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Stage Tour ‘Developer Spotlight’ trailer, latest details
RedOctane Games has released new information, screenshots, and footage for its five-fret rhythm game Stage Tour, including the closed alpha setlist, a behind the curtain hands-on for fans, Gibson p…
Offense can't find clutch hit as Pirates get swept by Braves
ATLANTA — Pitching only more than an hour from where he attended high school at North Oconee, Bubba Chandler was cruising. He retired 13...
Brewers Add Reliever Joel Kuhnel in Trade With Athletics
The Milwaukee Brewers acquired right-handed reliever Joel Kuhnel from the Athletics for cash considerations.
Health workers at center of Congo's Ebola outbreak labor with little pay or rest
Health workers are handling the disease with minimal resources, because agencies have been scrambling to bring aid into the region.
Brewers' Pat Murphy Discusses Viral Jacob Misiorowski Interaction
When Milwaukee Brewers’ fire-balling prospect refused to hand over the ball, a veteran manager’s strict rules vanished. Discover how a defiant stare-down forged unbreakable trust at Coors Field.
Bills news: What did Brandon Beane observe during OTAs?
Brandon Beane was impressed with how Jude Bowry, Skyler Bell and Kaleb Elarms-Orr handled themselves in practice.
Senator Warner: Trump threw ‘live hand grenade’ into FISA negotiations with Pulte appointment
Confessions of political liveblogger: ‘I enjoy it professionally – but, as a citizen, you can think the country’s going to hell in a handcart’
Andrew Sparrow has been writing the Guardian’s daily political live blog for more 15 years. How does he cope with the relentless psychodrama of British politics?
Photos: How public health officials track Colorado’s tick populations
2026 is a bad tick year. Colorado is taking a more hands-on approach to studying them.
Buttonwood Nature Center offers Splash & Science summer camp for kids
Kids ages 7–12 can explore streams, study aquatic life, and enjoy hands-on crafts at Buttonwood Nature Center’s Splash & Science summer day camps.
Business roundup: Mountain Bike Specialists sells, oyster bar looking for buyer and fine dining spot files for bankruptcy
In this week’s roundup: One Durango business has changed hands, another is for sale and a third is filing for bankruptcy. Saslow said Mountain Bike Specialists “continues under new ownership wi...
Minor sports at University of Arkansas, other major colleges struggle to survive
FAYETTEVILLE -- The future of tennis and other minor sports at major universities depends on the kindness of people with deep pockets or the helping hand of the federal government.
Belmont Stakes Day Generates More Than $116 Million In Handle
Saturday's blockbuster Belmont Stakes Day program, highlighted by Golden Tempo’s victory in the 158th running of the $2-million Belmont Stakes (G1) presented by NYRA Bets, generated all-sources handle of $116,077,378 and paid attendance of 46,128. On-track handle for the 14-race Belmont Stakes Day ...
New BYU alumni leader to build on ‘connection’
Derek Miller, BYU's new alumni director, understands firsthand how BYU sports goes well beyond what happens on the field or court.
World Ocean Day Celebration at Seacoast Science Center
For Seacoast Science Center, this year marks a remarkable 35 years of providing outstanding coastal and ocean education at Odiorne Point State Park along the New Hampshire seacoast! World Ocean Day, a global celebration that honors our one shared ocean, presents the perfect opportunity for us to invite our community to come together and celebrate the ocean that connects us all.On June 20th, the Center will host its flagship World Ocean Day celebration from 10 AM to 2 PM. Enjoy hands-on games, educational activities, naturalist-led tide pooling sessions, music, and much more! You’ll also have the opportunity to meet local scientists, divers, artists, and conservationists who are dedicated to safeguarding our one world ocean. See the schedule and the organizations joining us on our event web page: https://www.seacoastsciencecenter.org/world-ocean-dayWe can’t wait to see you by the coast for learning, discovery, and plenty of fun, all aimed at inspiring the conservation of our Blue Planet!
