SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY

Search headlines

Find the stories shaping the conversation.

Search mode
Refine results
Active filters Keyword All time

Results for " NIA " 9,979 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle

$7.5B plan for California science agency free from Trump’s influence will go to voters

California could create its own multi-billion-dollar science and health research agency under a bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

laist.com logo
Oct 2 • 7:00 PM EDT • Science • laist.com
Halle Berry's reacts to ex-husband's restraining order, abuse claims

Halle Berry speaks out against ex-husband Oliver Martinez amid his recent restraining order against the Oscar-winning star. He accuses Berry of physical abuse against their 12-year-old son.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 6:07 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
David Ellison's Skydance is a pretty name. What it stands for isn't

By naming the product of two mergers Skydance, David Ellison relegates two of Hollywood's founding studios to a sub-brand stew and attempts to erase a bunch of controversial hires.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 6:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Disney cuts 300 workers, offers executives early retirement

Another round of job cuts comes as CEO Josh D'Amaro aims to consolidate the company's sprawling operations around a "One Disney" theme.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 5:25 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Meta open sources code to let you make Muse AI gadgets

“Proceed at your own risk!”

theverge.com logo
Oct 2 • 5:08 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com
Vote no on Prop 45 to Protect California’s environment and public health

This November, California voters will have a chance to push back against President Trump’s attacks on our clean air and water, public health, and open space by voting NO on Proposition 45. This deceptive ballot initiative is a 41-page recipe for pollution and sprawl. It would weaken California’s bedrock environmental law and make it easier to build data centers, warehouses and other polluting projects – with severely limited public oversight.

paloaltoonline.com logo
Oct 2 • 4:47 PM EDT • Health • paloaltoonline.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (9%)
ahah
47%
wow
28%
love
25%
Ed Sheeran, Macklemore fallout shouldn't be personalized, Bono says

U2 frontman Bono has weighed in on the ongoing controversy involving Ed Sheeran after Macklemore was removed from the singer's tour when venues objected to the rapper's pro-Palestinian remarks.

centraloregondaily.com logo
Oct 2 • 4:23 PM EDT • Entertainment • centraloregondaily.com
Doctors, insurers sue Newsom over health insurance premium increases

California lawmakers passed a healthcare tax in June that could increase premiums by $100 annually, but groups representing doctors and insurers say it violates the law.

calmatters.org logo
Oct 2 • 4:15 PM EDT • Health • calmatters.org
Kennedy Center Honors move to new venue amid building closure

The Kennedy Center Honors gala will move to Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., after the center’s closure amid a legal battle over the addition of Trump's name to the building.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 4:07 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Q&A with Syracuse SB Nation site, TNIAAM

Hear from our counterparts covering the Orange on what to expect from their football team!

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 2 • 3:55 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Part of Capitol complex in downtown Sacramento evacuated due to threat

California lawmakers are not currently in session, but construction crews and legislative employees were at the site.

sacbee.com logo
Oct 2 • 3:49 PM EDT • Politics • sacbee.com
State legislators discuss Pennsylvania’s business needs during event in Schuylkill

Pennsylvania’s manufacturing businesses are being hampered by federal tariffs, high energy costs, excessive state regulations and a shortage of skilled laborers, state legislators said Friday during a roundtable discussion hosted by a…

republicanherald.com logo
Oct 2 • 3:45 PM EDT • Business • republicanherald.com
Deep dive
😐 Neutral (11%)
wow
74%
love
26%
Preview: Seminoles Looking for First ACC Win vs. Virginia

According to Florida State coach Mike Norvell. his team had a good week of practice and preparation for their game on Saturday vs Virginia. The Seminoles have 14 conference losses over the last two season, and are looking for their first ACC win this season against the Cavaliers.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 2 • 3:16 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Studying Science in an Anti-Scientific Time

