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USB Video Capture Devices: Wow! They’re All Bad!!
[VWestlife] purchased all kinds of USB video capture devices — many of them from the early 2000s — and put them through their paces in trying to digitize VHS classics like Instant Firep…
Central Michigan coming to Ford Field for GameAbove Sports Bowl vs Northwestern
Central Michigan is coming to Detroit to play Northwestern in the GameAbove Sports Bowl at Ford Field.
In snowy Buffalo, Bengals lead Bills 21-11 at halftime
It’s a showy day in Western New York and the Bengals had little problem with that offensively in the first 30 minutes of Sunday’s matchup with Buffalo, carrying a 21-11 lead at halftime.
Polasek's first order of business: Taking care of Bison seniors
NDSU head coach thanks seniors after stunning second-round loss against Illinois State.
New judiciary chairman Willis focused on lightening load on West Virginia business owners
CHARLESTON, W.Va – New state Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Tom Willis is preparing for his second legislative session, armed with an agenda designed to make life easier on West Virginia business owners. Personal experience with the state’s regulations and requirements is motivating him to try and make a change. “I’ve spent a lot of time
Omaha small business vendors see improved sales at Midwest Fest weekend
Holiday shopping season is crucial for vendors who rely on outdoor markets to supplement income.
Little Rock author highlights journey at entrepreneurship conference - Talk Business & Politics
Northwest Arkansas educators recently learned about the benefits of entrepreneurship education, participated in entrepreneurial activities, and heard from a Little Rock author and her book series co-authored by her son...
Detroit Bound: Wildcats to Meet Central Michigan in 2025 GameAbove Sports Bowl
The Northwestern Wildcats will take on the Central Michigan Chippewas in the GameAbove Sports Bowl on Friday, December 26. This year's game will kick off fro...
Prairie Business releases 2025 40 Under 40 list
The inspiring and dedicated professionals listed every year come from a wide range of industries and have made significant impacts in their chosen professions and communities.
Rochester City Council to vote on labor and materials costs for sports complex
The Rochester City Council will be asked Monday to approve $52 million for labor and materials to build the city’s planned sports and recreation complex.
'Flipping Farms' reality show, partly filmed in Lancaster, hosts Manheim premiere
Gowns and glam met cowboy hats and Western wear on the red carpet Thursday night as the stars of the streaming reality series “Flipping Farms” held a premiere screening at
Letter: Random thoughts about politics from a tree stand
My deer rifle holds only four shells. I have never needed all four...But I guess the Grand Old Party’s congressmen think owning a 50-shot clip is important.
Global scientists gather in SW China's Tengchong to drive innovation
The 2025 Tengchong Scientists Forum opened Saturday in southwest China's Yunnan Province, drawing hundreds of scientists, university leaders and entrepreneurs from across the globe to explore cutting-edge research and promote deeper integration between
Decades Later, Scientists Finally Explain Voyager 2’s Bizarre Readings at Uranus
Powerful waves unleashed by solar storms could be the key to understanding extreme radiation. Southwest Research Institute (SwRI) researchers now think they have found the answer to a puzzle that has lingered for nearly four decades involving Uranus and its unusual radiation environment. When Vo
West Coast health experts reject RFK Jr. panel, say hepatitis B vaccines at birth should continue
“The West Coast Health Alliance grounds its decisions in facts, data and expert consensus,” Gov. Tina Kotek said.
For five figures, you can own a piece of Kanye West's unfinished Malibu house
A Tadao Ando-built home in Malibu once owned by rapper Kanye West was never finished. The current owner hopes to turn it into a social space.
Clarksville Conversations: Visit Clarksville’s slate of state, national sports events
The TACA East-West All-Star Game is coming up in Clarksville at Austin Peay State University.
Miami (OH) vs. Western Michigan prediction, odds: 2025 MAC Championship Game picks from proven model
SportsLine's computer model reveals its Western Michigan vs. Miami best bets
Inside Brooklyn’s first women’s sports bar: ‘We just wanted the Liberty game on’
A fortuitous Hinge match of like-minded New York Liberty fans turned into New York City's newest women's sports bar.
Fargo health officials say they 'just want to save more lives' with syringe services program
Fargo Cass Public Health leaders sat down with The Forum to explain how the program at the Harm Reduction Center works.
