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Opinion | A ‘Fringe Epidemiologist’ on What’s Wrong With Public Health
Jay Bhattacharya, the N.I.H. director, says authorities broke the public’s trust in the Covid era. Now it’s up to outsiders to restore it.
Opinion | A ‘Fringe Epidemiologist’ on What’s Wrong With Public Health
Jay Bhattacharya, the N.I.H. director, says authorities broke the public’s trust in the Covid era. Now it’s up to outsiders to restore it.
KFF Health Tracking Poll: Health Care Costs, Expiring ACA Tax Credits, and the 2026 Midterms
Looking ahead to the midterm elections, health care costs are the public’s top economic concern, and many voters say the issue will have a major impact on their vote. On health care issues, including the cost of health care, voters currently trust Democrats more than Republicans, though neither party has an advantage on addressing the overall cost of living. Following the expiration of the ACA enhanced tax credits, two-thirds of the public say Congress did the “wrong thing” by not extending them.
Shares of GE Vernova slide as investors focus on the wrong part of its business
Our focus is on the continued robust results from the power and electrification businesses, where demand is off the charts.
Reid Hoffman warns CEOs against staying quiet in the Trump era
Reid Hoffman says business leaders are wrong to stay silent and that they have a responsibility to speak up.
Top White House aide Stephen Miller acknowledges possible breach of protocol before Alex Pretti’s shooting
White House Deputy Chief of Staff Stephen Miller said Tuesday that officials were evaluating why Customs and Border Protection agents in Minneapolis “may not have been following” proper protocol before the fatal shooting of VA nurse Alex Pretti – a remarkable acknowledgment of possible wrongdoing from one of the Trump administration’s most influential and hardline operators on immigration enforcement.
Scientists may have been wrong about what causes asthma
Asthma may not be driven by the molecules scientists have blamed for decades. Researchers have identified “pseudo leukotrienes,” inflammation-triggering compounds formed by uncontrolled free-radical reactions rather than normal enzymes. These molecules were found at much higher levels in people with asthma, closely tracking how severe their symptoms were. The finding hints at a new way to treat asthma by preventing the inflammatory spark instead of blocking its aftermath.
Private club teams have upended youth sports. But are they good for kids?
Pay-to-play leagues dominate the landscape for young athletes. Some parents wonder if they’re steering children in the wrong direction.
Google pays $68 million to settle claims its voice assistant spied on users
The tech giant did not admit wrongdoing in the case.
Shared decision-making on vaccines is not the enemy
“In its urge to say what Kennedy gets wrong, the public health and medical community is actively resisting something he gets right.”
US wins against Russian, Chinese air defenses risk wrong lessons
These systems could still be effective in the right hands or situation. At the same time, the US and allies have a history of success against them.
Matt Damon admits wife Luciana had a crush on Ben Affleck before they met
Matt Damon says that before he met wife Luciana Barroso, she had a crush on Ben Affleck after watching 'Good Will Hunting': 'You got the wrong one?!'
How the ‘confident authority’ of Google AI Overviews is putting public health at risk
Experts say tool can give ‘completely wrong’ medical advice which could put users at risk of serious harm
Feds drop effort to get trans patients' records from LA children's hospital
After families sued, the Justice Department agreed to withdraw its subpoena for personal and medical information of transgender patients at Children's Hospital Los Angeles. Advocates called it a "fishing expedition" without evidence of wrongdoing.
Four Washington Post-affiliated journalists who have been targeted over their work
Ten years since his release from wrongful detention in Iran, Jason Rezaian highlights four other Washington Post-affiliated journalists who have been targeted over their work.
Texans’ mascot Toro attempts to break Steelers’ Terrible Towel curse
The Steelers’ Terrible Towel curse has struck again, and the Texans’ mascot Toro is attempting to rectify the wrongs he made.
Lucinda Williams Delivers a Political Message for Brutal Times on ‘World’s Gone Wrong’
Review: Lucinda Williams' new album 'World's Gone Wrong' offers a political message for brutal times
The No. 1 Healthiest Berry to Protect Against Cancer, Heart Disease, According to a Dietitian
You can’t go wrong with eating any type of berry. They’re all nutritious and tasty, but some berries are unique when it comes to their health benefits.
Trump’s claims about Nato in Afghanistan ‘disappointing and wrong’, minister says
Care minister Stephen Kinnock criticises US president over claim Nato troops stayed away from frontline in Afghanistan
You might be stretching the wrong way, scientists say
A new wave of research is showing what the old gym myths about stretching got wrong—and what you really need to do to reap its benefits.
I'm surprised and confused by Sony's new turntable line-up
Was I wrong to expect a bit more?
Column | The right, and wrong, words for your kid’s postgame talk
The rising pressure of youth sports has made postgame moments, from the sideline to the parking lot to the drive home, more fraught than ever.
