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Lane Johnson update: Eagles have no timetable for his return

Nick Sirianni had no update on Lane Johnson, leaving the Eagles tackle’s status uncertain before their Week 5 trip to London

Oct 5 • 7:28 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Doctors, insurers sue Newsom over health insurance premium increases

Doctors and health insurers have filed suit alleging Gov. Gavin Newsom and the California Legislature violated the law when they approved a healthcare tax that could substantially increase insurance premiums.

Oct 5 • 4:24 PM EDT • Health • seattletimes.com

A Health Influencer Claims He Has Been Drinking Radioactive Water For 250 Days Straight, To A Frightening 13.5 Thousand Likes

If you don't know why this is a bad idea, let us tell you about radiation, Radithor, or the tragic case of Eben Byers.

Oct 5 • 12:22 PM EDT • Health • iflscience.com

Review: Metallica lives the dream on opening weekend of Sphere residency

LAS VEGAS — “I had a dream last night,” Metallica singer James Hetfield said. “We were playing the Sphere. “So cool.” Indeed, it was, James. Yet, it wasn’t a dream.

Oct 5 • 11:45 AM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com

Metallica rides the lightning with Sphere residency debut

Oct 5 • 11:05 AM EDT • Entertainment • news3lv.com

Building something with your hands — and a career

MakerSpace NYC is one of at least 2,000 community workshops across the country.

Oct 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Business • marketplace.org

Tech billionaires are spending millions to reshape California’s Legislature

Tech billionaires funding PACs have enjoyed recent growth in personal and corporate wealth and are spending it to handpick the Legislature.

Oct 5 • 8:00 AM EDT • Politics • calmatters.org

Earth Shifted Quickly On Its Axis Four Times In Last 320 Million Years, Including When Dinosaurs Reigned

Frankly, it’s surprising the dinosaurs didn’t get dizzy.

Oct 5 • 7:18 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Averly Health launches in UK to advance cardiometabolic care

Averly aims to improve patient care and access tenets surrounding cardiometabolic conditions, including obesity and type 2 diabetes.

Oct 5 • 5:52 AM EDT • Health • medicaldevice-network.com

Governor’s advisory council discusses Youth Risk Behavior Survey ahead of final policy recommendations

Gov. Stein's advisory council is finalizing recommendations on youth well-being before the legislature decides how to use Meta settlement funds.

Oct 5 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • ednc.org

First look: Metallica opens Sphere Las Vegas residency in epic fashion

LAS VEGAS — James Hetfield had one question for fans:

Oct 5 • 3:52 AM EDT • Entertainment • havasunews.com

Averly Health launches to transform cardiometabolic care in the UK

Averly Health, a joint venture between Reset Health and Pharmacy2U creates the first and only fully integrated national cardiometabolic care provider....

Oct 5 • 2:00 AM EDT • Health • globenewswire.com

Averly Health launches to transform cardiometabolic care in the UK

Joint venture between Reset Health and Pharmacy2U creates the first and only fully integrated national cardiometabolic care provider.Averly Health will set a new standard for access and outcomes to transform the population’s health across chronic diseases like obesity, type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular disease.Averly Health combines Reset Health’s specialist cardiometabolic clinical expertise with Pharmacy2U's market-leading digital prescribing and pharmacy infrastructure to deliver a seamless

Oct 5 • 2:00 AM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com

From nearsightedness to self-harm: Meta-review looks at how digital media impacts young people’s health

The authors of an expansive new series in ‘The Lancet’ argue that gaps in our understanding about digital harms shouldn’t delay urgent policy action.

Oct 4 • 6:31 PM EDT • Health • fastcompany.com

Health records from 68 adults link plant-based grocery support to lower blood pressure and weight

Providing people with nutritious foods can improve the management of chronic metabolic diseases such as type 2 diabetes and hypertension. However, most studies of "Food Is Medicine" programs have only ...

Oct 4 • 3:24 PM EDT • Health • medicalxpress.com

In Metallica's hands, Sphere is a totally brutal Vegas vacation

Metallica makes no bones about their ambitions. Of course they were curious about Sphere, a venue that could go toe-to-toe with their firepower.

