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NFL QB courted for Cowboys coaching staff announces sudden retirement
Former Florida and West Virginia quarterback Will Grier, 31, retired from the NFL. He appeared in 2 games, both in 2019.
After Lindsey Graham's death, questions linger about aging politicians and health transparency
The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham is renewing focus on the country’s aging lawmakers. Graham had turned 71 just two days before dying on Saturday. The senator appeared to have been in good...
'It affects your daily life suddenly': Sea level researcher explains why once-in-a-century floods could become the new normal
Live Science spoke with sea level expert Sönke Dangendorf about how human-caused sea-level rise is increasing extreme water levels, as once-in-a-century flooding events become decadal.
In an era of suspicion, political conspiracy theories flourish online
The internet’s reactionary machinery is churning at full force after Lindsey Graham’s sudden death and Mitch McConnell’s illness.
After Lindsey Graham's death, questions linger about aging politicians and health transparency
The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of Washington’s best-known politicians, is renewing focus on the country’s aging lawmakers
After Lindsey Graham's death, questions linger about aging politicians and health transparency
NEW YORK (AP) — The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of Washington's best-known politicians, is renewing focus on the country's aging lawmakers.
After Lindsey Graham’s death, questions linger about aging politicians and health transparency
The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of Washington’s best-known politicians, is renewing focus on the country’s aging lawmakers.
After Lindsey Graham’s death, questions linger about aging politicians and health transparency
NEW YORK (AP) — The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of Washington’s best-known politicians, is renewing focus on the country’s aging la…
After Lindsey Graham’s death, questions linger about aging politicians and health transparency
NEW YORK (AP) — The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of Washington’s best-known politicians, is renewing focus on the country’s aging la…
After Lindsey Graham’s death, questions linger about aging politicians and health transparency
NEW YORK (AP) — The sudden death of Sen. Lindsey Graham, a top ally of President Donald Trump and one of Washington’s best-known politicians, is renewing focus on the country’s aging la…
Jesse Watters: Political world 'in shock' after sudden death of Sen Lindsey Graham
Fox News host Jesse Watters takes a closer look at reaction to the passing of longtime Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham at age 71 on 'The Five.'
Scientists discover why peach fuzz can suddenly make you itch
A newly discovered network of fine hairs and specialized nerve cells appears to form a dedicated system for sensing mechanical itch, offering fresh insight into why chronic itching occurs. Because humans show signs of having the same pathway, the research could pave the way for more effective treatments for conditions such as eczema.
Sen. Lindsey Graham's sudden death spurs false claims
Sen. Lindsey Graham's unexpected death on Saturday night fueled baseless speculation on social media that his passing was the result of a criminal action. Here's a closer look at the facts.
Man, 45, diagnosed with colorectal cancer shares his first symptom
Randy League was diagnosed with stage 3 colorectal cancer at 45 after feeling a sudden, sharp pain in his rectum.
Trey Gowdy reflects on Sen Lindsey Graham’s impact on politics as sudden death stuns DC
'Sunday Night in America' host Trey Gowdy recounts his favorite moments with late Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on ‘America Reports.’
Trump recommends Lindsey Graham’s sister to serve rest of his Senate term
The president recommended that South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster select Darline Graham to serve into January. Her brother died suddenly amid a campaign for a fifth term.
Trump says Graham’s sister should be appointed to his seat
President Trump says he recommended to South Carolina’s governor that Sen. Lindsey Graham’s sister be appointed to serve in the late lawmaker’s seat after he suddenly died over the weekend.
Lindsey Graham’s death triggers scramble to replace him as Congress returns
Lawmakers face obstacles, including demands from Trump, Mitch McConnell’s absence and Graham’s sudden death
Heart condition tied to Lindsey Graham's death can strike without warning
Preliminary findings suggest aortic dissection was the cause of Sen. Lindsey Graham's sudden death. Doctors explain the warning signs and high-risk groups.
Trump Loses Lindsey Graham
The South Carolina senator’s sudden death leaves a void that the White House can’t afford.