Weekly Entertainment Report: Your guide to live music and lively arts in Southern NH, Jan. 22-25
Music, live entertainment - you can't go wrong.
It Was Notorious for Getting Things Wrong. Now It’s Assisting Your Doctor.
There’s an important caveat you need to know.
Turns out grandma was wrong: 6 everyday habits debunked by science
Every day, we rely on habits shaped by upbringing and tradition, assuming they protect our health; but modern science challenges that assumption; here are six everyday examples that expose the gap between common sense and scientific evidence
Samsung Galaxy S26 Ultra release window, price signals, and what pre-order buyers should expect
Galaxy S26 Ultra is the next big thing from Samsung, and buyers are closely monitoring news about its release date, price, and pre-order offers. Samsung may have scheduled Galaxy Unpacked 2026 on January 21 or 28. Meanwhile, things went wrong with initial plans that included the Galaxy S26 Edge, and the sudden revival of the […]
Sean McDermott’s final big decision may have cost him his job
Sean McDermott’s final big decision as Buffalo Bills’ head coach was the wrong one, and it may have cost him his job.
Starmer Pushes Back Against Greenland Tariff Threat as ‘Completely Wrong’
The British prime minister said his country “must stand up for its values” after President Trump threatened a new tariff war over acquiring the island.
Textbooks Were Wrong: Human Hair Doesn’t Grow the Way Scientists Thought
A new imaging study challenges long-standing ideas about how hair grows and could lead to new treatments for hair loss. Scientists have discovered that human hair does not emerge because it is pushed upward from the root. Instead, it is pulled along by forces generated by a previously unseen netw
My Mom Is Spreading My Family’s Story as “Evidence” to Support Her Political Agenda. But She’s Got All the Facts Wrong.
She's using us as proof.
Why Bills made costly mistake taking football 2nd in overtime
Game theory was wrong here.
Two Cheers for Abundance: Tech Policy and the Politics of Growth
While President Trump has largely failed to fulfill that promise, Abundance can help lay the groundwork for a moderate coalition to remove government barriers to future growth. There’s much that Klein and Thompson get wrong. But they are absolutely correct that we shouldn’t settle for a political class obsessed with fighting over the scraps of a decayed American empire.
CNN poll finds majority of Americans say Trump is focused on the wrong priorities
Public opinion on nearly every aspect of President Donald Trump’s first year back in the White House is negative, a new CNN poll conducted by SSRS finds, with a majority of Americans saying Trump is focused on the wrong priorities and doing too little to address cost of living.
Trump says JP Morgan boss ‘wrong’ over Fed defence; Miliband hails record windfarm auction
Rolling coverage of the latest economic and financial news
So our brains aren’t full of microplastics after all?
The research on microplastics in our bodies is terrifying. It might also be wrong.
Ubisoft Layoffs Impact Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft Stockholm Employees
Ubisoft confirms restructuring at Massive Entertainment and Ubisoft Stockholm. 55 roles may be affected by the changes.
‘Disappointing’: Ohio’s Science of Reading Switch Not Yet Bringing Results
Ohio’s drive to boost reading scores using the science of reading has had a rocky start in the two years since Gov. Mike DeWine fought for the change, with scores going the wrong direction.
Aaron Rodgers proved everyone wrong
The Steelers’ quarterback has shut up a lot of doubters
Voices: A new rural health care grant isn’t enough. Utah’s children deserve better.
“Accepting deep Medicaid cuts while celebrating a limited rural grant sends the wrong message and puts families at risk,” writes Moe Hickey, Executive Director of Voices for Utah Children, in an op-ed.
They Couldn’t Access Mental Health Care When They Needed It. Now They’re Suing Their Insurer.
A new lawsuit alleges that an insurer’s ghost network hindered New York City employees from accessing the mental health care they sought — and harmed the reputation of psychiatrists wrongly listed as being in-network.
The problem with blaming everything on inflammation
What your favorite TikTok influencer gets right — and wrong — about this widespread concern.
Jail suicide lawsuit against Eyerly Ball can continue, Iowa court rules
Family of Jordan Panye, who died by suicide at the Madison County Jail, sued mental health provider Eyerly Ball for negligence, wrongful death.
They were filming into Michigan business, then situation escalated. Now police are investigating
They say it was self-defense, that they were just filming into a Michigan business and doing nothing wrong. But the meat market owner says he was going to tell police when the situation escalated. Now this confrontation is under investigation.
Unregulated gambling on politics: What could go wrong?
Prediction markets like Polymarket and Kalshi are becoming a regular fixture in American politics. Sure seems a lot like betting to me.
40 in 40: Julio Rodríguez is the Edgar
After years of near-Griffey expectations, what if we’ve been seeing Julio all wrong?