Oct 4 • 1:43 PM EDT • Entertainment • latimes.com

Tech News This Week: Muse Takes On Small Business And McDonalds Leans Into AI

Meta expands Muse to small business, OpenAI adds more plugins, McDonalds leans into AI and more training for Claude.

Oct 4 • 7:00 AM EDT • Business • forbes.com

Meta dodging taxes with data sites

Mark Zuckerberg says Meta's artificial intelligence push is a tremendous success. "Our investments in AI are accelerating every major part of our core business," he has told investors. "Every sign that we're seeing in our own work and across the industry gives us confidence in this investment."

Oct 4 • 3:11 AM EDT • Business • nwaonline.com

Presbyterian clears St. Thomas, 55-21

The nation's fifth-longest FCS home winning streak stayed intact in dominant fashion on Saturday afternoon, as the Presbyterian College football team put the pedal to the metal and raced past St. Thomas by a final score of 55-21.

Oct 4 • 12:19 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Scientists just found a new way to make hydrogen from water

A new light-activated material can efficiently produce hydrogen from water without requiring an additional expensive metal catalyst. Researchers say its unusual sulfur-based chemistry could point toward cheaper and more practical ways to turn sunlight into clean fuel.

Oct 3 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Leucine does more than build muscle. It powers up your cells

The essential amino acid leucine can boost cellular energy production by protecting key proteins on mitochondria from being destroyed. The discovery reveals a new connection between nutrition and metabolism that could eventually lead to new approaches for metabolic disorders and cancer.

Oct 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Chang’e-6 lunar soil contains a surprising magnetic time capsule

Scientists studying Chang’e-6 lunar soil have discovered a previously unknown magnetic mineral in natural Moon samples: a form of metallic iron called γ-Fe. Found inside tiny impact-glass particles, the nanoscale iron can preserve a stable magnetic signal, potentially acting like a microscopic fossil of the Moon’s long-lost magnetic field.

Oct 3 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Meta wants you to build your own Muse gadget

Meta wants Muse in your TV and your toaster, so it's giving the code away for free.

Oct 2 • 8:45 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com

Apple changes full-disk access permissions to curb abuse from AI agents

Meta says FDA isn't sufficient to Muse reading messages. Apple begs to differ.

Oct 2 • 7:03 PM EDT • Technology • arstechnica.com

Apple says it will flag AI requests for Mac data after Meta's Muse draws complaints

Apple said on Friday that it plans to change its Mac operating system to make it more obvious when AI agents ask ​to access all of the data on Macs.

Oct 2 • 6:42 PM EDT • Business • reuters.com

Netherlands considers Meta glasses ban as retailers pause sales

A large eyewear chain is pausing sales of Meta's AI glasses over privacy concerns.

Oct 2 • 6:17 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Irish Sea Moss Is Making Waves. The Science is Actually Pretty Murky.

Irish Sea moss supplements are all the rage with a billion-dollar industry that expects consumer demand to continue rising. While the superfood is packed with different nutrients, there is a high risk of ingesting heavy metals.

Oct 2 • 5:30 PM EDT • Science • health.yahoo.com

Meta open sources code to let you make Muse AI gadgets

“Proceed at your own risk!”

Oct 2 • 5:08 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.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

Oct 2 • 2:52 PM EDT • Science • chronicleofhighereducation.substack.com

First look: Metallica opens Sphere Las Vegas residency in epic fashion

LAS VEGAS — James Hetfield had one question for fans: “Do you want heavy, Vegas?” the Metallica frontman asked the capacity crowd assembled before him and his fellow bandmates —

Oct 2 • 2:00 PM EDT • Entertainment • recorderonline.com

Bishop’s computer science chair says AI is eliminating ‘grunt work’ and reshaping digital jobs

