SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " pto " 2,328 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Knicks’ 3 Most Intriguing Regular Season Matchups
As the regular season approaches, the Knicks will officially go from the hunters to the hunted. After a wild offseason, especially in the significantly strengthened Eastern Conference, the defending champions will face much tougher challenges this season. Teams in the East like the Miami Heat, Toronto Raptors, and Philadelphia 76ers all made moves to strengthen …
Chargers' Omarion Hampton numbers may shock you after four weeks
These Chargers running back Omarion Hampton's stats may surprise you over the first four weeks of the season.
Darko Rajakovic Reveals What’s Behind Kawhi Leonard’s Delayed Raptors Return
Toronto prioritizes long-term health over preseason minutes as the superstar ramps up his reconditioning process.
California scientist wins a Nobel Prize, then makes school lunches for his kids
STANFORD, California (AP) — Dr. Karl Deisseroth spent hours fielding congratulatory calls after learning early Monday that he had won a Nobel Prize for medicine for helping to open a new field of brain science called optogenetics.
California scientist wins a Nobel Prize, then makes school lunches for his kids
Dr. Karl Deisseroth spent hours fielding congratulatory calls after learning that he had won a Nobel Prize for medicine for helping to open a new field of brain science called optogenetics.
Should California hotels be sued for using fragrances in their lobbies?
Take a deep breath in Hollywood's Kimpton Everly Hotel and you may catch a whiff of sandalwood, leather, fennel, cardamom, violet and cedar. And if you sniff the lobby of
1.2K views · 22 reactions | Nobel Prize 2026 explained: the...
Nobel Prize 2026 explained: the breakthrough that lets scientists switch brain cells on and off with light. Known as optogenetics, this technology helps researchers map the brain and uncover the...
Windows 11 26H2 isn’t exciting, but it does fix one real problem
Windows 11 26H2 doesn't bring much new, but it cuts RAM usage by up to 2GB on some PCs and makes older PCs run smoother.
US commodities regulator proposes new federal crypto oversight rules
The U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission proposes new federal rules for crypto exchanges offering leveraged trading to streamline regulation.
Hoptoberfest and Art Walk combined for art, entertainment, and fun
COLDWATER, MI. - Downtown Coldwater was filled with hundreds of visitors Friday evening, Oct. 2, as Hoptoberfest and the annual Art Walk combined to create an evening of art, entertainment, and fun.
Entertainment, work, study: 6 reasons the Dell XPS 13 is an everyday laptop worth looking at
The XPS 13 is a smart choice of notebook to cover all your daily needs
Can Health Trackers Help You Manage Menopause Symptoms?
Apple, Oura and Whoop have all recently added features for midlife women. Here’s what the tools can — and can’t — measure.
3 scientists share Nobel Prize in Physiology and Medicine for work in optogenetics
The Nobel Foundation awarded its prize in physiology and medicine Monday to three scientists who researched how nerve cells affect the brain.
Supreme Court rejects appeal over Michigan school ban on ‘Let’s Go Brandon’ sweatshirts
The Supreme Court is rejecting an appeal from a Michigan woman challenging a school district’s ban on shirts with the phrase “Let’s Go Brandon.” | KNSS Radio
Windows malware uses Grok AI to help stay hidden, researchers say
x47.c Windows malware uses xAI's Grok to maintain persistence on infected PCs while stealing passwords, browser cookies and API keys from victims.
Top crypto group to pour millions into bipartisan slate of House races after key legislation stalls
WASHINGTON (AP) — A top cryptocurrency campaign organization is unveiling a bipartisan list of House members that it will support in the November midterms, as o
Poole College Broadens Access to Graduate Business Leadership Certificate
Graduate students from any discipline, as well as prospective learners from outside NC State, may now pursue the certificate.
Stanford Professor One Of Three Scientists Awarded The Nobel Prize In Medicine
Stanford professor Karl Deisseroth joins Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel as winners of the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for their work on optogenetics.
Yale School of Medicine On the Science of Childhood Anxiety, Say, Anxiety Disorders Are the Most Common Mental Health Challenges In Youth
Credit: Matt Bradbury October 5, 2026 - By Isabella Backman - Anxiety disorders are the most common mental health challenges in youth. Left untreated, they can disrupt the lives of both children and their families. The good news is that with intervention, most children will overcome these conditions. Across Yale School of Medicine, scientists are working to understand anxiety at every level, from common anxious behaviors to molecular biomarkers in the brain. They are using their findings to develop and disseminate new evidence-based treatments for childhood anxiety. Today, the go-to treatment for childhood anxiety disorders is cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT). This is a form of psychotherapy that teaches children skills for confronting anxious thoughts and helps them practice managing situations that cause anxiety. While it is the gold-standard treatment backed by considerable scientific evidence, up to 50% of children will not see sufficient benefit from CBT alone. Wendy Silverman, PhD, Alfred A. Messer Professor in the Child Study Center, co-directs the Anxiety and Mood Disorders Program alongside Eli Lebowitz, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center. One of their main interests is learning how to improve outcomes beyond CBT. “We’re developing cutting-edge, research-based knowledge that can reduce the suffering that anxiety causes children and their families,” says Silverman. Changing parent behavior YSM experts are investigating how to improve CBT outcomes for children by involving the parents. Silverman’s research has uncovered two main components of parent intervention that improve childhood anxiety: not enabling children to completely avoid the things that make them anxious and taking steps to enhance their autonomy. Parents may unintentionally reinforce their child’s anxiety by allowing them to avoid what makes them anxious. They also may unintentionally limit the children’s sense of autonomy by being overly intrusive. “One of the things that we take pride in is that we’ve focused on trying to understand what parents need to do, and to test our ideas and see if changing the parents’ behaviors is enhancing the effects of CBT,” Silverman says. “Our findings thus far suggest that they do." As much as CBT can be helpful, it can also be challenging to get one’s child to do the necessary steps for CBT to work. This is one important reason why Lebowitz created a novel intervention program for parents named Supportive Parenting for Anxious Childhood Emotions (SPACE). Existing intervention programs often teach parents to act as therapists for their child, such as training them on how to practice breathing exercises. “It makes sense, but this doesn’t work very well in practice,” says Lebowitz. “And part of the reason, I think, is that it’s not easy to get your kid to do things, especially if they’re not excited about doing it.” SPACE is unique because it focuses entirely on parent involvement and changing parental behavior—children are not involved in the sessions. For example, parents learn how to use supportive messages that convey confidence that their child can tolerate and manage distress. “It might sound like a parent saying to a child, ‘I get that this is really hard for you, but I know that you can handle it,’” Lebowitz says. The program also works with parents to identify the ways in which they are accommodating anxious behaviors. “We’ll pick one thing that parents are doing that is an accommodation and help them make a detailed plan for how they’re going to change that,” Lebowitz explains. Treating Anxiety in Children and Adolescents Much of the existing research on SPACE has focused on parents of children under age 14. Ongoing studies are now exploring its use with parents of older teens. “Both anxiety and accommodation can interfere with normative developmental shifts during the teen years, including increased autonomy and individuation from parents,” says Rebecca Etkin, PhD, associate research scientist in the Child Study Center. “In this sense, SPACE may be particularly well-suited for anxious teens and their parents. We want to see whether it is effective during this distinct developmental window.” Unfortunately, many families in need of CBT face barriers, including limited availability of services and geographic constraints. One way to improve access is digital interventions. Silverman and her team are developing an evidence-based digitized intervention program for parents that they can access directly from their computer or smart phone. “The work we’re doing will be one of the very few parent interventions that is digitized and importantly tested for effectiveness,” she says. Creating interventions for anxiety-related challenges Silverman and Lebowitz recently received a generous gift to develop and test other interventions that help parents reduce other child anxiety-related behavioral and emotional difficulties, such as restrictive eating and unexplained somatic symptoms. One of these projects in particular focuses on understanding the risks of social media and its potential benefits, including offering a sense of connection. “A lot of research has focused on the idea that social media is harmful and the less of it the better,” says Lebowitz. “But we actually see is that this is not quite right—there are negatives, but there are also positives. So, we’re trying to get a little bit more nuanced of a picture.” The team is working with teens with social anxiety and their parents over an extended period to better understand their social media habits and how their anxiety levels affect engagement with different platforms. The teens will answer questions sent to an app on their phones about mood and social media usage in an effort to capture emotional responses as they unfold. “We hope to develop interventions that can help make the best of social media while protecting against the more problematic effects,” Lebowitz says. The brain’s role in anxiety Researchers are also testing therapies to address anxiety at the neurological and molecular levels. In collaboration with Dylan Gee, PhD, professor of psychology in Yale's Faculty of Arts and Sciences, and Hilary Blumberg, MD, John and Hope Furth Professor