A new review paper published in the journal Nutrition Research Reviews points to nutrients in the nut that play roles in sleep biology.
The post Could Handful of Pistachios Help You Sleep? New Review Says It’s Plausible, but Unproven appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
On Tuesday as a part of its deluge of smart home announcements, Apple has launched something a bit different: a series of products called Apple Home Collection that are… not quite Apple products, but not not Apple products. Instead, they’re “designed in collaboration” with partners, in this case LG Electronics and Schneider Electric.
It’s hard to tell where one company ends and the other begins, but if you carry the weight of a brand like Apple, having Apple stand over the shoulder of some other company and sprinkle in some secret ingredients isn’t the worst approach if you don’t want to actually build and support those products yourself.
According to Apple, each accessory can be set up with one tap from an iPhone, and only requires the Apple Home app. (That describes a lot of products today, too—it’ll be interesting to see if Apple’s added some new tech just for these products or if they’re largely using standard techniques that other products in the market can offer.)
Now to the products, which will be available starting in December, and all of which share a “clean, minimal aesthetic and premium materials,” which would probably be your first clue that Apple was involved in their design.
LG is offering four cameras, all of which capture 2.5K video and connect directly with iCloud for video via the HomeKit Secure Video specification.1 There’s a video doorbell (with chime integrated with HomeView, HomePod, and HomePod mini), a combination camera and floodlight, a standard outdoor camera, and an indoor camera that can tilt down automatically to physically stop monitoring when a family member enters the home.
Apple gets in the smart lock game with LG’s Smart Deadbolt Lock, which uses UWB for automatic unlocking when you approach the door, like the locks released earlier this year by Aqara and Schlage. It’s also got NFC support for non-UWB devices, a numeric keypad, and a hidden physical key slot.
And then there are the smart thermostats. There are two of these, from LG and Schneider Electric. The two thermostats support external temperature and humidity sensors as well as those built in to HomeView, HomePod, and HomePod mini. It’s unclear what differences the two products have, but Apple’s press release hints that there might be some different kinds of system compatibility, perhaps for the home heating and cooling systems themselves, though both are described as working “with a broad range of HVAC systems.”
Every one of the accessories supports Thread, which Apple has been building into its devices for a while now. While it doesn’t seem like there’s much here that hasn’t been done in other smart home products, Apple’s stamp of approval is important. If you don’t do a lot of research, even today you can end up buying a smart home product that has hidden gotchas. These devices will presumably be as standard and Apple-friendly as they come.
That said, other smart home products also seem to live up to everything Apple is describing with the Home Collection. Until these products ship, it will be hard to determine if there’s some special stuff Apple is doing with these products that’s unavailable to other products, but at a glance it doesn’t seem so.
In a study of 2,266 workers in Finland, evening-type people, or night owls, were up to three times more likely to be treated for depression or anxiety than morning types, with poor work-life balance identified as a key contributing factor.
The post Study: Night Owls Face Higher Mental Health Risks Tied to Work-Life Balance appeared first on Sci.News: Breaking Science News.
This week in stories we’re tracking here at The Debrief: NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Telescope was launched on Sunday, and experts think this could be one of its most important discoveries in the years ahead. Meanwhile, scientists have discovered a magnetic “clock” in ancient pottery that could help museums distinguish real artifacts from modern fakes. And elsewhere, scientists say it might be possible that aliens are lurking in the acidic clouds of Venus.
Ready to get caught up on more of the latest science news? Here’s a look at other stories we’re covering right now at The Debrief…
Back in March I took possession of an Aqara UWB Smart Lock, which allowed me to live out my Star Trek dreams by using Ultra Wideband technology to sense my arrival and unlock the door without any interaction from me. Now a second UWB lock has arrived on the scene, Schlage’s Sense Pro UWB smart lock. I’ve spent the last month locking and unlocking my front door with it, and it’s got some definite strengths over the Aqara lock—as well as some definite weaknesses.
Let’s start with the prices. The Aqara is $269, and the Schlage lock is $400. While it can be hard to justify a smart lock at any price, it’s extremely difficult to recommend one lock with much the same feature set over another when there’s this kind of price disparity.
And yes, these locks are very much playing by the same playbook: Both use UWB and Apple’s HomeKey technology to detect when your iPhone (11 or newer) or Apple Watch (Series 6 or newer) approaches your door, unlocking without having to wait or tap your device against the keypad. You can read my previous review for more about how this works, but it’s a huge improvement on both NFC tap-to-unlock and Bluetooth proximity detection, because it can wirelessly detect if you’re inside or outside the door—and only unlocks when you’re approaching from the outside.