The poison frog that fooled scientists for decades
Researchers discovered that a poison frog species described decades ago was based on a mix-up involving the wrong museum specimen. The frog tied to the official species name turned out to be brown, not the colorful animal shown in the original photo. After tracing old records and images, scientists corrected the error and reclassified the frog as part of an already-known species. The case underscores how vital museum collections are—and how even small mistakes can ripple through science for years.
Hegseth Starts Proceedings Against Sen. Mark Kelly Over His Remarks
Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth blasted the senator for his “seditious” remarks. Mr. Kelly said he had done nothing wrong and cited similar comments by Mr. Hegseth.
Tom Brady's Comments About Eagles Playoff Outlook Might be Wrong
Tom Brady isn’t exactly known for throwing around praise, especially when it comes to teams with real Super Bowl chances.
Is There a Science to Finding Love?
An evolutionary anthropologist separates fact from fiction on love, attachment, dating apps, pheromones, and why so much modern relationship advice gets human nature wrong.
Instagram Head Calls Out Camera Companies for Going in the Wrong Direction
'They are betting on the wrong direction.'
An insider’s take on ‘Hamilton’ — when not everything goes as planned
“Hamilton” plays Madison’s Overture Hall Jan. 6-18. A.D. Weaver talks how the musical resonates now, and what happens when things go wrong.
South County Politics Are…Complicated
The more you learn about the region’s tribal feuds, diverse communities and uncategorizable people, the more you realize how wrong conventional wisdom really is.
Trump says there’s ‘nothing’s wrong’ with his health, got CT scan not MRI
President Trump disputed the idea that there was anything wrong with his health and clarified that he got a CT scan instead of an MRI scan when he visited Walter Reed National Military Me…
Figuring out what went wrong in Eagles' disastrous 2nd half in win over Bills
The Eagles’ offense did some good things in the first half Sunday, but when you can measure your 2nd-half yardage in inches, that’s not a good sign.
Packers pull off feat that no NFL team has ever done: Green Bay hits historical low
The Packer are officially on the wrong side of NFL history
AEW Star Wears The Wrong Ring Gear At AEW Worlds End
Speedball Mike Bailey looked a bit different at AEW Worlds End, as he was wearing his partner Kevin Knight's ring gear.
Jay M. Savage, witness to disappearing frogs and builder of tropical science
In the late 1980s, something began to go wrong in places that were supposed to be safe. Protected cloud forests, buffered from chainsaws and bulldozers, started losing animals that had persisted through far rougher times. Amphibians—often abundant, often overlooked—were vanishing in patterns that did not fit the usual explanations. Field biologists, trained to distrust drama, […]
House Oversight Committee widens scope on Somali-led health contractor
Gateway Community Financial denies wrongdoing despite having its Medicaid payments from a Maine state agency shut off
Deceiving US experts; proving Einstein wrong: 2025 China science breakthroughs
From the detonation of a hydrogen-based explosive to ending a century-old debate, here are some of the major science developments of the year.
I'm a CEO who called my 600-plus employees — and found out what we were getting wrong
Smart Technologies CEO Nicholas Svensson calls each of the company's employees every year. It's led him to make changes at the company.
Don't make these mistakes when planning your family's inheritance
More money, more problems? Billionaires are passing down trillions to their kids. Here's what they are doing wrong.
US: CD Projekt Red honouring Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition eShop price error
Some of you managed to snag a bargain the other day for Cyberpunk 2077 Ultimate Edition on the Nintendo Switch 2 as the company submitted the wrong discount amount for the game on the eShop.
Trump appears in new batch of Epstein documents
The Justice Department released a new batch of documents from Epstein investigation. President Donald Trump’s name is mentioned many times in the documents, including in references to flight records related to Epstein’s private plane. Authorities have not accused Trump of criminal wrongdoing related to Epstein. CNN’s Marshall Cohen reports.
Your Roku Is Probably Plugged Into The Wrong HDMI Port - Here's Why
While Roku can work with any HDMI port, you won't be able to watch shows in 4K or use features such as Dolby Vision or HDR10 without using an HDMI 2.0 port.
Browns' rookie RB Quinshon Judkins fractures fibula, dislocates ankle in loss to Bills
Judkins got tackled on a screen pass in the open field and his lower left leg twisted in the wrong direction.
Science says we’ve been nurturing “gifted” kids all wrong
A major international review has upended long-held ideas about how top performers are made. By analyzing nearly 35,000 elite achievers across science, music, chess, and sports, researchers found that early stars rarely become adult superstars. Most world-class performers developed slowly and explored multiple fields before specializing. The message is clear: talent grows through variety, not narrow focus.
Dismissing politics as ‘dirty’ is wrong and self-defeating
I’m often struck by how often I meet people who think that all politics are dirty. They view politics as innately unethical, something they should avoid altogether. They stereotype politicians as dishonest and corrupt.
