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Structure fire prompts road closures in Barkhamsted
Crews are responding to a fire at 4 Old North Road early Monday morning.
Why are so many Democrats going quiet on climate change?
The conventional wisdom says it's a losing issue. Evidence suggests it actually helps Democrats win elections.
$2 million gene therapy cures require a financing model
“We do not lack cures. We lack the infrastructure to pay for and deliver them,” writes William Padula.
Nebraska Actuarial Science Research Ranked No. 1 in North America
The University of Nebraska–Lincoln ranked No. 1 in North America and No. 12 in the world for business school actuarial science research productivity in the latest UNL Global Research Ranking of A
Nvidia Strikes AI Infrastructure Deals With South Korean Tech Firms
Nvidia is teaming up with leading South Korean technology companies to build large-scale artificial-intelligence infrastructure in Asia, seeking to solidify its data-center footprint and expand its AI ecosystem.
Scientists achieve the first total synthesis of a complex alkaloids isolated from plant
Monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs) are plant-derived molecules with unique pharmaceutical potential, but their highly complex and intricate structures make them difficult to produce in the laboratory. Now, researchers from Japan have developed a new strategy that enables the total synthesis of bisleuconothine A and bousigonine B, two biologically relevant oligomeric MIAs. Their findings lay the foundation for further studies of this family of molecules. Monoterpenoid indole alkaloids (MIAs) are plant-derived molecules with unique pharmaceutical potential, but their highly complex and intricate structures make them difficult to produce in the laboratory. Now, researchers from Japan have developed a new strategy that enables the total synthesis of bisleuconothine A and bousigonine B, two biologically relevant oligomeric MIAs. Their findings lay the foundation for further studies of this family of molecules.
What challenges face learners starting secondary science?
For learners moving from primary to new routines and labs in secondary school can be daunting, but a smooth move is possible
Scientists Detect Massive Structure Under Antarctica
Researchers have uncovered evidence showing that several subglacial landmarks are the result of the same geological process.
Falcons could give Stefon Diggs what he's looking for
At this point, Atlanta could choose to enter the picture.
Times Opinion: US lead in science is shrinking fast as China, India and even Iran catch up
A country with one of the fastest-rising scientific profiles operates under sweeping international sanctions, has limited access to Western research infrastructure and is rarely mentioned in American conversations about global innovation. That country is Iran.
Science 4 Everyone: How far away is Earth compared to other planets and the sun?
What is planetary conjunction? Storm Team4 meteorologist Ryan Miller explains how big planets are and how close they actually are to each other.
Dr. Andrew Parsons: Dr. ChatGPT is getting remarkably good at diagnosing health problems — but actual doctors are still better at weighing treatment options
A father is worried about his toddler, who has been running a fever for two days and pulling at one ear. A 65-year-old woman has been getting winded on her morning walks and feeling more fatigued than usual. Both reach for their phones and type their symptoms into an AI
When Fighting Trump Isn’t Enough to Win Another Term
A New York City congressional race shows the fractures on the left.
FULL SHOW: Inside INdiana Business 6/7/26
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Best Look at Foldable iPhone Design Revealed, May Only Come in White
Sonny Dickson today shared detailed images of a foldable iPhone dummy unit with what appears to be a finalized design, providing the best look yet at the device's look, with the suggestion that the device may only be available in white. Dummy units are non-functional units intended primarily for display purposes and accessory manufacturers, who need a high level of physical accuracy to mass produce cases and other accessories ahead of a device's announcement.
Future-proofing the Asia-Pacific region: risk mapping exercise yields insights on preparing for future health crises
In this age of seeming permacrisis, how might countries across Asia and the Pacific collectively anticipate, prepare for and respond to public health emergencies – including possible pandemics – that lie ahead? Key answers could be found from the outcomes of a regional mapping exercise launched by the World Health Organization (WHO) Regional Office for the Western Pacific during the WHO-led Asia Pacific Health Security Action Framework (APHSAF) Stakeholders Meeting held on 11 June 2026 in Malaysia. For the exercise, WHO mobilized an extensive network of contributors, synthesizing 228 distinct inputs from 11 Member States - including Australia, Japan, the Philippines and Viet Nam from the Western Pacific Region - alongside leading academic institutions and regional partner organizations, as well as WHO regional and country offices. The exercise identified a diverse range of opportunities to boost regional operational readiness, transitioning the focus on health security investment in individual countries to a unified, interoperable health security collective for the entire Asia-Pacific region.
US lead in science is shrinking fast as China, India and even Iran catch up
A country with one of the fastest-rising scientific profiles operates under sweeping international sanctions, has limited access to Western research infrastructure and is rarely mentioned in American conversations about global
Detroit Red Wings are ‘screwed’ after Dylan Larkin trade request
The Detroit Red Wings entered the offseason facing difficult questions, and the full picture is finally unfurling. Dylan Larkin‘s trade request has now turned those questions into a full-scale organizational crisis. The longtime captain reportedly wants out after 11 NHL…
Baker Mayfield, Buccaneers are on a contractual collision course
Pair of performances set for Holbrook Island Sanctuary
Multitalented artist and dramatic performer Firefly the Hybrid will perform a free show at the Holbrook Island Sanctuary State Park on Saturday, June 20, at 3 p.m.