This Chronicle Review Deep Cut was first published in 2025. By Julianne Werlin Thanks for reading The Chronicle Review! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe The last two decades have not been kind to science studies. Already bruised and battered by the “science wars” of the 1990s, by the 2000s sociologists of science — who had long argued that science had to be understood in its human context — were encountering the funhouse-mirror version of their own views in right-wing critiques of climate scientists. It was enough to give some prominent scholars pause. “Was I wrong to participate in the invention of this field known as science studies?” asked Bruno Latour, the most famous sociologist of science in the world, in 2003. “Should we apologize for having been wrong all along? Or should we rather bring the sword of criticism to criticism itself and do a bit of soul-searching here: What were we really after when we were so intent on showing the social construction of scientific facts?” In response, Latour proposed a change of method and attitude. Science studies, now chastened and contrite, would no longer seek to strip facts of their authority, but to enrich and enhance them. What this meant in practice was never fully clear. But his diagnosis of problems resonated, even if his solutions did not. Latour’s exercise in public hand-wringing signaled a shift in mood. By 2016, with the first election of Donald Trump, the idea that skepticism of science was a right-wing position, not a left-wing one, had become a commonplace, discussed eagerly in The New York Times. For liberals, vaccine denial during the Covid era and Trump’s second-term attacks on the funding of scientific research, covered extensively in these pages, added a new urgency to the defense of science on both practical and principled grounds. There was little appetite for a sociology or philosophy of science that emphasized the messiness and missteps of the scientific process rather than its integrity and triumphs. The distinguished historian of science Peter Dear’s new book, The World as We Know It: From Natural Philosophy to Modern Science (Princeton University Press, 2025), which seeks to tell the story of 18th- and 19th-century science for a general public, may seem comfortably remote from these bitter contests. In its 16 short chapters, Dear draws swift, sure sketches of major discoveries from Newton to Einstein, ably guiding the reader through debates on stellar nebulae, animal taxonomy, atomic chemistry, evolution, and other flashpoints in the history of science. But though a work of history, Dear’s book must still negotiate our polarized present. In a blurb on its back cover, the historian of biology Lynn K. Nyhart alludes to the “present moment, when scientific knowledge is being swamped by misinformation and its institutions are under siege.” Dear himself, in his conclusion, refers to the “yard signs” and “bumper stickers” that proclaim “Science Is Real.” One antidote to both anti-science propaganda and to reductive slogans in science’s defense is a robust history and philosophy of science: exactly what Dear’s scholarship has long offered. But his new book illustrates how difficult such work has become. Dear, an emeritus professor of history at Cornell University, is best known as a creative and philosophically minded historian of the Scientific Revolution. His edited volume The Literary Structure of Scientific Argument (1991) analyzed the rhetoric of Galileo’s thought experiments to brilliant effect. Discipline and Experience: The Mathematical Way in the Scientific Revolution (1995) was a major contribution to the analysis of scientific experiments in early modern Europe and beyond, while Revolutionizing the Sciences: European Knowledge in Transition, 1500-1700 (2001), now in its third edition, remains one of the best overviews of the profound epistemological upheavals of 16th- and 17th-century science. But Dear has also ventured into later periods. Nearly two decades ago, in The Intelligibility of Nature: How Science Makes Sense of the World (2006), he turned to the 18th and 19th centuries to sketch a history and theory of scientific knowledge. Aimed at a generalist audience, Dear’s simple prose belied serious philosophical ambitions. Science, Dear argued, has two aspects: “natural philosophy,” the quest to understand the true nature of the universe, and “instrumentality,” the applied skills and technologies that allow us to manipulate the world for human advantage. Both strands are ancient, but the innovation of the phenomenon we call “science” was to yoke them together. As Francis Bacon wrote, “Human knowledge and human power meet in one; for where the cause is not known, the effect cannot be produced,” an insight typically abridged to “knowledge is power.” Or, in Bertrand Russell’s characteristically blunt phrase, science has two functions, “1. to enable us to know things, and 2., to enable us to do things.” So far, so conventional. But Dear took issue with this familiar story in one respect. Bacon’s formula implied that theory and practice could be fused in a single method. In fact, Dear argued, the quest to understand nature and the desire to manipulate it were coupled only loosely. They could come together, but they could also pull apart. Focusing on natural philosophy, the “knowing” half of the scientific circle, he used a series of case studies from cosmology, taxonomy, chemistry, electromagnetism, and quantum theory to show how theories changed over time, in dialogue with practice, but never reducible to it. Take the case of matter, the basic substrate of the physical world. In the 18th and 19th centuries, scientists not only disagreed about what it was, but also about how well it could be known. In 1789, the chemist Antoine Lavoisier dismissed speculation about the atomic composition of chemicals as “discussions entirely of a metaphysical nature,” as he sought to orient chemistry away from philosophical abstraction and toward laboratory results. But in the 19th century, atoms returned with a vengeance in the atomic chemistry of John Dalton, who wanted to explain the underlying structure of nature. It was not just that Dalton and Lavoisier had a different set of experimental results, or even a different theory, Dear showed. What counted as an explanation had changed. In arguing that scientific theories depended on their intelligibility to human beings with complex arrays of beliefs and commitments, Dear was in sympathy with science studies. Key figures such as the sociologist Steven Shapin emphasized the importance of psychological mechanisms like trust in the formation and acceptance of scientific ideas. But in focusing on the scientific pursuit of knowledge, not its politics or economics, Dear resisted the more cynical perspective of some of his colleagues. The Intelligibility of Nature strikes a very different note than Shapin’s collection of a few years later, Never Pure: Historical Studies of Science as If It Was Produced by People With Bodies, Situated in Time, Space, Culture, and Society, and Struggling for Credibility and Authority (2010), to name just one example. Walking a very fine line, Dear depicted science as driven at once by complex social dynamics and by the intellectual power of real discoveries. It was a testament not only to his own acumen but also to the vitality of the field that he was able to do so. Nearly two decades later, The World as We Know It returns to the questions broached in The Intelligibility of Nature. Like Dear’s earlier study, it begins with the Newtonian cosmos and ends with debates between Einstein and Bohr on quantum physics. Beyond its terminal figures, many of the same characters appear in both studies, including the naturalists John Ray and the Comte de Buffon; the chemists Étienne François Geoffroy, Antoine Lavoisier, and John Dalton; as well as Charles Darwin and Michael Faraday, among others. Its subject is nearly identical: As in The Intelligibility of Nature, The World as We Know It considers natural philosophy as opposed to instrumentality, here defined as the “desire to create a picture of what the world is really like — the world as God knows it — rather than simply having instrumental or operational control over it.” The two books also overlap in insights — and sometimes even in language. The reader who has learned in The Intelligibility of Nature that Buffon’s method of classifying animals “reflected his belief in the importance of the senses and empiricism in learning about nature (a doctrine associated with Newton and the philosopher John Locke)” will experience a sense of déjà vu on reading, in The World as We Know It, that the classification “reflects Buffon’s commitment to the epistemological stance of Newton and his philosophical underlaborer John Locke, who stressed the role of the senses in creating natural knowledge.” Later in the passage, we read that, “because of its stress on understanding the ways of life of animals in their environments, Buffon’s approach could almost be labeled (anachronistically) as ‘ecological.’” And again, “an anachronistic way of putting it would be to say that Buffon recommends an ecological mode of understanding.” Likewise, in The Intelligibility of Nature we read of Dalton that he was initially drawn to meteorology, and that: He did a bit of experimental work on these things, especially having to do with the water-holding capacity of gases, but his real interest lay in understanding what, at an underlying natural-philosophical level, was really going on physically.” Whereas, in The World as We Know It: He did experimental work on these things, especially concerning the water-holding capacity of gases — although not at a very refined level quantitatively — but he was continually trying to develop a theoretical conception of what was happening physically. The final full chapter of each book closes on the same resigned note. Intelligibility: These days, most serious work on the natural philosophical underpinnings and implications of quantum mechanics is performed not by physicists but by philosophers of science. Among scientific practitioners themselves, Bohr’s attempt to use instrumentality as sufficient grounds for a respectable science has met with a high degree of success. And again, in The World as We Know It: Bohr’s and Einstein’s concerns are now questions that are mostly discussed by philosophers of science rather than by physicists themselves. The marginalization of these sorts of questions amounts to the demise of natural philosophy, at least in physics, in the 20th century. Quantum mechanics “works,” and that’s good enough for most scientists who encounter it. Examples could be multiplied. When handling the same subject matter, some echoes are inevitable. Scholars should not feel that because they have written “Isaac Newton died in 1727” in one book, in the next they must describe him as perishing, expiring, or meeting his maker. But the repetitions of language and arguments (not to mention six reproduced images) threaded throughout The World as We Know It are more extensive than that. They should have been caught by Princeton University Press or its reviewers, and revised. Because the two books have so much in common, it is easy to see where they diverge. The World as We Know It is a less theoretical work than its predecessor. The sociology of knowledge that organized The Intelligibility of Nature has been reduced in scale and folded into readings and examples. The taut interplay between history and theory, which gave the earlier study so much interest, is there, but it is subtle. In the earlier book, the case studies demonstrated theoretical claims about the character and development of science. In the later work, each narrative of discovery is an end in itself. Insights emerge from the history, but they do not control the organization of the study. With the theory muted, it can be hard to understand the logic uniting Dear’s sprawling history of more than two centuries of scientific knowledge. The 16 brisk chapters cover an enormous amount of material. But the closer the volume edges to comprehensiveness, the more obvious the missing elements become. A chapter on “Institutions and Pedagogy,” describing the birth of the research university, illustrates the problem. Inserted roughly halfway through the book, the unnumbered chapter is designed as an “entr’acte,” in acknowledgement that it does not fit the study’s organization around scientific discoveries. Yet as Dear is well aware, no general history of the development of modern science can bracket its 19th-century institutionalization and professionalization. It was the 19th-century university, after all, that gave us the “scientist,” a term coined by the Cambridge philosopher William Whewell. Dear’s history of scientific discoveries implies a wider social and institutional history, but it remains largely subterranean, only occasionally extruded under the pressure of the narrative. It must be said that the balance is not all on the side of the earlier study. There are some advantages to the more historical, less theoretical organization of The World as We Know It. Dear’s accounts of paradigm shifts are remarkably lucid, no small accomplishment given that they span fields and centuries. He makes excellent use of the wealth of new scholarship on Darwin and his influences, to which he has himself contributed. It is satisfying to see puzzle pieces from Buffon’s natural history, Georges Cuvier’s animal taxonomy, Thomas Robert Malthus’s demography, and Charles Lyell’s geology recombined seamlessly in the Darwinian jigsaw. Likewise, Dear’s discussion of stellar nebulae, divided between chapters two and 15, shows vividly how Newton, Kant, Herschel, and Hubble reimagined insights and observations as they sought to discover whether the diffuse light that filtered through early telescopes was a glowing, gaseous substance or discrete but distant stars. Yet despite such pleasures, the book remains a more modest work than The Intelligibility of Nature. Dear has clearly not changed his views about the history of science. But in the two decades that have elapsed, the discipline and the world around it have changed, making it harder to write a sociologically and philosophically ambitious history of science for the general reader. That is a shame, because in the age of Silicon Valley and biotechnology, both the reciprocity and the tensions Dear identified between the epistemological and instrumental ambitions of science are more evident than ever. In recent years, some of the most exciting new books on the history of science in early modernity have focused precisely on this pressure point. Important studies such as Pamela H. Smith’s From Lived Experience to the Written Word (2022), James Poskett’s Horizons: The Global Origins of Modern Science (2022), and Vera Keller’s The Interlopers: Early Stuart Projects and the Undisciplining of Knowledge (2023) all shed new light on how early modern science negotiated the relationship between its instrumental and epistemological ambitions, or in Russell’s phrase, knowing and doing. There is every opportunity for a philosophically informed approach to draw new insights from this wealth of material. Dear, unfortunately, has not done so in The World as We Know It. But for future scholars of the history of science, his body of work over nearly four decades may provide just the model. Julianne Werlin is an associate professor of English at Duke University. Thanks for reading The Chronicle Review! Subscribe for free to receive new posts and support my work. Subscribe