Warframe Dev Reacts To The Sudden Death Of Rival Destiny 2
Business realities remain an existential threat to live service art
Businesses hit by Carlisle city centre flash floods
Sudden downpours caused flooding and forced some shops to shut, businesses say.
Remembering tenacious, ubiquitous Lindsey Graham
Graham died on Saturday from what his office called a "brief and sudden illness."
Sen. Lindsey Graham dies after a 'brief and sudden illness,' his office says
The statement his office posted on social media did not provide any additional details about the South Carolina Republican, a former Air Force lawyer, and said his family “appreciates prayers at this time and asks for privacy during this incredibly difficult period.”
Lindsey Graham’s death will shake the Senate and November election. Here’s what comes next
The sudden death of influential Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham will have implications for legislative business in the Senate and the November election. Here’s what we know about what comes next.
'America and the world have lost a determined leader': Tributes pour in after Sen Lindsey Graham's death
Trump called Lindsey Graham "a true American Patriot" on Truth Social as world leaders from Ukraine, Israel and NATO mourned the senator's sudden death.
Lindsey Graham dies aged 71 after sudden illness, his office says
Graham’s abrupt death will send shock waves through Washington and the Republican party
Politics chat: Lindsey Graham dies at 71, Congress back in session, U.S. strikes Iran
South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham's sudden death at 71 has shocked Washington. Once a fierce critic of then-candidate Donald Trump, he became one of the president's most consistent defenders.
Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after 'brief and sudden illness'
South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham died on July 11 following a \
Lindsey Graham was booked for TV Sunday. Then his death shocked Congress
Lawmakers were stunned to learn of Graham's sudden passing. He was scheduled for a TV appearance on NBC's \
Special Report: Looking back on the political legacy of Sen. Lindsey Graham
Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., who had held his Senate seat since 2003 and was seen as a war hawk and significant voice on defense and foreign policy, has died at the age of 71 from a “sudden illness.” NBC News’ Julie Tsirkin and Meet the Press Moderator Kristen Welker report on Graham’s rise in Congress, his relationship with President Donald Trump, and his views on the wars in Iran and between Russia and Ukraine.
Sen. Lindsey Graham dies suddenly at 71
Graham was a close ally of President Trump and a staunch supporter of Israel and Ukraine.
Lindsey Graham, Longtime Republican Senator, Dies of ‘Brief and Sudden Illness’
The Republican stalwart had backed tough action against Iran and been a strong supporter of Israel.
Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after sudden illness
(CNN) — US Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, has died “from a brief and sudden illness,” a spokesperson for his office told CNN.
Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after sudden illness
US Sen. Lindsey Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, has died “from a brief and sudden illness,” a spokesperson for his office told CNN.
US: Senator Lindsey Graham dies
The South Carolina politician and staunch ally of Donald Trump died aged 71 after a brief and sudden illness, his office said.
Lindsey Graham, key ally of Donald Trump, has died after sudden illness, his office says
Republican senator had served in the Senate since 2003 and was a sharp critic of Trump before becoming one of his most loyal backers
Sen. Lindsey Graham dies at 71 after ‘brief and sudden illness’
Graham had just returned from Kyiv, Ukraine, where he met with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.
Lindsey Graham, longtime South Carolina senator, dies at 71
The staunch ally of President Donald Trump died after a sudden illness, his office said.
Dodgers drop second straight clunker to Diamondbacks
The All-Star break all of a sudden looks more and more like something the Dodgers need, as they suffered a second blowout loss to the Arizona Diamondbacks in as many nights, 9-2 on Saturday night at Dodger Stadium. Simply losing consecutive games has been rare for the Dodgers, as this marked just their second two-game […]
Jayden Adams dies at 25: Sports world mourns sudden passing of South Africa midfielder after World Cup
Here is what's known about Adams' death following his appearances for South Africa at the 2026 World Cup.
