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Science in action: A look inside the health lab tracking World Cup disease risks
Health professionals gathered at Georgetown University are tracking global health data to help prevent deadly diseases from spreading during the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
Science in action: A look inside the health lab tracking World Cup disease risks
Health professionals gathered at Georgetown University are tracking global health data to help prevent deadly diseases from spreading during the upcoming FIFA World Cup.
NASA Satellites Reveal Aquifer Decline in Brazilian Breadbasket
A collaboration of scientists from NASA and Brazilian research institutions has produced a detailed picture of groundwater change across Brazil. The images
Buckeye engineers team up with US Soccer to advance recovery science
The Ohio State University is partnering with the U.S. Soccer Federation to push the frontiers of recovery science — the quickly evolving discipline focused on restoring athletes’ readiness between training, competition and injury. Through the university’s Human Performance Collaborative (HPC), the partnership is translating laboratory scie...
A Critical UV Legacy: A Hubble Roadmap for HWO Science Readiness
The Habitable Worlds Observatory (HWO) will provide the first opportunity to directly image and spectrally characterize terrestrial exoplanets
Last 3 '60 Minutes' correspondents are staying, read the memo
"60 Minutes" is keeping its veteran correspondents after the firing of Scott Pelley and the departure of Anderson Cooper under CBS News' Bari Weiss.
Military Spouse Employment: A Win For Business And National Defense
Military Spouse Employment strengthens families and military readiness. Helps businesses access talented workers. Lessons at USAA, ACP, PenFed, Navy Federal Credit Union, and CSX
Scientists make sourdough bread using yeast found in 5,000-year-old mummy
Team now plans to see if they can use yeast strains harvested from Ötzi the Iceman to brew beer too
E-bike safety; lung cancer treatment and prevention; keeping CMA Festival attendees safe; plus other stories with Vanderbilt Health sources
WKRN News 2 interviewed Jeffrey Upperman, MD, FACS, Professor and Chair of the Department of Pediatric Surgery and Surgeon-in-Chief of Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt, about e-bike related injuries following the recent death of a Brentwood High student and a proposal to require safety training before students could ride a bike on a school campus in Williamson County. Fabien Maldonado, MD, MSc,Professor of Medicine and Thoracic Surgery, was on WTVF News Channel 5‘s live studio show, “Openline,” with host Ben Hall, to discuss lung cancer, treatment and prevention. WSMV’s “Today In Nashville” program hosted Vanderbilt LifeFlight paramedic/flight nurse practitioner Tony Smith to talk about safety for the CMA Festival. The New York Times reporter Carl Zimmer interviewed James Crowe, MD, Director of the Vanderbilt Center for Antibody Therapeutics, for a story about the race to find vaccines and treatments as Ebola spreads. The Vanderbilt Health News release about the pilot clinical trial conducted by Vanderbilt Health and Cumberland Pharmaceuticals Inc., that confirms the safety of ifetroban and supports the further development of the drug to prevent cancer metastasis, was picked up by Reuters, Stock Titan,and others. Women We Admire has named Lee Ann Liska, President and Chief Operating Officer, to its list of top women leaders of Nashville for 2026. Radiology Business, Aunt Minnie, Bioengineer, and Imaging Technology News covered the study from Consuelo Wilkins, MD, MSCI, the Mildred Thornton Stahlman Professor in Rural Health and professor of Medicine in the Division of Geriatric Medicine, that found Black and Hispanic people, while known to be far more apt to have dementia, are significantly less apt than other racial and ethnic groups to show Alzheimer’s pathology on brain scans. STAT News interviewed Deva Sharma, MD, Transfusion Medicine & Hematology-Oncology, for a story about more patients requesting unvaccinated blood and what it means for the medical system at large. Yahoo! Health reporter Korin Miller interviewed Gitanjali Srivastava, MD, Director of Obesity Medicine, for a story about how semaglutide and tirzepatide compare. William Schaffner, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, was quoted by several news outlets about public health issues, including: NBC News (new COVID vaccinations); Medscape (pneumonia and sepsis); and CNN (protection from contagious viruses). Shelbyville Times-Gazette is repurposing Jessica Pasley’s July 2025 Vanderbilt Health News story on tick-borne illnesses as a front-page story.