of Psychiatric Neuroscience at Yale School of Medicine, Lebowitz and Silverman are using brain imaging to identify changes in a child’s brain before and after parents enroll in SPACE. In one study, children viewed anxiety-inducing images while undergoing magnetic resonance imaging (MRI); the researchers conducted scans with and without the children’s parents nearby. Before SPACE, children’s brains were better able to activate the regulatory circuitry needed to turn off an anxious response when their parents were nearby. But after SPACE, children could activate this circuitry even without the parent around. “As parents work on gradually reducing some of their accommodations, you can see a child get better at regulating their own fear system in the brain,” Lebowitz says. “It’s remarkable.” Research into the molecular underpinnings of anxiety can also inform new childhood anxiety treatments. In a recent study, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Flora Vaccarino, MD, Harris Professor in the Child Study Center, discovered that a protein known as fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) could be protective from the toxic effects of stress. FGF2 levels in children and their parents were linked to the children’s risk of developing anxiety and depression, the study showed. The findings could help explain why some children who are exposed to early life trauma such as poverty or abuse are more prone to developing mental health disorders. And FGF2 could be a target for treatment. “This is very novel because it starts to give a clue to what is the molecular chain that connects those lived experiences to the actual psychological outcomes,” Lebowitz says. New ways to study and treat childhood anxiety Michael Crowley, PhD, associate professor in the Child Study Center, collaborates with Silverman and Lebowitz to study the role that attention plays in development and maintenance of childhood anxiety. There is a large body of research that shows that anxious children, like anxious adults, are prone to focus on threatening stimuli such as angry faces compared with neutral faces. This has led to innovative interventions that involve attention retraining. The idea is that if experts train children to look away from threatening stimuli, it may reduce their anxiety—especially children with social anxiety who are most prone to attend to threats. The researchers have just completed a clinical trial for attention retraining with 10- to 14-year-olds with social anxiety disorders and are currently analyzing the findings. Besides this innovative attention retraining research, as Crowly notes, “I like to design tasks that are engaging to kids,” Crowley says. “My goal is to assess something without the kids knowing what we are assessing.” With this goal in mind, Crowley has created a virtual game, named Boom, to study threat processing in children with anxiety disorders. The game is similar to that of hot potato—the child and three digital players take turns virtually passing a ball to each other’s gloves. At some point, the ball turns into a bomb, and as the bomb lands in each player’s glove, the outline of the glove turns yellow. The goal is to avoid having the bomb go off in your glove. What isn’t obvious is that the game is designed to measure different types of threatening stimuli, both ambiguous and direct. In the game, the direct threat occurs as the bomb is traveling towards your glove. The ambiguous threat is the yellow outlined glove as it is unknown where the bomb will travel next. While children play the game, Crowley’s team measures their brain activity using electroencephalography (EEG). The researchers have discovered that in kids with anxiety, the brain reacts more strongly to ambiguous threats than it does in their peers, but less strongly to direct threats. They believe that the initial abnormally large brain response to not knowing where the bomb is going impairs the brain's ability to properly respond when the threat is actually traveling the child’s way. “The brains of children with anxiety are unable to differentiate between threats you need to do something about and those that are not your problem.” Michael Crowley, PhD, develops innovative games for studying anxiety in children and adolescents.Credit: Matt Bradbury Based on these insights, Crowley hopes to study whether interventions like attention training could restore appropriate threat processing. Crowley’s team is also working on a test called the Balloon Risk Avoidance Task, which evaluates risk-taking and avoidance behaviors. It features a digital balloon that is full of air and about to burst. Kids have six seconds to let air out of the balloon. The more air they let out, the less risk they face that the balloon will pop. But at the same time, the balloon becomes less valuable as it deflates. “The more air you keep in the balloon, the more points you get,” Crowley explains. So far, the researchers have found that when the balloons pop unexpectedly, teens with social anxiety show distinct brain responses. Studying these responses can help psychologists understand the underlying pathways driving the various manifestations of anxiety. The genetics of anxiety When Thomas Fernandez, MD, associate professor in the Child Study Center and of psychiatry, was still in training, there was a lot of excitement about understanding the genetics associated with autism spectrum disorder. Since then, scientists have identified around 250 genes associated with autism. The genetic contribution to anxiety disorders, on the other hand, has historically received less attention. Anxiety is less heritable than autism, but the genetic contribution for anxiety disorders that emerge in childhood may be higher than for anxiety disorders overall. While scientists estimate the heritability of anxiety disorders in general to be around 30% to 50%, some studies suggest higher heritability for certain childhood-onset anxiety presentations. “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism,” Fernandez says. “So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” “I saw firsthand how researchers in the field went about finding vulnerability genes for autism. So, we’re using a very similar playbook for childhood anxiety.” Thomas Fernandez, MD Associate Professor In the Child Study Center and in Psychiatry Now, Fernandez and Emily Olfson, MD, PhD, assistant professor in the Child Study Center, are studying children and their parents to identify genetic changes that are present in the child but not the parents, known as “de novo mutations.” “All of us have some de novo mutations—maybe about 50 to 100 sprinkled throughout the genome,” Olfson says. “But when they occur within the coding regions of genes, they can be really disruptive.” Previous research shows that people with autism have higher rates of damaging de novo mutations than the general population. In 2022, Olfson, Lebowitz, Silverman, and Fernandez published a study on 68 children and their families that found that children with anxiety had similarly high levels of these mutations. Studying de novo mutations can help point the researchers to where they should be looking for genes associated with anxiety. “The end game is using the genes to steer us toward the right part of biology that we can then target to come up with better treatments,” Fernandez says. Building on those findings, the team is now studying more families to better understand how these de novo mutations, along with other genetic and environmental factors, shape pediatric anxiety disorders. They recently received a National Institutes of Health grant to enroll 750 new families over the next five years. Olfson is the principal investigator, with co-investigators Lebowitz, Fernandez, Silverman, and Shuangge Steven Ma, PhD, department chair and professor of biostatistics at Yale School of Public Health. Neurodevelopment, Risk Genes, and Mental Health Conditions - The Olfson Lab Joel Gelernter, MD, Foundations Fund Professor of Psychiatry, is interested in how different anxiety disorders differ genomically. “We are studying social phobia, panic disorder, and generalized anxiety disorder, working to understand why people differ in their risk to these specific anxiety disorders and evaluating various risk factors,” he says. Gelernter was recently involved in one of the largest studies to date of the genomics underlying anxiety disorder. The study included around 122,000 people with anxiety disorders and around 730,000 without. It found that some genetic differences associated with anxiety were linked to signaling that helps reduce overactivity in the nervous system. Many anxiety medications available today work by targeting this process. “It’s nice when the biology that you get out of a large genome-wide study ratifies things that we already know because that can help increase confidence in further findings from the study,” Gelernter says. Uncovering the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders John Krystal, MD, Robert L. McNeil, Jr. Professor of Translational Research and chair of the Department of Psychiatry, is interested in the neurobiology of psychiatric disorders, including post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), of which anxiety is a major symptom. In the late 1980s, Krystal’s team discovered that the drug yohimbine activated symptoms in patients with PTSD. “This was the first time we could link a specific biological mechanism to the symptoms of PTSD,” Krystal says. At the time, he adds, this finding was highly controversial. “A lot of people felt that PTSD was a purely psychological syndrome that didn’t have an underlying biology.” Since then, Krystal has dived deep into understanding the neurobiology of PTSD to learn how to better treat it. His team is evaluating the use of ketamine and psychedelics. These would be among the first treatments to be developed specifically for PTSD. They may also be applicable for other disorders including anxiety disorders, Krystal adds. An important gap in PTSD treatment is the absence of biological tests that inform how to best help patients manage their PTSD symptoms. A doctor doesn’t diagnose cancer based on how they feel. Rather, they use tests of the biology of the cancer to determine the best course of treatment. “And we can’t do that in any psychiatric disorder other than Alzheimer’s disease,” Krystal says. “But now we are building a foundation for this approach to the treatment of anxiety disorders for the first time.” Source: Yale School of Medicine
Scientists win Nobel medicine prize for research into brain activity
Their work was lauded “for discoveries leading to optogenetics, which makes it possible to switch on, or off, the activity of individual nerve cells in a living brain.”