Phil Weiser’s sudden need to find the brake pedal
Indulge me with a personal story at the outset. Trust me, it relates. Years ago, when our kids were young, we briefly had a small jalopy for a babysitter’s use. One morning, I discovered that the battery on this poor excuse for a car was dead. Our driveway sat on a bit of an incline, […]
We deserve to know what's happening with Sen. McConnell
The sudden disappearance of 84-year-old Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Kentucky, and accompanying radio silence is concerning.
Katie Couric shares health scare
Journalist Katie Couric describes the terrifying moments when she lost her memory just a few weeks ago. She was diagnosed with transient global amnesia - a sudden episode of memory loss that’s rare. NBC News’ Kate Snow has the story.
Ghosts in Your Home? Scientists Reveal Why the Evidence Is Real - Futura-Sciences
When Science Faces the Paranormal Around the world, there are countless tales of haunted houses—manor houses in the French countryside, centuries-old British castles, and even stately homes in North America. If you’ve ever stepped into a room and suddenly felt uneasy, as if someone invisible was there with you, you’re...
Why Serbia dismisses Vučić's sudden resignation talk as a distraction
Some have likened his move to Vladimir Putin's rotation between the presidency and the premiership
Why every job description suddenly feels like a CVS receipt
AI has made job descriptions expand into never-ending, confusing lists of required and nice-to-have skills and qualifications.
Timberwolves 'Ramp Up' Pursuit Of LeBron James
Another free agency suitor for LeBron James has suddenly emerged this weekend. According to Jon Krawczynski of The Athletic, the Minnesota Timberwolves are "ramping up" their push for James. They're hoping to pitch him on the idea of leading the franchise to its first NBA championship. It certainly ...
Democrats demand HHS reinstate cancelled teen pregnancy prevention grants
Democrats across both chambers of Congress are demanding the Trump administration reinstate tens of millions of dollars in teen pregnancy prevention (TPP) grants that were suddenly cancelled last w…
Sudden danger: the science and stakes of flash flood forecasting
Flash floods pose a major threat to lives and property. When it comes to researching them, understanding the rain as it falls is only half the battle. The next step is knowing how the water will move once it hits the ground.
Nintendo has suddenly announced a new Direct livestream for tomorrow
Whether you are a kid or a squid, you can tune in for more details on the single-player adventure game.
West Hartford Business Buzz: June 29, 2026 - We-Ha
A round-up of openings, closings, and other news about West Hartford businesses. Business Buzz is sponsored by NBT Bank, and we are very thankful for their support! By Ronni Newton I can't believe it's already June 29. It seems like it was just Memorial Day, and now suddenly we are finalizing
Why Atlanta Braves are Suddenly in Trouble in NL East
Will the Braves still win the NL East?
Trump Mobile Takes The T1 Phone Reservation Holders For A Ride, Opens Sales To The Public Without Clearing The Backlog
Those who paid Trump Mobile a $100 deposit to gain early access to the T1 Phone suddenly find themselves at the back of the proverbial queue.
It's Xbox's turn (again), as console prices keep going up
Microsoft announced a price hike for the Xbox Series consoles today, the third in little over a year. Effective August 1, the Xbox Series S, which launched in 2020 for $300, will cost $500 in the U.S. The Xbox Series X, which launched in 2020 at $500, will go for $800. This follows a round of PlayStation 5 price increases from Sony this spring, and a slow-motion increase for Nintendo’s Switch 2, which will kick in in the U.S. in September. (Mind you, there were also eight video game industry price hikes in six months of 2025). The chart up top shows the sudden ascent of console prices over the past year, a sudden surge in an already unusual hardware generation. Prices had been flat for years, now “up” is the new “flat.” Game console prices used to go down across the length of a console generation, but not this time around. Microsoft’s explanation for the new price hike today: We hoped another price increase would not be necessary, and we have spent the last several months working with suppliers on options. Unfortunately, console storage and memory prices have increased by more than 2.5x and we expect another doubling by the fall of 2027. The entire consumer electronics industry is struggling with the current components crisis, but the effects are particularly hard on consoles. Unlike phones, computers, speakers, and other consumer devices, consoles are typically not sold at a profit, but instead for less than they cost to make. This is an issue well beyond game consoles. Apple announced price hikes on its computers and tablets today as well. Game File is a reader-supported publication. To receive new posts and support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe Item 2: Brutal Bungie cuts Bungie laid off “most” of its Destiny development team and some developers who worked on Marathon, the newest game from the struggling Sony-owned studio. A WARN notice issued by Sony to Washington