The 7 Best Teas to Buy to Help You Sleep Better

• How we chose
• Our picks
• How to shop
• How to use
• Other ways to wind down
• Takeaway

We include products we think are useful for our readers. If you buy through links on this page, we may earn a small commission. Here’s our process.

A quick look at the best teas to help you fall asleep

• Best rated tea to help you sleep: Adagio Teas 40 Winks
• Best bagged tea to help you sleep: Smith Teamaker Lullaby
• Best tea with valerian to help you sleep: DAVIDsTEA Organic Mother’s Little Helper
• Best organic tea to help you sleep: The Tea Spot Light’s Out
• Best relaxing tea to help you sleep: Adagio Teas Daydream
• Best sweet tea to help you sleep: The Republic of Tea Get Some ZZZ’s
• Best decaffeinated tea to help you sleep: Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Bedtime Brew

A hot drink can warm you up on a cold day, and tea, in particular, can help soothe a number of ailments. You might drink tea with honey and lemon when you have a sore throat, green tea for its antioxidant benefits, or black tea for a burst of energy. Herbs such as chamomile and peppermint might even help relieve menstrual cramps, muscle cramps, and indigestion.

While caffeinated teas can have stimulating benefits, many herbal teas have the opposite effect. Chamomile tea is widely used to promote relaxation, drowsiness, and restful sleep. If you struggled to get to sleep in childhood (or beyond), perhaps your parent or grandparent recommended a chamomile blend to help you drift off.

Trouble falling asleep isn’t uncommon, especially during times of increased stress. Bedtime teas blend specific herbs to help you defeat insomnia naturally, so they make a great option if you prefer to avoid medicinal sleep aids.

If you’ve graduated from sleepytime tea and need something with a little more relaxation potential, try the seven teas listed below to fall asleep faster and sleep soundly.

How we chose the best teas for sleeping

We considered plenty of relaxing bedtime blends to create our final list of recommendations. Here’s how we decided which teas to include:

• Ingredients. You can’t make a good bedtime tea without the right components. We only selected teas without caffeine, of course, but we also looked for blends featuring ingredients sure to summon the Sandman.
• Variety. You can pick up a box of chamomile tea at any grocery store, so we looked for teas with a little more to offer beyond this tried-and-true, but perhaps a little tired, herb.
• Customer reviews and testing. We sampled a few of the blends to give you the most accurate insight on taste and impact. For the others, we read through customer reviews to get a good idea of taste, effect, and tea quality.
• Quality. Speaking of quality, we stuck to well-known brands with established websites and plenty of positive customer feedback. We also checked whether brands were upfront about their ingredients and provided information about tea sourcing and processing.
• Ease of purchase. You’ll find a few of these brands on Amazon or in local brick-and-mortar stores, but you can also buy them directly from the brand’s website.

Pricing guide

Tea prices can vary widely, especially when it comes to loose tea. Buying in bulk is generally cheaper, but you may want to taste test with a smaller sample pack first.

We included teas at a variety of price points to help every shopper find the right blend.

• $ = under $10
• $$ = $10–$16
• $$$ = over $16

Healthline’s picks for the best teas to help you sleep

Best rated tea to help you sleep

Adagio Teas 40 Winks

• Price: $
• Key ingredients: Valerian root, honeybush tea, chamomile, spearmint, and lavender
• Type: Bagged or loose

Adagio Teas’ signature sleepytime blend, 40 Winks, has an average rating of 96 (out of 100) from 835 reviews — a good sign this tea really may promote restful sleep.

You can probably thank the valerian root for that. Valerian root is widely used to promote relaxation and restful sleep, and some people say it also helps relieve anxiety and stress. While research on the effectiveness of valerian root remains inconclusive, plenty of people swear by the herb as a bedtime sleep aid.

In testing, we liked the crisp herbal scent of this tea. The fragrance of spearmint stood out, although, when we sipped the tea, we tasted chamomile more than anything else. 40 Winks has a light, clean flavor that’s not fruity or floral but rather distinctly herbal. We found it refreshing and calming, with just a bit of tartness.

Reviewers mostly love the flavor of this tea. People who enjoy the benefits of valerian, but not the herb’s strong taste, say this tea blends other ingredients well enough that the valerian doesn’t take over. Most importantly, they say this tea works well for better relaxation, less stress, and relief from insomnia.

The family-owned company, sources their teas directly from farmers around the world and partners with South Pole to reduce their carbon footprint.

Buy the Adagio Teas 40 Winks online.

Best bagged tea to help you sleep

Smith Teamaker Lullaby (Blend No. 40)

• Price: $$
• Key ingredients: Chamomile, lemongrass, lavender, and ashwagandha
• Type: Bagged or loose

Smith Teamaker, based in Oregon, prides itself on fresh, unique teas, and this bedtime blend is no exception.

Lullaby combines notes of chamomile, lemon balm, and lavender — herbs known to improve relaxation and promote restful sleep — with ashwagandha, an essential herb in Ayurvedic medicine.

Ashwagandha offers a variety of health benefits, but it’s particularly known for its ability to help relieve stressTrusted Source and anxiety. Many people trace insomnia and poor sleep back to these two key factors.

Reviewers call this tea “delicious” and “soothing,” saying it helps them wind down in the evening and fall asleep faster. A few people say this tea helped them feel calm and comforted during times of stress.

If chamomile tea works for you but you’re seeking a flavor that’s a little out of the ordinary, you might enjoy this tea. Reviews suggest it has a pleasant, mellow taste that doesn’t overwhelm. One reviewer calls it “an interesting chamomile tea I actually like.”

You can purchase this tea loose or bagged online, but you may also find it sold in stores that sell Smith Teamaker blends. Lullaby is certified organic by California Certified Organic Farmers.

Buy Smith Teamaker Lullaby online.

Best tea with valerian to help you sleep

DAVIDsTEA Organic Mother’s Little Helper

• Price: $$$
• Key ingredients: Valerian root, chamomile, peppermint, and lemongrass
• Type: Bagged or loose

Like Adagio’s 40 Winks, Mother’s Little Helper features valerian root as a key ingredient. The tea blend also contains chamomile and peppermint, so it might help ease any knots in your stomach while providing a double dose of relaxation.

Most reviewers love this tea. People call it refreshing and relaxing, with a soothing fragrance and crisp flavor. A few people did find the mint a little strong, so if you aren’t a fan of minty teas, you may want to skip this one.

In general, reviewers say this tea helps ease not only insomnia, but also stomach troubles and even headaches. Mother’s Little Helper is organic, kosher, and fair trade.

Bonus: Canadian tea company DAVIDsTEA prioritizes sustainability and partners with Ethical Tea Partnership.

Buy DAVIDsTEA Organic Mother’s Little Helper online.

Best organic tea to help you sleep

The Tea Spot Light’s Out

• Price: $$
• Key ingredients: Hibiscus, peppermint, licorice, lavender, chamomile, and valerian root
• Type: Bagged or loose

Another blend of valerian root and chamomile, this organic tea also features the bright tang of hibiscus, licorice for sweetness, and lavender for a dose of calm.

Hibiscus, an antioxidant-rich plantTrusted Source, offers plenty of its own health benefits. So, choosing a bedtime tea with hibiscus could improve more than just the quality of your sleep.

In general, reviewers praise this tea. People say it has plenty of flavor and a wonderful fragrance. If you don’t care for licorice, don’t worry — a few reviewers note the taste is barely noticeable. People tend to notice the hibiscus more than anything else, but most reviewers enjoy the taste.

As for effectiveness, reviewers say this tea really does seem to put the lights out. People say they love the tea for winding down and relaxing before bedtime, and a few even say it made sleeping pills unnecessary.

Buy The Tea Spot Light’s Out online.

Best relaxing tea to help you sleep

Adagio Teas Daydream

• Price: $
• Key ingredients: Rooibos, hibiscus, passionflower, lemon balm, and lavender
• Type: Bagged or loose

The unique flavor profile of the Daydream blend may not put you right to sleep, but many say it’s still wholly relaxing.

