the breakdowns occur during any kind of severe weather. “Radars are key instruments in issuing tornado warnings,” the Ohio State University’s Houser says. “If a radar goes down, we’re basically down as to what the larger picture is.”And for much of the country—particularly in the West—there is little to no overlap in the areas that each radar covers, meaning other sites would not be able to step in if a neighboring radar is out. Hanrahan says the information provided by the radars is irreplaceable, and the 2012 upgrades mean “we don’t even need to have eyes on a tornado now to know that it’s happening. It’s something that I think we take for granted now.”

With its gold accents, prominent control knobs, and guitar amp styling, Marshall’s hefty Heston 120 looks like no other soundbar on the planet. But what fascinates me about the company’s first TV speaker isn’t the styling (it looks exactly like I’d expect from a Marshall product), it’s how it’s been engineered to work with the company’s equally iconic portable Bluetooth speakers: It uses Bluetooth. Wait, I know that sounds obvious, but bear with me because this is actually a new and intriguing change to the way soundbars work. Recommended Videos Marshall Heston 120 Marshall First, a quick 101 on the Heston 120. It’s priced at $1,000, which should tell you right away that Marshall isn’t messing around. That’s the same price as the Sonos Arc Ultra and Bowers & Wilkins Panorama 3, and only $100 more than the Bose Smart Ultra Soundbar. It packs 11 drivers, including two dedicated subwoofers, and can process both Dolby Atmos and DTS:X in a 5.1.2-channel configuration. It has onboard mics that are used for room calibration, and it supports a wide array of protocols, including Apple AirPlay, Google Cast, Spotify Connect, and Tidal Connect. On the back panel, you get an Ethernet jack, an HDMI passthrough input with 4K/120Hz/Dolby Vision support, stereo RCA analog jacks (for a turntable or other gear), and a dedicated subwoofer output — something you rarely find on soundbars.  Marshall has redesigned its mobile app to give people deep controls over the Heston as well as the company’s full range of existing headphones, earbuds, and speakers. Expansion via Bluetooth Marshall Where things get interesting is on the wireless side of the equation. The Heston 120 supports Wi-Fi 6 and Bluetooth 5.3. That’s not unusual — all three of its competitors I mentioned above have the same or similar specs. What *is* unusual is how it uses these connections, specifically Bluetooth. Marshall considers the Heston 120 an all-in-one speaker that’s designed to work equally well for movies and music. However, the company also recognizes that some people want even more immersion from their TV sound systems, so it offers expansion via wireless speakers. Normally, when a soundbar is expandable with additional speakers, those connections are made via Wi-Fi (Sonos, Bluesound, Denon) or dedicated onboard transmitter/receivers (Bose, Sony, Klipsch). Bluetooth has never been considered a viable option because of issues around latency and limitations on transmitting multiple audio channels (e.g. low frequency, surround left, surround right) simultaneously. However, the Heston 120 is Bluetooth Auracast compatible — as far as I know, that’s a first for a soundbar — a technology that overcomes traditional Bluetooth limitations. Unlike earlier Bluetooth standards, which could create audio lag of 100-300 milliseconds, Auracast can achieve a latency of as little as 30 milliseconds. That should be almost imperceptible for dialogue synchronization, and even less noticeable for low-frequency bass or surround sound effects. Moreover, an Auracast device, like a TV or soundbar, can transmit multiple discrete broadcasts. In theory, it could handle multiple wireless subwoofers, two or four surround speakers, plus one or more wireless headphones or hearing aids — each with a dedicated sound stream. More choice, more flexibility Marshall Emberton III Marshall So what does this mean? Marshall’s ultimate goal is to let you use any pair of Auracast-capable Bluetooth speakers as your Heston 120 left/right surrounds, and an additional Auracast subwoofer for low-frequency effects. Initially, however, the plan is more conservative. At launch, the Heston 120 will support a single Marshall-built wireless subwoofer and later in the year you’ll be able to add two Marshall Bluetooth speakers as left/right surrounds. You’ll have a lot of choice — all of Marshall’s third-gen Homeline Bluetooth speakers are Auracast-ready — from the small but mighty Emberton III to the 120-watt Woburn III. Once they receive a planned firmware update, you can expect them all to work with the Heston as satellite speakers via Bluetooth. Typically, wireless surround speakers and subwoofers need to be plugged into a wall at all times. That provides power to the built-in amplifiers and their Wi-Fi network connections. Bluetooth, as a wireless technology, requires way less power than Wi-Fi, so if your Marshall portable Bluetooth speaker has a 20-hour battery, that’s 20 hours of completely wire-free home theater listening. And if, for some reason, you don’t have a Wi-Fi network, you can still assemble a multi-speaker system. Marshall points out that while Auracast is an open standard, each company can implement it as it sees fit, and that could mean that some Auracast speakers won’t work with the Heston 120. JBL Auracast speakers like the Charge 6 — for example — can only share and access audio from other JBL Auracast speakers. Still, Auracast-enabled soundbars like the Heston are opening up a new era in home theater technology; one where we’ll have a lot more freedom to choose the kind, number, and placement of speakers. It will also reduce the number of gadgets we buy. When your portable Bluetooth speaker can double as a surround speaker, that’s one less device in our ever-expanding world of tech. More options coming soon Auracast-enabled soundbars are the first step toward greater flexibility and choice in home theater. Soon, there will be more alternatives. Dolby has promised it will launch a soundbar alternative technology called Dolby Atmos FlexConnect, which will let a compatible TV send multichannel audio to a variety of wireless speakers that you’ll be able to place almost anywhere in your room. Fraunhofer IIS, the entity that gave us the MP3 file format, has its own version of FlexConnect — the somewhat awkwardly named UpHear Flexible Rendering. We haven’t seen any commercially available systems based on either Dolby’s or Fraunhofer’s tech so far, but I expect that to change in 2025.