Multiple sources, joint analysis: pooling public health data for stronger public health intelligence across the Western Pacific
WHO Western Pacific countries and areas endorse a new policy brief on multi-source surveillance. A new World Health Organization (WHO) policy brief outlines a transformative approach to public health intelligence that connects data across a range of systems, sectors and disciplines. By creating a single, actionable picture of health threats based on multiple sources, such an approach aims to fill critical data gaps and aid countries in decision-making. WHO Member States across the Western Pacific endorsed the policy brief, Multi-source Surveillance to Support Public Health Action and Decision-making, at the WHO-led Asia Pacific Health Security Action Framework (APSHAF) Stakeholders Meeting held on 11 June 2026 in Malaysia.
Can alkaline water actually improve your health? Experts separate fact from fiction
Is alkaline water actually better for you? Mayo Clinic and Harvard Medical School experts weigh in on the claims, benefits and potential dangers.
What to know about Pope Leo's trip to Spain, from political scandal to Barcelona's architectural gem
What to know about Pope Leo's trip to Spain, from political scandal to Barcelona's architectural gem
What to know about Pope Leo's trip to Spain, from political scandal to Barcelona's architectural gem
Pope Leo XIV’s weeklong visit to Spain will bring him to a once-staunchly Catholic country that has long been in the throes of waning religious practice. Leo is expected to double down on his messages of unity amid polarization, peace as war rages, welcome for migrants and hope for young Spaniard...
Sacramento County residents can track local health trends in real time. Here’s how
County officials said the new portal will make public health information easier to access and explore.
Scientists sound the alarm as dangerous amoebas spread globally
Scientists warn that free-living amoebae may be an underappreciated public health threat, capable of causing deadly infections and shielding other dangerous microbes from water treatment. Climate change and aging infrastructure could help these resilient organisms spread more widely in the years ahead.
HHS Restructuring and New Enforcement Signal Increased Focus on Privacy, Security, and Health Plans
On May 18, 2026, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) announced the restructuring of its Office for Civil Rights (OCR) enforcement efforts, establishing a dedicated unit for privacy and security enforcement under the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPAA). The move, combined with a recent enforcement action over a ransomware attack, highlights the agency’s new enforcement focus on health plans and the employers that sponsor them.
Thomas Tuchel ‘concerned’ about Florida pitch
England manager Thomas Tuchel says he is “concerned” about pictures he has seen of the pitch at the Raymond James Stadium in Florida where England will play New Zealand.England play New Zealand in...
Business Alum Joins Hearing Aid Manufacturer as Supply Chain Director
Cal State Fullerton College of Business and Economics alum Garland Wong ’20 (MBA) is now a director of supply chain at Audien Hearing, a hearing aid manufacturer. In this space, being grounded in data is essential, but so is allowing room for testing and exploration. Thanks to CSUF’s MBA program, Wong can rise to the […]
Science panel to present hardened structure report findings
The North Carolina Coastal Resources Commission is expected to hear from its science advisory panel its findings on the effects hard structures have on sandy, open-ocean coastlines.
NASA Satellites Reveal Aquifer Decline in Brazilian Breadbasket
A collaboration of scientists from NASA and Brazilian research institutions has produced a detailed picture of groundwater change across Brazil. The images
Business Report launches the AI Academy to help business leaders move from understanding to implementation
As artificial intelligence rapidly reshapes the business landscape, Business Report’s training division is launching the Business Report AI Academy, a new executive education experience designed to help small and mid-sized business leaders move beyond uncertainty and into practical implementation. Sponsored by Pellerin Technology, the five-session Academy provides a structured leadership learning path that guides participants […]
Missouri lawmakers didn’t act on data centers; they’re toxic in local politics
While data centers have upended local politics, Missouri lawmakers introduced several bills to regulate them, none crossed the finish line.
AI business 'operating system' with its own GPU hub planned in Malaysia
Planned Galactic OPC platform pairs AI agents with NVIDIA-powered GPU infrastructure and a physical hub to help entrepreneurs run key business functions.
How a Citizen Science Organization Aims to Preserve the Places It Brings Tourists to Study
The actual eco-friendliness of ecotourism varies considerably. One research station in the Peruvian Amazon is out to prove it can bring visitors to the area without disrupting the environment.
'Diners, Drive-Ins, And LIES': Guy Fieri Slammed For Allegedly Not Swallowing Any Food
There's a fun conspiracy theory going around on the internet right now that claims Guy Fieri never actually swallows any of the food he eats on his show.
Structure fire in Irmo leaves business heavily damaged
Irmo Fire District and the Columbia Fire Department responded to a structure fire on Friday.