Thanks to the marigold flowers, this tea gives off a slightly spicy fragrance as it brews. The actual taste, a clean herbal flavor that falls short of floral, isn’t strong at all. In other words, you might like this tea if you prefer lighter blends.

In testing, we didn’t taste much of the lavender or licorice beyond a faintly sweet aftertaste. The notes of orange add some tart sweetness, while the faint hint of peppermint keeps it from becoming cloying.

In short, Daydream helps refresh and calm you without an overwhelming flavor — no small feat, when you consider the lengthy list of ingredients. The herbal notes work together to provide a soothing, somewhat elusive flavor, not unlike a pleasant dream you can’t quite recall.

Reviewers call Daydream’s flavor “hazy” and “delicate.” A few reviewers don’t love the blend of ingredients, but others say it has a soothing, fruity flavor.

While some reviewers say it doesn’t have the most intense flavor, they note it does help ease stress and anxiety and promote relaxation — especially as they wind down after a long day. One reviewer even says this tea puts them to sleep before they finish their cup.

Buy Adagio Teas Daydream online.

Best sweet tea to help you sleep

The Republic of Tea Get Some Zzz’s

• Price: $$
• Key ingredients: Rooibos, orange peel, spearmint, chamomile, passionflower, valerian root, and stevia
• Type: Bagged

This bedtime tea combines chamomile with rooibos — a red tea known for its antioxidants — and passionflower — an herb widely used to promote relaxation and better sleepTrusted Source.

Orange peel adds citrus notes, while stevia sweetens the blend. The reviews suggest you won’t need any sugar or honey for this tea. Some people even find it a little too sweet.

For the most part, people love this tea. Reviewers call the taste smooth and mellow, with notes of refreshing mint. Bedtime teas are about more than taste, of course, and reviewers also say this tea really does help them, well, catch some Zzz’s.

People say this tea helps them relax and unwind, even in the face of pandemic anxiety and stress. Some people experiencing chronic pain say this tea helps them sleep more soundly. A few reviewers even say this tea helps them skip other sleep aids or pain medication.

This tea is kosher and gluten-free. You’ll find this brand in many stores, but you can also purchase Get Some Zzz’s from Amazon or directly from The Republic of Tea’s website.

Buy The Republic of Tea Get Some Zzz’s online.

Best decaffeinated tea to help you sleep

Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Bedtime Brew

• Price: $$
• Key ingredients: Decaffeinated black tea, vanilla, and nutmeg
• Type: Bagged

Not a fan of herbal teas? You still have options for a bedtime beverage. Decaffeinated black tea won’t help promote relaxation in the same way as herbs like valerian root, chamomile, or lavender.

Yet black tea offers other health benefits, and a warm cup of tea can still help soothe and calm you as a part of your nightly ritual.

This decaf blend from Yorkshire Tea makes a great alternative to herbal blends. Along with having an overall 4.5-star rating on Amazon, it’s a tried-and-true favorite nighttime tea, especially during the colder months.

The light, smooth flavor is balanced by a hint of nutmeg, while vanilla enhances the tea without overpowering it. Even when drinking it plain, it almost tastes as if you’ve added a dash of milk.

This tea also contains lemon balm, an herb that might help relieveTrusted Source insomnia and stress.

The best part? It doesn’t even taste like decaf. Several Amazon reviewers agree this mild tea tastes much like the real thing and makes a relaxing evening drink. People call this tea calming and fragrant, and they praise its “comforting” flavor.

Bonus: Yorkshire Teas have earned the Rainforest Alliance certification. And Taylors of Harrogate, the parent company of Yorkshire Tea, founded the Ethical Tea Partnership.

Buy Taylors of Harrogate Yorkshire Tea Bedtime Brew online.

MIND

A Glimpse Inside the Mind of Dreaming Animals

It seems that animals dream, based on similar sleep patterns in humans. But, this dreaming may be different than ours.

By Avery HurtJanuary 20, 2021 9:10 AM

(Credit: Javier Brosch)

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If you’ve ever watched dogs or cats sleep, you’ve probably wondered if they’re dreaming. Was that ear twitch or snuffling sound just a reflex? Or is Fluffy dreaming of the hunt? Maybe the sound of the can opener? Since we can’t ask, we may never know for sure. But there are good reasons to think non-human animals dream, at least according to a certain definition of dreaming.

Marc Bekoff, author of Canine Confidential and an evolutionary biologist at the University of Colorado, Boulder, says he has never really doubted that non-human animals dream. He finds Darwin’s argument for evolutionary continuity compelling. This is the idea that differences in species are a matter of degree and not kind. “Having the necessary neural structures would seem to indicate that [various species of animals] use those structures in the same way,” he says. “But what it means to the rat or the mouse or the dog is another question. I don’t know that anybody would have a great answer to that.”

Sleep States

Human dreaming occurs mostly, but not exclusively, in the state known as REM (rapid eye movement) sleep. During this phase, the electrical activity in the brain is more like waking than sleeping. That’s why this state is often called “paradoxical sleep.” Scientists have discovered that most non-human animals — mammals, birds, reptiles, and most recently, fish — experience REM sleep, too. The electrical activity in these creatures’ brains during REM sleep is quite similar to that of humans while they dream. That doesn’t confirm that other animals are dreaming while they are in these sleep states, much less tell us what they’re dreaming about. But there are clues.about:blankabout:blank

During REM sleep, the body loses muscle tone and is effectively paralyzed, a state called atonia. This likely keeps us from acting out our dreams. (People who don’t experience atonia during REM sleep often kick, punch, or leap out of bed during dream states.) In 1995, French neuroscientist Michel Jouvet, a pioneer in the field of sleep research, discovered that when atonia is disabled in cats, the cats stalked and pounced and generally appeared to be acting out dreams.

A 2015 study on rats offered an even more intriguing peek into the minds of sleeping animals. Researchers at University College London monitored the brain activity of rats as they showed the rats the location of food and taught them the route through a maze to get there. They didn’t allow the rats to actually reach the food, though. Later when the rats were sleeping, they monitored the rats’ brain activity. Next, they put the rats back in the maze, without blocking them from the food. While the rats found their way to the food, their brain activity showed the same patterns they had while sleeping, indicating that while snoozing the rats rehearsed the route they had learned earlier.

This is consistent with what sleep is thought to do in humans. Philippe Mourrain is an associate professor of psychiatry and behavioral sciences at Stanford University. His lab studies the evolution and purpose of sleep by looking at the molecular biology of organisms such as fruit flies and zebrafish. Mourrain explains that during sleep the brain stabilizes and integrates what you’ve experienced the day before — a process often called memory consolidation. “One of the main functions of sleep is to reorganize your synaptic connections,” he says.

During this process, you can get some weird associations — stray bits of memory pop up in odd places, creating one of the most memorable features of dreaming: It can feel surreal, like a kaleidoscopic parade of loosely related images. It tends to be a very random process, even if we often impose some kind of narrative or meaning on what we recall once we wake up. 

Connecting and Re-Connecting

Non-human animals need to consolidate what’s happened to them during their waking hours, too. Studies like the one with the rats suggests they do this in much the same way humans do. So, does this mean that as their brains try to organize new information, these animals have weird dreams about interesting smells, dangerous predators or the alluring sounds of food in the kitchen? That’s very likely. “Sleep is something all animals share,” says Mourrain, “and the part we call dreaming is very likely this reconnection of neural networks during sleep.”about:blankabout:blank

It begs questions about whether animals wake up and remember these images, and maybe even, like humans, attach a storyline to them. They likely do not.

In the end, we may have the question turned around. “I think the message is not, ‘Animals are dreaming like us,’ ” says Mourrain, “but we’re dreaming like them. In our brains, like a lot of other animals that came before us, neuronal networks are being reshuffled at night to prepare us for the day to come.”

