From saunas to psychedelics, how a health reporter sorts science from hype - NPR

Live Science spoke with neuroscientist Argel Aguilar-Valles about recent research exploring psychedelics as a treatment for mild head trauma.

ELISSA NADWORNY, HOST: It's CONSIDER THIS FROM NPR, where every day we go deep on one big news story. NPR's Will Stone reports on that line between proven medical treatments and alternative health practices. WILL STONE, BYLINE: If you're envisioning study subjects smoking weed and sipping free booze, then you have a pretty good picture of this experiment. NADWORNY: CONSIDER THIS - for centuries, people have sought out saunas and hot springs for their supposed healing properties. Coming up, we talk to one reporter about understanding the science behind those claims, all while enjoying some time in the sauna himself. From NPR, I'm Elissa Nadworny.(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC)NADWORNY: In September, NPR science correspondent Will Stone traveled to Oslo, Norway, for the International Sauna Congress. STONE: It's basically a chance for the sauna world to nerd out. You have scientists, business operators, advocates. They're all here for a few days to talk about everything from the health benefits to the finer points of sauna culture. NADWORNY: The program included party hopping and heat treatments in, quote, "floating sauna villages," all in the pursuit of science.

Participants meditated inside an MRI tube, with and without psilocybin. For about a decade, the mainstream understanding has been that psychedelics cause chaos in the brain. Brain networks—the stable patterns of communication that handle vision, attention, or our sense of self, and more—loosen and start talking to each other all at once. EEG traces get noisier and more complex. “Think of the networks of the brain as highways,” says Devon Stoliker, a neuroscientist at Monash University. “Under psychedelics, these highways break down into many different directions.”

Tony Stepanow, from Finland, attends a sauna during the International Sauna Congress 2026 in Oslo, Norway, Sept. 25, 2026. The belief that heat can benefit the mind and relieve psychic suffering has a long history across human societies. But when Eva Hilland scanned the scientific literature for the kind of evidence that would support recommending heat as a legitimate intervention for mental health, she came up with very little.

Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory researcher Isaiah Santistevan led the development of three-dimensional simulations exploring how a nuclear device could deflect or disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth. Credit: Blaise Douros/LLNL Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory (LLNL) researchers are developing three-dimensional simulations to examine how a nuclear device could be used to deflect or potentially disrupt an asteroid threatening Earth.