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The Big Picture: Who Will Win NFC West? Outlining Rams, Seahawks, 49ers Paths
The NFL's best division already has three teams with nine wins. Who has the edge among the Rams, Seahawks and 49ers entering December?
Is Claude really writing 90% of the code inside the company? Anthropic's own research suggests otherwise
The company releases a study that shows its own engineers use Claude more to debug code than to write new software.
U of U Health achieves record research funding
The National Institutes of Health continues to be the largest source of research support for U of U Health.
‘Stranger Things’ finale to play at 16 Bay Area theaters. Here’s how to get tickets
Netflix’s two-hour capper to the nine-year, five-season hit science fiction series is set for New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day.
Wait times drop in King County for people in mental health crisis
Two years ago, the average wait time for patients to get a mental health evaluation from a Designated Crisis Responder was nearly 5 days. Now, it's 11 hours.
Al Gore urges Democrats to send a 'shock wave' in Tennessee race
The former vice president made a rare return to the campaign trail as he delivered an impassioned plea to Tennesseans to vote for Democrat Aftyn Behn.
Spanberger announces seasoned policy advisor as next health and human services secretary
As Gov.-elect Abigail Spanberger prepares to take the helm of the state of Virginia, she has announced her pick for the next secretary of health and human services: Marvin Figueroa.
College football rankings: Bottom 25 national champion crowned for 2025
North Carolina and Oklahoma State were among the Power Four's most feudal teams this season
‘My Next Guest Needs No Introduction With David Letterman’ Sets Season 6 Premiere; MrBeast, Michael B. Jordan & Jason Bateman Join Show
David Letterman is back with Season 6 of My Next Guest Needs No Introduction on Netflix. The former late-night host recently sat down with Jay Kelly star Adam Sandler for a special episode. That December 1 episode was not part of Season 6, which will premiere on December 16. It comes after Netflix renewed My …
David Letterman to Interview Michael B. Jordan, MrBeast and Jason Bateman on Netflix Show
The three-episode sixth season returns on Dec. 16.
UCF Researcher Creates Novel Sensors for Smartphone-Based Health Monitoring
Professor Debashis Chanda’s low-cost, smartphone-based biosensor could bring rapid, reliable disease detection to areas with limited access to traditional diagnostics.
Live Results: Tennessee 7th Congressional District special election
Less than a month after Democrats scored a string of victories over Republicans in the Nov. 4 general election, the next test at the ballot box for both parties heading into the 2026 midterm season will be Tuesday in a Tennessee special congressional election on usually reliable GOP turf.
Colts’ Stock Up/Down: Week 13 vs. Texans
Stock Up Alec Pierce No player in the NFL has earned himself more money than Pierce has this season. He has elevated his game to a whole different level and is right now the Colts’ best wide receiver on the roster, not just a deep threat specialist like last year with AR. He gets open […]
A dementia vaccine could be real, and some of us have taken it without knowing | BBC Science Focus Magazine
Getting vaccinated against shingles could protect you from getting dementia, or slow the progression of the disease, says a new study.
Sick baby ants sacrifice themselves to save their colony
New research shows ill pupae emit a chemical signal before ever leaving their cocoons.
Evidence mounts: Medically tailored meals improve health outcomes and lower total cost of care
As the nation faces rising chronic disease rates and accelerating health care costs, a new peer-reviewed white paper featured in MDI Healthcare spotlights the critical role of food as medicine in improving outcomes for high-risk individuals. The analysis, supported by insights from Mom's Meals®, shows medically tailored meals can reduce hospitalizations, lower emergency department use, and lower the total cost of care, which reveals evidence of widening action gaps in how these nutrition solutio
NBA quarter-season grades for every West team, from obvious 'A+' to alarming 'F-'
As we hit the end of the first quarter in the 2025-26 NBA season, we're handing out grades
Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady celebrates holiday season with prizes and entertainment
Rivers Casino & Resort Schenectady is kicking off December with a month-long celebration featuring entertainment, holiday dining, gaming promotions, and events.