From Bystanders to Heart Savers: MedStar Health CPR Training Event Puts Power to Save Lives in Community's Hands
/PRNewswire/ -- MedStar Health marked CPR & AED Awareness Week with its third annual training event held at Montgomery Blair High School. Nearly 100 attendees...
From Bystanders to Heart Savers: MedStar Health CPR Training Event Puts Power to Save Lives in Community's Hands
MedStar Health marked CPR & AED Awareness Week with its third annual training event held at Montgomery Blair High School. Nearly 100 attendees learned bystander CPR and automated external defibrillator (AED) skills from a team of CPR-certified instructors at no cost.
Alabama, Kalen DeBoer Slapped With Concerning 2026 Prediction
The Alabama Crimson Tide and head coach Kalen DeBoer have been handed a concerning prediction.
James Handy's final film scrapped after late actor's murder, producer says
Handy died after being found with a stab wound to his chest on June 3. He was 81.
James Handy's final film scrapped after late actor's murder, producer says
A producer of James Handy's final movie project shares that the comedy film has officially been axed after the late actor's killing on June 3.
Monster Hunter Wilds Is So Back With Big Ascendance Expansion
Capcom is all in on supporting Nintendo's latest handheld hybrid
Wayans brothers“ ”break down “Scary Movie”'s wild post-credits parodies of these 2 horror hits
Please welcome "Short Hand" and "Brosferatu" to the canon of horror spoofs.
Ozempic and similar weight-loss drugs linked to 30% lower breast cancer risk
A large study found that women taking GLP-1 drugs, the medication class behind Ozempic, Wegovy, Mounjaro, and Zepbound, were about 30% less likely to develop breast cancer. Researchers say the findings are promising but not yet proof, and clinical trials are now being planned to test whether these drugs could help prevent breast cancer.
New York Jets Flight Connections 06/06/26
Happy Saturday, Jets fans! You made it through the week. As a reward, here are your Saturday Jets links. Michael Nania – Jets’ Garrett Wilson lights up social media with one-handed grab Michael Nania – Jets’ Garrett Wilson lights up social media with one-handed grab Michael Nania – Jets’ AD Mitchell flashes chemistry with Geno […]
Riq Woolen already making strong impression on Eagles in spring
Free agent pickup Riq Woolen is just a handful of practices into his Eagles career but is already making a strong impression.
5 things to know about the Ebola outbreak
Here’s what I want you to know: The best way to protect yourself and the people around you from things like Ebola is to stay informed and remember there’s a global public health effort that’s designed to handle threats just like this one.
Brockton café, West Bridgewater farm win Metro South business honors
See which local businesses won Metro South’s 2026 Small Business and Entrepreneur of the Year honors.
Trump’s Battered Hands Spark Fresh Health Speculation Amid ‘Perfect’ Physical
Not even a badly matched concealer could hide the president’s swollen hand.
UW diabetes researcher removed from conference by police
Steven Kahn, director of the UW Diabetes Research Center, was removed by police from a national conference as he and others handed out copies of an editorial.
HP announces the most powerful Windows AI PC ever built — Nvidia GB300 workstation can handle one trillion parameters thanks to its 784GB unified memory, but it won't be cheap
Server-grade power, now on your desk.
Another Diamondbacks prospect gets the call, Arizona promotes LuJames Groover
PHOENIX — The Arizona Diamondbacks continue to lean on youth as they make roster moves ahead of their next series against the Washington Nationals. The club announced it is promoting top infield prospect LuJames Groover from Triple-A Reno while optioning infielder Jose Fernandez and designating right-handed pitcher Taylor Rashi for assignment.
Hands On: "We Want It To Feel Like A Fighting Game" - Super Yooka-Laylee Kart Offers More Depth Than You Think
We've played Playtonic's new kart racer, and here's why you should be excited
U doctor booted from conference for handing out editorial opposing Trump health policies
Pediatrician said he was “chest-bumped” several times in standoff with conference security and police in New Orleans after passing out an editorial.
