SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " poll " 2,443 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
What to watch in Tuesday's primaries as Graham Platner tries to clinch Senate nomination in Maine
Voters across Maine, Nevada, South Carolina and North Dakota head to the polls for another day of primary elections in America.
Stunningly low percentage of adults in US think America stands above every other nation: poll
As America marks its 250th anniversary this year, an AP-NORC poll of adults in the U.S. found that only 25% believed that the U.S. stands above every other nation.
Fewer Americans say democracy is central to country's identity, AP poll finds
As the U.S. prepares for an extravagant celebration of its founding principles, fewer Americans see their country as exceptional, a new poll finds.
The Odds: Trump’s hometown
CNN News Central’s John Berman and Chief Data Analyst Harry Enten explore what the latest polling and prediction markets say about the President’s popularity in his hometown of New York City.
India Opposition Leaders Meet to Project Unity After Poll Losses
Leaders of India’s top opposition parties met in New Delhi in an effort to project unity, their first major gathering since the May state elections, which dealt significant blows to several regional parties.
As America 250 approaches, fewer Americans see their country as exceptional, AP-NORC poll finds
A new AP-NORC poll finds that as the U.S. prepares for an extravagant celebration of its founding principles, fewer Americans see their country or its system of government as exceptional
Businesses fear for economy if Swiss vote to cap population at 10 million
Switzerland goes to the polls on June 14 to vote on whether to cap its population at 10 million people in a referendum some have likened to a "Swiss Brexit", alarming many businesses who fear an economic blow should the proposal succeed.
Report: Rising number of uninsured children in Arkansas
Arkansas ranked 43rd in the Annie E. Casey Foundation’s 2026 KIDS COUNT Data Book. The state improved two spots from its ranking of 45th in last year’s Data Book, while...
Poll: Who Had the Best Not-E3 Livestream This Week?
Take your pick
Kosovo votes again amid political deadlock, seeking EU and NATO progress
Deadlock hampers Kosovo’s EU ambitions as voters head to polls amid economic struggles and political discord.
Kosovo Seeks to End Impasse With Snap Election: What to Watch
Kosovo goes to the polls for the third time in 18 months Sunday in an attempt to break a political impasse that’s stymied progress toward improving ties with Serbia and gaining more European aid.
Toxic pollutant from car tires reaching San Francisco Bay, scientists say
A scientific research group here in the Bay Area is generating new evidence about another type of pollution caused not just by cars, but by their tires. It's a chemical known as 6PPD-Q, which is so toxic to some species of fish that it's believed that a single drop in a swimming pool could be fatal.
Kosovo to hold third election in 18 months as frustration grows over political impasse
Voters in Kosovo are heading to the polls this weekend for the third time in 18 months
UTA scientists plan to study how the World Cup affects air quality
Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington will use the World Cup in Dallas as a case study to measure how sudden surges in population affect air pollution patterns across the D-FW area.
Baldacci makes final pitch to voters
A poll released Friday shows Baldacci leading on election night with 27% of the vote, followed by State Auditor Matt Dunlap at 22%, former congressional aide Jordan Wood at 21% and social worker Paige Loud at 11%.
New poll shows narrow lead for Pingree
On the Republican side, Bobby Charles, a former federal official who runs a Washington DC lobbying firm, is predicted to reach the majority threshold after ranked choice voting counts are completed.
Giant fire tornadoes could clean up oil spills faster with less pollution
Researchers have shown that controlled fire whirls can clean up oil spills faster and more cleanly than traditional burning methods. The spinning flames consumed up to 95% of the oil, cut soot emissions by 40%, and could help prevent spills from reaching sensitive marine habitats.
BOE Survey Finds Businesses Expect to Raise Prices at Faster Rate
U.K. businesses polled in May expected to raise their prices at a faster rate, but wage increases were seen slowing, according to a Bank of England survey released Friday.
A hard-charging Michigan liberal dampens Democrats’ hopes of retaking Senate
Abdul El-Sayed, who is leading in many polls, is unapologetically progressive. Democratic leaders fear he could cost the party in November.
Hospitals Are Leading Efforts to Make Health Care More Affordable
Affordability is front and center in conversations across the country, as Americans feel pressure from the rising cost of living and policymakers search for solutions. Hospitals and health systems share their concerns because we see the impact of high costs every day on the patients and families we serve. Hospitals are not waiting to do their part. Across the nation, they are already implementing efforts to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, as well as providing solutions that could lower costs across the entire health care system.