Animal species have been sleeping for at least 500 million years, according to Mourrain’s research. Homo Sapiens, on the other hand, have only been around a mere 300,000 years ago — to practice sleep, and, perchance to dream. But that doesn’t mean the dreams of one species are anything like the dreams of another. To paraphrase the philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein, “If a lion could tell us about his dreams, we would not understand him.” Bekoff put it another way: “I think it depends

https://www.discovermagazine.com/mind/a-glimpse-inside-the-mind-of-dreaming-animals

‘Help you drift off into a deep sleep’: Shoppers love these £7 lavender scented self-heating eye masks for winding down before bed

By EMILY KNOTT FOR MAILONLINE

PUBLISHED: 03:44 EST, 21 January 2021 | UPDATED: 03:44 EST, 21 January 2021

Whether you want to treat yourself to a DIY spa day or need a cosy self-care moment, there’s one beauty product Amazon shoppers say are perfect for winding down and soothing tired eyes.

The MegRhythm Gentle Steam Warming Eye Masks, which cost £6.99 for a pack of five, are self-heating eye masks enriched with a lavender scent that melts away stress, soothes tired eyes and promotes an overall sense of wellbeing.

Already well-liked by Amazon reviewers, the Japanese eye masks are climbing to the top of the retailer’s Eye Care and Cooling Eye Masks categories. Contented shoppers call them the ‘perfect for relaxation’ and a ‘very effective’ sleep aid.+3

+3

Shoppers with sleeping difficulties have given these eye masks rave reviews claiming they’ll ‘help you drift off into a deep sleep’

The innovative MegRhythm Steam Eye Masks use the soothing and therapeutic benefits of heat therapy to stay at a comfortable temperature for up to 20 minutes to instantly soothe tired, irritated eyes.

Not only are they compact so you can take them anywhere, but they’re designed to warm up almost instantly, so they’re ready to use upon opening. Just hook the straps around your ears, lie back and relax.

‘I love these,’ one shopper raved in their review. ‘I was dubious, but these are just terrific. I had a lot of eyestrain and a dull headache, and they are both gone after using these for the first time. Very pleasant and relaxing.’

Another reviewer called them ‘so relaxing’, They continued: ‘I purchased these as I suffer with headaches and eye strain from screen work etc. I put one on to relax with in bed, ended up falling asleep with it on and had the best nights sleep I’ve had in months.+3

The MegRhythm Steam Eye Masks use the soothing and therapeutic benefits of heat therapy to stay at a comfortable temperature for up to 20 minutes to instantly soothe tired, irritated eyes

‘They do get quite warm, but it’s lovely with the lavender scent. My boyfriend tried one, and he has asked me to order more!’

Shoppers with sleeping difficulties have also given the masks rave reviews, claiming that they’ll ‘help you drift off into a deep sleep’.

‘I am so impressed with these eye masks!’ another shopper added. ‘They are incredibly light and comfortable, they smell delightful (I usually don’t like lavender, but thought I’d try them!) and they did exactly what I hoped they would…. Help me sleep!

‘The warmth is gentle and soothing, and the lavender fragrance is just enough to help you drift off into a deep sleep.’

These lavender-scented eye masks from MegRhythm are worth trying if you get migraines, spend all day in front of a computer, or have dry and sore eyes.

Mozilla engineer: Here’s how we got Firefox working on Apple silicon

A Mozilla engineer explains why Firefox has opted for error messages instead of Chrome programmatically installing Apple’s Rosetta emulator for its new Arm-based Macs.

By Liam Tung | January 21, 2021 — 13:27 GMT (05:27 PST) | Topic: Developer

No more Flash support on Firefox from January 26 WATCH NOW

Mozilla has provided more detail on the work it had to do to get its Firefox browser ported to the Apple silicon used in its new Macs.

Gian-Carlo Pascutto, a security engineer at Mozilla Corporation, has detailed how it managed to port the Firefox browser to the new architecture, while noting some issues around Apple’s Rosetta emulator, and enabling support for Netflix and digital rights management (DRM).

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For example Google was very quick to release a version of Chrome with native support for Apple’s new silicon Macs. It beat Firefox by a month, but Mozilla explained why it avoided some of Google’s troubles by going later. Browsers are very complex pieces of software, so it’s perhaps not surprising that Firefox and Chrome have run into some problems on the road to natively supporting Apple’s new Arm-based silicon Macs.

SEE: Guide to Becoming a Digital Transformation Champion (TechRepublic Premium)

It’s a long post with lots of fascinating details about the choices and trade-offs Mozilla engineers needed to make in order to bring out a version of Firefox with native Apple silicon support in time for the first Apple silicon-based Macs. Engineering work started when Apple unveiled its silicon in June, but few knew the precise date Apple would release its first Arm-based Macs. Apple announced Apple Silicon Macs on November 17.  

The most interesting problem was around Rosetta, and Firefox support for Netflix, Hulu and other video-streaming services. Key to getting Firefox ready for Apple silicon was ensuring proper support for DRM anti-piracy software, and support from decoders, such as Google’s Widevine. At the time, Widevine hadn’t announced support for Apple silicon. 

“As a significant number of our users use the browser to watch video online, this presented a potential showstopper for a native Apple Silicon release,” writes Pascutto. 

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Part of the solution to the DRM challenge may have required using Rosetta 2, Apple’s translation process or emulator that lets apps for Intel chips run on Apple silicon. Apple doesn’t pre-install Rosetta 2 on silicon Macs; installation is triggered when a user tries to run an Intel app. 

As Pascutto notes, Google’s first version of Chrome with native Apple silicon support ran into a problem related to this issue with Rosetta 2. Google released that edition of Chrome one day after Apple unveiled its first silicon Macs, but users immediately reported the browser was unexpectedly crashing. 

“Triggering the installation of Rosetta programmatically works, but some of our colleagues found out the hard way it is not very reliable,” writes Pascutto.  

That’s why Mozilla decided against a similar approach to the Chromium project and has an error message instead, advising Apple silicon users to install Rosetta. Mozilla released Firefox 84, its first version with native Apple silicon support, a month after Chrome with native Apple silicon support.  

Chromium engineers fixed the crashing issue quickly but said in Gerrit notes for the fix: “Don’t trust callbacks from the Rosetta installer. Every so often, the Rosetta installer will call back the provided “installation done” block more than once. Protect against that.”

Separately, as Pascutto notes, Mozilla engineers knew roughly what they were in for with Apple silicon after having supported Arm on Android and Linux for some time. And in 2019, Mozilla released Firefox for Windows 10 on Arm.     

SEE: Programming languages: Microsoft TypeScript leaps ahead of C#, PHP and C++ on GitHub

However, he was concerned about parts of Firefox written in Rust and the need to ensure it had a solid Rust compiler in time for the first Apple silicon Macs, which would happen in mid-November. But at the time Rust support for Apple silicon was underway, Apple hadn’t revealed the release date.      

“Although Apple Silicon support for Rust was underway, it took until mid-August for there to be functional compiler builds, which limited the amount of progress possible for Firefox,” says Pascutto. 

“Once the compiler was working, a similar exercise needed to be done with all the Rust crates we depend on. The need to update the compiler and the reliance of some crates on the exact compiler version, especially parts dealing with SIMD support, would end up biting us later on as it made it hard to push Apple Silicon support forward to an earlier release of Firefox without potentially affecting other platforms.”

Engineers also didn’t know whether to make Firefox a universal binary, or one that supports both Apple’s Arm silicon and Macs with Intel chipsets with the same executable. 

If You’re Not a Straight, White Man, Medical Research Might Be Overlooking You—But Here’s How To Change That

Well+Good Editors・January 11, 2021

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If one good thing has come out of 2020, it’s been the call to action to identify—and actively work to change—the many areas in our society where systemic inequality is impacting people’s ability to live a truly well life. One such area? Inequality in medical research.

“Medical research” might make you think of petri dishes and mice in a laboratory, but it’s actually a lot more relevant to your daily life than that—and the numbers are staggering. “Nearly 40 percent of Americans belong to a racial or ethnic minority group, yet clinical trials skew heavily white (up to 90 percent),” says Vincent Nelson, MD, vice president of medical affairs and interim chief medical officer at the Blue Cross Blue Shield Association.