Targeting the immune system to fight cancer has been in the works for over a decade, and thanks to its precise, personalized approach, it's poised to shape the future of oncology. As our understanding of how immunotherapy can be used against cancer grows, scientists are now reconsidering existing drugs, particularly those that affect the immune system, for their potential role in cancer treatment.Alongside well-established medications like aspirin, showing potential to help the immune system combat cancer, researchers are now turning their attention to antidepressants — and the results are looking promising.A team from UCLA recently published a study in Cell showing how SSRIs, a widely prescribed class of antidepressants, can help the immune system suppress tumor growth across various cancer types. So instead of developing entirely new drugs, could the key lie in repurposing ones we already have?“These drugs have been widely and safely used to treat depression for decades, so repurposing them for cancer would be a lot easier than developing an entirely new therapy,” said senior study author Lili Yang, a member of the Eli and Edythe Broad Center of Regenerative Medicine and Stem Cell Research at UCLA, in a press statement.The Role of AntidepressantsSSRIs, or selective serotonin reuptake inhibitors, work by increasing levels of serotonin, a neurotransmitter associated with mood and focus, and by blocking the serotonin transporter (SERT), which typically regulates how much serotonin is available outside our cells. In people with depression, serotonin levels in the brain drop significantly — a problem that SSRIs like fluoxetine (Prozac), citalopram (Celexa), and sertraline (Zoloft) help to address.But serotonin isn’t just about mood. Only about 5 percent of the body’s serotonin is made in the brain. The rest acts as a signaling molecule in many essential bodily functions, including digestion — and, as recent research suggests, immune system regulation.While earlier lab studies hinted that serotonin might help stimulate T-cells, the immune system’s front-line soldiers, its precise role and potential in immunoregulation remained unclear. That is, until now.Antidepressants and Anti-Tumor PotentialBefore studying SSRIs, the UCLA team had explored another class of antidepressants called MAO inhibitors (MAOIs), which also increased serotonin levels by blocking an enzyme known as MAO-A. These drugs showed anti-tumor potential, but due to their higher risk of side effects, researchers shifted their focus to SSRIs.“SERT made for an especially attractive target because the drugs that act on it — SSRIs — are widely used with minimal side effects,” said Bo Li, the study’s first author, in the news release. By using SSRIs to boost serotonin availability, researchers aimed to outmaneuver one of cancer’s suggested strategies: depriving immune cells of the serotonin they need to function effectively.The results were encouraging. In both mouse and human tumor models of melanoma, breast, prostate, colon, and bladder cancers, SSRI treatment shrank tumors by over 50 precent. The key, according to Yang, was “increasing their access to serotonin,” which in turn enhanced the T-cells' ability to attack.Combining with Existing Cancer TreatmentsThe team also tested whether combining SSRIs with existing cancer treatments could offer even better results. The answer was yes. In follow-up experiments, all mice with melanoma or colon cancer that received both an SSRI and immune checkpoint blockade (ICB) therapy, a treatment designed to overcome the immune-suppressing nature of tumors, experienced significantly reduced tumor sizes.“Immune checkpoint blockades are effective in fewer than 25 percent of patients,” said study co-author James Elsten-Brown in the press release. “If a safe, widely available drug like an SSRI could make these therapies more effective, it would be hugely impactful.”Using therapies already deemed safe means fewer regulatory hurdles and faster clinical use.“Studies estimate the bench-to-bedside pipeline for new cancer therapies costs an average of $1.5 billion,” Yang said. “When you compare this to the estimated $300 million cost to repurpose FDA-approved drugs, it’s clear why this approach has so much potential.”This article is not offering medical advice and should be used for informational purposes only.Article SourcesOur writers at Discovermagazine.com use peer-reviewed studies and high-quality sources for our articles, and our editors review for scientific accuracy and editorial standards. Review the sources used below for this article:UCLA Broad Stem Cell Research Center: Drug commonly used as antidepressant helps fight cancer in miceHaving worked as a biomedical research assistant in labs across three countries, Jenny excels at translating complex scientific concepts – ranging from medical breakthroughs and pharmacological discoveries to the latest in nutrition – into engaging, accessible content. Her interests extend to topics such as human evolution, psychology, and quirky animal stories. When she’s not immersed in a popular science book, you’ll find her catching waves or cruising around Vancouver Island on her longboard.