Poll: Have you or someone you know experienced difficulty accessing mental health care?
Have you or someone you know experienced difficulty accessing mental health care in western North Carolina?
In Iowa, water pollution is a health threat that also disrupts summer fun
Iowa’s waterways face significant pollution challenges due to agricultural runoff and sewage. The problem impacts both recreation and public health.
In Iowa, water pollution is a health threat that also disrupts summer fun
Iowa’s waterways face significant pollution challenges due to agricultural runoff and sewage.
In Iowa, water pollution is a health threat that also disrupts summer fun
Iowa’s waterways face significant pollution challenges due to agricultural runoff and sewage
How Rachel Carson's Silent Spring changed the world in 1962
Rachel Carson’s look at the dire effects of industrial and agricultural pollution birthed the modern environmental movement when it was first published – and remains as crucial a read today, finds Rowan Hooper
Vote in our L.A. Sports Hall of Fame (USC edition)
Introducing the L.A. Times Sports Report Hall of Fame, where readers vote for Hall of Famers in various categories.
Urban Light Pollution Might Be Worsening Allergies
Light pollution prompts plants to shed pollen longer and stronger, according to new research.
New poll has Robertson leading in GOP AG runoff
MONTGOMERY — With just two weeks to go until election day, Katherine Robertson leads Jay Mitchell by around 18 points in the Republican runoff for attorney general, according to a
Ohio Senate passes resolution to put voter photo ID amendment on Nov. ballot
The Ohio Senate has passed a resolution that would put an amendment on the November ballot, one to require voters to show photo ID at the polls.
Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani Leads National League Second MVP Poll
As expected, the Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way star Shohei Ohtani is leading the MVP polls.
Poll: President Trump’s approval is 10 points lower than start of second term
People aren’t happy with his handling of their top issue – inflation and the cost of living.
Two-thirds of Floridians back James Uthmeier lawsuit against ChatGPT, poll finds
Voters across party lines support the Attorney General's lawsuit, with parents' rights and child safety driving the strongest numbers.
Changes coming to several polling sites across Erie County
Primary Day takes place June 23 with early voting happening June 13 - 21.
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
Polls Close in Messy Primaries for California Governor and Los Angeles Mayor
Results may not be known for days, a fitting end to two unpredictable primaries that have surprised political analysts.
Live primary election results
Polls have closed at the Taos County Administration Building, where the Taos County Clerk’s Office is preparing to welcome ballot deliveries from polling locations across the county.
Playing the waiting game in California: From the Politics Desk
Plus, Trump picks an acting director of national intelligence.
How Science Works
The 2nd Weather and Climate Livestream is now underway. It is organized by a group of early-career researchers concerned about declining funding for the field and eager to demonstrate how weather and climate research makes a difference in our lives. Last year’s event was a great success, drawing terrific press coverage including a piece in the NY Times. This year features a strong lineup of talks aimed at a general audience — I highly recommend tuning in. Share I gave a talk yesterday about How Science Works in Three Steps. You can see the short presentation here (I’ve appended a transcript below): And please tune into the livestream here. It runs through tomorrow at 6 pm ET. Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Cleaned up transcript: Thank you, and thanks to everyone tuning in. I want to talk about something I think a lot of people don’t really understand: how science actually works. Arguments over any scientific topic — climate change, vaccines, you name it — revolve around competing claims. For climate change, the claims are: Is the Earth warming? Are humans to blame? What will the impacts be? Over the last 150 years, the scientific community has developed a remarkably robust method for sorting out which claims are true and which aren’t. That method is what I want to walk through. So how does science generate knowledge? If you ask a high schooler, they’ll give you the version they learned in ninth grade: an individual scientist forms a hypothesis, runs an experiment, and draws a conclusion. That’s more or less what happens at the individual level, though in practice it’s more iterative — you design, test, and refine all at once, landing on a slightly different idea each time until you reach a conclusion about whatever hypothesis you’ve ended up with. But this isn’t science. It’s only step one. Any individual scientist can make mistakes — scientists are human. Maybe there’s a bug in the code, maybe there’s an error in the experiment. Just because someone ran an experiment and reached a conclusion doesn’t mean it’s right, and scientists don’t treat a single result as settled truth. Step two is peer review, the first layer of quality control. The scientist writes up what they did and submits it to a journal, which sends the paper to other experts in the field. Those experts judge whether the methods are sound, whether it properly references prior work, and whether the conclusions actually follow from the data. Ask any scientist and they’ll tell you peer review is miserable — the comments come back brutal, often harsh, and you have to revise and resubmit, sometimes multiple times, before an editor finally accepts the paper. Peer review catches an immense amount