Jon Maples has big lead over Jonathan Rubin in HD 87 GOP Primary, and he’s got room to grow
Even with more than 1/3 of voters undecided, Maples already has majority support.
We Devised a “Friendly” Way to Keep Our Neighbor Out of Our Lawn. He’s Furious.
Prudie replies to readers’ comments and suggestions.
Is former first-round pick ready to be Commanders' WR2?
Can Treylon Burks live up to his potential and become the Commanders' No. 2 WR?
Hospitals Are Leading Efforts to Make Health Care More Affordable
Affordability is front and center in conversations across the country, as Americans feel pressure from the rising cost of living and policymakers search for solutions. Hospitals and health systems share their concerns because we see the impact of high costs every day on the patients and families we serve. Hospitals are not waiting to do their part. Across the nation, they are already implementing efforts to make healthcare more affordable and accessible, as well as providing solutions that could lower costs across the entire health care system.
As Ebola spreads in Congo, a radio station tries to stop health misinformation
A radio show in Congo is trying to battle misinformation around an ongoing Ebola outbreak.
As Ebola spreads in Congo, a radio station tries to stop health misinformation
A radio show in Congo is trying to battle misinformation around an ongoing Ebola outbreak.
As Ebola spreads in Congo, a radio station tries to stop health misinformation
A radio show in Congo is trying to battle misinformation around an ongoing Ebola outbreak.
Manchester City face Bayern Munich competition for Feyenoord’s Givairo Read
Man City looking to add depth to right-back options ahead of the 2026-27 seasonMatheus Nunes performed brilliantly last season but is a natural midfielderEnzo Maresca has held transfer talks with Man ...
The nation’s cartoonists on the week in politics
Every week political cartoonists throughout the country and across the political spectrum apply their ink-stained skills to capture the foibles, memes, hypocrisies and other head-slapping events in the world of politics. The fruits of these labors are hundreds of cartoons that entertain and enrage readers of all political stripes. Here's an offering of the best of this week's crop, picked fresh off the Toonosphere. Edited by Matt Wuerker.
Google Health App Gets Massive Update Fixing 15+ Core Bugs After...
The Google Health app rollout hasn't been received well, but Google has at least committed to making big changes over the next few weeks and months. Some have already arrived, while the rest are...
NM Health Care Authority announces $76M in federal rural healthcare funds
When fully implemented, the program aims to reduce long wait times, chronic disease risk factors and readmission rates to rural hospitals.
Last Call for 6.4.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.
Samsung Galaxy Z Flip8 to have both Exynos and Snapdragon chips
Which one you get will depend on where you're located, apparently. We've already heard that Samsung would be using the Exynos 2600 SoC in the upcoming...
I Wish Big Corporations Would Leave The Lord Of The Rings Alone
Please stop trying to 'create the highest-quality entertainment products for this IP' and go read a book instead
Great River Children’s Museum Teams With Science Museum of Minnesota for “Forces in Motion”
(KNSI) - Kids ready to push, pull, roll, and race will have a place to burn that energy Friday as the Great Ri...
This Proposed Rule Could Change American Science Forever. We Read It so You Don’t Have To.
There is no question this is a Big Deal. If you are a university or research lab, or aspire to work in one, or are simply an enthusiast of federally-funded research, what’s next will matter.
Would Bengals already trade second-round project?
An interesting name comes up as a Bengals trade candidate.
Raj Soin College of Business Associate Dean Rachel Sturm named rising education star by Dayton Business Journal
Rachel Sturm, associate dean and professor of management in the Raj Soin College of Business, has built a distinguished career as a scholar, teacher and leader. Continue reading →
Baton Rouge’s economy is booming, report says
Baton Rouge is outperforming many of its regional competitors on several key economic measures, from job growth and pay to housing affordability and worker productivity. That’s according to the G… Already an INSIDER? Sign in. Already an INSIDER? Sign in
How small businesses are reading the economy right now
Tariffs, fraud, and cautious optimism.
