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Vanderbilt Health Pets of the Day: Freddy and Cooper
Today’s first Dog of the Day is Freddy, submitted by Beth Piazza of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. “Freddy was adopted on Valentine’s Day of 2024 from the Nashville Humane Association. He is the cuddliest 90-pound lap dog.“ Today’s second Dog of the Day is Cooper, submitted by Brandie Taylor of Medicine. “Cooper is a 14 year old chocolate lab. He loves eating and going to get pup cups!” Freddy and Cooper were featured in the June 9, 2026, edition of MyVUMC News. To see the archived collection of Vanderbilt Health Pets of the Day, go to: https://news.vumc.org/section/voice/pets-vumc/. Pet photos wanted! The Vanderbilt Health Pets of the Day are posted to the Voice section of Vanderbilt Health News and included in regular editions of the MyVUMC News newsletter, which is published twice a week by Vanderbilt Health News and Communications. Now through July 6, we especially want to see photos of your pets enjoying spring and summer. That might be having fun at the lake or beach, hanging out in the backyard, lying on the couch, or in the case of a pet fish, just living the life aquatic (we’re not too strict about what constitutes enjoying spring and summer). If you have a pet picture you would like to send in for consideration, go to the submission form here and follow the guidelines.
Jordan: 2026 World Cup Squad, Fixtures and Schedule
Jordan make their FIFA World Cup debut this summer, joining Cape Verde, Curaçao and Uzbekistan as the four tournament newcomers.The Al-Nashama qualified by finishing second in AFC third-round Group B...
Damai Entertainment Sets Int'l Release For $223M Hit ‘Dear You’
Film made in the Chaoshan dialect has become the second highest grossing release of the year in China.
Texas defeats Texas Tech for second consecutive WCWS national championship, Teagan Kavan again wins Most Outstanding Player
Unlike last year, Texas Tech could not force a winner-take-all Game 3 against Texas in the Women's College World Series championship.
Texas claims second straight WCWS title over Texas Tech
Kayden Henry homered to lead Texas to a 4-1 victory over Texas Tech on Thursday night at the Women's College World Series for a second straight national championship.
Charlotte Hornets 2025-26 player grades: Antonio Reeves
After making 45 appearances with the Pelicans last season, Antonio Reeves played his second NBA season with the Charlotte Hornets.
Seahawks’ Cooper Kupp sees room for growth in Year 2 in Seattle
As Cooper Kupp enters his second season with the Seahawks, Seattle appears to finally feel like home, which he says is "definitely helpful."
House passes bill to provide more Ukraine aid and impose new sanctions on Russia
The 226-195 vote is a sign of impatience with President Donald Trump's approach to the war and represents the House's second major foreign policy break with Trump this week.
2027 four-star CB Blake Jenkins commits to Michigan Football
BOOOOM! 2027 four-star CB Blake Jenkins has committed to Michigan Football! The Wolverines land another stud in the secondary. STORY:
Four Senate Republicans again unite with Dems to block Trump's SAVE America Act
Four Senate Republicans joined Democrats to kill the SAVE Act voter ID amendment for a second time, blocking it from the budget reconciliation package.
Would Bengals already trade second-round project?
An interesting name comes up as a Bengals trade candidate.
Former Yankees playoff hero joins rival Red Sox
The Boston Red Sox have added a familiar veteran arm to their bullpen, promoting Tommy Kahnle from Triple-A as they look to strengthen their pitching staff for the second half of the season. While Kahnle may not be the overpowering…
2026 Memorial Tournament Friday tee times: Round 2 pairings
Full 2026 Memorial Tournament tee times for Friday's second round at Muirfield Village, featuring Jordan Spieth, Rory McIlroy and more.
Senate rejects an initial attempt to ban Trump's $1.8-billion 'anti-weaponization' fund
It was the second effort in Congress to rebuke President Trump in two days, following the House vote Wednesday to rein in Trump's war powers in Iran.
Italian teenagers discover 1,800-year-old Roman luxury house underneath their high school gym
After being notified by mischievous high school students, archaeologists uncovered a large and luxurious second-century Roman house near the Colosseum.