Dr. Russell Butler, chair of Bishop’s University’s Department of Computer Science, says artificial intelligence is increasingly taking over routine digital “grunt work,” changing the skills students and workers may need in the years ahead. Photo courtesy of Bishop’s University. Click here to read our platform! Get local news like this every morning. Subscribe free below. Subscribe Pulse Newsroom Artificial intelligence is already taking over some of the routine digital work once performed by entry-level employees, according to Bishop’s University Computer Science chair Dr. Russell Butler — a shift he believes will make expertise, judgement and the ability to evaluate AI-generated work increasingly important. Butler described the change as automation reaching what he calls the “bottom of the cognitive pyramid” during an interview with The Pulse about AI, university education and the future of digital work. His argument is not that humans are disappearing from the workplace. Instead, he sees their role changing as AI becomes capable of handling more of the repetitive tasks involved in computer-based work. “Everything’s converging on just AI basically doing all the grunt work,” Butler said. The bottom of the cognitive pyramid Butler is from Lennoxville, completed his undergraduate studies at Bishop’s and later earned his PhD at the Université de Sherbrooke. He joined Bishop’s in 2019 and now chairs its Department of Computer Science. He uses AI in research, teaching and other creative work, and said the technology is increasingly capable of handling routine digital tasks that once required substantial human time. “You’ve got the grunt work, like moving things around in Excel, doing basic programming tasks,” Butler said. “That’s like the bottom grunt work that the entry-level worker would have done two or three years ago.” Butler went further, saying in his view that much of this type of work has already been absorbed by AI tools. He connected that change to a shift he sees taking place in computer science, where entry-level roles have declined while experienced workers can use AI to increase what they can produce. “A senior developer now has access to essentially an unlimited amount of junior developers on demand,” Butler said. He was describing AI systems metaphorically, not literal employees. His point was that one experienced developer can now ask AI tools to produce code or other technical work that might previously have been assigned to more junior workers. That raises a broader question for universities and employers. If some of the simpler work traditionally given to newcomers can now be done by machines, how do people gain the experience needed to become senior workers themselves? Students doing work that once required years of programming Butler said he is already seeing the change inside his classroom. He created a Bishop’s course called CS208, Coding in Plain English, to show students — including those without traditional programming backgrounds — what they can accomplish using AI. Some come from disciplines such as psychology or neuroscience with no previous programming experience. “What I’m finding is that students who have zero programming experience, they come in from another discipline like psychology or neuroscience or something, they are now able to get up and running with real data sets,” Butler said. Butler’s own doctoral work involved neuroimaging, and he said he has assigned students work he considers comparable to the kinds of analysis he performed during his PhD. He described giving students a real dataset, an expected result and instructions to use AI to complete the analysis. Butler said those students have been able to carry out work at a level he associates with tasks he once performed after years of programming experience. That does not mean a student using AI instantly acquires the same knowledge as an experienced computer scientist. But Butler sees it as evidence that AI can dramatically lower the technical barrier between having a problem to solve and producing a working result. The role of the person using the system then changes. They need to know what to ask for, understand enough about the subject to judge the answer and take responsibility for what is ultimately produced. What about AI hallucinations? One persistent concern surrounding generative AI is hallucination — when a system produces information that sounds convincing but is false or unsupported. Butler said that problem has improved substantially in newer systems and is not as severe as it was with earlier models. He pointed in particular to newer AI systems’ ability to search the web, consult scientific databases and return source links rather than simply generating a citation from their internal model. Butler nevertheless said users should verify what AI produces. “You should verify,” he said while discussing citations generated with AI. His position is that hallucinations have become less common in the systems he uses, not that incorrect AI output is impossible. Human checking remains part of the process. Hours of work compressed Butler offered another example from his administrative work at Bishop’s. The university has been comparing CEGEP courses with first-year Bishop’s courses to determine where students may qualify for advanced standing. Traditionally, Butler said, that means reviewing two sets of course descriptions and manually matching one institution’s courses with another’s. As department chair, that could require hours of reading and comparison. He said AI can now be given both sets of material and asked to generate an initial mapping automatically. “It saves me hours and hours of work,” Butler said. Butler said the AI-generated