of bad science, but it can’t catch all of it. Reviewers get sloppy or overworked, they miss obvious mistakes, and they can’t catch hidden errors — a bug in the code, a misread instrument. So a peer-reviewed paper making it into a journal doesn’t mean the paper is right. Nobody treats a single paper as the final word. That’s where step three comes in: the crucible of science. Important results get retested by the broader community. If you publish something interesting, it gets dissected. Sometimes people try to reproduce your work directly but more often they test its implications. If someone claims X is true, and that implies that Y is also true, then scientists will go check Y. If a claim survives this gauntlet long enough, it becomes accepted. That’s how we generate knowledge. Let me give an example: the ozone hole. In 1985 — and I doubt many people watching were around then, but I remember it well — Joe Farman and his colleagues published observations from Antarctica showing that a huge chunk of ozone was disappearing every year. This was shocking because most atmospheric chemists had expected ozone loss to occur at mid-latitudes and high altitudes, not over the South Pole. When scientists see something they don’t understand, they rush to explain it, and several competing hypotheses quickly appeared in the peer-reviewed literature. One pointed to chlorine chemistry from chlorofluorocarbons. A second blamed nitrogen chemistry, possibly driven by solar proton events — meaning the sun was responsible. A third argued it wasn’t chemistry at all but dynamics: winds were carrying naturally low-ozone air from the lower atmosphere up into the stratosphere. Then the community went to work testing which theory could survive the crucible. Aircraft flew into the ozone hole and found no nitrogen, ruling out the nitrogen theory. Measurements showed the air in the polar vortex was descending, not rising — which would bring high-ozone air down, eliminating the dynamics theory. Meanwhile, those same flights measured enormous amounts of chlorine, strongly correlated with exactly the regions where ozone was being destroyed. That became known as the “smoking gun” paper, and it established that chlorine chemistry was the cause. Through this process, a consensus emerged. And it’s worth being clear that this consensus is organic. There’s no vote, no poll, no meeting where it gets decided. Scientists go to conferences, talk to one another, and independently arrived at the same answer. It’s the ultimate free market of ideas. After the consensus was established, the peer-reviewed literature doesn’t even mention the rival theories — it simply takes chlorine chemistry as given. That’s what a consensus looks like. It doesn’t mean every single scientist agrees, but it does mean there’s no longer any legitimate debate. So where can you see what scientists actually think? It’s all in the peer-reviewed literature, which contains the entire historical record of the argument: the discovery, the competing theories, the debate, the testing, and finally the community coalescing around one answer. But there’s a lot of room for misrepresentation. You can dig up an old paper claiming the ozone hole was caused by dynamics and wave it around as if there still was a debate about the cause of the ozone hole — without mentioning that the idea was disproven long ago and that even its own authors no longer believe it. There’s a bigger problem, though: the peer-reviewed literature is written in a language I call “nerd.” It’s extremely hard to read — honestly, some of it is hard for me to follow. It takes graduate students years to work through the literature in a single field, so we can’t expect policymakers or ordinary people to do it. This is where scientific assessments come in. The most famous is the IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The job of an assessment is to read and summarize the peer-reviewed literature, synthesizing what’s settled, what’s been disproven, and what remains genuinely debated. To ensure the assessments accurately summarize the peer-reviewed literature, assessments are written by large teams, which are far less prone to bias than individuals and which dilute the influence of any one scientist with an axe to grind. The teams are deliberately assembled to avoid stacking the deck, and the reports themselves go through multiple rounds of peer review. That rigorous process is exactly why you can trust them and why people consider the IPCC to be the gold standard of what we know about the climate system. An assessment produced through a different process may well not be credible. You can even watch the consensus evolve across assessments. Take the attribution of warming. The 1990 IPCC report said the observed warming was broadly consistent with model predictions but also comparable to natural variability — in other words, we don’t know whether humans are responsible. By 1995, it concluded that the balance of evidence suggested a discernible human influence — a sentence only a committee could write, and one that barely commits to anything. By 2001, most of the warming over the previous 50 years was judged “likely” due to greenhouse gases; by 2007, “very likely”; by 2013, “extremely likely.” The 2023 report says essentially the same as 2013 — there’s not much stronger language available. So, to wrap up: science is our ultimate tool for deciphering the universe — the most successful method we’ve ever developed for determining what’s true and what isn’t. Our understanding is written into the peer-reviewed literature, so if you want to know what scientists think, that’s where to look. And for those of us who don’t speak nerd, scientific assessments are the Rosetta Stone — they translate nerd into English. Let me open the floor to questions. Thank you.