RFK Jr.’s second year: Vacancies, not vaccines
Assessing the health secretary's biggest challenges, and a look at new rules that inject politics into the NIH.
Explore Fun and Immersive New Community Missions in GTA Online
Dive into exciting new player-created GTA Online experiences in the Community Mission Series on PS5, Xbox Series X|S, and PC (Enhanced), including a second showcased submission from GTA Series Videos along with new featured creators including ShelbyGR,...
Meet DFP Spring Fellow, Emily Martinez, University of Wisconsin-Madison -
Emily R. Martinez is a second-year PhD student in the Department of Political Science at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, specializing in comparative politics with a regional focus on Western Europe. Her research sits at the [...]
'One of the Best Showcases I've Seen': 70% of PS5 Fans Loved State of Play
The second best-rated State of Play ever
New Steelers coaches see Jalen Ramsey as their version of do-it-all Charles Woodson
Mike McCarthy and his coaching staff see Jalen Ramsey as the ultimate chess piece in their secondary, a defender who can move around and be a true threat...
Jays Trade For Simeon Woods Richardson
It is a the second coming of Simeon Woods Richardson. You will likely remember that the Jays picked him (along with Anthony Kay) up from the Mets for Marcus Stroman back in 2019. I remember it mostly because I was in Toronto at the time and was at a game with Matt W and we […]
Knicks open NBA Finals on road with win over Spurs
SAN ANTONIO — The New York Knicks’ winning streak lives on, and they struck first in the NBA Finals. Jalen Brunson scored 30 points, Karl-Anthony Towns finished with 18 points and 12 rebounds, and the Knicks erased a 14-point second-half deficit to beat the San Antonio Spurs 105-95 in Game 1 of the finals on […]
‘It could have been preventable’: Neighboring business owner reacts to second recycling plant fire in Albuquerque
Déjà vu for Bernalillo County Fire and Rescue being called to two fires at a South Valley Recycling Plant in less than two weeks.
Demand for second mental health review for man accused of killing Cleveland officer
The FOX 8 I-Team has uncovered a new legal battle over the mental health of the suspect in the murder of Cleveland Police Officer Jamieson Ritter.
Dodgers' Shohei Ohtani Leads National League Second MVP Poll
As expected, the Los Angeles Dodgers' two-way star Shohei Ohtani is leading the MVP polls.
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass advances to November runoff as she seeks second term
Spencer Pratt, a Republican and former star of the reality television show “The Hills,” was second in early returns. Pratt accuses Bass of letting wildfires get out of control and failing to make enough progress on the homeless crisis.
Poll: President Trump’s approval is 10 points lower than start of second term
People aren’t happy with his handling of their top issue – inflation and the cost of living.
Politics: What’s Life Like For The Government Employees Still Working?
More than 300,000 federal workers have left government service since the start of the second Trump administration.Some were laid off by the administration. Some took buyouts. Some walked out. The cuts hit every major agency — from the State Department to the Justice Department.That doesn’t mean things have been easy for those still working for the government. Last week, the Office of Personnel Management proposed requiring all federal employees to sign non-disclosure agreements that would prevent them from sharing internal government information.We sit down to talk about how those cuts are affecting the workers who remained.Find more of our programs online. Listen to 1A sponsor-free by signing up for 1A+ at plus.npr.org/the1a.
Kuo: Apple's Vision Pro Successors Off the Table as Focus Shifts to Smart Glasses
Incoming Apple CEO John Ternus signed off on a major revision of Apple's Vision Pro and smart glasses plans, consolidating Apple's work in the category. According to Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, Ternus nixed plans for a second Vision Pro and a lighter Vision Air. Kuo says there are only two smart glasses products in development, including the AI smart glasses that Apple is creating to rival the Meta Ray-Bans and a display-equipped set of AR smart glasses.
Former ACC president William Parmley remembered as powerhouse in cardiology
Parmley is most noted for his research on the harmful effects of secondhand smoke, hemodynamics and new therapies for heart failure.
WATCH: Rubio scorches claim Trump weighed finances in Iran decisions: ‘Not even for a millisecond’
Secretary of State Rubio calls allegations that Trump considered personal finances in Iran decisions "completely false" during heated House hearing.
