SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY

Search headlines

Find the stories shaping the conversation.

Search mode
Refine results
Active filters Keyword All time

Results for " tiny " 1,233 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

New nanoparticles make hidden chemical differences light up

Scientists have developed ultra-bright nanoparticles that can detect tiny amounts of chemicals and distinguish between molecules that look almost identical. The technology could one day provide a cheaper way to catch dangerous drug impurities or trace pollutants using simple low-cost lasers.

sciencedaily.com logo
Sep 19 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
The Big Holes in Wearable Heart Rate Variability And Readiness Scores

On September 9th, Apple announced it was revamping its Apple Watch Health Sensing System, rolling out a Readiness score (0 to 10), and increasing the frequency of heart rate variability (HRV) outputs 24-fold. This can be viewed as upping its competition with various other consumer wearable sensors. These “readiness scores” as a composite of multiple metrics, with heart rate variability (HRV) being front and center for most. The majority of Americans are now using wearable sensors, which equates to well over 100 million adults. HRV and Readiness scores are increasingly being marketed as a measurement of autonomic nervous system health, a digital marker for future disease, a clock for biological age, and a holistic metric to promote healthspan and even longevity. (Apple also introduced a new longevity tab and “Health Age”.) None of this has been proven. In this edition of Ground Truths I am going to review what we know about heart rate variability and readiness scores. Heart Rate Variability HRV is the variation in normal heart cycle timing. The variability of the heart rate, the barely perceptible millisecond changes in time between consecutive heart beats (see R-R intervals in the Figure below, left panel), is due to interplay between the sympathetic and parasympathetic (vagal nerve) inputs. Distinct from heart rate, individuals with the same heart rate can have very different HRVs. It is a rough reflection of the autonomic nervous system (ANS) activity, inadequate to say whether a person’s ANS function is abnormal. For more than three decades, heart rate variability (HRV) has been measured and several studies have found an association of low HRV and clinical outcomes, particularly a link with higher all-cause and cardiovascular mortality. There have also been less well established links of low HRV to risk of early cognitive impairment, dementia, mental illness, Type 2 diabetes and substance abuse. An important reminder is that HRV is a surrogate marker without any established cause-and-effect relationship. If you increase your HRV, that doesn’t mean it will improve health outcomes. In fact, there is no hard evidence for that. All that work linking to health outcomes was done with electrocardiogram (ECG) derived HRV. Now, in the era of consumer wearables, this is getting assessed differently, by optical pulse (yes, the lights you see) plethysmography (PPG) or what is called pulse rate variability (PRV). They are not the same, as shown below (right panel) and only concordant when the delay between the ECG and pulse is kept constant, which basically means at rest. I should mention there’s also what I will call MPV, a mattress mechanical movement sensor, a derived heart rate variability, that companies like Eight Sleep use, even further away from directly measuring HRV. HRV has not one uniform measurement but many different types of quantification, such as RMSSD, the magnitude of difference between successive R-R intervals of normal sinus beats (N-N) or SDNN, the standard deviation of NN intervals, both in milliseconds. SDNN is one of the so-called frequency domain HRVs (others are LF, HF, LF/HF). Different wearable sensors use different metics; Apple has relied on SDNN and nearly all of the others use RMSSD, which is generally considered the more accurate metric. There’s also the different length of time measured, such as for a matter of minutes, all day, or an overnight’s sleep. Short measurements are especially problematic since they don’t capture enough of respiratory modulation and other factors that influence HRV. Share Ground Truths How well does HRV correlate with PRV? There are very limited studies, especially independently done. One that is commonly cited was conducted by Air Force researchers in only 13 healthy adults assessing Oura ring 3 and 4, Whoop 4.0, and Garmin Fenix 6 and showed a correlation coefficient of 0.88 to 0.97 and a mean absolute percentage error from 6 to 10%. The correlation is not a perfect 1.0, but there’s at least a fairly high level of correlation. HRV is supposed to increase during the night due to takeover of the parasympathetic nervous system, and higher during deep sleep. A recent example of my 1 week, all day “HRV,” and one during sleep is shown below. As you can see, the N of 1 data are inconsistent for the same days from different sensors (Oura, AppleWatch, Fitbit Air, and Eight Sleep) by patterns, absolute numbers, and comparison with prior days and weeks. The largest study in over 8 million Fitbit users (the old version, not Google Fitbit Air, introduced in May 2026) gives you a sense of the effect of age, sex, and the 2 different main HRV (here PRV) metrics, with RMSSD on the left and SDRR (=SDNN) on the right below. That study, from data collected in 2018, is a major outlier, since all the more recent ones are tiny with respect to sample size. Many of the companies have not had independent evaluation of their HRV, such as Eight Sleep, but have published a low standard error on their website. There are some other published studies on the correlation between HRV and PRV, but they are all small and only in healthy adults. A scoping review emphasized the lack of study in underrepresented individuals, including the aged, people of color (which affects the PPG signal), and individuals who are underweight or obese. Add the typical adult age 60 plus with one or more chronic diseases. For example, one study in over 900 adults found poor correlation of HRV and PRV, non-uniformly underestimated across many chronic diseases (cardiovascular, endocrine, neurological, respiratory, and others), concluding PRV is “an invalid surrogate for HRV.” A recent systematic review of 43 studies comparing HRV and PRV found reasonable pooled absolute standardized error (HRV as gold standard) but only 10 of the studies provided quantitative synthesis in ideal conditions. Their main conclusion was similarly cautious: “PPG-derived HRV [PRV] should not be regarded as universally interchangeable with ECG-derived HRV across all devices, populations, and recording contexts.” Factors Affecting HRV and PRV That gets me to the long list of factors that affect HRV (and PRV) besides the device, the type of measurement (RMSSD, SDNN or others), the person’s signal, the sensor site, the duration of data capture, if weighting by sleep stage is used, how artifact is processed and corrected. And this list is not complete!: Oura puts out data from their community of users (who input data) on what affects their overnight HRV. The factors currently provided are: no alcohol (increase 8%), melatonin (increase 2%, float tank (increase 2%), wine (decrease 4%), and party (decrease 14%) in overnight HRV. Must be some big parties! Subscribe What is a PRV measurement good for? It has been falsely characterized as an index of “autonomic balance” and a specific indicator of stress. A 2018 review of the studies available for HRV and its relationship to stress, not using any of the current wearables, found that stress can lower HRV. But so can many other factors. The non-specificity of the signal, indexed to the table above, is striking. Evidence from a UK Biobank study of over 46,000 participants with actual HRV looked at genetically predicted HRV, a genetic risk score, that failed to show the expected HRV-mortality link, indicating that _HRV is likely not causa_l, but rather a reflection of person’s physiologic state. A review of consumer wearable HRV data from 5 longitudinal studies showed that nighttime PRV was not associated with perceived stress, and surprisingly higher HRV, in the largest cohort (N=717 participants), was correlated with higher stress. An Oura ring cohort of 525 first-year college students found a link between overnight PRV and perceived stress, but that was also seen with resting heart rate, sleep, and respiratory rate. Several very small studies have examined the relationship of HRV and athletic injuries or guiding training with mixed, and predominantly negative results. HRV biofeedback training with paced breathing had no significant effect on reducing stress or raising HRV, as demonstrated with sham controlled trials. When HRV for multiple days showed a decline in conjunction with body temperature, the Oura ring published data for prediction of Covid. The WHOOP company sponsored an observational study, published in 2026, of 30,000 users for 72 weeks, without a control group, that reported reduced alcohol intake (5.8 % points) by self-report. That doesn’t tell us much, and particularly about the merits of HRV for behavioral change. If you use the same device and conditions as longitudinal trends for multiple (at least 2-3) weeks that may be the one way to get something useful from the measurements. Data for overnight sleep with minimal motion and using RMSSD is the best proxy for real HRV. The reason to look at trends rather than any given night is that it more likely represents something, even though you won’t know with certainty what the “it” is. Keep in mind there are no data, no peer-reviewed evidence, to show that HRV fluctuation in-person has any correlation with health outcomes. Share Readiness Scores These are proprietary scores that integrate different metrics for each of the wearables: no algorithms have been disclosed. They are unvalidated against health outcomes. In a review of 14 composite health scores of readiness and recovery, HRV contributed 86% to the scores, followed by reading heart rate (79%), physical activity and sleep duration (both at 71%). That review noted the substantial variability in measurement protools and lack of standardization. Sleep staging is notoriously inconsistent and inaccurate by these sensors, which adds further to the HRV uncertainties for what the scores, which use sleep stage data, mean. Only resting heart rate has been shown consistently across devices to be extremely accurate. I’ve made a Table to summarize what we know about which metrics are included, the scores, any peer-reviewed studies that compared the readiness score with health outcomes, and the corresponding (if any, NA-not available) citation. You will note that some companies do not use the term “readiness," such as WHOOP for recovery, and Garmin, which has 2 different scores, one of which is Body Battery. Eight Sleep uses the term “Fitness Score.” They all include HRV; Apple includes a new metric they call “Recovery HRV” which among other components uses 7-days of sleep, but it is unclear what this means or how it is differentiated from other scores (there are clearly no data for outcomes). We have no knowledge of how the different components are weighted or whether any of these scores are better than resting heart rate, HRV alone, physical activity, or any other single metric. Since none of these are standardized, they are not interchangeable, so if you get a 90 for Oura that has no relationship to a 90 on a Google Fitbit Air. Notably, the company can update its algorithm for readiness score at any point without notification to device users. Without any useful evidence of actionability for these scores or established relationship with health outcomes, it is hard to make a case for their value. At the Apple recent announcement they showed their Readiness score (0-10) on the watch (Figure below) but there are no published data on this score, not even on their website. It’s available only on their new Watch Series 12 or Ultra 4 [of course, ;-)]. That exemplifies the problems with these scores, lack of data and evidence for being meaningful to promote health. Perhaps the best study (which isn’t saying much) is the WHOOP Recovery for golfer performance, because it did correlate with an objective outcome, even though there was no control group and the authors were all from the company. Among the 389 pro golfers, an absolute 10-per cent point increase in Recovery score was associated with about 0.5 fewer strokes per round. But that’s hardly a health outcome! WHOOP is also conducting a study in over 2,700 runners to see if their recovery score will be linked to less injuries and improved performance, but that is not yet published and has no control group or randomization. Putting This in Context For two decades I’ve been enthusiastic about the potential for digital health and particularly wearable biosensors. Over the years, we’ve seen some great progress for their ability to promote physical activity and accurately detect atrial fibrillation (the first FDA cleared deep learning AI for consumers). That work was the subject of rigorous research. But there are holes in the data and evidence for other metrics. One notable one is the “VO2 max” story that I wrote about earlier this year. At that time many subscribers asked me to cover heart rate variability, which I finally got to here. When I dived into the research and publication for HRV and readiness scores, I expected to find at least some that were of high quality and demonstrated their utility by linkage to health outcomes. To my surprise, I found none. The wearable sensor measurements for HRV (PRV) are, for the most part, accurate, but that validation work has only been done in small studies of healthy adults and does not take into account the long list of factors, from the device, software side, and the user side, that affect HRV measurements. Moreover, this metric chiefly relies on optical sensing and, as we have learned for heart rate PPG sensing, may be less accurate in people of color. Keep in mind that all of the health outcome association evidence comes from ECG-derived HRV; none are from wearable sensor data. I will repeat the key point: there's no peer-reviewed evidence to show that in-person HRV fluctuation—or efforts to raise your HRV— has any correlation with health outcomes. For those of you who look at your HRV on awakening, or even 2+ week trends of it being low, I hope this context helps to relieve any anxiety. Yes, low HRV (not PRV) has been shown to increase risk of some diseases as summarized above. But efforts to raise your HRV—a surrogate metric— has not been established for improving any health outcomes. HRV does not have any evidence of causality (the genetic evidence actually goes against this possibility). In this summary, I have not included data for other wearable sensors such as Polar, Samsung, Withings, Suunto, Amazfit, Coros, Ultrahuman, or additional mattress sensors. These are beyond my first-hand experience, and as far as I know from my in-depth review none have any peer-reviewed published data that differ from the 6 sensors I’ve reviewed here. From the points I’ve gone over above, we’re not ready for readiness scores. Besides being proprietary, they are predominantly based on metrics that have their own issues. It’s compounding the problem, like building a house without a solid foundation that has never undergone a rigorous inspection, and then selling it. Like I mentioned for PRV, you can look at trends over weeks rather than any single day, to get a handle, but even that may not be helpful. There’s simply no evidence that these scores meaningfully relate to health outcomes. I’d emphasize they might, but that requires doing prospective or randomized studies to prove it. None exist. There’s great promise for HRV/PRV utility_. For example**,**_ Prof Maiken Nedergaard, who discovered the brain glymphatics that are essential in eliminating metabolic waste products from the brain during sleep, has posited that HRV could be a non-invasive marker for neuromodulator oscillations, brain-body regulatory circuits, and brain clearance. That would be extremely useful, but like everything else on HRV and readiness scores it requires solid research and validation. The lay media isn’t helping much to get the story straight. Earlier this year The Economist published a piece entitled “The most useful indicator of your overall health” which ordained HRV as an “accumulated stress score.” That’s akin to the false assertion about VO2max: “V02 max is the singular most powerful marker for longevity.” As I’ve summarized here, that is not established. The fact is that so many things can lower HRV, including physical exercise (especially an intense workout), reduced sleep quality, stress, the list above, no less the device, signal, and software. Whatever fluctuations observed have not been correlated with any health outcome. Sadly, “datamaxxers” are widely using HRV and readiness scores that have never been validated to mean anything. We already know that for some people using the sensors for sleep metrics, it can induce “orthosomnia,” an obsession to get high sleep quality, with associated high levels of anxiety. In an experiment done by a company to promote sleep quality for its employees, “For those employees who did use the trackers, many reported feeling perfectly rested until their tracker told them they had had a terrible night. Others were told that they had slept like a baby when they had actually been lying awake worrying about the quality of their sleep. “ The same problem can result from preoccupation with HRV or readiness scores, with anxiety that would lead to further reduction in both. It you are using a wearable like >100 million American adults, it’s OK to look at these data, but contextualized with the major caveats reviewed here. If you are one to require evidence that HRV or readiness scores are linked to health outcomes, you may not even want to look. The companies make it hard to turn them off! Let me end with the companies that make and sell wearables. Apple’s doubling down on HRV (24-fold more reporting and heart rate very 5 seconds) and introduction of a Readiness score tells us that consumers have bought into these metrics and they are joining the club. However, all of this is occurring with a backdrop of tens millions of users, claims about the data that are not backed up by adequate evidence, marketing way out in front of whatever limited data exists, and not being transparent about their readiness score algorithms. The companies can well afford to do the research that is needed to connect these metrics with health outcomes show, once and for all, that increasing HRV or using readiness scores promotes our health. If they believed and invested in the products they are selling, we’d not be in this position of not knowing. That’s essentially where we are with HRV and readiness scores. Perhaps someday this will change and we’ll have good reason to embrace them. NB: I wrote this post. No AI. I have no conflicts of interest with any of its content. Loading... Ground Truths has 215,000 subscribers from every US state and 214 countries. There are over 300,000 followers of Ground Truths so more than 90,000 folks who can easily convert to be free subscribers. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. If you’re not a subscriber, please join! If you found this interesting PLEASE share it! Share Ground Truths The proceeds from all voluntary paid subscriptions go to support our summer internship program. It enabled us to accept and support a record number of 62 summer interns that joined us in 2026! These are high school, college and medical students selected from thousands of applicants. We couldn’t do this expanded program without the funds coming in through Ground Truths. Thank you!