Syracuse swears 'nothing wrong' with offense ahead of Northeastern game
Although Syracuse coach Adrian Autry insists there's nothing wrong with his team's offense, the Orange will enter Saturday's nonconference game against visiting Northeastern ranked last among ACC teams in free-throw percentage.
HR giant SHRM faces a new discrimination lawsuit
The plaintiff alleges SHRM, the nation's largest HR trade group, wrongly revoked a job offer over a service dog.
When business and democracy don’t mix
Liberals were wrong to assume the two ideas are natural twins
Francis Collins and Marc Siegel say medicine is a gift from God
“To have Christians be the group that was most resistant” to the Covid vaccine “really seems wrong here,” said former NIH Director Francis Collins.
Hamilton on Foreign Policy #285: Dismissing politics as ‘dirty’ is wrong and self-defeating
Rep. Lee H. Hamilton argues that politics is not inherently corrupt and stresses the importance of civic engagement. He highlights how public and private vir...
How AI Sees Science Differently Than We Do
About this episode: What if the great discoveries of science came in the “wrong” order? The Laws of Thermodynamics were discovered well after the creation of algebra, classical physics, and chemistry, but are perhaps much more important to our basic understanding of the universe. Chris Edwards argues that AI will
The 'Health Nerd’ on what we get wrong about science
Epidemiologist Gideon Meyerowitz-Katz, who writes the “Health Nerd” blog, talks with Geoff Bennett about bad scientific data, misconceptions around what we eat, and RFK’s “Make America Healthy Again” crusade.
Opinion | Why Both Republicans and Democrats Are Wrong About Health Care
The real issue is how to address overall cost. Haggling over Obamacare subsidies or what might replace them isn’t the solution.
The wrong pillow can wreck your sleep. Science can help you find the right one.
Your pillow is one of the most powerful tools to help you fall asleep, stay asleep—and even ease your pain and improve posture during waking hours.
30 models of the universe proved wrong by final data from groundbreaking cosmology telescope
The Atacama Cosmology Telescope (ACT) in Chile has released its final batch of data after 15 years — and it proves that the Hubble tension, a rift in our understanding of the universe, is very real.
Mesa business loses access to all social media accounts after wrongful suspension
Let ABC15 Know has received dozens of emails from people who were devastated that their social media accounts were suspended.
Pelicans 114, Bulls 104: No winning streak for Chicago
Coming off the win against the Charlotte Hornets that snapped a seven-game losing streak, the Bulls were back on the wrong side of the win column, losing 114-104 to the New...
Grok gets the facts wrong about Bondi Beach shooting
Grok, the chatbot built by Elon Musk’s xAI and popularized on his social media platform X, appears to have repeatedly spread misinformation about today’s mass shooting at Bondi Beach in Australia.
What went wrong for Patriots in second half against Bills
The Patriots blew a 17-point halftime lead to their AFC East rivals.
We think we found the most active Waymo rider in SF. Prove us wrong.
A mystery rider hailed over 400 Waymos in 2025 and spent nearly eight days in the driverless vehicles.
Is This Entertainment, America?
2-year-old Sizzling Hottie, said the chart for Evangeline Friday, "fell leaving the gate" and was eventually ambulanced off. Here is how that looked...
Amazon pulls AI recap from Fallout TV show after it made several mistakes
The errors included getting dialogue wrong and incorrectly claiming a scene was set 100 years earlier than it was.
Powerful men in politics and media shown in new Epstein estate images
Newly released photographs from Jeffrey Epstein's estate do not reveal wrongdoing, but do show Epstein in the company of powerful men from the worlds of politics, business and entertainment.
HB 289 could expand wrongful death act to unborn children in the Sunshine State
Two possible abortion bills already sparking debate.
Back Bills to Win Super Bowl ... Because What Could Go Wrong?
Sammy P surmises that there are no bad reasons to bet the Bills to win the Super Bowl.
We Held Hands. We Told Stories. He Fell Asleep On My Shoulder. Then He Did Something Totally Baffling.
What did I do wrong?
A 180-Year Assumption About Light Was Just Proven Wrong
"Light doesn't just illuminate matter, it magnetically influences it."
A 180-Year Assumption About Light Was Just Proven Wrong
"Light doesn't just illuminate matter, it magnetically influences it."
Politics-first Christians are living in the wrong chapter of history
Ryan Sanders: The Bible describes distinct chapters in humanity’s relationship to the divine. The mistake of many modern evangelicals, like 7 Mountain...
Are you a swing voter? We want to hear how you're feeling about politics
Do you think the country is going in the right or wrong direction? Are you happy with your vote last year or do you have any regrets? Or maybe you sat the election out? NPR wants to speak with swing voters across the political spectrum.
The overdiagnosis debate in mental health misses the point
“Focusing on who ‘counts’ as mentally ill will ultimately send us down the wrong path,” Miranda Wolpert, director of mental health at Wellcome, writes.