State, where Bungie is based, tallied cuts impacting 292 workers, effective next month. That’s strictly for Bungie/Sony jobs in Washington and wouldn’t account for any elsewhere. The video I clipped below shows the redacted list of Bungie cuts filed to Washington State officials. As you’ll see, I had to scroll for a while… In a note emailed to PlayStation workers and published online, PlayStation game studios chief Hermen Hulst offered the following explanation for these latest cuts at Bungie: This is painful news, especially for talented colleagues whose roles have been eliminated. This decision was made only after extensive discussion and careful consideration, and I want to provide some context on how we arrived here. Over the past several months, together with Bungie leadership, we reviewed the studio’s long-term direction, development priorities, resource needs, and role within our broader portfolio strategy. We explored multiple alternatives before concluding that a reduction was necessary to align the studio’s resources with its current priorities and long-term goals. In 2022, Sony bought Bungie for $3.7 billion. The studio’s marquee game, the multiplayer live service shooter Destiny 2 was losing popularity at the time. Its next game Marathon, released earlier this year, has been well-reviewed but had a slow start. Bungie is renowned for making great shooter games, and Destiny fans have mourned the wind-down of Destiny 2. They’ve also expressed bewilderment over reports that Destiny 3 is not, per Bloomberg, immediately in the cards.
How the LaMelo Ball era in Charlotte came to its sudden end
Kurt Zellers departs as Minnesota Business Partnership CEO in latest business lobby shuffle
A sudden departure of Kurt Zellers at the Minnesota Business Partnership is just one of the changes ahead for business advocacy groups in the state.
Trump to meet House speaker in attempt to break legislative gridlock
Trump suddenly scrapped the signing of a pivotal bipartisan housing bill yesterday, demanding the Senate pass his voter ID bill
York County restaurants scrambling for bread after bakery's closure
Terranetti's Italian Bakery in the Mechanicsburg area closed suddenly after 54 years, leaving York County restaurants scrambling for bread.
How should European scientists respond to the US AI kill switch?
Earlier in June, Europe’s worst fears of technological dependence were confirmed when the White House ordered the AI firm Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using its leading models. This kill-switch moment crystalised anxieties in Brussels that the continent, lagging the US on the creation of leading-edge AI models, is now a technological of vassal of Washington. The shock has specific implications for European scientists and universities. Some governments are now worried that with AI being integrated into labs, Donald Trump now has his finger hovering over an off switch for European science. “Having restrictions on this tool, it can have an impact on our own research,” said France’s research minister, Philippe Baptiste, at the VivaTech conference in Paris on June 18.Baptiste, himself a former academic, said that colleagues in mathematics had recently warned him they were now cut off from leading-edge US models, risking their work. “This model is not available anymore now because of the US restriction, and for the first time this had an impact on mathematics,” a field where large language models (LLMs) are making a significant contribution, said Baptiste. So, should European scientists avoid relying on US models in the future? Or would this be a self-harming overreaction? And how is AI being used in science, anyway? What happened?On June 12, it emerged that Washington, citing cybersecurity concerns, had ordered Anthropic to stop non-US citizens using two models: Claude Mythos 5, and Claude Fable 5, a version of Mythos but with guardrails to prevent abuse. Anthropic said Washington’s concerns were overblown. But forced to follow the order, yet with no way to check who was using the models, the company suddenly shut down access for everyone, US citizens included. There’s still no agreement on how to restore broad access. But last week, Bloomberg reported that select US companies, and the US government, still had access to Mythos despite the ban, but the EU’s cybersecurity agency Enisa had been shut out. Class division of researchersIn the longer term, access outside the US should be restored, said Marcel Salathé, co-director of the AI centre at the Federal Polytechnic School of Lausanne (EPFL), because a permanent restriction would be financially ruinous to US AI firms. “Even Trump will eventually budge to economic pressure,” he said.However, US AI firms might end up operating rather like banks, doing due diligence on users of their leading-edge AI models, he went on.European scientists are unlikely to fall foul of such checks, he said. But having a Chinese postgraduate in their lab, or doing a type of research the US disapproved of, could potentially result in access being denied. “It will create a sort of class division of researchers,” he said. More than frontier modelsHowever, successfully deploying AI in science is about far more than just having access to leading LLMs such as Mythos.Instead, many science-specific tools, most