To be specific, these trials have predominantly focused on white people who are straight and male, which has left out huge chunks of the population such as women, LGBTQ+ people, racial and ethnic minority groups, and people from low-income and/or rural communities, Dr. Nelson says.

This lack of diversity is important because medical treatments may affect people of different groups differently, he explains, so in order to prescribe treatments and medications that will actually help, medical professionals need to have the right information.

“Diversifying medical research can help reduce health inequities by answering questions such as why Black women are suffering from higher maternal mortality rates or why stroke is more common among rural communities,” Dr. Nelson says. “In order to answer these questions, researchers and the medical community need to have access to data that is truly representative of our diverse country.”RELATED STORIESThe BMI Is a Deeply Flawed Measure of ‘Health’—Particularly for BIPOC CommunitiesBlack Women Aren’t More Likely To Get Breast Cancer, but They Are…

So how do we fix this data diversity issue? The All of Us Research Program (which is managed by the National Institutes of Health) has been working on it since 2018, when All of Us set out to become the largest and most diverse research program ever. By partnering with volunteers who share their health info, All of Us is creating a massive data hub that gives researchers access to information that’s actually reflective of the U.S. population.

By the numbers, the program already has over 360,000 participants (more than 50 percent of whom are people of color, and more than 80 percent are from underrepresented groups) with a goal of reaching at least one million people and tracking health changes over a decade. And, more than 300 studies have already begun using this data to study cancer, heart disease, Alzheimer’s, mental health, and more.

Here’s the catch: The program can’t make the monumental impact it’s hoping to without volunteers, but a historically justified lack of trust between traditionally underserved communities of color and the medical field is a barrier for turning things around.

“There is a lack of diversity with African Americans participating in medical research because there is significant mistrust in medical research based on the history of mistreatment, abuse, and deception with clinical programs within the African American community,” says Shana Davis, senior program director at Black Women’s Health Imperative. “In addition, based on various negative and historical experiences, black and brown communities tend to be more skeptical about sharing personal information for fear that it will be exploited in some way.”

To mend these bridges, All of Us is taking precautions to keeping all shared data safe and secure, and joining forces with groups like the Black Women’s Health Imperative, the National Alliance for Hispanic Health, the Asian Health Coalition, and more to spread the word on the importance of this movement—as well as to listen and learn how to be more culturally inclusive.

“If we [Black women] are not part of the study, our specific needs will not be assessed nor addressed,” Davis says. “Black women are disproportionately underrepresented in clinical research. Therefore, so are our needs. Black women must be educated on why participating in clinical research is critical to our long-term health. […] One day, this work will allow clinicians to tailor their day-to-day treatment plans precisely for me based on my genetics.”

If you or someone you know signs up, All of Us will ask for info (via surveys, electronic health records) on the factors that influence your health, like your lifestyle, activity levels, family health history, etc. You can also connect your fitness tracker (which you might qualify to receive for free if you don’t already have one!) and provide a DNA sample for further study, which could help you learn more about your genetic ancestry. The key is, you only have to share what you personally are comfortable divulging.

“If you decide to participate, you’ll be contributing to research that will help generations to come,” Davis says. “You could help ensure that people who share the same background, community, or orientation as you are represented and benefit from research.” And that’s a move toward equality you can definitely feel good about.

Chrome 88 brings better password protection and Incognito screenshots while sunsetting Flash (APK Download)The long-dreaded Manifest V3 is also on board

Manuel Vonauhttps://platform.twitter.com/widgets/follow_button.96fd96193cc66c3e11d4c5e4c7c7ec97.en.html#dnt=false&id=twitter-widget-0&lang=en&screen_name=ManuelVonau&show_count=false&show_screen_name=false&size=m&time=1611280790100Jan 20, 2021

Another month, another Chrome release: Following the usual beta testing period, Google has just started rolling out version 88 of its browser, and there are quite a few improvements and significant changes on board. The release enhances some password protection features and paves the way for more web apps in the Play Store, but it also says goodbye to FTP connections and puts the final nail in the Flash Player’s coffin.

Password protection

As we already covered, Chrome 88 comes with a slew of new password protection features. In addition to checking your saved passwords for breaches, the browser will now also warn you when you want to save a password that’s considered too weak to be secure. Should you have to change your already saved passwords, a new button in the built-in password manager will now allow you to do that for the first few supported services. On Android, biometric authentication for password autofill is planned to come soon.

Manifest V3 support

Chrome 88 is the first version to fully support Google’s controversial new Manifest V3. The key change in Manifest V3 is the deprecation of the webRequest API in favor of the declarativeNetRequest API. Instead of allowing extensions to examine and filter every network request coming to Chrome, which isn’t the safest option regarding privacy and security, the declarativeNetRequest API only lets extensions provide Chrome with a filter list that the browser parses itself. Developers aren’t happy with the change because extensions can only apply a maximum of 30,000 rules in Chrome 88 while some of the more common blocklists like EasyList have more than 60,000 rules. Google already vowed to raise that number to 300,000 in Chrome 89, but that might still not be enough to run more than a few blocklists at once.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?guci=2.1.0.4.2.2.0.0&gdpr=0&client=ca-pub-8776668743582988&output=html&h=280&slotname=4273329030&adk=898382138&adf=675082546&pi=t.ma~as.4273329030&w=668&fwrn=1&fwrnh=100&lmt=1611280761&rafmt=1&psa=1&format=668×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpolice.com%2F2021%2F01%2F20%2Fchrome-88%2F&flash=0&fwr=0&fwrattr=false&rpe=1&resp_fmts=3&wgl=1&uach=WyJNYWMgT1MgWCIsIjEwXzExXzYiLCJ4ODYiLCIiLCI4Ny4wLjQyODAuMTQxIixbXV0.&dt=1611280767375&bpp=2&bdt=5460&idt=2418&shv=r20210120&cbv=r20190131&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&prev_fmts=0x0%2C300x600%2C728x90%2C300x250%2C728x280%2C300x600&nras=1&correlator=8365504564610&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=800712855.1611280768&ga_sid=1611280768&ga_hid=1506665335&ga_fc=0&u_tz=-480&u_his=1&u_java=0&u_h=1050&u_w=1680&u_ah=980&u_aw=1680&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=346&ady=2619&biw=1680&bih=900&scr_x=0&scr_y=0&eid=42530671%2C21068769%2C21068945&oid=3&pvsid=1620642898386888&pem=952&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=1920&brdim=0%2C23%2C0%2C23%2C1680%2C23%2C1680%2C980%2C1680%2C900&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CeEbr%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=8320&bc=31&ifi=3&uci=a!3&btvi=5&fsb=1&xpc=1H7GbrZqTE&p=https%3A//www.androidpolice.com&dtd=2428

Google will begin approving and shipping the first extensions using the new manifest following the release of Chrome 88. Right now, Google hasn’t communicated the inevitable shutdown date of Manifest V2 and the webRequest API. Other Chromium-based browser makers like Vivaldi and Opera promised to continue supporting the older API.

Read more about Manifest V3 in our coverage here.

Play Store billing for web apps

Chrome 88 adds support for Play Store in-app purchases for web apps as part of the Payment Request API. On Android, this allows websites to tap into the Google Play Billing Library. This is important for developers who want to monetize their web apps in the Play Store, as its policies forbid in-app payments using other billing methods. Developers interested in implementing this can find more details here.

Flash and FTP deprecation

It’s been coming for years, and Chrome 88 is finally the first version of Chrome to remove all remnants of Flash Player. In earlier days of the internet when HTML, Javascript, and other web tools weren’t as versatile as they’re today, Flash Player was a fantastic plugin enabling video playback, many browser games, and more. But with the rise of certain Flash-less phones (clears throat iPhone) and more powerful web tools, Flash Player increasingly fell into disgrace for being a slow, resource-hogging security risk. Adobe has also pulled the plug on its tool and has already been blocking Flash content from playing since January 12, 2021.

