SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " three " 6,806 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Banana Ball World Tour brings three nights of baseball entertainment to Truist Field
Banana Ball is back in Charlotte, bringing its fast-paced, fan-focused version of baseball to Truist Field for three nights beginning Thursday. The Firefighters and Texas Tailgaters will face off June 4-6 as part of the Banana Ball World Tour and the inaugural season of the Banana Ball Championship League. Created by the Savannah Bananas, Banana Ball was designed to put entertainment at the center of the game.
What are the Ebola vaccines under research, and when will they be ready?
At least three vaccines are being funded, research being fast-tracked as the outbreak spreads faster than the response.
Pirates' Spencer Horwitz: Racks up three hits
Pirates' Spencer Horwitz: Racks up three hits
ArtBeat: Spotlight on the local arts events and entertainment
Here’s a closer look at what you can expect from the area’s events: June 4– June 10: The weekly preview of arts and culture events in the Greater Knoxville area is included in the Arts & Cultural Alliance. Summer Movie Magic: The Tennessee Theatre’s family-favorite Summer Movie Magic Series returns with three dates and six […]
Braves' Matt Olson: Three hits in win
Braves' Matt Olson: Three hits in win
We Interrupt This Knicks Victory for a Political Ad Starring Mamdani
Mayor Zohran Mamdani lent his political star power to an unusual TV ad promoting three Democrats running for House seats in New York City.
Guardians score vs. Yankees. Jose Ramirez powers Cleveland to win
Jose Ramirez continues to thrive at Yankee Stadium and the Guardians guarantee a series win by hitting three home runs to back Gavin Williams.
UNC vs. USC: Biggest strengths, weaknesses and players to watch
The Diamond Heels host USC in a best-of-three super regional with a trip to Omaha on the line. Here are USC’s players to watch and key strengths.
Full Debate: Three Democratic candidates challenge each other in NY-7 debate
The district includes parts of Brooklyn and Queens.
Unsafe food causes 866 million illnesses and 1.5 million deaths annually, young children at highest risk
Children aged less than five years face almost three times the risk of illness from unsafe food than older children and adults, according to new estimates released today by the World Health Organization (WHO).
New York lawmakers could vote on data center moratorium this week
The proposal is a reworked version that now shortens a proposed moratorium on new data center construction from three years to one.
House passes resolution for first time to halt military action against Iran in rebuke of Trump
The House approved a war powers resolution that would halt the U.S. military action against Iran, defying the president as a handful of Republicans joined with Democrats to end the three-month-long war that has reordered politics at home and abroad.
California governor's primary pitted experience against promises of change
California’s crowded primary for governor remained unresolved early Wednesday after three leading candidates tested voters’ appetites for an experienced politician or promises of sweeping change.
New Jersey Democrats pick Navy veteran Rebecca Bennett to face absent GOP Rep. Tom Kean Jr.
Bennett’s victory over three other Democrats on Tuesday sets up the state’s premier contest in November, when the party hopes it can flip the onetime Republican stronghold that has proven competitive in recent years.
Political expert links Platner popularity to ‘Trumpification of American politics’
University of Maine’s Political Science chair Mark Brewer offered WABI three reasons for Platner’s sustained support to this point.
PNC BANK: Going to Bat for Small Business Winners Announced
FORT WAYNE, Ind., June 3, 2026 – Two standout local businesses – Copper Spoon and Three Rivers Electric – have been named winners of the 2026 Going to Bat for Small Business initiative. The recognition is a collaboration between PNC Bank and the Fort Wayne TinCaps, designed to elevate small
I Wore a Smart Fart Wearable for Three Days. Here's What I Learned
Researchers at the University of Maryland are trying to get to the bottom of our farts.
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!
THOMAS: Politics and failure
I was born in Washington, D.C., at the end of 1942. Growing up in the suburbs there was so little crime it made the front page in the city's three
KBR Awarded $8 Billion Antarctic Science and Engineering Support Contract by U.S. National Science Foundation
KBR secures an $8 billion Antarctic contract to support U.S. scientific operations over 20 years.Quiver AI SummaryKBR has been awarded an $8 billion ceiling Antarctic Science and Engineering Support Contract by the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF), which will span 20 years starting in June 2026. This contract involves providing operations, maintenance, logistics, and science support for the U.S. Antarctic Program, which manages three year-r
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.