chronicleofhighereducation.substack.com logo
Oct 2 • 2:52 PM EDT • Science • chronicleofhighereducation.substack.com
Scientists search for answers as baby whales wash up dead in Argentina

Scientists in Argentina are trying to find out why unusually high numbers of baby whales are washing up dead along the Patagonian coast

abcnews.com logo
Oct 2 • 2:50 PM EDT • Science • abcnews.com
The Political Recap: President Trump using taxpayer dollars for ads?

Capitol Bureau reporter Tyler Englander breaks down what you missed in Virginia politics this week.

wric.com logo
Oct 2 • 2:44 PM EDT • Politics • wric.com
Sean Combs placed in solitary amid reports of lavish prison lifestyle

Sean "Diddy” Combs has reportedly been placed in solitary confinement following allegations in an NBC News report of his lavish federal prison lifestyle.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 2:32 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
$7.5B plan for California science agency free from Trump's influence will go to voters

California could create a multi-billion-dollar science and health research agency under a new bill signed by Gov. Gavin Newsom.

newsday.com logo
Oct 2 • 2:32 PM EDT • Science • newsday.com
$7.5B plan for California science agency will go to voters

California could create its own multi-billion-dollar science and health research agency under a bill signed by Gov.

apnews.com logo
Oct 2 • 2:32 PM EDT • Science • apnews.com
High-Signal Publisher
CalAIM Offers Housing and Health Support, but Medi-Cal Barriers Leave Some Californians Behind

California’s CalAIM program can connect vulnerable residents with health care and housing, but getting that help isn’t always simple.

sdvoice.info logo
Oct 2 • 2:12 PM EDT • Health • sdvoice.info
'Chronovisor' review: A researcher makes a wild discovery

Filmmakers Jack Auen and Kevin Walker, better known as the duo Cosmic Salon, mount an engagingly brainy nighttime adventure into lost technology.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 1:51 PM EDT • Science • latimes.com
Fact check: Did Newsom’s mental health court hit his goal for helping Californians?

Gov. Gavin Newsom this week claimed a major victory for CARE Court, his program to provide mental health treatment to Californians with serious conditions. Did it really help 10,000 people?"

calmatters.org logo
Oct 2 • 1:32 PM EDT • Health • calmatters.org
'Everybody to Kenmure Street' review: Neighbors become activists

After two men were detained in a 2021 immigration raid, a swarm of concerned citizens made their voices heard in an incident that's grippingly reconstructed.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 1:13 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Chad Lowe's daughter Fiona's cause of death confirmed by coroner

The official cause of death for Fiona Lowe, the 13-year-old daughter of actor Chad Lowe and niece of Rob Lowe, has been confirmed by the L.A. County medical examiner. Chad Lowe's family announced her death earlier this week.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 12:07 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Sauer completes spice brands sale to Minnesota company

Minnesota food flavoring company The Watkins Co. has completed its acquisition of Richmond's Sauer Brands' spice and seasoning business.

virginiabusiness.com logo
Oct 2 • 11:52 AM EDT • Business • virginiabusiness.com
Europe agrees to release stocked diesel oil, Trump says

Europe has agreed to release a massive amount of diesel oil stocks, announced by US President Donald Trump, to address rising fuel prices ahead of US elections.

virginiabusiness.com logo
Oct 2 • 11:31 AM EDT • Business • virginiabusiness.com
More Americans are concerned about political corruption

89% of Americans believe government corruption is widespread, a Gallup poll found.

virginiaindependentnews.com logo
Oct 2 • 10:45 AM EDT • Politics • virginiaindependentnews.com
More Americans are concerned about political corruption

89% of Americans believe government corruption is widespread, a Gallup poll found.

pennsylvaniaindependent.com logo
Oct 2 • 10:45 AM EDT • Politics • pennsylvaniaindependent.com
Phantom Blade Zero, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Final Fantasy Resonance, and 5 More Big October Games We've Already Played and Can Tell You About

October is here, which means the Fall is in full swing, which means some of the biggest games of the year drop this month. We've already played some of the biggest ones, so check out our previews of Phantom Blade Zero, Castlevania: Belmont's Curse, Final Fantasy Resonance, and more below.

ign.com logo
Oct 2 • 10:03 AM EDT • Technology • ign.com
Major Sarasota employer named Florida’s best for health care workers

A major Sarasota County employer ranks No. 1 in Florida for health care professionals after a sharp climb on a national list.

heraldtribune.com logo
Oct 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • heraldtribune.com
Sarasota employer surges into nation’s top 20 for health care workers

One of Sarasota County’s largest employers jumped from No. 75 to No. 17 nationally, earning Florida’s top spot for health care workers.

heraldtribune.com logo
Oct 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • heraldtribune.com
An ER wait can worsen a mental health crisis. Hampton offers another option.

Local responders say Riverside’s psychiatric emergency department helps people in crisis reach specialized care sooner, as Virginia expands options beyond medical emergency rooms.

whro.org logo
Oct 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • whro.org
Californians are in a sour mood but don't want to change the political status quo

Californians are dissatisfied with the present and sour on the future, but the Democratic Party can expect to maintain its hegemony.

calmatters.org logo
Oct 2 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • calmatters.org
How big is Pennsylvania's measles outbreak?