One Health in a Fractured World: Why Global Health Governance Must Adapt to Geopolitical Fragmentation - Georgetown Journal of International Affairs
Introduction In early 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic revealed the weaknesses of global health systems to infectious diseases. However, less recognized was how the emergence of this novel virus highlighted the global changes converging to heighten outbreak risks: increased human-animal contact and agricultural intensification, accelerated population growth and urbanization, and changing weather and climatic patterns. These […]
Vanderbilt Health Pets of the Day: Freddy and Cooper
Today’s first Dog of the Day is Freddy, submitted by Beth Piazza of the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center. “Freddy was adopted on Valentine’s Day of 2024 from the Nashville Humane Association. He is the cuddliest 90-pound lap dog.“ Today’s second Dog of the Day is Cooper, submitted by Brandie Taylor of Medicine. “Cooper is a 14 year old chocolate lab. He loves eating and going to get pup cups!” Freddy and Cooper were featured in the June 9, 2026, edition of MyVUMC News. To see the archived collection of Vanderbilt Health Pets of the Day, go to: https://news.vumc.org/section/voice/pets-vumc/. Pet photos wanted! The Vanderbilt Health Pets of the Day are posted to the Voice section of Vanderbilt Health News and included in regular editions of the MyVUMC News newsletter, which is published twice a week by Vanderbilt Health News and Communications. Now through July 6, we especially want to see photos of your pets enjoying spring and summer. That might be having fun at the lake or beach, hanging out in the backyard, lying on the couch, or in the case of a pet fish, just living the life aquatic (we’re not too strict about what constitutes enjoying spring and summer). If you have a pet picture you would like to send in for consideration, go to the submission form here and follow the guidelines.
AD PRO’s Grow Your Business Month
This July, AD PRO is gathering industry thought-leaders to discuss the best business practices propelling firms today
Collier gift funds new Columbia business reporting program
Nathan S. Collier’s $2.4M gift will fund a new Columbia Journalism School program to train journalists in business reporting through a weeklong seminar.
Yankees to call up top prospect following Aaron Judge injury
The New York Yankees are turning to one of the organization’s most exciting young talents following the devastating injury news surrounding Aaron Judge. With Judge heading to the injured list after being diagnosed with a fractured rib, the Yankees have…
Buffalo's Jericho Road Community Health Center on the frontlines of Ebola crisis in Congo
There are roughly 17 pallets with $2.5 million dollars in supplies on route to Congo to be received and distributed by Jericho Road.
Xbox boss Asha Sharma still can't seem to decide on a stance regarding console exclusivity
The Xbox exclusivity conversation continues, and it doesn't look like much is actually changing.
How Business Schools & Industry Can Collaborate To Support Societal Impact Leadership
The most effective partnerships are not defined only by program structure but built through shared values and a common sense of purpose.
NC State Health Plan to propose benefit structure aimed at shifting care to 'preferred providers'
The new structure is necessary, plan administrators say, because costs are continue to outpace premiums. Those premiums are likely to increase next year.
The strange history of baseball’s superstitions: ‘Magic is in the sport’s very structure’
A new book looks at how rituals, charms and curses are central to the identity of America’s pastime
Yankees news: Aaron Judge out with rib stress fracture
Judge has rib stress fracture; Yanks more prepared in 2026 than 2023; Stanton, Domínguez progress; Yanks deadline preview
Missing congressman and his staff paint a picture of business as usual
Rep. Tom Kean, R-N.J., has offered little explanation for his ongoing absence. His social media posts highlight how Capitol Hill staffers have come to cover for bosses who are MIA.
Yankees slugger Aaron Judge has stress fracture in rib, expected to miss significant time
The Yankees said Judge is 'expected' to play again this season, but it's unclear when
Scientists identify the origin of noise in spin qubit quantum processors
Charge noise arising from two-level fluctuators is considered to play a key role in causing qubit frequency shifts in silicon spin qubits, resulting in deteriorated gate fidelity. Higher temperatures can improve gate fidelity, but the microscopic origins of this effect and of qubit frequency shift have not yet been established. Now, using statistical simulations, researchers have clarified the parameter regimes under which gate fidelity can be improved and the potential origin of qubit frequency shifts.
China's solar majors charge into batteries as panel sales falter
China's major solar panel manufacturers are ramping up higher-margin battery exports to boost revenue as growth in photovoltaic (PV) sales slows, betting on rising global demand for renewable energy storage to cut reliance on fossil fuels.
ADHD Handwriting Similarities Go Viral
"Is that actually an ADHD thing, or did I just never learn how to write the right way?"
WATCH: Capital Planning Commission seeks more info on proposed 'Trump arch' after public comment session
The vote came after nearly three hours of public comment from about 20 members of the public, some representing historic and architectural organizations, and most of whom expressed concerns about the arch that is one of several projects the Republican president is pursuing to leave his imprint on Washington.
11th Class Graduates Favarh’s Project SEARCH at UConn Health
Prepares intellectually or developmentally disabled for workforce
Millions of Women Are Syncing Workouts to Their Cycle, but Has the Trend Raced Ahead of Science?
Women everywhere are syncing workouts to their cycle— but has the trend raced ahead of the research? Here’s what we know.
Bayonne Mayor-Elect Nadrowski Selects Andrew Casais as Business Administrator
Mayor-Elect Sharon Nadrowski today announced her selection of Andrew J. Casais as the next Business Administrator for the City of Bayonne. Casais brings more than 15 years of municipal management experience, including nearly three years as Bayonne’s Chief of Staff from 2014 to 2017. During his career, he has championed major infrastructure investments, operational reforms,[...]
Sophie Cunningham reveals the truth about Fever’s Commissioner’s Cup payday
Indiana Fever veteran Sophie Cunningham set the record straight on how much players actually took home after winning the WNBA Commissioner's Cup.
Plaque imaging, AI and structural heart disease in the spotlight at SCCT 2026 meeting
Coronary plaque imaging is an area many experts believe is driving a shift toward earlier detection and prevention of heart disease.
Here's how every California county voted for governor
We have a good picture of how each of the state's 58 counties voted.
