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2025 was full of efficiency innovations and bold initiatives in the world of aerospace. From the most detailed movie of the night sky ever made to the first commercial soft landing on the moon, this year has been an inflection point for exploring and understanding the vast expanse above our heads. We also saw breakthroughs in small changes to commercial airliners that improve efficiency, as well as a new type of rocket engine that might be the future of extremely high speed air travel, plus the closest view of Mercury we’ve ever seen!

(Editor’s Note: This is a section from Popular Science’s 38th annual Best of What’s New awards. Be sure to read the full list of the 50 greatest innovations of 2025.)

Innovation of the Year Vera C. Rubin Observatory by U.S. National Science Foundation & Department of Energy: World’s largest digital camera to conduct 10-year survey of the night sky  Learn More

Prepare to see space like never before. The Vera C. Rubin Observatory is a groundbreaking US-funded project that will capture the most detailed, dynamic map of the night sky ever made. Using the world’s largest digital camera, it will capture a time-lapse of the entire sky every few nights to reveal billions of objects and catch fast-changing events like supernovae and near-Earth asteroids. Its massive dataset will help scientists better understand dark matter, dark energy, and the structure of the universe while also improving planetary defense. 

The 3,200-megapixel Legacy Survey of Space and Time (LSST) camera is the size of a small car and twice as heavy, tipping the scales at 6,000 pounds. The sensor’s huge number of megapixels is equivalent to 260 modern cell phone sensors. The camera is so powerful, it could snap a clear image of a golf ball from 15 miles away. 

By making its data widely available, the observatory will also open new doors for discovery for researchers, students, and citizen scientists around the world.

Riblet-shaped coating on 787 by Japan Airlines: Stabilizing airflow, reducing turbulence, and increasing fuel efficiency Learn More

Deployed on Boeing 787-9 aircraft starting in January, the coating uses tiny, sharkskin-like grooves called riblets to guide airflow smoothly along the aircraft’s surface. By keeping the air more organized and reducing small pockets of turbulence, the riblets cut aerodynamic drag, which normally wastes energy. That reduction in drag translates directly into better fuel efficiency, lowering operating costs and reducing the plane’s carbon emissions. Overall, this smart surface technology gives the 787 a quieter, cleaner, and more efficient ride without changing the aircraft’s shape or engines.

Blue Ghost lunar lander by Firefly Aerospace: First commercial company to soft land on the moon Learn More

The Blue Ghost lander was the first commercial vehicle to soft-land on the Moon, marking a major milestone in the shift from government-only lunar missions to public–private exploration with its March 2 touchdown. Over the summer, Firefly Aerospace was awarded a NASA contract to deliver science and technology instruments to the Moon’s south polar region, an area crucial for studying water ice and future human exploration. Successful delivery will help NASA gather data needed for future Artemis missions while proving that commercial companies can reliably operate on the lunar surface, demonstrating the Blue Ghost lander to be a major step toward a more sustainable, commercially driven lunar economy.

Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine by Venus Aerospace: Powering future flight from Los Angeles to Tokyo in under two hours Learn More

Venus Aerospace’s Rotating Detonation Rocket Engine (RDRE) is a new type of rocket propulsion that creates continuous spinning shockwaves to burn fuel far more efficiently than traditional rocket engines. This technology is targeted to enable aircraft to travel at speeds of Mach 4 to Mach 6 (3,069 to 4,603 mph), making routes like Los Angeles to Tokyo possible in under two hours. Because the engine produces more thrust with less fuel, it opens the door to faster, lighter, and potentially more affordable high-speed travel. In short, the RDRE is a key step toward turning ultra-fast, global point-to-point flight from science fiction into realistic transportation.