Similarly, all support for FTP has been removed from Chrome, following the feature’s deprecation in Chrome 80. FTP is still a widely used protocol for accessing and transferring files via the internet, but web browsers have always been ill-equipped for file browsing. There are much better client programs for FTP connections, like the open-source FileZilla.

Screenshots in Incognito

Screenshots in Incognito work as expected in Chrome 88.

For a long time, Chrome didn’t allow you to take screenshots when browsing in Incognito to prevent you from saving certain potentially infringing content, but there are circumstances when you do want to retain information from Incognito tabs. That’s finally possible with Chrome 88 thanks to a new #incognito-screenshot flag that brings back screenshot support to the Incognito mode when enabled. It’s not clear when the functionality will roll out to everyone by default.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?guci=2.1.0.4.2.2.0.0&gdpr=0&client=ca-pub-8776668743582988&output=html&h=280&slotname=4443422252&adk=4251700705&adf=2032137920&pi=t.ma~as.4443422252&w=668&fwrn=1&fwrnh=100&lmt=1611280761&rafmt=1&psa=1&format=668×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpolice.com%2F2021%2F01%2F20%2Fchrome-88%2F&flash=0&fwr=0&fwrattr=false&rpe=1&resp_fmts=3&wgl=1&adsid=NT&uach=WyJNYWMgT1MgWCIsIjEwXzExXzYiLCJ4ODYiLCIiLCI4Ny4wLjQyODAuMTQxIixbXV0.&dt=1611280767424&bpp=2&bdt=5509&idt=2482&shv=r20210120&cbv=r20190131&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&prev_fmts=0x0%2C300x600%2C728x90%2C300x250%2C728x280%2C300x600%2C668x280%2C300x250&nras=1&correlator=8365504564610&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=800712855.1611280768&ga_sid=1611280768&ga_hid=1506665335&ga_fc=0&u_tz=-480&u_his=1&u_java=0&u_h=1050&u_w=1680&u_ah=980&u_aw=1680&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=346&ady=4772&biw=1680&bih=900&scr_x=0&scr_y=1325&eid=42530671%2C21068769%2C21068945&oid=3&psts=AGkb-H95Lvej_Ykatanwqa4hZ9GW5WFPblzVZrOPuhC9h58rRBnFxfcbPh7Z10oM7navSicFuieZd8RqOA%2CAGkb-H8ZfzmoLqaKXifICrrVYer8LR_3SntCjB76u64OsjO-yqCuFF4bFq5nkUnq0Noa5Zlig4N38-_A_XY%2CAGkb-H-GtUdNXIUq7mSY5tMnPp4ahziQ1E1KJHURtoHPq4eYAT4GxAswQFj1vsHKrklR9qeT6NnZqHQyS3M%2CAGkb-H8X0J9cHRLZKN-pmDfo11p-Bet0o86jfjTuAs4ArNXZgiD0E8RCaNkL1VSRhZ7rgWNB_US4bo3w6Us%2CAGkb-H_8PvPV3XMyIu6vkLkiXuobtoNheam-fZ67gw4-Piy6poA3hh-JzSMfUnMGMf5iVWTeXqDoIQvZr1IwEw&pvsid=1620642898386888&pem=952&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=1920&brdim=0%2C23%2C0%2C23%2C1680%2C23%2C1680%2C980%2C1680%2C900&vis=1&rsz=o%7Co%7CeEbr%7C&abl=NS&pfx=0&fu=8320&bc=31&ifi=4&uci=a!4&btvi=6&fsb=1&xpc=eInub9jB4O&p=https%3A//www.androidpolice.com&dtd=16082

Tab search

If you’re anything like me, you’ll have dozens of tabs open during a regular surfing session, and that’s where tab search might come in handy. The feature has been available in Chrome OS for a while already and is now finally making the jump to other desktop OSes with version 88. You have to enable it in chrome://flags under #enable-tab-search (copy and paste the link address in your address bar). After restarting your browser, you’ll find a new icon on the rightmost side of the tab strip which you can click to see an overview of all of your open tabs, including a search bar. You can also pull it up via Ctrl+Shift+A.

Tab search is limited to the desktop versions of the browser for now, and we don’t know if Google will ever expand it to mobile.

Tutorial videos

Google is working on adding tutorial videos to its browser. You can currently activate them via the #video-tutorials flag, but right now, they only consist of placeholder videos from the Google Go app. They’re visible as cards on the new tab page, between your most visited websites and the Discover feed.

The titles already suggest what content we can expect in the future: There is “How to use Chrome,” “How to download content for later,” How to search with Chrome,” “How to search with your voice,” and “How to use incognito.” The videos are limited to Android, and Google will presumably only activate the tutorials for everyone once the proper content is available.

Other changes

Apart from these bigger tweaks to Chrome, there are a few smaller changes:https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?guci=2.1.0.4.2.2.0.0&gdpr=0&client=ca-pub-8776668743582988&output=html&h=280&slotname=3307091090&adk=2400728769&adf=2481138223&pi=t.ma~as.3307091090&w=668&fwrn=1&fwrnh=100&lmt=1611280761&rafmt=1&psa=1&format=668×280&url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.androidpolice.com%2F2021%2F01%2F20%2Fchrome-88%2F&flash=0&fwr=0&fwrattr=false&rpe=1&resp_fmts=3&wgl=1&adsid=NT&uach=WyJNYWMgT1MgWCIsIjEwXzExXzYiLCJ4ODYiLCIiLCI4Ny4wLjQyODAuMTQxIixbXV0.&dt=1611280767555&bpp=11&bdt=5641&idt=2551&shv=r20210120&cbv=r20190131&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&prev_fmts=0x0%2C300x600%2C728x90%2C300x250%2C728x280%2C300x600%2C668x280%2C300x250%2C668x280%2C0x0%2C300x250&nras=1&correlator=8365504564610&frm=20&pv=1&ga_vid=800712855.1611280768&ga_sid=1611280768&ga_hid=1506665335&ga_fc=0&u_tz=-480&u_his=1&u_java=0&u_h=1050&u_w=1680&u_ah=980&u_aw=1680&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=346&ady=7168&biw=1680&bih=900&scr_x=0&scr_y=3632&eid=42530671%2C21068769%2C21068945&oid=3&psts=AGkb-H95Lvej_Ykatanwqa4hZ9GW5WFPblzVZrOPuhC9h58rRBnFxfcbPh7Z10oM7navSicFuieZd8RqOA%2CAGkb-H8ZfzmoLqaKXifICrrVYer8LR_3SntCjB76u64OsjO-yqCuFF4bFq5nkUnq0Noa5Zlig4N38-_A_XY%2CAGkb-H-GtUdNXIUq7mSY5tMnPp4ahziQ1E1KJHURtoHPq4eYAT4GxAswQFj1vsHKrklR9qeT6NnZqHQyS3M%2CAGkb-H8X0J9cHRLZKN-pmDfo11p-Bet0o86jfjTuAs4ArNXZgiD0E8RCaNkL1VSRhZ7rgWNB_US4bo3w6Us%2CAGkb-H_8PvPV3XMyIu6vkLkiXuobtoNheam-fZ67gw4-Piy6poA3hh-JzSMfUnMGMf5iVWTeXqDoIQvZr1IwEw%2CAGkb-H9js-vP3pTuVsm4sQglnaue1PlfF6oFd7wWqLlFwTTGuruQTKZ7DFBfZYIla7BhHiJfmtJoQco1ysk%2CAGkb-H_xpUTYsqWBzsnZtZaSxjouz6rSlubVxsfG_ZVq7pSkH4ANsYoTWq6RAcdqz2RB1JKP0DnONyEGGdk%2CAGkb-H-eIigyBDeggZdNVGuaBSSD2hUh7yBeBZ7VfjvLmx_B-ladYx2vSAmO1qUAeQ8-gny_W-dX20bmyBc&pvsid=1620642898386888&pem=952&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=1920&brdim=0%2C23%2C0%2C23%2C1680%2C23%2C1680%2C980%2C1680%2C900&vis=1&rsz=o%7Co%7CeEbr%7C&abl=NS&pfx=0&fu=8320&bc=31&ifi=5&uci=a!5&btvi=8&fsb=1&xpc=HikxgGjgBk&p=https%3A//www.androidpolice.com&dtd=36727

• Chrome has long supported dark themes including Microsoft’s on Windows 10, but some quirks were never addressed on the desktop OS until now. Dark mode finally properly darkens the scrollbars in more places, like Settings, History, Bookmarks, and other internal sites.
• Chrome 88 drops support for macOS 10.10 Yosemite, and now requires macOS 10.11 El Capitan or later.
• Chrome previously added left and right buttons for navigating through tabs, and a new #scrollable-tabstrip-buttons flag is available that keeps the buttons visible at all times.

