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People in Brazil are living past 110 and scientists want to know why
Scientists are uncovering why Brazil may be one of the most important yet underused resources for studying extreme longevity. Its highly diverse population harbors millions of genetic variants missing from standard datasets, including rare changes linked to immune strength and cellular maintenance. Brazilian supercentenarians often remain mentally sharp, survive serious infections, and come from families where multiple members live past 100. Together, they reveal aging not as inevitable decline, but as a form of biological resilience.
Tax hikes coming to some Southeast DC businesses — and they welcome what it means
The Soul of the City Business Improvement District, which plans to transform Congress Heights and nearby neighborhoods, will fund local business growth, workforce development and community revitalization.
Building the future of separation science
Jennifer Kingston was awarded the Royal Society of Chemistry's Technical Excellence Prize, which honours the vital role of technical staff in the chemical sciences community
Recent $11 Million Grant to Hallmark Farms Highlights Economic Partnerships Between Business and State, Federal Government - Alabama Department of Labor
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE January 7, 2026 Recent $11 Million Grant to Hallmark Farms Highlights Economic Partnerships Between Business and State, Federal Government Montgomery, Ala. – The recent award of $11 million in federal Abandoned Mine Land Economic Revitalization (AMLER) Program funding to the Alabama Farm Center is a shining example of cooperation and strategic partnerships […]
Harrisburg Mayor Wanda Williams committed to revitalizing the city by modernizing infrastructure
Williams outlined her administration's priorities for the next four years, which include infrastructure projects such as repairing roads, bridges, and streets.
The Inevitable Rise of the Art TV
New televisions from Amazon, Hisense, TCL, and others are designed to display fine art and look like a painting when they're switched off. It's all thanks to smaller living spaces and new screen tech.
The poison frog that fooled scientists for decades
Researchers discovered that a poison frog species described decades ago was based on a mix-up involving the wrong museum specimen. The frog tied to the official species name turned out to be brown, not the colorful animal shown in the original photo. After tracing old records and images, scientists corrected the error and reclassified the frog as part of an already-known species. The case underscores how vital museum collections are—and how even small mistakes can ripple through science for years.
Heart health: Should you get your B12 from diet or supplements?
Vitamin B12 is a vital nutrient that plays numerous key roles in maintaining health. It is available in different forms and can be found in both food and supplements. A recent review suggests that the natural version could be more beneficial.
Porton Down shake-up harming critical national security science, whistleblower warns
Senior insider says ‘limbo’ at the Defence Science and Technology Laboratory has hit morale and disrupted vital research
The Inevitable Comes To Pass: Samsung To Raise Galaxy S26 Series Prices
Samsung now appears poised to raise the prices of its upcoming flagship Galaxy S26 series, bowing to the inevitable cost pressures.
New Era of Fermentation: SINOFN Health’s Global Health Vision
TIANJIN, TIANJIN, CHINA, January 5, 2026 /EINPresswire.com/ — In the wellness-driven era of 2025, the global beverage industry is witnessing a seismic shift from sugary sodas to functional, “alive” alternatives. As gut health becomes the cornerstone of modern vitality, one name has emerged at the intersection of biotechnology and consumer wellness: SINOFN Health Co., Ltd. […]
The invisible microbes that help keep us healthy
Not all microbes are villains—many are vital to keeping us healthy. Researchers have created a world-first database that tracks beneficial bacteria and natural compounds linked to immune strength, stress reduction, and resilience. The findings challenge the long-standing obsession with germs as threats and instead highlight the hidden health benefits of biodiversity. This shift could influence everything from urban design to environmental restoration.
Vitamin D vs. Vitamin E: Which Is Better for Immunity and Energy?
Both vitamins are good for you. Taking vitamin D, however, is better for directly boosting your energy and immunity, according to experts.
Donald Trump's plan to seize and revitalize Venezuela's oil industry faces major hurdles
“The estimate is that in order for Venezuela to increase from one million barrels per day — that is what it produces today — to four million barrels, it will take about a decade and about a hundred billion dollars of investment,” an energy expert said.
Economic, business and technological predictions for 2026: Michael Weidokal
2026 will be another crucial year for our Northeast Ohio region, our country and the world. While there is a great deal of trepidation entering 2026 (with good reason), there are also many reasons to hope that this can be a year in which we reduce the level of political and economic risk in the world. Hopefully, our political and business leaders will work together to tackle the challenges we will inevitably face in 2026, and to take advantage of the opportunities that the new year will bring, writes guest columnist Michael Weidokal.