A hidden pollutant is changing how the world's forests breathe
A massive global analysis found that nitrogen pollution can either speed up or dramatically slow the natural "breathing" of forest soils, depending on the ecosystem's condition. The results reveal hidden tipping points that could affect how forests store carbon and cope with climate change.
California votes in most uncertain governor’s primary in years
Xavier Becerra, Tom Steyer and Steve Hilton lead the polls in the final days of the California governor election. Results are coming in.
Iowa voters head to the polls to decide the candidates for a soon-to-be open U.S. Senate seat
Air Pollution and Brain Health: What You Need to Know
Discover how air pollution affects brain health in children and adults. URochester Medicine researchers reveal links to learning difficulties, dementia, and Parkinson's—plus steps you can take to protect yourself and your family.
Californians head to the polls as governor primary goes down to the wire
Other races also taking place in state as well as primaries in New Jersey, South Dakota, New Mexico, Iowa and Montana
Live updates: Polls open for the New Jersey Primary Election
Get live updates throughout the day for the New Jersey Primary Election on Tuesday, June 2, 2026.
Alligator Alcatraz Emissions Threaten Human Health, Violate Clean Air Act, Lawsuit Claims
The air pollution is associated with the more than 200 diesel-burning generators powering the Everglades migrant detention facility, along with 100 diesel-burning lighting towers.
British politics is fractured and chaotic – but at last it’s brimming with ideas for the future
Finally, Labour is talking policy, thanks to the leadership contest and Tony Blair’s intervention – and the centre-right is making a much-needed fightback too, says Guardian columnist Polly Toynbee
AI Boosting Business Formation
The surge in new US business formation is being fueled by AI and large language models, which are dramatically reducing the cost and complexity of launching a company, see chart below. Subscribe for daily updates.
UW Bothell professor was finding sources of dangerous water and soil pollution
Melanie Malone led a research project to identify and study contamination sites in Washington state. Then the EPA canceled her grant.
Clemson lands commitment from former football star David Pollack’s son
Clemson’s hot day of recruiting continues with the commitment of a former college football stars son.
Fox News Poll: 'Resilient discontent' defines the US mood at 250th anniversary
Two-thirds of American voters describe the U.S. in negative terms, yet 81% still prefer living here as the nation approaches its 250th anniversary.
Inside Valley Politics: Complete breakdown of runoff elections, Rep. Vicente Gonzalez interview
RIO GRANDE VALLEY, Texas (ValleyCentral) — The matchups are set for the November general election. On May 26, Valley voters went to the polls to settle the runoff contests after the March primaries…
Poll: Fentrice Driskell, Michele Rayner locked in tight race for SD 16, but voters are still largely on the fence
The message-testing poll finds Driskell's support increasing as biographical information and negatives about her opponent are given.
Yankees May Approval Poll: Brian Cashman
Share your thoughts on the Yankees GM now that we are more than a third of the way into the season.
7 takeaways from Sunday’s marathon political debates ahead of the runoffs
Georgia voters head to the polls again on June 16 to decide matchups for the midterms in November. A dozen candidates faced off in debates on Sunday.
Indoor Fragrances: Are Overlooked Health Risks Growing?
Daily exposure to indoor fragrances is drawing growing concern as clinicians report rising allergies, asthma, and air quality problems linked to scented products.
‘Molecular movie’ technology reveals a better way to thwart environmental pollutant
CORVALLIS, Ore. – The latest production from the “molecular movie” imaging technology developed at Oregon State University is a new, inexpensive way of dealing with a common environmental pollutant. Based on short-pulse lasers, the imaging technology allows chemical and biological actions to be measured as they are occurring, one high-speed frame at a time. The measurements occur on the level of the femtosecond – one-millionth of one-billionth of a second. A femtosecond is to a second roughly as a second is to 32 million years.