famously Alphafold, which predicts protein folding structures, require “far less” computing power to train than frontier models, well within the capabilities of European supercomputers, according to a recent analysis by the Arq Foundation, a Brussel-based AI think tank. Instead, tools such as Alphafold are possible because certain fields, like protein folding, weather prediction or astronomy, have large, clean, standardised datasets that can be used to train predictive models. Rather than compute, “data is the central constraint for AI for science,” the report says. For example, a less powerful physics model trained on CERN’s data “will be more valuable than the best model without certain data,” said Bengüsu Özcan, author of the report. European advantage?Europe could therefore steal a march by using its scientific data and infrastructure to create models US digital giants cannot. “They might actually match or go even beyond what these big [US] companies are doing,” said Özcan.Indeed, some European start-ups hope to create automated testing labs to create the kind of standardised data that could speed up the discovery of new materials. Materials scientists say there’s currently too little data to train models. AI scientistsHowever, even if the bottleneck for AI in science is often data, rather than compute, being at the mercy of the US for LLM access could still become a problem for European scientists. A new class of “AI scientists” based on leading LLMs is also emerging, Özcan’s report says.Unlike domain-specific tools like Alphafold, these try to automate day-to-day scientific work, by providing an overarching tool that coordinates specific models to synthesise existing literature, generate hypotheses or run analysis of data. The problem for Europe, however, is that these tools are sometimes based on US leading models. Google Deepmind’s AI Co-Scientist, for example, is built on Google’s Gemini LLM. Systematic failureThese scientific automation tools are still in their early stages, and still exhibit “systematic failures on scientific tasks,” Özcan’s report says. One of the problems is that the messy, day-to-day process of scientific discovery is largely not documented, meaning LLMs don’t have a good source of data to learn how scientists actually work. Meanwhile, some tasks, such as literature synthesis, don’t typically require access to leading edge models.However, the performance of AI scientific assistants could improve as companies such as Google pour resources into developing them. Rely on US“Unfortunately, for scientific assistants, there is not much we can do right now except rely on US frontier AI,” said Antoine Bosselut, a natural language processing expert based at EPFL. Chinese-built open models, which can run on local computers, lessening the risk of a shutdown, are touted as one alternative to US dependence. There’s also Mistral, once seen as Europe’s main AI hope, but the Paris-based company has seen its recent models fall behind in performance. But the Chinese alternatives are generally not as capable as US frontier AI models, said Bosselut, unless paired with fiddly, custom tools that allows them to act as independent agents. “Most scientists do not have the time,” he said. Don’t jump ship yetAlthough the kill switch moment is seen a warning shot for European scientists, it doesn’t mean labs should abandon US AI tools immediately. “I do not think the right response is simply to abandon US-based models and systems under the banner of sovereignty or independence,” said Mattias Björnmalm, secretary general of the Cesaer university association. “That would be an overreaction.”Related articlesEuropean sovereignty in AI requires ‘ugly trade-offs,’ say experts Robotic lab start-up makes case for €500M EU-funded materials testing facilityAI in science: is it useful? Instead, European researchers need to ask themselves whether they’re becoming dependent on technology that could be turned off in Washington, said Özcan. “They might not see this today, but they should really start asking this question,” she said. European researchers need a plan B, said Salathé. “I would recommend to every researcher, very proactively explore alternatives.”Own toolsIn addition, Björnmalm and others want European research institutions to develop their own scientific AI tools.Instead of signing AI deals with US digital giants, European universities should be using this money to create their own models, which may end up being superior for research, said Sabine Leonelli, an expert on the use of AI in science at the Technical University of Munich. “Universities in Europe seem to be happy to sign commercial contracts with US companies on the assumption [their AI tools] are better,” she said. But US frontier LLMs are typically opaque, and have been developed without independent scientific input, she said. “This is not good enough for science.”Last year, Swiss researchers released Apertus, an LLM designed to be completely transparent, from its development methods to its training data. The idea is that this makes scientific tools built on top of the model far more reproducible than with closed, commercial alternatives.“Europe needs more of this: serious capacity-building that gives researchers, universities and companies credible options,” said Björnmalm.