Orioles take win streak into matchup with the Red Sox
The Baltimore Orioles will attempt to keep a three-game win streak intact when they take on the Boston Red Sox
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.
'I feel fantastic!': An avid Pittsburgh sports fan fires the first pitch in a Pirates win
Dan “The Man” Turkall was born bleeding black and yellow. In the past three decades, Turkall, 35, has watched almost every Penguins, Steelers...
Rogers? Kroupi? Alvarez? Gunners weigh up incomings and sales
Mikel Arteta has been central to the club's planning for next season, with the Gunners targeting a central midfielder, forward and full-back in the transfer market. Given last season's £250m spend on new players, a number of player renewals and lucrative bonuses paid to players in lieu of their Premier League success, the club are mindful of ensuring finances are balanced during the close season. For the forward position, three players are known to be on the shortlist - Aston Villa's Morgan Rogers, Bournemouth's Eli Junior Kroupi and Atletico Madrid's Julian Alvarez.
Mariners' Jhonny Pereda: Belts three-run homer
Mariners' Jhonny Pereda: Belts three-run homer
China services activity grows at fastest pace in three months, private PMI shows
China's services activity expanded at the fastest pace in three months in May, helped by stronger growth in new business and a rebound in overseas demand, though rising cost pressures weighed on firms, a private-sector survey showed on Wednesday.
Keiko Fujimori: Peru's Biggest Political Loser Eyes Election Win
Peru's Keiko Fujimori is a perennial political loser. She has run for the nation's presidency three elections in a row -- and three times, she has lost.
Astros vs. Pirates Game Thread: Game 62, 6/2/2026
TONIGHT’S GAME: The Houston Astros (27-34), who are 7-3 in their last 10 games, will continue their nine-game homestand tonight as they open a three-game series against their former divisional opponent, the Pittsburgh Pirates (32-28). RHP Mike Burrows (3-6, 5.40 ERA), who was acquired from the Pirates this offseason, will open the series against his […]
Three-star cornerback commits to Auburn after official visit
The Auburn Tigers have landed another cornerback, with three-star target Aidyn Wiggins committing on Tuesday.
Dive Into the World of Marine Science This Summer in Southampton
This summer, Stony Brook Southampton is offering three college-credit courses, including rare opportunities to conduct research on the waters of Shinnecock Bay.
Viaducts connect this Oak Cliff restaurant to downtown. Rerouting could cost business
La Comida struggled for three years after moving to Oak Cliff. Now it has solid footing, but the proposed Jefferson Boulevard construction threatens business.
Indie Video Game ‘Mina the Hollower’ Sells 300,000 Copies in Three Days
The new action-platformer is the best-reviewed video game of 2026 so far
Exclusive: House Ethics Committee investigating Rep. Jimmy Gomez over sexual misconduct allegations, sources say
The House Ethics Committee is investigating Democratic Rep. Jimmy Gomez over allegations of sexual misconduct, three sources told CNN.
Former Orioles Outfielder Suddenly Retires To Play Division I Football
A veteran of three MLB seasons with the Orioles and Angels is headed to college to try his hand at football.
Seahawks, Derick Hall agree to three-year contract extension
The Seahawks have reached a new deal with one of their key defensive players.
Seahawks agree to three-year extension with pass rusher
Rush end Derick Hall has agreed to a three-year contract extension with the Seahawks that is reported to be worth as much as $46.9 million.
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.
West Brom goalkeeper O'Leary signs new deal to 2029
West Bromwich Albion's Republic of Ireland goalkeeper Max O'Leary has agreed a new three-year deal with the Championship club.
Nebraska schedules visit with Illinois edge rusher later this month
Nebraska football is set to host class of 2027 three-star edge defender Chris Kasky later this month.
Jensen Huang Says Nvidia and Microsoft Just Reinvented the PC. But There Might Be 1 Problem
For years, the PC industry has been stuck in a rut. Consumers stretched upgrade cycles from three years to five or more, smartphone sales stole attention, and innovation often boiled down to slightly faster processors and better battery life. So when Nvidia (NASDAQ:NVDA) CEO Jensen Huang declares that the PC has been “reinvented,” investors should ... Jensen Huang Says Nvidia and Microsoft Just Reinvented the PC. But There Might Be 1 Problem
Democrats Must Learn to Talk Sports
Politicians need as much attention as possible, as frequently as possible, while seeming as relatable as possible. A cheat code exists to hit all three objectives.