mapping can also produce a better result than he would produce himself. He sees similar opportunities in businesses. A company may receive specifications, drawings, emails or other digital material from customers and then have employees convert that information into an internal format before anything can be manufactured or delivered. AI can increasingly perform parts of that intermediate processing. In Butler’s view, the employee does not necessarily disappear. Instead, the job becomes more about checking the result. “The human is still there,” he said. Judgement could become more valuable That change is central to Butler’s view of where digital work may be headed. If AI can produce a first draft, write basic code, compare documents or process large amounts of information, he argues that knowledge and judgement become increasingly important. “The real scarce resource going forward is going to be domain knowledge, expertise, and… credentials, authority, the ability to work with other people,” Butler said. He is therefore encouraging students not only to learn AI tools but also to broaden their education. He mentioned acting, fine art and photography as examples of courses that can help develop what he described as taste and intuition — the ability to recognize what is good, what is not and what should be changed. “And that’s the skill that they need now because the grunt work has been automated and now it’s about evaluating what the AI produces and telling it how to improve or expand the output,” Butler said. That does not remove the need for technical knowledge. Butler’s argument is that the emphasis may shift away from manually completing every step of a task and toward directing, checking and improving work produced with AI assistance. He also stressed that humans remain responsible for final decisions. “At the end of the day, the human has to make the final call,” Butler said, pointing to the question of accountability. Physical work may be different Butler draws a distinction between digital work and jobs requiring people to manipulate the physical world. He expects AI to continue advancing quickly in tasks performed almost entirely on computers. He is more cautious about claims that humanoid robots will soon be able to replace workers such as plumbers or electricians. Butler said those trades would not be replaced “anytime soon” in his view and described some current robotics demonstrations as overhyped. He described the situation as counterintuitive. “It’s almost like we solved the highest level first,” he said, contrasting advances in digital AI with the harder problem of building robots capable of operating reliably in the physical world. Butler’s argument is that some digital occupations could face automation sooner than trades requiring complex physical work. The wider AI shift in the Townships Butler’s comments come as local institutions are increasingly grappling with how AI should be used. The federal government recently announced up to $162 million over five years for 10,000 AI-related placements through Mitacs. The Université de Sherbrooke told The Pulse that the number of its collaborative research and innovation projects supported through Mitacs has approximately doubled since 2018-19, while the number of placements has approximately tripled. UdeS also said it already has projects involving both AI adoption and the application of AI to other fields. At Bishop’s, Butler said part of his role involves building the Computer Science department’s local presence, connecting students with regional partners and strengthening relationships with the Sherbrooke technology ecosystem. Those developments put universities in a difficult position. They have to prepare students to use the tools employers increasingly have available while also making sure graduates understand enough to recognize when those tools are wrong, incomplete or being applied to the wrong problem. The risk of losing human skills Butler does not see AI as risk-free. Later in the interview, he raised a separate concern: as AI becomes better at reading, writing, programming and other cognitive tasks, people could lose some of the underlying skills that historically helped produce new ideas. “The other danger is that we’re going to lose the human skills,” Butler said. He specifically mentioned reading and writing and argued that people could lose some of the lower-level understanding that contributes to breakthroughs. Butler said AI systems are based on existing human knowledge and argued that they become much more powerful when paired with a capable person. That tension runs through his view of the technology. AI can remove hours of routine work. It can allow beginners to perform tasks that once required substantial technical training. It can give experienced workers significant leverage. But the more capable the technology becomes, the more important it may be for people to develop the judgement needed to decide what should be done in the first place. For Butler, that is where education may have to change. Students still need to understand their field. They still need to know when something is wrong. And they still need to be able to make the final decision. But if AI increasingly handles the bottom of the cognitive pyramid, the value of a worker may depend less on how quickly they can perform the grunt work and more on whether they understand what the work is supposed to accomplish. Don’t miss the next story that affects your community. Join thousands of readers getting The Pulse every morning—plus breaking news alerts when it matters most. If you value this kind of local journalism, consider supporting it. Subscribe, share and like! Subscribe Share