News of a fifth measles death in Pennsylvania underscores a longstanding issue about the disease. The full scope of the outbreak — in the state and in the country — isn’t known or even knowable.

statnews.com logo
Oct 2 • 7:53 AM EDT • Health • statnews.com
Democrats expand battleground for House, reaching into bloodred districts

The additions include Kansas’s 2nd, Michigan’s 1st, North Carolina’s 13th, New Jersey’s 2nd, Oklahoma’s 5th, Texas’s 9th, Virginia’s 6th and Washington’s 5th.

washingtonpost.com logo
Oct 2 • 7:30 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
New Huntsville Shoppers Seek Experiential Retail, Community Connections

Huntsville’s growth is undeniable, and its thriving retail market clearly reflects this progress. As demographics across the metro area continue to evolve,

huntsvillebusinessjournal.com logo
Oct 2 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • huntsvillebusinessjournal.com
Steve Hilton faces steep odds in bid for California governor after 20-year GOP drought

Republican Steve Hilton's biggest obstacle to becoming California's next governor is simple math.

wsls.com logo
Oct 2 • 6:29 AM EDT • Politics • wsls.com
☹️ Negative (-5%)
PBS doc 'Asco: Without Permission' on L.A. Chicano artists

The documentary 'Asco: Without Permission' premieres on PBS on Oct. 2. It follows the '70s and '80s East L.A. revolutionary art group Asco and the next generation of L.A. Chicano artists.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Artist Enrique Martínez Celaya hand-painted L.A. Opera's new curtain

L.A. Opera is set to unveil a monumental new curtain created by the Cuban-born artist Enrique Martínez Celaya. More than a year in the making, the utilitarian art work will serve as the visual centerpiece of the company's entire 2026–27 season.

latimes.com logo
Oct 2 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
What Could Make or Break Florida State Against Virginia

Florida State enters a critical matchup with Virginia needing strong quarterback play and a better defensive performance to pull off the big win.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 2 • 5:33 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
California voters to decide $7.5 billion science and health research bond measure in March 2028

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Senate Bill 895 (SB 895) on Sept. 30, sending a $7.5 billion bond measure that would fund scientific and health research and development to voters on March 7, 2028. SB 895 would also establish the California Foundation for Science and Health Research within the Government Operations Agency and the California […]

news.ballotpedia.org logo
Oct 2 • 5:02 AM EDT • Science • news.ballotpedia.org
California voters to decide $7.5 billion science and health research bond measure in March 2028

Gov. Gavin Newsom (D) signed Senate Bill 895 (SB 895) on Sept. 30, sending a $7.5 billion bond measure that would fund scientific and health research and development to voters on March 7, 2028. SB 895 would also establish the California Foundation for Science and Health Research within the Government Operations Agency and the California […]

news.ballotpedia.org logo
Oct 2 • 5:02 AM EDT • Health • news.ballotpedia.org
Affordability is on voters’ minds in Pa. swing districts as the cost of gas and groceries skyrockets

The cost of living is the rise as the war in Iran continues. That could hurt Trump-aligned incumbents in key Pennsylvania swing districts.

inquirer.com logo
Oct 2 • 5:01 AM EDT • Politics • inquirer.com
Science and writing SOL pass rates decline in Halifax County

The Virginia Standards of Learning scores are in for the 2025-26 school year.

yourgv.com logo
Oct 2 • 4:15 AM EDT • Science • yourgv.com
Virginia Tech football vs. Pittsburgh: Preview, betting odds, how to watch

A complete preview of Virginia Tech’s game against Pitt.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 1 • 11:30 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Voter ID proponents say California Democrats lying about Trump support

Republicans respond after gubernatorial candidate Xavier Becerra said during a debate Wednesday that President Trump put Proposition 39 on the ballot.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 8:19 PM EDT • Politics • latimes.com
Throwback Threadsday: West Virginia

As the Iowa State Cyclones face off against the West Virginia Mountaineers for the 13th time in series history at 11 a.m. CDT Saturday, gridiron rivalry and uniform history collides. Let’s turn back the clock on the visual identity of the Riot Bowl. 2012 – 31-24, West Virginia 2013 – 52-44 (3 OT), Iowa State 2014 […]

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 1 • 8:15 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Health giant announces mass layoffs across California
nypost.com logo
Oct 1 • 8:12 PM EDT • Health • nypost.com
'Grey’s Anatomy' actor Sophia Bush secretly married former pro soccer player Ashlyn Harris

In her new memoir, 'Grey’s Anatomy' actor Sophia Bush reveals that she secretly married former pro soccer player Ashlyn Harris.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 7:54 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
$7.5B plan for California science agency free from Trump’s influence will go to voters

Championed by UC scientists, the bond measure scheduled for the March 2028 ballot would help offset federal research cuts by the Trump admin.

berkeleyside.org logo
Oct 1 • 7:29 PM EDT • Science • berkeleyside.org
Rural Health Transformation Fund: RX or Placebo?

NORC Walsh Center for Rural Health Analysis Director Alana Knudson and Virginia's Director of Rural Health Transformation Heidi Hertz briefed NPF fellows about the obstacles and opportunities in federal rural health policy.

nationalpress.org logo
Oct 1 • 6:20 PM EDT • Health • nationalpress.org
UC asks judge to dismiss DOJ's UCLA antisemitism lawsuit

UC asked a federal judge to throw out the DOJ's Title VI lawsuit accusing UCLA of ignoring antisemitism, calling the case political coercion.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:20 PM EDT • Politics • latimes.com
Jim Carrey marries girlfriend Min Ah in Los Angeles

Jim Carrey has tied the knot with Min Ah, his girlfriend of several years, The Times confirms. This is the third marriage for the 'Sonic the Hedgehog' actor.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 4:58 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Victor Wembanyama slams players promoting sports betting weeks after LeBron James announces Polymarket deal

Victor Wembanyama made his stance on sports betting very clear. On Thursday, the Spurs superstar spoke to reporters at training camp and answered whether he’d ever sign a deal with...

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 1 • 4:48 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Trump memecoin plans another gala amid backlash to self-enrichment

The latest event will take place next month at the president’s golf club in Northern Virginia.

washingtonpost.com logo
Oct 1 • 4:44 PM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Equities rebound to close higher as surging Treasury yields recede

Us stocks closed higher after treasury yields reversed course from multi-decade highs, easing inflation fears and boosting energy and technology sectors.

virginiabusiness.com logo
Oct 1 • 4:37 PM EDT • Business • virginiabusiness.com
50 children in our area hit by cars every year; toxic pond water in Centennial Park; ‘gas station heroin’; plus other stories with Vanderbilt Health sources

In a news report following a Murfreesboro child who was killed by an automobile, reporter Amber Jayanth from WSMV Channel 4 News cited statistics gathered at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt about pediatric pedestrian injuries. Trauma registry data from Monroe Carell indicates that about 50 children per year on average are treated after being hit by a car. William Schaffner, MD, Professor of Preventive Medicine, was quoted by several news outlets about public health issues, including: CNN (mRNA flu vaccine); ABC News and the American Journal of Managed Care (Pennsylvania measles outbreak); News Channel 5 (blue-green algae in the pond at Centennial Park, which can release toxins that make people and pets sick). WSMV Channel 4 News interviewed Saumya Aujla, MD, Assistant Professor of Clinical Physical Medicine and Rehabilitation, about the health risks of kratom, sometimes called “gas station heroin,” and why Tennessee banned the drug. WTVF News Channel 5 interviewed Brianna Smith, MD, Assistant Professor of Pediatrics, Hematology/Oncology at Monroe Carell Jr. Children’s Hospital at Vanderbilt for a piece on Childhood Cancer Awareness Month. Prevention interviewed Mitchell Gigandet, MD, Assistant Professor in the Neuro-Sleep Division, for a story about MDPI research on caffeine that used EEG imaging to see how the drug impacts sleep. It was found that caffeine may make sleep less restorative even when you fall asleep normally and stay in bed for eight hours. The Wall Street Journal reporter Laura Landro interviewed Joseph Schlesinger, MD, Professor of Anesthesiology Critical Care Medicine, for a story about ICU alarms keeping patients from getting sleep and creating alarm fatigue for nurses. Billboard reporter Melinda Newman interviewed country star Dasha about her upcoming vocal surgery at Vanderbilt Health. The story was picked up by numerous print and radio outlets including People.