Western Carolina plays Queens (NC) on home skid
Western Carolina will attempt to stop its four-game home slide when the Catamounts face Queens (NC)
West Virginia, Wake Forest look to make early statement
Off to a solid start, West Virginia has been looking for more consistency, particularly against the top nonconference opponents on its schedule.
West Midlands people urged to 'shop local' and back small firms
Small Business Saturday celebrates local, independent traders amid hopes of a "lasting impact".
Full-length Replay: Mountain West Championship: UNLV at Boise St.
FOX Sports presents, “FOX COLLEGE FOOTBALL FRIDAY: MOUNTAIN WEST CHAMPIONSHIP”.
Will UK Politics Pay a Price For Farage’s £9 Million Crypto Donor?
The record-biggest single donation comes as some in Westminster seek a cap on political spending.
UNLV vs Boise State live updates: Start time, TV channel for Mountain West championship
The Boise State Broncos are hosting the UNLV Rebels in the Mountain West championship game. Follow live updates:
Malicious Links Target California Elections, Business Sites
Google users seeking information from the state’s official elections and business registration websites found questionable links instead. A site for the Kansas attorney general was similarly singled out.
December 5, 2025
A boom in construction of AI data centers is facing backlash over soaring electricity and water usage, and the resulting utility hikes. Plus, to save spotted owls in the Pacific Northwest, one plan suggests killing thousands of barred owls. And, geologist Anjana Khatwa explains how embracing wonder and awe adds to our scientific understanding of the rocks that form our planet.
Army merges three commands in move to prioritize homeland defense
The US Army officially stood up a new command on Friday to oversee the Army’s activities in the Western Hemisphere in the latest signal of increasing focus on homeland defense.
Councilman wants to establish business improvement district on Jacksonville’s Westside, similar to the one in 5 Points
A Jacksonville councilmember is proposing to establish a business improvement district on the Westside, according to News4JAX partners at the Jacksonville Daily Record.
The Apple Airpods 4 with ANC are at their lowest price
Listen to music while building an arcade game.
A Hospital Was Slated To Open in 2025. Amid a Legal Battle, It’s Still a Field of Dirt.
By Andrew Jones | KFF Health News Madison County, tucked in the mountains of western North Carolina, has no hospital and just three ambulances serving its roughly 22,000 people. The ambulances frequently travel back and forth to Mission Hospital in Asheville, the largest and most central hospital in ...
Trump national security strategy calls for ‘cultivating resistance’ in Europe and changing US’ role in Western hemisphere
The White House quietly released President Donald Trump’s new national security strategy late Thursday, a 33-page document that elevates his “America First” doctrine and sets out the administration’s realignment of US foreign policy, from shifting military resources in the Western Hemisphere to taking an unprecedentedly confrontational posture toward Europe.
Congratulations to 2025’s Prairie Business 40 Under 40 honorees!
This year’s 40 Under 40 honorees are exceptional professionals from many industries and sectors who are making significant impacts within their organizations and communities. They are industry executives, administrators, community leaders, entrepreneurs and more. These high-caliber individuals are making their mark in their companies and sectors.
Rocket League Season 21: Pursuit in Paris!
It’s a full-on French takeover in Rocket League Season 21 featuring the Parc de Paris Arena! Unlock three Car Bodies with Rocket Pass Premium.
Bullock has 15 as Hawaii downs UC Davis 75-69
HONOLULU (AP) Dre Bullock had 15 points in Hawaii's 75-69 win over UC Davis on Thursday night in a Big West Conference opener.
Governor - Science drives our public health policy here in Washington...
Science drives our public health policy here in Washington state and as part of the West Coast Health Alliance. We don’t trust Robert Kennedy Jr.
New Orleans faces Brooklyn on 5-game road skid
New Orleans Pelicans (3-20, 15th in the Western Conference) vs. Brooklyn Nets (5-17, 13th in the Eastern Conference) New York; Saturday, 5 p.m. EST BOTTOM LINE: New Orleans visits Brooklyn looking to stop its five-game road skid. The Nets are 1-10 on their home court.
22 photos of The Argo, the new music and entertainment venue in the old Fox Bay Theater
The Milwaukee area’s newest music and entertainment venue, The Argo, opens to the public this weekend.