Apollo chief economist says there's no evidence AI is taking human jobs
Apollo Global Management's chief economist Torsten Sløk says the AI boom is creating more human jobs, not eradicating them.
California Democratic Party chair won't say if he's glad Becerra stayed in the governor's race
After spending months encouraging lower-polling candidates in the California governor's race to drop out, the leader of the state's Democratic Party would not say if he's glad an initially lower-polling Democrat now leading the polls, Xavier Becerra, stayed in the race.
Inside California Politics: Final Emerson poll sets up intriguing election day
(Inside California Politics) — A new poll released just days before polls close in California’s gubernatorial primary show a tight race with three candidates competing for just two spots in t…
Titans RB coach Randy Jordan opens up on Tony Pollard
Tony Pollard remains the Tennessee Titans' key backfield weapon as he chases a fifth straight 1,000-yard rushing season.
Trump enters perilous polling territory, raising questions over base support
Pollsters are questioning long-standing assumptions about the president’s floor of support, wondering whether it is at risk of giving way.
A Reality Check on the Polls in California’s Most Chaotic Race
Will California elect another Democrat — or could Republicans pull off a stunning upset? Our roundtable examines the candidates, the surprises and the paths to victory.
New poll shows California governor race down to 3 frontrunners
The race for California governor appears to be down to three candidates vying for two spots in the November runoff, based on the final Emerson College/Inside California Politics poll ahead of Tuesd…
California 2026 Poll: Becerra Leads, Steyer and Hilton Toss-up for Second Spot
The final Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey of the California governor’s race finds Democrat…Full Release & Results
Trump Says He’s Not Watching the Clock on Iran—but Voters Are | Council on Foreign Relations
Trump’s sagging poll numbers and the surging support for Democrats suggest that Republicans will likely pay a price for the war in November.
Politics: Statewide amendment battles begin; Bell, Bush tangle on tornado money
County election officials spent the past week certifying ballots for the August primary even as uncertainty looms over which congressional maps will ultimately be used.
Donald Trump pollster Jim McLaughlin joins Kevin Steele campaign for CD 14
'Jim doesn’t just predict winners, he helps create them.'
Times/Siena Poll: 43% of Voters Dissatisfied With Both Parties
Persistent frustration over the economy and foreign policy have left many Americans feeling politically homeless, and young voters are particularly frustrated.
Report Shows People With Medicare Feeling Pinch of Rising Health Care Costs
As affordability concerns remain top of mind for many Americans, a timely KFF report examines Medicare beneficiary finances and health care costs, lending context to these anxieties. Recent KFF polling found that as health care costs continue to grow and cost-of-living increases stress household budgets, paying for care and coverage tops the list of consumer financial concerns. In total, 64% of households […]
Caesars Entertainment Being Acquired For $6B By Golden Nugget / Houston Rockets Owner Fertitta
Caesars Entertainment is being acquired for almost $6 billion by Fertitta, the company that owns Las Vegas' Golden Nugget and chains like Rainforest Cafe and
Despite inflammatory comments, Platner holds 9-point lead over Collins in new poll
Democrat Graham Platner leads Republican Sen. Susan Collins in a new Maine Senate poll despite controversies over inflammatory online posts and a tattoo.
Rubio catches up to Vance in new 2028 Republican presidential poll
Marco Rubio has surged and JD Vance has lost sizable ground in a new Emerson College poll of 2028 Republican primary contenders.
Mary Means Business: Steakhouse opening in Columbus
Martie’s Steakhouse and More is opening soon in Columbus.
Poll: Vote for Blue FCU's top girls athlete from spring sports
Vote for your top girls athlete from Fort Collins-area spring sports, with nominees from Windsor, Timnath, Rocky Mountain and Fossil Ridge.
Internal poll shows Leela Gray in statistical tie with Anna Paulina Luna
The PPP poll found the Democrat at 39% to the GOP incumbent's 41%.
Annette Taddeo would lead Blaise Ingoglia in head-to-head CFO race, Ruth's List poll finds
Independent voters broke heavily for Taddeo in an initial ballot test, giving her an 18-point advantage over Ingoglia.