Why American Health Care Is Still a Mess
Jonathan Gruber on the broken American health-care system, Obamacare, the Trump administration’s war on vaccines and science, and being on the wrong end of Republican outrage. Plus: David on Donald Trump’s Ukraine “peace plan,” recent scandals, and They Thought They Were Free, by Milton Mayer.
Ex-Army JAG: Hegseth shifting blame is indication ‘something’s gone terribly wrong’
Scientists just found a way to tell if quantum computers are wrong
Researchers unveiled a new technique that validates quantum computer results—especially those from GBS devices—in minutes instead of millennia. Their findings expose unexpected errors in a landmark experiment, offering a crucial step toward truly reliable quantum machines.
Science must move from materialism to mystery
Theoretical physicist and neuroscientist Àlex Gómez-Marín argues that modern science has become trapped in a framework that mistakes matter for the whole of reality. In this wide-ranging interview, Gómez-Marín challenges the foundations of materialism, defends the scientific study of near-death experiences, and calls for a new type of science grounded in mystery and a renewed sense of the sacred. He suggests that abandoning materialism could open the door to a deeper understanding of consciousness, death, and the purpose of human existence. Simon Custer: You are both a theoretical physicist and a neuroscientist, and you have also been fiercely critical of materialist theories of mind and consciousness. What do you think the ultimate nature of reality is?Àlex Gómez-Marín: I don't know what the ultimate nature of reality is, but what I try to first assess is whether the stories that they [mainstream science] have told us about it are right, or maybe whether there are other alternatives. That's why I've been a fierce critic of materialism. As a scientist, I realized that they had sold us this idea that to be a good scientist you also had to subscribe to many other -isms, like materialism, reductionism, and even secularism. And so first I think one needs to unmount these -isms, and then, as is happening today in consciousness studies, we have a huge landscape where there isn't only one game in town, the idea that matter is the only thing that really exists. But because we are studying the hard problem of consciousness, it may be the case that other views of reality, like idealism, or even dualism, or other theories like dual aspect monism... these are philosophical ideas that now, I think, have room in science to be taken seriously. How does something like materialism relate to dualism or idealism? What is materialism in the first place?Well, materialism is the philosophical position that matter is the only really ‘real’ thing in the universe. And I think that worked kind of well because science started 400 years ago and Galileo made that split, I call it the foundational wound. It was a great business move.He said, let's start doing science on that portion of reality that lends itself more easily to mathematization and measurement. So, for some reason, the solidity of this table or the movement of planets lend themselves very well to this foundational idea of science. But as time went on, 400 years later, we realized that we had forgotten the other side, which is what really matters.What really matters is pain, is love, is feelings, sensation, consciousness, which is very hard to define, but very intimate. We all know what it is. It's that thing that disappears when we go into deep sleep and comes back in the morning. SUGGESTED VIEWING On the edges of knowledge With Michael Shermer, Rupert Sheldrake, Güneş Taylor It's what it is like to be, as Nagel said. It's the feeling of being alive. So, materialism is good to study certain things, but then when it ossifies into this ideology and then is dressed like science, now it's preventing us from understanding these key questions that are really that everybody wants to know.Why are we here? Why do we feel reality? Where do we go when we die? And so we need other ways. We need pluralism. I'm only asking for having more options on the table and taking them seriously. Why does materialism fail to explain consciousness? For example, if you were to lobotomize me, I would not be a functional human being. What do you say to someone who might think that materialism adequately explains the mind?Well, here we could speak about different things. We could talk about physics or about neuroscience. I happen to have training with both.For instance, for neuroscientists, 99% of them, I'm not included in that portion, believe that the brain can only be a productive organ. It's an organ that somehow, somewhere, consciousness emerges. It's like a lamp. And then something happens, magic happens, and then consciousness emerges.That's the position you need to be if you're a materialist because if the only really ‘real’ thing is matter, then you need to say, just give us some more time and money and we'll figure out how mind emerges or is produced from matter. There are many philosophically sophisticated ways of criticizing this.Now there's another option, which is the brain as a permissive organ. This was said by William James more than 100 years ago.Now then the brain wouldn't be like this machine, like for instance, a heat engine whose smoke is consciousness, which is what we would have in the first big model, the productive model. But in the permissive model, the brain would be a kind of a filter. And so the brain would still have a very important role in consciousness, but it wouldn't be a productive role.It would be permissive, much like a filter or much like a prism which would receive light. And - I'm speaking metaphorically - it would receive the light of the mind and then it could reflect it and refract it.Now, with these two big options on the table, I think we can make progress into what I call the edges of consciousness, which are all these experiences, weird experiences that many people have, but we don't talk about enough, like near-death experiences, precognitive dreams, synchronicities. These experiences are very important for humans and they have a place in the permissive hypothesis and they are literally impossible in the productive hypothesis. So that's yet one more reason to explore alternatives to materialism. There may be anecdotal evidence for near-death experiences, but is there robust evidence that would be accepted by the majority of scientists who subscribe to the scientific method?Sure. And the plural of anecdotes, someone said, is data.And there's a lot of data. Actually, this year is the 50th anniversary, half a century, since Dr. Raymond Moody realized that we have two ears and one mouth and started listening to what his patients had to say about their experiences while they were clinically dead.The heart had stopped, breathing had stopped in these patients. These patients would come back and tell him these amazing stories that some people may say are hallucinations, but for the patients were hyper-real, like seeing light at the end of the tunnels, seeing deceased family members waiting for them, feeling bliss.