More middle-class Californians cancel health coverage
Facing higher premiums and the loss of federal subsidies, 374,000 Californians canceled their health insurance coverage in the first three months of the year.
Diamondbacks host the Dodgers, look to extend home win streak
The Arizona Diamondbacks, on a three-game home winning streak, host the Los Angeles Dodgers
Guardians visit the Yankees to open 3-game series
The New York Yankees host the Cleveland Guardians to open a three-game series
‘Weird Thing To Ask’ — Andy Roddick in Disbelief As Aryna Sabalenka Faces ‘Uncomfortable’ Request at French Open
The first women’s prime-time night session match at Roland-Garros in three years. Aryna Sabalenka beat Naomi Osaka in two straight sets.
Brandon Aiyuk's social media activity fuels Commanders' speculation
The Washington Commanders' Instagram account is one of three that wide receiver Brandon Aiyuk follows on the platform.
Alejandro Garnacho offered to three Serie A giants
During his time at Manchester United, Alejandro Garnacho was adored by the Old Trafford faithful and was regularly serenaded during matches by the Stretford End.Despite inconsistent displays, the Red ...
Azzi Fudd’s pregame outfit for Dallas Wings game turns heads
Azzi Fudd started her WNBA rookie season slow but has played better in the last three games. She is also emerging as a fan favorite after being selected at No. 1 in this year’s draft. The UConn Huskies product continues…
From Rocafonda to the World Cup: Lamine Yamal's meteoric rise
Lionel Messi and Cristiano Ronaldo will play at a record sixth World Cup in 2026, but years from now the tournament may instead be remembered as Lamine Yamal's first.Over the past three years Abdul has answered plenty of questions about Lamine, but with concerns over the winger's fitness heading into the World Cup, he doesn't feel like speaking for now.
Dodgers' Lack of Offense Proves Costly, Drops Series Opener in Arizona
The Arizona Diamondbacks hit three home runs as the Los Angeles Dodgers were unable to produce any offense
In-state linebacker commits to Texas A&M
The Texas A&M Aggies have landed a commitment from three-star linebacker Aston Whiteside, bolstering their 2027 recruiting class.
Cover Athletes for EA Sports ‘College Football 27’ Revealed
Three of the top players int he country will be featured on the cover of EA Sports "College Football 27."
Towards a responsive health system and equitable access to quality RMNCAH services
Indonesia’s vast geography and sociocultural diversity shape the delivery of reproductive, maternal, newborn, child and adolescent health (RMNCAH) services in ways that are both enabling and challenging. Across provinces, significant variation has been observed in how services are planned, resourced, and delivered. These variations in service standards and quality are felt daily in the lives of women, newborns and adolescents. Despite these challenges, progress is visible. National estimates show a drop in maternal mortality ratio, from 331 to 140 per 100 000 live births since 2000, signaling improvements in care quality and access. Fertility has stabilised and contraceptive use has grown, yet unmet reproductive health needs persist, and adolescent pregnancies continue to reflect early marriage and limited access to youth-friendly services.To better understand how Indonesia’s health system has evolved under decentralisation, the Ministry of Health, supported by World Health Organization (WHO), United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA), the United Nations Children’s Fund (UNICEF), IPAS and the Asian Development Bank (ADB), conducted a joint external review of RMNCAH programmes. This review draws on multiple sources of evidence, including existing literature, policy documents, national health system data, as well as field visits to six selected provinces to represent Indonesia’s geographic and administrative diversity. During the field visits, review teams observed service delivery in health facilities, spoke with health workers and local leaders and met mothers and families to understand how RMNCAH policies are operationalised. One of the challenges identified was the management of low birthweight (LBW) infants, a major contributor to neonatal deaths, under resource constraints. One midwife described a severe case of extremely LBW twins, one stillborn and the other died after three days of care. She recalled how the surviving infant struggled to swallow and may not have received breast milk, while simultaneous emergencies required the team’s attention, affecting the care provided to the infant.A subsequent review of the case by the district health office revealed insufficient antenatal care, fragmented maternal medical history due to population