erictopol.substack.com logo
Sep 19 • 10:05 AM EDT • Technology • erictopol.substack.com
Science Vs on the 49ers Substation: Anatomy of a Hatchet Job

In August, Pablo Torre Finds Out and Science Vs released an episode about my theory that electromagnetic fields from the electrical substation beside the 49ers facility may be contributing to the team’s run of soft-tissue injuries. As the originator of the theory, I was also a subject of the episode. I sat was interviewed by Wendy Zukerman and Rose Rimler of Sciene Vs. I sent them research, connected them with scientists, and spent hours digging through the City of Santa Clara’s and Silicon Valley Power’s records to help clarify critical details. Both Wendy and Rose came off as affable and professional, showing curiosity during the interviews, with Wendy going out of her way to question the “conspiracy theory” framing itself. Then they titled the episode We Solve the 49ers Viral Conspiracy Theory. I was familiar enough with their catalog that I never expected them to agree with my theory, but I did expect them to give it a fair hearing and to deliver their findings honestly. On both counts they came up short. They were not directly dishonest in anything they said, but rather in what they left out, in how what remained was cut, and in the picture painted by those two things in combination. They asked me to recorded the interview on my phone for better audio quality, and I held on to my copy for reference later. That turned out to be a fortuitous decision. Here is the raw audio of my first interview, unedited*. Only my side was recorded, so their questions aren’t on it, but you can generally infer them from the answers, and every claim I make below about what I said can be checked against my statements in this clip. (Note: Wendy had connection trouble at the beginning of the interview and was cutting in and out, which accounts for the false starts.) 0:00 -1:19:13 Audio playback is not supported on your browser. Please upgrade. Science Vs is a fun show. It is pitched at roughly a high-school understanding of science, for an audience that is skeptical, Snopes-oriented, and worried about misinformation. Take a claim circulating online, interview a supporter of the claim, interview consensus scientists, and then tell people which side of the line it lands on. I have listened to their episodes on raw milk, seed oils, 5G and other contested issues in the wellness space. I have problems with all of them, but each at least made an honest attempt to represent the actual range of scientific opinion by talking to credentialed scientists with differing perspectives. Dissenting researchers were heard from, answered, and often given a chance to respond. This episode did not do that. This article is not a relitigation of the science. I have written extensively about that already. This post is for the record. It is simply an accounting of what was wrong with their episode. Contents Is there a power plant next to the 49ers practice facility? — the clearest single example of getting something objectively wrong For the record — a high-level overview of all of the problems with their investigation Draw your own conclusions — why they had to make this episode at all What they left out about childhood leukemia — the exposure threshold, and playing games with statistics to minimize sick children What they left out about the mechanism — the body of literature they refused to cover, and evidence for the mechanism used against it The scientists Science Vs interviewed and did not air — four credential scientists who support myhe theory, recorded and cut, or not even called How they misrepresented me and my case — an answer severed from its question, and three telling edits How you would actually study the injuries — it doesn’t actually matter which team is the most injured, overall The theory: magnetic fields, oxidative stress, and collagen Since the episode never states my theory, here it is below. Those who are familiar with my work can skip this section. Electrical equipment produces magnetic fields, and those fields induce faint electrical currents in anything that passes through them, including people. My argument goes further than induced current. Mitochondria — the structures that generate a cell’s energy — run on continuous flows of electrons and protons, and those flows carry faint electromagnetic fields of their own. Maxwell’s principle of superposition shows that when two fields share the same space, they add together. An external field does not need to be strong to alter an internal field, it only needs to be present. The electron transport chain inside the mitochondria leaks a small fraction of its electrons by design, and those become reactive oxygen species — free radicals, which healthy cells use as signals. External magnetic fields cause the rate of leakage to change, increasing free radicals. When free radicals accumulate faster than the cell’s antioxidant systems can clear them, the result is oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is a recognized driver of chronic illness, including cardiovascular disease, neurodegeneration, diabetes and cancer, and it is in every medical school curriculum. One of its ordinary effects in connective tissue is that it switches on matrix metalloproteinases — MMPs, the enzymes that break collagen apart — while suppressing new collagen synthesis. Tendons are made of collagen. An athlete loading his soft tissue heavily six days a week is already creating oxidative stress in the tendons, so the addition of magnetic field exposure compounds the damage and inhibits repair, making him more susceptible to injury when enormous force lands on a tendon in a fraction of a second. That is the theory. We know that EMF causes oxidative stress, and we know that oxidative stress degrades collagen. The only thing missing is a study showing that direct connection. I have never claimed certainty that the substation is contributing to the elevated injury rate. I do believe it is likely, and I believe it warrants caution, and that a revenue machine like a major NFL team can easily afford to remove the exposure out of precaution. Is there a power plant next to the 49ers practice facility? Here is the clearest single instance of the problem with this episode. It requires no knowledge of electromagnetic fields at all. This story first came to me through Jon Feliciano, a former 49er, in an interview on Willard & Dibs on 95.7 The Game. Asked about why the 49ers are always injured, he said players used to joke that it was the power plant behind the practice fields. Wendy Zukerman corrects him on air. “It’s important to say that it’s not a power plant near the 49ers site.” Torre then asks her to explain the difference between a substation and a power plant. Her answer: a power plant generates electricity and transmits it to a substation, which converts the voltage into something your house can use and sends it on to your home or your business. There are two problems with that. The first is that there is a power plant on that site. The Gianera Generating Station is a natural-gas-fired peaker plant owned by Silicon Valley Power, and it has been there since 1986. I have published aerial photographs of the location from 1987 in which the gas plant is the only thing standing, before the practice facility was even there. I even mentioned the gas plant in my first interview. (Feliciano has since gone on record about this issue, and it is clear he had the substation in mind rather than the gas plant.) The second is that her definition describes a distribution substation, and the facility beside the 49ers is not that. It is the Northern Receiving Station, which takes in bulk power from outside the city’s grid and delivers it to distribution substations. Silicon Valley Power’s own map distinguishes receiving stations from substations, and Rose Rimler even reads the label out loud in the episode when she walks through that map on air. A few minutes before the map segment, Zukerman tells Torre: “like I said, we fact check everything.” Well, maybe not everything. I made a mistake On the morning of July 6th, at 10:20, I sent Rose and Wendy two studies. During the interview I had been asked which human studies show oxidative stress from electromagnetic fields, and I had not been able to name one on the spot. Rose emailed asking for the studies, I quickly searched for a couple, and I wrote that I thought these were the most relevant from that search. Unfortunately, I was busy and did not read either one closely at first. I picked them because they were topically relevant — one on substation workers, one on power plant workers. Neither were great studies, and their problems go past the ones raised in the episode. That was careless on my part. There is context that did not make the episode, though. Before that email I had been on a Zoom call with Rose talking about EMF and oxidative stress, and I pointed her to Dr. Henry Lai at the University of Washington, who has spent years aggregating the literature on this question. His tallies show that roughly 90% of studies since the late 1990s find oxidative effects from electromagnetic field exposure — hundreds of studies, systematically counted. Rose told me she was already aware of his work. So when she asked for studies, I understood her to have the aggregate view already and that she would report anything within that context. Not reading those two carefully was still a mistake, but the larger mistake was assuming the episode would be based on a thorough review of the actual body of literature, rather than on whatever I happened to send that morning. The second email At 1:49 that same afternoon — three hours and twenty-nine minutes after the first — I sent them a second email that I had been preparing for a while. It was a structured document in six numbered sections, written in response to a request they had made two weeks earlier, laying out my entire argument with citations attached to every link in the chain. The episode aired on August 13th, five weeks later, and not a single item from the second email is in it. Here is how it opens: The full email is included at the bottom of this post in Appendix B. Nearly 1,500 words in total. It contains two named mechanisms with the physics behind them. Occupational studies in humans. The literature on oxidative stress and collagen. A section addressing the strongest counter-evidence against my own theory, which I raised myself. And a closing section stating plainly what the theory cannot yet show. My entire argument, in writing, with detailed citations for every claim, provided to them five weeks before broadcast, and none of it made it into the episode. That is the single largest omission, but it is not an isolated one. The whole episode is riddled with similar problems, and the conclusion they came to is not merely a difference of opinion about the scientific evidence. Through omission and through strategic editing, Science Vs misinformed its audience — about what the evidence shows, about what I argued, and about who they spoke to. That is a notable outcome for a show whose stated purpose is correcting misinformation. For the record I am not going to tell you that Science Vs set out to discredit me, or that they had come to their conclusion before they reported the story, or that they used misleading editing to make me look like a man retreating from his own theory. I cannot know what was in anyone’s head, and I am not going to pretend otherwise, either. What I can tell you is what is on the record. They asked me for evidence and aired the weakest thing I sent. They interviewed three scientists who supported my theory and aired none of them. They discussed childhood leukemia without ever saying the exposure level at which it appears. And they took an answer I gave weeks before Ken Karipidis, the one EMF scientist who was put on air, was interviewed, and placed it directly after his critique, where it comes off as a major concession. A friend of mine who has worked as a journalist for thirty years read that last one and called it sleazy. I agree with her. Those are just the four issues that are impossible to defend as pure editorial decision, but they are not the only issues. The most glaring issues stem from what they left out: The exposure level at which the childhood leukemia association actually appears — three to four milligauss, a number the episode never states despite it being much lower than what I measured. The mechanism itself: The episode gets as far as “oxidative stress could weaken collagen,” which leaves it sounding like speculation, rather than a known pathway. The second email, and all the studies in it. Dr. Paul Héroux at McGill, whose work my proposed mechanism rests on, whose contact details I supplied, and who was never called. Dr. Beatrice Golomb at UC San Diego, who runs a research group on oxidative stress and mitochondrial function and has specific expdertice in collagen, interviewed and not aired. Dr. David Carpenter at Albany, the most prominent academic voice on the harm from magnetic field exposure, interviewed and not aired. Dr. Joel Moskowitz at Berkeley, interviewed and not even credited. The specific, testable condition I put in writing that would make me abandon the theory. My own unprompted statement of the theory’s evidentiary gap. My caveats about my own measurements. My ranking of EMF as one factor among several rather than the only one. The new equipment installed at those facilities between 2010 and 2014, and the sharp rise in system load from 2013 onward. But that is not all. What they kept, they selectively edited to serve a narrative that was not served by the raw transcripts of the interviews. A description of thousands of commercial routers in a workplace, reduced to the Wi-Fi in your house. My own acknowledgment, multiple times, that "I'm not a scientist" clipped in an episode that spends considerable energy pointing out that I am not a scientist. And a qualification I volunteered about my own measurements, cut from my answer and delivered later by their EMF expert as a correction. Together their edit produce a portrait of a wellness guy with Wi-Fi phobia and two bad studies, backing away from his theory the moment a “real” scientist looked at it. A practice facility where nothing changed because no new substation was built. Injuries written off as random because the 49ers were not quite the single most injured team in the league over the period in question. That portrait is false even though almost no individual statement made in the episode is. Draw your own conclusions At the top of the episode, Pablo Torre says his show had been flooded with requests to investigate the substation — that it was the thing they were asked to look into over and over again. Neither show went hunting for this story. It arrived from their own audience, in volume, and it could not be waved off. A thread I posted on X reached twenty-two million people. A guy with a gaussmeter and a brand-new Substack obligated a Pultizer prize winning program to spend an hour on a question about player health, that is considered fringe enough that most media operations won’t touch it. Pablo Torre Finds Out could not ignore it. So Science Vs came in and ran a “debunking” operation instead of an investigation. Everything below is what had to be left on the cutting room floor to deliver the “debunking”. They could not ignore it. So they tried debunked it instead. The demand was strong enough to force an episode, and since the episodes release the 49ers have sustained more injuries, including season ending ones, and interest has only grown. Demand from fans and playets is strong enough to force a better investigation from someone else. An omission is not a lie until you find out what was omitted. What follows is the detailed record so you can see the full picture. Draw your own conclusions. I have drawn mine. I am going to keep publishing. A note about Pablo Torre Finds Out After the episode aired I posted publicly, calling out Pablo Torre Finds Out for concerns I had about the integrity of their investigation, and about an interview directly with Pablo Torre which had been offered but never happened. I have since spoken with a producer at PTFO. The offer had rested on a misunderstanding about where things stood between us, and it fell away as the Science Vs part of the production widened past the science. He apologized for the miscommunication and I accepted. The producer also confirmed to me that they did essentially hand off the entire investigation to Science Vs for narrative purposes — so Pablo would be genuinely curious or potentially surprised by their findings — while still taking responsibility for what went out under their name. I appreciated the candor and the accountability, and I am comfortable with where we left things. So this post is not about PTFO. My disagreement is with Science Vs. What they left out about childhood leukemia Childhood leukemia appears at three milligauss. They gave no number at all. 1. They built an EMF ruler, then discussed childhood cancer without it. The sequence on air went like this: First I measured almost 9 mG, then I measured up to 50 milligauss. Torre reacts with concern — “that sounds high.” Cut to Karipidis: the public limit is 2,000 milligauss. Torre reacts again — “What happens at 2,000?” Karipidis explains that nothing happens at 2,000, that safety factors are built in. Then: at more than 50,000 milligauss you get flickers of light in the retina, and higher still, nerve stimulation. The listener now has a ruler (their ruler) to measure these numbers with. Fifty is nothing by their ruler. Then the episode turns to childhood leukemia and states, accurately, that there is a real association — but tellingly, they never give the exposure level at which that association appears. Childhood leukemia appears at three milligauss. They conveniently left that out. The pooled analyses that produced the World Health Organization’s carcinogen classification found roughly a doubling of childhood leukemia risk above three to four milligauss. That is the number that belongs in that segment, and it is more than ten times below the reading that had just been dismissed as trivial. I gave them that number myself, on tape, in the interview. Describing my own threshold, I said my comfort level for long-term chronic exposure is three to four milligauss, but preferably one. 2. Six children in thirteen million. The episode reports that these fields might explain one to four percent of childhood leukemias, then reframes it as a German estimate of perhaps six cases among thirteen million children. Torre, to his credit, is uncomfortable. What never gets explained is why that number is small. Almost no children lives above three milligauss in Europe. Fewer than two children in a hundred, in the Italian data. So even if the risk to those children doubles, the number of additional cases across an entire country stays small — not because the hazard is small, but because hardly anyone is exposed to it. Count the whole population and the few who are exposed disappear. And the reason hardly anyone is exposed is that siting rules keep housing away from transmission lines. In Europe, at least. The Dutch government has a standing precautionary policy against building new homes in any zone where the annual average magnetic field exceeds 4 milligauss — the same number the episode never mentioned. Denmark and Norway treat 4 milligauss as the level that triggers a look at mitigation. That is five hundred times below the ICNIRP figure quoted on air. The United States has no federal equivalent. That is evidence of infrastructure siting policy working. It is not evidence that there is no hazard. It is evidence that we already act as though there is one. If you listen to the raw audio you will hear that my proposed solution is EMF exposure is to build better infrastructure. What they left out about the mechanism 3. They accused me of cherry-picking, and then cherry-picked themselves. On air, Zukerman tells Torre that people who worry about electromagnetic fields dismiss the studies showing null results and collect the ones showing harm, and that this is why you have to be careful not to cherry-pick. They had two papers I had rattled off in a hurry, and a second email containing a carefully chosen set. They ran the two weakest, graded them on air, and presented the result as the state of the evidence for not only my theory, but the whole question of oxidative stress from magnetic fields. That is cherry-picking from my emails. The bigger picture is what they did with the literature as a whole. Zukerman acknowledges it exists, dismisses it, and disposes of it in a single stroke. You can go online right now, she tells Torre, and find scores of studies showing these fields increase oxidative stress. The issue, she says, is that they are not studies in people. Many of them are in people. The occupational studies in my second email are in people. That email had been in her inbox for five weeks. She waved off the literature on a factual claim that the documents in her possession contradict. (I have written separately about the evidentiary standard at work here). The effect was that they essentially baited me: ask the subject to supply the evidence, take the weakest thing he sends, and let that stand as a proxy for the whole argument. Wendy has been doing this show for ten years and clearly knows how to extract what she needs for her desired narrative. 4. They presented the collagen-improvement research as a gotcha, but I had already addressed it. The episode treats the existence of studies showing that EMF can improve collagen as a surprise that undercuts me, but I had pre-emptively addressed that five weeks earlier in the email they ignored. Those studies use measured, high-intensity pulsed dosing. The mechanism by which they work is oxidative signalling. The cell reads a controlled rise in reactive oxygen species as a warning, upregulates its antioxidant defenses, mounts a repair response, and the therapy stops before the system is overwhelmed. The key point is that it induces an oxidative response, which means those studies are actually evidence for my proposed mechanism, not against it. A field that produces a therapeutic effect cannot be biologically inert (which is the implication when they say “Nothing happens at 2,000 milligauss). Chronic ambient exposure is the same pathway with no off switch, and it is most consequential during the evening and while sleeping, when the body is in repair mode and the exposure does not stop. Section 5 of my email is titled What about the study showing improved collagen synthesis. I raised the counter-evidence myself, explained why I did not think it refuted the theory, and wrote that I was disappointed the question had not come up in the interview. That is worth holding against the cherry-picking charge in the item above: the studies they presented as inconvenient for me were studies I had gone out of my way to put in front of them. 5. Section 1 of my email stated a critical argument that was never put to the expert directly responsible for it. My email says the exposure limits exist to prevent acute effects and do not address chronic exposure at all, and that my dispute is with the entire framework. Zukerman gestures at this once. After Karipidis gives the 2,000 milligauss figure, she tells Torre that I would object because those levels do not capture “more subtle effects.” That is not my argument, and “subtle” is doing a lot of work here. My argument is that the limits are built to prevent acute effects — nerves firing, muscles twitching, etc — and were not designed to address chronic exposure at all. In fact, ICNIRP’s own documents state as much themselves. Mine is a structural objection to what the standard measures, reduced as a concern about subtlety, it becomes a matter of degree, rather than a categorical difference. They interviewed Ken Karipidis, vice chair of ICNIRP — the body that writes those limits. He was asked what the limit is, but he was never asked how it applies to chronic exposure. The scientists Science Vs interviewed and did not air 6. They interviewed four officials of the standards body. The episode credits roughly a dozen researchers. Four of them are associated with ICNIRP. Ken Karipidis is the vice chair. Rodney Croft chaired ICNIRP from 2020 to 2024 and led the development of its current guidelines. Dan Baaken is ICNIRP’s scientific secretary. Frank de Vocht sits on the Main Commission. One of them speaks in the episode. Their institution’s position is more than adequately represented — the 2,000 milligauss figure, the safety factors, the assurance that nothing happens below the line. 7. The four who were left out. Dr. Beatrice Golomb is Professor of Medicine at UC San Diego — a physics undergraduate degree, a PhD in biology, an MD. She directs a research group whose stated focus is the relationship between oxidative stress, mitochondrial function and health. That is the mechanism the episode spent its first half dismissing. Her published work includes the fluoroquinolone case series behind the FDA’s black box warning on an antibiotic class that ruptures tendons, where the accepted mechanism is oxidative stress and mitochondrial toxicity — the back half of my chain, already on a drug label. She is in the credits. She is not in the episode. She has told me she finds my theory biologically plausible, and that she has a recording of her interview. Dr. David Carpenter directed the Institute for Health and the Environment at the University at Albany for decades and is the most prominent academic voice arguing these fields cause harm. Childhood leukemia is the reason these fields carry a WHO classification at all, and Carpenter is the person you call if you want that case made by someone who has spent a career on it. He is in the credits. He is not in the episode. He has told me that when he was interviewed they could not have been less interested in what he had to say. Dr. Joel Moskowitz directs the Center for Family and Community Health at UC Berkeley’s School of Public Health. He told me directly that they interviewed him and that he thought it went well. He does not appear in the episode, and unlike Golomb and Carpenter, he does not even appear in the credits. Dr. Paul Héroux at McGill is the researcher whose work provides the foundation for the oxidative stress mechanism my theory rests on. I gave Rose his email address and phone number. He was never interviewed. They never even called him. 8. “He’s not a scientist.” The episode leans hard on the fact that I am not a credentialed scientist. Zukerman says it. Torre repeats it. “At all.” Having built a segment on that, they then left out the physicist-biologist-physician, the professor of public health, the director of a university environmental health institute, and the McGill researcher whose work the primary mechanism comes from. They spent the episode telling their audience I am not a scientist, and then kept four actual scientists who support the theory off because their argument does not survive otherwise. How they misrepresented me and my case 9. They played my words as a response to an interview I had never heard. Near the end of the hour, Zukerman says she went to me and told me the evidence was lacking. Then she plays me saying I am not wedded to it being an EMF, that I have staked my reputation on it needing more study, and that I am not certain of anything. That segment was placed immediately after Karipidis had finished taking the cherry-picked papers apart. It plays as a man folding under expert scrutiny. Commenters have used it against me since, but it is incorrect. Here is the sequence as it happened. I was interviewed. Karipidis was interviewed weeks later. I was never told what he said, or even who he was. I was never asked to respond to it. I did not know his name until the episode aired. That is not a simple editing decision. That is a quote from one interview, moved to follow a critique from a different interview it was not a response to, so that it would land as a concession. A friend of mine who has spent thirty years as a journalist read that sequence and called it sleazy. She is right. The full passage is reproduced in Appendix A, and it is worth reading. What airs is the preamble. Four paragraphs later I say “to directly answer your question” — and that answer, about what would change my mind if the team relocated, is not in the episode. Neither is the sentence two paragraphs on, where I say the EMF might turn out to be ten percent of the problem. I will say the underlying point again, though, because I meant it and I still do. I am not wedded to my theory that magnetic fields from the substation are contributing to the 49ers injuries. I could be wrong. What I am wedded to is the process of scientific inquiry, and the fact that we should be cautious around these exposures and we need more independently funded studies. 10. Three telling edits. They cut “I’m not a scientist” mid-sentence. What I said: “...and I am not certain of anything. I’m not a scientist. To me, I find the mechanisms compelling. I will go back to the fact that I got into this not because of the 49ers, but because of clients I was working with who suffer from EDS...” What aired: “...and that I am not certain of anything. I’m not.” The clip ends on the first two words of the sentence in which I say I am not a scientist, in an episode that spends considerable energy establishing that I am not a scientist. The full sequence is in Appendix A. They cut my own description of my work. Asked what I do, I said I run a wellness business, that I am focused on writing software to help people navigate environmental stressors, that environmental health is my focus, and that I also do independent journalism and research. What aired is the wellness business and the environmental health, with the software and the journalism removed from my own answer. The software engineering does come up later — narrated by them, as a hacker who grew up to write firmware — but my current work, in my own words, arrives as “wellness guy.” Thousands of commercial routers became home Wi-Fi. What I described: working at a wireless networking company surrounded by thousands of Wi-Fi routers, and a stress-induced health collapse afterward that working in that environment contributed to. What aired: Wi-Fi, the kind you have at home — reinforced by a clip of Christian McCaffrey talking about turning his router off at night. Three cuts, and every one of them makes me seem less credible. That is not a coincidence. 