Oct 2 • 1:57 PM EDT • Science • publisherpt.substack.com

Coastal forces shape building sciences practice

When Built Environments relocated to Wilmington, the firm’s partners weren’t looking for the lazy tranquility one hopes for when on vacation. Instead, they sought sultry heat. They wanted to understand whipping coastal winds and punishing precipitation – the kind that tropical storms produce. That’s because how materials degrade can reveal a lot about how they can be improved. “We specifically chose the Wilmington market because it does fall within Climate Zone 3A, which is a coastal warm-humid climate,” said Jarrett Davis, who joined Built Environments in 2023 to lead the company’s building science practice. “There’s not a lot of product research in that climate zone, but there are a lot of structures here that get weatherized pretty severely.” Built Environments has provided building science, material testing and code compliance consulting for 25 years, ever since principal materials scientist Steve Doggett founded the company in Minnesota. “There are very few manufacturers that understand fully how their own materials and products work, whereas we know their shortfalls and their benefits out in the real world on jobsites,” Doggett said. “That’s why the original Built Environments was formed, to make buildings better.” He said the 15-employee company is just as comfortable on a jobsite, retrofitting a high-end beachside property, for example, as it is recreating some of the coast’s most intense weather conditions in the great indoors. The company operates an A2LA-accredited ISO/IEC 17025 mechanical testing laboratory on Wright Street. The year-old facility has expanded Built Environments’ in-house capabilities, Doggett said. “We’re able to simulate that hurricane wind (and) rain and perform structural and impact testing on wall assemblies, roof assemblies and glazing assemblies,” he said. “There are certain requirements that those windows and doors need to meet as far as wind ratings and pressure ratings and things of that nature.” Standard Glass Co.-Glass Depots, of Wilmington, is currently testing a new glazing system using Built Environments’ stress testing, the partners said. One method involves what’s called a “large missile cannon.” “We take 8-foot two-by-fours, and we shoot them at assemblies, so they have to withstand that impact,” Davis said. “It’s pretty cool to see, I’m not going to lie.” In many cases, the lab can run a full, wall-scale test of a product in a matter of weeks or months, whereas “it might take midrange manufacturers years,” Doggett said. “We’re nimble. We can cut that time in half.” The lab also develops intellectual property. Doggett, for example, shares a patent with Sustant LLC, of Minnesota, on a fastener patch to increase the air and water tightness within building envelopes. “We have too many ideas and not enough time,” he said. But the partners noted that they or their fellow principals – of which the company has four total, including a principal engineer and a principal codes and standards expert – could be anywhere on a given day, including in the courtroom providing expert testimony in contentious insurance cases. “Let’s say there is a fire on a structure,” Davis said. “We can analyze all the specific materials within that assembly – an exterior wall or something like that – because there are loads that require certain heat release. And so, we can measure each one of those materials, if need be, to say if this was likely or not a code-approved assembly.” Despite what can be inferred in a lab, the partners said nothing beats learning from how materials change over time under real-world strain. Take, for instance, the curious case of the creaking condo. “We recently had a customer that came to us trying to assess a sound issue of a roof. It was making noises that no one could explain or account for. How do you tackle something like that?” Doggett asked rhetorically. “There’s really no generally agreed-upon methodologies.” The problem turned out to be a faulty installation of a commercial roof system. “The building in this particular case was not local,” he said. “In the initial installation, the commercial roofing contractor installed the wrong fasteners in the wrong locations into the deck, and essentially the solar radiation was causing the building to move quite substantially early in the morning when the sun initially hit that assembly after a quite cool evening, causing the threads on the fasteners to kind of jump within the material, within the metal.” Built Environments designed an effective repair methodology that was within budget, the partners said. “We get the bizarre,” Doggett said. “I will say that’s something that has stayed the same over 25 years.” The partners said they are hiring, and that Cape Fear Community College is one of their main recruiting grounds. Davis and Doggett look for talented people who can understand traditional methodologies yet are open to on-the-job training and new understandings, they said. After all, it’s not just weather that can ruin a building. “My favorite saying is,” Davis said, “‘What are the eight most expensive words in construction? That’s how my daddy used to do it.’”