Elections to top science bodies test Croatia’s gender equality in research
Croatia’s track-record on gender equality in science has been both questioned and lauded in recent months, following both bad and good news on the topic. On the one hand, a senior awards committee was announced without a single woman researcher included. On the other, the national science academy welcomed its first cohort of fellows with more women than men.Members of the committee, which gives national awards recognising scientific achievement, are proposed by the ministry of science and endorsed by the parliament. The current line-up does include a woman, but she is culture minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek rather than a researcher. Even then, she didn’t make it into the photograph released to announce the appointments on April 16. “The image speaks a thousand words,” says Tanja Rudež, a science journalist for Jutarnji List newspaper. “I am surprised that none of these men, all well-known scientists, saw a problem with the fact that there was not a single successful female scientist on the committee,” she told Science|Business.Ivan Đikić, a prominent Croatian biochemist based at Goethe University Medical School, commented on LinkedIn that the news illustrated a “sad truth” about the state of science in Croatia.“It [. . .] reveals a system where women, despite contributing a substantial share of high-quality, internationally competitive science, are systematically excluded from the very processes that determine recognition and influence,” he wrote. Some 60% of researchers in Croatia are women, according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, and they perform well in international competitions. For example, of the 12 European Research Council (ERC) grants awarded to Croatian researchers, seven went to women.“So how is it possible that decision-making bodies are still dominated by men over 60, while not a single female ERC laureate is involved in the selection process?” asked Đikić. “This is not a marginal oversight; it is a structural failure.” The ministry of science did not reply to a request for comment. The awards committee is not unusual. For example, a scientific advisory body announced by the ministry of demographics in April comprises 35 men and five women. The board of the Croatian Science Foundation, newly appointed by the parliament, is a little better, with five men and two women, but still unequal. “This is especially significant because such bodies do not merely distribute prestige. They shape research priorities, funding allocation and long-term scientific development,” Marija Lugarić, chair of the parliament’s committee on gender equality, told Science|Business. “Representation here matters not only symbolically, but materially.”Referring to the awards committee and the board of the science foundation, Lugarić says that while both bodies were appointed by parliament, neither met the minimum 40% gender balance threshold that Croatian law and EU guidelines expressly recommend for public bodies.Đikić wants to see EU institutions put pressure on the government to ensure basic standards of fairness, transparency and democratic governance in science policy are met. “Meaningful change will not come without pressure,” he wrote. “It must intensify both within Croatia and at the level of European institutions. Anything less undermines the credibility of Europe’s commitment to excellence and inclusion in science.”Rudež also underlined the importance of talking and writing about this topic, “because public opinion in Croatia does influence changes in the status and visibility of women in science.”The European Commission has not yet responded to a request for comment.Good news from the academyA more positive story came from the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts on 21 May, with the announcement of seven new women fellows and five men. This is the first time in the academy’s 165-year history that women have outnumbered men in a new intake.One of the new fellows, two-time ERC grantee Iva Tolić, credits the academy leadership with trying to be more modern and inclusive, representing the whole community better. “The academy is really aware that so far, before this election, there were very few women,” she told Science|Business. “So, they are actively trying to make this more equal.”Related articlesExplained: How the MSCA is close to achieving gender balanceCall for EU to leverage academic freedom in global talent raceRudež is more cautious, noting that despite the academy’s “breakthrough this year [. . .] it is still a predominantly male institution, with only 18% women.”This reflects a wider imbalance in Croatia’s research landscape. “The key levers of power in science are still in the hands of men,” she went on. “For example, all 14 rectors of private and public universities are men.”Similarly, Lugarić says a structural glass ceiling still exists in Croatian science, which is “most visible precisely where power is exercised.”She cites data from the Commission’s She Figures 2024 report, which shows that Croatia ranks second in the EU for gender equality in research and innovation overall, with an equality index of 79.6 out of 100. It is in the top five for women’s career advancement, participation in research; representation across all research sectors and for scientific publications.In stark contrast, it ranks second to last when it comes to women in decision-making positions in science. “This is not a coincidence,” Lugarić says. “It is a structural pattern.”Informal barriersThe persistent under-representation of women in the highest structures of Croatia’s academies, boards, award committees and leadership positions is not down to formal barriers, Lugarić says, but arises from more subtle obstacles such as “informal networks, persistent expectations regarding traditional gender roles and the unequal distribution of care responsibilities.”Tolić would like to see more support for young women in terms of affordable housing and child support, and higher salaries. Currently, she says, salaries in science stay low for the first 10-15 years, while housing and spaces in kindergarten are limited and expensive. “You have to work a lot, you get very little money, so it’s not great to have a family in this situation,” she says.But despite the challenges, Tolić is optimistic, saying that gender equality in research in Croatia is “definitely improving and going in the right direction.” The situation is particularly promising in biology, she adds, where most full professors, heads of department and deans of faculties are women. Lugarić, too, see the glass ceiling “very slowly, cracking,” and cites the academy election as an example that structural change is possible. Yet the situation in the national awards committee is a “stark reminder that without a conscious, systemic commitment to gender balance, progress will remain slow and uneven.”