A New York cemetery was hiding 5.5 million bees underground
A casual walk through an Ithaca cemetery led to the discovery of a gigantic hidden bee population — roughly 5.5 million ground-nesting bees packed beneath the soil. Scientists believe it may be one of the largest bee aggregations ever documented and say the insects are crucial pollinators for apple orchards and other crops. The bees have likely lived there for more than 100 years, thriving in the cemetery’s undisturbed sandy soil.
Business Planning and RFP Pursuit Vary by Ownership Type
Businesses with formal plans and RFP experience are more likely to report growth, but many owners lack plans or awareness of procurement pathways.
NC could change rules on voter ID, mail-in ballots. Here’s how you can weigh in
The North Carolina State Board of Elections is considering a series of changes to the rules surrounding voter ID, absentee ballots and conduct at polling sites. Over the next two months, the board will be accepting public comment on the proposed changes online and in public hearings.
Fox News Poll: Faith in higher education in the US is collapsing
Fox News poll reveals dramatic shift in attitudes toward higher education, with 65% of voters now saying college is less important to success than before.
New poll shows tie in Democratic primary for governor
One wild card for all the poll results with such crowded fields is the state’s use of ranked choice voting, the pollsters noted. Voters’ second and third choices could upend the apparent election night winners.
Spanish Singer Ana Mena Signs Management Deal With WK Entertainment
Walter Kolm Entertainment announced the signing of Spanish singer-songwriter Ana Mena to an exclusive global management deal, bolstering its Latin music
Platner leads Collins in UNH poll
Broken down by party, 91% of Democrats would vote for Platner and 87% for Collins. Independents are divided, with 47% choosing Collins and 44% Platner, the pollsters noted.
Poll finds energy costs will play prominently in 2026 political campaigns
'This polling paints a clear picture: American households and small businesses are demanding relief.'
Licensable picture: Nick Lapolla, with Moonshine Entertainment, serves up some delicious food at the Memorial Day kickoff event, at the Fremont
Nick Lapolla, with Moonshine Entertainment, serves up some delicious food at the Memorial Day kickoff event, at the Fremont Community Amphitheater on May 25.
'Poor' health of Biscayne Bay threatens Miami 'economic powerhouse'
Miami's Biscayne Bay remains “vulnerable and under stress due to continuous pollution” threatening tourism, entertainment, boating and real estate.
Ebola, chemical plants and health, hantavirus, common colds, heat and more
As they say, bugs have ears. Public health has had a relentless May. Chemical plant (near) explosions, Ebola, hantavirus, and that's before you even get to the usual suspects: common colds, heat, and ticks. Here’s an attempt to keep you up to speed and, more importantly, what it means for you and your community. But first, an announcement: World Cup The World Cup starts in 15 days (not like anyone is counting down), and we are hanging TVs in the Health Security Operations Center. It’s going to be a gorgeous, chaotic celebration of basically every culture on earth. And it’s going to take a team effort—from communities to individuals, from public health to health care—to keep people healthy. That’s where you come in. If you’re going to the games or live within 30 miles of a stadium, we would love to hear from you. Sign up for a weekly survey here. Thanks to the more than 1,280 people who have already signed up…you will be hearing from us soon!! Global disease “weather report” Hantavirus: Two more cases The global count of cruise ship passengers with hantavirus has now increased to 13 cases (11 confirmed), with three deaths. The two new cases are overseas and among people who were already quarantining: A crew member in the Netherlands. A Spanish national passenger who was quarantining at home tested positive through daily monitoring. They are now in a biocontainment unit. In the U.S., everyone remains negative. There may be more cases, given that the incubation period of hantavirus (the time from exposure to infection) is 45 days. But this week, we will reach a major milestone: the median incubation window is 18 days, and that will pass on May 29. What this means for you: Your risk from this cruise ship outbreak remains essentially nil at this point. Ebola rages on in Central Africa Big thanks to Dr. Craig Spencer, a humanitarian physician who has treated and survived Ebola, for jumping in to provide the YLE community with an update. Craig, take it from here… The combined confirmed and suspected Ebola cases in DRC are now more than 1,000. All signs are pointing to a very long and catastrophic outbreak in Central Africa: This is a vast undercount. We know this because the test positivity rate is hovering around 50%, only 20% of contacts are being traced (and in some areas, no contacts at all), and more cases keep popping up with no known connection. This all points to widespread and undetected community transmission. This is in only a week of detection. Compared to previous outbreaks, the growth is very fast, as the huge West Africa outbreak in 2016 was first detected at 49 cases and rose to 208 cases a month later. It took four months for that outbreak to reach