Cal State Northridge defeats Cal State Bakersfield 87-66
LOS ANGELES (AP) Larry Hughes Jr. scored 27 points as Cal State Northridge beat Cal State Bakersfield 87-66 on Thursday in a Big West Conference opener.
US health department unveils strategy to expand its adoption of AI technology
The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has outlined a new strategy to expand its use of artificial intelligence.
Logan Health providers seek unionization amid staffing concerns
Nearly 60 primary care physicians, nurse practitioners, and physician assistants at Logan Health clinics in Northwestern Montana have filed a petition with the
Public Trust in Government: 1958-2025
While trust in government has been low for decades, the current measure is one of the lowest in the nearly seven decades since the question was first asked by the National Election Study, and it is lower than it was last year (22%).
'We're adding possibilities' MUSC Health Opens Phase 3 of West Ashley Medical Pavilion
WCIV ABC News 4, Charleston, South Carolina provides coverage of local and national news, sports, weather and community events in the region, including North Charleston, Mt Pleasant, Summerville, Hanahan, Goose Creek, Rantowles, Cottageville, St George, Moncks Corner, Jacksonboro, Ravenel, Cottageville, Walterboro, Sullivans Island, Dewees Island and Folly Beach.
Walking the Tiger Walk: Construction science student Charlie Rohaley built a Clemson Experience that's rock solid
The Tiger Walk leads to many things for the average Clemson student — the Oculus, the West End Zone, Frank Howard Field, the most exciting 25 seconds in
Construction underway at Hazzard Business Park
Construction is underway in Spokane’s Chief Garry Park neighborhood on a $1.5 million industrial park dubbed Hazzard Business Park, located just southwest of the Trent Avenue and Freya Street intersection, says owner and developer Luke Shuman.
Full-length Replay: Northwestern at Wisconsin
The Badgers and Wildcats, both 5-2, kick off their Big Ten schedules by meeting in Madison, Wisc.
Former Towne West Square mall lands first major tenant as business park transformation advances
The business park is an "intriguing project" that will help revitalize the area, said Nathan VanderGriend, CEO of PROtect, which has 22 locations with more than 750 employees in the
Big 12 Sports welcomes Pat Timlin WISN 12
The newest member of the Big 12 Sports team makes his first trip to Lambeau Field.
Student groups, political leaders divided over Northwestern's federal funding deal with Trump admin.
Advocates for Jewish students at Northwestern University say the agreement with the Trump administration is the first step in ensuring safety on campus, but some key political leaders say the university is bending to the will of the president.
ENTERTAINMENT: BIG holiday parade set for Saturday; Keo hosts pecan festival
The Little Rock Convention & Visitors Bureau’s BIG Little Rock Holiday Parade through downtown Little Rock starts at 3 p.m. Saturday at Broadway and West Markham Street, continuing east along Markham street through the River Market and concluding near Interstate 30.
Greater Cleveland Sports Hall of Fame inducts 5 newest members (photos)
The ceremony was held at the hall’s new permanent home on the near west side.
Humphreys weighs in on sports betting trends
With the Associated Press, Brad Humphreys discusses trends involving sports betting in West Virginia as other states begin to legalize gambling.
West Village business hit in possible arson attack as 6 suspects seen...
Possible Molotov cocktail thrown through window of West Village business
A suspected Molotov cocktail appears to have been thrown through the window of a West Village store.
Small Business Saturday sheds light on local storefronts, sees lower turnout due to winter storm
During a winter storm, members of the Evanston community battled howling winds and freezing temperatures to shop at Evanston’s third annual Small Business Saturday. Having begun in 2010 as a nationwide movement to support smaller, family-owned stores, this year’s Small Business Saturday featured special deals from 28 participating local businesses in Evanston. Downtown Evanston also...
Commentary: Mix up your holiday entertainment with a history of Texas’ lawless influence on Old West
Bryan Burrough's "The Gunfighters" examines how the Lone Star State was central to "a kaleidoscope of personal violence."
Kim Jong Un's Su-25 fighters have a new weapon, and it looks a lot like a Western cruise missile with a 300-mile range
Pyongyang paraded a new air-launched weapon that shares visual features similar to the Taurus, a cruise missile used by Seoul with a 300-mile range.