BepiColombo by Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) & European Space Agency (ESA): Exploring Mercury closer than ever Learn More

BepiColombo is the most ambitious mission ever sent to study Mercury, a planet that’s hard to reach because of the sun’s intense gravity. The spacecraft carries two orbiters—one built by the European Space Agency (ESA) and one by the Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA)—that will map Mercury’s surface, study its thin atmosphere, investigate its magnetic field, and analyze its interior structure. These measurements will help scientists understand how rocky planets form and evolve, including Earth-like worlds in other star systems. By working together, JAXA and ESA are tackling one of the toughest destinations in the solar system and filling in major gaps in our understanding of the innermost planet.

The post 5 incredible aerospace breakthroughs in 2025 appeared first on Popular Science.

The most dreaded time of year rolls around every winter like clockwork: cold and flu season. The time when hand washing increases, sanitizing surfaces intensifies, and old and young schedule regular seasonal vaccines in an attempt to prevent sickness from descending on their households. But there’s one piece of ammunition you should absolutely skip this season—and all year-round—because it does more harm than good: antibacterial hand soap.

While hand washing is vitally important to curb the spread of disease, soap advertised as antibacterial not only doesn’t protect you better from disease, it has far-reaching and possibly harmful effects on your health and the environment. Here’s why to ditch it and use plain soap instead.

How does soap even work?

Regular soap can come in many forms: foaming liquid, bars, and gels. It is little more than a combination of fat or oil, alkaline substances (lye), and water. When you wash your hands with it, it loosens the bond microbes (of which viruses and bacteria are a subset) have made with your skin, which allows water to easily wash them away down the drain.

Antibacterial soap has a similar formula, but with the addition of one or more of three biocide chemicals: benzalkonium chloride, benzethonium chloride, and chloroxylenol. These were not part of the list of 19 antiseptics the FDA banned in consumer wash products in 2016, but they have been flagged as potentially dangerous. The FDA cited the importance of further study to “fill safety and efficacy data gaps,” but rule-making has been deferred for the last nine years.

These antimicrobial chemicals kill microbes instead of simply scrubbing them away. But they don’t differentiate between good and bad bacteria; they kill whatever is most susceptible.

However, “you don’t need to kill the bacteria, you just need to remove the bacteria,” says Rebecca Fuoco, director of science communications at the Green Science Policy Institute.

Antibacterial soap can also disrupt helpful bacteria on your skin that support healthy pH, barrier function, and pathogen defense, she explains. Chemical residues can also linger on skin, extending the disruptive biocide effect beyond the act of washing.

With plain soap, the surviving microbes and new arrivals from the environment can quickly recolonize, which helps keep the skin microbiome healthy, Fuoco states.

Bacteria aren’t always the enemy

Some of those good bacteria also prevent colonization of bad. Only a small fraction cause disease; most are biologically important for digestion, immunity and healthy ecosystems. Many help keep gut and skin microbiomes functioning properly, which helps prevent infections naturally.

“When that balance is repeatedly disrupted by killing off large portions of these microbial communities, their protective functions can break down and leave us more vulnerable to infection,” Fuoco says.

That’s a problem for internal biological systems, but also industrial ones. Many bacteria are used in wastewater treatment systems nationwide to help convert ammonia into nitrogen. When overuse of antibacterial soap runs down drains in large quantities, it has the potential to shut down entire plants.

In San Luis Obispo, California, this likely happened in September of 2020 when the vital process of nitrification—which occurs when bacteria convert toxic ammonia into nitrate, a form of nitrogen readily usable by plants—came to a screeching halt. It only recovered after treatment with expensive anti-antibacterial agents.

After plenty of tests, the most likely culprit became clear: college students returning to school and overloading the wastewater system with quaternary ammonium compounds (QACs), a class of chemicals used in disinfectants, soaps, wipes and sprays.

The harmful health impacts of antibacterial products

Scientists are just starting to understand the extent to which these products are linked to human disease, but the downsides are pervasive, and not just when people are first exposed. When soaps, wipes and sprays get washed down the drain, the QACs enter waste treatment systems. 

“Because QACs are not fully removed by wastewater treatment and tend to concentrate in sludge that is applied to land, they can enter rivers and other waters that recharge groundwater or supply drinking water and recycled water systems,” Fuoco describes. QACs were recently detected in New York state drinking water.