11. I gave them my own caveats and the test that would disprove me. In the first email I wrote that a well-designed chronic, ambient-level exposure study in tendon showing no collagen degradation, run over many months, would undercut my confidence in the theory. That is a specific, testable condition, stated in advance and in writing. There was a second interview, weeks later, which was not used in the episode, but in that I asked again for the falsification criterion to be included. What the episode presents instead is a man saying “we need more study,” which reads as a hedge, an open-ended request for the benefit of the doubt. It is the opposite of a hedge. Section 6 of my second email says, unprompted, that as far as I am aware there is not a single study showing EMF-driven oxidative stress degrading collagen in a human in vivo or in human tendon in a lab. I wrote that because it is true and because it is the first thing anyone should check. Under their standard it becomes the hinge of the entire first half, framed as something they had to surface without my cooperation. I had handed it to them five weeks earlier. And in the interview I said that my 25 to 50 milligauss readings were taken at knee level, and that these fields attenuate quickly, so by the time it reaches your head it is not that high anymore. That did not air either. The qualification arrives later, from Karipidis, as a correction. How you would actually study the injuries 12. They measured the wrong thing. The episode spends its final act on whether the 49ers are the most injured team in the NFL, finds no clean ranking, and lands on “injuries are random”. That is the wrong test. You would define the exposure — measured field levels at the facility — and the outcome narrowly: soft-tissue injuries, not a single MSK injury count that a broken finger and a ruptured Achilles both land in. Then you would compare the 49ers to themselves before and after the exposure changed, and compare that change against every other team over the same window. That controls for league-wide shifts in rules, turf and training load. It is a difference-in-differences design, and it is standard. I sent them that argument on July 28th, in writing, along with the fact that in eleven of the past twelve seasons the 49ers had finished top ten in Adjusted Games Lost. And by the episode’s own reporting, the 49ers are second in games lost to injury over the past decade, with FTN’s Aaron Schatz confirming that once you adjust for starters they come out second worst in the league — after having been one of the healthiest teams for years before that. A finding like that is where an investigation starts, not where it stops. 13. I did a lot of substation research for the episode that was never aired. I had reported that the substation next to the facility was expanded in 2014. That was wrong, and Rose Rimler and I sorted it out together. They gave me credit on air, which I appreciated, but framed it as a concession on my part to something they had found. In fact I had been investigating it myself, was uncertain before they asked, but was waiting for clarification from Silicon Valley Power. The uncertainty centered around a substation named “Esparanca” that was proposed right behind the facilities as part of the stadium construction, but now appears to never have been built. I spent days in Silicon Valley Power’s records, and did eventually reach Silicon Valley Power for confirmation and indentified the mistake myself. I also gave them highly detailed documents on what we do know about those facilities: new equipment installed between 2010 and 2014, and load growth across the system with an inflection around 2013–2014, with the Northern Receiving Station carrying the highest capacity in the system and sitting closest to the data center corridor. None of that is in the episode. I have a separate piece about it coming out soon. *I cut 2 seconds from the raw audio to remove personal information that had no connection to anything in the episode. Appendix A: the passage the clip was taken from This is the sequence from my first interview, in full. The episode uses one fragment of it. It’s tricky because my understanding is that there’s something like a 15-year half-life on collagen remodeling issues. They’re going to get a new crop of players. What I really need, though, is for the injuries to be broken down so we can see the soft tissue injuries. Right now, they’re categorized as MSK injuries, but let’s say we can actually identify them more specifically. Is that right? He was able to do that? Oh, cool. I wasn’t able to find that information. Interesting — I didn’t know that data existed. I tried so hard to get it, and I didn’t know it was available. Maybe you could connect me with that person. That would be amazing. I’m not wedded to it being an EMF, honestly. I’m not. I would say that, to a certain extent, I’ve staked my reputation on the fact that it needs more study. It’s important to look into it, and I am not certain of anything. I’m not a scientist. To me, I find the mechanisms compelling. I will go back to the fact that I got into this not because of the 49ers, but because of clients I was working with who suffer from EDS, Ehlers-Danlos Syndrome, a tendon hypermobility issue. This condition is documented to be partially caused by oxidative stress. I’ve worked with them to mitigate their EMF exposure and have seen people improve. I think it’s a bigger story. In a way, the 49ers represent an occupational cluster with specific exposure risks. If someone would conduct a study on this, I believe we could learn a lot. Perhaps we would discover that it’s like, okay, maybe it’s 10% of the problem. I don’t know the exact number, but I think either way, conducting the study would provide valuable insights. To directly answer your question, it’s challenging for me because it’s part of a bigger story. If the 49ers move and stop having injuries, I might conclude that it was related to the substation. However, if they move and still experience injuries, I would want to analyze the nature of those injuries. Are they primarily soft tissue injuries? I don’t think it’s necessarily a case closed, but the story might lose traction at that point regardless. Three things are worth noting. The aired fragment stops immediately before the sentence in which I say I am not a scientist — the cut described in item 10. It also stops four paragraphs before the words “to directly answer your question.” What the episode plays is the throat-clearing. The actual answer, about what would change my mind, never airs. And two paragraphs in, I say the EMF might turn out to be ten percent of the problem. That is the ranking the episode says I never gave. Appendix B: the full email, July 6th, 1:39 PM Hi Rose, You asked me to send you some studies a couple of weeks ago. I apologize for the delay. I have been incredibly busy. I also wanted to give you a chance to dig in yourself, and get your own perspective before I influenced you too much with mine. That said, I do want to make sure that the actual argument is abundantly clear, so here it is! One note before I begin, there are really two separate questions here: Does the substation cause the soft-tissue injuries? That was my specific claim, and what the podcast is about. Is the theory biologically sound? Can 50/60 Hz fields at these levels do anything biological below the safety limits? Question two is why people have been calling me a conspiracy theorist. The regulatory and advisory bodies (ICNIRP, etc) maintain that anything below their exposure limits is biologically inert, and that position is broadly accepted within the mainstream, but the actual science paints a different picture. To defend my theory I’ve had to defend a much larger claim: that the advisory bodies have the biology wrong. I can’t honestly answer question 1 without first addressing that. Here’s is a simplified outline of my theory, with links to studies: 1. Advisory body thresholds for biological effects The ELF magnetic-field limits (ICNIRP’s ~2,000 mG public / 10,000 mG occupational) exist to prevent acute effects from exposure. If a magnetic field is strong enough, it makes nerves fire and muscles contract. Muscles twitch. You can see faint flashes of light in your vision. People can even feel tingling or even a shock. That happens due to Faraday’s law, which states that a time-varying magnetic field induces an electric field inside the body via the creation of Eddy currents.The standards assume that those currents do nothing below the twitch threshold. They do not consider chronic effects at all. My argument is that they are biologically active and do have chronic effects. 2. There are multipe ELF-EMF mechanisms for inducing oxidative stress. This is basic biophysics. Below are the two primary mechanisms. Simplest first. Dr. Paul Héroux of McGill has the most intuitive explanation, which rests on Maxwell’s principle of superposition: because Maxwell’s equations are linear, two sets of electromagnetic waves sharing the same space simply add together. In the interview I pictured a pebble dropped into a pond, sending out clean ripples. Then a boat motors past at distance, sending larger waves, and where they meet the ripples, the two add together and the original pattern gets distorted. In our cells, the mitochondria run on continuous currents of electrons and protons that carry their own faint electromagnetic fields. An external field from a substation, by the principle of superposition, adds to those internal currents and shifts the pattern. The electron transport chain in the mitochondria leaks a fraction of its electrons by design as reactive oxygen species (ROS), which act as signalling molecules in a healthy cell. Distorting that field increases that electron leakage, creating oxidative stress. A tiny electromagnetic interference results in a large downstream effect. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2405844025006474 The more complex pathway is Dimitris Panagopoulos’s Ion Forced-Oscillation / Voltage-Gated Ion Channel (IFO-VGIC) mechanism. Weak, polarized, low-frequency fields force the ions (calcium, potassium, sodium) next to an ion channel’s voltage sensor to oscillate; because that force scales with the inverse cube of the distance involved, fields far below the stimulation threshold can still force the channel open, disrupting the cell’s ion balance and driving ROS overproduction (Nitric oxide and superoxide interact and produce peroxynitrite, a highly unstable cytotoxin that breaks down into free radicals). https://www.researchgate.net/publication/366088934 https://www.spandidos-publications.com/ijo/59/5/92 https://www.mdpi.com/1422-0067/22/18/10041 https://www.frontiersin.org/journals/public-health/articles/10.3389/fpubh.2025.1585441/full https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3772193/ 3. Evidence of oxidative stress, in vivo, in humans from ELF-EMF There are many studies, and the strongest are occupational, which applies to the 49ers situation. 115 power-plant workers vs. 145 office controls. Serum malondialdehyde (MDA, the standard lipid-peroxidation marker), superoxide dismutase, and catalase were all significantly higher in the exposed group, and the markers rose with increasing field exposure. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.3233/WOR-203244 A follow-up where they reversed the oxidative stress in power plant workers. A double-blind randomized controlled trial: 91 power-plant workers given vitamin E, vitamin C, both, or placebo for 90 days. The antioxidant groups showed reduced lipid peroxidation and raised antioxidant capacity versus controls. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/32191586/ A spot-welder study: 46 welders occupationally exposed at 50 Hz, showed significantly altered red-blood-cell antioxidant enzyme activity and concluded ELF-MF “might act as an oxidative stressor… even at the recommended levels of exposure.” https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/18504600/ A substation-specific study found oxidative stress and DNA damage https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24460415/ 4. Oxidative stress degrades collagen This half isn’t controversial at all. Oxidative stress activates the matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) that break collagen down and suppresses its synthesis. Here are three example studies: Siwik et al. 2001: Oxidative stress raises MMPs and lowers collagen synthesis in cardiac fibroblasts. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11121376/ Fisher et al. 2009: Collagen fragmentation drives oxidative stress and elevates MMP-1 in aged human skin. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC2631323/ Varani et al. 2006: Decreased collagen production in oxidatively aged skin. https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/16723701/ 5. What about the study showing improved collagen synthesis I’m glad you asked this question, and I’m bummed we didn’t get to it in the interview because it is a great question, and very important to understand. Superficially it may appear to be a refutation of my theory, but I would argue that it actually supports the underlying argument. That study used a short, high-intensity pulsed dose: therapeutic-PEMF, the same type of field used clinically to stimulate bone and tissue healing. The reason this works is because it triggers the very same biological pathways that can lead to oxidative stress. The exposure still stimulates ROS production, but done at a controlled dosage, for a limited duration it has a different effect. The cell reads the ROS as a warning signal and it upregulates its antioxidant defenses, and mounts a repair/proliferation response. The therapy is then stopped before the cell gets overwhelmed. That is essentially a hormetic response: a small dose of a stressor producing a beneficial adaptation. Two things follow: At the very least, this means the field is biologically active, which by itself undercuts the regulatory claim that these fields are inert below their thresholds. There is a wealth of literature on PEMF (pulsed EMF) bone regeneration and calcium channel signalling (which is the second mechanims in section one). Here is one. https://www.nature.com/articles/srep13856 At best, it leads us straight to my actual concern, which is that under chronic, chaotic and unregulated exposure, the cell’s antioxidant capacity gets overwhelmed, resulting in oxidative stress. There are plentiful examples of things that are beneficial at controlled doses, but harmful at uncontrolled doses. Excecise is one obvious, uncontroversial example. Botox is perhaps a more interesting example. 6. What about a study that shows EMF causing collagen degradation in humans? As far as I am aware there is not a single study showing EMF-driven oxidative stress degrading collagen in a human, in vivo, or in human tendon in a lab. There are studies involving isolated fibroblasts though, which secrete collagen. The most relevant one showed that human fetal scleral fibroblasts exposed to 50 Hz ELF-EMF showed a significant decrease in collagen synthesis and that MMP-2 expression was upregulated, which is the exact mechanism I described in section 2. https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC3626379/ That’s it! Thanks again for the interview. Best, Peter Anthony Cowan Environmental Health · Wellness Tech · Researcher & Journalist Publisher & Editor, Living Energy Bio: petercowan.comSocial: X · Instagram · TikTokApp: sunlightis.lifePhone: [redacted]