Diabetes researchers ejected from conference after criticizing White House
The scientists, including the editor of a leading journal, were handing out copies of an editorial criticizing the Trump administration’s handling of biomedical research.
New hand-animated Cuphead game and 8-bit action platformer Mighty Cuphead Adventure announced
Studio MDHR has announced two new Cuphead projects: a brand-new, hand-animated Cuphead game early in development, and Mighty Cuphead Adventure, an 8-bit action platformer.
James Handy's most memorable film and TV roles: A look back at the late actor's prolific career
The veteran character actor, who died on June 3, leaves behind a legacy that includes roles in "Top Gun: Maverick" and "Jumanji."
From Hometown Puzzles To Global Entertainment Empire
In 2017, father-and-son team Jeffrey and Blake Stone were proudly showing off their very first business venture in Brandon, a single escape room facility hand-b
Business sentenced to $500,000, probation for asbestos violations in Saginaw
Applied Partners LLC was sentenced Friday, June 5, to pay a $500,000 fine and to complete a two-year term of probation for the company’s illegal handling of regulated asbestos-containing material (RACM) at a site in Saginaw.
Nintendo Switch 2 At One: Nintendo's Biggest Wins, Misses, And Surprises
Today, June 5, is the first anniversary of the Switch 2, Nintendo’s successor to its best-selling console ever. The hybrid handheld has seen its share of highs and lows since launch, and it still feels like it hasn’t fully found its groove. Many people believe that the best is yet to come, and the next...
Police arrest son of James Handy's girlfriend in actor's stabbing death in LA
Handy appeared in “Top Gun: Maverick”
Police arrest son of James Handy's girlfriend in actor's stabbing death in LA
Handy appeared in “Top Gun: Maverick”
The Braves Should Avoid the Tarik Skubal Deadline Trap
Tarik Skubal is the kind of pitcher who makes a perfectly reasonable front office start spouting bad ideas. Which, honestly, makes sense. Skubal is one of Major League Baseball’s best left-handed aces, a two-time reigning American League Cy Young Award winner, and one of the few starters in baseball who could make a great team …
James Handy, 'Jumanji' and 'Top Gun: Maverick' actor, fatally stabbed at 81
Los Angeles police say that actor James Handy, known for his work in films like 'Top Gun: Maverick' and 'Jumanji,' has been fatally stabbed at 81. A suspect is in custody.
Science is HERE All Summer at The Tech Interactive
San Jose’s Science Center Announces Packed Lineup Headlined by Summer Camp, Tech Topple, DOME Series, Workshops, and Tech at Nite The Tech Interactive is bringing a summer full of hands-on science experiences to downtown San Jose, featuring STEM camps, immersive dome shows, interactive exhibits, workshops, and family-friendly activities designed for visitors of all ages. Learn more at https://www.thetech.org San Jose, CA, June 04, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Summer is HERE at The Tech Interactive,
ADHD Handwriting Similarities Go Viral
"Is that actually an ADHD thing, or did I just never learn how to write the right way?"
Suncoast Science Center offers hands-on STEAM summer camps
The Suncoast Science Center is hosting STEAM camp from June 1 to July 31
Phillies lean on Wheeler's excellence, García's power in sweep
Zack Wheeler rode his fastball in a dominant bounce-back start, while Adolis García gave the Phillies needed right-handed thump.
Annual Student Research Program Commences
48 undergraduate students from across the country are gathered to participate in a once-in-a-lifetime experience of hands-on science and data-gathering with NASA scientists and university mentors.
Catching chose Kyle McCann — and he’s been answering ever since
From a travel team in Georgia to the Piratas de Campeche to Albuquerque, Kyle McCann has never stopped raising his hand.
Belkin’s new Joy-Con grips also boost the Switch 2’s battery life
The Charging Grip sticks a 10,000mAh battery to the back of the handheld while making the Joy-Cons easier to hold.
Luxury cars seized after alleged $30 million fraud ring involving children's health services busted, officials say
Federal authorities have busted what they say is a $30 million fraud conspiracy involving billing for children's behavioral health services that were never provided, officials announced.