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
Detroit Tigers takeaways: Why Jackson Jobe arrived at Tropicana Field
The Detroit Tigers beat the Rays, 8-0, in the second of three games in the series at Tropicana Field, scoring 18 runs through two games in June.
Where billionaires are getting second passports, residences
Peter Thiel's relocation to Argentina is part of a bigger billionaire trend, Here are the popular back up countries for the ultrarich.
Euro zone business wilts in May as war-driven inflation surges, pointing to Q2 GDP contraction
Euro zone private sector activity shrank at the fastest rate in 18 months in May as waning demand for goods and services — a key gauge of economic health — dragged output lower for a second month while cost pressures hit their highest level in more than three years, a survey showed.
Dodgers Edge Diamondbacks in Narrow Win
The Los Angeles Dodgers fought off an Arizona Diamondbacks comeback attempt, winning the second game of their series, 6-5.
Mancini not interested in joining Inter
Roma finished last season with the second-best defense, conceding just 31 goals in 38 games, bettered only by Fabregas’ Como (29). These numbers were crucial to finishing third, and therefore in the...
Polis protects system rigged against workers
By Jeremy Ross Shame on Gov. Jared Polis. He used his veto pen again to indulge the billionaire corporate elite by denying the freedom of workers to join together and form a union without being threatened, fired or blocked by a second election. For two years in a row, the Worker Protection Act passed out […]
Pirates' Bubba Chandler: Earns second win Tuesday
Pirates' Bubba Chandler: Earns second win Tuesday
Los Angeles Mayor Karen Bass punched her ticket for November’s election. Spencer Pratt is still hoping for his
Bass secured a spot on the November ballot and Pratt was running in second place as of early Wednesday morning,
Pragg beats Carlsen for second time in Norway Chess; Satwik-Chirag in first round action at Indonesia Open: Indian Sports LIVE, June 3
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Empowering Rehabilitation Through Sports: CDCR, Angel City FC and Twinning Project Complete Second Cohort at CIW
WHAT YOU NEED TO KNOW: California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation (CDCR), the Twinning Project and Angel City Football Club (ACFC) completed its s
Patriots OTA Notebook: A.J. Brown makes highly-anticipated practice debut
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Aston Villa and Brighton enquire about Roma’s Matias Soule
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How Science Works
The 2nd Weather and Climate Livestream is now underway. It is organized by a group of early-career researchers concerned about declining funding for the field and eager to demonstrate how weather and climate research makes a difference in our lives. Last year’s event was a great success, drawing terrific press coverage including a piece in the NY Times. This year features a strong lineup of talks aimed at a general audience — I highly recommend tuning in. Share I gave a talk yesterday about How Science Works in Three Steps. You can see the short presentation here (I’ve appended a transcript below): And please tune into the livestream here. It runs through tomorrow at 6 pm ET. Thanks for reading The Climate Brink! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support our work. Subscribe Cleaned up transcript: Thank you, and thanks to everyone tuning in. I want to talk about something I think a lot of people don’t really understand: how science actually works. Arguments over any scientific topic — climate change, vaccines, you name it — revolve around competing claims. For climate change, the claims are: Is the Earth warming? Are humans to blame? What will the impacts be? Over the last 150 years, the scientific community has developed a remarkably robust method for sorting out which claims are true and which aren’t. That method is what I want to walk through. So how does science generate knowledge? If you ask a high schooler, they’ll give you the version they learned in ninth grade: an individual scientist forms a hypothesis, runs an experiment, and draws a conclusion. That’s more or less what happens at the individual level, though in practice it’s more iterative — you design, test, and refine all at once, landing on a slightly different idea each time until you reach a conclusion about whatever hypothesis you’ve ended up with. But this isn’t science. It’s only step one. Any individual scientist can make mistakes — scientists are human. Maybe there’s a bug in the code, maybe there’s an error in the experiment. Just because someone ran an experiment and reached a conclusion doesn’t mean it’s right, and scientists don’t treat a single