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Incoming Czech PM Babis' business empire spans chickens to fertility clinics
Czech billionaire Andrej Babis will become prime minister on December 9, after his populist ANO party won an October election. President Petr Pavel said he would appoint Babis after he cleared conflict-of-interest concerns by agreeing to shift his Agrofert business group to an independently governed trust.
President Trump -- the sports fan -- becomes mainstay of his second term
President Trump is a sports fan. In his second term, he's been inserting himself into America's pastimes.
When Ancient Scribes Accidentally Became Scientists
On a summer day in 709 BCE, scribes at the Lu Duchy Court in ancient China looked up to witness something extraordinary. The Sun vanished completely from the sky, and in its place hung a ghostly halo. They recorded the event carefully, noting that during totality the eclipsed Sun appeared
Chicago braces for dangerous cold as health officials warn frostbite can strike in 30 minutes
Chicagoans woke up to brutal cold Wednesday, with wind chills plunging to nearly 15 below. Health officials say the conditions are dangerous and can become life-threatening in a matter of minutes.
Grand jury rejects new mortgage fraud indictment against N.Y. AG Letitia James
The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss the matter.
Supreme Court allows Texas to use Trump-backed congressional map in midterms
The Supreme Court on Thursday allowed Texas to use a congressional map that will boost President Donald Trump’s effort to keep Republicans in control of Congress, blocking a lower court decision that found the new boundaries were likely unconstitutional because they were drawn based on race.
Czech billionaire Babiš will become PM after disposing of agri-business conflict
President Petr Pavel applauds the anti-establishment tycoon for resolving an issue with the Agrofert holding that had overshadowed the election aftermath.
Cleveland waterfront proposals include mixed-use entertainment, soccer field, housing
North Coast Waterfront Development Corp. has narrowed down the list of 18 applicants wishing to become part of a 50-acre downtown Cleveland development
Miley Cyrus gives update on beloved country singer’s health
Parton’s health became a topic of public concern after she withdrew from scheduled events earlier this year.
Rebecca Heineman, Transgender Video Game Pioneer, Dies at 62
Fleeing an abusive home life, she went on to win a national Space Invaders tournament, taught herself to program and left a trail of popular games in her wake.
AI chatbots used inaccurate information to change people’s political opinions, study finds
A paper published in the journal Science found that chatbots become more persuasive when they share large amounts of information.
Ashish Jha to step down as Brown University public health dean
PROVIDENCE — Ashish K. Jha, one of the nation’s leading public health experts who became a household name during the Covid pandemic, is leaving his post
Becoming Scientists
Students in Christina Cota’s biology lab get the hands-on experience necessary for ‘doing science’ after they graduate
Women’s Health Is Chronically Understudied and Underfunded. It’s Time for a Change
For millions of women, TikTok has become a doctor's office: Scroll through the app and you'll see endless videos about menopause, joint pain, hormone therapy – featuring no small amount of pseudoscience. Though misguided, this digital quest for medical knowledge is only a symptom of a larger issue:
Politics is now Americans' No. 1 money worry, financial planners say
Heading into 2026, the political environment has become the top concern clients are raising with their advisor, according to a new report by the CFP Board.
Britain’s slot-machine politics
Voting is becoming a high-stakes, wildly unpredictable gamble
How U.S. Employers Can Meet the Healthcare Needs of Younger Workers
Employers and health systems can do a better job of serving the specific healthcare needs of Millennials and Gen Zers by embracing the following seven approaches: 1) Enlist AI in the design of benefits and the delivery of care; 2) Harness virtual technologies to boost employees’ engagement in choosing and making the most of their healthcare benefits; 3) Shift to prepayment reimbursement models, which emphasize maintaining patients’ health rather than generating revenue when patients become ill; 4) Train physicians to connect with younger patients both technologically and culturally; 5) Combat the physician shortage by supporting educational programs and advocating for legislation to increase residency slots; 6) Treat mental health as an essential part of overall health; and 7) Adopting ways to make care for younger workers more affordable.
HEROES, HEART & HOPE GALA RAISES OVER $2.4 MILLION TO EXPAND ACCESS TO ADAPTIVE SPORTS, GRANTS AND INCLUSIVE PROGRAMS IN THE NORTHEAST
Evening at Casa Cipriani Celebrates Athletes with Physical Disabilities and Raises Critical Funds for Access to Sport HEROES, HEART & HOPE GALA RAISES OVER $2.4 MILLION TO EXPAND ACCESS TO ADAPTIVE SPORTS, GRANTS AND INCLUSIVE PROGRAMS IN THE NORTHEAST Evening at Casa Cipriani Celebrates Athletes with Physical Disabilities and Raises Critical Funds for Access to Sport Cost and access remain two of the biggest barriers to sport for people with physical disabilities Because of nights like this, mo
Boomers are drowning in their millennial kids' junk. They've had enough.