Letters to the Editor: As production moves overseas, it’s American entertainment workers who suffer
'As with any business that goes to other countries, people here start losing their incomes and life possibilities. This leads to a downward spiral of any household, community, town, city or state now missing spending potential and tax benefits,' writes an L.A. Times reader.
27 Science Words That Only People With Above-Average Intelligence Know The Definitions Of
Welcome back to science class. Take a seat.
After Snowy Small Business Saturday, Chicago Shop Owners Urge Neighbors To Buy Local
With this weekend's snowstorm keeping some customers home on Small Business Saturday, local businesses saw 40-60 percent drops in sales. They hope the rest of the season can make up for it.
Intensifying Regulatory Pressures Force Seismic Shift in Health Plan Concerns for 2026 According to HealthEdge Research
BOSTON, December 02, 2025--As healthcare organizations navigate an increasingly complex policy environment, 85% of health plan executives say regulatory pressures are impacting their costs and margins, according to new research published today by HealthEdge®. The report, "The Great Rebalancing: Inside the New Realities Shaping Health Plan Performance," identifies the top challenges in the payer market, how they are evolving, and strategies health plans are deploying to overcome them.
Economic warning sign: Holiday jobs are tougher to find
Holiday shopping will be missing something this year – as much seasonal help in stores to help shoppers as normal.
Minnesota Vikings earn rough grade from Week 13 performance
The Vikings did not have a good week against the Seahawks and their grade reflected it from CBS Sports.
Green Science Alliance Proposes New 3D "Jungle Gym like" Structure for Solar Power Generation
Dr. Ryohei Mori of Green Science Alliance Co., Ltd. - a company engaged in the research and development of cutting-edge environmental and energy technologies for decarbonization and building a carbon-neutral society—has proposed a new solar power generation system utilizing a 3D "jungle gym" structure, with proof-of-concept testing planned in the near future.
Carta Healthcare Partners with Fivos to Elevate Data Quality and Advance Vascular Patient Care
Carta Healthcare, a leading provider of AI-powered clinical data abstraction solutions, today announced a strategic partnership with Fivos, a leading provider of data solutions for medical research organizations and device manufacturers, as well as the clinical data registry provider for the Society for Vascular Surgery's Vascular Quality Initiative (SVS VQI®).
Premier League considers 2026 Summer Series in Asia
Clubs have been ask for their views on a pre-season tournament next summer, with Hong Kong and Chinese city of Shenzhen potential hosts.
National Science Foundation renews support for ecological powerhouse Cedar Creek
With its eighth funding renewal, the world-renowned Cedar Creek Ecosystem Science Reserve is primed for six more years on the forefront of ecosystem research.
D-Wave Announces Formation of U.S. Government Business Unit
PALO ALTO, Calif., December 02, 2025--D-Wave Quantum Inc. (NYSE: QBTS) ("D-Wave" or the "Company"), a leader in quantum computing systems, software, and services and the world’s first commercial supplier of quantum computers, announced today that it has formed a new business unit dedicated to driving the adoption of its quantum computing products and services with the U.S. government. Led by seasoned government and public sector business executive Jack Sears Jr., the newly formed unit will suppo
Younghoe Koo on botched field goal: The ball was slipping so I pulled up
Giants kicker Younghoe Koo made one of the strangest plays of this NFL season when he kicked the turf in front of the football, not the ball itself, leaving holder Jamie Gillan with nothing to do but pick up the ball and run, which he did for a 13-yard loss.
INSEAD Holds Top Spot In Financial Times European Business School Ranking
A look at how European business schools fare across Full-Time MBA, Executive MBA, MiM, and Executive Education measures
Windows 11 KB5070311 update fixes File Explorer freezes, search issues
Microsoft has released the KB5070311 preview cumulative update for Windows 11 systems, which includes 49 changes, including fixes for File Explorer freezes and search issues.