result as settled truth. Step two is peer review, the first layer of quality control. The scientist writes up what they did and submits it to a journal, which sends the paper to other experts in the field. Those experts judge whether the methods are sound, whether it properly references prior work, and whether the conclusions actually follow from the data. Ask any scientist and they’ll tell you peer review is miserable — the comments come back brutal, often harsh, and you have to revise and resubmit, sometimes multiple times, before an editor finally accepts the paper. Peer review catches an immense amount of bad science, but it can’t catch all of it. Reviewers get sloppy or overworked, they miss obvious mistakes, and they can’t catch hidden errors — a bug in the code, a misread instrument. So a peer-reviewed paper making it into a journal doesn’t mean the paper is right. Nobody treats a single paper as the final word. That’s where step three comes in: the crucible of science. Important results get retested by the broader community. If you publish something interesting, it gets dissected. Sometimes people try to reproduce your work directly but more often they test its implications. If someone claims X is true, and that implies that Y is also true, then scientists will go check Y. If a claim survives this gauntlet long enough, it becomes accepted. That’s how we generate knowledge. Let me give an example: the ozone hole. In 1985 — and I doubt many people watching were around then, but I remember it well — Joe Farman and his colleagues published observations from Antarctica showing that a huge chunk of ozone was disappearing every year. This was shocking because most atmospheric chemists had expected ozone loss to occur at mid-latitudes and high altitudes, not over the South Pole. When scientists see something they don’t understand, they rush to explain it, and several competing hypotheses quickly appeared in the peer-reviewed literature. One pointed to chlorine chemistry from chlorofluorocarbons. A second blamed nitrogen chemistry, possibly driven by solar proton events — meaning the sun was responsible. A third argued it wasn’t chemistry at all but dynamics: winds were carrying naturally low-ozone air from the lower atmosphere up into the stratosphere. Then the community went to work testing which theory could survive the crucible. Aircraft flew into the ozone hole and found no nitrogen, ruling out the nitrogen theory. Measurements showed the air in the polar vortex was descending, not rising — which would bring high-ozone air down, eliminating the dynamics theory. Meanwhile, those same flights measured enormous amounts of chlorine, strongly correlated with exactly the regions where ozone was being destroyed. That became known as the “smoking gun” paper, and it established that chlorine chemistry was the cause. Through this process, a consensus emerged. And it’s worth being clear that this consensus is organic. There’s no vote, no poll, no meeting where it gets decided. Scientists go to conferences, talk to one another, and independently arrived at the same answer. It’s the ultimate free market of ideas. After the consensus was established, the peer-reviewed literature doesn’t even mention the rival theories — it simply takes chlorine chemistry as given. That’s what a consensus looks like. It doesn’t mean every single scientist agrees, but it does mean there’s no longer any legitimate debate. So where can you see what scientists actually think? It’s all in the peer-reviewed literature, which contains the entire historical record of the argument: the discovery, the competing theories, the debate, the testing, and finally the community coalescing around one answer. But there’s a lot of room for misrepresentation. You can dig up an old paper claiming the ozone hole was caused by dynamics and wave it around as if there still was a debate about the cause of the ozone hole — without mentioning that the idea was disproven long ago and that even its own authors no longer believe it. There’s a bigger problem, though: the peer-reviewed literature is written in a language I call “nerd.” It’s extremely hard to read — honestly, some of it is hard for me to follow. It takes graduate students years to work through the literature in a single field, so we can’t expect policymakers or ordinary people to do it. This is where scientific assessments come in. The most famous is the IPCC — the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. The job of an assessment is to read and summarize the peer-reviewed literature, synthesizing what’s settled, what’s been disproven, and what remains genuinely debated. To ensure the assessments accurately summarize the peer-reviewed literature, assessments are written by large teams, which are far less prone to bias than