Millennials and Gen Zers are storing their stuff at their baby boomer parents' homes because it won't fit in their own. The parents are sick of it
Arsenal's 'beautiful' line-up change
Match of the Day pundit Danny Murphy says Arsenal's squad depth is "remarkable" after Brentford struggled to contain the right side of their attack in the 2-0 win on Wednesday: "It's becoming remarkable now how good their squad is because [Jurrien} Timber and [Bukayo] Saka play on the right hand side normally, which is arguably one of the best combinations down the right side in Europe. "Then they bring in [Ben] White and [Noni] Madueke, who looked like they have played together for seasons. It was a beautiful combination.
Wes Streeting orders review of mental health diagnoses as benefit claims soar
Health secretary has asked experts to investigate whether normal feelings have become ‘over-pathologised’
Explore youth leadership opportunities in the Michigan 4-H Shooting Sports program - 4-H Shooting Sports
Learn about the teen leader program in 4-H shooting sports and how youth can become involved, have an impact on the program and develop leadership and life skills.
Frustrated patients amid UConn Health-Aetna rate dispute
We are hearing from patients who feel caught in the middle of a dispute between Aetna and UConn Health. They are frustrated the health system is now considered out-of-network for thousands of people. “It’s very disconcerting to all of a sudden to be told, ‘Hey, I can’t see you because you know, your insurance won’t pay,’” said Brenda Barth, of…
How The Idea Of Affordability Is Shaping Our Politics : 1A
No matter where you live in the U.S., you’ve probably heard stories — or have your own — about not being able to afford to live. The couple in their 30s that can’t buy a home. The 20-something who can’t afford rent without living with several roommates. The family of five who feel pinched every time they visit the grocery store. The retiree struggling to pay their health insurance premium.Whatever the situation, these stories are becoming central to how Americans are experiencing the economy. And this feeling is shaping politics.A CBS poll from October suggests inflation and the economy are now the top concern among Americans. According to the Urban Institute, 52 percent of U.S. families don’t have the resources to cover what it costs to live. The average monthly cost of groceries has also risen 32 percent since 2019.What do when we mean when we say something is “affordable?” And how do we achieve that goal when the target keeps moving?
Why science lost its way
Author Matt Ridley examines how science became centralized and dogmatic, and how open dissent is essential to restoring credibility.
Rebecca Lowe Joins FOX Sports as FIFA World Cup 2026 Host
FOX Sports has announced that renowned host and presenter Rebecca Lowe will join its broadcast team for the FIFA World Cup 2026.
ACCLAIMED PRESENTER REBECCA LOWE JOINS FOX SPORTS’ BROADCAST TEAM FOR FIFA WORLD CUP 2026™ - Fox Sports Press Pass
LOS ANGELES – FOX Sports, America’s English-language home for the FIFA World Cup 2026™, today announces celebrated host and presenter Rebecca Lowe will join the network’s broadcast team as one of its hosts covering the world’s greatest sporting event next […]
How do we know the role of climate change in weather events? Attribution science.
Attribution science helps us measure how much more likely, frequent, or intense specific weather events are because of human-caused climate change.
Your health has a ‘check engine’ light. Let’s start using it (Guest Opinion by Dr. Sarah Matt)
Wearable devices give us the power to see inside our own bodies and take action before health problems become impossible to fix, writes CNY surgeon and tech strategist.
CBS Sports' Duke-Arkansas Thanksgiving Matchup Most-Watched Regular-Season College Basketball Game in More Than 30 Years
No. 4 Duke's 80-71 victory over No. 22 Arkansas on Thanksgiving Day delivered historic numbers for CBS Sports, becoming the most-watched regular-season colle...
Rebecca Lowe joining Fox’s World Cup coverage as host: Sources
Lowe’s role with NBC on the Premier League, the Olympics and Kentucky Derby will remain unchanged.
2,500-Year-Old Chronicle Is Oldest Known Record Of A Total Solar Eclipse And Reveals Some Surprises
Because this record survived, we know more about ancient Chinese history, the rotation of the Earth, and past solar activity than we would otherwise.
Kilbourne Run Sports Park nears completion of $40M soccer upgrade
Columbus hopes the park will become a regional soccer hub.
I quit Apple 20 years into my career and became homeless. Hitting bottom led me to heal and find a new path.
An Apple engineer quit her job and couldn't get hired after several months, becoming homeless. She shares how school helped her start over and heal.
Health insurance costs could spike, as bipartisan ACA deal looks less likely
With a ticking clock and no clear bipartisan path forward, extending the Affordable Care Act subsidies is becoming more challenging.