Nobel prize in medicine 2026 awarded for research on mysteries of brain
Three scientists to share 12m Swedish kronor prize for their work on ‘light-gated ion channels and optogenetics’
Nobel Prize in medicine jointly awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel
The Nobel Prize in medicine was awarded Monday to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel for their research into light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. The prize money this year is 12 million…
American Deisseroth and Germans Hegemann and Nagel win 2026 Nobel medicine prize
Scientists Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for "discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics," the award-giving body said on Monday.
German and US scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine for research on brain activity
The trio won the award for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics. This neurobiology tool has provided new insights into how we might treat blindness, depression, addiction and dementia.
German and US scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine
The trio won the award for their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.
Nobel Prize in medicine awarded to three scientists for their work ‘concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics’
The 2026 Nobel Prize for physiology or medicine has been awarded to three scientists – Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel – for “their discoveries concerning light-gated ion channels and optogenetics.”
Scientists win Nobel Prize in medicine for work on ‘light-gated ion channels and optogenetics’
Scientists to Karl Deisseroth, Peter Hegemann and Georg Nagel won the 2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine.
2026 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine awarded to Karl Deisseroth, Georg Nagel and Peter Hegemann for work on optogenetics
Karl Deisseroth, Georg Nagel and Peter Hegemann developed optogenetics, which uses light and genetics to control individual cells
3 years after the Oct. 7 attacks, Israel still grapples with its mental health crisis
More than a third of Israelis have shown symptoms of mental health conditions, a report found. Three years after the October 7 attack, the country's health system is still struggling to come to terms with its effects.
Digbi Health Study of Nearly 16,000 Members Finds Precision Biology GI Care Delivers IBS Relief at Scale
Combining Gut microbiome, genetic, and glucose signals delivers unprecedented personalized care to bring clinically meaningful relief to more than half of symptomatic membersMOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif., Oct. 05, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Digbi Health today released a real-world study of nearly 16,000 members of its precision biology program, which personalizes nutrition and lifestyle care to each person's gut microbiome, genetics, and glucose response. Among members followed for 12 weeks, i more than h
APTOPIX Brazil Election
Supporters of President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, who is running for reelection, kiss as they react to partial presidential election results in Rio de Janeiro, Sunday, Oct. 4, 2026.
Should Raptors Still Pursue Domantas Sabonis?
The Sacramento Kings center denied any trade rumors surrounding his name but Toronto still needs to address a glaring hole on their roster.
The Upcoming Touchscreen OLED MacBook Pro Is Reportedly 'Significantly Lighter'
The high-end laptop is still expected to make its debut by next month.
Alan Alda opens up about Parkinson’s diagnosis: ‘I don’t want to wish it away’
Alan Alda says the first Parkinson’s symptom that he experienced ‘was not that well-known’ at the time, adding that he had ‘no twitch, no tremor’ and ‘no problems with [his] voice.’
More healthcare workers needed in Hampton Roads
HAMPTON ROADS, Va. (WAVY) — Claude Moore Opportunities (CMO), a Virginia healthcare workforce nonprofit, released data in Sept. about the need for more healthcare workers across Hampton Roads and E…
How Americans’ Financial Health Is Faring In The “K-Shaped” Economy
Hey all, Jason here. Money20/20 is still two weeks away, but I’ve already started packing (not procrastinating for once!). My calendar is already filling up with various sessions I want to catch, meetings, and of course happy hours, dinners, and other side events. If you’ll be in Vegas and want to catch up, let me know by replying to this email, and we can try to find a time amidst the chaos of the Venetian. A big if not totally unexpected piece of news dropped on Friday: the Independent Community Bankers of America, a trade group that represents smaller U.S. banks, filed a lawsuit against the OCC and Comptroller Jonathan Gould, arguing that the regulator’s move to grant trust bank charters to firms seeking to use them to conduct substantial non-fiduciary activities exceeds the authorities granted to the OCC by Congress. I haven’t had time to fully digest the legal filing or speak to folks in my network about it, but you can expect to see coverage and analysis on it in next week’s newsletter. Subscribe or Support by Upgrading The NerdCon agenda just dropped. It’s stacked. Partner content: Nubank built an AI-first bank. Chime built its own banking core. Figure and Valon are rebuilding the mortgage stack. At NerdCon, you’ll hear from the people behind those bets: what they chose, what they learned, and what they’re still figuring out. The agenda is live, with leaders from Nubank, Chime, OpenAI, Remitly, Mercury, Figure, Valon and more. Follow the mainstage conversations, bring the problem your team is wrestling with to a hands-on workshop, or pull up a chair at a roundtable. Pick your quests. Meet us in San Diego, November 18–20. Fintech Business Weekly readers save 20% with code FBW20. Explore the Agenda Things To Know & Other Good Reads Federal Reserve Board finalizes changes to enhance the transparency and public accountability of its stress test and reduce volatility in its stress test-related capital requirements (Federal Reserve Board of Governors) FDIC Announces Conclusion of Independent Monitorship (FDIC) Modernizing Financial Regulation: Initial Observations from eSLR (Fed Vice Chair for Supervision Michelle Bowman) The Data Version of Godzilla versus Kong: FRED Takes on AI (Fed Governor Christopher Waller) Financing the AI buildout (Brookings) Q3’26: Rules for Banks but Not for Crypto (Fintech Takes Banking) The Inevitability of Local Stablecoins (Lombard Notes) Delusions of AI Governance: The Human-in-the-Loop Comfort Blanket (Fintech Snark Tank) Stripe agrees to acquire Parafin to expand revenue opportunities for platforms and help small businesses grow (Stripe) Listen: Fighting Fraud in the Age of AI, with SEON’s Tamas Kadar (Fintech Business Weekly) How Americans’ Financial Health Is Faring In The “K-Shaped” Economy If there is one overarching theme across the economy and politics in the U.S. at the moment, it’s “affordability.” The term is vague enough to encompass a panoply of factors shaping Americans’ day-to-day lives: rising costs for the hallmarks of being “middle class,” including healthcare, housing, childcare, and education, inflation and rising interest rates, and a job market with the specter of AI hovering over it. At the same time, policy shifts under the Trump administration have resulted in reduced subsidies to those who get health insurance under the Affordable Care Act and new restrictions on qualifying for Medicaid and SNAP, the impacts of which have yet to be fully felt. These factors are contributing to declining consumer confidence and general dissatisfaction with the economy, despite continuing GDP growth and stock market records. This divergence is encapsulated in the idea of the “K-shaped” economy, in which a small proportion of Americans have seen their wealth balloon, while the majority of American households struggle to preserve the lifestyle they have. Perhaps the greatest determinant of which branch of the “K” a household is on is whether their wealth and income are primarily derived from employment vs. from assets. Nearly two decades of low interest rates and, more recently, elevated rates of inflation have benefited asset owners, while those whose income is primarily or solely derived from labor have largely seen real purchasing power stagnate or decline. This is reflected in recent Bureau of Labor Statistics data showing that labor share of U.S. GDP — the fraction of economic output that accrues to workers as compensation in exchange for their labor — dropped to just 52.8% in Q2 2026, the lowest since the BLS began keeping records. In 1947, approximately 2/3rds of economic output accrued to workers; even as recently as 2001, labor’s share of GDP was 64.1%. Against this backdrop, we’ve seen the rise of more credit and credit-like products: cash advance apps, “no-fee” overdraft, earned wage access, and buy now pay later, which are often used as small-dollar short-term borrowing mechanisms to meet immediate consumption needs or pay other bills (eg utilities, cell phone, other debt payments). With the markers of