Cheyenne Frontier Days Releases Exciting 2026 Concert Lineup
The legendary “Daddy of ’Em All”has officially announced its 2026 concert lineup as it celebrates its 130th anniversary this next July.
How Data Science Will Change the World
Newly appointed Dean Rajesh Gupta shares his thoughts on data science, AI and how UC San Diego’s newest school is poised to redefine academia.
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?
Red Dead Redemption Out Now on Netflix, iOS, Android, PS5, Xbox Series, and Nintendo Switch 2
Experience John Marston's journey across the sprawling expanses of the American West and Mexico to hunt down the remaining members of the Van der Linde Gang in Red Dead Redemption along with his fight to stop a virulent zombie plague in Undead...
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
Amazon Extends This Mini PC (16GB RAM, 1TB SSD) Deal One More Day, Only a Few Units Left at Its Lowest Price
Save nearly 30% on the ACEMAGIC V1, which comes loaded with 1TB of storage, Wi-Fi 6, and a supercharged Intel processor for its lowest price.
Legacy Health advanced practice providers go on strike
Advanced practice providers with Legacy Health hospitals and clinics in the Portland metro area and Southwest Washington have gone on strike.
Lane Kiffin arrives in Baton Rouge, as the college football coaching carousel keeps going round and round
Michigan State, UCLA, Kentucky, James Madison, Northwestern all have coaches on the move
Entertainment and more in the Mid-Ohio Valley
PARKERSBURG – The Artsbridge calendar for the week ahead: TODAY * Anything Goes: Wild Things, all member exhibition of the West Virginia Watercolor Society, Parkersburg Art Center * Belpre Holiday Lights, Civitan Park, Belpre * Festival of Trees Display, Blennerhassett Hotel and Spa * Shannon Hammer, naturalist photography display, 9 a.m. to 4 p.m., WesBanco, […]
COVID-19 pandemic narrowed health care industry pay gap, new study finds
A new study finds that the COVID-19 pandemic narrowed the wage gap between high and low paid workers in the health care industry, as the lowest earners saw the biggest boost in pay in the years since the pandemic began.
BREAKING: New historic entertainment district designated in Downtown Madison
🚂 GREEN CUP DISTRICT IN MADISON: Check out the newest entertainment district in North Alabama.
Michigan State finalizes deal to hire ex-Northwestern coach Pat Fitzgerald to replace Jonathan Smith
Michigan State has its replacement for Jonathan Smith.
As political winds shift, top chipmaker TSMC looks beyond Taiwan
The lifeblood of Silicon Valley — advanced microchips — pumps from a science park on Taiwan's west coast, mostly from TSMC, the world's biggest chipmaker. But now the company is looking abroad for places to grow.
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.
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 […]
West Des Moines' Historic Valley Junction reschedules Small Business Saturday
Business owners prepare for Small Business Saturday 2.0 after a winter storm disrupted the original event.
School of Health Professions to celebrate graduates at Dec. 13 commencement: Center Times Plus, UT Southwestern
On Saturday, Dec. 13, the achievements of 128 School of Health Professions graduates will be celebrated at a commencement ceremony in the Tom and Lula Gooch Auditorium on South Campus.
Netflix’s #1 Movie Right Now Is a Holiday Crime Flick Packed with More Twists Than a Box of Candy Canes
Netflix’s newest holiday hit mixes romance, humor, and an unexpected heist, complete with charming leads and a plot twist viewers can’t stop talking about. Get all the details here.
Portland Business Journal Selects Relay Resources President and CEO for 2026 Executive of the Year Award
PORTLAND, Ore., December 01, 2025--Dr. Jennifer Camota Luebke, president and CEO of Relay Resources — the Pacific Northwest’s leading social enterprise nonprofit advancing disability inclusion in the workplace — has been named a 2026 Executive of the Year by the Portland Business Journal.
It's the Best Time of Year to Buy a New TV: Save Up to $1,000 With Cyber Monday Deals on LG, Samsung, Sony, and More
Cyber Monday TV deals are here with some of the year's lowest prices, with models from Samsung, Sony, and Amazon offering hundreds off!