Digging out: One man’s recovery and the business it inspired
Craig Stevens was just a kid when he started to build worlds. While growing up in West Brookfield, he’d take the blocks he was always given for Christmas and construct cities in his backyard. He used the garden hose to make flowing rivers, his hands to sculpt the land. When he was 10, he wanted […]
Senate Voting on Motion to Bar Trump From Creating Compensation Fund
Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York, introduced the motion. A handful of Republicans have indicated that they would support such a measure, which needs just 50 votes to pass.
Arch Announces Leadership Changes Across Insurance Business
Arch Capital Group and Arch Insurance North America announced a series of leadership changes this week, including executive promotions across its wholesale insurance platform, a planned CEO succession, and the retirement of a longtime property insurance leader.At the parent company level, Arch Capital previously announced that President and Chief Underwriting Officer Nicolas Papadopoulo will succeed Marc Grandisson as chief executive officer effective March 1, 2027. Grandisson will remain executive chairman following the transition.
Ace Combat 8 Asks You to Play the Hero, Whether You Are One or Not
We played Ace Combat 8: Wings of Theve and found it to be visually stunning with appreciated gameplay improvements and a deep story we couldn't get enough of in our limited hands-on time so far.
Where science meets fashion: Raha Saremi turns agricultural waste into biomaterials
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” el_id=”text-container first-paragraph” el_class=”text-container first-paragraph”] When cracking a pecan, most people throw away the shell. Raha Saremi wants you to wear it. How? As a material scientist in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Saremi witnessed firsthand the sheer volume of agricultural byproducts going to waste across Georgia’s farming communities and natural environment. … Continue reading “Where science meets fashion: Raha Saremi turns agricultural waste into biomaterials”
Is an Online Master’s Degree in AI a Good Idea?
A look at the real-world value of online graduate AI programs, combining hard data with firsthand experience of a big tech machine learning engineer
Diamondbacks' Corbin Burnes suffers massive setback
Arizona Diamondbacks right-hander Corbin Burnes suffered a setback in his return from Tommy John surgery and won't be available until September.
Michael Grant launches 2028 bid for Ben Albritton's Senate seat with 20-plus endorsements in hand
Michael Grant is making his move for 2028 — and he isn't being subtle about it. The former House Majority Leader and Punta Gorda Republican filed Tuesday
Loyal Royal? Well, Only If You’re One Royal
TTE debutant Niall shares his objections to Reading’s new One Royal scheme and how it’s been handled.
Google Photos on Android finally gets this handy feature months after iPhone
Google Photos on Android is finally getting the saved "Stickers" album in the "Collections" tab six months after it rolled out on iOS.
Will AI Replace Magic? The Bigger Threat May Be the Audience
AI may not master sleight of hand anytime soon, but it could weaken the human desire to gather, watch, and wonder together
'Connections on the Road:' Youth mental health
During "Connections with Evan Dawson" on 6/4/26, we're live at the Greece Early Learning Center to explore youth mental health challenges and supports. Then, a special rebroadcast about allergies.
Phillies SP Cristopher Sánchez sets consecutive scoreless innings record for a left-handed pitcher
Trump Agitates Brazil’s Politics, Again
President Trump appears ready to lend a hand to a new right-wing ally ahead of a crucial election this year that will be the biggest test for Latin America’s left.
House passes resolution for first time to halt military action against Iran in rebuke of Trump
The House approved a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, defying the president as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long war that has reordered politics at home and abroad.
House passes Iran war powers resolution in rebuke to Trump
The House passed a resolution on Wednesday to limit President Donald Trump’s war powers in Iran, a significant rebuke to Trump and his handling of the conflict.
Phil Ehr vows lawsuit as Broward SOE throws water on Hector Mujica's party switch explanation
Democratic organizations are taking a hands-off approach to a party eligibility dispute that could knock Mujica off the CD 28 Primary ballot.