Oct 2 • 9:00 AM EDT • Science • wilmingtonbiz.com

Coastal forces shape building sciences practice

When Built Environments relocated to Wilmington, the firm’s partners weren’t looking for the lazy tranquility one hopes for when on vacation. Instead, they sought sultry heat. They wanted to understand whipping coastal winds and punishing precipitation – the kind that tropical storms produce. That’s because how materials degrade can reveal a lot about how they can be improved. “We specifically chose the Wilmington market because it does fall within Climate Zone 3A, which is a coastal warm-humid climate,” said Jarrett Davis, who joined Built Environments in 2023 to lead the company’s building science practice. “There’s not a lot of product research in that climate zone, but there are a lot of structures here that get weatherized pretty severely.” Built Environments has provided building science, material testing and code compliance consulting for 25 years, ever since principal materials scientist Steve Doggett founded the company in Minnesota. “There are very few manufacturers that understand fully how their own materials and products work, whereas we know their shortfalls and their benefits out in the real world on jobsites,” Doggett said. “That’s why the original Built Environments was formed, to make buildings better.” He said the 15-employee company is just as comfortable on a jobsite, retrofitting a high-end beachside property, for example, as it is recreating some of the coast’s most intense weather conditions in the great indoors. The company operates an A2LA-accredited ISO/IEC 17025 mechanical testing laboratory on Wright Street. The year-old facility has expanded Built Environments’ in-house capabilities, Doggett said. “We’re able to simulate that hurricane wind (and) rain and perform structural and impact testing on wall assemblies, roof assemblies and glazing assemblies,” he said. “There are certain requirements that those windows and doors need to meet as far as wind ratings and pressure ratings and things of that nature.” Standard Glass Co.-Glass Depots, of Wilmington, is currently testing a new glazing system using Built Environments’ stress testing, the partners said. One method involves what’s called a “large missile cannon.” “We take 8-foot two-by-fours, and we shoot them at assemblies, so they have to withstand that impact,” Davis said. “It’s pretty cool to see, I’m not going to lie.” In many cases, the lab can run a full, wall-scale test of a product in a matter of weeks or months, whereas “it might take midrange manufacturers years,” Doggett said. “We’re nimble. We can cut that time in half.” The lab also develops intellectual property. Doggett, for example, shares a patent with Sustant LLC, of Minnesota, on a fastener patch to increase the air and water tightness within building envelopes. “We have too many ideas and not enough time,” he said. But the partners noted that they or their fellow principals – of which the company has four total, including a principal engineer and a principal codes and standards expert – could be anywhere on a given day, including in the courtroom providing expert testimony in contentious insurance cases. “Let’s say there is a fire on a structure,” Davis said. “We can analyze all the specific materials within that assembly – an exterior wall or something like that – because there are loads that require certain heat release. And so, we can measure each one of those materials, if need be, to say if this was likely or not a code-approved assembly.” Despite what can be inferred in a lab, the partners said nothing beats learning from how materials change over time under real-world strain. Take, for instance, the curious case of the creaking condo. “We recently had a customer that came to us trying to assess a sound issue of a roof. It was making noises that no one could explain or account for. How do you tackle something like that?” Doggett asked rhetorically. “There’s really no generally agreed-upon methodologies.” The problem turned out to be a faulty installation of a commercial roof system. “The building in this particular case was not local,” he said. “In the initial installation, the commercial roofing contractor installed the wrong fasteners in the wrong locations into the deck, and essentially the solar radiation was causing the building to move quite substantially early in the morning when the sun initially hit that assembly after a quite cool evening, causing the threads on the fasteners to kind of jump within the material, within the metal.” Built Environments designed an effective repair methodology that was within budget, the partners said. “We get the bizarre,” Doggett said. “I will say that’s something that has stayed the same over 25 years.” The partners said they are hiring, and that Cape Fear Community College is one of their main recruiting grounds. Davis and Doggett look for talented people who can understand traditional methodologies yet are open to on-the-job training and new understandings, they said. After all, it’s not just weather that can ruin a building. “My favorite saying is,” Davis said, “‘What are the eight most expensive words in construction? That’s how my daddy used to do it.’”

Oct 2 • 9:00 AM EDT • Science • wilmingtonbiz.com

Sinkers, Floaters, And Hunters: Carl Sagan Once Proposed There Could Be Gigantic Life On Jupiter, Stretching Kilometers Across

According to Sagan, creatures on Jupiter would be incentivized to grow larger than any in Earth's history. The larger they got, the more advantage they would have.

Oct 2 • 6:25 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Manufacturing Depends on Logistics to Keep Supply Chain Moving

When JBE Inc. opened in Hartsville in 1982, the “old school manufacturing company” was mainly working with metal — clinging it, grinding it, whatever the manufacturing companies the subcontractor served needed. More than 40 years later, the...