news.vumc.org logo
Oct 1 • 4:34 PM EDT • Health • news.vumc.org
Deep dive
☹️ Negative (-8%)
love
100%
Pennsylvania health workers bring vaccines to communities amid measles outbreak

Pennsylvania is seeing its worst measles outbreak since 1991 as health workers bring MMR vaccines to community clinics.

nbcphiladelphia.com logo
Oct 1 • 3:29 PM EDT • Health • nbcphiladelphia.com
Five Pennsylvania hospitals join West Virginia University Health System

Butler Memorial Hospital, Clarion Hospital, Frick Hospital, Latrobe Hospital, and Westmoreland Hospital, as well as affiliated physician practices and outpatient facilities, moved from their previous operator Independence Health System to WVU Medicine this month.

wesanews.org logo
Oct 1 • 3:03 PM EDT • Health • wesanews.org
Huntington Beach council candidates talk business at chamber forum

Ten of the 11 candidates for the council participated in Wednesday night's forum at the Central Library.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 2:48 PM EDT • Business • latimes.com
SDSC Helps Improve AI-Ready Geospatial Data Through GeoCroissant

Oct. 1, 2026 — Researchers working with Earth science data often face a basic but time-consuming challenge: Determining what datasets exist, what they contain and whether they can be used together. Doug Fils, with the University of California San Diego Halıcıoğlu School of Data Science and Computing’s San Diego Supercomputer Center (SDSC), is helping advance a […]

hpcwire.com logo
Oct 1 • 2:46 PM EDT • Science • hpcwire.com
Can ‘Outstanding Practices’ Turn into Victory for Seminoles?

Florida State coach Mike Norvell is happy with the way his team has practiced this week ahead of their ACC game with Virginia. But the Seminoles must learn how to turn those good practices into wins on game day.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 1 • 2:42 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
CNN chief Mark Thompson in talks to remain in role after Paramount takes over network

Paramount Chief Executive David Ellison has approached Thompson about staying in charge following the merger with Warner Bros. Discovery.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 2:12 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
The sport is growing leaps and bounds with its focus on agility and balance.

The sport of Ninja Warrior is growing across the country and here in Southern California, with the opening of a new Ninja Academy gym in Ventura last month. Owner Madelyn Scarpulla opened her first West Coast location in Culver City two years ago.

abc7.com logo
Oct 1 • 1:36 PM EDT • Sports • abc7.com
😐 Neutral (14%)
Stihl taps Caterpillar vet as new president

Stihl Inc. named Caterpillar veteran Sean McGinnis its new president effective immediately Thursday.

virginiabusiness.com logo
Oct 1 • 1:18 PM EDT • Business • virginiabusiness.com
PHOTOS: Seahawks And Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Raise Crucial Catch Flag At Lumen Field

The Seattle Seahawks and Virginia Mason Franciscan Health raised the Crucial Catch Flag at Lumen Field in support of the NFL's Crucial Catch initiative.

seahawks.com logo
Oct 1 • 1:05 PM EDT • Health • seahawks.com
Seahawks & Virginia Mason Franciscan Health Support NFL's Crucial Catch Initiative

​​​​​Seahawks’ Crucial Catch game on October 11 promotes early cancer detection

seahawks.com logo
Oct 1 • 1:00 PM EDT • Health • seahawks.com
Denver Museum of Nature & Science appoints Kirk Johnson as president and CEO

/PRNewswire/ -- The Denver Museum of Nature & Science Board of Trustees has appointed Kirk Johnson, Sant Director of the Smithsonian's National Museum of...

prnewswire.com logo
Oct 1 • 12:54 PM EDT • Science • prnewswire.com
California governor rivals clash over costs, homelessness, and Trump in only debate

Steve Hilton cast himself as a change candidate while Xavier Becerra defended his experience in a heated California governor debate.

scrippsnews.com logo
Oct 1 • 12:21 PM EDT • Politics • scrippsnews.com
New ‘Oligarch Index’ Tracks California’s Biggest Political Spenders

Over two decades, the top 99 individuals and business organizations spent more on campaigns and lobbying than the bottom 99.9%.

capitalandmain.com logo
Oct 1 • 12:06 PM EDT • Politics • capitalandmain.com
Hershey Entertainment & Resorts to Open Mellow Mushroom in Hershey in Fall 2027

Hershey Entertainment & Resorts (HE&R) today announced it will bring Mellow Mushroom to Hershey, Pennsylvania, marking the stone-baked pizza brand’s first location in the state. Mellow Mushroom is slated to open in fall 2027 at 337 West Chocolate Avenue, in the heart of downtown Hershey. The 8,000-square-foot restaurant will be owned and operated by HE&R. […]

pennwatch.org logo
Oct 1 • 11:58 AM EDT • Entertainment • pennwatch.org
Mauricio Umansky reacts to California gubernatorial debate, local politics

Stuart Varney hosts The Agency Founder and CEO Mauricio Umansky to discuss the California gubernatorial debate between Steve Hilton and Xavier Becerra. They analyze housing issues, red tape and the Los Angeles mayoral race.

foxbusiness.com logo
Oct 1 • 11:17 AM EDT • Politics • foxbusiness.com
Rapper Rick Ross charged with battery after domestic violence accusation

Authorities say rapper Rick Ross was arrested early Thursday in Miami Beach and charged with battery related to a domestic violence accusation. Online court records show Ross, whose legal name

caledonianrecord.com logo
Oct 1 • 11:03 AM EDT • Entertainment • caledonianrecord.com
Could GTA VI bring back casinos?

Bodog reports that while GTA VI hints at potential gambling elements, no confirmation for a full casino has been made ahead of its November 2026 release.

caledonianrecord.com logo
Oct 1 • 11:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • caledonianrecord.com
Leidos to lay off 84 workers in Ashburn

Reston-based Leidos plans to lay off 84 employees at an Ashburn operation beginning Nov. 23, according to a state notice.

virginiabusiness.com logo
Oct 1 • 10:53 AM EDT • Business • virginiabusiness.com
5 western Pennsylvania hospitals officially join West Virginia University Health System

Five western Pennsylvania hospitals and their affiliated physician practices and outpatient facilities began operating today under the umbrella of the West Virginia University Health System. Butler Memorial Hospital, Clarion Hospital, Frick Hospital, Latrobe Hospital and Westmoreland Hospital officially joined the new health system as of Oct. 1, after previously operating

triblive.com logo
Oct 1 • 10:22 AM EDT • Health • triblive.com
Rep. Young Kim for Real Clear Politics: California Turns Down Bipartisan Funding for VA

Originally Published in Real Clear Politics on October 1, 2026 Orange County is home to more than 100,000 U.S. veterans. Yet, despite our proud military heritage, it remains the largest county in California without a dedicated veterans cemetery. While neighboring cemeteries in Riverside and San Diego may seem nearby on a map, they actually aren’t.

youngkim.house.gov logo
Oct 1 • 10:20 AM EDT • Politics • youngkim.house.gov
A major insurer on how it may replicate Medicare's chronic-care experiment

In this edition of STAT Health Tech: A California insurer on how it may replicate Medicare's tech-enabled chronic-care experiment.

statnews.com logo
Oct 1 • 10:02 AM EDT • Health • statnews.com
Monthly Strum Club & Potluck Returns To York House Oct. 6