Radial Entertainment Greenlights 20 New Episodes of 'FBI Files' True Crime Series
Content distributor Radial Entertainment June 4 announced that production is underway on 20 new episodes of the true crime series “The FBI Files.” Bright North Studios, backed by Jeff Zucker-led RedBird IMI, will produce the new episodes. Produced in cooperation with the Federal Bureau of Investigation, “The FBI Files” follows agents as they investigate the … Continue reading "Radial Entertainment Greenlights 20 New Episodes of ‘FBI Files’ True Crime Series"
No excuses as Wilkinson insists Wales will be ready
Head coach Rhian Wilkinson says Wales cannot let travel chaos affect their performance in Friday's Women's World Cup qualifier in Montenegro.
Arts and Entertainment Agenda, June 4-11
Hotel Jerome’s Twilight Tarot, June 4 Hotel Jerome’s new Twilight Tarot series will take place weekly at 8 p.m. Thursdays in the Garden Room starting June 4. A local expert tarot card reader will guide...
Newcastle Announce Matt Targett News After 2025-26 Season
Newcastle United confirmed on Tuesday that defender Matt Targett will leave the club following the expiry of his contract at the end of June. The full-back was named on the club’s retained list for summer 2026, with Newcastle announcing that four more senior players will depart after Kieran Trippier and Emil Krafth had already been […]
New Dignity Health program helps identify mental health risks for pregnant and postpartum women
A new maternal mental health initiative in the Sacramento region is already helping connect pregnant and postpartum women with critical support services, according to Dignity Health.
Video consumption and entertainment spending increased in 2025
TiVo has released its Q4 2025 “Video Trends Report,” finding that consumer video engagement reached ... Read More
With Oval Office replica and skyline views of Chicago, Obama's new museum is political and personal
Former President Barack Obama’s influence in his presidential museum runs deep, from the Chicago location to the textured stone adorning its dramatic tower, art installations and a striped reading chairs that resemble ones in his own home
How Funding Cuts Left the World Vulnerable to Ebola
A strain with no known treatment or vaccine is spreading fast, and the international system built to contain outbreaks is in crisis.
What will it take to get a vaccine for the Ebola strain driving the current outbreak?
There is an effective vaccine for Ebola — but not for the variety spreading rapidly in the Democratic Republic of Congo. Trials are going on for several candidates. How long will it take?
Widespread Confusion Forces Amazon to Make Statement About Future James Bond Games
IO Interactive won't self-publish sequels
Alix Earle Is Reportedly Joining Benson Boone’s “The Time of My Life” Video
Alix Earle’s next entertainment move may take her from TikTok, reality TV, and magazine covers into Benson Boone’s music-video world. The influencer and media personality ... Read More
Visit Warwick Mall for your shopping, dining, and entertainment fun!
Whether you are looking for terrific shopping options, a place to eat, or just a fun place to relax, Warwick Mall is just the spot for you and they have some new additions that are ready to welcome…
iPhone 18 Pro: Dark Cherry, Light Blue, and Dark Gray Chassis Leaked
The color options Apple is reportedly planning for the upcoming iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max have appeared online today in the form of images of chassis parts of unknown origin. Shared by the account name "yeux1122" on the Korean-langauge Naver blog, the images show what appear to be production-ready frames for three of the four colors Apple is rumored to be planning.
Where science meets fashion: Raha Saremi turns agricultural waste into biomaterials
[vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text css=”” el_id=”text-container first-paragraph” el_class=”text-container first-paragraph”] When cracking a pecan, most people throw away the shell. Raha Saremi wants you to wear it. How? As a material scientist in the College of Family and Consumer Sciences, Saremi witnessed firsthand the sheer volume of agricultural byproducts going to waste across Georgia’s farming communities and natural environment. … Continue reading “Where science meets fashion: Raha Saremi turns agricultural waste into biomaterials”
How Rachel Carson's Silent Spring changed the world in 1962
Rachel Carson’s look at the dire effects of industrial and agricultural pollution birthed the modern environmental movement when it was first published – and remains as crucial a read today, finds Rowan Hooper
As the largest World Cup ever kicks off, health officials are focused on more than Ebola
Officials are more concerned about highly contagious diseases like measles and respiratory viruses, which can spread quickly through large, fast-moving crowds.
MDOC says inmate with business degree can't read books on investing
The MDOC expressed concerns Michael Thomas wanted to run a business from prison, but Thomas says he has no money to invest and only wants to learn.