Oregon State hires Kevin Griffin as new athletic director
Griffin has served as associate vice president for brand engagement, services and partnerships and associate athletic director for business strategy at Ohio State since 2022
Amazon, Microsoft and Google are quietly morphing their businesses — and Wall Street is missing the big picture
Tech giants are shifting from solely providing computing power to distributing AI models, unlocking a lucrative new revenue stream.
Inside SpaceX’s Rockets-to-Riches I.P.O. Plan
The latest prospectus by Elon Musk’s company underscores its confidence in its planned market debut. But skeptics see reasons for concern.
Are German businesses returning to Russia's SPIEF meeting?
Russian officials and media claim German businesses are comming back to the St. Petersburg Economic Forum despite the war in Ukrainer. But who is actually attending Russia's flagship event this year?
Scientists discover vast hidden structure beneath Antarctica’s ice
A giant fan-shaped network of hidden basins has been discovered beneath East Antarctica, revealing that several well-known subglacial features are actually part of one massive geological structure. The finding sheds new light on Antarctica’s ancient tectonic history and could help scientists better understand how the ice sheet behaves today.
Goethe never knew this 40-million-year-old ant was hidden in his collection
Scientists examining amber from Goethe’s personal collection discovered three hidden fossil insects, including an extinct ant preserved in extraordinary detail. Advanced 3D imaging allowed researchers to see not only the ant’s outer features but also structures inside its body. The findings offer new clues about the species’ biology and suggest it likely built large nests in trees.
When science answers to politics
The White House Office of Management and Budget has proposed new rules that would require political appointees, not scientists, to decide which research…
When science answers to politics
The White House Office of Management and Budget has proposed new rules that would require political appointees, not scientists, to decide which research…
2026 Tax Treaty Survey Highlights U.S. Business Priorities - National Foreign Trade Council
Washington D.C. – The National Foreign Trade Council (NFTC) today released results from its annual Tax Treaty Survey. The survey, which was answered by tax professionals from NFTC member companies, asked businesses to rate their tax treaty priorities around the world. “Tax treaties are essential for U.S. businesses, and we are thankful that Treasury is […]
Novant Health restructures leadership with focus on regional growth
The president of Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center is taking on a larger regional role as Novant Health reshapes leadership across North Carolina.
The Politics of Affect in Literary Translation
The Politics of Affect in Literary Translation Edited by Sofía Monzón (Utah State University) and Lucie Spezzatti (University of Geneva) Scholarship on affect, emotion, embodiment, and feeling has significantly reshaped debates across the humanities and...
In a stormy session, workforce training wins were a bipartisan bright spot, business groups say
Bills that would restructure the state's workforce training programs — and redirect more federal money to the state, expand career programs beginning as early as middle school, and creating programs to connect college students to career opportunities passed with support from both sides of the aisle.
NC House Democrats propose 3 judicial constitutional amendments
Subscribe to Under the Dome to get North Carolina politics news in your inbox daily.
LiveOne Expands Partnership With AT&T, Cisco For Connected-Car Entertainment.
LiveOne has announced an expanded collaboration with AT&T and Cisco aimed at supporting next-generation in-vehicle entertainment through AT&T’s Connected Car platform. Under the agreement, automotive manufacturers will be able to
Alphabet's capital raise signals the end of low capex, high earnings business model: Expert
Blind Squirrel Macro's Rupert Mitchell hints at how investors may be underestimating a key transition underway when Big Tech moves to capital-intensive AI infrastructure operations. This move, the veteran capital market banker suggests could reshape the market dynamics that helped fuel U.S. equity outperformance over the past decade.
Latest White House move to politicise science funding provokes ...
US research community mobilising to push back on proposed rule that would give apparatchiks control of which research gets funded
Cancer’s favorite escape trick may actually make it easier to kill
Scientists have uncovered a surprising new way the immune system fights cancer, overturning a core belief that has guided immunology for decades. The research found that when cancer cells shut down a key immune-recognition molecule called MHC I—a common trick used to hide from “killer” T cells—they can actually become more vulnerable to attack by a different group of immune cells known as CD4+ “helper” T cells.
Quentin Tarantino rips modern movies from Hollywood's 'flavorless sausage factory,' would 'rather read a book'
Quentin Tarantino slammed contemporary movies, as he called Hollywood a 'flavorless sausage factory' — but named a few recent films he actually liked.
Novant Health restructures leadership with focus on regional growth
The president of Novant Health New Hanover Regional Medical Center is taking on a larger regional role as Novant Health reshapes leadership across North Carolina.
Stuntman: Hollwood Revives a PS2 Fave for PS5, Adds Actual Movie Licenses Like Fast & Furious
Back to the Future! Knight Rider! More!
US Ignite Launches SURGE, a National Science Foundation-Supported Initiative to Empower Regional Innovation Coalitions Nationwide
“SURGE provides regional coalitions with structure, guidance, and connections in a peer learning environment. This new program is meant for both existing regional coalitions and leaders who are building new cross-sector partnerships.” -L.Arias, US Ignite Supporting U.S. Regional Growth & Entrepreneurship (SURGE) Convert regional momentum into results! WASHINGTON, June 03, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- US Ignite officially launched the Supporting U.S. Regional Growth & Entrepreneurship (SURGE) Program
Families push CES to expand science curriculum
A group of 13 families has expressed concerns over the quality of STEM (science, technology, engineering, and math) education at Conners Emerson Elementary School, claiming that the current structure of
California voters feel increasingly disillusioned with political system
“Many residents feel abandoned by a political system that asks for their vote but rarely their voice.”