An outdoor entertainment district could be coming to Summerville
People could eventually be allowed to walk through parts of downtown Summerville with a beer or glass of wine in hand under a proposal now heading to Town Counc
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.
Ultrahuman says hackers accessed customers' wellness data via internal tool
The breach at wearable ring makaer Ultrahuman stemmed from credentials stolen from a malware-infected employee laptop.
Former ACC president William Parmley remembered as powerhouse in cardiology
Parmley is most noted for his research on the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, hemodynamics and new therapies for heart failure.
Indie Selects for June 2026: Absolutely Stacked Indie Games
The ID@XBOX team handpicked a bold, genre-hopping lineup of six titles for May's Indie Selects where nothing plays it safe.
May's top PlayStation games by copies sold
Yesterday’s State of Play gave us an idea of where PlayStation’s heading next. But we’ve had our May estimates for a couple of days now (we always update our data daily for clients), so it’s time to look at what performed best on PlayStation last month. We’ve got a new IP at the top, two evergreens doing their evergreen thing, FC26 smashing it ahead of the World Cup Plus pivot, and a quiet but promising result for Lego Batman. Let’s have a look at the state of Play…Station’s top games for May. 007 takes #001 007 First Light sold 1M copies on PS5 in May, easily making it the month’s top PS5 game by copies sold. Over 80% of those May copies were digital, which is broadly in line with where PlayStation’s digital share has settled for new releases this year. To date, 007 First Light has sold through 2.2M copies across platforms (so no unsold retail copies in that figure). The platform split is 55.1% PS5, 33.1% Steam, and 11.8% Xbox (console, Windows, and cloud combined). In gross revenue terms, 007 First Light has generated $150M. Owing to regional pricing and audience composition differences, the consoles make up a higher share of revenue than they do copies. Of the $150M, 60.5% came via PlayStation, 27.6% via Steam, and 12.9% via Xbox. Part of this is because over two-thirds of 007 First Light‘s PlayStation audience is in North America (43.4%) or Western Europe (23.2%), where local currency means the game generates more revenue per player. On Steam, under half of First Light‘s audience is from those same regions (31.8% North America, 15.1% Western Europe). As we covered in last week’s 007 Steam piece, the Steam version is pulling in higher-than-expected numbers in China, which now accounts for 17.3% of First Light‘s Steam audience. 007 is the equivalent of $44 USD in China, which is roughly 37% cheaper than the US price and about 44% cheaper than Western Europe. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe The crossover data backs up what we’ve seen all year about launch-window cohorts. 11% of PS5 players who played 007 First Light in May also played Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight, which launched just a few days before. Last month was a great month for Denmark! IO Interactive is Copenhagen-based, and Lego Group is headquartered in Billund (TT Games is UK-based but produces work under Lego Group licence and direction). Speaking of which… A very blocky #2 and #3 Minecraft sold another 788K copies on PlayStation consoles last month. Business as usual, since Minecraft hasn’t sold fewer than 760K copies in a single month all year. With over 350M copies sold across all platforms, Minecraft is the best-selling game in history and one of the strongest brands in the world. Every month, a new cohort of children reaches Minecraft age, which guarantees a constant volume of new sales regardless of what the broader market is up to. The demographic refresh rate is truly impressive, with the audience renewing itself faster than it’s churning. Lego Batman: Legacy of the Dark Knight shifted 757K copies on PS5 last month, bringing its lifetime total on the platform to over 800K. Across all platforms, Legacy of the Dark Knight has now passed 1.5M sold through, so PlayStation accounts for over half of the game’s players. The May crossover data for Legacy of the Dark Knight on PS5 is also useful. 