the size of the current one in the DR Congo. The cases are spread out across 16 health zones. There are now multiple epicenters, making containment very difficult. Next door in Uganda, the case count is seven. While this number is low compared to DRC, a concerning development is that two health care workers recently tested positive with uncertain exposure histories. If they weren’t treating known Ebola cases, this means it’s spreading undetected in Uganda as well. On the ground, backlash, including the burning of health centers, has emerged, a pattern seen in nearly every outbreak and rooted in deep community distrust. It often stems from outside actors working in communities without fully understanding or addressing local priorities. Affected populations may recognize the severity of Ebola while still holding other concerns as more pressing, such as where their loved ones are buried. Community trust is essential to an effective response, but difficult to build during an active emergency. It is best established long before a crisis begins. U.S. priorities are made clear, and may backfire. The U.S. Administration has shown that its first priority is keeping Ebola out, with helping end the outbreak in the DRC a secondary concern. That's meant travel restrictions broader than anything we've imposed before — covering travelers from across the region, and reportedly some green card holders and permanent residents as well. For example, just these past two days, news broke that high-risk American travelers will be subject to a mandatory quarantine in Kenya before they are allowed to return. If an American is infected, the U.S. government plans to send them to a hospital it is standing up from scratch in Kenya. (Currently, Americans who were in the area are allowed to return but are diverted to three airports—Houston, Atlanta, and DC—for further screening.) Past administrations have used travel notices and stepped-up screening; this goes much further. At first blush, these strict precautions may sound prudent. But this approach could backfire in three ways: Restrictions this blunt give people every reason to hide where they’ve been and whom they’ve been near — making the people we most need to find harder to track, not easier. They also breed a false sense that this is someone else’s problem. But diseases are humbling. They find the small cracks in even the most impenetrable-seeming defenses. Lives lost. There is no treatment for this Ebola strain, which means survival depends heavily on the quality of the health system. We have that system in the States, but we are choosing not to use it for infected Americans. This is unbelievable and infuriating. (See a deeper dive from me here.) The only real way to lower the risk to Americans — and everyone else — is to end the outbreak in the DRC and across the region. What this means for you: If you have travel plans to this region, it’s time to cancel them. This is a high-risk situation in Central Africa, and CDC released a Level 4 Travel Advisory. There is also great uncertainty if and when the Administration will let you back in. To the general public in the U.S., your risk remains very, very low right now. U.S. disease “weather report” Ticks: past peak season? Good news, especially for people in the Northeast and Midwest: tick numbers continue to decline. Though we are at the peak of the season, this unusually early year is trending favorably. Heat-related illnesses in the North Heat risk is certainly not blanketing the entire country yet, but this week it will be moderate in the Midwest and the Southeast. What this means for you: Be sure to check the CDC HeatRisk tool. A red day isn’t the best day for that soccer game for a kid with asthma, and a stretch of orange days is a great time to check on your elderly neighbor. Common colds surging As far as respiratory viruses go, the only thing really going around right now is the common cold. It is higher this year than last year, but should peak very soon before returning this fall. Spotlight: Chemical plants Over the weekend, YLE California covered the serious situation that unfolded around a chemical plant in Orange County, California. Thankfully, the worst-case scenario (a chemical explosion) was mitigated, but only through luck. The health implications in a densely populated area could have been catastrophic. As the situation was winding down, another chemical explosion struck Washington State. This one was fatal. Health officials say the risk to surrounding residents from chemicals in the air and ground remains low, though the community deserves far greater clarity. Clean air and clean water consistently rank as Americans’ top public health concerns — yet when chemical disasters strike, communities are too often met with reassurances rather than transparency and accountability. Residents near the 2023 East Palestine, Ohio train derailment, for example, are still waiting to understand the long-term impact on their health, with few clear answers. What this means for you: Many are wondering if facilities processing potentially dangerous materials are in their neighborhoods. This interactive map allows you to enter your ZIP code and see all facilities monitored by the EPA, including any violations. Good news Ebola vaccines and treatment for the Bundibugyo species are in development. Two vaccine platforms are being explored, at least one of which may be deployable