Trump suddenly refuses to sign landmark housing bill, citing his stalled elections legislation
Fresh closures hit city's hospitality businesses
The Cube Hotel shuts suddenly along with its Marco Pierre White restaurant and a Stirchley cafe.
Underground methane gas leak leaves a dozen Owasso businesses displaced, stranded
A sudden environmental scare has left a popular Owasso shopping center wrapped in caution tape and at least 12 local family-owned businesses completely stranded
In post-DEI era, Trump admin turns to San Antonio for more veteran-owned businesses
As governments scrap their race- and gender-conscious preferences, there's suddenly more demand for veteran contractors than supply.
AMD Ryzen 9 9900X owner reports CPU failure with package bump while using early 2026 BIOS
A Ryzen 9 9900X owner has reported a sudden CPU failure on the MSI MAG X870E Tomahawk WiFi motherboard.
‘A child goes to bed and doesn’t wake up’: the families left in shock after the sudden death of their healthy children
Sudden cardiac arrest is statistically rare but among the leading causes of death for children and young people. And families often have no idea of the risk until it’s too late
On Netflix’s World Cup Show, It’s Still Called Football
When Netflix approached Goalhanger co-founder Tony Pastor last year, he assumed the streamer was interested in picking up a version of his podcast network’s The Rest Is History. In their first meeting, executives discussed episodes from the show—then pivoted the conversation. “They suddenly said in the middle of the meeting—’but actually, that’s not what we want …
World Cup bringing "sudden shot of adrenaline" to Boston businesses
Businesses in Boston say they are thrilled with the increased foot traffic that has come with the World Cup.
The New Winners in 2026 Are Doing the One Thing Business Schools Warned Against
The biggest winners today are breaking a core rule of modern strategy. Here’s why owning more—not less—is suddenly the smartest move in business.
Gemini suddenly can’t make calls on Android and Android Auto for some
The transition to Gemini on Android Auto has been a bit rough for a number of reasons, but a current...
RFK Jr. demands journal explain removal of vaccine study used to support his childhood immunization changes
Health and Human Services Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr. is demanding answers from a science journal on why a study regarding vaccination and sudden infant death was removed from the publication. …
49ers announce the tragic news of Aldon Smith passing away
The 49ers issued a statement of the sudden and tragic passing of Aldon Smith
Scientists discover a strange property in rice and turn it into a smart material
Scientists discovered that rice behaves in a highly unusual way: it weakens under rapid compression but stays stronger when pressure is applied slowly. Using this effect, they engineered a new material that reacts differently to gentle movements and sudden impacts. The material can adapt its stiffness automatically, opening the door to safer soft robots and protective equipment that responds instantly to collisions.
College sports is suddenly facing a major question that hinges on gambling, the ‘unpardonable sin’
Without legal protections, the NCAA struggles to enforce rules, leaving the future of college sports governance uncertain.
Farage suddenly returns to political stage – but dodges questions about £5m gift
Reform UK leader has been unusually quiet in recent weeks – at great cost to the party during a crucial byelection
College sports is suddenly facing a major question that hinges on gambling, the 'unpardonable sin'
Those anxious to tease out worst-case scenarios that could come from gambling's growing stranglehold on sports couldn't have found a better place for one of those scenarios to land — in the middle of college football, a sport that for decades has proven uniquely unable to deal with its most-press...