“We’re using it so much that it’s coming back to us,” Fuoco says. In fact, researchers measured QACs in people’s blood before and during the COVID-19 pandemic, and in a paper published in 2021, levels increased by 77 percent, indicating bioaccumulation is significant.

People also absorb QACs through skin contact, inhaling aerosol from sprays or inadvertently ingesting contaminated house dust. Children may be especially susceptible thanks to their close contact with floors and treated surfaces and hand-to-mouth behaviors, Fuoco notes. The American Academy of Pediatrics warns against using antimicrobial products around children.

Studies show correlations between antibacterial products and asthma and COPD in healthcare workers who are frequently exposed to these products in their workplace. Many types of contact can lead to ulcerative skin lesions and contact dermatitis in humans, and rodent studies have linked it to reduced fertility and neurodevelopment, even colitis-associated colon cancer in mice.

Overuse of antibacterial products can also accelerate antimicrobial resistance, leading to superbugs that are immune to the biocides and critical lifesaving antibiotics, Fuoco warns. Antimicrobial resistance is already a global crisis, with resistant infections spreading faster than the development of new antibiotics. 

“We don’t know how much of this crisis is driven by antibiotic versus biocide overuse. The contribution of biocides like QACs has largely been overlooked by global authorities, but we [scientists who study these chemicals] are hoping that will change soon,” Fuoco says. The World Health Organization believes antibiotic-resistant disease could cause 10 million deaths each year by 2050 if nothing is done to curb use; currently, there are about 700,000 per year.

Overuse of antibiotics in animal agriculture has long been identified as a driver of the global antimicrobial resistance crisis, Fuoco says, but there is growing evidence that antibacterial product use is contributing, too.

Bad for the environment

When products containing QACs are washed down the drain, the chemicals are often released into aquatic environments. Since they are toxic to some fish and many invertebrates, the backbone of the aquatic food web, ecosystem balances can be thrown out of whack.

QACs also accumulate in the soil and on sludge from wastewater treatment plants that is often spread on agricultural products as fertilizer. These chemicals, like PFAS, are persistent, meaning they can be found in soil and other environments years after they are no longer in use.

Antibacterial soaps are not more effective

Independent studies show (and the FDA agrees) that there’s no meaningful health benefit to choosing antibacterial hand soap over plain soap and water when it comes to eliminating microbes on hands and preventing illness. That includes E.coli, viruses, and the “bad” bacteria.There is little evidence that disinfecting wipes, sprays, and laundry sanitizer in homes provides added health benefits beyond regular cleaning and proper laundering, either, Fuoco says.

Additionally, most antibacterial products have to be left wet on surfaces—including hands—for several minutes in order to be as effective as they claim. Most consumers don’t follow those instructions, so products aren’t nearly as effective as they may think.

What to look out for

According to Fuoco and many other scientists, the best and safest choice is to avoid antibacterial and antimicrobial products altogether, particularly those containing QACs or chloroxylenol. Hand washes marketed as antibacterial must list their active antiseptic ingredients. So on labels, look for terms like “antibacterial” or “antiseptic” and check ingredient labels for the ingredients benzalkonium chloride, benzethonium chloride, and chloroxylenol.

When wiping down surfaces in your home or office, opt for plain soap and water instead of disinfectant wipes and sprays. “It’s usually unnecessary to disinfect surfaces in your household,” Fuoco states. The exception is when there’s been blood, fecal matter, or vomit from a sick person on surfaces. Other options like diluted bleach, hydrogen peroxide, alcohol-based products, or citric-acid-based disinfectants can do the job while generally posing fewer health and environmental concerns, she continues.

So, ditch the antibacterial products altogether and fight cold and flu season the old-fashioned way: with plain soap and water. You’ll fare just as well and leave your long-term health and that of the environment better for it.