Riverhead Votes to Proceed with Science Center Condemnation
In a 3-1 vote Tuesday afternoon (Councilman Bob Kern abstained), the Riverhead Town Board voted to proceed with condemnation proceedings against a building owned by the Long Island Science Center adjacent to the planned Town Square on East Main Street. Town Supervisor Jerry Halpin cast the sole vote in opposition. Pictured Above: Cindy Clifford, Joan
Elections to top science bodies test Croatia’s gender equality in research
Croatia’s track-record on gender equality in science has been both questioned and lauded in recent months, following both bad and good news on the topic. On the one hand, a senior awards committee was announced without a single woman researcher included. On the other, the national science academy welcomed its first cohort of fellows with more women than men.Members of the committee, which gives national awards recognising scientific achievement, are proposed by the ministry of science and endorsed by the parliament. The current line-up does include a woman, but she is culture minister Nina Obuljen Koržinek rather than a researcher. Even then, she didn’t make it into the photograph released to announce the appointments on April 16. “The image speaks a thousand words,” says Tanja Rudež, a science journalist for Jutarnji List newspaper. “I am surprised that none of these men, all well-known scientists, saw a problem with the fact that there was not a single successful female scientist on the committee,” she told Science|Business.Ivan Đikić, a prominent Croatian biochemist based at Goethe University Medical School, commented on LinkedIn that the news illustrated a “sad truth” about the state of science in Croatia.“It [. . .] reveals a system where women, despite contributing a substantial share of high-quality, internationally competitive science, are systematically excluded from the very processes that determine recognition and influence,” he wrote. Some 60% of researchers in Croatia are women, according to the Croatian Bureau of Statistics, and they perform well in international competitions. For example, of the 12 European Research Council (ERC) grants awarded to Croatian researchers, seven went to women.“So how is it possible that decision-making bodies are still dominated by men over 60, while not a single female ERC laureate is involved in the selection process?” asked Đikić. “This is not a marginal oversight; it is a structural failure.” The ministry of science did not reply to a request for comment. The awards committee is not unusual. For example, a scientific advisory body announced by the ministry of demographics in April comprises 35 men and five women. The board of the Croatian Science Foundation, newly appointed by the parliament, is a little better, with five men and two women, but still unequal. “This is especially significant because such bodies do not merely distribute prestige. They shape research priorities, funding allocation and long-term scientific development,” Marija Lugarić, chair of the parliament’s committee on gender equality, told Science|Business. “Representation here matters not only symbolically, but materially.”Referring to the awards committee and the board of the science foundation, Lugarić says that while both bodies were appointed by parliament, neither met the minimum 40% gender balance threshold that Croatian law and EU guidelines expressly recommend for public bodies.Đikić wants to see EU institutions put pressure on the government to ensure basic standards of fairness, transparency and democratic governance in science policy are met. “Meaningful change will not come without pressure,” he wrote. “It must intensify both within Croatia and at the level of European institutions. Anything less undermines the credibility of Europe’s commitment to excellence and inclusion in science.”Rudež also underlined the importance of talking and writing about this topic, “because public opinion in Croatia does influence changes in the status and visibility of women in science.”The European Commission has not yet responded to a request for comment.Good news from the academyA more positive story came from the Croatian Academy of Sciences and Arts on 21 May, with the announcement of seven new women fellows and five men. This is the first time in the academy’s 165-year history that women have outnumbered men in a new intake.One of the new fellows, two-time ERC grantee Iva Tolić, credits the academy leadership with trying to be more modern and inclusive, representing the whole community better. “The academy is really aware that so far, before this election, there were very few women,” she told Science|Business. “So, they are actively trying to make this more equal.”Related articlesExplained: How the MSCA is close to achieving gender balanceCall for EU to leverage academic freedom in global talent raceRudež is more cautious, noting that despite the academy’s “breakthrough this year [. . .] it is still a predominantly male institution, with only 18% women.”This reflects a wider imbalance in Croatia’s research landscape. “The key levers of power in science are still in the hands of men,” she went on. “For example, all 14 rectors of private and public universities are men.”Similarly, Lugarić says a structural glass ceiling still exists in Croatian science, which is “most visible precisely where power is exercised.”She cites data from the Commission’s She Figures 2024 report, which shows that Croatia ranks second in the EU for gender equality in research and innovation overall, with an equality index of 79.6 out of 100. It is in the top five for women’s career advancement, participation in research; representation across all research sectors and for scientific publications.In stark contrast, it ranks second to last when it comes to women in decision-making positions in science. “This is not a coincidence,” Lugarić says. “It is a structural pattern.”Informal barriersThe persistent under-representation of women in the highest structures of Croatia’s academies, boards, award committees and leadership positions is not down to formal barriers, Lugarić says, but arises from more subtle obstacles such as “informal networks, persistent expectations regarding traditional gender roles and the unequal distribution of care responsibilities.”Tolić would like to see more support for young women in terms of affordable housing and child support, and higher salaries. Currently, she says, salaries in science stay low for the first 10-15 years, while housing and spaces in kindergarten are limited and expensive. “You have to work a lot, you get very little money, so it’s not great to have a family in this situation,” she says.But despite the challenges, Tolić is optimistic, saying that gender equality in research in Croatia is “definitely improving and going in the right direction.” The situation is particularly promising in biology, she adds, where most full professors, heads of department and deans of faculties are women. Lugarić, too, see the glass ceiling “very slowly, cracking,” and cites the academy election as an example that structural change is possible. Yet the situation in the national awards committee is a “stark reminder that without a conscious, systemic commitment to gender balance, progress will remain slow and uneven.”