peteranthonycowan.substack.com logo
Sep 19 • 6:34 AM EDT • Science • peteranthonycowan.substack.com
Vought pushes for scrutiny of NIH grants in Oval Office clash

A heated debate took place in the Oval Office on Friday, with some Trump officials accusing the National Institutes of Health of funding grants that conflict with the president’s agenda.

washingtonpost.com logo
Sep 18 • 11:19 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
This tiny organism can shrink to one quarter its size in milliseconds

A single-celled organism can shrink to one-quarter of its length in milliseconds using a remarkable calcium-powered protein “fishnet.” Scientists hope its unusual machinery could inspire artificial muscles capable of moving far faster than today’s designs.

sciencedaily.com logo
Sep 18 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Trump says Xi state dinner is ‘a very tough ticket’ as guest list takes shape

US president says White House seats about 125 guests, while Chinese executives facing scrutiny in the US are considered for Xi’s delegation.

scmp.com logo
Sep 18 • 6:05 PM EDT • Business • scmp.com
WakeMed-Atrium Health merger faces scrutiny ahead of county vote

Wake County commissioners are expected to vote Monday on a proposed merger between WakeMed and Atrium Health

abc11.com logo
Sep 18 • 5:59 PM EDT • Health • abc11.com
Scientists Identify First New Wild Cat Species in a Century

Tiny spotted feline lives in Bolivia's rapidly vanishing cloud forests

newser.com logo
Sep 18 • 1:15 PM EDT • Science • newser.com
😐 Neutral (12%)
wow
73%
ahah
27%
Keeping kids safe in the age of AI: What safeguards does WA have?

Technology companies have come under scrutiny for the effects AI chatbots have on youth mental health. Here's what you should know.

seattletimes.com logo
Sep 18 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • seattletimes.com
Ball Don't Lie: How Portland Made Rasheed Wallace

Before the rings in Detroit, a volatile mix of immense talent and media scrutiny transformed a basketball icon into the face of the infamous Jail Blazers.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 18 • 8:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Caltech’s tiny new chip can steer light in 74 quadrillionths of a second

A new Caltech device can redirect a beam of light in just 74 femtoseconds using another beam and a nanoscale silicon metasurface. The breakthrough could pave the way for dramatically faster photonic communications, computing, and sensing technologies.

sciencedaily.com logo
Sep 17 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Meet the tiny wild cat that’s new to science

A diminutive wild cat that inhabits Bolivia’s cloud forest has been identified as a previously unknown species, marking the first time a new living cat species has been formally named and described in more than a century.

cnn.com logo
Sep 17 • 6:49 PM EDT • Science • cnn.com
Fact Check Team: Smithsonian and Kennedy Center face scrutiny over politics

The Smithsonian and Kennedy Center are facing questions about the role of politics in America's cultural institutions during Trump's second term.

thenationaldesk.com logo
Sep 17 • 11:23 AM EDT • Politics • thenationaldesk.com
Everybody Wants to Make Their Own Mac mini Now, and It's Obvious Why

The era of the tiny AI boxes is setting off a different kind of PC arms race.

gizmodo.com logo
Sep 17 • 11:15 AM EDT • Technology • gizmodo.com
Kitten rescued from entertainment center by Ventura County firefighters goes viral

A tiny rescue in Ventura County is getting a big reaction online after firefighters freed a kitten that became trapped inside an entertainment center. Suki had been with her new family for only a f…

ktla.com logo
Sep 17 • 10:25 AM EDT • Entertainment • ktla.com
Scientists Found Tiny Ancient Arrowheads Where Humans Weren’t Supposed to Be

They weigh just grams—yet they show that modern humans reached Eurasia 35,000 years earlier than previously thought.

popularmechanics.com logo
Sep 17 • 9:30 AM EDT • Science • popularmechanics.com
Following wide-ranging leaks, Bungie says Marathon is not 'merging' with Destiny

Will the return of Destiny take place in Marathon? No, says Bungie.

eurogamer.net logo
Sep 17 • 9:29 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net
Bungie Denies Rumor It Plans to Merge the Destiny and Marathon IPs, Confirms Marathon December and March 2027 Updates Are Free

Bungie has stepped in to deny a rumor that it planned to merge the Destiny and Marathon IPs amid continued questions about the future of both franchises.

ign.com logo
Sep 17 • 9:07 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
🚨 Joan García suffers knee injury, out for several weeks!