Nebraska volleyball enters NCAA tournament with new era confidence
The new Dani Busboom Kelly era of Nebraska volleyball has begun with its first undefeated season since 2000. Is a championship next?
NFL Week 14 Power Rankings: Chiefs' collapse adds twist to unpredictable season
Kansas City isn't the only preseason Super Bowl contender to land outside of the top 10.
Research finds nontraditional benefits may help retain young public health workers
New research from Columbia University suggests that nontraditional benefits, including flexible schedules and access to child care, may help keep public health workers under 35 on the job.
Nan Yao Named MRS Fellow for Contributions to Materials Science
Nan Yao has been selected for the 2026 class of Materials Research Society Fellows for his distinguished research accomplishments and contributions to the advancement of materials research world-wide.
Ole Miss, eyeing 6-0 home start, meets improved Miami
Ole Miss will try to remain unbeaten at home when it hosts Miami, which is playing its first true road game of the season, in Oxford, Miss., on Tuesday night.
Flagg, Mavericks to host Jaquez and the Heat
The Heat average 8.2 more points per game (124.3) than the Mavericks give up (116.1). The two teams square off for the second time this season. The Heat defeated the Mavericks 106-102 in their last matchup on Nov. 25.
Georgia's high-flying offense presents challenge for Florida St.
Georgia has come out firing in Mike White's fourth season as head coach.
Week 13 Panic Meter: LAST PANIC METER of the season + Final Coping Corner REVEALED
Is AI making us stupid?
Artificial intelligence can execute tasks in seconds that once took humans hours, if not days to complete. While this may be great for productivity, some researchers are concerned that our increasing use of AI could be impacting our ability to tackle difficult problems and think critically. To find out where the science stands, and how worried we should be about the potential of AI to change how we think, Ian Sample hears from Madeleine Finlay and Sam Gilbert, professor of neuroscience at University College London
2025 NFL Power Rankings Week 14: Who's Really the Best Team in Football?
Ralph Vacchiano sorts out the NFL's hierarchy after every week of the 2025 season.
Pete Carroll searches for answers as Raiders' dismal season continues
Pete Carroll remains optimistic about the Raiders' chances despite their 2-10 record
Here's a list of the 15 must-see high school basketball games of the season
The list starts with a Catholic League showdown Friday
Sources: Kentucky hiring Oregon offensive coordinator Will Stein to replace Mark Stoops
Kentucky fired Mark Stoops on Monday after 13 seasons.
WHO provides emergency funds to scale up health response in cyclone-hit Sri Lanka
As Sri Lanka faces rapidly worsening conditions triggered by a cyclonic storm, the World Health Organization today provided US$ 175 000 as emergency funds to support essential health services, while continuing to work with national authorities and humanitarian partners to reach life-saving interventions to the millions of affected people across the country.
Sean ‘Diddy’ Combs’ lawyers send cease-and-desist to Netflix, claim docuseries produced by 50 Cent uses ‘stolen’ footage
On the eve of Netflix releasing a highly anticipated docuseries about Sean “Diddy” Combs — produced by his longtime foe Curtis “50 Cent” Jackson — the embattled mogul’s lawyers have sent a cease-and-desist letter to the streaming giant, demanding it not release “Sean Combs: The Reckoning.”
'Tis the season: 'Ron DeSanta' wrapping paper available for holidays
'America's Governor' can be under America's Christmas trees this year.
UW: Anonymous $50M gift will cover tuition for med lab science students
The anonymous gift is estimated to bring $50 million over the next 50 years to UW's Department of Laboratory Medicine and Pathology.
U of U Health Research Achieves Record Funding, Drives Advances to Tackle Health Challenges
University of Utah Health surpassed the half-billion–dollar mark in research funding for fiscal year 2025. These investments fuel research, advance treatments and technologies, boost Utah's econoomy, improve health across the state and worldwide, and support the training of future scientific leaders.