The cult of objectivity has broken consciousness science
With 22 competing theories and no consensus in sight, the science of consciousness is lost. In this exclusive IAI interview, Berkeley psychedelics researcher and bestselling author of a new book on consciousness Michael Pollan insists that even though consciousness lies beyond traditional forms of scientific investigation, we should resist becoming dualists who see it as something radically different from ordinary stuff in the world. Instead, he makes the case for reimagining science itself: it must stop reaching for objective descriptions of physical reality, and instead embrace subjectivity as the indispensable core of all inquiry. Alasdair Craig: How did your experiences with psychedelics get you interested in consciousness?Michael Pollan: One of the things that happens on psychedelics is that they foreground consciousness. What formerly seemed perfectly transparent and ever present—and yet, non-existent, as water is to fish—suddenly you see it. The metaphor I use in the book is that psychedelics sponge the windscreen. Suddenly you realize: wow, there’s a windscreen, there is this phenomenon that’s mediating my relationship to reality. This is not an unusual realization on psychedelics. I think a lot of people are called to think about consciousness after psychedelic experiences. So that was the proximate inspiration for A World Appears: A Journey Into Consciousness (2026).And then there was a more specific way in which psychedelics influence the book. That was a particular experience I had on psilocybin. I had the sensation that the plants in my garden were conscious and returning my gaze, with their own point of view and agency, and I got curious as to how to evaluate an insight like that. I mean, what’s the truth quotient of insights you have on psychedelics? And I was reading William James—who, of course, wrote beautifully about mystical experience—and he said, we can’t judge the metaphysics here, but we should pay attention to two criteria: (1) How useful is it to think this is true? He was a pragmatist, of course. And (2) can we subject it to other ways of knowing to validate it? Because maybe we should treat these insights as hypotheses. And that’s kind of how I approach psychedelics, as a great generator of hypotheses, but they need to be tested against other ways of knowing. And so that led me down this long path exploring the science of plant intelligence and plant sentience.AC: I love your phrase, “smudging the windowpane of conscious experience.” So do you now start to think, actually, even when I’m not on psychedelics, I’m just seeing a screen all the time, which is not reality, but rather is my conscious experience, behind which reality is hidden?MP: Well, you know, not when I’m brushing my teeth and making breakfast! But yes, in meditation, certainly. I mean, one of the things you realize is that my experience happens to be this way now, but it could be another way. And many things can affect it. My morning coffee changes the screen in various ways, sharpens certain things.___The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness.___There’s this wonderful metaphor in Aldous Huxley’s book, The Doors of Perception, where he thinks we channel consciousness, and that what the brain does is edit it, and there’s a reducing valve. And psychedelics open the reducing valve wider. I don’t know that I’m ready to buy into the idea that consciousness exists outside brains, but I do love that metaphor because there are times when you are more conscious than others. I know I’ve switched from window pane to valve, but you know, a camera aperture can open wider or narrower. And I do have a sense of that. I have a sense of when I’m being less conscious, and when I’m being more conscious, by which I mean, you know, more present, taking in more sensory information. So when you start thinking about consciousness as a matter of degree, that changes things also.I think when we scroll on social media, obviously, we’re conscious. But minimally so, because we don’t have to generate our own thoughts. We’re basically taking these little hits from other people and thinking their thoughts.The process of writing this book made me kind of relativize everyday consciousness as just one type, which is exactly what William James said. Normal consciousness is one type, separated by the flimsiest of screens from the other types.AC: If we stick with the metaphor of the smudge on the window that you get when you take psychedelics, it seems like we’re saying that consciousness has become like an object that you’re looking at, right? You’re looking at the smudge and that just is consciousness. But sometimes we’ll talk about consciousness as a state that you’re in, rather than an object you can perceive. You’re either conscious or you’re not conscious. So it’s difficult to really know what sort of thing we’re talking about when we talk about consciousness, right?MP: Yeah. When you say that consciousness is an object, what’s the subject? Consciousness also? The only tool we have to understand consciousness is consciousness. So we’re in a closed loop and when we get a perspective on consciousness, we’re not achieving any distance from it. That’s one of the problems with studying consciousness. Science is predicated on an objective, God’s eye view of things, and you never get that. There’s no such thing. SUGGESTED VIEWING The brain filters consciousness With Àlex Gómez-Marín But, yeah, there is this sense, I think, that consciousness is something you can approach. Certainly, when you’re writing and trying to recreate a conscious experience, it’s a fiction, but you’re standing back from it, and looking at it. But there’s no real subject-object distinction.AC: That’s so interesting, because when philosophers start talking about consciousness, they often talk about what they call “qualia”, which is their word for the felt experience of, say, the color red. And I think that way of speaking often makes us think of the qualia as an object, which you can see out there: the redness of red. But, as you say, we also want to collapse the subject-object distinction when we talk about consciousness. So there’s something strange going on here…MP: Oh, yeah, there are many strange things going on! *AC: Let’s talk about the varieties of consciousness. Apart from perceptions, there are, pains, emotions, thoughts, and so on. What is it that holds all this diversity together so that they all count as instances of consciousness? What is it that they all have in common?MP: Yeah, that’s a really good question. I mean, there is sensory information, right? Which we perceive coming from the world outside ourselves. And then there’s internal information, which is what’s called interoception. And this is very important too. This is where feelings come from—what are sometimes called homeostatic feelings—that are intended to get the brain to keep us in these narrow ranges of temperature and glucose and so on. That’s a very important part of consciousness. And according to some researchers, who I think are probably right, this is where consciousness begins, with these very primal feelings, like hunger and thirst and warmth and itch, and things like that. And then there’s this third thing, which is our thinking about thinking.And what holds all this together is, I think, the sense of self. Consciousness generates a self: it is probably an organizing principle. All this stuff is happening to the self. It’s a construct, I think, but it is very useful. It can connect all these different streams of consciousness to a single being or a place, metaphorically speaking.