The #scrollable-tabstrip-buttons feature flag.

• Google’s Legacy Browser Support extension, which allowed IT managers to set rules for opening other browsers automatically when certain pages are loaded, is no longer supported as of Chrome 88. Most of the extension’s functionality is now built into Chrome directly.
• Links that open in a new tab (<a> tags with “target=_blank”) automatically behave as if “rel=noopener” is set. This will help prevent so-called tab-napping attacks.
• WebXR experiences (AR and VR content) can now dynamically scale their content, which can improve framerates in some cases.
• Web apps can optionally enable a new feature called Origin Isolation, which increases a page’s security in exchange for certain APIs being unavailable.
• A new #destroy-profile-on-browser-close flag is available that “[releases] memory and other resources when the last browser window is closed,” instead of by default, which occurs when the Chrome browser is exited completely.
• A new #permission-predictions flag is available that switches to a less-intrusive interface for page permissions, when Chrome predicts that you’re less likely to grant said permission (e.g., a website you’ve never visited before asking for notifications).
• The DevTools (Ctrl+Shift+C) are about 37% faster thanks to JavaScript improvements. There are also new CSS angle visualization tools for angle debugging, emulation for unsupported image types, storage quota size simulation in the Storage pane, and much more for developers.
• The addEventListener class got a new AbortSignal option to make it easier to shut down EventListeners when not needed anymore.
• Chrome 88 throttles chained JavaScript timers for hidden pages, which will reduce CPU usage and use up less of your precious battery.
• Support for Web Components v0 has been removed from Chrome.
• Google now allows developers to enable or disable pointer acceleration and other underlying platform modifications. This is particularly valuable for games.
• A new aspect-ratio CSS property class allows developers to set aspect ratios for any element, not just pictures.

Download

The APK is signed by Google and upgrades your existing app. The cryptographic signature guarantees that the file is safe to install and was not tampered with in any way. Rather than wait for Google to push this download to your devices, which can take days, download and install it just like any other APK.

• APK Mirror — Chrome 88.0.4324.93

DownloadQR-Code

Google Chrome: Fast & Secure

Developer: Google LLCPrice: Free 

Best supplements for sleep: Taking melatonin before bed could help you fall asleep better

SLEEP can sometimes seem impossible especially during these trying times. Fortunately, there are supplements out there that could not only help you fall asleep faster but improve your sleep quality too.

By JESSICA KNIBBSPUBLISHED: 04:01, Thu, Jan 21, 2021

Melatonin is a hormone that regulates the sleep–wake cycle. Evidence suggests that taking melatonin supplements is a simple and effective ways to fall asleep faster.

Studies have shown taking melatonin before bed improved sleep quality and energy the next day and helped people fall asleep faster. Nutritional Therapist, Lisa Borg at Pulse Light Clinic spoke exclusively with Express.co.uk to offer her insight on melatonin’s ability to aid sleep

Lisa said: “Melatonin is crucial for a good night’s sleep, and there are many things in our current lifestyles which disrupt it’s synthesis: blue light from screens, caffeine, alcohol, tobacco, jet-lag, shift work, and since it is synthesised in response to a reduction in light hitting the retina of the eye, it can be a problem for the visually impaired.

“The precursor to melatonin is serotonin, a neurotransmitter present in the central nervous system, including the brain, but is most abundant in the gut; it carries signals between nerve cells and is more commonly known for its anti-depressant effects.

“In the response to fading light and ensuing darkness, serotonin is first acted upon by an enzyme to convert it to acetylserotonin, which is then converted to melatonin.

“The process involves stimulation of the hypothalamus in response to light perception via the retina, and the hypothalamus stimulates the pineal gland which initiates the conversion of serotonin into melatonin.

“Conversely as light hits the retina (and it does so through the thin skin of a closed eyelid), melatonin synthesis reduces, and we awaken.”

Best supplements: Melatonin helps you sleep quicker and better (Image: Getty Images)

Lisa continued: “Most often it is easier to support serotonin levels rather than melatonin because the latter is not available over-the-counter and requires a prescription.

“Serotonin is derived from the amino acid tryptophan which is widely distributed in foods that supply protein.

“Tryptophan is also available as a supplement.

“Digestive health, and particularly beneficial bacteria levels, is also an important aspect to take care of to supply an abundance of serotonin.”

Daytime exercise and exposure to light also play a role in good melatonin synthesis at night, according to Lisa.

She explained: “Where serotonin levels are adequate, the next step in producing sufficient melatonin to get a good night’s quality sleep is to follow nature’s light and dark cycle and avoid those things which disrupt it’s synthesis.

“The body has its own internal clock that follows a 24-hour cycle and while we can more or less set what that is to suit our lifestyles, it doesn’t mean we will be healthy or that it can be sustained in the long term without consequence.

“Quality sleep is the best medicine for most health issues and is a vital component of health maintenance.

“In rarer cases, a prescription for melatonin may be necessary and more beneficial than simply raising serotonin levels.”

Best supplements: Experts advise less screen time for better sleep (Image: Getty Images)

For those with serious insomnia issues melatonin is a more natural remedy without the side effects as compared with sleeping pills.

Lisa advised: “It is a good short-term solution to jet-lag, and may be essential to long term health for those who work the night shift.

“Melatonin has also proven beneficial for people suffering from poor sleep quality due to autism and schizophrenia, and research is ongoing in the use of melatonin in the treatment of hormone related cancers like breast and prostate, the findings of which are encouraging thus far.

“Women in the stages of peri-menopause and menopause often suffer from poor sleep and a reduction in pituitary and thyroid function, for which melatonin has proven helpful.

“Melatonin also has anti-depressant effects and good levels are associated with a happier mood.

“Additionally, due to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory actions, melatonin is heart protective.”

Sanjay Verma, Chief Sleep Officer at Hilding Anders, the global sleep, health and wellness group said: “Studies show that not getting enough sleep is a problem a rising number of Brits are facing.

“Our recent global survey of 4,000 people revealed that the majority of us aren’t getting enough sleep, with Brits alone getting 1.4hrs sleep less than they want to a night.

“This can have huge consequences on our general health, wellbeing, and mental state, and it’s so important now more than ever before to utilise this lockdown and extra time at home as an opportunity to reassess your sleep and ensure you’re getting enough, good quality sleep each night.”

Sanjay’s top tips for getting better sleep include:

• Listen to calming music before bedtime
• Catch some early morning sunlight
• Have an improved sleeping environment
• Invest in a better mattress
• Exercise
• Less screen time before sleep
• Get an early night

AI-powered transcription service Otter.ai can now record from Google Meet

Sarah Perez@sarahintampa / 8:56 AM PST•January 21, 2021 Comment

Image Credits: Otter.ai

Otter.ai, the A.I.-powered voice transcription service that already integrates with Zoom for recording online meetings and webinars, is today bringing its service to Google Meet’s over 100 million users. However, in this case, Otter.ai will provide its live, interactive transcripts and video captions by way of a Chrome web browser extension.

Once installed, a “Live Notes” panel will launch directly in the Chrome web browser during Google Meet calls, where it appears on the side of the Google Meet interface. The panel can be moved around and scrolled through as the meeting is underway.