Clippers part ways with Chris Paul as franchise struggles continue
The Los Angeles Clippers abruptly parted ways with veteran point guard Chris Paul late Tuesday night, ending the 12-time All-Star’s brief and emotional return to the franchise where he became one of the defining players of the Lob City era.
Video College sports landscape spurs Saint Francis University to leave Division 1
ABC News’ Ike Ejiochi reports on Saint Francis University’s major decision to move from Division I to Division III athletics because of challenges created by NIL, the transfer portal and more.
Feeling more at home on road, Nuggets take on Pacers
Home is usually a sanctuary for NBA teams, but Ball Arena has become a house of horrors for the Denver Nuggets.
‘It was disheartening;’ local businesses see a decrease on Small Business Saturday
One store closed early because they didn't have many customers.
Opinion | Big business finally joins the fight against Trump’s tariffs
Costco becomes the largest company to sue over the administration’s trade policy.
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...
GOP Iowa state Treasurer Roby Smith is running for reelection in 2026
Smith narrowly defeated longtime Democratic Treasurer Mike Fitzgerald in 2022, becoming the first Republican to hold the office in 40 years.
Fallout 76: Burning Springs Release Notes
Grab your duster, hat, and your favorite weapon because it’s time for some Bounty Hunting! Explore our largest map addition yet and hunt down some of the largest bounties Burning Springs has to offer.
Yuyu Pharma Announces Strategic Investment in Dalan Animal Health as Part of Accelerated Global Expansion in Animal Health
Yuyu Pharma announced today that it has completed a strategic investment in Dalan Animal Health, a U.S.-based biotechnology company advancing an innate immunity–based platform for developing vaccines for honeybees and shrimp. The investment marks a significant step in Yuyu Pharma's plan to become a more active global player in the fast-growing animal health sector.
Jersey City voters will decide on former NJ Gov. Jim McGreevey’s comeback attempt
Jersey City voters will head to the polls Tuesday in a runoff to decide whether former Gov. Jim McGreevey, who resigned from the governorship in scandal more than 20 years ago, will succeed in making a longshot political comeback and become their next mayor.
We asked readers about how prices on everything from rent to groceries have changed. Here's what they said.
Most respondents felt that it has become more expensive to grocery shop and dine out.
Science history: Computer scientist lays out 'Moore's law,' guiding chip design for a half century
At a small local chapter meeting of a professional society, Gordon Moore's talk laid out the rudiments of what would become "Moore's law, which would govern the electronics industry for a half century.
An extra solar system planet once orbited next to Earth — and it may be the reason we have a moon
Earth may have a moon today because a nearby neighbor once crashed into us, a new analysis of Apollo samples and terrestrial rocks reveals.
Candid Politics: WI Governor Candidate David Crowley
In this edition of Candid Politics, The Badger Herald took a walk along Lakeshore Path with WI Governor David Crowley. Crowley’s difficult childhood largely motivated his path toward becoming a community organizer, state representative and current Milwaukee County Executive. Watch the full video to hear about Crowley’s platform, political experience and more. Interview by George...
In a bold move, UCLA hires Bob Chesney to become its next head football coach
UCLA turns to up-and-coming James Madison head coach Bob Chesney, hiring him to rebuild the Bruins football program.
Mikel Merino - could he be Arsenal's number nine?
Arsenal's draw with Chelsea was not their best performance of the season but the sight of Mikel Merino wheeling away after scoring an important goal has become a familiar welcome sight for the Gunners.
AI becomes a political wedge issue, creating odd bedfellows across parties
MAGA media personality Steve Bannon described the fight on the right as one between populists and "broligarchs" in the tech industry.
Once-in-a-century floods set to become annual events in northeastern US in the next 75 years, study finds
Rising sea levels and storm surges from hurricanes will bring more frequent extreme floods to northeastern U.S. states, including Connecticut, New York and New Jersey.
Forsberg: Jordan Walsh emerging as the 'violent defender' C's were promised
After Jordan Walsh's career night, Chris Forsberg breaks down how the young Celtics wing has become a legitimate difference-maker on defense.
Top 25 And 1:
Catch your breath if you can because Tuesday's schedule is loaded with great games including UConn vs. Kansas
WHO issues global guideline on the use of GLP-1 medicines in treating obesity
To address the growing global health challenge of obesity, which affects more than 1 billion people, WHO has released its first guideline on the use of Glucagon-Like Peptide-1 (GLP-1) therapies for treating obesity as a chronic, relapsing disease.
Newport business works to reduce Oregon’s fish waste
The Newport restaurant has become a local staple known for serving locally-caught seafood to tourists visiting Oregon’s Central Coast.
The CNRS is breaking free from the Web of Science
From January 1st 2026, the CNRS will cut access to one of the largest commercial bibliometric databases, Clarivate Analytics'
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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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. 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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. 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