* AC: The first half of your book is about the science of consciousness. Is consciousness just another thing, like black holes or the origin of life, which we don’t yet understand, but which we should have every hope that science will one day get to the bottom of, or is there something special about consciousness that makes this unlikely?MP: It depends how you define science. As we define science now, it’s going be very difficult. Science since Galileo has had a set of rules or assumptions, which is that the proper remit of science is to deal with the objective, quantifiable, third-person world. And the physical sciences have done amazing work under that set of limitations. Galileo—for tactical reasons, not for philosophical reasons—said science should not deal with the soul, which at the time was what consciousness was considered to be. So what is subjective, what is qualitative, what is first person, we’re going to leave to the church, he said. And this was a good agreement, and it probably kept many scientists from getting burned at the stake. But it leaves science in an awkward spot, now that it wants to venture into that territory of qualities, of first-person experience. And I don’t think it has the proper tools. I think it will have to add to its toolkit in some way, and find a way to bring in phenomenology, or lived experience and introspection, which science is usually dismissive of.The challenge—we alluded to it earlier—is that the only tool you have to study consciousness with is consciousness. And what I mean by that is, the whole scientific enterprise is a manifestation of consciousness. As much as scientists like to flatter themselves with this idea that they attain a godlike perspective on what they study, when it comes to consciousness, there’s no such thing. And it’s fine for all the things you can step outside of and study from that perspective. But two areas it won’t work are consciousness and cosmology.___It could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.___With cosmology, too, you have to study the universe from inside the universe. It’s not that cosmologists haven’t made progress. We know a lot about the age of the universe and expansion and things like that. But we can’t penetrate what happened before the Big Bang. We just don’t have the tools because we can’t stand outside.The fact that there are 22 full-scale theories of consciousness tells you all you need to know: we’re kind of lost. And I was surprised to find that we are more lost than I thought we were when I started this. I thought that there’d be leading theories, or that we had experiments that we could conduct that would nail some of this down. And the fact is, we don’t.So, I don’t know if science can solve it. But, of course, we can change the rules of science. A really influential book for me was a book called The Blind Spot, by two physicists, Marcello Gleiser and Adam Frank, and a philosopher, Evan Thompson. It’s a reminder that science is a social practice. It’s organized in a certain way and it can be organized in a different way. But it has this huge blind spot at the center of it, which is its failure to recognize that it is a form of consciousness itself, and it doesn’t have a good way of taking account of lived experience.AC: On the one hand, I think you want to resist traditional dualism, which would say that consciousness is something magical, something supernatural, right? But on the other hand, you’re accepting that there is this division in reality between the stuff that you can investigate objectively and measure, and so on—the stuff that science has been good at finding out about—and consciousness, which, for some reason, you can’t objectively measure. Some would take this to suggest that the dualism is actually right. Is there a way of reconciling these two strands of your thinking?MP: To call it magical is full of value judgement. I mean, you could just say immaterial. The interesting thing is, I think, that intuitively we’re all dualists. And I don’t know whether that’s because we’re children of Descartes and other cultures are less dualist than we are. Or it may be because that’s how consciousness feels. It feels different than the body. It feels separate from the body. But I don’t think we should trust that intuition.AC: So let’s think about ways that science might be changed to get at consciousness. I suppose the starting point would be the way that you begin the second half of your book. You have this nice line from William James, where he says, “We now begin our study of the mind from within.” Could you give us some sense of the ways of studying the mind from within? What does this involve?MP: I don’t know what that science looks like. But one of the points I’m making is that it depends on the humanities. I found that I learned as much, if not more, about consciousness, from reading novels and poetry. There is a sense of the fullness and complexity of consciousness that you don’t get in any scientific account. I interviewed this stream-of-consciousness writer and I approached her as an expert on consciousness, and she is. So I think that dialogue is really important.I’m reading Ben Lerner’s new novel, Transcription. Just read the first page of this novel: it’s a man falling asleep on a train, going to conduct an interview, and there is the experience of being in the train, facing backwards, there’s the view outside, but there’s a reflection of himself through which he’s seeing outside. There’s the memory of dropping his kids off at school. All this is going on in one moment of consciousness. Scientists aren’t going anywhere near that. But I think it’s useful for them to think about. That’s where we’re trying to go: like, how does such a layered experience happen? You know, it also makes you wonder, could a computer ever do this? And it gives you some doubt.