Ovation Orlando Entertainment District To Revolutionise Tourism In The USA With Shopping, Dining And Hotels - Travel And Tour World
Ovation Orlando, a $1 billion entertainment district, is set to revitalise the area near Disney with shopping, dining, hotels, and live entertainment.
How to get stronger as you age
New research finds that declining health is not inevitable as we age. It can also be a time to get healthier and stronger.
Downtown Louisville revitalization continues despite business departures
Efforts to revitalize downtown Louisville continue as some major companies, including Humana, LG&E, and Fifth Third Bank, reduce their employee presence in the area.
University in China Begins Installing World's Strongest Gravity Centrifuge to Compress Space and Time
You can take a scale model to Zhejiang University, where the CHIEF1900 gravitational centrifuge can batter it with 300 times Earth's gravity.
ASP health care leaders thank advisory council
Avenal State Prison (ASP) hosted an appreciation lunch to honor the vital contributions of the incarcerated-person advisory council (IAC). The event highlig
Why your vitamin D supplements might not be working
A new randomized trial from Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center reveals that magnesium may be the missing key to keeping vitamin D levels in balance. The study found that magnesium raised vitamin D in people who were deficient while dialing it down in those with overly high levels—suggesting a powerful regulating effect. This could help explain why vitamin D supplements don’t work the same way for everyone and why past studies linking vitamin D to cancer and heart disease have produced mixed results.
Win and good recruitment vital for Livi
What a wild game this was. Celtic came back into it and were decent for the rest of the first half asking a few questions of our defence before getting their third. The penalty for Celtic's fourth goal was soft to say the least – would that be given if it was Celtic?
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG — Events and things to do this week from Artsbridge: TODAY * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park, Belpre * Christine Rhodes multi medium artwork display, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., WesBanco, Market Street, Parkersburg * Here the Pioneers Landed exhibit, 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m., Campus Martius Museum and Ohio River Museum * Frozen […]
Small businesses thrive at Bernice Garden Market, a vital hub for Arkansas vendors
Sunday marked the final day of the season at the Bernice Garden Farmer's Market, a place that--for years--has done more than sell produce.The market has given s
2025 in Review: ORNL’s Top Science News Stories
The Department of Energy’s Oak Ridge National Laboratory marked another year of research driven by innovation and collaboration in 2025, as reflected in the laboratory’s most-read stories. The year’s top story announced two new AI supercomputers, establishing ORNL’s vital role as part of DOE’s Genesis Mission, a national initiative to accelerate science through artificial intelligence.
Top 5 women’s health news articles of 2025
This year, we explored how innovations in women's health are bridging care gaps, addressing biases and enhancing access to vital treatments and screenings.
Why vitamin C matters especially during cold and flu season
While its reputation is at times dismissed as folklore or the efforts of orange juice marketing campaigns, vitamin C’s benefits are rooted in biology.
'Memory manipulation is inevitable': How rewriting memory in the lab might one day heal humans
Neuroscientist Steve Ramirez has found ways to plant memories in mice. Here's what that could mean for humans.
Eating more vitamin C can physically change your skin
Vitamin C doesn’t just belong in skincare products—it works even better when you eat it. Scientists discovered that vitamin C from food travels through the bloodstream into every layer of the skin, boosting collagen and skin renewal. People who ate two vitamin C–packed kiwifruit daily showed thicker, healthier skin. The findings suggest glowing skin really does start from within.
Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky to be delisted on January 1, 2026 for PS4 in Japan, January 5 for PS Vita
Spike Chunsoft will delist the digital version of tri-Ace-developed RPG Exist Archive: The Other Side of the Sky for PlayStation 4 on January 1, 2026 at 00:00 JST in Japan, and for PS Vita on Janua…
Gibbon awarded $500K grant for downtown revitalization, business upgrades
Gibbon has been awarded nearly $500,000 in Community Block Grant Funding to revitalize its downtown area and develop a new comprehensive plan with assistance fr
Your TV's USB port has a forgotten feature that can revitalize an old system for free
Updating your TV's firmware can boost performance and fix bugs - even without internet.
Breakthrough Listen Searched Interstellar Object 3I/ATLAS For Technosignatures During Its Closest Approach To Earth
The team found nine "events" that they investigated further. Meanwhile, another team looked at the "non-gravitational" acceleration of the comet, finally pinning down a better estimate of its size.
