Turn up the Nebulizer

Nebulizers are machines used to break up the chemicals in drugs in order that they may be inhaled. Oh, yes, you're right. Nebulizers are machines used to break up the chemicals in legal prescribed drugs in order that they may be inhaled. Otherwise they might be called something else.

Anyway, they are useful for certain kinds of drugs because they will be absorbed into the body more efficiently through the lungs than in other methods. Some of them use ultrasonic sound waves to make their medical mists, but the problem has been, as this article in Physics World notes, that ultrasonic nebulizing is a slow process. Even if "ultrasonic nebulizing" does sound cool. If the wave frequency is increased in order to speed the nebulizing process, the chip used to produce them breaks down from the heat and stress the stronger waves produce.

So researchers figured out a way to use other sound waves the process generates in order to supplement the ultrasonic waves and add to their power without increasing the heat and stress on the chip. It means that nebulizers could become smaller as well as produce mists that are more likely to travel deeper into the lungs without being diluted by absorption in the mouth and throat.

In other words, the proper sounds improve the drug experience. Pink Floyd fans everywhere nod sagely and agree.