May 21, 202510 min readSleep Better with New Drugs, Select Cannabinoids and Wearable DevicesDrugs that target wakefulness, molecules in cannabis and wearable devices that modulate brain activity could help people with insomniaBy Rachel Nuwer carlofranco/Getty ImagesThis Nature Outlook is editorially independent, produced with financial support from Avadel.Miranda cannot remember a time in her life when she did not have insomnia. The 23 year old, who asked for her last name to be withheld, started struggling with sleep when she was a child. As she’s grown older, it’s only become worse. She takes “a myriad of medications” each night, she says, but usually still cannot fall asleep until the early hours of the morning. “I can’t get up and be functional until halfway through the day,” she says. She had to drop out of university because she couldn’t attend classes, and she can’t hold down a job. Her insomnia exacerbates other medical conditions as well, including migraines and the pain condition fibromyalgia. “It’s hugely debilitating,” she says. “It affects everything.”In the United States, about 12% of adults have been diagnosed with chronic insomnia — when a person struggles to sleep for more than three nights each week for at least three months, and experiences daytime distress as a result. Research suggests that the worldwide figure is 10–30%. It also often co-occurs with and creates a vicious cycle with other conditions, including chronic pain, depression and anxiety.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Fortunately for Miranda and millions of others with chronic insomnia, new treatments are arriving. The emergence of a class of pharmaceuticals that induces sleep through a different brain pathway from existing drugs is a welcome development, and molecules in cannabis and specialized medical devices to promote sleep are also showing potential as sleep aids. Soon, those struggling with sleep could have a range of new options available to help.Imperfect solutionsCognitive behavioural therapy for insomnia (CBT-I) is usually the recommended first treatment. This specialized talking therapy focuses on establishing healthy sleep behaviours and addressing thoughts that can interfere with sleep. But CBT-I is not covered by all health-care insurance plans in the United States. In the United Kingdom and parts of Europe, public health-care systems usually provide it, but waiting times can be long. This is because, around the world, there is a limited availability of therapists, says Andrew Krystal, a psychiatrist at the University of California, San Francisco. “We keep hiring new people, but almost immediately their schedules are completely filled and the wait list is a year.”CBT-I also doesn’t work for everyone. Miranda has tried it and has received conventional talking therapy for over a decade, with limited success. “It only helps so much,” she says.Pharmacological interventions are the next line of defence, Krystal says. Benzodiazepines and a class of medicines called Z-drugs, which include zolpidem (Ambien), are among the most prescribed insomnia medications. These sedative hypnotics enhance the effects of the neurotransmitter GABA, thereby dampening brain activity. They also reduce anxiety. But they can create a hangover effect and increase the risk of falls in older people. These drugs also have the potential for misuse and can cause dependence. Some studies have even found an association between long-term use of Z-drugs and benzodiazepines and an increased risk of death.Miranda tried Ambien, but says that she quickly became chemically dependent. She eventually weaned herself off it and switched to benzodiazepines, but she began developing a tolerance to them, too — she once wound up in hospital with withdrawal symptoms after she tried to cut back on her dosage. “They’re horrible drugs to be on,” she says. But she cannot fall asleep without them. Each night, she now takes two benzodiazepines, as well as gabapentin, an anticonvulsant medication that is sometimes given off-label for insomnia.Physicians frequently provide other off-label prescriptions for insomnia, including trazodone, which is approved for depression. Over-the-counter products such as antihistamines are also used for sleeplessness. None are ideal, however, because they have not been evaluated as sleep aids, says Emmanuel Mignot, a sleep-medicine researcher at Stanford University in California.Miranda has experience with many of these products. When she first developed chronic insomnia as a child, her paediatrician recommended melatonin, which is available without a prescription in the United States. It helped her fall asleep, but it did not keep her asleep. During her teenage years, different neurologists prescribed off-label antidepressants and other mood medications, including trazodone and mirtazapine. But they came with what she calls “torturous” side effects: she felt constantly anxious and exhausted during the day, and her memory became “incredibly foggy”.Blocking wakefulnessMignot was studying narcolepsy, a chronic disorder that affects sleep–wake cycles and causes people to fall asleep suddenly, when he inadvertently helped to pave the way towards the latest means of treating insomnia. He discovered that dogs with narcolepsy have a genetic mutation that affects one of two receptors used by the neurotransmitter orexin, the primary role of which was initially thought to be the regulation of appetite. Mignot then found that people with narcolepsy lack orexin, confirming the chemical’s main job: promoting wakefulness. If drugs could be developed to prevent orexin from binding to its receptors, Mignot thought, then people with insomnia would become “narcoleptic for one night”.In 2007, researchers at the pharmaceutical firm Actelion (part of which is now Idorsia Pharmaceuticals in Switzerland) showed that blocking orexin’s two receptors induced sleep in rats, dogs and people. In 2014, the biopharmaceutical company Merck, received US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval for the first dual orexin receptor antagonist (DORA) drug, suvorexant (Belsomra). In 2019, another DORA drug — lemborexant (Dayvigo) — was approved, followed, in 2022, by daridorexant (Quviviq).Compared with benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, which inhibit activity all over the brain, DORA drugs affect only the neurons activated by orexins (see ‘Blocking wakefulness’). “The beauty of it is it does nothing but block the stimulation of wakefulness,” says neurologist Joe Herring, who heads neuroscience clinical research at Merck in Rahway, New Jersey. “It’s a physiologically better way to promote sleep.”Alisdair Macdonald/NatureDaridorexant is the only DORA drug for which data are available about daytime