Are university policies holding science back? Study shows how patenting boosts pure research
When UC Berkeley biochemist Jennifer Doudna first began studying how bacteria fight virus infections, she had no idea it would result in one of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the century. ...
Bills show resilience in overcoming mistakes, injuries by dominating Steelers
Put aside the turnovers, middling passing production, poor tackling and all the other issues that have hounded the Buffalo Bills for much of this season
USA Gymnastics and Olympic sports watchdog failed to stop coach’s sexual abuse, lawsuits allege
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) — Two gymnasts who say they were sexually abused at an elite academy in Iowa filed lawsuits Monday against the sport’s oversight bodies, alleging they failed to stop Sean Gardner…
Penn State vows it won't 'look ahead' past Campbell
After its lowest-scoring game of the season, Penn State has responded with back-to-back 90-point performances.
Your brain doesn’t age the way you think — new research upends old beliefs
Cambridge neuroscientists discover five distinct stages of brain development from birth to 90, revealing key turning points in human aging based on brain structure.
Chris 'The Bear' Fallica's Top 10 College Football Rankings: Week 15 Edition
Chris 'The Bear' Fallica delivers his top 10 rankings ahead of conference championship weekend of the college football season.
From Sidelines to Center Court
WSF conducted a three-year research initiative funded by the Ralph C. Wilson, Jr. Foundation focused on addressing access, engagement, and retention in sports for girls as well as the lack of women coaches working in the youth sports space. This research focused on the regions of Southeast Michigan and Western New York and has widespread […]
Trump says 'whole world is watching' Tennessee race as GOP works to avert disaster
President Trump told Tennesseans "the whole world is watching" as Republicans work to avert a disaster in a closely watched special election.
NBA quarter-season grades for every East team: Pistons earn 'A+'
The first-quarter buzzer is sounding on the 2025-26 NBA season, and it's time to hand out some grades
Mikel Merino - could he be Arsenal's number nine?
Arsenal's draw with Chelsea was not their best performance of the season but the sight of Mikel Merino wheeling away after scoring an important goal has become a familiar welcome sight for the Gunners.
Vikings waive Adam Thielen, who requested to finish NFL career elsewhere before retiring
The Vikings announced on Monday they are waiving Adam Thielen at his request, as he intends to retire after the end of the 2025 season.
Once-in-a-century floods set to become annual events in northeastern US in the next 75 years, study finds
Rising sea levels and storm surges from hurricanes will bring more frequent extreme floods to northeastern U.S. states, including Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
Exchanging a holiday gift? Science is on your side. | News
Gift givers aren't nearly as offended by returns as the recipient may think, SDSU marketing research shows.
Hearing in case that could rewrite the rules of religion in politics
A Texas hearing saw pushback to the federal government's recent reversal of a decades-long precedent that banned churches from endorsing politicians.
/dev: 2026 Season One Gameplay Preview
A preview of the gameplay changes coming to Summoner’s Rift in 2026.
/dev: 2026 Season One Gameplay Preview
A preview of the gameplay changes coming to Summoner’s Rift in 2026.
College football rankings: Ohio State finishes regular season No. 1 in CBS Sports 136
Updating the college football rankings featuring every FBS team after the Week 14 action
Funders "should mandate change in science publishing"
Paper argues that funders, governments and universities should intervene more forcefully to prevent "draining of research"
WHO issues global guideline on the use of GLP-1 medicines in treating obesity
To address the growing global health challenge of obesity, which affects more than 1 billion people, WHO has released its first guideline on the use of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) therapies for treating obesity as a chronic, relapsing disease.
Science on Tap: The science behind food
Wisconsinites tend to take pride in being the dairy state, encouraging the love of everything from cheese curds to custard to cream puffs.But are you aware of how much research goes into perfecting the products?