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The popular nursery rhyme This Little Piggy is an early childhood memory for many of us. It’s a poem that involves five little piggies, each corresponding to one of our fingers or toes. Kids love it, but if you pause to think, this simple rhyme raises a curious question: Why do humans have five digits on each of our four limbs in the first place? 

The simple answer is it’s just how we evolved, but determining where these fingers came from and how is a different story. “When you’re talking about why we have five—not six or not four—fingers and toes, I think that’s quite a difficult question,” says Tetsuya Nakamura, an associate professor at Rutgers University’s department of genetics. To find the answer, we need to go back millions of years. 

It all starts with a common ancestor 

All tetrapods, a group that include amphibians, reptiles, birds, and mammals, derive from a common fish ancestor. “If you ask, ‘where did we come from?’ Our common ancestor was fish,” says Nakamura.

Fish initially developed limbs to walk on land during Earth’s Devonian Period, which occurred approximately 360 million years ago. A relatively short time later (evolutionarily speaking), the first four-limbed creatures—which had up to eight digits on each extremity—shed their extra digits. From then on out, five fingers and five toes became a standard feature for the world’s inaugural tetrapods. 

This extinct Devonian fishlike aquatic animal, Tiktaalik roseae, was one of the first vertebrates on land. Image: DepositPhotos

That five-digit plan soon became encoded in our early ancestors’ Hox genes, a set of master control genes that act as a genetic blueprint, assuring that body parts, organs, and limbs end up in their correct locations. Ever since, those Hox genes have determined that all our common ancestors have evolved from that five-digit blueprint. 

Of course, not every living vertebrate has five fingers and toes, but more than 99% of tetrapods (all land species with vertebrae) share the same five-fingered bone structure. This includes sea lions, whales, and seals, which have five finger-like protrusions hidden inside their flippers, and bats, born with webbed fingers that form the structure of their wings. Even horse and bird embryos briefly start off with five digits before redeveloping into hoofs or (in the case of avians) a lesser number of toes. 

Only one in 500 to 1,000 humans are born with extra fingers or toes. This birth difference is known as polydactyly, and is linked to an overexpressive gene known as sonic hedgehog (you read that correctly!). 

Tracing it back to fish 

Still, it wasn’t until 2016 that a group of scientists from the University of Chicago determined how a fish’s fin rays (which are the bony skeletal elements that provide structure, flexibility, and added support for fish fins) eventually evolved into fingers and toes. Nakamura was a member of the team. 

The scientists used tiny, ray-finned fishes like the zebrafish, medaka, and other tropical fish that you often find in home aquariums for their study. They then utilized CRISPR-Cas, a gene-editing technique that allowed them to alter fishes’ DNA, to delete Hox genes required for limb development. 

From there, the scientists compared embryonic cells in these mutant fish to mice as they grew and developed, eventually determining a genetic connection between the two. “We found that our fingers and fish fin rays use the same Hox genes and their functions to develop,” says Nakamura. In other words, fish fin rays and our fingers derive from the same genetic toolkit. 

This massive humpback whale skeleton shows the five finger-like bones hidden inside the massive animals’ flippers. Image: DepositPhotos What it all means

While their research pinned down a direct correlation between the fin rays of fish and the digits of tetrapods, there’s still a lot to learn about how humans developed fingers and toes. “We found that our fingers probably evolved from fin rays, despite the fact that they’re very different structures,” says Nakamura. 

“Many questions remain,” he says. “For example, how did they transform to fingers? And what kind of genes and molecules regulated this transformation?” With better gene-editing tools like CRISPR-Cas9, a more precise kind of CRISPR-Cas system, appearing on the scene over the last decade, Nakamura believes that answers may come sooner than later. 

Other commonalities 

According to Nakamura, tetrapods and fish are genetically similar in other ways as well. For example, the hind limbs of land vertebrates evolved from the pelvic fins of ancestral lobbed-fin fish, while shoulder girdles (the bony structure that forms the foundation of our shoulders) developed from fish gill arches, which are the skeletal loops that support a fish’s gills for breathing and feeding. 