mobility, referral delays, limited provider capacity in neonatal intravenous access and a heavy workload that constrained proper newborn monitoring. These insights informed recommendations to strengthen both system-wide and service-level responses. Since the early 2000s, Indonesia’s decentralisation initiative has given much of the responsibility for funding, staffing and managing health services to regional governments. While the Ministry of Health sets national clinical standards, daily management of public health facilities falls under regional authorities through the Ministry of Internal Affairs. While this arrangement allows services to be tailored to local needs, it also depends heavily on local capacity for planning, budgeting and management. Health facilities and district health offices are better positioned to translate national priorities into local action when they have access to consistent technical support, helping health workers manage resource constraints and infrastructure gaps.The complexity of Indonesia’s health system governance is no easy feat to navigate. Understanding these dynamics is essential to strengthening policy, improving coordination and ensuring more equitable access to services across Indonesia. Under the leadership of Ministry of Health, recommendations from this exercise will be key in guiding the nation’s roadmap to an equitable and quality health system for RMNCAH.Written by Edit Oktavia Manuama, National Professional Officer (Maternal, Newborn, and Child Health), and Jessie Yunus, National Professional Officer (Gender, Rights, Equity, and Disability Inclusion)
This GOP congressman is running unopposed in Tuesday’s primary. He’s been missing from Washington for nearly three months
GOP Rep. Tom Kean is running unopposed in his primary on Tuesday, seeking a third term in one of the nation’s most competitive seats.
Resch plaza to host Hairball, Yachtley Crew for end-of-summer party
The Resch Complex Plaza is hosting its first concert in three years. Where else can you get '80s arena rock and '70s soft rock in the same night?
AP report: U.S. to drastically slash the number of embassies in Africa that can process visas
The almost 50 U.S. embassies and consulates that are processing visa applications in Africa will be reduced to 20 “hubs” in the coming weeks, according to three U.S. officials and an internal memo obtained by The Associated Press.
Warriors forward Draymond Green reveals his top-three defensive teammates
Former Defensive Player of the Year Award winner Draymond Green recently revealed the top-three defenders he's played with throughout his career.
Florida a clear 'winner' following NBA draft withdrawal deadline
Florida basketball gets back all three players who had considered leaving to the NBA draft this summer. That makes the Gators a winner already.
ECU Health Summer Meal Program expands to six locations across eastern North Carolina
ECU Health is expanding its summer meals program in partnership with Food Lion Feeds, Sodexo and the ECU Health Foundation, adding three new locations.
Informal Science Events
Pint of Science Festival - The Pint of Science Festival was an annual three-day public engagement event that brought scientific research into informal community settings, inc...
Apple Releases macOS Tahoe 26.5.1 to Fix Shutdown Issue Affecting Enterprise Users on M5 Macs
Apple today released macOS Tahoe 26.5.1, a small update to the macOS Tahoe operating system that came out last year. macOS Tahoe 26.5.1 comes three weeks after Apple released macOS Tahoe 26.5. Mac owners can download the software by opening the System Settings app and then navigating to the Software Updates section. According to Apple's release notes for the update, macOS Tahoe 26.5.1 addresses an unexpected shutdown issue affecting certain enterprise users on M5 Macs.
Apple Releases iOS 26.5.1 to Fix Charging Issue on iPhone Air and iPhone 17 Models
Apple today released iOS 26.5.1, a minor update to iOS 26. The software is available three weeks after iOS 26.5 came out, and appears to only be available for the iPhone Air and all models in the iPhone 17 lineup. The new software can be downloaded on eligible iPhones over-the-air by going to Settings > General > Software Update. According to Apple's release notes, the update fixes a previously documented charging issue with iPhone Air and iPhone 17 models.
World’s First 8.1L Big Block C8 Corvette Finally Hits the Freeway
Three and a half years of engineering have brought this beast to life with direct injection, variable valve timing, and way more.
Miami Dolphins mandatory minicamp: 5 things we're watching
The Miami Dolphins are holding a three-day mandatory minicamp in Miami Gardens. All eyes will be on Malik Willis, Caleb Douglas and Chris Johnson.