Funding agencies can end profit-first science publishing
Funding organizations can fix the science publishing system—which currently puts profit first and science second—according to research published on the arXiv preprint server.
Former USDA-ARS Lead Scientist and Researcher Brendan Niemira Takes Over as Chief Science and Technology Officer at IFT
Former USDA-ARS lead scientist and researcher Brendan Niemira takes over as the new Chief Science and Technology Officer at IFT.
Newport business works to reduce Oregon’s fish waste
The Newport restaurant has become a local staple known for serving locally-caught seafood to tourists visiting Oregon’s Central Coast.
Seattle’s younger college grads far more likely to have studied science
Among younger Seattle adults who earned a college degree, 64% majored in a science-related subject, a higher share than older generations, writes FYI Guy.
NC State to open 2026 football season in Brazil vs. ACC opponent
The game will be the first Football Bowl Subdivision game played in Brazil. The NFL has played games in the country the last two seasons.
State Variations in the Role of the Reproductive Health Safety Net for Contraceptive Care Among Medicaid Enrollees
This KFF analysis uses 2023 T-MSIS Research Identifiable Files to look at where reproductive-age female Medicaid enrollees received their last contraceptive visit by state. Overall, more than four in 10 (43%) female Medicaid enrollees received their last contraceptive visit of 2023 at a safety net provider, which includes Planned Parenthood clinics, community health centers, state and local health departments, and Indian health services, but there is wide variation by state.
Shark scientists want their research to help save threatened species, but don’t know how. Our new paper can help.
Sharks are some of the most threatened animals on Earth, and accordingly many scientists who study sharks want their research to be useful for conservation. However, most scientific training does n…
AP Decision Notes: What to expect in Tennessee's special congressional election
Less than a month after Democrats scored big victories in the Nov. 4 general election, voters in a heavily Republican Tennessee congressional district will fill a vacant seat Tuesday in the closely divided U.S. House
Understanding tea's health benefits and risks
The review confirms that tea, particularly green tea, plays a crucial role in preventing cardiovascular diseases (CVDs), obesity, diabetes, and certain types of cancer.
Exploring Denmark’s Tardigrade Fauna through Citizen Science
In a groundbreaking study that intertwines the realms of citizen science and systematic biology, researchers have successfully unveiled an intricate tapestry of tardigrade fauna residing in Danish cryptogams. Tardigrades, or “water bears,” are microscopic, water-dwelling ani
Mapping the exposome: Science broadens focus to environmental disease triggers
After decades of intense focus on genetics, the biomedical research community is undergoing a major shift, focusing on a new framework called "exposomics."
New study finds cancer-linked compounds in common foods
Scientists have found that common foods can contain hidden contaminants formed during cooking or through environmental exposure. A new testing method called QuEChERS helps identify these chemicals more quickly and with greater ease. The research showed strong accuracy and high sensitivity across multiple food samples. This streamlined approach could improve food safety checks while reducing chemical waste.
Clinical Research Unit moves environmental health research forward
New medical director Lawrence Kirschner highlights the CRU’s role as a hub for translational studies connecting environmental exposures, genetics, and human health.
Scientists just found a way to tell if quantum computers are wrong
Researchers unveiled a new technique that validates quantum computer results—especially those from GBS devices—in minutes instead of millennia. Their findings expose unexpected errors in a landmark experiment, offering a crucial step toward truly reliable quantum machines.
Lesley Netter-Snowden named executive vice president and chief business officer
Kennesaw State University President Kathy S. Schwaig has appointed Lesley Netter-Snowden as executive vice president and chief business officer (EVP/CBO) effective immediately, following a national search.
Science 37 Honored for Site Innovation in the 2025 Clinical Trials Arena Excellence Awards
Science 37 is the Winner of Research and Development Award in the Site Innovation category in the 2025 Clinical Trials Arena Excellence Awards
Science must move from materialism to mystery
Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.
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