individuals and which dilute the influence of any one scientist with an axe to grind. The teams are deliberately assembled to avoid stacking the deck, and the reports themselves go through multiple rounds of peer review. That rigorous process is exactly why you can trust them and why people consider the IPCC to be the gold standard of what we know about the climate system. An assessment produced through a different process may well not be credible. You can even watch the consensus evolve across assessments. Take the attribution of warming. The 1990 IPCC report said the observed warming was broadly consistent with model predictions but also comparable to natural variability — in other words, we don’t know whether humans are responsible. By 1995, it concluded that the balance of evidence suggested a discernible human influence — a sentence only a committee could write, and one that barely commits to anything. By 2001, most of the warming over the previous 50 years was judged “likely” due to greenhouse gases; by 2007, “very likely”; by 2013, “extremely likely.” The 2023 report says essentially the same as 2013 — there’s not much stronger language available. So, to wrap up: science is our ultimate tool for deciphering the universe — the most successful method we’ve ever developed for determining what’s true and what isn’t. Our understanding is written into the peer-reviewed literature, so if you want to know what scientists think, that’s where to look. And for those of us who don’t speak nerd, scientific assessments are the Rosetta Stone — they translate nerd into English. Let me open the floor to questions. Thank you.
Santos meet Cuca's targets, secure packed second-half schedule
Santos heads into the season break for the 2026 World Cup with a sense of mission accomplished.Under coach Cuca, the Vila Belmiro side managed to achieve, at least partially in some cases, the four ma...
The methodology of an AP-KFF Health News investigation into medical neglect at ICE detention centers
KFF Health News and The Associated Press have been investigating allegations of medical neglect from people detained by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement during the second Trump administration.
Fulcrum tanks as cancer concerns stymie sickle cell asset, trigger business reorg
Fulcrum Therapeutics’ is down more than 50% Tuesday morning as the biotech discontinues development of its lead asset. Ipsen’s Tazverik, which belongs to the same class, was pulled from the market in March due to the risk of secondary malignancies.
Your brain starts making social decisions before you do
Researchers found that social behavior begins in the brain before it becomes visible as movement. In zebrafish, a coordinated pattern of activity spread across the brain several seconds before the animals approached another fish. A higher brain region called the pallium played a key role, and fish with stronger neural signals were generally more social.
New York Jets Flight Connections 06/02/26
Happy Tuesday, Jets fans! Here are your links for this second day of the work week. Jack Bell – Jets Veteran LB Demario Davis: ‘Just Where I’m Meant to Be’ Randy Lange – Jets Sign Their Third Selection of Round 1, WR Omar Cooper Jr. Eric Allen – Jets Sign LB Chase Wilson and WR […]
Crimson Desert DLC in Development, Second Content Roadmap Revealed
New additions between July and September
OpenAI and Anthropic have a new rivalry: who rings the bell first
Conventional wisdom holds that going public first is better because there is only so much capital to go around. But what if it's better to go second?
South Africa Business Mood Slips as Iran War Upends Rate Outlook
South African business sentiment weakened in the second quarter as consumers faced fresh pressures from the Iran war that’s clouded the outlook for inflation and interest rates.
Mark Cruz (Klamath) Nominated to Head Indian Health Service
The White House announced on Monday, June 1, that Mark Cruz, a citizen of the Klamath Tribes, has been nominated to serve a four-year term as director of the Indian Health Service (IHS).The IHS director position has been vacant since the start of the second Trump administration, following the resignation of former Director Roselyn Tso […]
Dodgers on Deck: Tuesday, June 2 at Diamondbacks
The Dodgers and Arizona Diamondbacks continue their long series on Tuesday night, the second of four games between the two teams this week at Chase Field in Phoenix. Eric Lauer makes his second start for the Dodgers, after allowing one run in six innings last week at Dodger Stadium against the Colorado Rockies. The Diamondbacks […]
Packers Have Underwhelming Position Battle This Summer
The Green Bay Packers have a position battle in the secondary that doesn't seem to leave the coaching staff with good options.