functioning, says Antonio Olivieri, chief medical officer at Idorsia, which produces daridorexant. In clinical trials, Idorsia showed that, compared with those given a placebo, people who received daridorexant experienced significant improvements in daytime insomnia symptoms the following day. Data reported in the approvals database of the FDA also indicate that daridorexant has the lowest fatigue and drowsiness scores of the three DORA drugs, possibly because it leaves the body the quickest.So far, there have been no one-to-one comparisons of DORA drugs. “Ideally, you’d have direct evidence of how those drugs compare to each other,” says Daniel Buysse, a sleep scientist at the University of Pittsburgh School of Medicine in Pennsylvania. “But we rarely have such evidence, so instead, we have to rely on statistical techniques that allow you to make indirect comparisons.” It’s also difficult to say definitively how DORA drugs compare with older treatments for insomnia, but Buysse says that drug registration trials suggest that DORA drugs have fewer adverse cognitive or hangover effects compared with benzodiazepines and Z-drugs, as well as less potential for dependence and misuse. The European Insomnia Guideline 2023 placed daridorexant as the next recommended insomnia treatment after CBT-I.The main drawback to DORA drugs, Buysse says, is not medical but financial: their high cost keeps them out of reach of many people who could benefit from them. “There are many patients I would like to prescribe these drugs for, but I know in order for them to get one of these medications we’ll have to go through trials of several other drugs before the request will be considered,” Buysse says. DORA drugs are also available only in a few countries, so far.Given her long history of insomnia, Miranda was given a prescription for suvorexant. Her psychiatrist recommended the drug to her about a year ago. “I was really sceptical that an anti-wakefulness drug would be any different to a pro-sleep drug,” she says. But she quickly felt the difference, and has now come to see the drug as “a saviour”. Without the drug, she says, “I’d probably be on a much higher benzodiazepine dose than I am.” She hopes her suvorexant dose can continue to increase, so that some of her other medications can be reduced.Expanding availabilityOther drugs that target the orexin system are in the clinical pipeline. Seltorexant, for example, is being developed by the US pharmaceutical firm Johnson & Johnson for people with both major depressive disorder and insomnia. Around 70% of people with depression have insomnia, so having a medication that treats both of those disorders “has the potential to fill an important gap”, says Krystal, who has consulted for Johnson & Johnson on the drug. In a phase III trial, participants who took the drug experienced meaningful improvement in both sleep and depressive symptoms, with an antidepressant effect that seemed to be independent of the participants getting better sleep. Seltorexant might have an antidepressant effect because it is designed to block only one of the two types of orexin receptor, Krystal adds, whereas other DORA drugs block both receptor types.Investigations of already-approved DORA drugs are also expanding into other populations. Merck has sponsored investigator-led studies of suvorexant in people with insomnia as well as depression or substance-use disorders, and Idorsia is sponsoring studies of daridorexant’s safety and efficacy in sub-groups of people who have insomnia and other conditions.In 2020, suvorexant became the first medication to be approved for treating sleep disorders in people with Alzheimer’s disease. Insomnia is often a precursor to and co-morbid with Alzheimer’s, and the disease seems to manifest differently in people with the condition. In one study comparing older people with insomnia with those with both insomnia and Alzheimer’s, people with both conditions had a number of extra changes to their sleep patterns, including less time spent in deep sleep — sometimes called slow-wave sleep because that describes the pattern of the brain’s electrical activity during these intervals. Sleep problems in people with Alzheimer’s also seem to have a causal role in increasing levels of toxic substances in the brains of those individuals. Preliminary data suggest that suvorexant could also help to reduce toxic brain proteins. The results of a follow-up study testing that finding are expected in 2026.In the weedsSleeplessness is already among the most common conditions for the medicinal use of the drug cannabis. Miranda, for example, supplements her nightly pharmaceutical regimen with a cannabis tincture that contains a few of the plant’s 100-plus cannabinoids (she lives in a state where cannabis use is legal). “It’s definitely a key player in my sleep-medication arsenal,” she says.Yet, scientifically, little is known about which cannabinoids — if any — promote sleep, and what a safe and effective dose is. “Tens of millions of people around the world are probably using cannabinoids for insomnia, but we have very little good-quality evidence to support that,” says Iain McGregor, director of the Lambert Initiative for Cannabinoid Therapeutics at the University of Sydney in Australia.McGregor is investigating cannabinol (CBN), a molecule that develops in cannabis as the psychoactive component tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) oxidizes. His group reported that CBN increased sleep in rats to a similar degree as zolpidem, but without the drug’s known negative side effect of suppressing rapid-eye-movement sleep. Unpublished data of a single-night trial with 20 people with insomnia disorder show that people fell asleep 7 minutes faster after taking 300 milligrams of CBN compared with those taking a placebo; participants also reported subjective improvements in sleep and mood. Although 7 minutes “doesn’t sound like a lot”, it is on a par with what benzodiazepines and Z-drugs typically accomplish, says Camilla Hoyos, a sleep researcher at the Woolcock Institute of Medical Research in Sydney, who led the work. McGregor, Hoyos and their colleagues are aiming to follow up the work with a large, community-based trial in which people with insomnia take either CBN or a placebo for six weeks at home.As for cannabidiol (CBD) and THC — the most well-known cannabinoids — the prospects for efficacy against insomnia are doubtful, at least for the doses used in trials so far. Several small studies have failed to find a sleep benefit from taking CBD. In one experiment, researchers observed that participants in a study who received 10 milligrams of THC and 200 milligrams of CBD actually slept for 25 minutes less compared with when they received a placebo. Several other company-sponsored trials