The lull at home.The only downside to FC Barcelona’s spectacular 7-2 victory over Santander on Wednesday night was the injury to Joan García, who went off at half-time and whose issue is a tiny bit...

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 17 • 8:31 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Short-seller puts spotlight back on Raiffeisen's ties to Russia

Austria's Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is facing renewed ‌scrutiny as the biggest Western bank still operating in Russia, after a short-seller alleged it was a key channel enabling more than $1 billion of Russian trade to circumvent sanctions.

reuters.com logo
Sep 17 • 4:11 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Fiji declares national emergency as HIV cases surge

One in 60 adults in the tiny Pacific nation of less than a million people are living with the virus.

bbc.com logo
Sep 16 • 11:07 PM EDT • Health • bbc.com
Mitch McConnell’s Senate Vote Under Scrutiny After Lengthy Health Absence

Mitch McConnell returned to the Senate this week after a three-month absence.

yahoo.com logo
Sep 16 • 9:24 PM EDT • Health • yahoo.com
After curriculum scrutiny, Springfield will keep an eye on fifth grade science proficiency

The district’s choice to put its fifth-grade science scores under the microscope is meant to measure the effectiveness of its new elementary science curriculum after the state ruled the district’s previous science curriculum did not meet state requirements.

lookouteugene-springfield.com logo
Sep 16 • 7:37 AM EDT • Science • lookouteugene-springfield.com
Can Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) Still Be Worth More On Sales?

Flutter Entertainment has seen its stock slide sharply over the past year, and that slump now puts a spotlight on a simple question. Is the current share price in any way justified by the sales the business is generating? Over the past 12 months, Flutter Entertainment shares have fallen 64.3%. This puts recent market confidence in the business under scrutiny when you compare it with what the company is actually selling. Fresh headlines around potential regulatory clarity for sports...

simplywall.st logo
Sep 15 • 7:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • simplywall.st
Inspector General: High-Speed Rail Authority misused funds on travel, entertainment

California’s high-speed rail project is facing new scrutiny after the Office of the Inspector General found the California High-Speed Rail Authority paid more t

kmph.com logo
Sep 15 • 6:30 PM EDT • Entertainment • kmph.com
Amid national backlash, Patel throws support behind Flock cameras

FBI Director Kash Patel on Tuesday praised Flock cameras as being a useful tool for federal investigators, touting their use to help track down criminals. The prolific use of Flock cameras by private businesses, police departments, local districts, and states nationwide to automatically record the license plates of all passing vehicles has sparked scrutiny in […]

coloradopolitics.com logo
Sep 15 • 2:02 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com
Tiny Pieces of Alien Technology Might Be Buried in Moon Dust and Scientists Think They Know How to Look

Forget radio signals. Scientists want to search lunar dust for physical evidence of ancient alien technology.

zmescience.com logo
Sep 15 • 1:45 PM EDT • Science • zmescience.com
Tiny krill are turning up in deep-sea hydrothermal vents. Scientists want to know why

Antarctic krill serve as a crucial food source for penguins, seals, and whales. They recycle nutrients used by algae. Now researchers say they've found krill in a surprising place: hydrothermal vents.

npr.org logo
Sep 15 • 12:53 PM EDT • Science • npr.org
High-Signal Publisher
Iowa African Film Festival announces inaugural winners, online screenings

The Iowa African Film Festival has announced the winners of its inaugural event, held Aug. 6-8 at Drake University. The festival received more than 500 film submissions from around the world, with 30 films representing 22 countries selected for its program of feature films, documentaries and shorts. “Destiny of a Migrant,” directed by Omar Brams…

businessrecord.com logo
Sep 15 • 12:51 PM EDT • Business • businessrecord.com
Fujifilm’s Instax Pal 2 is a tiny digital camera that may not disappoint

The $170 Pal 2 includes an LCD screen, a 10-megapixel sensor, autofocus, and face detection.

theverge.com logo
Sep 15 • 10:03 AM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
Long ‘Marathon’ Season 3 Delay Has Echoes Of Destiny 2’s End, Worry Fans

'Marathon' is delaying season 3 for a long time, and now fans are worried because they saw this exact same thing happen with 'Destiny 2' before it ended.

forbes.com logo
Sep 15 • 9:49 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com
Yamaha Introduces The Compact B200A Soundbar With Dolby Atmos

This tiny soundbar has few frills for $250, but still supports Atmos audio.

engadget.com logo
Sep 15 • 9:00 AM EDT • Technology • engadget.com
AI 'SpongeBob' parody of problems in Egypt draws scrutiny of authorities

A take on the hit US TV series has become an unlikely tool for Egyptians to complain about life amid strict surveillance.

bbc.com logo
Sep 15 • 2:02 AM EDT • Politics • bbc.com
Fox Cities businesses balance tornado relief with keeping their doors open

This story was produced and originally published by Wisconsin Watch, a nonprofit, nonpartisan newsroom. For a few weeks, countless donations piled up on Destiny Antuna's shop floor. Stacks of canned ...

pbswisconsin.org logo
Sep 14 • 11:30 PM EDT • Business • pbswisconsin.org
☹️ Negative (-75%)
Silfab Solar hires new leader focused on environmental, health and safety

A manufacturing company that’s faced recent scrutiny in Fort Mill appears to be putting a bigger focus on safety.

wbtv.com logo
Sep 14 • 7:08 PM EDT • Health • wbtv.com
‘StarCraft’ Is No ‘Destiny 2’ Live-Service Replacement, Blizzard Confirms

'StarCraft' is a shooter breaking past its RTS roots, but if 'Destiny 2' players were hoping it could be a replacement for their dead game, it's not happening.

forbes.com logo
Sep 14 • 11:15 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com
US SECTORS CALL: Energy, Information Technology & Health Care

Rising bond yields and oil prices weighed on stocks last week, though a mostly in-line CPI report on Friday sparked a rebound. The S&P 500 still fell 0.8%, with nine of the 11 sectors declining. Energy (OW) led, rising 2.0%, and it tops the sector derby

yardeniquicktakes.com logo
Sep 13 • 10:25 PM EDT • Health • yardeniquicktakes.com
😐 Neutral (8%)
love
75%
ahah
25%
Tiny $70 E-Reader Makes Reading Addictive Again

Pocket-size Xteink X3 turns idle moments into binge-reading sessions

newser.com logo
Sep 13 • 9:25 PM EDT • Technology • newser.com
😐 Neutral (8%)
wow
56%
ahah
44%
CDC director’s ‘unusual’ silence draws scrutiny

Just a month into her tenure, CDC director Erica Schwartz is missing in action. The country is heading into respiratory virus season, and public guidance on COVID-19, flu and RSV vaccines has been …

thehill.com logo
Sep 13 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • thehill.com
Scientists used tiny bursts of pink noise during sleep — and changed the waves that move fluid through the brain

Your sleeping brain is not quiet. Electrical waves roll across it, blood vessels rhythmically change size and cerebrospinal fluid moves in pulses that may help carry waste away. MIT researchers have n...

yahoo.com logo
Sep 13 • 4:19 AM EDT • Science • yahoo.com
‘We’re not going to fold’: Nevada election chief pushes back on Trump administration scrutiny

Nevada Secretary of State Francisco Aguilar said that the Trump administration’s scrutiny of the state’s election process is an effort to intimidate officials and suppress voting in Nov...

reviewjournal.com logo
Sep 12 • 9:21 PM EDT • Politics • reviewjournal.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (9%)
ahah
55%
wow
45%
"I Feel" – Diogo Dalot Reveals Man Utd Leadership Responsibilities

The Portuguese defender details his evolving role as a dressing room leader, shielding younger teammates from the intense media scrutiny while navigating the club's turbulent transition period.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 12 • 2:30 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Tiny sound waves could help solve a major quantum computing problem

Researchers at Harvard have demonstrated a way to protect quantum information using microscopic sound waves. By continuously surrounding a diamond-based qubit with mechanical vibrations, they extended its coherence time by roughly threefold. The same phonons could eventually both transmit and protect quantum information, opening the door to compact sound-based quantum networks on chips.

sciencedaily.com logo
Sep 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Reform receives record £36m donation from cryptocurrency billionaire

Ben Delo's donation, the biggest single sum ever given to a political party in the UK, comes amid scrutiny of Reform's finances.

bbc.com logo
Sep 11 • 7:27 PM EDT • Politics • bbc.com
Is AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) Undervalued Following Its Robinhood Token Dispute?

AMC Entertainment Holdings (AMC) is back in the spotlight after a public clash with Robinhood over tokenized products tied to AMC shares and the possibility of regulatory scrutiny around those digital instruments. Against this backdrop, AMC Entertainment Holdings has been volatile, with a 1-day share price return of 4.24% and a 7-day share price return that declined 7.17%, while the 30-day move fell 2.77% and the 90-day share price return sits at 5.13%. The year-to-date share price return of...

simplywall.st logo
Sep 11 • 7:21 PM EDT • Entertainment • simplywall.st
Tiny crabs discovered hitching rides on sea snakes

It wasn't the wisest move, unfortunately.

popsci.com logo
Sep 11 • 2:11 PM EDT • Science • popsci.com
Professor Layton Fans Are Concerned After 'AI Slop' Presentation

Given that Level-5's CEO previously stated that 'around 80~90% of games are made by AI,' this level of scrutiny should come as no surprise

kotaku.com logo
Sep 11 • 1:31 PM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Microscopic fragments of ancient alien tech may litter the moon — and scientists have a plan to find them

Researchers propose that tiny technological remnants left over from extinct alien civilizations could have landed on the moon after traveling through interstellar space. It may not take long to find them, the team claims.

livescience.com logo
Sep 11 • 11:29 AM EDT • Science • livescience.com
Scientists discover tiny protein region that shapes tooth enamel

Tooth enamel looks simple from the outside and consists of a hard, smooth surface built to withstand years of wear.

news-medical.net logo
Sep 11 • 10:17 AM EDT • Science • news-medical.net
Tiny Elversberg 'leave Earth's orbit' as Bayern come to town

Four years after plying their trade in the semi-professional fourth division of German football, newly promoted SV Elversberg welcome defending Bundesliga champions Bayern Munich on Sunday. Bayern have won 13 of the past 14 German league titles but will be two points behind Elversberg when the ball rolls on Sunday.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 11 • 2:31 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
😐 Neutral (27%)
love
100%
The app comes amid growing scrutiny of Meta’s smart glasses over privacy concerns

Worried Meta AI glasses may be recording you? Polish developer’s app can spot them

tvpworld.com logo
Sep 10 • 3:33 PM EDT • Technology • tvpworld.com
Tiny Invaders Are Ravaging Our Forests. The Trees May Be Gone by 2040.