New York Democrats eye single redistricting amendment
Initial plans to pass multiple amendments to provide state lawmakers with flexibility to account for changing circumstances when it comes time for second passage next year had been scrapped in favor of a single proposal.
Pentagon bars journalists from its press office, saying it is ‘classified space’
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Colts Tyler Warren highlights offseason priorities heading into Year 2
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Business News: Secondary Market Prices Climb, James Marks Jumps To Sotheby’s, Christie’s Grabs Cartier Watch Record
A round-up of the latest business headlines, including secondary market price rises and the most expensive Cartier wristwatch sold at auction.
Roundup: US retail industry / Anthropic / Business opportunity
Facing challenges: The retail industry emerged from a choppy first quarter relatively unscathed, but higher-than-usual tax refunds likely helped to buoy spending. The second quarter could offer a clearer view on consumer health and just how much gas price increases and persistent inflation have disrupted the economy and put more pressure on household budgets. The […]
France rated second favourites for World Cup by Opta supercomputer
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Opponent Snapshot: Minnesota Golden Gophers
Head Coach: PJ Fleck (10th year, 66-44 at Minnesota, 96-66 overall) 2025 Record: 8-5 overall, 5-4 Big Ten Quick 2025 Recap Minnesota completed its second straight 8-5 season, thanks to an overtime win over New Mexico in the Rate Bowl. Their most notable wins from the season include a snowy 17-7 win over bitter rival […]
Meet DFP Spring Fellow, Gideon Ondap, University of Maryland, College Park -
Gideon Ondap III is a second-year government and politics PhD student and a recipient of the President’s Fellowship at the University of Maryland, College Park. Gideon studies American politics with a focus on race and ethnic [...]
Vanderbilt ALS Research Center hosts second Reporting the Research event
Attendees gathered at Fat Bottom Brewing Company on May 20 for the event to raise awareness about the neurodegenerative disorder, amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS).
Ipswich's Al-Hamadi in Iraq World Cup squad
Ipswich Town striker Ali Al-Hamadi is included in Iraq's squad for only their second appearance at a World Cup.
What are realistic expectations for Isaac TeSlaa in 2026?
How will Isaac TeSlaa fare in his second season with the Detroit Lions?
Antojos marks one year in business, second location planned
Antojos, a business in Springfield’s Six Corners area, celebrated its first anniversary on Sunday.
Xbox fan backlash to "PlayStation logos in the Showcase" isn't about gatekeeping
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The records PSG can still claim 👀
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Trump’s second term risks stalling on multiple fronts
President Donald Trump is increasingly threatened by a self-made problem.
Ben Shelton bounced from French Open in second-round stunner
Ben Shelton is done in Paris after just two rounds of play at the French Open. The former Gator fell in straight sets on Thursday.
Sabalenka, Osaka clash in blockbuster French Open tie
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Stronghold Scores Comfortably In Triple Bend
Stronghold struck for his first graded stakes victory since the 2024 Santa Derby (G1) when cruised home by 2 1/2 lengths in the $100,000 Triple Bend (G3) Sunday at Santa Anita. Ridden by Antonio Fresu for trainer Phil D'Amato, the 5-yar-old son of Ghostzapper notched his second win from as many ...
No. 1 overall seed UCLA eliminated in baseball regionals after Saint Mary's walks it off in extras
For the second time this weekend, the Bruins fell to the Gaels by one run; this time, it ended their season.
Three Real Madrid players pick up Champions League awards
Real Madrid may not have had the most successful season, finishing without a major trophy for a second season in a row, but it did not stop Los Blancos from picking up several awards at the end of the...
‘Molecular movie’ technology reveals a better way to thwart environmental pollutant
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Westerman touts transportation funding, defense economy, outdoors act - Talk Business & Politics
U.S. Rep. Bruce Westerman, R-Hot Springs, said he will host a field hearing in Hot Springs during the second week in June to collect testimony for the Great American Outdoors...