a middle class existence and, increasingly, basic financial stability seemingly out of reach for many, it should be no surprise there’s been an increase in “financial nihilism,” something industry peers like Alex Johnson and Frank Rotman have discussed and analyzed the roots of. The explosion of gambling and gambling-adjacent products and services — often marketed under the guise of being an “investment” — is inextricably intertwined with the rise of financial nihilism. Crypto, sports betting, and, more recently, prediction markets offer an escape or even hope of sorts, like a contemporary, digital version of a scratch-off lottery ticket, while leaving the overwhelming number of people who use such products worse off. Share of Households That Are Financially “Vulnerable” Ticks Up The Financial Health Network’s 2026 Financial Health Pulse® report adds context on how American households are faring. (I linked to this report in last week’s newsletter, but wanted to take time to further unpack the data in the report this week.) The Financial Health Network publishes the report annually, providing insight into how Americans’ financial circumstances are changing over time. The 2026 report is derived from a survey fielded in April and May 2026. The report leverages survey responses to assess indicators of financial health across spending, saving, borrowing, and planning/protecting and to determine a zero to 100 “FinHealth” score. Those with scores between 0 and 39 are considered “Financially Vulnerable,” consumers with scores ranging between 40 and 79 are defined as “Financially Coping,” and those with scores of 80 to 100 are “Financially Healthy.” The report found that moderate improvements in 2025 were reversed, with the share of respondents considered financially “vulnerable” rebounding to 17%. The longitudinal data reflect the impact of pandemic-era programs, like expanded unemployment, cash stimulus payments, and pauses of federal student loan payments. The positive impacts of those programs, as reflected in the Financial Health Pulse reports, had largely disappeared by 2023. While pandemic-era inflation — to be fair, in part caused by the various support and stimulus measures — had come down from as high as 9% in 2022, it has rebounded since the start of Trump’s second term, with tariffs and energy market disruptions owing to the war in Iran pushing prices back up. Specific indicators in the survey that deteriorated from 2025 to 2026 include the share of respondents spending less than their income over the past 12 months, the share paying all bills on time over the past 12 months, the share that have a manageable amount or no debt, the share that are “moderately” or “very” confident their insurance is adequate to cover them in an emergency, and the share that “somewhat” or “strongly” agree that their household plans ahead financially. Unsurprisingly, lower- and moderate-income households are more likely to struggle to pay their bills on time and have any funds leftover to save. The share of low-income households whose income exceeded their spending dropped from 35% in 2025 to 31% in 2026, while the share of upper-income households whose income exceeded expenses remained unchanged at 63%. Households with student loans or revolving credit card debt reported having “a bit more” or “far more” debt than was manageable at rates far higher than those not carrying these types of debts. The share of those with student loan debt indicating their debt load was too high to manage increased from 50% in 2025 to 55% in 2026, while the share of those with revolving credit card debt saying the same ticked up from 51% in 2025 to 54% in 2026. Households that had student loans were markedly more likely to be financially “coping” or “vulnerable” vs. those without student loans. In 2026, 27% of households with student loans were considered financially vulnerable, a jump of 6% points vs. 2025. Households without student loans saw just a 1% point increase (not statistically significant) in those considered financially vulnerable. Households’ perception of the affordability of categories of goods and services paints a stark picture, with less than one-fourth considering higher education affordable, about a third deeming childcare affordable, and less than half viewing healthcare as affordable. Fintech Business Weekly is made possible by the generous support of paying subscribers — bringing you independent analysis of banking, fintech, and crypto without fear or favor. You can support my work by becoming a paying subscriber if you aren’t already. Paying subscribers enjoy: access to the entire archive of nearly six years of newsletters extended versions of the weekly newsletter, with additional content and analysis and (for founding member tier) quarterly personal 1:1 fintech Q&A / strategy calls with me, tapping into my unparalleled knowledge of the intersection of banking and fintech and experience working in the sector, including helping to launch Goldman Sachs’ retail bank Marcus Support Fintech Business Weekly You can also support Fintech Business Weekly by sponsoring a newsletter or podcast, putting you in front of 93,000+ of the most influential decision makers in banking, fintech, and crypto. Learn more about sponsor opportunities or request a media kit by dropping me an email. Democratic Senate Report Highlights How Iran Uses Tether to Evade U.S. Sanctions Iran uses stablecoins, specifically Tether, to evade sanctions, fund regional proxies, and to purchase military drones, a report released last week by the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations says. The report was authored by committee ranking member Senator Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) and the minority staff. Crypto and stablecoin proponents will often push back on criticism that criminals make use of these assets by arguing that, on an absolute dollar basis, far more illicit funds flow through traditional banking systems and payment rails than via crypto and stablecoins. And while that is likely true, it elides the reality presented in news story after news story: whether state actors — Russia, Iran, North Korea — or criminal groups, those looking to engage in illicit transactions increasingly favor stablecoins and, specifically, Tether (USDT). The report from the Senate Permanent Subcommittee on Investigations released last week adds context to how Iran uses Tether has a lynchpin in its shadow banking system. The report analyzed 846 wallets that have been sanctioned or targeted for seizure, finding that 84% of them transacted exclusively or primarily in Tether. The ability to create near limitless, anonymous wallets and to move funds effectively instantaneously and irreversibly have made crypto a favored financial mechanism for bad actors. Stablecoins solved key drawbacks of bitcoin, namely, the original cryptocurrency’s highly volatile value in dollars. And while Tether (the company) has the technical ability to “freeze” or destroy funds, the company is often limited and reactive in its approach to doing so, the Senate report argues. Tether, which is nominally based in crypto-friendly El Salvador, “has stated that its compliance with OFAC sanctions is ‘voluntary’ and that it follows ‘OFAC guidelines,’” the Senate report says. Owing to these favorable attributes, Tether “became a primary cryptocurrency for Iran, Hamas, Hizballah, and the Houthis beginning in 2023 and has expanded in scale since,” according to the report. Tether’s role in Iran’s shadow banking system, the report says, is enhanced by crypto exchanges like Bybit, Kyrrex, OKX, Gate, and Binance, and through “over the counter” exchanges and hawala networks. The consequences of these financial flows aren’t hypothetical. The Senate report links Tether as a funds transfer mechanism to Iranian proxies in the region, including Hizballah, the Houthis, and Hamas. Tether has also been used to make payments to secure components necessary to manufacture drones, the report says. The report concludes by arguing that “[s]tablecoin issuers with a significant nexus to the United States, particularly those that offer dollar-denominated stablecoins, should be subject to American sanctions law rather than being allowed to hide behind foreign jurisdictions.” Stablecoin issuers like Tether must be held accountable for repeated failures to prevent illicit finance and sanctions violations by law enforcement, the Department of Justice, the Securities and Exchange Commission, and OFAC, the report argues. [Paying Subscriber Exclusive] OUSD Goes Live, Make Your Own Neobank, U.S. Sanctions Russia’s A7 Network As “Transnational Criminal Organization” OpenUSD, the stablecoin issued by the Open Standard consortium that includes Stripe, Visa, Mastercard, core providers, crypto firms, and numerous banks, went live last week. Social commerce platform Whop raised eyebrows in fintech by offering creators on its platform the ability to launch their own neobanks, which the company describes as “great businesses that are easy to run,” in just 15 minutes. And OFAC and FinCEN target Russia’s “shadow banking” A7 Network — more on these stories after the paywall.