Here, users can view the live transcript of the online meeting, as it occurs. They can also adjust the text size, then save and share the audio transcripts when the meeting has wrapped.https://buy.tinypass.com/checkout/template/show?displayMode=inline&containerSelector=.piano-inline-promo&templateId=OTNVDM55QAZY&templateVariantId=OTVFP4RI6BNK5&offerId=fakeOfferId&showCloseButton=false&trackingId=%7Bjcx%7DH4sIAAAAAAAAAI2RTU_jMBCG_4vPtWTHX4lvodtqK9TSAs1Cb649SS3S4K0dKEL8d9KysELaw_owl_d5Rp6ZV2S8QxpNX9Q0NC_rY4lGKJgGKg_Ps1OSkYxiQvFQKcOswEzijBD8a751N9264Gv-MBebiIFzcMwpkMCsqWsqlSnqLTeO53XN6qExHAMcPHQWzq0nd2OVL1m1Xs74t3RyBNsn_9idMZqTPIWcRIvJ8LIUZHS_CWfqoWtjozK-i803v7Rfctw9Pt_CPrQmwWx1uczuS7aYKJqzYlB2Jn6GSKdDDyOUPuGTfXW7qH7MhViVm3v0N6vMwZsu_UGq6ZJfz-TF4lIMjDX7YHzTRaS7vm1H6MlH_4E-4X8tkwmKy0UfUrgRoV_9jOVY_M8yfThfh1AtZKGV41IrQ4h2FKy2TlCdywx0btWJ7iMcyga6NEhub0_DpBZpKikdPiCUfHsHeL02-AsCAAA&experienceId=EXC78P3VUPI4&activeMeters=%5B%7B%22meterName%22%3A%22Search+inline+meter%22%2C%22views%22%3A3%2C%22viewsLeft%22%3A7%2C%22maxViews%22%3A10%2C%22totalViews%22%3A3%7D%5D&tbc=%7Bjzx%7DjGAToaZMxJYLoS7N4KRjDWHeRvjSnp_Ouqc7SiTY9sKmGbm-22wO2T8DHkDfOmx4WsZXqz7p2yTBGYMQFclrl4-Hcj111_rpUGOs2MBCD9VWya-EpJPUlusisaCnF-VMOzaeIILFhlSTw5lulLLvTw&iframeId=offer-0-Hl0y5&url=https%3A%2F%2Ftechcrunch.com%2F2021%2F01%2F21%2Fa-i-powered-transcription-service-otter-ai-can-now-record-from-google-meet%2F&parentDualScreenLeft=0&parentDualScreenTop=23&parentWidth=1680&parentHeight=900&parentOuterHeight=980&aid=Fy7FpgyUxA&tags=a.i.%2Cgoogle+meet%2Conline+meetings%2Cweb+conferencing&contentSection=Artificial+Intelligence&contentAuthor=Sarah+Perez&zone=Web&contentCreated=2021-01-21T16%3A56%3A12.000Z&pageViewId=2021-01-21-13-39-36-200-WMbdSnU94U4kM5Zs-e44ed3d7e6e3caff167a9fb4ad48ff3f&visitId=v-2021-01-21-13-39-36-351-ANuptpS5puQHsAC5-e44ed3d7e6e3caff167a9fb4ad48ff3f&userProvider=publisher_user_ref&userToken=&customCookies=%7B%7D&hasLoginRequiredCallback=true&width=856&_qh=02c82f86e7

The company says the feature helps businesses cut down on miscommunication, particularly for non-native English speakers who may have trouble understanding the spoken word. It also offers a more accessible way for engaging with live meeting content.

And because the transcriptions can be shared after the fact, people who missed the meeting can still be looped in to catch up — an increasing need in the remote-work era of the pandemic, where home and parenting responsibilities can often distract users from their daily tasks.

The transcripts themselves can also be edited after the fact by adding images and highlights, and they can be searched by keywords, as with any Otter.ai transcription.

In addition, users can access the company’s Live Captions feature that supports custom vocabulary. Otter points out that there are other live captioning options already available for Google Meet, but the difference here is that Otter’s system creates a collaborative transcript when the meeting ends. Other systems, meanwhile, tend to just offer live captions during the meeting itself.

To use the new feature, Chrome users will need to install the Otter.ai Chrome extension from the Chrome Web Store, then sign in to their Otter.ai account. The new feature is available to all Otter.ai customers, including those on Basic, Pro and Business plans.

Otter in the past leveraged its earlier Zoom integration to push more users from free plans to paid tiers and will likely do the same with the new Google Meet support. The company’s paid plans offer the ability to record more minutes per month and include a range of additional features like the ability to import audio and video for transcription, a variety of export options, advanced search features, Dropbox sync, added security measures and more.

The company has seen its business increase due to the COVID-19 pandemic and the accompanying shift to online meetings. Last April, Otter said it had transcribed over 25 million meetings, and its revenue run rate had doubled compared with the end of 2019. In 2020, Otter.ai’s revenue was up 8x over last year, the company said. It has now transcribed over 100 million meetings and 300 billion+ minutes to date.

Memory fail controlled by dopamine circuit, study finds

by The Scripps Research Institute

In a landmark neurobiology study, scientists from Scripps Research have discovered a memory gating system that employs the neurotransmitter dopamine to direct transient forgetting, a temporary lapse of memory which spontaneously returns.

The study adds a new pin to scientists’ evolving map of how learning, memory and active forgetting work, says Scripps Research Neuroscience Professor Ron Davis, Ph.D.

“This is the first time a mechanism has been discovered for transient memory lapse,” Davis says. “There’s every reason to believe, because of conservation biology, that a similar mechanism exists in humans as well.”

The study, “Dopamine-based mechanism for transient forgetting,” appears Wednesday in the journal Nature.

Everyone has experienced transient forgetting. A name sits on the tip of our tongue, but resurfaces only after a meeting. We walk into a room and forget why we entered—until we leave. Annoying, to be sure. But does it represent a mental glitch, or is absentmindedness a feature of a normal brain? Was the elusive memory erased and somehow restored, or merely hidden for a time? Exactly how transient forgetting worked was unknown until now.

To derive an answer, Davis’ team worked in the common fruit fly, a model favored by neurobiologists for decades due to its relatively simple brain structure, ease of study and translatability to more complex animals.

The team put their flies through a series of training exercises, teaching them to associate an odor with an unpleasant foot shock. They then watched as several interfering stimuli, such as a blue light or a puff of air, distracted the flies so they forgot the odor’s negative association, temporarily. Interestingly, stronger stimulation led to longer lasting periods of forgetting.

Additional biochemical studies revealed a single pair of dopamine-releasing neurons in the flies, called PPL1-α2α’2, which directed the transient forgetting. Dopamine sent from other neurons didn’t have the same effect. The neurons activated dopamine receptors called DAMB on axons extending from neurons in the memory-processing center of the fruit fly brain, called its mushroom body.