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“Although fish don’t have necks,” says Nakamura, “somehow during evolution, humans separated the skull bone from the shoulder girdle, creating the neck space.” This allowed us to move our heads independently from our bodies for things like hunting and scanning the horizon. 

It’s what’s known as an “evolutionary innovation,” a new trait or feature that allows organisms to further function and adapt, much like how we came to have fingers and toes. “We took the structures that existed in fish fins,” says Nakamura, “and our bodies changed their development over time to finger-like tissues that are more suitable for land.”

It’s just a number 

As to why we have five fingers and five toes? That remains inconclusive, but the number sure does make for a good nursery rhyme. 

In Ask Us Anything, Popular Science answers your most outlandish, mind-burning questions, from the everyday things you’ve always wondered to the bizarre things you never thought to ask. Have something you’ve always wanted to know? Ask us.

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In 2015, NASA celebrated the Hubble Space Telescope’s 25th year in orbit by releasing one of its most stunning images to date—a colorful star cluster in the constellation Carina known as Westerlund 2. However, a lot can change in a decade. In January 2023, the HST’s observational capabilities were overtaken when the powerful James Webb Space Telescope imaged the same star cluster. While the HST is still a powerful piece of equipment, the European Space Agency decided to showcase its heir’s technological leaps by closing out 2025 with a new, even more detailed glimpse at Westerlund 2.

The billowing, vibrantly visualized formation located 20,000 light-years from Earth were imaged using the JWST’s Near-InfraRed Camera (NIRCam) and its Mid-InfraRed Instrument (MIRI). Westerlund 2 is estimated to stretch between 6 and 13 light-years across, and features some of the galaxy’s hottest, brightest, and most massive stars. To fully appreciate the difference between what HST and JWST can see of the cosmos, the ESA also uploaded a slider tool to allow viewers to shift between both images of Westerlund 2. While all of the brightest stars are apparent in 2015’s glimpse, the newer look reveals hundreds of additional, dimmer stars in the background.

Westerlund 2’s young stellar objects are ejecting powerful waves of radiation in all directions, twisting and entangling the large, surrounding gaseous clouds. Although the closer, bright stars immediately stand out from their companions, hundreds of tiny points of light reveal some of their younger siblings. Around them, the thicker plumes of red and orange gas also intermingle with the thinner blue and pink threads to depict a dynamic and highly active stellar nursery.

The JWST’s latest look at Westerlund 2 is more than simply a pretty picture. The data also includes the nebula’s total population of brown dwarf stars, some of which are as small as 10 times the mass of Jupiter. Astronomers can now begin studying how these stellar objects’ surrounding discs form over time, as well as how planets arrive in such huge star clusters.

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For the past 25 years, an intrepid group of astronauts have spent the holidays 250 miles above the Earth. The crew living and working aboard the International Space Station (ISS) get to eat their turkey (but can’t drink seltzer or use salt) and open presents while traveling 17,500 miles per hour and circling their home planet every 90 minutes. 

Despite that unique vantage, the celebrations often look quite similar to how they would here on Earth. NASA astronauts share special meals packed by the Space Food Systems Laboratory at the agency’s Johnson Space Center in Houston, where the crews will select their menus with help from nutritionists and food scientists before launch. The cargo launches arriving before special occasions often include Holiday Bulk Overwrapped Bags filled with foods including clams, oysters, green beans, and smoked salmon, and shelf-stable treats such as icing, candies, almond butter, and hummus. 

ISS crew members will also use the opportunity to connect with loved ones through video calls. According to NASA, these chats and the holiday greetings sent back to Earth are, “a reminder that even in space, home is never far away.”

Browse through a quarter century of ISS holiday celebrations below. (Click to expand images to full screen.)