of low-dose CBD for insomnia were not published, McGregor adds, because they found no significant improvement. “It’s been one failure after the next,” he says.Insomnia’s new frontiersThe search for more effective insomnia treatments continues in other realms, as well. Some research groups are experimenting with different receptors that they hope could lead to new classes of drugs. Gabriella Gobbi, a clinical psychiatrist and research neuroscientist at McGill University in Montreal, Canada, for example, has homed in on one of the brain’s two melatonin receptors, MT2. “We want to find an alternative mechanism without any addiction liability and with fewer side effects, especially for use in children and elderly people,” she says. A molecule that the team developed that binds to MT2 increased the time that rats spent in deep sleep by 30%. Gobbi aims to launch clinical trials in the next two to three years.A few companies and health systems, including the US Department of Veterans Affairs and the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio, have also created or are developing digital platforms for delivering CBT-I. These apps take users through regimens that are tailored to their symptoms. SleepioRx, for example, is a 90-day digital programme that has been evaluated in more than two dozen clinical trials and has showed efficacy as high as 76%. This includes helping people to fall asleep faster, sleep better throughout the night and feel better the next day. In August 2024, the programme, developed by Big Health in San Francisco, California, received FDA clearance. A 2024 meta-analysis of 15 studies that compare in-person and electronically delivered CBT-I concluded that the two approaches were equally effective.Uptake among physicians has been slow so far, Krystal says. But once practitioners catch on, he adds, “I can imagine a world where you have digital care as your first stop, and if that’s not successful, you see a therapist.”Some studies suggest that insomnia can stem from a high level of underlying brain activity during sleep. This raises the question of whether reducing this activity could treat insomnia, says Ruth Benca, a psychiatrist at Wake Forest School of Medicine in North Carolina. Companies and academic research groups are beginning to test this proposition with wearable devices that use auditory tones or mild electrical stimulation to increase slow-wave activity in the brain. Some devices are already on the market, and evidence suggests that they can increase the duration of deep sleep. Last June, for example, researchers at Elemind Technologies in Cambridge, Massachusetts, confirmed that auditory stimuli delivered in sync with specific brain-wave rhythms generated in a headband allowed people who usually struggle for more than 30 minutes to fall asleep to shave an average of 10.5 minutes off that time.In the coming years, according to Benca, researchers hope to learn enough about insomnia’s causes and treatments to be able to recommend personalized therapies based on an individual’s specific demographics, genetics and co-morbidities. These are the frontiers people are working at, she says.Even after a lifetime of struggling to find safe and effective help, Miranda says that she still holds out hope that better treatments for insomnia are on the horizon. “I can’t be on these medications forever,” she says. “They’re going to take years off my life.”

Image by Getty / FuturismNeuroscience/Brain ScienceEach of our brains is swimming in enough microplastics to form a plastic spoon, scientists discovered earlier this year. Since then, medical researchers have been scrambling to understand how that could affect our neurological health.Now, ominous data is starting to trickle in, with new research comprising four papers published in the journal Brain Medicine suggesting that microplastics could be contributing to rising rates of depression, dementia, and other mental health ailments across the globe. And for exposing us to these brain-invading microplastics, a clear culprit emerged in the work: ultra-processed foods, or junk food, which make up a huge part of many Americans' diets."We're seeing converging evidence that should concern us all," said Nicholas Fabiano from the University of Ottawa, who led one of the studies, in a statement about the work. "Ultra-processed foods now comprise more than 50 percent of energy intake in countries like the United States, and these foods contain significantly higher concentrations of microplastics than whole foods."If true, it would mean that microplastics were the missing link in the correlation between junk food consumption and brain disorders. One study cited by the researchers found that people who ate ultra-processed meals had a significantly higher risk of depression, anxiety, and poor sleep. On the flip side, randomized control trials have demonstrated that weaning someone off junk food led to significant improvements in mental health.Implicating the role of microplastics in this, other research has revealed that junk foods are absolutely riddled with plastic particles. Meals like chicken nuggets, for example, have been shown to contain 30 times more microplastics per gram than chicken breasts, likely absorbed as a result of how they're manufactured and packaged."This hypothesis is particularly compelling because we see remarkable overlap in biological mechanisms," Wolfgang Marx from Deakin University's Food & Mood Center who coauthored one of the studies, said in a statement. "Ultra-processed foods have been linked to adverse mental health through inflammation, oxidative stress, epigenetics, mitochondrial dysfunction, and disruptions to neurotransmitter systems. Microplastics appear to operate through remarkably similar pathways."These findings are the latest to illustrate the potential grim health effects caused by microplastics, which have been found everywhere from human bone marrow to clouds to the most remote regions on Earth.So far, though, there's no definitive evidence, including human trials, that prove they're harmful to our health. But the fact that microplastics can easily bypass the blood-brain barrier — our gray matter's last line of defense against harmful substances — has unsettled medical experts. Beyond mental ailments, some research has found that microplastics could cause blood clots in the vessels of the brain, potentially inducing a stroke."What emerges from this work is not a warning. It is a reckoning," wrote Ma-Li Wong, a distinguished professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Upstate Medical University, in an accompanying editorial. "The boundary between internal and external has failed. If microplastics cross the blood-brain barrier, what else do we think remains sacred?"It's impossible not to intake some amount of microplastics every time we eat, but you can take steps to reduce your exposure. And the evidence so far, the researchers argue, makes an increasingly compelling case for cutting ultra-processed junk out of your diet."After all," said Fabiano, "you are what you eat."Share This Article