The MacBook Air M5 is $200 off for the first time in months
Save some cash on Apple’s midrange laptop.
The forgotten Chromebook that started it all
On Version History: Marques Brownlee and Nilay Patel relive the release of the Cr-48, Google’s prototype laptop.
Scientists Find First-Ever Cases of Feline Marfan Syndrome in Cat Siblings Gary and Shaggy. Here’s What That Means
The genetic condition, which is typically found in humans, typically causes symptoms like unusually long limbs and near-sightedness
Johnson & Johnson, AOA Reveal Menopause Eye Health Gap
Global research by Johnson & Johnson and Ipsos finds vision is overlooked as a menopause symptom, revealing a gap in longevity care
A tale of two AAA games: Control Resonant shows what gaming can be, Marvel’s Wolverine shows what it is becoming
News, Reviews and other Informations about Laptops
Women are turning to testosterone, but what does the science actually say?
A recent BBC report described women posing as men to obtain testosterone gel, hoping to improve their menopause symptoms because female testosterone products are not easily available to them. But why ...
3 Raptors Players to Watch in Preseason Opener vs. Heat
From defensive anchors to breakout rookies, discover which rising stars will lead Toronto’s revamped rotation as the new-look roster finally takes the floor against Miami.
Kings’ Sabonis Sent to Raptors in 4-Team Trade Idea
A blockbuster proposal ships the three-time All-Star north to anchor Toronto’s frontcourt, landing Sacramento a massive haul of veteran defensive depth and promising future draft capital.
Potential measles exposure on a train in Minot | Health and Human Services North Dakota
BISMARCK, ND (Oct. 2, 2026) – A passenger with measles traveled on Amtrak's westbound Empire Builder, which departed Chicago on Sept. 23 and arrived in Minot the morning of Sept. 24. This created a potential exposure risk for passengers and anyone at the station while the train was scheduled to be in Minot from approximately 9:06 to 9:51 a.m. CT. The passenger reported getting off the train to use the restroom at the Minot station at approximately 9:30 a.m.Anyone who was at the Amtrak station in Minot while this train was stopped, as well as passengers who were traveling on this train, may have been exposed to measles. Individuals who may have been exposed and have received at least one dose of measles, mumps, rubella (MMR) vaccine or previously had measles (likely those born before 1957) do not need to quarantine but should monitor for symptoms for 21 days after exposure. Individuals who have not received a dose of the MMR vaccine should quarantine (stay home) and monitor for symptoms for 21 days following exposure.
Patient-zero drill put health facilities to the test—40% of them failed
Actors with makeup and fake symptoms staggered into 73 healthcare facilities.
Layoffs, Closures Planned at Newport Healthcare, Clarvida, Comprehensive Life Resources
A slew of youth behavioral health programs are closing, resulting in a wave of layoffs. Comprehensive Life Resources, Newport Healthcare and
Darko Rajakovic Hands Kawhi Leonard New Job at Raptors Camp
Leonard is still being eased into contact work, but his new coach found another way to get him involved at camp.
Paris fashion defies a bruised luxury industry with J.Lo, golden glamour and skimpy outfits
Saint Laurent dazzles with a river of gold at Paris Fashion Week, featuring a glossy black runway and a shimmering Eiffel Tower in the background | KCBS All News 106.9FM and 740AM
Greater East Hampton Chamber Names Dan Schock Membership Director
The Greater East Hampton Chamber of Commerce has appointed Dan Schock as its new membership director. Schock previously served on the chamber’s board of directors and led its membership committee
Beyond AXS Opens Doors to Music and Live Entertainment for Denver Youth
NORTHAMPTON, MA / ACCESS Newswire / October 2, 2026 / For young people interested in music and live entertainment, understanding where their creativity can take them often begins with access: to artists, industry professionals, creative tools and the spaces where live experiences come to life. 's, AXS, a trusted leader in advanced ticketing and live event technology, is helping create those connections in Denver through Beyond AXS, a new community initiative.
What To Expect At Microsoft's Windows, Surface And AI Event On October 7
We'll definitely hear about the NVIDIA RTX Spark-powered Surface Laptop Ultra, but what else?
An ER wait can worsen a mental health crisis. Hampton offers another option.
Local responders say Riverside’s psychiatric emergency department helps people in crisis reach specialized care sooner, as Virginia expands options beyond medical emergency rooms.
Vermont's Department of Health offers advice during peak season for fall allergies
Health officials in Vermont say allergens and irritants are present year-round. If the ragweed pollen is still bothering you in early October, there are measures you can take to ease symptoms.
GLP-1s Show Benefit For Kids With Type 2 Diabetes
By Ernie Mundell HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, Oct 2, 2026 (HealthDay News) — A real-world study finds GLP-1 medications helped kids, teens and young adults with type 2 diabetes lose weight, as well as improve their blood pressure and blood sugar control. “Our results confirm that GLP-1 receptor ...
Comptoller DiNapoli fends off attacks from challenger Hernandez in NY1 debate
Republican challenger Joseph Hernandez assailed incumbent Tom DiNapoli's record and ethics.
Toronto Raptors included a third-year team option in …
Toronto Raptors included a third-year team option in …
Rogers becomes sole owner of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment after purchasing remaining stake
TORONTO -- Rogers Communications Inc. has officially completed a full takeover of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment, which owns the Toronto Maple Leafs and Toronto Raptors, after purchasing the remaining 25 percent ownership stake from Kilmer Sports Inc. for $4.35 billion (Cdn) on Thursday.
7 best and worst fantasy football matchups for Week 4
Four players have great Week 4 fantasy football matchups, while several others should be parked on your bench. How should we handle Omarion Hampton?
Rogers becomes sole owner of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment after purchasing remaining stake
The telecommunications giant now has total control over the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argonauts and Scotiabank Arena.
Rogers becomes sole owner of Maple Leaf Sports & Entertainment after purchasing remaining stake
The telecommunications giant now has total control over the Maple Leafs, Raptors, Toronto FC, Argonauts and Scotiabank Arena.
Potential RJ Barrett Extension Could Depend on One Key Factor
There's only so much money to go around with Kawhi Leonard now on the team, but re-signing Barrett may not make sense after this season.