A surge in insect attacks is already underway, and mild winters are the culprit.

popularmechanics.com logo
Sep 10 • 9:30 AM EDT • Science • popularmechanics.com
Scientists create brilliant white material without a drop of white pigment

Researchers have created a foam-based material that produces intense whiteness and water repellency without titanium dioxide pigments or PFAS chemicals. Inspired by natural structures in snow, clouds, flowers, and lotus leaves, the material uses tiny pores to scatter light while its rough surface repels water. The technology could offer a more sustainable way to make white, water-resistant everyday materials.

sciencedaily.com logo
Sep 10 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
How September 11 Changed American Politics Forever

As the memory of the attacks faded, it was inevitable that counterterrorism measures would draw more scrutiny — and voter priorities would shift.

nationalreview.com logo
Sep 10 • 6:30 AM EDT • Politics • nationalreview.com
Ectopic pregnancy deaths have nearly doubled. It’s worse in states with abortion bans

The number of women who died after an ectopic pregnancy has spiked in recent years, a ProPublica analysis found. The mounting deaths in Centers for Disease Control and Prevention data have drawn little scrutiny or response.

cnn.com logo
Sep 10 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • cnn.com
Flying Car With (Tiny) NH Angle Gets the OK in Europe: Business NH Magazine

PAL-V, the Dutch firm that has been working for decades on a flying car held aloft by a helicopter-like rotor, has gotten a production license from the European aviation safety agency.

businessnhmagazine.com logo
Sep 9 • 8:00 PM EDT • Business • businessnhmagazine.com
The Case for a Psychiatric Deprescribing Clinic

Psychiatric medication prescribing practices have come under scrutiny since the Trump administration announced its plan to crack

bhbusiness.com logo
Sep 9 • 4:38 PM EDT • Health • bhbusiness.com
The Case for a Psychiatric Deprescribing Clinic

Psychiatric medication prescribing practices have come under scrutiny since the Trump administration announced its plan to crack

bhbusiness.com logo
Sep 9 • 4:38 PM EDT • Business • bhbusiness.com
Two Tiny Lifeforms Built a Bridge Too Small to See—and May Have Made Humanity Possible

Stromatolites, formed by microbial mats, hold evidence of a symbiotic relationship that possibly kickstarted complex life billions of years ago.

popularmechanics.com logo
Sep 9 • 2:00 PM EDT • Science • popularmechanics.com
Spectacular Jersey Shore science project lets you track monarch butterflies from your phone

The project relies on tiny tracking devices weighing about 60 milligram, that are attached to monarch butterflies.

nj.com logo
Sep 9 • 12:00 PM EDT • Science • nj.com
India's Serious Fraud Office recommends 'detailed' probe into Xiaomi's business in country

India's Serious Fraud Office has recommended Xiaomi be investigated for alleged irregularities in its business model and compliance with foreign investment law, potentially intensifying scrutiny of the ​smartphone maker, a government document shows.

reuters.com logo
Sep 9 • 5:59 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com
Astrocyte changes may explain how stress affects mental health

A new study led by UCLA Health researchers has identified a specific type of brain cell and a tiny structure on its surface that changes when the body is under stress, which may help explain why stress can lead to anxiety and depression.

news-medical.net logo
Sep 8 • 11:17 PM EDT • Health • news-medical.net
Chinese scientists find a hidden atomic structure that unlocks methane

Scientists found that a tiny atomic structure that forms on nickel oxide during methane conversion is more effective than the metallic nickel long believed to drive the reaction. The discovery allowed a low-nickel catalyst to rival one containing 10 times more metal, potentially opening the door to cheaper and more efficient industrial catalysts.

sciencedaily.com logo
Sep 8 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
New-to-science Amazon frog stands out for its slow ‘lazy’ song

Scientists recently described a new species of a tiny brown frog found in the Amazonian floodplain forests of Ecuador and northwestern Brazil. It looks nearly identical to related species but its slow, widely spaced out call sets it apart, researchers note in a study. “I’ve had to get into arguments because people said the frog […]

news.mongabay.com logo
Sep 8 • 11:53 AM EDT • Science • news.mongabay.com
‘Destiny’ Has Inspired A 10-Year Plan For ‘ARC Raiders’

ARC Raiders has a 10-year content plan and is looking to the 12-year-old, recently killed Destiny franchise for inspiration.

forbes.com logo
Sep 8 • 9:37 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com
Explainer: Why Air India's funding call has come under political scrutiny in Singapore

Air India's request for about $1.5 billion in funds from its owners — Tata Sons and Singapore Airlines — has sparked a debate in Singapore over state investor Temasek's exposure to the Indian ​carrier.

reuters.com logo
Sep 8 • 9:05 AM EDT • Politics • reuters.com
Apple to make first big change to iPhones in years

Apple’s new phone will test its ability to take niche products and technology into the mainstream. Foldable smartphones still make up only a tiny slice of the smartphone market.

seattletimes.com logo
Sep 8 • 8:36 AM EDT • Technology • seattletimes.com
Scientists observe Einstein’s gravity in the quantum world for the first time

Physicists have directly observed a long-predicted quantum effect of gravity, putting one of Einstein’s foundational ideas to a striking new test. Using ultracold atoms, researchers split an atom’s quantum wave so that one part was held in place while the other fell freely under gravity, then reunited the two to measure the tiny difference that emerged.

sciencedaily.com logo
Sep 8 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com
Dodgers Owner’s MAGA Stance Leaves Los Angeles Advocate ‘Very’ Disappointed

The Los Angeles Dodgers’ owner is under local scrutiny for “sending money to Trump’s administration” following ICE crackdowns.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 8 • 7:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Scientists have traced the human eye back to a tiny one-eyed ancestor that lived nearly 600 million years ago — and remnants of that ancient “cyclops” eye may still survive inside our brains as the pineal gland

What if the mysterious gland Descartes thought held the soul is actually a shriveled relic from our one-eyed ancestor—and some animals still use theirs.

spacedaily.com logo
Sep 8 • 6:15 AM EDT • Science • spacedaily.com
5 things a tiny-home builder says to consider before construction

Before building a tiny home, HGTV host Margo Fairchild says one of the biggest things to consider is if a small space will truly fit your lifestyle.

businessinsider.com logo
Sep 7 • 3:27 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
How Hope Florida scrutiny rattled the final years of the DeSantis administration

Here are the biggest impacts.

miamiherald.com logo
Sep 7 • 3:00 PM EDT • Politics • miamiherald.com
Is ‘Once a Cheater, Always a Cheater’ Actually True? Here’s What Science Has to Say.

People who cheated in one relationship were three times more likely to cheat again, but researchers say the pattern isn’t destiny.

vice.com logo
Sep 7 • 10:57 AM EDT • Science • vice.com
Science says ancient roman concrete could repair its own cracks: The secret was hidden in tiny white chunk

Modern concrete can become vulnerable when cracks allow water and chemicals to seep into its interior. Ancient Roman concrete, by contrast, appears to have contained a reserve of reactive, calcium-rich material that could contribute to its long-term durability.

economictimes.indiatimes.com logo
Sep 7 • 9:41 AM EDT • Science • economictimes.indiatimes.com
Commission to present long-awaited Innovation Act proposal

The European Commission will present its proposal for an EU Innovation Act on September 9, with a focus on strengthening public procurement as a driver of innovation and facilitating the use of intellectual property (IP) to secure financing.The proposal was initially meant to be published in March. No explanation has been given for the delay, but it may be linked to issues with the associated impact assessment.The Commission’s Regulatory Scrutiny Board issued a negative opinion on the draft impact assessment following its meeting on January 28, and again on February 27, according to a draft of the Innovation Act published by Agence Europe.In it, the Commission lays out the steps it has taken to address the board’s concerns, including avoiding overlap with the upcoming revision of the EU Public Procurement Directives and removing a mandatory target for EU member states to increase overall innovation procurement spending.The Innovation Act, which was included in last year’s start-up and scale-up strategy, is meant to reduce barriers to bringing innovative solutions to the market and speed up the path from research to commercialisation.Central to the initiative, according to the draft proposal, is the introduction of a harmonised EU framework for the procurement of R&D services by public buyers, including pre-commercial procurement. The plans would also introduce an EU preference in public R&D procurement.“Other leading economies in the world are investing five to eight times more in public procurement of R&D than the EU,” it notes. In Europe, the lack of harmonised rules has led to divergent practices across the bloc, legal uncertainty and limited use of joint, cross-border R&D procurement, it says.Related articlesCommission postpones European Innovation ActParliament draft report adds EU Inc safeguards to prevent fraud and regime shoppingThe text highlights a lack of clarity around the valuation and monetisation of IP as another barrier to the commercialisation of research results. Currently in the EU, IP is rarely used as collateral in financing, which restricts the growth potential of innovative firms. A key reason for this, according to the Commission, is the absence of a harmonised methodology for valuing IP.To address this issue, it plans to introduce an EU-wide IP valuation framework, a digital marketplace for commercialising IP, and a competence centre to help innovators access IP-backed finance.The issue was highlighted by a recent report by the European Union Intellectual Property Office, which referred to developing a “functional market for IP-backed finance” as a “core competitiveness imperative for the next decade,” and key to ensuring capital unlocked by other EU initiatives reaches innovative firms.The Innovation Act is one of several ways the Commission hopes to reduce fragmentation in the single market and help innovative companies to scale in Europe, complementing other initiatives such as the EU-wide corporate regime, dubbed EU Inc.The leaked draft is not the final version that will be published on September 9, according to a Commission official.

sciencebusiness.net logo
Sep 7 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net
Aviva launches fronting unit amid rising reinsurer demand for MGA business

Aviva believes demand from reinsurers for MGA business and heightened scrutiny of some specialist fronting carriers will support growth at its newly created hybrid fronting unit, chief commercial director Matthew Gordon and head of ​global hybrid fronting John Andrews told The Insurer.

theinsurer.com logo
Sep 7 • 4:34 AM EDT • Business • theinsurer.com
We’re travelling around Queensland and the water in this tiny outback town smells rather strange — but the science of what’s happening 500 metres beneath our feet is fascinating

We’re travelling around Queensland at the moment, and one of the things I love about travelling this way is that you never quite know what is going to

scienceblog.com logo
Sep 7 • 1:47 AM EDT • Science • scienceblog.com
The science behind the beauty business