Oct 1 • 12:31 PM EDT • Business • greenvillebusinessmag.com

Yes, A Shark Can Hear You Scream. Scientists Just Proved They Can Hear Up To 70 Meters Away

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Oct 1 • 12:08 PM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

An Old Discovery At Pompeii Is Helping Scientists To Put Dates To Other Big Events In History With Incredible Accuracy

Pliny the Younger witnessed the event, and described it in two letters. They may help us date other, unrelated disasters from our history.

Oct 1 • 11:59 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Ocean Floor “Pools Of Death” Could Be Key To Explaining The Origins Of Life On Earth, And Possibly Further Afield

Besides their importance for the search for life on other planets, these pools could help us find major mineral deposits.

Oct 1 • 11:14 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Sony Quietly Launched A New PlayStation 5 Model, And Its Key Changes Ensure System Longevity

Sony quietly launches a new PlayStation 5 Slim revision with a redesigned motherboard and improved liquid metal cooling.

Oct 1 • 11:05 AM EDT • Technology • wccftech.com

Warriors' Moses Moody Sets Timetable for Return From Injury

Moody hopes to return not too far into the season following the season-ending injury in 2025-2026.

Oct 1 • 10:50 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

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.

Oct 1 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • iai.tv

Brown: Trump’s $15 billion Iowa surprise roils Minnesota politics, but merits skepticism

"On Monday, President Donald Trump welcomed Iowa officials and the Minnesota iron mining company Mesabi Metallics to the Oval Office for an announcement. The news he revealed was stunning," columnist Aaron Brown writes.

Oct 1 • 6:00 AM EDT • Politics • startribune.com

As Xbox swings the axe, Gears of War: E-Day developers fear they'll be laid off straight after launch - and right before they'd be due their bonuses

Eurogamer speaks to anonymous sources from The Coalition on the change in morale over the past few months, linked to layoffs and Metacritic bonuses.

Oct 1 • 5:52 AM EDT • Technology • eurogamer.net

This Photograph Might Not Look Like Much, But It Proved That "Island Universes" Really Do Exist

After months of searching with the Earth's most powerful telescope, a single star showed us the true scale of the universe.

Oct 1 • 5:42 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Local sports recap for Sept. 30, 2026

PEORIA, Ill. (WMBD/WYZZ) — Defending state champ Nolan Eccles appears ready for another run to state. The Dunlap senior fired a 3-under 69 to lead the Eagles to a class 3A regional championship at Ironwood Golf Course Wednesday. Eccles collected seven birdies on the way to earning medalist honors. Washington, Metamora, and Morton advanced from […]

Sep 30 • 11:17 PM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Meta Names Dhruv Vohra to Lead Southeast Asia Business

Meta has announced that Dhruv Vohra will take on a new role as Managing Director, Global Business Group, Southeast Asia.

Sep 30 • 7:15 PM EDT • Business • about.fb.com

Clio Acquires Learned Hand, Giving Its New Judiciary Business An Existing Product

Clio today announced that it has acquired Learned Hand, a startup that builds AI exclusively for judges and courts, giving the legal tech company's newly launched judiciary business an existing produc...

Sep 30 • 2:58 PM EDT • Business • lawnext.com

The AI Tamagotchis are coming

Personal AI hardware has mostly crashed and burned. OpenAI and Meta are counting on two selling points: it’s useful, and it’s cute.

Sep 30 • 2:07 PM EDT • Technology • theverge.com

Ex-Genentech, Meta, AWS AI leaders launch health AI lab with $500M backing

A new frontier artificial intelligence lab for healthcare launched with a $500 million commitment from Thoreau. | The AI startup, Ortet plans to build a full-stack platform for health, spanning compute and data infrastructure, frontier research and model development and deployment.

Sep 30 • 11:30 AM EDT • Health • fiercehealthcare.com

WhatsApp adds new parental controls for teen accounts

Parents can limit how teens use channels, whose Status they can see, who can see their Status updates, and control who can add teens to groups.