LYNDON — Catamount Arts announces the return of the monthly Strum Club to York Street Meeting House, beginning Tuesday, Oct. 6. The community is invited to a potluck at 5:30

caledonianrecord.com logo
Oct 1 • 10:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • caledonianrecord.com
Legacy, UnitedHealthcare reach deal, avoiding a loss of coverage for tens of thousands of Oregonians

The deal came just hours before their contract expired, ending months of limbo for patients.

oregonlive.com logo
Oct 1 • 10:00 AM EDT • Health • oregonlive.com
TikTok added $12 billion to California businesses last year, report says

After being nearly banned in the U.S. over privacy concerns and launching a new U.S. joint venture, TikTok touts its contributions to California's economy.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 10:00 AM EDT • Business • latimes.com
How to watch Centennial vs Vista Murrieta high school football

You can watch Centennial football all season long with NFHS Network, including this week’s game against Vista Murrieta.

sports.yahoo.com logo
Oct 1 • 9:46 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com
Nina Simone, Langston Hughes and their forgotten creative collaboration

(The Conversation is an independent and nonprofit source of news, analysis and commentary from academic experts.)

caledonianrecord.com logo
Oct 1 • 9:02 AM EDT • Entertainment • caledonianrecord.com
How Is The Federal Government Counting Measles Deaths?

Recently Secretary of HHS Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., changed how the federal government tracks deaths in its official measles tally, after Pennsylvania reported four deaths. This Policy Watch reviews the two roles, strengths, and weaknesses of the two public health surveillance systems at the center of this change: the Nationally Notifiable Diseases Surveillance System (NNDSS) and the National Vital Statistics System (NVSS).

kff.org logo
Oct 1 • 9:00 AM EDT • Health • kff.org
Good science requires much more than evidence