in as little as 2 months. One vaccine is being developed by Oxford, and the other uses the same biotechnology as the FDA-approved Zaire species of Ebola. (It may provide cross-protection, but it’s unclear at this point.) On the treatment side, two promising monoclonal antibody cocktails are likely to be deployed, though doses are limited and logistical hurdles remain significant challenges. Anni over at The Biotech Tea had a great explainer about the Ebola vaccine gap, if you want to read more. [ The Biotech Tea The Ebola vaccine gap, reading vessel damage, & the Makary exit 🗝️ Paid subscribers get the Biotech Term of the Week at $30/year (~$2.50/month). I try to keep it intentionally accessible, but if cost is ever a barrier, send me a message. A few people asked about expensing your subscription, so I put together a short email template… Read more 6 days ago · 10 likes · Annicka Evans, PhD ](https://www.thebiotechtea.com/p/the-ebola-vaccine-gap-reading-vessel?utm_source=substack&utm_campaign=post_embed&utm_medium=web) Polycystic ovary syndrome (PCOS) has been officially renamed polyendocrine metabolic ovarian syndrome (PMOS), following more than a decade of debate and input from roughly 22,000 clinicians, researchers, and patients worldwide. This is good because the old name was medically misleading, leading to patients without visible cysts being dismissed or overlooked entirely. The WHO estimates that 70% of people with the condition remain undiagnosed. A more accurate name should improve recognition, reduce stigma, and ultimately help the millions of people living with this condition get diagnosed and treated sooner. Poll Loading... Bottom line Public health situations are everywhere right now. Staying healthy takes public health professionals and systems working tirelessly behind the scenes and each of us showing up for our neighbors and communities. Love, YLE Big thanks to Ed Nirenberg for staying on top of the Ebola vaccines, Hannah Totte for all the figures, Dr. Craig Spencer for the Ebola insight, and Dr. Matt Willis for covering the chemical situation in CA. Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) comprises a team of experts, ranging from physicians to immunologists to epidemiologists to nutritionists, working together with one goal: to “Translate” ever-evolving public health science so that people are well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. YLE suite of newsletters reaches over 475,000 people across more than 132 countries. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below: Subscribe
Many Latino voters have turned away from Trump, but Democrats aren't necessarily winning them over, new poll finds
Hispanic voters are heading into the midterms feeling economically squeezed and increasingly skeptical of the direction of the country — but Democrats are not necessarily running away with their support, a new poll by UnidosUS finds.
Poll highlights Oklahoma business demands for education improvements
Facing continued workforce issues, most Oklahoma business leaders value increased state investment in education over a tax cut.
Texas Democrats pick lieutenant governor nominee to challenge GOP incumbent Dan Patrick
Texas voters selected a Democratic nominee for lieutenant governor in Tuesday's primary runoff to challenge Republican incumbent Dan Patrick in November.
The Justice Department wants to interview 2020 election workers
The Justice Department wants to interview some poll workers and ballot counters who participated in the 2020 election in Fulton County, Georgia, in a new effort to dig up details about the ballot-processing, prosecutors revealed at a court hearing last week.
Armenia signs strategic partnership deal with US as election approaches
PM Nikol Pashinyan, who deepened ties with US, faces challenge from pro-Russia parties in upcoming parliamentary polls.
South Carolina sees record-breaking turnout by lunchtime on first day of early voting
South Carolina voters headed to the polls in record-breaking numbers on the first day of early voting, as state lawmakers in Columbia debated reshaping the districts they're voting in.
Get up to speed fast on the California election with our guide for the undecided
Californians are voting on a wide-open governor's race in a June 2 primary election. Xavier Becerra, Steve Hilton and Tom Steyer are leading in polls.
High-Level Climate, Clean Air, and Health Roundtable
Reducing air pollution and climate pollutants represents one of the most immediate opportunities to protect human health while advancing climate goals and driving economic growth. Actions to reduce super pollutants such as methane and black carbon can rapidly slow warming while significantly reducing the global burden of disease linked to air pollution. These health benefits reduce pressures on health systems and improve labour productivity, supporting economic growth.
More families struggling with cost of food, No Kid Hungry Florida poll says
Floridians are facing tough choices as they struggle to afford groceries.
Low turnout could shape Texas runoff elections Tuesday
Texas voters head to the polls Tuesday for primary runoff elections where low turnout could shape key races statewide.
The Price Of Climate Change Is Being 'Paid By Our Lungs'
The Lisbon allergist and respiratory expert from Hospital CUF Tejo outlined how climate change is linked to lung inflammation through longer pollen seasons,