Vote in our L.A. Sports Hall of Fame (USC edition)
Introducing the L.A. Times Sports Report Hall of Fame, where readers vote for Hall of Famers in various categories.
Greenwood is Roma’s top target as opening offer ready
Reports in Italy claim that Roma are ready to make their opening offer for Mason Greenwood, who is valued at €50m by Olympique Marseille.Several sources in Italy claim that English winger Greenwood ...
World Cup 2026: Top 🔟 contenders for the title
With the 2026 World Cup set to take place in the United States, Canada and Mexico, excitement is already building around the biggest sporting occasion on earth.Recent form, squad depth, tournament ped...
Loyal Royal? Well, Only If You’re One Royal
TTE debutant Niall shares his objections to Reading’s new One Royal scheme and how it’s been handled.
What are the Ebola vaccines under research, and when will they be ready?
At least three vaccines are being funded, research being fast-tracked as the outbreak spreads faster than the response.
Watch Commanders' Jayden Daniels connect with Chig Okonkwo during OTAs
Could the Commanders' WR2 already be on the roster and not who you think?
Presidential museum showcases political and personal sides of Obama with sprawling community campus
CHICAGO (AP) — Former President Barack Obama’s influence in his presidential museum runs deep, from the location on Chicago's South Side to textured stone adorning its dramatic tower to striped reading chairs that are similar to ones in his own home.
Presidential museum showcases political and personal sides of Obama with sprawling community campus
Former President Barack Obama’s influence in his presidential museum runs deep, from the Chicago location to the textured stone adorning its dramatic tower to art installations and a pair of striped reading chairs in the library that are similar to the ones he owns.
Oncology providers ready to swipe right on mobile health apps
Oncology providers are embracing the potential for mobile health apps to support cancer patients, highlighting opportunities for inclusive, evidence-based care.
Greatly improved NBA Finals presentation answers prayers of basketball fans
Game 1 of the 2025 NBA Finals represented a low point for the NBA on television. And in many ways, Game 1 of the 2026 NBA Finals felt like a renaissance. Years of discontent with increasingly moribund production culminated in widespread disappointment during last year’s opening game between the Oklahoma City Thunder and Indiana Pacers.…
Anthony Levine Sr. sees big future for Keondre Jackson
Special teams coordinator Anthony Levine Sr. says Keondre Jackson is ready for a bigger role after a strong spring.
San Jose businesses gear up for multi-week World Cup boost
With the World Cup kicking off next week, businesses across San Jose are preparing for a massive influx of soccer fans—and they are hoping the economic benefits will stretch far beyond downtown.
Around the MHS
This edition of news from around the Military Health System for the week of June 1-5, 2026, includes more coverage from the 2026 MHS Conference: awards for exceptional military medical professionals, Uniformed Services University’s spotlight on readiness, and inspirational words from a heroic Medal of Honor recipient.
WHO Health Emergencies EPI-WIN webinar: Hantavirus in focus III: reflections from a Border Health and Point of Entry perspective
The complex multi-country response to the hantavirus outbreak linked to cruise ship travel is an unprecedented test of the global border health system. This EPI‑WIN webinar will provide an opportunity to hear from key border health stakeholders on their involvement in and initial reflections about this particular multi-country response, as well as their routine collaborative work for the management of public health events across borders, at points of entry, and onboard conveyances.
Quentin Tarantino rips modern movies from Hollywood's 'flavorless sausage factory,' would 'rather read a book'
Quentin Tarantino slammed contemporary movies, as he called Hollywood a 'flavorless sausage factory' — but named a few recent films he actually liked.
New Topeka vehicle repair business celebrates grand opening
There is a new vehicle collision repair business in Topeka ready to serve the capital city.
Readers Write: Politicians, state GOP convention, biking habits
Politicians represent us, all right. Warts and all.
Last Call for 6.3.26 – A prime-time read of what’s going down in Florida
A digest of the day's politics and policy while the bartender refreshes your drink.
Trump Agitates Brazil’s Politics, Again
President Trump appears ready to lend a hand to a new right-wing ally ahead of a crucial election this year that will be the biggest test for Latin America’s left.