Go (North) West, College Basketball
Lamenting the death of the truly-enjoyable MTE. I hadn’t planned on much basketball coverage here for a couple reasons: for one, the internet is a dying place, and, for two, that’s exacerbating the steady death of Off Tackle Empire dot blogspot dot biz. BUT! Looking over the (limited) options for basketball on this last snowy […]
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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When three European cities launch an initiative next year to boost scientific excellence and collaboration, much of the action is likely to take place in public spaces rather than in the laboratory.That is welcome news for Ana Marušić. A medical doctor and professor at the University of Split Medical School in Croatia, Marušić champions close connections between “town and gown” to encourage citizen involvement in research, raise public health awareness and ignite young people’s interest in science. “Responsible research and innovation cannot be done in an ivory tower, answering only the questions that are relevant for scientists,” explains Marušić, who chairs the Department of Research in Biomedicine and Health and leads the Centre for Evidence-based Medicine. “The role of the university is to be a medium for transferring new discoveries in science to society, but also to listen to society about what is important and what is needed.”Three cities united by scienceMarušić’s efforts stand to gain traction through Science Comes to Town (SCTT), a new European project to highlight science’s role in society and strengthen cross-border collaboration in research, innovation and sustainability. With funding from the European Commission, three cities—Split, Brest (in France) and Kiel (in Germany)—plan more than 1,000 public events, workshops and competitions for citizens of all ages, researchers, businesses and policymakers. The year-long project kicks off in Spilt on 20 January with a conference involving partner institutions, community representatives and European policymakers. The three cities may be geographically far apart, but they share much in common. All are located on coasts and are home to top regional research institutions that are part of SCTT. Among the project's partners, the University of Western Brittany in Brest, Kiel University and the University of Split belong to the SEA-EU university alliance, uniting nine European coastal academic institutions to advance research, student exchanges and sustainable development. “These universities have a very strong connection between gown and town,” explains Marušić, who is one of Split’s SCTT ambassadors. “It's very important that these universities are there for the community so that we can learn from each other and grow together.”Tackling Europe’s STEM shortagesSCTT will also reinforce efforts to address Europe’s widening gap in science, technology, engineering and mathematics (STEM) education. Studies show that nearly eight out of ten small- and medium-sized businesses cannot find enough workers with the skills required in advanced computing and artificial intelligence (AI)—hindering initiatives to boost European innovation and competitiveness. In healthcare, the European Commission has estimated a shortfall in medical professionals of 1.2 million, due to fewer young people joining the field and an ageing population that needs more care.Strengthening knowledge and dialogue can also help build trust between scientists and the public at time when disruptive technologies are reshaping research and clinical practice, but are also sparking questions about ethics and accuracy. With experience in the classroom and in clinical epidemiology—a discipline involving monitoring and controlling public health problems—Marušić sees the potential risks of over-reliance on AI and chatbot answers for both research and learning. “AI is a very good tool, but one has to be very critical about it,” she adds. “Delegating brain activities will definitely diminish your neural capacities because you are not developing the circuitry that is important for higher-level cognitive engagement.” She stresses the importance of critical thinking and encourages students to use AI as a researcher’s tool to reinforce rather than supplant human discretion and brainpower.The power of outreachSplit’s experience in bringing scientists and the public together has provided a platform for discussing research ethics and explaining science in simple terms. Local efforts to expand health literacy and awareness have helped reduce cardiovascular disease among women, according to Marušić’s research. The city’s university also hosts events to introduce schoolchildren to science, using hands-on experiments to spark curiosity.Marušić’s own love of science began with an interest in studying molecular biology. “But my parents told me, why don't you study medicine?” she recalls. “I said, OK, why not? And that was the best decision that I made.” Marušić is not a practicing physician, but teaches anatomy and public health. She also co-edits ST-OPEN, an overlay university journal that works on capacity building for research publishing among students and their supervisors. Balancing teaching, research and editorial work, she is a strong advocate for medical studies, urging high school students to consider medicine “because later on it gives you a really wide perspective about human life and about society” as well as many career opportunities.As SCTT prepares to bring science into daily life in 2026, Marušić hopes that it will build permanent bridges between scientists and citizens across Europe. “We can be a showcase for making collaboration with the community stronger to share knowledge, attract young talent and integrate critical and scientific thinking into everyday life,” she explains, adding that "collaborating with businesses to improve cities and communities is also an important aspect of this project."Science|Business, which connects policymakers, academics and industry through its news reporting, analysis and events, is an SCTT partner.
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