The Dangers of Hype: How a Bold Claim and Sensational Media Unraveled a Company

The Dangers of Hype: How a Bold Claim and Sensational Media Unraveled a Company

Magnetic resonance imaging of the brain.

(© Maxim Pavlov/Fotolia)


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Addison Nugent
Addison Nugent is a professional freelance journalist based out of Paris, France. Like so many Americans before her, she fell in love with the French capital at a young age and never left. She graduated from the Sorbonne's Master of the Arts literary research program with honors in 2016, and has since pursued a career in journalism. She has accumulated a diverse portfolio of published work that includes investigative pieces, in-depth profiles, historical deep dives, and tech news. Her work has been featured in such publications as OZY, Vice Motherboard, Atlas Obscura, Dazed Digital and Messy Nessy Chic.
When doctors couldn’t stop her daughter’s seizures, this mom earned a PhD and found a treatment herself.

Savannah Salazar (left) and her mother, Tracy Dixon-Salazaar, who earned a PhD in neurobiology in the quest for a treatment of her daughter's seizure disorder.

LGS Foundation

Twenty-eight years ago, Tracy Dixon-Salazaar woke to the sound of her daughter, two-year-old Savannah, in the midst of a medical emergency.

“I entered [Savannah’s room] to see her tiny little body jerking about violently in her bed,” Tracy said in an interview. “I thought she was choking.” When she and her husband frantically called 911, the paramedic told them it was likely that Savannah had had a seizure—a term neither Tracy nor her husband had ever heard before.

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Sarah Watts

Sarah Watts is a health and science writer based in Chicago.

A robot cafe in Tokyo is making work possible for people with disabilities.

A robot server, controlled remotely by a disabled worker, delivers drinks to patrons at the DAWN cafe in Tokyo.

Photo courtesy of dawn2021.orylab.com.

A sleek, four-foot tall white robot glides across a cafe storefront in Tokyo’s Nihonbashi district, holding a two-tiered serving tray full of tea sandwiches and pastries. The cafe’s patrons smile and say thanks as they take the tray—but it’s not the robot they’re thanking. Instead, the patrons are talking to the person controlling the robot—a restaurant employee who operates the avatar from the comfort of their home.

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Sarah Watts

Sarah Watts is a health and science writer based in Chicago.