PlayStation FlexStrike wireless fight stick and 27-Inch Gaming Monitor launch in August; Pulse Elevate wireless speakers later in 2026
Sony Interactive Entertainment has announced release dates for three of its major accessories. The FlexStrike wireless fight stick will launch on August 6 worldwide, the 27-Inch Gaming Monitor with…
Feds coming to Raleigh to help small businesses get infrastructure work
The Triangle is one of only three places nationwide to host the US Department of Transportation’s National Small Business Matchmaking Series.
Eagles add another former Packers wide receiver as overhaul continues
The Eagles on Monday morning signed former Packers wide receiver Samori Toure, who has 14 career receptions in three NFL seasons.
Real Data, Real Stakes at the 11th Business Analytics Competition
Manhattan University’s 2026 Business Analytics Competition welcomed 21 teams and nearly 100 students from around the world for three days of data-driven problem solving, professional networking and academic collaboration.
Three Positives From the Week of May 24th
It was not a very positive week for the Guardians, so here are three small moments to smile about.
Health body fast-tracks three Ebola vaccines as virus continues spread
Global health body CEPI is fast-tracking three experimental vaccines against the Bundibugyo strain of Ebola as the outbreak in Central Africa continues to spread.
Private credit lent $560 billion to US businesses since 2023, MFA report shows
Private credit funds provided nearly $560 billion in new loans to U.S. businesses over the last three years, helping create more than 6.5 million jobs, according to a Managed Funds Association report seen by Reuters.
Tallahassee native Brady Neal powers Alabama into NCAA Super Regional
Tallahassee native Brady Neal hit a three-run homer to send Alabama to the NCAA baseball Super Regionals.
Herbal Dispatch Reports First Quarter 2026 Results and Provides Business Update
Vancouver, British Columbia--(Newsfile Corp. - June 1, 2026) - Herbal Dispatch Inc. (CSE: HERB) (OTCQB: LUFFF) (FSE: HA9) ("Herbal Dispatch" or the "Company"), a cannabis e-commerce and distribution platform, today reported its financial results for the three months ended March 31, 2026 and provided an update on the Company's strategic initiatives and operational progress.Strategic Transition UnderwayDuring the first quarter of 2026, Herbal Dispatch continued positioning its business toward...
PSG set to move for three Liverpool linked targets
PSG Eye Liverpool Target Éli Junior Kroupi as Transfer Strategy EvolvesKroupi Emerges as Rare Market OpportunityThere are transfers that announce themselves with fireworks, and others that begin as w...
LSU's near-record, 'unbelievable' day keeps Tigers' season alive
LSU rallied from 17 shots back of the top 15 to not only make the 54-hole cut Sunday at the NCAA Championship, but the Tigers are just three behind eighth after an 18-under day.
Official race results: 2026 NASCAR Cup at Nashville
It was a wild finish as three Joe Gibbs Racing drivers battled it out for the win in Music City
The Fragile Coalitions Beneath American Politics
Part 1 of “Today’s Governing Gap,” a three-part series on coalition fragility, governing coherence, and the institutional continuity democratic systems require.American politics looks stable from a distance. Two dominant parties, fiercely competitive elections, a constitutional framework that has he...
Pirates drop Regional Final to Tar Heels 9-3
CHAPEL HILL, N.C. (WNCT) — After handling VCU 10-0 earlier in the day, ECU was looking to keep that momentum going into the Regional Final against UNC, but a couple of early errors lead to the Tar Heels plating eights runs in three innings as they win over the Pirates 9-3, advancing to the Super […]
Ashcraft throws 11 Ks and Pirates complete sweep of Twins
Braxton Ashcraft struck out 11 in six innings, Ryan O’Hearn and Nick Gonzales homered, and the Pittsburgh Pirates beat the skidding Minnesota Twins 9-3 on Sunday to complete a three-game sweep. Ashcraft (5-2) allowed two runs and five hits with no walks, sending the Twins to their fifth straight defeat. Brooks Lee had a two-run homer in the sixth and a solo shot in the ninth for Minnesota.