College sports is suddenly facing a major question that hinges on gambling, the 'unpardonable sin'
The controversy over gambling in college sports has intensified with Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby's court victory.
College sports is suddenly facing a major question that hinges on gambling, the 'unpardonable sin'
The controversy over gambling in college sports has intensified with Texas Tech quarterback Brendan Sorsby's court victory
Sudden unexpected infant death and the "growing public health crisis" in Allegheny County
Some drugs 'fail' because of unrealistic testing conditions, scientists discover
A drug once dismissed as ineffective suddenly worked—when scientists tested it under more realistic conditions that mimic the human body. In this surprising new discovery, Northwestern University scientists ...
California, and the dangerous sudden resurgence of GOP voter fraud fever
Even Republicans who previously kept such voter-fraud claims at arm’s length are embracing theories that something is off in California, despite zero evidence.
Texas Politics Unscripted | Battleground Texas
From high-stakes Senate and gubernatorial showdowns to the sudden resignation of the state's chief election officer, Battleground Texas breaks down the fierce races reshaping the ultimate electoral battleground.
Simone Biles Reveals She ‘Almost Died’ In Terrifying Health Crisis
While her husband was away at NFL practice, the gymnastics star faced a sudden life-threatening situation alone.
Protecting Heart Health in an Era of Temperature Extremes
Extreme heat and cold are growing cardiovascular risks that can trigger heart attacks, strokes, heart failure and sudden cardiac death, according to a recent scientific statement by experts at Weill Cornell Medicine and other leading institutions.
High School Science Teacher Dies Suddenly from Aggressive Form of Leukemia: ‘Her Illness Came Without Warning’
Ohio science teacher Michelle Eynon is being remembered after her sudden death from acute leukemia at the age of 48. She is survived by her husband and two children.
High School Science Teacher Dies Suddenly from Aggressive Form of Leukemia: ‘Her Illness Came Without Warning’
Michelle Eynon is being remembered by colleagues and loved ones as a devoted teacher, wife and mother of two
Jimmy Fallon suddenly drops out of Madonna premiere interview for 'Confessions II'
Jimmy Fallon dropped out of a Madonna interview at the last minute, with Anderson Cooper filling in at the 'Confessions II' short film premiere in New York City.
A tale of two debates
By Vince Bzdek Ballots go out Monday as the June 30 state primary elections bear down on us. As a result, it is suddenly the season of proliferating political debates, and there have been some doozies already. I had the chance to see two very different debates in the last week, and comparing and contrasting them speaks […]
A tale of two debates
By Vince Bzdek Ballots go out Monday as the June 30 state primary elections bear down on us. As a result, it is suddenly the season of proliferating political debates, and there have been some doozies already. I had the chance to see two very different debates in the last week, and comparing and contrasting them speaks […]
UTA scientists plan to study how the World Cup affects air quality
Researchers at the University of Texas at Arlington will use the World Cup in Dallas as a case study to measure how sudden surges in population affect air pollution patterns across the D-FW area.
Alaska Science Forum: Research team seeks answers from a changing river
A shifting climate is bringing big, sudden changes to the Kuskokwim River and the people who rely on it
Why Does the Sun Make You Sneeze? Scientists Reveal the Surprising Truth - Futura-Sciences
Why Do Some People Sneeze in Sunlight? Have you ever found yourself sneezing when you suddenly move from the shade to the bright outdoors, or even after switching on a powerful light? You might be part of the roughly one in four people who experience what’s called the photic sneeze...
Inside Trump’s suddenly softened new green card policy
Big business, including tech and AI companies, launched a quiet but extensive lobbying effort against the green card policy requiring applicants to apply from overseas.
So You Majored in Computer Science . . .
Suddenly, headlines about unemployed computer science majors are everywhere. Poor kids. Especially because—so it appears—many computer science majors did not choose the subject
Algal blooms explained: How scientists are helping spot them sooner
Algal blooms can seem to appear overnight. A stretch of ocean that looked clear days earlier can suddenly appear discolored and sometimes pose risks to ecosystems and human health. But scientists say ...
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
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