Marion retailer Purple Wagon a finalist in statewide contest
Longtime Uptown Marion retailer The Purple Wagon is one of five businesses from across the state in the running to receive up to $25,000 in Main Street Iowa’s Open 4
Why Trump's crypto business wants to become a bank
Elizabeth Warren decries the first family's latest crypto play as a "clear conflict of interest and corruption."
Raptors Lock Up Young Point Guard Before Preseason Opener
Toronto is betting on the guard who never missed a game last season, and the new deal keeps him around for years.
NVIDIA and Microsoft tease RTX Spark announcements for October 7 Windows event
RTX Spark will be a key focus of Microsoft’s October 7 Windows event with Jensen Huang in attendance. The first systems appear aimed at premium laptops and workstations rather than gaming PCs.
HP’s MacBook Neo competitor is $699 with an OLED display and plenty of catches
The PC market was caught flat-footed by Apple’s MacBook Neo launch earlier this year, and while that laptop’s aggressive pricing...
The Purple Wagon advances to final round of statewide Open 4 Business competition
The Purple Wagon, a longtime Marion business that recently moved to Uptown Marion, has advanced to the final round of Main Street Iowa’s 2026 Open 4 Business competition and is one of five businesses from across Iowa competing for up to $25,000. The Purple Wagon, which sells custom-curated gifts and accessories for babies and toddlers, […]
Amanda Peet reveals 'weird' breast cancer symptom
Amanda Peet's advice for protecting your health? Keep an eye out for the warning signs.
Report: Jamal Shead, Raptors agree to three-year, $24 million contract extension
The former second-round pick turned critical reserve has earned a spot in Toronto's plans for years to come.
Alexandre Pato-backed consortium completes Northampton Town takeover
Northampton Town have officially entered a new era after Sports Alpha Capital (SAC) completed its takeover of the League Two club.The investment group has acquired a 70% shareholding in Northampton To...
Amanda Peet Reveals First ‘Weird’ Sign of Breast Cancer. It Wasn’t a Lump
The actor said her very first indication something was wrong “wasn’t the frozen pea that everybody talks about,” she told TODAY.
Citizen science project recruits volunteers to search for undiscovered black holes
Cosmic detectives are being called on for an interstellar mission to hunt down thousands of invisible black holes lurking in our own backyard. Space scientists from the University of Southampton need ...
Johnson & Johnson survey finds women not connecting menopause to eye health changes
Hot flashes, mood and sleep disturbances are common themes for menopause: But vision changes are not as well recognized on the list of common symptoms. | Hot flashes, mood and sleep disturbances are common themes for menopause: But vision changes are not one that makes the list of common symptoms. Now, J&J is looking to highlight this often-overlooked issue.
Good science requires much more than evidence
Empiricists believe that scientific theories are true only if they make correct empirical predictions: if we can't verify these predictions, then there is no reason to expect that they tell us anything about reality. However, Professor of Philosophy at King's College David Kyle Johnson argues that this is mistaken. In response to Bas van Fraassen, who has written on this subject for the IAI, he argues that we have many reasons for believing a theory to be true, such as it being parsimonious and having large scope — qualities which have been used throughout the history of science as criteria for judging theories. In 2024, Princeton philosopher Bas van Fraassen wrote a short article for IAI News entitled “Science Does not Describe Reality: The Limits and Benefits of Explanation.” At the time, I was working on two projects (a science book and a Great Course) that, when completed, would (among other things) defend science’s ability to describe reality. I wanted to write a response to van Fraassen, but the projects demanded too much of my attention. But now that those projects are complete, I am in a position to explain the objections to van Fraassen’s thesis. Summarizing van Fraassen’s argumentIn a nutshell, his argument is this: What scientists do is make predictions based on theories and then invite others to test to see whether those predictions are borne out. “If theory T is right, result R should happen in experimental condition C.” Many think that running an experiment that shows that R happens in condition C is proof that theory T is true (and should be believed). But, van Fraassen argues, that R happened in condition C is only a reason to think that R happens in condition C. That’s the only observable, or empirical, result we can actually see, so that is all that we are really justified in believing. (The underlying theory that made that prediction still may or may not be true.) That is why he calls those who accept his position “empiricists.”Before I explain what is wrong with this position, let me explain what it gets right. What van Fraassen Gets RightFirst, a theory correctly predicting the results of an experiment is not, strictly speaking, “proof” that the theory is correct. The basic line of reasoning is this:If the theory T is true, result R should happen. Result R did happen. Thus, theory T is true.In other words:“If T then R. R. Thus, T.”This is a deductively invalid, fallacious mode of reasoning, called “affirming the consequent.” Those premises do not guarantee that the conclusion follows. “If I am in Pennsylvania, then I am in the USA. I am in the USA. Thus, I am in Pennsylvania.” Clearly that argument doesn’t guarantee its conclusion; neither does the above argument.However, science is not a deductive method of reasoning; it is an inductive one. And inductive arguments merely try to raise the probability of their conclusion, not “prove” them for certain. Thus, the fact that an experimental result doesn’t prove a theory is true is irrelevant; it’s not supposed to. That is not what scientific reasoning is about.___If the hypothesis that something exists clearly provides the best explanation for what we can observe, then the belief that it exists is what is rational.___Second, it’s also true that a single experimental result doesn’t provide enough justification to believe that a theory is true. Scientists do not come to a consensus about whether a theory is true by looking at a single experiment; they look at all the evidence to determine where the preponderance of evidence points. The mere fact that I am in the USA raises the probability that I am in Pennsylvania, but not nearly enough to conclude that I am in Pennsylvania. However, if I am also regularly encountering people wearing Eagles and Phillies hats and seeing advertisements for Founding Father tours, I probably am. In the same way, a theory successfully predicting the outcome of one experiment is not enough to conclude that it is true; but if a theory makes a wide variety of predictions that are all vindicated by multiple experiments, performed by many different groups and people, all actively trying to prove the theory false (which is what good scientific experiments are designed to do)—that is a good reason to conclude that the theory is true. In other words, if you repeatedly try to prove something false but can’t, that is a very good indication that it isn’t. The problem of underdeterminationIn reply, those whom van Fraassen calls “empiricists” often point to the “problem of underdetermination.” For any given theory that makes successful predictions about what happens in experimental conditions, there are countless other possible theories that make exactly the same predictions—and since they do, the experimental evidence in question is just as much reason to accept any of those theories as it is to accept our original one. Thus, the argument goes, we have no way of knowing whether our original theory is true, or one of the other “predictively equivalent” theories is true. SUGGESTED VIEWING How Occam's Razor changed the world With Johnjoe McFadden As an example of underdetermination, philosophers often offer this example. The evidence of fossils seems to provide reason to conclude that the universe is quite old; ancient fossils are what the “ancient universe” hypothesis predicts. But it’s also possible that God created an ancient-looking universe 200 years ago, complete with a “fake” fossil record for us to find, to make it look old. The existence of fossils is what that theory predicts too. So, the argument goes, the fossil record can’t be used as evidence that the universe is ancient; the fossil record supports the “200-year-old ancient-looking universe” theory just as much. The problem of underdetermination points out that, for any theory with supporting evidence, we could invent another completely different theory that predicts exactly the same evidence, and thus undermine that evidence’s ability to support the original theory.But this “argument from underdetermination” betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what scientific reasoning is and how it works. To explain, let me use another rather strange (but very real and commonly discussed) philosophical thought experiment called “The Grue Problem.” The “Grue” ProblemSuppose I want to know what color emeralds are, so I observe a few, see that they all appear green, and form the theory that “all emeralds are green.” I thus predict that the next 100 emeralds I find will also appear