___I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain.___And so he and others started taking them seriously and writing their accounts down. And then you can do a science based on that material of experience that people have. Now, on the more objective side, more recently people have started to measure what's going on in the brain when people are clinically dead and brought back. This has opened a proper field of study, which is near-death studies.Evidence is a difficult word, because sometimes people think that when you say evidence, this is just the final proof. Evidence is like in a jury. You bring testimony, you bring pieces of data that point in one direction or another.I would say the evidence suggests that the mind can survive the death of activity of the brain. When brains are broken or shut off, there can still be mind going on. And that's revolutionary.That would entail that when we die, it's not game over, which, by the way, is the thesis of materialism. If consciousness survives, materialism dies. It's game over for materialism if something of us continues after we die. Do you think that there is mental continuity after death?Well, I think so, and I believe so, and I could also say I may have experienced it myself, because four years ago I had a near-death experience. I was in the hospital, I lost a lot of blood, and I saw those beings at the end of the tunnel, three beings, and there was yellow light. I was in a well, I was looking upwards, and I hadn't read about NDEs by then, but when I came back from this experience, I decided I would try to integrate this also in my professional life. Not just my personal life, of course, but my professional life as a physicist and as a neuroscientist. So I may have had the experience of glimpses of what an afterlife would be, and I'm not ashamed to say it in this way, and then one can do science of it, and then one can do philosophy of it.One can think about what -isms we were discussing, what views on reality would allow those experiences to be really ‘real,’ as opposed to, well, poor guy, the brain was kind of broken, it must have been a hallucination. Do you have a view about whether individuality or “the ego” persists after death, or whether we sort of merge into some sort of cosmic consciousness instead?I don't know, but my view would be along those lines you're suggesting. I think we could speak about a kind of universal mind, and then the problem is not how we emerge from matter, but how we fragment from a more holistic consciousness into these individual eddies and then when we die, this kind of dissipates.But I'm not sure. For instance, idealism would promote that view, but then what would survive of us after these eddies just vanish and become again the big Consciousness, I'm not sure what that would be. I don't know for sure, but I would tell you I believe something of us survives.And there are other lines of research, not just near-death experience, that can address this really hard question of survival. For instance, there are children who remember previous lives. This was studied by Ian Stevenson at the University of Virginia for more than 50 years.___Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.___It's amazing research. He went all over the world, especially in the East, and collected all these case studies, all these stories. In plural, these were data of kids, very young age, who would describe up to 40 items that then he could go and verify.There was no internet. There was really no way the kid could know. Why would the kid say that when I was living in this other body and I was a woman and that's how my house would look like or that's how I would die, right? Again, there is evidence, not proof, but there's evidence not only that something weird and interesting is happening as we cross the threshold, but also when we come back to this life.Scientists should not be afraid of studying this, but they are because there's stigma. There's usually stigma upon the enigma, and this is so unfortunate. And one of the reasons is because of the ideology of materialism, because those things cannot be possible. What is wrong with the politics of science such that they have generated this stigma?So many things. Science is a human activity to begin with.So it falls prey to all our passions and ego and greed. That's one thing. Science is a job for the good and for the bad.You need to get a salary. You need to get grants. Research takes place within a selection mechanism that also sometimes reinforces things that are not very scientific.And then, we didn't have time to unpack this, but science for many years become entangled, as I was suggesting before, to other -isms, materialism, secularism. So anything that smells like the afterlife, people may think has to do with God, and then they freak out.Anything that suggests that there's something about the mind that may not need a physical material substrate to exist, it smells like non-materialism. So, all these -isms are ideologically blocking that kind of research, and then there are all these sociopolitical constraints as to what should be studied and what shouldn't be studied.I call it the backstage of science. Sometimes we scientists or science communicators seem to speak as if the data is the only thing that matters. We say, well, data and theory.But then there's a third leg of this stool, which is all the politics that goes behind the scenes. And we often don't speak about this, and it's quite vicious and petty, and it's very real. Why is materialism so attractive to most scientists?Well, an easy answer is because we've grown up with it.It's what the educational system promotes, and that's what you hear when you go to university. So it's like growing in a culture. It