Award honors Anacortes bus driver, science teacher with $5,000 grants
Anacortes bus driver Gail LeBoutillier and science teacher Theresa McCartney will each receive $5,000 grants as winners of the Anacortes School District’s second annual Champions in Education Award.
Roma to conduct second half of preseason in Cardiff
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Bengals’ Boye Mafe offers caution about Shemar Stewart breakout
A new Bengals free-agent signing knows a thing or two about second year breakouts.
🥐Joy, chaos, tension, emotion... Sunday's 5️⃣ stories
From PSG’s joy to chaos in Paris during the celebrations, along with major moves in the transfer market.Luis Enrique and a legendary PSGThe French side won their second consecutive Champions League ...
During the second week of OTAs the Las Vegas Raiders are trying what fans have been asking for over a year
The Las Vegas Raiders have a lot of young guys on the roster who need some run.
Illinois K-2 expulsion ban heads to Pritzker's desk
The Illinois House passed a bill Saturday night to ban schools from expelling students in Kindergarten through second grade.
Justin Allgaier repeats as NASCAR Nashville O'Reilly race winner
Justin Allgaier wins NASCAR Nashville O'Reilly Series race for the second straight year.
How PSG have gone from contenders to potential European dynasty after conquering Champions League once again
After securing a second straight Champions League title against Arsenal, Luis Enrique has his youthful French giants primed for a historic three-peat
3 Americans advance into French Open second week
Two American men and one woman have advanced to the second week of singles tennis competition at the 2026 French Open. Zachary Svajda, Frances Tiafoe, and Madison Keys are the last Americans standing. MORE: Coco Gauff upset by Anastasia Potapova…
The Young Terps, Trader and Phillips, impressing at Dolphins OTAs
Second-year fifth-round picks and teammates while at Maryland, Dante Trader Jr and Jordan Phillips, impressing coaches and teammates in Dolphins OTAs.
'If you're in pain, then go through the pain'
"We haven't done it for 22 years [reached the Champions League final], so imagine the second time in our history that we have done it, and we need to recognise the season we had, but at the moment nobody is going to take the pain away from you."
PSG ‘want more’ after winning second Champions League title
PSG star Desire Doue says the club want to win even more trophies after beating Arsenal on penalties to claim their second successive Champions League title. Gabriel missed the decisive spot kick aft...
WALB Sports Director Aaron Meaux recaps GIAA baseball state championships
Citizens Christian Academy wins second straight Class A championship, Valwood captures first state title
Jerod Mayo returns to the business world
Former Patriots coach Jerod Mayo, who spent several years in the business world between the end of his playing career and the start of his coaching career, has officially left football for a second time.
AirPods Weekend Deals Include AirPods 4 for $99 and AirPods Max 2 for $509
Amazon today has the AirPods 4 available for $99.00, down from $129.00. This is a second-best price on the AirPods 4, which is the base model without Active Noise Cancellation, and it's accompanied by a solid deal on the AirPods Max 2. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with some of these vendors. When you click a link and make a purchase, we may receive a small payment, which helps us keep the site running.
White House releases memo describing results of Trump’s health checkup
President in ‘excellent’ health, despite ‘lower leg swelling’ and hand bruising after fourth hospital visit in second term
California 2026 Poll: Becerra Leads, Steyer and Hilton Toss-up for Second Spot
The final Emerson College Polling/Inside California Politics survey of the California governor’s race finds Democrat…Full Release & Results
The Blue Micromoon Rises in Sunday’s Early Skies
The second full moon of May will look smaller and dimmer than usual.
Eating ice cream too fast? Brain freeze says a surprising amount about your health
If you’re having ice cream headaches often, it might be worth seeing if it runs in your family and taking a second look at your non-brain-freeze headaches too.
Blue Moon 2026: An extremely rare micromoon rises tonight
A rare Blue Moon, the second full moon in May, will also be a "micromoon" near its farthest point from Earth.
Megan Grant sets UCLA record with 91st career HR in WCWS rout of Ark.
Megan Grant broke the UCLA career homer record and all nine Bruins in the lineup scored in the second inning of an 11-0 run-rule win over Arkansas at the Women's College World Series.