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG — Artsbridge calendar of events for the week. TODAY * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park * Christine Rhodes multi-medium artwork display, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., WesBanco, Market Street, Parkersburg * Here the Pioneers Landed, exhibit, 9:30 a.m.-5 p.m., Campus Martius Museum and Ohio River Museum, Marietta * Storytime, newborn-preschool, 10:15-11:15 a.m., Barlow Branch Library WEDNESDAY, […]
Top Viral Social Media Moments Of 2025, From Louvre Heist To ‘Summer I Turned Pretty’ Memes, ‘Marty Supreme’ Orange & Rachel Zegler’s ‘Evita’
2025 Viral Social Media Moments Film & TV: 'Summer I Turned Pretty', Louvre Heist, Rachel Zegler 'Evita', 'Wicked: For Good', 'Marty Supreme', More
San Rafael inks deal with chamber for business support
Under the $140,000 agreement, the chamber will manage the Downtown Business Improvement District funds and support programing and revitalization efforts.
See how players have qualified for the Masters
Players expected to compete in the 90th Masters on April 9-12 and how they qualified for their invitations. Players listed only in the first category for which they are eligible (a-amateur): Rory McIlroy, Scottie Scheffler, Jon Rahm, Hideki Matsuyama, Dustin Johnson, Tiger Woods, Patrick Reed, Sergio Garcia, Danny Willett, Jordan Spieth, Bubba Watson, Adam Scott, Charl Schwartzel, Phil Mickelson, Angel Cabrera, Zach Johnson, Mike Weir, Vijay Singh, Jose Maria Olazabal, Fred Couples. Xander Schauffele, Brooks Koepka, Justin Thomas.
New poll shows 70 percent of Americans are concerned sports betting will impact game integrity
As sports betting continues to spread in America, concerns continue to grow regarding the potential, if not inevitable, impact of wagering on the integrity of the games.
Oakland's Jack London Square hopes to get business boost with new CA law
A new state law taking effect next year will relax restrictions on the types of businesses the Port of Oakland can lease to. The law's author, State Senator Jesse Arreguin, says he's hopeful it'll help revitalize not just Jack London Square, but the city as a whole.
Coachella Valley Invitational match schedule released
KC Current, Denver Summit FC and Utah Royals join NWSL field in Coachella Valley Invitational
Blog emphasizes importance of self-care for health care workers
As part of the AHA’s stress and coping resources, Zelia Baugh, JPS Health Network senior vice president of behavioral health, and April Jastrzab, JPS behavioral health director, write about how self-care is vital to the health care workforce, especially during the holiday season.
Exclusive: Clinical automation startup Drive Health gets $15M
Vitalis Ventures led the round.
How to Head Off a Head Cold or Recover More Quickly
Fact checking zinc, vitamin C and Airborne.
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG — The Artsbridge calendar of events for the Mid-Ohio Valley: TODAY * Anything Goes: Wild Things, all member exhibition of the West Virginia Watercolor Society, Parkersburg Art Center * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park * Christine Rhodes, multi medium artwork display, 9 a.m.-4 p.m., WesBanco, Market Street, Parkersburg * Here the Pioneers Landed, exhibit, […]
Revitalized Jets Earn 5-1 Victory in Hellebuyck's Return
Carson Sisler leads after first round of Platinum Coast Invitational
Carson Sisler shot a 2-under-par 69 to grab the first round lead in the 65th Annual Platinum Coast Invitational at Rockledge Country Club on Dec. 13.
Fort Scott’s 2026 goals: Revitalization and business support
Fort Scott is looking to honor its long-standing businesses in 2026 while also encouraging the growth of new businesses that have opened in 2025.
One Critical Factor Predicts Longevity Better Than Diet or Exercise, Study Says
It's vital for almost every aspect of our well-being.
Ask a doctor: Should I trust health advice on social media?
Not all health advice online is legit. Learn how to spot reliable info and make smart choices for your well-being.
Tulare County Economic Forecast: Cities sprouting business seeds
Editor’s note: The Business Journal published its 2026 Regional Economic Forecast issue on Nov. 28. This is one of those stories. From the grand opening of mom-and-pop shops in the revitalized downtown Tulare region to
Scientists have calculated just how much faster clocks tick on Mars
Clocks tick faster on Mars than they do on Earth, in part because Mars experiences less gravitational pull from the Sun. Now scientists have calculated just how much faster -- 477 microseconds, on average.
Vitable Health and DirectShifts Partner to Expand Clinicians’ Access to Care and Coverage
PHILADELPHIA, December 09, 2025--Vitable Health, an all-in-one health benefits platform redefining care for the American workforce, today announced a new partnership with DirectShifts, a leading clinician staffing platform, to make it easier for clinicians nationwide to access everyday healthcare and insurance coverage.