The Schlage Sense Pro trades versatility for compactness and attractiveness. The Aqara lock is a big black slab, compared to a relatively squat keypad that comes in either black or satin nickel (a perfect match for my front door hardware). Schlage’s lock is undeniably better looking. It also has a light-up keypad so you can unlock it with a code, and you can program additional codes via the Schlage app or directly via the Apple Home app. And it supports NFC unlock, so if someone in your house doesn’t have a UWB device, they still have an avenue to electronically unlock the door via a tap.
Past Schlage smart locks—I used one for several years before buying the Aqara UWB model—offered a little 9-volt battery nubbin at the bottom of the outside to provide emergency power if the device’s batteries died and you needed to get into the house. This model has a USB-C port to do the same thing, and I don’t know about you, but I’m far more likely to source a USB-C cable (and an iPhone to provide power) than I am to find a 9-volt battery laying around outside my house.
Unlike the Aqara lock, the Schlage Sense Pro doesn’t have a thumbprint scanner or a physical key. The Aqara’s thumbprint scanner works but always seemed a bit pointless to me; the key, on the other hand, might have value if you like the idea of using a hide-a-key or giving a physical spare key to a friend. Alternately, it might seem unnecessary or even a security flaw. Trade-offs.
The Schlage Sense Pro is powered by four AA batteries that slide into the lock in a plastic sled; I found that if I was too forceful sliding the sled in, a battery occasionally popped out. I strongly prefer Aqara’s battery solution—a power-bank-style rechargeable battery pack that offers long life and a relatively easy USB charging path—to swapping AA batteries every so often.
My front door is not quite perfectly aligned, so automatic locks sometimes fail to lock it properly. The Schlage’s lock motor is forceful enough to do the job, but a lot less forceful than the Aqara’s, which would often have enough oomph to get the door closed even if it had to push really hard. In truth, though, both locks were equal in their ability to lock my weird door, though Aqara is much more aggressive in making a noise when it fails to lock the door, which I appreciated more than Schlage’s somewhat muted alert.
I also appreciated Aqara’s gesture to lock the door when leaving the house—you basically tap the pad anywhere—to be a lot easier to use than the Schlage lock, which requires you tap the top portion of the touch pad twice. I got used to the double-tap, but Aqara’s was faster and less fussy.
When testing the Schlage Sense Pro, I also ran into a very odd quirk where the lock became completely unresponsive until I pulled the battery sled out and put it back in—essentially, power cycling the lock. According to Schlage, this was likely due to a faulty lock and the company supplied me with a replacement that hasn’t shown any signs of the same issue.
Both locks do a great job of unlocking automatically. This is what the whole show is really about: If I walk up to a door with my watch on my wrist or my phone in my pocket, does the door unlock by the time I put my hand on the latch? Yes, almost all the time. Very occasionally there would be a slight pause when I reached the door, but almost never. It really is a magical feeling to have your door know that it’s you and unlock as you approach, and if you connect it to other HomeKit automations, you can have that unlock trigger other devices, like turning on your entryway lights.
In the end, the Schlage Sense Pro is a very nice lock, with a restrained look that I prefer to the Aqara’s industrial black block. Aqara’s extra locking methods (fingerprint, traditional key) are not really ones I feel are necessary. Yes, Aqara’s battery approach is better than Schlage’s, but I’ve been using AA-powered locks for ages, and it was fine, if a little annoying.
All in all, these locks are pretty close to even, with Schlage having the advantage in aesthetics. The problem is that the Schlage lock costs $130 more than the Aqara. If you don’t mind the extra charge for a more attractive lock, I won’t fault you, but for most people a smart lock is a bit of a splurge purchase as it is. It’s not the kind of product that can be snuck by household members who are less enthusiastic about technology, and sometimes the price tag is all it takes for the household to decide that it’s not worth doing.
The Schlage Sense Pro is a great product that brings that Star Trek feeling to my front door—but at a price that makes me wince. The first UWB lock that arrived on the scene, Aqara’s U400, is equally capable—and a lot cheaper.
Composta por cerca de 90 mil câmaras Flock, esta é agora a maior rede de vigilância automóvel dos Estados Unidos, que cresceu sem que o país percebesse.
The post Como pequenas caixas pretas se tornaram a maior rede de vigilância automóvel dos Estados Unidos appeared first on Tek Notícias.
I wanted a clock that, annoyingly, didn't seem to exist.
Since childhood, my bedside clocks have been a series of red, seven-segment LED clock-radio specials from Walmart or Target. They are invariably cheap, simple, and long-lived—but they require manual intervention at the start and end of Daylight Saving Time and whenever the power flickers. After a recent power flicker, as I found myself standing by the sideboard holding down "TIME" and mashing the "HOUR" button, frustration boiled over, and I thought to myself, "We're a quarter of the way through the 21st century. There has to be a better way!"
My perfect clock would be self-setting. It would offer auto-DST adjustment (or not, depending on how this bill fares!). It would manage drift and always show the exact sub-second time. It would show that time on a red seven-segment display—not blue, not green, not yellow, and absolutely not white. And I shouldn't have to install any privacy-destroying garbage apps to make it work.