feels like the air in which you breathe.So it's very hard to begin with to detect, well, maybe there's another alternative. Maybe there are other ways of doing science, other environments in which one could do science. That's one reason.And other reasons maybe are more profound, and I'm not qualified to explain them, but I could say, looking at this 400-year history of science, since it started around 1623 with Galileo's book The Assayer, that science went and coupled with all what's going on in the West.And so the fall of religion, you could say, and science presented us this new alternative that then could be coupled very well with other -isms, and this idea of growth, and then science losing its good twin brother, which was philosophy. There's a whole natural history of science starting as philosophy, kind of emancipating or breaking out from philosophy, and then marrying technology, and then marrying other social systems.From that point of view, materialism is a very convenient idea to propose. There were attempts, like the German idealists tried to do a more romantic science. But no, the idea prevailed, like Francis Bacon said: You should pursue nature through all her corners, he said, and make her spill her secrets.Our attitude towards nature in the science that dominates is very much reflecting how we treat nature in our society, in our culture, like a resource to extract secrets by force and then dominate it. How is materialism related to the notions of growth and progress? What's wrong with having a productive citizenry?This is another very interesting and very difficult question to answer.But there's this recent book coming out by Paul Kingsnorth. In it, he explains this idea of the machine and this idea of progress. And this, again, this conflation of more is better, of we need to go forward always, and convincing us that the way to do that is to continually extract more from nature. But because we don't have the religious context anymore, because God is dead, then what do we have? We have what we can do as humans with our own gadgets.It's kind of the story of the Promethean fire. We will just build anything to make ourselves God.A good example today is transhumanism. Transhumanism is this pseudo-religion dressed in technoscientific language whose goal is very religious. They promise immortality, they promise redemption, they promise transformation of the entire natural world, but it's done by human means through technology. Are you suggesting that we can't have ethics without religion?Well, we should have ethics with or without religion. That's another pruning that has happened in science. We say, forget about aesthetics, although some physicists still think that beautiful means probably true, and forget about politics. We pretend there's no backstage of science, and even let's forget about ethics.___Science needs to be in the service of mankind.___Scientists, when they become more like engineers, they're just thinking how to make things work so that they can go to the moon, go to Mars, make machines that think, but they don't think whether that's a good idea.And also consider metaphysics. Many scientists for a long time pretended, and maybe that comes from the stream of positivisms, that really one doesn't need metaphysics at all, except that materialism is always the metaphysics running the system.You see, it's not just ethics. It's the pruning of all of these, you could say, five main legs of philosophy that just makes a kind of unconscious science, a science that doesn't really know what it's doing. It's doing it very well locally, but it just doesn't know what it's doing globally. Do you think science has to have an ultimate vision and purpose behind it for it to be effective or for it to be meaningful and transformative?Yes, a way I would say that is that science needs to be in the service of mankind. And it hasn't been that. And we can see it through, you know, when we discovered the secrets of the atom, and all of a sudden, the Manhattan Project, and then we create nuclear weapons.And now we're trying to crack how machines may think, and now we're creating this mess, right? So science needs to be in service of mankind, not in service of a few ideas that maybe want to make more money or just dominate upon nature. What about planes, trains, automobiles, and modern medicine? Hasn't science served mankind by helping us develop those technologies?Yes and no. I see where you're going, and it's fair.I came here by plane, and it's a blessing. When I almost died, the surgeons did their job, and they saved my life. But these two forced choices between Luddites and Silicon Valley types, I think, of course, it's a false dichotomy.Progress, in a way, it's good, but we often don't speak about the dark side of the moon. We say the great things that progress has brought, and we don't speak about the disasters, the side effects that it has come with, and the same when we promise new technologies. We tend to think that any technology is great, that email is going to save us so much time because we don't need to write letters and send them anymore.Is that true? I spend so many hours a week writing emails. Let's just say there are great things about it and bad things about it. People like Harvard psychologist Steven Pinker, for example, argue that we've made moral progress over time because of the Enlightenment. Do you think that's totally wrong-headed?I think he's emphasizing a side of the moon, and he does that very well, and you can find tons of plots where there's a slope going up and say it's great. But I think he should also tell the not-so-friendly story.But if your ideology is just to resist and continue to explain that the Enlightenment is the best thing ever and reason is the best thing ever… this feels to me like you're worshipping these abstractions.I'm very critical of it and also of these, again, science communicators and scientists that say, Oh, science says, in the name of science, experts say. It's like, come on, let's be careful because we can shoot ourselves in the foot by putting forth to the people an image of science that we know is not really true. Recently there's been a resurgence of spirituality and of people who say that they're spiritual but not religious, especially in the United States. If materialism is going away, what is going to fill that gap? Are we going to return to traditional religion? Do you see that being connected with the rise