SpaceX sets the stage for a record $75 billion IPO
Elon Musk’s SpaceX unveiled plans Wednesday to set a $135 share price in its initial public offering price, for a sale worth $75 billion. The blockbuster debut would make Musk – already the world’s richest person – the first-ever trillionaire.
2027 NFL Draft Summer Scouting Report: Ahmad Hardy, RB, Missouri
Another Summer scouting report is ready, this time on Missouri RB Ahmad Hardy.
Alphabet's record-breaking $85B raise for Google's AI business is a helluva good signal
If Alphabet's record-breaking, $85 billion stock sale signals investor appetite for AI-related offerings, we can see that investors are ready to chow.
Fertitta Entertainment to Acquire Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (CZR): A Top Sin Stock to Buy
Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZR) is one of the best sin stocks to buy now. On May 15, reports emerged indicating Tillman Fertitta is moving closer to acquiring Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ:CZR). Several banks have already committed to a multi-billion-dollar debt financing package. Following these reports, on May 28, Caesars Entertainment, Inc. (NASDAQ: CZR) officially announced […]
‘Tulsa King’ Season 5 Could Introduce Big Change: All the Details
Season 4 hasn't yet hit the streamer but already details about what might be next are in.
Scientists just built a powerful AI computer worm that learns as it spreads
The prototype could help the world prepare for AI malware threats, the researchers say
'The Super Mario Galaxy Movie' Remains Atop U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through June 3
Universal’s The Super Mario Galaxy Movie remained No. 1 on the weekly Official Film Chart — the U.K. home entertainment sales chart — through June 3 due to digital transactions. Amazon MGM Studios’ former chart topper Project Hail Mary, starring Ryan Gosling as a lone astronaut on a mission to save humanity, remained at No. … Continue reading "‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie’ Remains Atop U.K. Home Entertainment Sales Chart Through June 3"
2027 NFL Draft Summer Scouting Report: Gavin Sawchuk, RB, Northwestern
Another Summer scouting report is ready, this time on Northwestern RB Gavin Sawchuk.
NEWS RELEASE - WNMU Expands Telemental Health Training for Rural New Mexico
For rural and underserved communities in New Mexico, accessing professional counseling services has historically meant long travel and logistical challenges. To address this, Western New Mexico University (WNMU) is working to eliminate these barriers by expanding its telemental health training and services and positioning itself as a leader in modern counseling education. Central to this… Continue reading NEWS RELEASE – WNMU Expands Telemental Health Training for Rural New Mexico
Kelp-powered planes, super El Niño and the science of sunburn
In this news roundup: climate crisis fuels hantavirus spread, extreme heat kills 3,400 Indians per day and countries endorse ICJ opinion
Microsoft and OpenAI broke up — now they’re ready to fight
“We have to prove that we can do everything that we need to from the ground up,” said AI chief Mustafa Suleyman.
Open Thread: June 3, 2026
The Open Thread/Daily Merengue is a place where you can discuss anything and everything related to football. Feel free to discuss the topics presented here, or start your very own discussions! The Open thread will be posted every day by one of the mods you’d totally do a movie marathon night with: Valyrian Steel, Felipejack, […]
'Survivor 50' players name the best moment of the season
'Survivor 50' players name the best moment of the season, and while one clear winning answer emerges, get ready for a few twists in the replies.
Popular GLP-1 weight-loss drugs linked to lower risks of addiction and overdose
A massive study of more than 600,000 U.S. veterans suggests that popular GLP-1 drugs such as semaglutide may do far more than help with diabetes and weight loss—they could also fight addiction itself. Researchers found that people taking these medications were less likely to develop substance use disorders involving alcohol, nicotine, cannabis, cocaine, opioids, and other drugs, while those already struggling with addiction experienced fewer overdoses, hospitalizations, emergency visits, and drug-related deaths.
From spider silk to science: a new way to access hidden fungal diversity
A new study from Thailand demonstrates that the debris-heavy webs of orb-weaving spiders can serve as natural, non-destructive tools for collecting and culturing viable environmental fungi. Through the isolation of living organisms, this innovative approach has already uncovered potentially new, undocumented fungal diversity within tropical rice fields.
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
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