The Politics Of Superintelligence
Today’s tech “prophets” push a narrative that God-like artificial superintelligence is inevitable, and only they can ensure humanity’s safety from their creations.
Study outlines a strategy to revitalize downtown Baton Rouge retail
A new study outlines strategies to strengthen downtown's retail health by attracting more customers, easing operations, and creating a plan for long-term growth. Mukul Verma of Throughline Co… Already an INSIDER? Sign in. We are glad you enjoy reading Business Report. Continue reading this story and get ACCESS to all our content from any device […]
France’s prime minister faces crunch vote in parliament
Sébastien Lecornu faces a vital test to his premiership over the social security budget bill.
Grant Thornton Invitational 2025: Teams, format and how to watch
Here's a look at the two-player PGA Tour and LPGA teams as well as the format and TV times.
Integrity and good governance are vital to business success
On International Anti-Corruption Day, here's why companies that build robust internal integrity processes are best placed to thrive in an uncertain world.
Health experts say not enough infants are receiving vitamin K shots
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG – The Artsbridge weekly calendar of events and programs: TODAY * Anything Goes: Wild Things, all member exhibition of the West Virginia Watercolor Society, Parkersburg Art Center * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park * Festival of Trees Display, Blennerhassett Hotel and Spa * Shannon Hammer, naturalist photography display, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., WesBanco, […]
Health on the Go: Community Health Hub
Join us for the Health on the Go Community Health Hub! This year’s event will bring together health, housing, and financial resources to create a one-stop community hub that connects residents to vital services, wellness activities and educational opportunities. Brooklyn Park residents can expect a vibrant experience filled with activities such as: 75+ vendors and...
‘We’ll need to see a warrant’: the group teaching businesses vital tool to fight ICE raids
Siembra in North Carolina gives owners fourth amendment rights trainings should federal agents show up at their door
Take Vitamin D at the Right Time, Try Ginger Tea for Blood Pressure—and 3 More Health Tips
This week, learn when to take Vitamin D, the difference between collagen and gelatin, and the best supplements for yourage.
Why AI Makes Alexis Ohanian ‘Bullish’ About Live Entertainment
The Reddit co-founder said in Abu Dhabi that he believes people will gravitate toward real-world experiences that center humanity.
Want to stay healthy after 40? Doctors say men should consider 14 medical tests
Men face higher chronic disease rates after 40. Learn which medical tests doctors say are vital for preventing heart attacks, strokes, and cancer.
In Focus Maine: Biddeford
@BiddMECity Mayor-elect, Liam LaFountain, @heartbiddeford Exec Director Deliliah talk with In Focus host @Bree.Driscoll about Biddeford’s revitalization, the holidays and the future.
Is vitamin A good for you?
Here’s what vitamin A is, why it’s good for you and which foods offer it most abundantly.
Jeannette business district: 'fledgling stages of being reborn'
As people were flowing into Jeannette’s downtown business district Saturday for the city’s holiday parade, there was a positive vibe among several business owners along Clay Avenue that downtown is seeing a revitalization. “It’s slowly coming back. There’s a lot of great things happening. We just need more,” said Jen
Winter high school sports start this week
The winter high school sports season officially begins this week, with contests scheduled in basketball, wrestling and swimming. The winter season runs through late February to early March. Boys basketball For boys basketball, the Crook County Invitational will be held at Crook County High School and Crook County Middle School in Prineville Thursday through Saturday. […]
Former Towne West Square mall lands first major tenant as business park transformation advances
The business park is an "intriguing project" that will help revitalize the area, said Nathan VanderGriend, CEO of PROtect, which has 22 locations with more than 750 employees in the
It seems inevitable that Sam Altman will bring ads to ChatGPT. When will it happen — and what will they look like?
Everyone believes ads are going to end up in ChatGPT. But we don't know when or how — and it's possible Sam Altman doesn't either.
Apple just named a new AI chief with Google and Microsoft expertise, as John Giannandrea steps down
The move is being characterized as a shake-up, but was seemingly inevitable in retrospect.
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG – The Artsbridge calendar for the week ahead: TODAY * Anything Goes: Wild Things, all member exhibition of the West Virginia Watercolor Society, Parkersburg Art Center * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park, Belpre * Festival of Trees Display, Blennerhassett Hotel and Spa * Shannon Hammer, naturalist photography display, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., WesBanco, […]
Charles Barkley, Dick Vitale to join forces on 2 college basketball broadcasts, including Vitale's first NCAA tournament game
Science must move from materialism to mystery
Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.
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