Expedition 4 crew members, former NASA astronauts Daniel Bursch and Carl Walz, along with Rosocosmos cosmonaut Yuri Onifriyenko, pose for a Christmas photo in December 2022. Image: NASA.
Expedition 13 crew members, Rosocosmos cosmonaut Valery I. Tokarav (left) and former NASA astronaut William McArthur, pose with Christmas stockings in December 2005. Image: NASA.
The six Expedition 30 crew members assembled in the U.S. Destiny laboratory aboard the space station for a Christmas celebration in December 2011. Image: NASA.
ESA astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti pictured above the space station on December 20, 2014 during Expedition 42. Image NASA.
Expedition 50 crew members celebrate the holidays aboard the orbiting laboratory in December 2016. Image: NASA.
Four Expedition 70 crewmates join each other inside the space station and join each other inside the space station’s Unity module for a Christmas Day Meal in December 2023. From left are Flight Engineer Koichi Wakata from JAXA (Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency); Commander Andreas Mogensen from ESA (European Space Agency); and NASA Flight Engineers Loral O’Hara and Jasmin Moghbeli. Image: NASA.
NASA astronaut and Expedition 72 Commander Suni Williams shows off a holiday decoration of a familiar reindeer aboard the ISS on December 16, 2024. The Decoration was crafted with excess hardware, cargo bags, and recently-delivered Santa Hats. Image: NASA.
NASA astronauts Expedition 72 Flight Engineer Don Petit (left) and Commander Suni Williams (right) pose for a fun holiday season portrait while speaking on a ham radio inside the space station’s Columbus laboratory module. Image: NASA.

To remind us here on Earth that we are all still connected so many mileas away, NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Zena Cardman, and Chris Williams, and JAXA astronaut Kimiya Yui, send warm holiday wishes in this message recorded on December 17, 2025.

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It was as if his muscle memory had evaporated. Twenty-year-old Ethan White couldn’t remember how to use the drumsticks. The snare drum he knew like a part of his own body was suddenly a foreign object. His right hand felt weak, the University of Michigan student thought perhaps it was just fatigue. After all, the Michigan Marching Band had just finished a busy football season with a victory at the 2024 CFP National Championship Game in January. By mid February, Ethan started to notice other odd things—tripping while going up stairs, struggling to hold things in his hands.

In March, an MRI found a tumor on his thalamus, deep in the center of his brain. Ethan was diagnosed with diffuse midline glioma (DMG), a cancer that is a death sentence for the vast majority of people who get it. DMG refers to cancerous tumors that grow on the thalamus, brainstem, or spinal cord. Surgery is out of the question, since these parts of the brain are dangerous to operate on, making it one of the most challenging cancers to treat. 

Primarily affecting children and young adults, DMG has an overall survival rate of only 1 percent. Patients are usually given nine to 12 months to live. While DMG’s prognosis has been grim for decades, patients like Ethan are finally starting to see that change.

Drummer Ethan White first suspected something was wrong when he could not use his drumsticks. Image: Michelle Sherman. Using a biological flashlight

A new FDA-approved treatment called Modeyso is giving patients with DMG more time—adding months, even years, and with quality of life intact. It’s “the first change in standard of care in 60-plus years,” Lisa Ward, co-founder of Tough2gether Foundation, tells Popular Science. Her son Jace passed in 2021 from diffuse intrinsic pontine glioma (DIPG), a form of DMG. “It’s the first step and a whole new trajectory of hope.”

Modeyso’s journey into a treatment began a few decades ago. After losing his mother to cancer, Modeyso developer Dr. Joshua Allen became fascinated by cancer defenses that already exist in the human body. 

“Evolution has been working on the cancer problem for a long time, a lot longer than humans,” Allen tells Popular Science. “We all get cancer multiple times throughout our lives. Evolution has given the human immune system ways to recognize and get rid of tumor cells. There’s this really cool stuff in immune cells that can kill tumors but doesn’t cause side effects.” 

Modeyso was approved by the FDA in August 2025. Image: Jazz Pharmaceuticals.