to be green. And let’s say that happens, and so I thus conclude that my theory that all emeralds are green is true. Now, one might rightly point out that I don’t know for sure that all emeralds are green—I have not seen them all. Maybe some I haven’t found yet are blue. Fair enough. After all, we used to think that all swans were white, until we found some black ones. But let’s say that I go on a quest and collect every emerald in the universe—and, for the sake of the argument, let’s say I can do this, and can even know that I have every one of them. So, I collect them all, look at them all, and verify that they all appear green. Can’t I now rightly conclude that all emeralds are green?Inspired by the problem of underdetermination, a friend might argue that I cannot.Sure, they all appear green now—but there could be another kind of color called “grue.” Something is grue if it is green up to a certain point in time, but then spontaneously turns blue. And there could be an infinite number of “shades” of grue. Something that is one shade of grue will turn blue at noon today, but something that is another shade of grue will turn blue at noon tomorrow, etc. So yes, the emeralds appear green now; and since they haven’t turned blue yet, they are not some “past” shade of grue. But they might be some “future” shade of grue (e.g., they may turn blue at noon tomorrow). And since all future shades of grue are consistent with “being green up to this point in time,” the evidence you have is completely consistent with the notion that all emeralds are some future shade of grue, rather than green. Indeed, that they would appear green until now is what the “some future shade of grue” hypothesis predicts. So, we have just as much reason to conclude that all emeralds are some shade of grue as we do to conclude that they are green.You’re probably thinking “It’s not equally possible that the emeralds are grue; they are obviously green.” You are right! But explaining why your instinctive reaction to my friend’s argument is correct will help inform why van Fraassen’s “empiricist” is wrong and science actually does describe reality.The main mistake my friend makes is in thinking that the “empirical evidence” (of all the emeralds appearing green) is (or even should be) all I am using to draw the conclusion that all emeralds are green. It is not. I am also considering known facts about how colors typically work; things don’t usually change color, and when they do, they don’t do so suddenly, without cause, and all at once. So, even though the simple evidence of the emeralds all appearing green up to this point is consistent with them being some future shade of grue—that is even what the grue hypothesis “predicts”—it is still exceedingly unlikely that they are. The hypothesis that they are green is much more likely. Understanding science refutes the problem of underdetermination The misunderstanding about science that the “empiricist” pointing to “the problem of underdetermination” makes is similar to the one that my friend made. Science is not just about considering experimental evidence; in fact, it’s not even just about considering empirical evidence. As Ernan McMullin and many other philosophers of science have pointed out, the inference that makes science is “inference to the best explanation” (sometimes called “abduction” or “retroduction” by McMullin). While, depending on the circumstances, scientists use many different kinds of reasoning, science as a whole is, simply put, the process of considering multiple competing explanations and comparing them to certain criteria—explanatory criteria (the kinds of things explanations must be and do, by definition, to be a good explanation)—to see which explanation is the best.And these criteria do not deal only with empirical results. Yes, successful predictions raise the probability of a hypothesis, but it’s also the case that the more new assumptions a theory makes, the less likely it is to be true; every new assumption presents an opportunity for the theory to be false. (The fewer assumptions a theory makes, the simpler or “more parsimonious” it is said to be.) Likewise, the more existing evidence a theory contradicts, the less likely it is, because in order for a theory to be true, every piece of evidence it contradicts has to be somehow faulty. (The fewer established theories a new theory contradicts, the more “conservative” it is said to be.) And, obviously, the more something explains, the better explanation it is. (This is called having “scope.”) If a theory raises unanswerable questions, it’s not expanding our understanding, and thus is not wide-scoping. Scientists consider all these things when deciding which theory to accept, because the theory that adheres best to these explanatory criteria is most likely to be true.___the mere fact that a theory’s predictive success is why it “sticks around” or “becomes accepted” in the scientific community is not a reason to be skeptical about its truth.___The reason the grue hypothesis is no good is because it invents an entirely new kind of color—not just a new shade, but an entirely different category of color (a different way colors work)—and thus is not parsimonious. It raises unanswerable questions about how and why emeralds would just spontaneously change from green to blue (and thus does not have wide scope). And it contradicts what is already well established about how color works (and thus is unconservative).The theories that the problem of underdetermination points to do the same thing. Yes, the theory that God created an “ancient-looking universe” (complete with an ancient-looking fossil record) two hundred years ago is also consistent with the empirical evidence (of a fossil record) that presently exists; but that theory is monumentally unparsimonious (it requires many extra assumptions about infinite entities) and not wide-scoping (it raises unanswerable questions about why God would do such a thing). So, I can rationally conclude that it is false.Indeed, the history of science includes many examples of theories that were rejected because they lacked parsimony and/or scope, even before their falsity (and the truth of their competing theory) was confirmed by observation. As I point out in my book, geocentrism was rejected by the scientific community because it lacked parsimony, almost 200 years before the observation of parallax confirmed that the Earth moves around the sun. And the continuum theory of matter was completely rejected by 1860, because it couldn’t explain chemical reactions or organize matter into a periodic table, even though the experiments that eventually confirmed atomic theory weren’t even proposed until the 1870s. Solving the best of a bad lot problemIn response, the “empiricists” are likely to object, this time pointing to the “best of a bad lot” problem. “We have no reason to conclude that an explanation that has been shown to be better than others is true because we have no guarantee that the true theory was among those that we were considering.” If you have a “lot” (a collection) of poor explanations, even the best one is not true.The responses to this problem, however, are numerous. Peter Lipton argues that the set of hypotheses that scientists consider are not just randomly selected and thus unlikely to contain a theory that is true; they use existing knowledge to home in on what is most likely to be true. A doctor trying to explain abdominal pain is not going to bother wondering whether demons are causing it; they are going to stick with things like appendicitis and kidney stones, because they are most likely. Further, despite its name, inference to the best explanation is not just the process of comparing hypotheses and accepting the best one; we also want one that is a good explanation in its own right. If it’s not, we are going to keep looking until we find an explanation that is. And while that process does not guarantee that we will come across the exact truth, it’s very likely that the theory that emerges as the best will be at least approximately true, and thus we will be justified in believing it. And lastly, as I point out in my book, although many theories not based in scientific evidence (like geocentrism and continuum theory) have been completely overturned, science almost always progresses by the refinement of scientifically established theories—not their replacement. (Although our sun is not the center of the universe, heliocentrism was our first step in understanding the Earth’s true place in the universe.) So even if a theory we accept today may not be completely right, accepting it is a step on the journey toward the complete truth. The example of atomic theoryNow, it’s worth pointing out that most empiricists are not skeptical of all scientific theories; they are only skeptical of the ones that hypothesize the existence of “unobservables.” It’s not like they think that round Earth, heliocentrism, and germ theory are just useful (but untrue) “instruments” for making predictions about how to most efficiently navigate the seas, predict planetary motion, and treat diseases. They admit that the Earth actually is round, that the planets revolve around the sun, and that germs exist and cause disease. These facts and entities can be observed; the theories that suggest they exist are true. It’s only when theories start hypothesizing the existence of unobservables—like electrons, or quantum fields—that can’t be observed directly, that we should start doubting the theories’ truth. And to be fair to van