Empiricists believe that scientific theories are true only if they make correct empirical predictions: if we can't verify these predictions, then there is no reason to expect that they tell us anything about reality. However, Professor of Philosophy at King's College David Kyle Johnson argues that this is mistaken. In response to Bas van Fraassen, who has written on this subject for the IAI, he argues that we have many reasons for believing a theory to be true, such as it being parsimonious and having large scope — qualities which have been used throughout the history of science as criteria for judging theories. In 2024, Princeton philosopher Bas van Fraassen wrote a short article for IAI News entitled “Science Does not Describe Reality: The Limits and Benefits of Explanation.” At the time, I was working on two projects (a science book and a Great Course) that, when completed, would (among other things) defend science’s ability to describe reality. I wanted to write a response to van Fraassen, but the projects demanded too much of my attention. But now that those projects are complete, I am in a position to explain the objections to van Fraassen’s thesis. Summarizing van Fraassen’s argumentIn a nutshell, his argument is this: What scientists do is make predictions based on theories and then invite others to test to see whether those predictions are borne out. “If theory T is right, result R should happen in experimental condition C.” Many think that running an experiment that shows that R happens in condition C is proof that theory T is true (and should be believed). But, van Fraassen argues, that R happened in condition C is only a reason to think that R happens in condition C. That’s the only observable, or empirical, result we can actually see, so that is all that we are really justified in believing. (The underlying theory that made that prediction still may or may not be true.) That is why he calls those who accept his position “empiricists.”Before I explain what is wrong with this position, let me explain what it gets right. What van Fraassen Gets RightFirst, a theory correctly predicting the results of an experiment is not, strictly speaking, “proof” that the theory is correct. The basic line of reasoning is this:If the theory T is true, result R should happen. Result R did happen. Thus, theory T is true.In other words:“If T then R. R. Thus, T.”This is a deductively invalid, fallacious mode of reasoning, called “affirming the consequent.” Those premises do not guarantee that the conclusion follows. “If I am in Pennsylvania, then I am in the USA. I am in the USA. Thus, I am in Pennsylvania.” Clearly that argument doesn’t guarantee its conclusion; neither does the above argument.However, science is not a deductive method of reasoning; it is an inductive one. And inductive arguments merely try to raise the probability of their conclusion, not “prove” them for certain. Thus, the fact that an experimental result doesn’t prove a theory is true is irrelevant; it’s not supposed to. That is not what scientific reasoning is about.___If the hypothesis that something exists clearly provides the best explanation for what we can observe, then the belief that it exists is what is rational.___Second, it’s also true that a single experimental result doesn’t provide enough justification to believe that a theory is true. Scientists do not come to a consensus about whether a theory is true by looking at a single experiment; they look at all the evidence to determine where the preponderance of evidence points. The mere fact that I am in the USA raises the probability that I am in Pennsylvania, but not nearly enough to conclude that I am in Pennsylvania. However, if I am also regularly encountering people wearing Eagles and Phillies hats and seeing advertisements for Founding Father tours, I probably am. In the same way, a theory successfully predicting the outcome of one experiment is not enough to conclude that it is true; but if a theory makes a wide variety of predictions that are all vindicated by multiple experiments, performed by many different groups and people, all actively trying to prove the theory false (which is what good scientific experiments are designed to do)—that is a good reason to conclude that the theory is true. In other words, if you repeatedly try to prove something false but can’t, that is a very good indication that it isn’t. The problem of underdeterminationIn reply, those whom van Fraassen calls “empiricists” often point to the “problem of underdetermination.” For any given theory that makes successful predictions about what happens in experimental conditions, there are countless other possible theories that make exactly the same predictions—and since they do, the experimental evidence in question is just as much reason to accept any of those theories as it is to accept our original one. Thus, the argument goes, we have no way of knowing whether our original theory is true, or one of the other “predictively equivalent” theories is true. SUGGESTED VIEWING How Occam's Razor changed the world With Johnjoe McFadden As an example of underdetermination, philosophers often offer this example. The evidence of fossils seems to provide reason to conclude that the universe is quite old; ancient fossils are what the “ancient universe” hypothesis predicts. But it’s also possible that God created an ancient-looking universe 200 years ago, complete with a “fake” fossil record for us to find, to make it look old. The existence of fossils is what that theory predicts too. So, the argument goes, the fossil record can’t be used as evidence that the universe is ancient; the fossil record supports the “200-year-old ancient-looking universe” theory just as much. The problem of underdetermination points out that, for any theory with supporting evidence, we could invent another completely different theory that predicts exactly the same evidence, and thus undermine that evidence’s ability to support the original theory.But this “argument from underdetermination” betrays a fundamental misunderstanding of what scientific reasoning is and how it works. To explain, let me use another rather strange (but very real and commonly discussed) philosophical thought experiment called “The Grue Problem.” The “Grue” ProblemSuppose I want to know what color emeralds are, so I observe a few, see that they all appear green, and form the theory that “all emeralds are green.” I thus predict that the next 100 emeralds I find will also appear to be green. And let’s say that happens, and so I thus conclude that my theory that all emeralds are green is true. Now, one might rightly point out that I don’t know for sure that all emeralds are green—I have not seen them all. Maybe some I haven’t found yet are blue. Fair enough. After all, we used to think that all swans were white, until we found some black ones. But let’s say that I go on a quest and collect every emerald in the universe—and, for the sake of the argument, let’s say I can do this, and can even know that I have every one of them. So, I collect them all, look at them all, and verify that they all appear green. Can’t I now rightly conclude that all emeralds are green?Inspired by the problem of underdetermination, a friend might argue that I cannot.Sure, they all appear green now—but there could be another kind of color called “grue.” Something is grue if it is green up to a certain point in time, but then spontaneously turns blue. And there could be an infinite number of “shades” of grue. Something that is one shade of grue will turn blue at noon today, but something that is another shade of grue will turn blue at noon tomorrow, etc. So yes, the emeralds appear green now; and since they haven’t turned blue yet, they are not some “past” shade of grue. But they might be some “future” shade of grue (e.g., they may turn blue at noon tomorrow). And since all future shades of grue are consistent with “being green up to this point in time,” the evidence you have is completely consistent with the notion that all emeralds are some future shade of grue, rather than green. Indeed, that they would appear green until now is what the “some future shade of grue” hypothesis predicts. So, we have just as much reason to conclude that all emeralds are some shade of grue as we do to conclude that they are green.You’re probably thinking “It’s not equally possible that the emeralds are grue; they are obviously green.” You are right! But explaining why your instinctive reaction to my friend’s argument is correct will help inform why van Fraassen’s “empiricist” is wrong and science actually does describe reality.The main mistake my friend makes is in thinking that the “empirical evidence” (of all the emeralds appearing green) is (or even should be) all I am using to draw the conclusion that all emeralds are green. It is not. I am also considering known facts about how colors typically work; things don’t usually change color, and when they do, they don’t do so suddenly, without cause, and all at once. So, even though the simple evidence of the emeralds all appearing green up to this point is consistent with them being some future shade of grue—that is even what the grue hypothesis “predicts”—it is still exceedingly unlikely that they are. The hypothesis that they are green is much more likely. Understanding science refutes the problem of underdetermination The misunderstanding about science that the “empiricist” pointing to “the problem of underdetermination” makes is similar to the one that my friend made. Science is not just about considering experimental evidence; in fact, it’s not even just about considering empirical evidence. As Ernan McMullin and many other philosophers of science have pointed out, the inference that makes science is “inference to the best explanation” (sometimes called “abduction” or “retroduction” by McMullin). While, depending on the circumstances, scientists use many different kinds of reasoning, science as a whole is, simply put, the process of considering multiple competing explanations and comparing them to certain criteria—explanatory criteria (the kinds of things explanations must be and do, by definition, to be a good explanation)—to see which explanation is the best.And these criteria do not deal only with empirical results. Yes, successful predictions raise the probability of a hypothesis, but it’s also the case that the more new assumptions a theory makes, the less likely it is to be true; every new assumption presents an opportunity for the theory to be false. (The fewer assumptions a theory makes, the simpler or “more parsimonious” it is said to be.) Likewise, the more existing evidence a theory contradicts, the less likely it is, because in order for a theory to be true, every piece of evidence it contradicts has to be somehow faulty. (The fewer established theories a new theory contradicts, the more “conservative” it is said to be.) And, obviously, the more something explains, the better explanation it is. (This is called having “scope.”) If a theory raises unanswerable questions, it’s not expanding our understanding, and thus is not wide-scoping. Scientists consider all these things when deciding which theory to accept, because the theory that adheres best to these explanatory criteria is most likely to be true.___the mere fact that a theory’s predictive success is why it “sticks around” or “becomes accepted” in the scientific community is not a reason to be skeptical about its truth.___The reason the grue hypothesis is no good is because it invents an entirely new kind of color—not just a new shade, but an entirely different category of color (a different way colors work)—and thus is not parsimonious. It raises unanswerable questions about how and why emeralds would just spontaneously change from green to blue (and thus does not have wide scope). And it contradicts what is already well established about how color works (and thus is unconservative).The theories that the problem of underdetermination points to do the same thing. Yes, the theory that God created an “ancient-looking universe” (complete with an ancient-looking fossil record) two hundred years ago is also consistent with the empirical evidence (of a fossil record) that presently exists; but that theory is monumentally unparsimonious (it requires many extra assumptions about infinite entities) and not wide-scoping (it raises unanswerable questions about why God would do such a thing). So, I can rationally conclude that it is false.Indeed, the history of science includes many examples of theories that were rejected because they lacked parsimony and/or scope, even before their falsity (and the truth of their competing theory) was confirmed by observation. As I point out in my book, geocentrism was rejected by the scientific community because it lacked parsimony, almost 200 years before the observation of parallax confirmed that the Earth moves around the sun. And the continuum theory of matter was completely rejected by 1860, because it couldn’t explain chemical reactions or organize matter into a periodic table, even though the experiments that eventually confirmed atomic theory weren’t even proposed until the 1870s. Solving the best of a bad lot problemIn response, the “empiricists” are likely to object, this time pointing to the “best of a bad lot” problem. “We have no reason to conclude that an explanation that has been shown to be better than others is true because we have no guarantee that the true theory was among those that we were considering.” If you have a “lot” (a collection) of poor explanations, even the best one is not true.The responses to this problem, however, are numerous. Peter Lipton argues that the set of hypotheses that scientists consider are not just randomly selected and thus unlikely to contain a theory that is true; they use existing knowledge to home in on what is most likely to be true. A doctor trying to explain abdominal pain is not going to bother wondering whether demons are causing it; they are going to stick with things like appendicitis and kidney stones, because they are most likely. Further, despite its name, inference to the best explanation is not just the process of comparing hypotheses and accepting the best one; we also want one that is a good explanation in its own right. If it’s not, we are going to keep looking until we find an explanation that is. And while that process does not guarantee that we will come across the exact truth, it’s very likely that the theory that emerges as the best will be at least approximately true, and thus we will be justified in believing it. And lastly, as I point out in my book, although many theories not based in scientific evidence (like geocentrism and continuum theory) have been completely overturned, science almost always progresses by the refinement of scientifically established theories—not their replacement. (Although our sun is not the center of the universe, heliocentrism was our first step in understanding the Earth’s true place in the universe.) So even if a theory we accept today may not be completely right, accepting it is a step on the journey toward the complete truth. The example of atomic theoryNow, it’s worth pointing out that most empiricists are not skeptical of all scientific theories; they are only skeptical of the ones that hypothesize the existence of “unobservables.” It’s not like they think that round Earth, heliocentrism, and germ theory are just useful (but untrue) “instruments” for making predictions about how to most efficiently navigate the seas, predict planetary motion, and treat diseases. They admit that the Earth actually is round, that the planets revolve around the sun, and that germs exist and cause disease. These facts and entities can be observed; the theories that suggest they exist are true. It’s only when theories start hypothesizing the existence of unobservables—like electrons, or quantum fields—that can’t be observed directly, that we should start doubting the theories’ truth. And to be fair to van Fraassen, in this published work, he doesn’t really say that we should doubt the truth of such theories. Only that scientific reasoning does not rationally force us to accept them as true. Skepticism, or agnosticism, he argues, is warranted. SUGGESTED READING Science is based in metaphor By Andrew Reynolds But the history of atomic theory throws a monkey wrench into that argument. Atoms used to be unobservable; again, scientists first accepted the theory that they exist because it had such grandiose explanatory power. But then atoms were seen with electron microscopes. They thus moved into the category of the observable. But this didn’t substantially change anything about what scientists were justified in believing; it certainly didn’t change any “atomic skeptics’” minds. It just confirmed what everyone already knew! If the hypothesis that something exists clearly provides the best explanation for what we can observe, then the belief that it exists is what is rational. The fact that the thing itself is not technically observable does not make doubting its existence rational.What’s more, the atoms were seen with an electron microscope. But electrons are themselves unobservable. How can an electron microscope reveal an atom if electrons are not real? This leads us to what is famously known as Hilary Putnam’s “miracle argument.” It’s (not) a miraclePhilosopher Hilary Putnam’s miracle argument is somewhat famous. Basically, he argued that a scientific theory being able to repeatedly make successful predictions—even about unobservables—without being at least approximately true would require a “miracle.” In other words, it would be such an improbable occurrence that it could not rationally be believed—the better explanation for why scientific theories about unobservables make the right predictions is because the unobservable entities and structures they hypothesize exist.Van Fraassen has addressed this argument. Indeed, in his original article, where he references Alison Gopnik’s point about orgasms not being “necessary for procreation” even though the desire for orgasm “drives the creation of progeny,” he is pointing to his own argument about how organisms are not naturally selected by evolution to get true beliefs; to the extent that belief-forming processes are selected for, the ones that are selected are the ones that are useful for survival—not the ones that produce true beliefs. In the same way, van Fraassen argues, scientific theories are accepted, not because they are true, but because they aren’t falsified; they make successful predictions; that’s what makes them “stick around.” So, the fact that they make successful predictions (and thus became accepted) is not a reason to think they are true.This argument is similar to C. S. Lewis’s “argument from reason,” which he used to argue against evolution: “The truth of evolution undercuts our ability to know that it is true.” Lewis’ argument famously failed; Elizabeth Anscombe, by Lewis’s own admission, demolished Lewis in a debate on the topic, and I have explained elsewhere why modified versions of the argument fail as well. In short, it’s because it fails to recognize that a belief-forming process can make an organism more likely to survive because it reliably produces true beliefs. It is therefore not the case that beliefs generated by naturally selected belief-forming processes are automatically false or unjustified.In the same way, the reason a theory “sticks around” could be because it’s not falsified, because it “makes correct predictions.” But the reason it makes correct predictions is most likely because it is true. (In pointing this out, I am echoing the arguments of Musgrave, Lipton, Psillos, and Kitcher, who refuted van Fraassen’s argument and analogy long before his 2024 article.) It would be a huge coincidence that it could do so without being true. And that is the point of Putnam’s miracle argument. Thus, contrary to van Fraassen’s suggestion, the mere fact that a theory’s predictive success is why it “sticks around” or “becomes accepted” in the scientific community is not a reason to be skeptical about its truth. ConclusionLet me close by saying something about the fact that empiricists don’t doubt the truth of all scientific theories, just the ones that hypothesize unobservables. In today’s society, this theory is dangerous to espouse publicly. The nuance between being skeptical about all of science, and just the highly technical theories about unobservables, is guaranteed to be lost to the average reader. And there is so much unjustified skepticism and doubt about the findings of science and experts that a headline like “Science Does Not Describe Reality” could easily fuel the anti-science movement, worsen climate change denial and cause the next pandemic.This is why I believe it was important to still respond to van Fraassen’s article, a full two years after he wrote it. Not only, as I have argued, does it represent a philosophically inaccurate view of how scientific reasoning works and what scientific reasoning can do, but it is a dangerous view to boot. It should thus be rejected.