of the political right?I'm not a fortune teller, so I don't know what's going to happen. But, yeah, we could say we're in this post-materialist age and even post-secular age. One cannot come back to the past, but maybe just to contact with the roots is a good idea.What do I mean by that? I think we need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method. We need to do so in a culture where we realize humans cannot thrive in a vacuum where there's this idea that the sacred has to be removed.Now, how do we do that without bringing in back all the vices of religion? I don't know. I'm from a Catholic country.Here we are in England, so there are differences and interreligious dialogue has always been a challenge. But I think maybe a way of putting it is: after all these conflicts and branchings I was quickly alluding to, science from philosophy and then also from religion, now there's a time of reconciliation perhaps and maybe debates in the proper sense, like exchange of ideas in service of learning and getting into something higher than both poles. We need science to talk to religious people and it's interesting when people say they're spiritual and not religious.I think this is just a way of saying, no, I don't want to go back, I want to go forward. But at the end of the day, religions have offered us practices and grounding that we now desperately need. Everybody can and should just meditate or pray or do whatever they want, but we're in a crisis and it's time for reconciliation. What do you say to critics that say you are merely projecting our need for meaning onto a fundamentally indifferent universe?Yeah, I know that the typical science communicator says something like this. But we're not projecting. Human beings feed on meaning.It's the other way around. If you're a materialist, because the only thing that there is is matter, all that comes next, free will, consciousness, meaning, this is a kind of illusion that we need to explain.They're just craving for meaning, but there isn't really for them. I would also like to remind my materialist friends that for decades, if not centuries, they've said in the name of science, we know that this and this and this doesn't really exist. I think now they sense they're forced to say, well, actually, we don't know. We've been saying, for instance, that there's nothing after you die, and now probably they need to admit that they don't know the answer.___We need to do a science 2.0, a science that says thank you to Galileo and thank you to materialism, but we need to reinvent even a new kind of scientific method.___So it's a moment to open up possibilities and also to gently but fiercely critique these claims that I think harm society. If you say in the name of science, get on with it, when your father dies, you'll never see him again. Well, what the F do you know about it? You haven't studied the literature, you haven't had any of those experiences, and basically what you're doing is you're just doing marketing on ideology. This needs to stop. Do you think that it's scarier for some people to entertain the thought that there might be life after death, compared to a materialist worldview where you just die, given that there might be consequences for unsavory behaviour?Well, death and dying is scary. It's maybe the ultimate ending. It's a limit on life, and when we're in this conquest mode, we don't like limits.And it also has, there's a shockwave backwards, so I think if you change your notion of what death is or may be, you live differently. It also has consequences, as you're saying, for the future because this is not our only goal here and we come back in whatever form. And again, different religions would say different things. I the East, they are more happy with the idea of reincarnation, and here in the West, there are other preferences. But in any case, it changes how we live, and that's really what matters.It's not about just projecting or imagining what we'll be after, but how we live now and also how we treat those who are dying. So it goes from the individual to the families, to the hospitals.Now in the near-death research I do, this has ramifications at all these levels, all the way to society.But our society is thanatophobic. It has a phobia of death. We don't want to hear about death, and this is another thing we need to put on the table and be willing to talk about it. Do you think that we might get closer to answering ultimate questions like why is there anything at all if we jettison materialism?That’s an excellent question, Simon. Two things: we should stop treating reality, I believe, as a great sudoku, as an enigma, as something that with intelligence, money, and time that we will crack and instead treat reality more like a mystery. And what you do for in front of a mystery is not to be the clever guy in a class and say “I’ll solve you” but more like “I will bow and you will transform me.”I know this sounds a bit like a scientist speaking like a mystic. But I think this reorientation is needed. In the end, we won’t crack the big questions, but they will transform us. If we free ourselves from this prison of materialism, the way we will explore these questions will be freer, more creative, and in service of mankind. Do you think exploring mystery is the reason why we are here?I think we are here because, and this pseudo-theological argument I’m making off the cuff, But the One, the Absolute, if there is such a thing, had everything except limitation. We are that absolute experiencing that contingency. It’s like an act of divine proprioception. It’s a wonderful adventure, it’s just incredible to be alive. Perhaps we have forgotten why we are here and the whole point is to experience the flesh.Let me end by saying this. I criticize materialism harshly. I bang on this dead horse, because I think it’s dead. But matter is a great mystery. So maybe my invitation is as follows: hey materialist friends, come here, let’s work on materialism 2.0! Consciousness is a mystery, but matter is also a mystery. The fact that we can have an intersubjective experience consensus, the fact that we can apply mathematics, that we can measure things... the physical world we take for granted, but it is a great mystery too.Maybe that’s related to your last question: why are we here? Why did spirit decide to incarnate? Being in the flesh may be a great thing if spirit decided to do so.Àlex Gómez-Marín, thank you very much.My pleasure.