Fraassen, in this published work, he doesn’t really say that we should doubt the truth of such theories. Only that scientific reasoning does not rationally force us to accept them as true. Skepticism, or agnosticism, he argues, is warranted. SUGGESTED READING Science is based in metaphor By Andrew Reynolds But the history of atomic theory throws a monkey wrench into that argument. Atoms used to be unobservable; again, scientists first accepted the theory that they exist because it had such grandiose explanatory power. But then atoms were seen with electron microscopes. They thus moved into the category of the observable. But this didn’t substantially change anything about what scientists were justified in believing; it certainly didn’t change any “atomic skeptics’” minds. It just confirmed what everyone already knew! If the hypothesis that something exists clearly provides the best explanation for what we can observe, then the belief that it exists is what is rational. The fact that the thing itself is not technically observable does not make doubting its existence rational.What’s more, the atoms were seen with an electron microscope. But electrons are themselves unobservable. How can an electron microscope reveal an atom if electrons are not real? This leads us to what is famously known as Hilary Putnam’s “miracle argument.” It’s (not) a miraclePhilosopher Hilary Putnam’s miracle argument is somewhat famous. Basically, he argued that a scientific theory being able to repeatedly make successful predictions—even about unobservables—without being at least approximately true would require a “miracle.” In other words, it would be such an improbable occurrence that it could not rationally be believed—the better explanation for why scientific theories about unobservables make the right predictions is because the unobservable entities and structures they hypothesize exist.Van Fraassen has addressed this argument. Indeed, in his original article, where he references Alison Gopnik’s point about orgasms not being “necessary for procreation” even though the desire for orgasm “drives the creation of progeny,” he is pointing to his own argument about how organisms are not naturally selected by evolution to get true beliefs; to the extent that belief-forming processes are selected for, the ones that are selected are the ones that are useful for survival—not the ones that produce true beliefs. In the same way, van Fraassen argues, scientific theories are accepted, not because they are true, but because they aren’t falsified; they make successful predictions; that’s what makes them “stick around.” So, the fact that they make successful predictions (and thus became accepted) is not a reason to think they are true.This argument is similar to C. S. Lewis’s “argument from reason,” which he used to argue against evolution: “The truth of evolution undercuts our ability to know that it is true.” Lewis’ argument famously failed; Elizabeth Anscombe, by Lewis’s own admission, demolished Lewis in a debate on the topic, and I have explained elsewhere why modified versions of the argument fail as well. In short, it’s because it fails to recognize that a belief-forming process can make an organism more likely to survive because it reliably produces true beliefs. It is therefore not the case that beliefs generated by naturally selected belief-forming processes are automatically false or unjustified.In the same way, the reason a theory “sticks around” could be because it’s not falsified, because it “makes correct predictions.” But the reason it makes correct predictions is most likely because it is true. (In pointing this out, I am echoing the arguments of Musgrave, Lipton, Psillos, and Kitcher, who refuted van Fraassen’s argument and analogy long before his 2024 article.) It would be a huge coincidence that it could do so without being true. And that is the point of Putnam’s miracle argument. Thus, contrary to van Fraassen’s suggestion, the mere fact that a theory’s predictive success is why it “sticks around” or “becomes accepted” in the scientific community is not a reason to be skeptical about its truth. ConclusionLet me close by saying something about the fact that empiricists don’t doubt the truth of all scientific theories, just the ones that hypothesize unobservables. In today’s society, this theory is dangerous to espouse publicly. The nuance between being skeptical about all of science, and just the highly technical theories about unobservables, is guaranteed to be lost to the average reader. And there is so much unjustified skepticism and doubt about the findings of science and experts that a headline like “Science Does Not Describe Reality” could easily fuel the anti-science movement, worsen climate change denial and cause the next pandemic.This is why I believe it was important to still respond to van Fraassen’s article, a full two years after he wrote it. Not only, as I have argued, does it represent a philosophically inaccurate view of how scientific reasoning works and what scientific reasoning can do, but it is a dangerous view to boot. It should thus be rejected.
Women are turning to testosterone, but what does the science actually say?
Growing numbers of women are using testosterone for menopause symptoms, but female-specific products remain scarce and evidence patchy.
Trump loses favor with crypto fans who call him out for cashing in
The president’s 2024 campaign leaned into crypto to attract young men, a demographic that is deserting Republicans in the midterms.
Citi raises bitcoin, ether forecasts on strong crypto activity
Citigroup raised its 12-month forecasts for bitcoin and ether, citing stronger crypto activity, a supportive macroeconomic backdrop and a resumption of ETF inflows.
King County Public Health investigating cryptosporidiosis outbreak at McMenamins’ Bothell pool
The parasitic outbreak ties back to someone swimming in McMenamins' Anderson School pool, according to King County Public Health.
Raptors’ RJ Barrett Gets Telling Contract Extension Update
The Toronto native is still waiting on a new contract that is offered by the Raptors with less than a month before the start of the 2026-27 season. The post Raptors’ RJ Barrett Gets Telling Contract Extension Update appeared first on HEAVY.
Health Foundation of South Florida Awards $300,000 to Bring Vision Care to Low-Income Schoolchildren in Miami-Dade and Broward
Grant will support mobile optometric clinics delivering free eye exams and prescription eyeglasses through Miami Lighthouse for the Blind’s Florida Heiken Children’s Vision Program Sept. 3, 2026 — The Health Foundation of South Florida has awarded a $300,000 grant over two years to Miami Lighthouse for the Blind to support its Florida Heiken Children’s Vision […]
Fantasy Football Start'em, Sit'em Week 4: RB Edition
Here are some of the top starts and sits for the fourth week of the NFL season including starting Bhayshul Tuten and sitting Omarion Hampton.
Pato consortium completes Northampton takeover
The takeover of Northampton Town by a consortium including former AC Milan and Brazil forward Alexandre Pato has been completed.
Scientists find strong links between bad diet and depression
A University of California team has called for large-scale tests to confirm a connection between a junk food habit and vulnerability to depression after 20 patients reported improved symptoms such as ...
'Kind' mental health team in Northants earn 'outstanding' rating
Berrywood Hospital in Northampton and St Mary's Hospital in Kettering were inspected in July.
Hampton Roads executives assess region’s strengths, challenges
Leaders in Hampton Roads including ECPI University, Sentara Health, and W.M. Jordan Co. discuss nursing demand, healthcare challenges, and regional real estate trends.
An overview of Hampton Roads
Home to 1.79 million people across 17 localities, Hampton Roads is Virginia’s second most populous region, just behind Northern Virginia. It also boasts
Hampton Roads museums undergo expansions
Barry Art Museum at ODU and Virginia MOCA expand galleries and event spaces, boosting Hampton Roads' arts scene with new exhibitions and community programs.
Navy contracts boost Hampton Roads submarine industry
Navy awards $76.6 billion in contracts, with $25 billion for Newport News Shipbuilding, boosting Hampton Roads economy and shipbuilding industry.
HRBT expansion enters final phase
The Hampton Roads Bridge-Tunnel expansion in Virginia is entering its final phase, aiming to increase capacity and improve travel by 2027.
The latest in Hampton Roads construction
Here's the latest on major construction projects in Hampton Roads, both underway and recently completed. Here's the latest on major construction projects in Hampton Roads, both underway and recently completed.
Hampton Roads’ fastest-growing companies make Inc. 5000 list
This year, 245 Virginia companies, including 24 in Hampton Roads, made the Inc. 5000 list.
Hampton Roads workforce and entrepreneur development
The Apprentice School at Newport News Shipbuilding Founded in 1919, The Apprentice School in Newport News has graduated more than 11,000 apprentices over
At 40, her first mammogram changed everything: LMH Health nurse urges others to get screened
Holly Dawson expected her first mammogram to be uneventful. At 40, she had no symptoms, no known family history of breast cancer and no reason to expect the screening would find anything concerning. She might even have put it off a year or two if her LMH Health primary care physician, Dr. Caitlin Elmore, hadn’t […]