27% of those players also played Fortnite, 16% Roblox, 16% FC 26, and 14% NBA 2K. That’s the household-and-family cohort showing up, plus the launch-window cohort of core gamers who buy practically everything. FC 26 gets players through the door ahead of the World Cup FC 26 sold 411K copies on PlayStation last month (90% via PS5), the fewest copies FC 26 has sold all year and down heavily from April’s 700K. Part of this dropoff is because FC 26 has been available as a PlayStation Plus monthly game since 6 May, cannibalising premium sales. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe The strategic logic is straightforward for EA, which is sacrificing premium unit sales in May to build up the player base ahead of the FIFA World Cup, which kicks off on 11 June. Obviously, a bigger player pool going into the tournament means a bigger pool of potential Ultimate Team spenders during the period when football attention is at its peak. The early returns are around what you’d expect, with 4.4M new players accessing FC 26 via PS Plus last month – a substantial new spender pool. Anecdotally, a few of my mates who were ‘’skipping FIFA and Ultimate Team this year’’, were drawn back in via PS Plus. Lo and behold, one of them is buying packs like it’s going out of fashion. Whether this is all a smart trade for EA depends entirely on the Ultimate Team conversion rate over the next six weeks. Either way, the short-term engagement impact on the game as a whole is evident. FC 26‘s MAUs hit a record 24M on PlayStation in May, up 30% from the previous record set in April. GTA V does what GTA V always does Rounding out the top five is another evergreen title. Grand Theft Auto V shifted another 387K copies on PlayStation last month. No matter what else is happening in the industry, GTA V keeps pulling players in. It’s sold another 1.8M copies on PS5 in the first half of this year alone, helping the franchise pass the 230M-sold milestone across all platforms. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe I have a theory that Minecraft and GTA V are doing the same thing at different demographic levels. Both are functioning as generational gateway games that the audience ages into faster than it ages out of. Minecraft captures kids around age 6-10, GTA V captures much of the same audience around age 12-15 (unofficially, of course). The crossover data suggests this: 40% of GTA V‘s monthly PlayStation players typically play Fortnite in any given month, while 30% play Roblox. Household accounts aside, that’s not the original GTA V audience from 2013. Of course, the under-12 audience would love to get their hands on GTA, too. It’s always been the way of things, and some parents are happy to oblige. Mine did too back in the day, and I turned out just fine. Right? Right!? Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
The Texas Business Court - A New Forum for Complex Disputes
By Byron F. Egan A key driver behind the DExit movement is Texas’s investment in a specialized forum for complex business disputes. The Texas Business Court represents a significant shift in how commercial litigation is handled in the state.
Community Hospice and Health Services Invests in Behavioral Health
California-based Community Hospice and Health Services is extending its mission to improve quality of life into the behavioral health space. In addition
Culpeper Police Department
Last Thursday, we attended a Health and Wellness Fair hosted by Encompass Community Supports at Culpeper Technical Education Center! We had great conversations and handed out wellness information and...
Texas Business Court is a powerhouse for resolving civil disputes
White & Case partner Sean Gorman published an article in Bloomberg Law detailing how the Texas Business Court is uniquely positioned to handle complex, high-value disputes.