Some of Europe’s industrial champions may be in retreat, but its cosmetics sector remains a global leader, buoyed by healthy demand, recognised brands and a reputation for innovation."The fact is, the science in cosmetics is better here in Europe than anywhere else in the world,” says Pierre Morvan, CEO of Technature, a private label cosmetics manufacturer located near Brest in France’s northwestern Brittany region. “You have to have good science in order to make the difference, and that is why we invest so much in research and innovation.”Across Europe, the beauty and skincare products sector supports an estimated 3.6 million jobs, including 265,000 employed directly in the industry, according to the Cosmetics Europe trade group.. Cosmetics production contributes an estimated €11 billion to the EU economy, and generated €30 billion in export revenue last year, a €400 million rise from 2024.Technature itself has a global footprint, supplying products for 1,500 brands in 65 countries. Its range of skin gels, facial masks, nail treatments and other products include natural ingredients and extracts derived from plants, such as seaweed, that are developed and refined through science-based analysis and testing.While industry projections point to sustained growth for the foreseeable future, driven by emerging economies and wider availability of exclusive brands that were once chiefly sold by high street retailers, the sector is not immune to the impact of geopolitics and trade wars. The Trump Administration’s tariff threats have dented cosmetics exports to the EU industry's largest overseas market. After the European Parliament approved the EU-US Turnberry Agreement in June, setting a 15% levy on many EU goods, the French Federation of Beauty Companies warned that “exports are falling sharply” and urged the EU to negotiate an opt-out for cosmetics.Technature’s CEO flags South Korea as an emerging competitor, partly due to its assertive marketing efforts. “I would have to say I am a little bit scared,” Morvan says, regarding the growth potential of the South Korean cosmetics industry. “This is why science and innovation are so important if Europe is to remain the leader.”With a workforce of 200, including biologists, chemists and other scientists, around 15% of Technature’s staff work in three research and development (R&D) labs. A similar number work in four quality control and assurance facilities, where science plays a crucial in ensuring product safety in a sector that is subject to the European Cosmetics Regulation.Educational exchange between industry and academiaIn recognition of Technature’s research and innovation, Morvan was selected as one of Brest’s ambassadors to Science Comes to Town (SCTT), a European initiative to strengthen communications and understanding between science and society. Brest is one of three coastal cities in the EU-funded programme, alongside Split (in Croatia) and Kiel (in Germany). From 7-11 September, Brest will host the EU TalentOn contest featuring 100 early-career researchers from across Europe.Morvan appreciates the value of engagement with educational and scientific institutions as well as the home community. For instance, Technature collaborates closely with university partners to enhance its in-house R&D. In addition, it invites students to its labs and sends its own researchers to local institutions. "We absolutely want the students to know what the industry is all about,” Morvan says, noting that seeing science in action can help young people “understand that they can do something real with science, to create something with what they are learning.” He says another important benefit: encouraging new generations of young people to consider a career in cosmetics.Community involvement also raises awareness about Technature and the skincare industry as a whole. “The public gains recognition of the innovative company that we are, and this is important for getting new customers,” Morvan says. One of its recent innovations — tiny, colourful cosmetic pearls that release skin moisturisers on application — was showcased at this year’s VivaTech event in Paris.Morvan holds a master's degree from the Brest Business School and studied animal production and biology in Brest at the University of Western Brittany (UBO), an SCTT partner, and at the University of Tours. He got his start in business in 2002, initially working on using seaweed as a raw material in the food industry before transitioning to cosmetics. Morvan has always been interested in connecting science and business, reflecting one the goals of SCTT to enhance public-private collaboration.The invitation to participate in SCTT was unexpected. “It was a surprise to get a call from the city of Brest saying that they wanted me on this programme,” Morvan recalls, adding that officials were drawn by his company’s R&D. “It's not only theory and science fundamentals. Our science is something that is applicable to the global market — and important for the community.”Science|Business, which connects policymakers, academics and industry through its news reporting, analysis and events, is an SCTT partner.

sciencebusiness.net logo
Sep 6 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencebusiness.net
Top scientists lead growing exodus of Chinese academics from US

Funding uncertainty and heightened scrutiny of China are some of the factors prompting Chinese researchers to leave the US in their thousands

timeshighereducation.com logo
Sep 6 • 7:01 PM EDT • Science • timeshighereducation.com
Cincinnati Bengals Free Agent Signing Under Scrutiny

A Bengals offseason addition is already facing questions about whether Cincinnati paid too much, but Bryan Cook will have the chance to prove his value when the regular season begins.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 6 • 5:15 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Pair of linked spacecraft draw closer to Mercury after nearly decadelong voyage

A linked pair of Mercury-bound spacecraft are in the homestretch of their nearly decadelong voyage to the tiny planet nearest the sun.

latimes.com logo
Sep 6 • 4:33 PM EDT • Science • latimes.com
Boox’s tiny Picco e-reader should land in November

No magnets, though.

theverge.com logo
Sep 6 • 12:28 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
In 2015, University of Florida scientists poured 5 gallons of red Rhodamine dye into Silver River’s main spring vent to track how water moved as the clear spring run turned more algae-green

A tiny dye release into Florida's Silver River revealed how groundwater moves through one of America's most productive spring systems—with urgent implications for its ecological future.

spacedaily.com logo
Sep 6 • 10:02 AM EDT • Science • spacedaily.com
Pennsylvania’s measles crisis: Inside the nation’s largest outbreak

LANCASTER — For Hilda Smucker, the signs that her daughter was sickened with measles came soon after she arrived from camp. It started with tiny...

post-gazette.com logo
Sep 6 • 4:00 AM EDT • Health • post-gazette.com
Should US Court Scrutiny of Prediction Markets Require Action From Flutter Entertainment (FLUT) Investors?

In recent weeks, Flutter Entertainment has seen sentiment improve as the prospect of a US Supreme Court review of sports prediction markets and fresh analyst coverage refocused attention on its core US sports betting exposure and broader global portfolio. This shift comes after a very large reset in expectations over the past year, leaving valuation metrics suggesting the business screens as relatively inexpensive while ongoing regulatory and legal uncertainties remain central to how...

simplywall.st logo
Sep 5 • 10:18 PM EDT • Entertainment • simplywall.st
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (26%)
love
41%
wow
36%
ahah
23%
Acer's tiny RTX Spark PC takes aim at Mac Studio with Blackwell and 128GB unified memory

Acer's new RTX Spark is a compact AI workstation pairing NVIDIA Blackwell graphics with a Grace CPU and up to 128GB of unified memory.

tweaktown.com logo
Sep 5 • 6:36 PM EDT • Technology • tweaktown.com
Mercury Isn’t What Scientists Thought: New Study Reveals a Surprisingly Different Surface

From tiny glass beads and a map of the Moon to Mercury, a new study uses an indirect method to determine the silicon dioxide content of Mercury’s surface. Mercury’s surface appears to contain substantially less silicon dioxide than researchers previously estimated. A new analysis puts the compound at about 37 percent by mass, up to

scitechdaily.com logo
Sep 5 • 4:39 PM EDT • Science • scitechdaily.com
Why Is Caesars Entertainment (CZR) Reassessing Guest Safety After A Liability Verdict?

Caesars Entertainment (NasdaqGS:CZR) was found liable in a high-profile lawsuit over alleged systemic security failures at the LINQ Promenade, following a severe assault that left a guest with life-altering injuries. The verdict highlights concerns about security management and guest safety practices across Caesars properties. Investors are weighing potential reputational effects along with possible changes to operating procedures and regulatory scrutiny. This kind of legal and operational...

finance.yahoo.com logo
Sep 5 • 3:05 PM EDT • Entertainment • finance.yahoo.com
LifeStance Health Group (LFST) Has Rallied Sharply, Is The Stock Still Undervalued?

LifeStance Health Group (LFST) has drawn fresh investor attention after recent trading data showed the stock up over the past month and past 3 months. This move is prompting closer scrutiny of its mental health services business. At a share price of $12.73, LifeStance Health Group has posted a 30 day share price return of 22.76% and a 90 day share price return of 71.79%. The 1 year total shareholder return of 137.06% points to strong recent momentum building from a lower multi year...

finance.yahoo.com logo
Sep 5 • 3:05 PM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com
New season, same flaw - Chelsea title hopes already under scrutiny

With 11 minutes remaining, Chelsea appeared to be cruising to victory in their WSL opener against Aston Villa. So how did they throw it away?

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 5 • 11:31 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
😐 Neutral (7%)
ahah
67%
wow
33%
Bungie Is 'Exploring' Subleasing Parts Of Its Massive 210,984 Sq. Ft. Studio After Laying Off More Than 600 People In Just Three Years

Some see the big expansion as emblematic of the studio's mismanagement

kotaku.com logo
Sep 5 • 11:30 AM EDT • Technology • kotaku.com
Surprising things about staying in a tiny home Airbnb on wheels

I spent two nights in a 250-square-foot tiny home on wheels during a trip to Miami. I was surprised by how spacious it felt.

businessinsider.com logo
Sep 5 • 11:16 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
🙂 Positive (50%)
Inside the D.O.J.’s Investigation of Fauci and Other Virus Scientists

As Dr. Anthony Fauci has faced public scrutiny from congressional Republicans, the D.O.J. has pursued a quieter and more expansive effort against a wider circle of researchers.

nytimes.com logo
Sep 5 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • nytimes.com
Ethics Cmte. deadine passes to take action against Max Miller before election

Amid national scrutiny on Rep. Max Miller, R-Ohio, over domestic abuse allegations, Congress appears unlikely to take any actions against Miller before the election.

spectrumnews1.com logo
Sep 4 • 5:00 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumnews1.com
ESPN has a big PR headache after the NBA's LA Clippers ruling

ESPN has caught scrutiny for its framing of the LA Clippers' salary cap scandal, which one PR pro called "very misleading."

businessinsider.com logo
Sep 4 • 2:52 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com
Bollin pledges scrutiny of state health department contracts following auditor general report

The Michigan House of Representatives’ top appropriator said she intends to keep an eye on the state’s health department following the release of a report from the Office of the Auditor General looking into a department contractor, with the aim of ensuring that the department is managing public funds responsibly. The auditor general’s most recent […]

michiganadvance.com logo
Sep 4 • 2:49 PM EDT • Health • michiganadvance.com
Ode to the remote control, that tiny box that lets you channel your desires without ever getting up

If the TV remote hadn’t been invented, channel surfers and couch potatoes would have to argue about something else.

seattletimes.com logo
Sep 4 • 1:41 PM EDT • Entertainment • seattletimes.com
‘Biggest tool in sports media’: Jeff Pearlman rips ‘f*cking loser’ Bill Simmons

Longtime sportswriter Jeff Pearlman is not shy about going after some of the biggest names in the business on his personal TikTok and YouTube channels, and this week, he took aim at Bill Simmons in relation to The Ringer founder’s recent gambling imbroglio. Simmons came under scrutiny this week for admitting to having his daughter’s…

sports.yahoo.com logo
Sep 4 • 9:48 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
☹️ Negative (-60%)
1K views · 24 reactions | Fish make up just a tiny fraction of...

Fish make up just a tiny fraction of Europe's economy. But they play a big role in its politics. Most recently, the fishing industry dominated the referendum on whether Iceland should restart talks...

facebook.com logo
Sep 4 • 7:15 AM EDT • Politics • facebook.com
Thomas Massie introduces bipartisan "Flock-Off Act"

The cameras have faced scrutiny around the country over privacy concerns.

spectrumnews1.com logo
Sep 3 • 5:20 PM EDT • Politics • spectrumnews1.com