Allen wanted to find a way to bottle this. He began looking for a molecule that could trick tumors into self-destructing. In his research, he used bioluminescence, a tool scientists often use to track how well a cancer treatment is working. The illuminating luciferase gene is the same gene that makes fireflies light up. For Allen, having grown up in Georgia catching fireflies in bottles with his brother, this was full-circle. 

The lab inserted the firefly gene into a TRAIL gene. TRAIL genes are naturally produced by our bodies, and selectively trigger cell death in cancer cells. The fusion of TRAIL and luciferase became a biological flashlight, making cancer cells glow. Whenever a cancer cell turned on the TRAIL gene, it also made luciferase, allowing scientists to detect TRAIL-expressing cells by their bioluminescent signal.

The missing puzzle piece

At the same time, bereaved families were donating the bodies of their deceased children to medical research in hopes of finding new treatments, resulting in experts finding an important mutation they didn’t previously know of. Called H3 K27M, the mutation was present in 70 to 90 percent of the children who had died of DIPG. Scientists realized it was also present in other midline brain tumors. 

This was the missing puzzle piece for Allen and his colleagues. H3 K27M damages a key “off switch” for genes, causing widespread, uncontrolled gene activity that keeps cells in a multiplying state that causes tumor growth.

Dr. Joshua Allen (right) studies the cancer defenses that already exist in the human body. Image: Penn State University.

Now, Modeyso reverses that mechanism. The once weekly dose is in pill form, and can be taken by patients over age one. Allen is calling it “hope in a bottle.” And while it’s not a cure, the drug is helping to extend patients’ lives with very few side-effects. 

“It’s the first big win, to be able to have more time,” Tammi Carr, co-founder of ChadTough Defeat DIPG Foundation, tells Popular Science. Carr lost her five-year-old son Chad to DIPG a decade ago. 

“When you get a diagnosis like this, you’re told your child has nine to 12 months to live. Every minute matters, and so to be able to have more time is a huge win from a family’s perspective,” Carr says.

Chad Carr (middle) and his family. Chad died from DIPG at the age of five. Image: Tammi Carr.

Twenty-year-old Jace Ward started taking Modeyso after his diagnosis in 2019. The young athlete got 17 months that he wouldn’t have had otherwise before he died in July 2021. 

“The drug worked very well for him,” says Jace’s mother Lisa. “For 17 months, he could play basketball, golf—he could have Christmas and meet his nephew for the first time. All of these memories got made because, instead of six months, he had 17 good months.”

Jace Ward (right) and his mother Lisa. Modeyso helped extend his life by over one year. Image: Lisa Ward.

And sometimes, the treatment works even longer. Thirty-nine-year-old Ben Stein-Lobovits has been taking Modeyso for seven years. Eight years ago, he was at a wedding in Chile when he chalked up the numbness on his tongue to a hangover. Soon after, an MRI showed he had a brainstem glioma. After radiation, he started taking Modeyso.

“I think I’m the longest running patient on it,” Stein-Lobovits tells Popular Science. The father of two has seen a 70 percent reduction in his tumor size, according to his most recent imaging. He now advocates for patients getting on Modeyso as early as they can. 

“The earlier the intervention, the better,” he says.

For people with cancer, more time means holidays, family bonding, and milestones. But it also means possibly being around for when there is a cure. The medicine’s minimal side-effects make it easy to combine with other treatments as well.

The gift of normal

In June 2024, four months after his eerie moment with the snare drum, Ethan started taking Modeyso. He had completed 30 sessions of radiation that helped to shrink his tumor, and his family and doctors saw an opportunity to layer the new drug with a few other medications to keep the tumor at bay.

“Having access to [Modeyso] was a major part of keeping him alive,” Ethan’s mother Michelle Sherman tells Popular Science. 

Ethan was able to live a relatively normal college life for over a year after that—rock climbing, going to class, living with friends. Sherman says it’s given him time and quality of life. Ethan graduated with honors from the University of Michigan on December 14, 2025. 

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