© Lee Hutchinson
Apple is preparing for a major expansion of device financing with the upcoming “Apple Upgrade” leasing program — and iOS 27 already contains the tools to enforce it. Code discovered in the beta reveals a new “Restricted Mode” that can limit access to most apps and services on leased iPhones if payments fall behind, while preserving essential functions like Phone, Settings, and Health. Paired with a new “Partner Finance Lock,” this system gives financing partners powerful remote controls without handing over location data.
As Apple partners with Klarna to make iPhones and other devices more affordable through longer-term leases, these findings show exactly how the company plans to protect itself from defaults.
9to5Mac can now confirm that code found in the iOS 27 beta appears to reveal a broader system for managing a financed iPhone, including the ability to restrict apps and services when payments are missed…
If the contract is no longer in good standing, Apple’s system services can place the iPhone in “Restricted Mode,” which blocks access to most apps until the payment or contract issue is resolved, while keeping a small set of apps available…
The code does not appear to cancel, suspend, or otherwise modify App Store subscriptions associated with blocked apps. As a result, a subscription could continue billing even while access to its app is restricted.
Additionally, there isn’t a fixed number of missed payments that automatically triggers the restrictions. The financing provider’s app decides when to lock the device based on its own policies.
Finally, the new framework also introduces a new type of activation lock called “Partner Finance Lock,” which is meant to prevent users from erasing, reselling, or stripping a restricted device for parts.
MacDailyNews Take: It makes perfect sense for Apple to have digital repossession capabilities for leased devices which, after all, users do not own until they are fully paid off.
If you don’t like this financing setup, buy your Apple hardware outright like normal people with basic financial sense.
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A hidden biological clock has been discovered by genetic researchers, revealing how proteins act as a timing mechanism that controls living organisms’ growth into adulthood.
Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) researchers in New York revealed their findings in a recent paper published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, identifying how a feedback circuit between the proteins MYRF-1 and LIN-42 functions as the worm genome’s master developmental clock.
Their research focused on the worm species Caenorhabditis elegans, revealing how these proteins set the timing of pulses that guide the worm through its development.
“Development requires that cells change identity in the correct order while the organism continues to grow. How multicellular animals generate and synchronize this timing information across tissues has remained unclear,” the authors write.
The search for this missing biological clock was the core of the CSHL team’s research. Genetic and developmental problems are often expressed as a failure of developmental processes to initiate, which could be tied to problems with internal timing sequences that organize such behaviors. This marks the first time researchers have discovered a non-repeating biological clock.
“This is the central clock for all cells in the worm,” explained co-author Christopher Hammell. “It’s responsible for coordinating a finite series of sequential pulses of gene expression that must occur only once, and in order, for proper developmental progression. It’s like a ratchet. It turns genes on and off multiple times during development, but ultimately, it’s only going in one direction.”
CSHL researchers paired the modern AI tool AlphaFold with more traditional genetic research techniques, such as protein sequencing, molecular experiments, and DNA sequencing, to identify MYRF-1’s role in the worm’s development.
The team found that protein signals both initiate and terminate developmental stages, keeping growth on track. MYRF-1 pulses fire first, then activate LIN-42, which determines the strength and duration of the timing pulses. This biological clock activates stage-specific regulatory RNAs and synchronizes developmental checkpoints, creating a rhythmic gene-regulation metronome that enforces the irreversible nature of growth and molting.
In tests to confirm how this biological clock operates, researchers discovered that blocking MYRF-1 expression disrupts the worms’ development cycle.
“We’ve never seen anything like this before,” Hammell says. “MYRF-1 is part of this master regulatory clock for all cells, but it’s also acting as a key maker and the master key for each stage of growth. Without the right key for each stage, development hits a wall and can’t progress.”
The researchers say that understanding how these proteins interact to create cellular clocks that guide development will help researchers better understand cell growth, progression, and differentiation.
“The MYRF-1/LIN-42 circuit runs in all cells,” Hammell says. “And every one of these independent cellular clocks appears to be in sync when you watch normal development. But are they communicating with each other? We’ve never thought deeply about that question before.”
A better understanding of these clocks could offer potential routes to cures for genetic and developmental issues by allowing medical science to jump-start processes that fail to initiate naturally.
Fundamentally, by restoring synchronization of these growth, development, and differentiation processes, scientists and medical practitioners could see better future success in alleviating certain genetic conditions.
The team’s recent paper, “A Molecular Timer Couples Organism-Wide Temporal Identity to Developmental Checkpoints,” appeared in Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences on May 6, 2026.
Ryan Whalen covers science and technology for The Debrief. He holds an MA in History and a Master of Library and Information Science with a certificate in Data Science. He can be contacted at ryan@thedebrief.org, and follow him on Twitter @mdntwvlf.
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