NASA Engineers Revive Long-Dormant Thrusters on Voyager 1, the Farthest Spacecraft From Earth, in a ‘Miracle Save’ In the nick of time, NASA teams addressed clogging issues in the probe’s backup roll thrusters, before the only antenna capable of sending commands to it went offline An artistic rendering of one of the Voyager probes. NASA/JPL-Caltech In a nail-biting mission to secure Voyager 1 before the only antenna that can send commands to the spacecraft goes offline for upgrades, NASA engineers revived thrusters aboard the probe that have been considered dead for more than two decades. “It was such a glorious moment,” Todd Barber, the mission’s propulsion lead at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL), says in a statement. “Team morale was very high that day.” Voyager 1 and Voyager 2 launched in 1977 to study Jupiter and Saturn as well as examine some of the planets’ moons. Since then, however, their mission has been repeatedly extended. The pair of probes also investigated Uranus and Neptune, 48 moons in the solar system and achieved what no human-made object had ever done before: They entered interstellar space. Voyager 1 first left our solar system in 2012, and Voyager 2 followed in 2018. Needless to say, the probes have transcended their mission, which was originally intended to last just five years, per Mashable’s Elisha Sauers. The aging Voyagers have hit several hiccups in recent years, and the latest involved Voyager 1’s roll thrusters. Among various propulsion devices, the roll thrusters rotate the probes, keeping the antennas facing toward Earth for communication and the spacecraft pointed at a guide star, which is used for orientation. Each has a primary and backup set of roll thrusters, which NASA engineers toggle between using to avoid clogging their fuel tubes from overuse. In 2004, however, Voyager 1’s primary roll thrusters stopped working after two internal heaters lost power, according to NASA’s statement. The team concluded that the heaters were as good as dead and continued the mission with only the backup roll thrusters. “I think at that time, the team was OK with accepting that the primary roll thrusters didn’t work, because they had a perfectly good backup,” Kareem Badaruddin, Voyager mission manager at JPL, explains in the statement. “And frankly, they probably didn’t think the Voyagers were going to keep going for another 20 years.” After all, “it’s amazing that the two spacecraft are still working,” as former Voyager project scientist Ed Stone toldSpace.com’s Mike Wall in 2017, four decades after the mission’s launch.Now, the backup roll thrusters’ fuel tubes have accumulated enough buildup residue to likely cause serious problems later this year, so the team decided to re-evaluate the situation. Their work was even more time-sensitive given that Australia’s Deep Space Station 43—the only antenna in NASA’s Deep Space Network powerful enough to send commands to Voyager 1 and 2—was about to go offline. Planned upgrades between May 4, 2025, and February of next year are making it unusable, with only brief windows of operation in August and December. Without the antenna, the team can’t send instructions to either probe. And if the backup roll thruster were to become totally clogged while the antenna is offline, it might be impossible for engineers to fix the issue. The team suggested the thrusters’ heaters had stopped working because their circuits had unexpectedly flipped a switch back in 2004. If engineers could get the probe to flip the switch back, that might fix the problem. Testing out this solution, however, was risky, because it first required turning the primary thrusters on, then flipping the switch and restarting the heaters. With the long-dormant thrusters operating, they were at risk of automatically firing if Voyager 1 moved too far from its guiding star. If this happened while the heaters were still off, it could result in an explosion. In other words, the engineers needed to keep the star tracker pointed as closely as possible to the guiding star while working. As if that wasn’t dramatic enough, it currently takes around 23 hours for scientists’ command to reach Voyager 1, and then another 23 hours for the probe’s response to return to Earth. The team thus had to wait around two days to see if their approach had worked. If it hadn’t, they wouldn’t receive that message until 23 hours after their command might have already caused serious damage. Fortunately, after the team sent their command in March, Voyager 1 reported a strong rise in the thruster heaters’ temperatures—a sign of success. “These thrusters were considered dead. And that was a legitimate conclusion. It’s just that one of our engineers had this insight that maybe there was this other possible cause, and it was fixable,” Barber says in the statement. “It was yet another miracle save for Voyager.” This isn’t the first time a team has had to scramble to keep a Voyager spacecraft alive. Given the mission’s unexpected longevity, NASA scientists and engineers must continuously mitigate age-related maintenance problems on the probes, per Space.com’s Samantha Mathewson. Last fall, for instance, engineers briefly lost touch with Voyager 1 when it turned off its primary radio transmitter to save power. Instead, the probe reconnected with NASA using a backup transmitter that hadn’t been used in more than four decades. Voyager 1 also spent months sending incomprehensible data back to Earth, until NASA teams figured out a fix. Voyager 2 is not immune from these issues—it also dropped communication with NASA for some time in 2023. Teams have begun shutting off certain instruments on the probes to preserve power. By doing so, NASA suggests the two spacecraft will be able to operate with at least one instrument into the next decade. Even once they lose power and the ability to communicate with scientists back on Earth, however, the probes will continue to silently travel away from our planet. “In the absence of sun or wind or anything that’s going to wear them down, they could easily outlast us—our entire civilization, outlast our planet,” Jim Bell, an Arizona State University planetary scientist and author of the book, The Interstellar Age: Inside the Forty-Year Voyager Mission, told Scientific American’s Clara Moskowitz in 2015. “The Earth will eventually be swallowed by the sun and the Voyagers could still be out there.” Get the latest stories in your inbox every weekday.

Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable My body refuses to fall asleep on planes, though not for lack of trying. I've stayed up late before flights, booked red-eyes, popped melatonin, ordered a couple glasses of red wine from the beverage cart — and yet there I sit, wide awake in my economy seat.I keep busy with in-flight entertainment. I'm not built to be raw-dogging flights, and that tiny seatback screen keeps me sane at 30,000 feet. If I can't binge last year's Oscar nominees or lock into a weird HBO documentaryKnowing this, my extremely brilliant and thoughtful husband gifted me a Twelve South AirFly Pro for Christmas last year. This cult-favorite gadget is a $49.99 Bluetooth adapter that lets you watch in-flight movies with my comfy Bose headphones. It's not a glamorous device — it's just a dongle with an aux cable — but this humble device takes some of the hassle out of flying. Truly, a miracle. I used the AirFly Pro for the first time on round-trip flights between Chicago and London this spring, and I'll never fly without it again. Better yet, it's on sale. Twelve South AirFly Pro $44.99 at Amazon $54.99 Save $10 Fly like a ProWhile wireless headphones and earbuds are vastly more popular than wired models nowadays, the airline industry hasn't adjusted accordingly. (United and Delta have added Bluetooth-enabled screens to some of their planes, but I personally have yet to find one.) So, to watch movies and shows on that seatback screen, you still have to plug in wired earphones with an old-fashioned 3.5mm audio jack.Some airlines hand out complimentary cheapo wired buds for long-haul flights, but they sound terrible and don't offer a lick of noise cancellation. The AirFly Pro exists to bridge the technology gap for a better in-flight entertainment experience. Mashable Top Stories Stay connected with the hottest stories of the day and the latest entertainment news. Sign up for Mashable's Top Stories newsletter By clicking Sign Me Up, you confirm you are 16+ and agree to our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy. Thanks for signing up! Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable Setting up the AirFly Pro is ridiculously simple:Plug it into the screen or armrestPress and hold the power buttonTurn on your headphonesWait for them to connectAnd if you're traveling with someone, you can even pair it with both of your headphones at the same time. My AirFly Pro paired instantly with my Bose headphones and remembered them on my return flight.The AirFly Pro's audio sounded fine to me, and I never had connection issues. I did notice that in-flight announcements were a split-second delayed compared to the plane's PA system, but the sound and dialogue on movies always lined up perfectly. Related Stories Twelve South has the AirFly Pro rated at 25 hours of battery life, and that seemed accurate. Mine lasted the full eight-hour flight from Chicago to London, a few hours beyond that (because I forgot to turn it off), and then most of the way through my nine-hour return flight. When it finally died, 10 minutes of charging gave it enough battery for at least 30 more minutes before we landed. Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable The biggest downsides to the AirFly Pro? The fact that you can't use it while it's charging, and that it's kind of expensive for a Bluetooth transmitter. That said, it works like a charm and feels like a future-proofed purchase, since planes probably aren't getting rid of their 3.5mm audio jacks anytime soon. Where to buy the AirFly Pro Credit: Haley Henschel / Mashable The $54.99 AirFly Pro (currently on sale for $44.99) comes with a soft travel pouch and a keyring cap in addition to its charger. For $20 less, you can pick up the AirFly SE, but you lose some battery life and dual listening mode.I've seen the AirFly line sold at airports before, but I'd recommend snagging one before you jet off on your next trip, as my Pro model is easy to find on sale. At the time of writing, Amazon had it on sale. You can also find them as part of some Bose QuietComfort Ultra headphone and earbud bundles. Shop the Twelve South AirFly line: Twelve South AirFly Pro $54.99 Twelve South AirFly SE $34.99 Twelve South AirFly Pro 2 $59.99 Topics Bluetooth Gadgets Haley Henschel Senior Shopping Reporter Haley Henschel is a Chicago-based Senior Shopping Reporter at Mashable who reviews and finds deals on popular tech, from laptops to gaming consoles and VPNs. She has years of experience covering shopping holidays and can tell you what’s actually worth buying on Black Friday and Amazon Prime Day. Her work has also explored the driving forces behind digital trends within the shopping sphere, from dupes to 12-foot skeletons.