Sabalenka, Osaka clash in blockbuster French Open tie
Four-time Grand Slam champions Aryna Sabalenka and Naomi Osaka will go head-to-head in the first French Open women's night match in three years on Monday, as a host of men's players eye a maiden major quarter-final.Osaka struggled initially for form after rejoining the tour, but reached the US Open semi-finals last year, the first time she had made the second week of a Grand Slam event since winning her second Australian Open title in 2021.
L’Amy America Appoints David Low as New Director of Business Development, West
NEW YORK—L’Amy America has announced the appointment of David Low as director of business development, West, effective today, June 1, 2026. Low joins L’Amy America at a pivotal moment as it expands its portfolio with the launch of its luxury category and the addition of Billabong eyewear collections, the company said in an announcement. Low brings more than three decades of experience in eyewear sales and sales leadership, L’Amy America said, with a strong background in brand development, strategic growth and team management across the optical industry.
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...
Better Business Bureau serving New Hampshire announces 2026 Torch Awards for Ethics winners
The Better Business Bureau serving New Hampshire (BBB NH) named three businesses as 2026 Torch Awards for Ethics winners May 14 at the Bedford Village Inn in Bedford.
A big birthday: local Navasota business celebrating 80 years and three generations serving the area
A big birthday: local Navasota business celebrating 80 years and three generations serving and investing in our community
Texas Longhorns women row to fourth NCAA title in six seasons
The Texas Longhorns women won two of three races on Sunday to capture their fourth NCAA rowing championship.
Kane Parsons' Backrooms Spells a YouTube Conquest of the Film Biz
Three YouTubers' theatrical hits this year — including Kane Parsons' 'Backrooms' this weekend — hint at a new economic order even many in the business may not be ready for
How to live stream Phillies vs Dodgers: MLB, TV channel
The Philadelphia Phillies (30-28) evened their series with the Los Angeles Dodgers (37-21) on Saturday night, ending the Dodgers’ six-game winning streak, as the teams get set to decide the three-game series on Sunday at Dodger Stadium. How to Watch…
Georgia lands towering 2027 OT DJ Dotson
Hattiesburg (Miss.) Oak Grove three-star offensive tackle DJ Dotson has committed to Georgia. He chose the Bulldogs while taking his official visit to Athens this weekend. Georgia Tech and Ole Miss were among his other top contenders. Dotson is the No. 933 overall prospect and No. 72 OT in the 2027 cycle, according to the Rivals […]
AMC's Downfall Can Be Traced Back To One Tragic Moment
The American Motors Corporation was once a genuine competitor to the Big Three, but under French ownership, things went wrong very quickly and tragically.
4-star OL Brayden Harris commits to Kansas State
Things moved quickly with four-star offensive lineman Brayden Harris and Kansas State. The Jackson (Mo.) High standout shuffled his top three last week and was working with a group of Kansas State, Arkansas and UCF. But it turns out he didn’t need those visits to the other two because he announced his commitment to the […]
Spurs vs. Knicks: The three biggest questions that will decide the NBA Finals
Can Victor Wembanyama cap off his historic season with a Spurs title, or will the red-hot Knicks break their 53-year drought?
Inside California Politics: Final Emerson poll sets up intriguing election day
(Inside California Politics) — A new poll released just days before polls close in California’s gubernatorial primary show a tight race with three candidates competing for just two spots in t…
108 top economists predicted 'devastation' — Argentina's Milei continues to prove them wrong
Three years into Milei's presidency, Argentina's economy has been transformed. Economists who predicted failure now see a playbook other nations could follow.
Intriguing defensive lineman commits to FSU football
The FSU Seminoles have landed a commitment from three-star defensive lineman Eric Vaulx Jr., their first defenisve line commit in the 2027 cycle.
New solar desalination breakthrough makes fresh water without toxic brine
Scientists have developed a solar desalination system that turns seawater into drinking water without creating environmentally damaging brine. Special laser-textured metal panels use sunlight to evaporate water while automatically moving salt deposits away from the working surface, preventing clogging. The process was successfully tested with water from three oceans and can recover nearly all salts as solids. Those leftover materials could even become a source of valuable lithium for batteries.
Three men shot, one fatally, early Sunday at Muncie restaurant
Anyone with related information is asked to call Muncie Police Department detectives at 765-747-4867, or police dispatchers at 765-747-4838.