Activation of the transient forgetting circuit did not erase the flies’ long-term memory recall, suggesting that transient forgetting doesn’t affect permanent, consolidated memory traces, or engrams, that are acquired over time, Davis says.https://googleads.g.doubleclick.net/pagead/ads?guci=2.2.0.0.2.2.0.0&client=ca-pub-0536483524803400&output=html&h=188&slotname=7099578867&adk=4039075515&adf=1897700409&pi=t.ma~as.7099578867&w=750&fwrn=4&lmt=1611264125&rafmt=11&psa=1&format=750×188&url=https%3A%2F%2Fmedicalxpress.com%2Fnews%2F2021-01-memory-dopamine-circuit.html&flash=0&wgl=1&uach=WyJNYWMgT1MgWCIsIjEwXzExXzYiLCJ4ODYiLCIiLCI4Ny4wLjQyODAuMTQxIixbXV0.&dt=1611264124269&bpp=160&bdt=2498&idt=764&shv=r20210113&cbv=r20210113&ptt=9&saldr=aa&abxe=1&cookie=ID%3D159a91dc538ead62-22cf61eea6c20048%3AT%3D1596518137%3AR%3AS%3DALNI_Mbw-dfbnrOLWYH3Rv2C7X_TIML9VA&correlator=2315341820453&frm=20&pv=2&ga_vid=1534776174.1526672041&ga_sid=1611264125&ga_hid=1420032582&ga_fc=0&ga_wpids=UA-73855-15&rplot=4&u_tz=-480&u_his=1&u_java=0&u_h=1050&u_w=1680&u_ah=980&u_aw=1680&u_cd=24&u_nplug=3&u_nmime=4&adx=335&ady=2755&biw=1680&bih=900&scr_x=0&scr_y=0&eid=42530671%2C21068769%2C21068945%2C21069719&oid=3&pvsid=3360723467022619&pem=424&ref=https%3A%2F%2Fnews.google.com%2F&rx=0&eae=0&fc=896&brdim=0%2C23%2C0%2C23%2C1680%2C23%2C1680%2C980%2C1680%2C900&vis=1&rsz=%7C%7CpeEbr%7C&abl=CS&pfx=0&fu=8320&bc=31&ifi=1&uci=a!1&btvi=1&fsb=1&xpc=JinSsDLg0B&p=https%3A//medicalxpress.com&dtd=842

Intriguingly, they found the flies’ memory performance was restored after the transient forgetting period lifted, says the paper’s first author, John Martin Sabandal, a Scripps Research graduate student, who worked with staff scientist Jacob Berry, Ph.D., at the team’s lab in Jupiter, Florida.

“Could we perform better if certain memories are suppressed over others—could we learn or adapt to situations better? Nobody knows. Those are the type of questions that will be explored in the future,” Sabandal says. “We found, provisionally, there is a potential memory reserve that is just unable to be expressed at a particular moment.”

The mechanisms underlying long-term memory acquisition and consolidation have been thoroughly studied over the past 40 years, Davis says, but forgetting has been overlooked until recently. It’s proving to be a fascinating field. In 2012 Davis’ group found a mechanism directing permanent forgetting, finding it is an ongoing, active process, one apparently needed for healthy brain function.

“You can imagine that we have thousands of memories that occur every day in our lifetime, and the brain does not have the capability of remembering, or encoding, all of those memories. So there is a need to erase those memories that are irrelevant to our existence and our daily lives,” Davis says.

Taken together, it’s increasingly clear that much of what we think of as memory loss is not a result of broken connections or age-related decline, but an important feature, one necessary for survival, Davis says. Much more work lies ahead, he adds.

“We now know that there is a specific receptor in the memory center that receives the transient forgetting signal from dopamine. But we don’t yet know what happens downstream. What does that receptor do to the physiology of the neuron that temporarily blocks memory retrieval? That’s the major next goal, to understand how this block in retrieval occurs through the activation of this dopamine receptor,” Davis says. “We are just at the very beginning of understanding how the brain causes transient forgetting.”

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Explore furtherScientists decode mechanism of remembering—and forgetting

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More information: John Martin Sabandal et al, Dopamine-based mechanism for transient forgetting, Nature (2021). DOI: 10.1038/s41586-020-03154-yJournal information:NatureProvided by The Scripps Research Institute

Less is more: IBM achieves quantum computing simulation for new materials with fewer qubits

IBM researchers achieved better simulation of molecules that could be used to design new materials, without the need for more qubits.

By Daphne Leprince-Ringuet | January 21, 2021 — 15:11 GMT (07:11 PST) | Topic: Quantum Computing

Quantum computers are coming WATCH NOW

While the scientific community holds its breath for a large-scale quantum computer that could carry out useful calculations, a team of IBM researchers has approached the problem with an entirely different vision: to achieve more and better results right now, even with the limited quantum resources that exist today. 

By tweaking their method, the scientists successfully simulated some molecules with a higher degree of accuracy than before, with no need for more qubits. The researchers effectively managed to pack more information into the mathematical functions that were used to carry out the simulation, meaning that the outcome of the process was far more precise, and yet came at no extra computational cost. 

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“We demonstrate that the properties for paradigmatic molecules such as hydrogen fluoride (HF) can be calculated with a higher degree of accuracy on today’s small quantum computers,” said the researchers, at the same time priding themselves on helping quantum computers “punch above their weight”. 

Car manufacturer Daimler, a long-term quantum research partner of IBM’s, has shown a strong interest in the results, which could go a long way in developing higher-performing, longer-lasting and less expensive batteries.  

Since 2015, Daimler has been working on upgrading lithium-ion batteries to lithium-sulfur ones – a non-toxic and easily available material that would increase the capacity and speed-of-charging of electric vehicles.  

Designing a battery based on new materials requires an exact understanding of which compounds should come together and how. The process involves accurately describing all the characteristics of all the molecules that make up the compound, as well as the particles that make up these molecules, to simulate how the compound will react in many different environments. In other words, it is an incredibly data-heavy job, with infinite molecular combinations to test before the right one is found. 

The classical methods that exist today fail to render these simulations with the precision that is required for a breakthrough such as the one Daimler is working towards. “This is a big problem to develop next-generation batteries,” Heike Riel, IBM Research quantum lead, told ZDNet. “Classical computers, and the models we’ve developed in physics and chemistry for many years still cannot solve those problems.”  

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But the task could be performed at speed by quantum computers. Qubits, and their ability to encode different information at the same time, enable quantum algorithms to run several calculations at once – and are expected, one day, to enable quantum computers to tackle problems that are seemingly impossible, in a matter of minutes.  

To do that, physicists need quantum computers that support many qubits; but scaling qubits is no piece of cake. Most quantum computers, including IBM’s, work with less than 100 qubits, which is nowhere near enough to simulate the complex molecules that are needed for breakthroughs such as lithium-sulfur car batteries.  

Some of the properties of these molecules are typically represented in computer experiments with a mathematical function called a Hamiltonian, which represents particles’ spatial functions, also called orbitals. In other words, the larger the molecule, the larger the orbital, and the more qubits and quantum operations will be needed. 

“We currently can’t represent enough orbitals in our simulations on quantum hardware to correlate the electrons found in complex molecules in the real world,” said IBM’s team. 

Instead of waiting for a larger quantum computer that could take in weighty calculations, the researchers decided to see what they could do with the technology as it stands. To compensate for resource limitations, the team created a so-called “transcorrelated” Hamiltonian – one that was transformed to contain additional information about the behavior of electrons in a particular molecule.  

This information, which concerns the propensity of negatively charged electrons to repel each other, cannot usually fit on existing quantum computers, because it requires too much extra computation. By incorporating the behavior of electrons directly into a Hamiltonian, the researchers therefore increased the accuracy of the simulation, yet didn’t create the need for more qubits.  

The method is a new step towards calculating materials’ properties with accuracy on a quantum computer, despite the limited resources available to date. “The more orbitals you can simulate, the closer you can get to reproducing the results of an actual experiment,” said the scientists. “Better modelling and simulations will ultimately result in the prediction of new materials with specific properties of interest.” 

IBM’s findings might accelerate the timeline of events for quantum applications, therefore, with new use cases emerging even while quantum computers work with few qubits. According to the researchers, companies like Daimler are already keen to find out more about the breakthrough. 

This is unlikely to shift IBM’s focus on expanding the scale of its quantum computer. The company recently unveiled a roadmap to a million-qubit system, and said that it expects a fault-tolerant quantum computer to be an achievable goal for the next ten years. According to Riel, quantum simulation is likely to be one of the first applications of the technology to witness real-world impacts.   

“The car batteries are a good example of this,” she said. “Soon, the number of qubits will be enough to generate valuable insights with which you can develop new materials. We’ll see quantum advantage soon in the area of quantum simulation and new materials.” 

IBM’s roadmap announces that the company will reach 1,000 qubits in 2023, which could mark the start of early value creation in pharmaceuticals and chemicals, thanks to the simulation of small molecules.