iai.tv logo
Oct 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • iai.tv
Pasadena Life Science Incubator Reports “Transformational” Gift: Lab Building

Daily Newsmagazine and City Guide to Pasadena, California featuring local news, breaking news, events, weather, sports news, schools news, shopping, restaurants and more from Pasadena Now

pasadenanow.com logo
Oct 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • pasadenanow.com
Real conservation efforts don’t ignore areas based on business

'Let us work toward real California 30x30 protections without rejecting key ecosystems for inclusion due to the clout of timber and agribusiness interests,' writes an L.A. Times reader.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • latimes.com
5 questions (and expert answers) about Bosnia and Herzegovina’s election

Bosnia and Herzegovina’s 2026 election: Atlantic Council experts explain the players, voting system, and implications for the EU and NATO.

atlanticcouncil.org logo
Oct 1 • 7:57 AM EDT • Politics • atlanticcouncil.org
Romania's political stalemate intensifies rating pressure before S&P review

Romania's failure to install a new government on Wednesday has intensified pressure on its investment-grade credit rating, as a five-month political ​impasse collides with a rapid build-up of public debt that is testing the limits of fiscal sustainability.

reuters.com logo
Oct 1 • 7:24 AM EDT • Politics • reuters.com
Hometown’s Best: Nominate your favorite local live music, entertainment, or sports venue in Southwest Virginia

What’s your favorite local live music, entertainment, or sports venue in Southwest Virginia?

wsls.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:22 AM EDT • Entertainment • wsls.com
Hometown’s Best: Nominate your favorite local live music, entertainment, or sports venue in Southwest Virginia

What’s your favorite local live music, entertainment, or sports venue in Southwest Virginia?

wsls.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:22 AM EDT • Sports • wsls.com
Hometown’s Best: Nominate your favorite place to watch sports in 2026

What’s your favorite place to watch sports in Southwest Virginia?

wsls.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:09 AM EDT • Sports • wsls.com
We polled two must-watch House races. There are good signs for Democrats.

Democrat Shannon Taylor is narrowly ahead of Rep. Rob Wittman (R) in Virginia's 1st, while Democrat Tom Perriello is modestly behind Rep. John McGuire (R) in the 5th.

washingtonpost.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • washingtonpost.com
Max Amini says comedy can bridge divide between Iran and America

The L.A.-based Iranian American comedian, who is touted as being the world's most watched comedian on the internet, comes home to the Dolby Theatre for six shows starting this weekend.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
A father lost his son at Rolling Loud. That real-life panic inspired a comedy

Actors Matt Rife and Owen Wilson of "Rolling Loud: The Movie" look back at the chaos of filming at a real-life music festival.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
L.A.-raised comic Jack Assadourian Jr. turns his Mexican Armenian roots into fearless new comedy special

Comedian Jack Assadourian Jr. on exploring his Mexican and Armenian roots through humor, family and his journey to embracing his identity.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com
Bass lawyers help influencers file complaint against Raman campaign

Two influencers have accused Nithya Raman's mayoral campaign of paying social media influencers who improperly disclosed the payments. The legal fees for their complaint are being covered by Mayor Karen Bass' mayoral campaign.

latimes.com logo
Oct 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • latimes.com
PSA: Castlevania: Belmont's Curse Free Demo Is Now Live, With A Frame Rate Boost On Switch 2

Don't let the Bel(mont)s end

nintendolife.com logo
Oct 1 • 5:45 AM EDT • Technology • nintendolife.com
Is it your personality or a psychological disorder? TikTok has answers.

Maladaptive daydreaming, obsessional jealousy and misophonia are now topics of study as social media trends force psychiatrists to rethink their diagnostic “bible.”

washingtonpost.com logo
Oct 1 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • washingtonpost.com
Community Bridges built ECM to prevent health crises. Now the state funding is shifting and we have to close the program

California created enhanced care management to help Medi-Cal patients with complex health and social needs before they reach the emergency room. Community Bridges spent three years building a community-based program that now serves more than 200 people. But, Community Bridges CEO Ray Cancino writes, a shift toward encounter-based reimbursement is making the relationship-building, outreach and coordination that prevention requires increasingly difficult to sustain and Community Bridges will now be forced to close the program. Cancino wonders here the new payment model will actually save money — or simply move the costs downstream.

lookout.co logo
Oct 1 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • lookout.co