*AC: Before we get to computers, perhaps we could talk briefly about plants. How did you come to feel that they are sentient?MP: Well, it was a psychedelic experience, and it’s not unusual on psychedelics. In fact, there’ve been studies about how people become animists during psychedelic experience. Their belief in animism arises after a single psychedelic experience.You know, most scientists would say this is all a myth. But we have only 400 years of the age of enlightenment and science. Before that, we were animists, and if you go around the world, most indigenous cultures are still animists, and children are animists, by and large, until they go to school. So it could be that we live in this anomaly of not believing nature is conscious. And maybe psychedelics are teaching us something we’ve forgotten.As I said, I wanted to test this idea, and see whether there was conventional scientific evidence for it. And there’s fascinating work going on in a field that calls itself—in a rather cheeky way—plant neurobiology. These are people who fully realize there are no neurons in plants, but they’re trolling conventional botanists! And they’re doing experiments that are demonstrating that plants can learn and remember, which is kind of amazing: how do you store a memory without neurons? They’re finding plants that can solve problems, that can hear and see. In fact, they have 20 senses to our five or six. For example, a bean plant looking for something to twine, and given a pole within eight inches or so of it, knows where that pole is and will aim its spiraling reach at that pole. What is that about? Is it bouncing signals off of it?One of the spookiest things is the fact that the same anesthetics that put us out put plants out. You might think that plants are already out, but they’re not. They’re just slow. If you take a plant with a fast behavior, like a Venus flytrap, and give it an anesthetic, it will stop reacting. So you have to ask yourself, what is lost when the plant is anaesthetized? Some state of alertness, of awareness, of its environment, of reactivity. I’m not prepared to call that consciousness, but maybe it’s sentience—which is a simpler form of consciousness, and involves the ability to sense what’s going on in your environment and assess what’s good and bad for you and act appropriately. That may be a universal quality of life.AC: Let’s turn from plants to AI. You point out that LLMs are trained on the internet rather than direct interactions with reality. You put this really nicely when you say the internet is not the world so much as a shadow cast by the world. So LLMs are living in this kind of shadow world, or in Plato’s cave, as you put it. What’s the significance of this for AI consciousness and moral consideration? And, to recall the beginning of our conversation, if we’re stuck behind a veil or screen of consciousness, are we also stuck in a kind of shadow world?MP: I don’t think they’re the same shadow worlds because our world includes nature and other people. And even if it’s mediated in some ways... There is a reality out there, and we are in relation to it, through consciousness. There’s friction with it. What’s missing from the LLMs is that friction with the real world. There’s more to the world than human representation, which is what they’re dealing with. And that means that so far, AI is a cultural technology for combining thoughts we’ve already had. SUGGESTED VIEWING Cracking the code for thought With Roger Penrose, Sabrina Gonzalez Pasterski, Max Tegmark, Güneş Taylor Genuine creativity is more than collage. A lot of what AI does now is tantamount to collage, putting this with that and you know, that’s part of art, certainly. But there are also genuinely new ideas that come into the world that don’t come in through manipulating the representations we already have. So it remains to be seen whether AIs can be truly creative in that more radical sense.But my arguments against AI becoming conscious have to do with the fact that the idea of AI consciousness is based on this faulty metaphor that the brain is a computer. There are dimensions in which the brain is like a computer—it certainly does its share of computation. But computers have this sharp distinction between hardware and software, and brains don’t. In a brain, hardware and software are identical. Every memory is a physical change to the brain. Brains are not interchangeable in the way computers are. So this idea that you could take the consciousness out and somehow run it on another substrate, a silicon substrate, seems foolhardy.Anyway, it’s a more extended argument, and I may be wrong. And when we move to computers that aren’t based on silicon—neuromorphic computers and things like that—all bets may be off.AC: Regarding your point about LLMs being stuck in the world of our representations—the internet or whatever—and not being able to interact with reality, are these representations, the world of the internet, themselves part of reality? We’ve created the internet, but it’s still a real thing that exists. And so while the LLMs may be trapped within that part of reality, they’re nevertheless within reality and interacting with it and so on. So it’s not obvious that there’s a barrier there to them becoming conscious and being creative.MP: Yeah, I mean, if our consciousness is built out of human culture, which is what we’re talking about with all those representations. But I tend to think consciousness comes a bit more out of nature and friction with the natural world, but...AC: So there’s a fundamental divide between the natural world and human artefacts?MP: And we lose track of that, and especially people in this computer world. You know, the people who are creating these AI systems, my guess is they’ve been into video games since the age of three, and they didn’t go outside a lot. And their own contact with nature is somewhat limited. I could be wrong, it’d be a very interesting thing to ask, all the wizards of AI, whether they like to go fishing and hiking and do things like that. Or were they on computers from a very early age? I interviewed Blake Lemoine, the Google engineer who came to believe that LaMDA, the Google LLM out at the time, was conscious and deserved personhood. It was very clear that he didn’t see a distinction between this bubble in which he lived and the real world. And I think we’ve all been distanced from the natural world, and this is taking us even further away. But it’s still there, you know, and we still have bodies, and we’re still mortal, and we don’t live in a simulation.AC: I think that’s a great place to finish. Michael Pollan, thank you very much!
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