Elections to top science bodies test Croatia’s gender equality in research
Croatia’s track-record on gender equality in science has been both questioned and lauded in recent months, following both bad and good news on the topic. On the one hand, a senior awards committee was announced without a single woman researcher included. On the other, the national science academy welcomed its first cohort of fellows with more women than men.Members of the committee, which gives national awards recognising scientific achievement, are proposed by the ministry of science and endorsed by the parliament. The current line-up does include a woman, but she is culture minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek rather than a researcher. Even then, she didn’t make it into the photograph released to announce the appointments on April 16. “The image speaks a thousand words,” says Tanja Rudež, a science journalist for Jutarnji List newspaper. “I am surprised that none of these men, all well-known scientists, saw a problem with the fact that there was not a single successful female scientist on the committee,” she told Science|Business.Ivan Đikić, a prominent Croatian biochemist based at Goethe University Medical School, commented on LinkedIn that the news illustrated a “sad truth” about the state of science in Croatia.“It [. . .] reveals a system where women, despite contributing a substantial share of high-quality, internationally competitive science, are systematically excluded from the very processes that determine recognition and influence,” he wrote. Some 60% of researchers in Croatia are women, according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, and they perform well in international competitions. For example, of the 12 European Research Council (ERC) grants awarded to Croatian researchers, seven went to women.“So how is it possible that decision-making bodies are still dominated by men over 60, while not a single female ERC laureate is involved in the selection process?” asked Đikić. “This is not a marginal oversight; it is a structural failure.” The ministry of science did not reply to a request for comment. The awards committee is not unusual. For example, a scientific advisory body announced by the ministry of demographics in April comprises 35 men and five women. The board of the Croatian Science Foundation, newly appointed by the parliament, is a little better, with five men and two women, but still unequal. “This is especially significant because such bodies do not merely distribute prestige. They shape research priorities, funding allocation and long-term scientific development,” Marija Lugarić, chair of the parliament’s committee on gender equality, told Science|Business. “Representation here matters not only symbolically, but materially.”Referring to the awards committee and the board of the science foundation, Lugarić says that while both bodies were appointed by parliament, neither met the minimum 40% gender balance threshold that Croatian law and EU guidelines expressly recommend for public bodies.Đikić wants to see EU institutions put pressure on the government to ensure basic standards of fairness, transparency and democratic governance in science policy are met. “Meaningful change will not come without pressure,” he wrote. “It must intensify both within Croatia and at the level of European institutions. Anything less undermines the credibility of Europe’s commitment to excellence and inclusion in science.”Rudež also underlined the importance of talking and writing about this topic, “because public opinion in Croatia does influence changes in the status and visibility of women in science.”The European Commission has not yet responded to a request for comment.Good news from the academyA more positive story came from the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts on 21 May, with the announcement of seven new women fellows and five men. This is the first time in the academy’s 165-year history that women have outnumbered men in a new intake.One of the new fellows, two-time ERC grantee Iva Tolić, credits the academy leadership with trying to be more modern and inclusive, representing the whole community better. “The academy is really aware that so far, before this election, there were very few women,” she told Science|Business. “So, they are actively trying to make this more equal.”Related articlesExplained: How the MSCA is close to achieving gender balanceCall for EU to leverage academic freedom in global talent raceRudež is more cautious, noting that despite the academy’s “breakthrough this year [. . .] it is still a predominantly male institution, with only 18% women.”This reflects a wider imbalance in Croatia’s research landscape. “The key levers of power in science are still in the hands of men,” she went on. “For example, all 14 rectors of private and public universities are men.”Similarly, Lugarić says a structural glass ceiling still exists in Croatian science, which is “most visible precisely where power is exercised.”She cites data from the Commission’s She Figures 2024 report, which shows that Croatia ranks second in the EU for gender equality in research and innovation overall, with an equality index of 79.6 out of 100. It is in the top five for women’s career advancement, participation in research; representation across all research sectors and for scientific publications.In stark contrast, it ranks second to last when it comes to women in decision-making positions in science. “This is not a coincidence,” Lugarić says. “It is a structural pattern.”Informal barriersThe persistent under-representation of women in the highest structures of Croatia’s academies, boards, award committees and leadership positions is not down to formal barriers, Lugarić says, but arises from more subtle obstacles such as “informal networks, persistent expectations regarding traditional gender roles and the unequal distribution of care responsibilities.”Tolić would like to see more support for young women in terms of affordable housing and child support, and higher salaries. Currently, she says, salaries in science stay low for the first 10-15 years, while housing and spaces in kindergarten are limited and expensive. “You have to work a lot, you get very little money, so it’s not great to have a family in this situation,” she says.But despite the challenges, Tolić is optimistic, saying that gender equality in research in Croatia is “definitely improving and going in the right direction.” The situation is particularly promising in biology, she adds, where most full professors, heads of department and deans of faculties are women. Lugarić, too, see the glass ceiling “very slowly, cracking,” and cites the academy election as an example that structural change is possible. Yet the situation in the national awards committee is a “stark reminder that without a conscious, systemic commitment to gender balance, progress will remain slow and uneven.”
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!
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