Wireless mics fail when they rely too much on perfect conditions. BOYAMIC 2 fixes that by making every part of the system self-contained. Each transmitter records on its own. Each receiver controls levels, backups, and signal without needing an app. Noise is filtered in real time. Recording keeps going even if the connection drops. Designer: BOYAMIC There’s no need for a separate recorder or post-edit rescue. The unit handles gain shifts, background interference, and voice clarity without user intervention. Everything shows on screen. Adjustments happen through physical controls. Files are saved directly to internal memory. This system is built to capture clean audio without depending on external gear. It records immediately, adapts instantly, and stores everything without breaking the workflow. Industrial Design and Physical Form Each transmitter is small but solid. It’s 40 millimeters tall with a ridged surface that helps with grip and alignment. The finish reduces glare and makes handling easier. You can clip it or use the built-in magnet. Placement is quick, and it stays put. The record button is recessed, so you won’t hit it by mistake. An LED shows when it’s active. The mic capsule stays exposed but protected, avoiding interference from hands or clothing. Nothing sticks out or gets in the way.   The receiver is built around a screen and a knob. The 1.1-inch display shows battery, signal, gain, and status. The knob adjusts volume and selects settings. It works fast, without touchscreen lag. You can see and feel every change. Connections are spaced cleanly. One side has a USB-C port. The other has a 3.5 mm jack. A plug-in port supports USB-C or Lightning. The mount is fixed and locks into rigs without shifting. The charging case holds two transmitters and one receiver. Each has its own slot with magnetic contacts. Drop them in, close the lid, and they stay in place. LEDs on the case show power levels. There are no loose parts, exposed pins, or extra steps. Every shape and control supports fast setup and clear operation. You can press, turn, mount, and move without second-guessing. The design doesn’t try to be invisible; it stays readable, durable, and direct. Signal Processing and Audio Control BOYAMIC 2 uses onboard AI to separate voice from background noise. The system was trained on over 700,000 real-world sound samples. It filters traffic, crowds, wind, and mechanical hum in real time. Depending on the environment, you can toggle between strong and weak noise reduction. Both modes work directly from the transmitter or through the receiver. The mic uses a 6mm condenser capsule with a 48 kHz sample rate and 24-bit depth. The signal-to-noise ratio reaches 90 dB. Two low-cut filter options, at 75 Hz and 150 Hz, handle low-end rumble. These are effective against HVAC, engine hum, or low vibration. Gain is managed with automatic control. The system boosts quiet voices and pulls back when sound gets too loud. Built-in limiters stop clipping during spikes. A safety track records a second copy at -12 dB for backup. This makes it harder to lose a usable take even when volume jumps suddenly. Each setting is adjustable on screen. You don’t need a mobile app to access basic controls. Everything runs live and updates immediately. There are no delays or sync problems during capture. Recording and Storage Each transmitter records internally without needing the receiver. Files are saved in 32-bit float or 24-bit WAV formats. Internal storage is 8 GB. That gives you about ten hours of float audio or fifteen hours of 24-bit. When full, the system loops and overwrites older files. Recording continues even if the connection drops. Every session is split into timestamped chunks for fast transfer. You can plug the transmitter into any USB-C port and drag the files directly. No software is needed. This setup protects against signal loss, battery drops, or app crashes. The mic stays live, and the recording stays intact. Each transmitter runs for up to nine hours without noise cancellation or recording. With both features on, the runtime is closer to six hours. The receiver runs for about fifteen hours. The charging case holds enough power to recharge all three units twice. The system uses 2.4 GHz digital transmission. Its range can reach up to 300 meters in open areas. With walls or obstacles, it drops to around 60 meters. Latency stays at 25 milliseconds, even at long distances. You get reliable sync and stable audio across open ground or indoor spaces. Charging is handled through the included case or by direct USB-C. Each device takes under two hours to recharge fully. Compatibility and Multi-Device Support The system supports cameras, smartphones, and computers. USB-C and Lightning adapters are included. A 3.5 mm TRS cable connects the receiver to most cameras or mixers. While recording, you can charge your phone through the receiver, which is useful for long mobile shoots. One transmitter can send audio to up to four receivers at once, which helps with multi-angle setups or backup channels. The receiver also supports stereo, mono, and safety track modes. Based on your workflow, you choose how audio is split or merged. Settings can be changed from the receiver screen or through the BOYA app. The app adds firmware updates, custom EQ profiles, and gain presets for different camera brands. But the core controls don’t depend on it.The post BOYAMIC 2 Rebuilds Mobile Audio with AI and Onboard Capture first appeared on Yanko Design.