Sep 30 • 9:50 AM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com

Nathan J. Nordmann, M.D., Joins Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience Institute as Director of Spinal Oncology and Co-Director of Spinal Radiosurgery

August 27, 2026 – Fellowship-trained neurosurgeon Nathan J. Nordmann, M.D., has joined Baptist Health Miami Neuroscience as director of spinal oncology and co-director of spinal radiosurgery. He specializes in the surgical treatment of conditions affecting the brain and spine, with advanced expertise in primary and metastatic spinal tumors, complex spinal pathology and minimally invasive surgical techniques. […]

Sep 30 • 9:32 AM EDT • Health • southfloridahospitalnews.com

Supernova Athena Is About To Return – And You Can Warn Your Grandkids About Supernova Ares!

Hubble is already checking the galaxy for any signs of the returning explosion.

Sep 30 • 6:19 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Light-driven nickel catalyst forms chemical bonds using less metal

Pharmaceuticals, fine chemicals, and agrochemicals are produced industrially using a wide range of chemical reactions. These processes need to become more efficient, less expensive, and more sustainable.

Sep 29 • 6:00 PM EDT • Science • phys.org

Finding Alien Life on Enceladus Might Be Easier Than We Thought (If It Actually Exists)

Two studies suggest Saturn's icy moon could support an ancient form of metabolism.

Sep 29 • 4:19 PM EDT • Science • zmescience.com

Meta and Intuit Team on Small Business Intelligence

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Sep 29 • 2:03 PM EDT • Business • pymnts.com

Muse for Small Business Can Analyze Months of Customer Reviews in Minutes

Meta just launched new personal AI agent tools for small businesses. Here's how entrepreneurs are putting it to use.

Sep 29 • 1:53 PM EDT • Business • inc.com

OpenAI reveals Dots AI agent at DevDay, rivals Meta's Muse

At DevDay, OpenAI debuts Dots, which run on GPT-6 Astra. The new agent competes with Meta's Muse in the personal AI race.

Sep 29 • 1:15 PM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Want To Know If Someone Likes You? Pay Attention To How They Sway

Oddly, it predicts interest in a long-term relationship, but not short-term relationships.

Sep 29 • 12:34 PM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Meta Plans VR Glasses Strap Accessory for Active VR Gaming

Meta VR Glasses can play all of the same games you might on Quest, whether it be through integrated hand-tracking or by pairing optional Touch Plus controllers. But if you’re planning on getting active, Meta says they’ll be selling an accessory for that. We haven’t seen any images yet, however at Connect 2026 last week […]

Sep 29 • 12:02 PM EDT • Technology • roadtovr.com

Motion Society Hires Chanel Simmons To Lead U.S. Operation

Creator economy business Motion Society has named former Spotify, Meta and Fullscreen exec Chanel Simmons as its new U.S. boss.

Sep 29 • 11:00 AM EDT • Business • deadline.com

Creator Business Motion Society Hires Ex-Spotify, Meta & Fullscreen Exec Chanel Simmons To Lead U.S. Operation

EXCLUSIVE: Creator economy business Motion Society has named former Spotify, Meta and Fullscreen exec Chanel Simmons as its new U.S. boss. She will become Managing Director, U.S., at the company, whic...

Sep 29 • 11:00 AM EDT • Business • yahoo.com

Meta is expanding its AI agent Muse to small businesses

The tech giant says the agent can help owners run their business and find new customers.

Sep 29 • 9:47 AM EDT • Business • techcrunch.com

Athletics' Zack Gelop sues Tigers, others over injury at Comerica Park

Athletics 3B Zack Gelof sued the Tigers and others, claiming a serious knee injury from colliding with an exposed metal fence at Comerica Park.

Sep 29 • 9:02 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Meta Bets Its New VR Glasses Will Change Your Entertainment Experience

Meta wants your next movie screen to fit on your face — and weigh about as much as a deck of cards. “We don’t want to disrupt anything...

Sep 29 • 9:00 AM EDT • Entertainment • movieguide.org

‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered’ Hits A Metacritic Review Score Record

‘The Witcher 3: Wild Hunt – Remastered’ has arrived with such good reviews it has actually tied a 2026 record. Here's the score and what critics are saying.

Sep 29 • 8:51 AM EDT • Technology • forbes.com

Meta gives small businesses an AI agent that knows their work

Meta's Muse for Small Business connects business tools and accounts to help owners plan campaigns, manage tasks and get more done.

Sep 29 • 8:45 AM EDT • Business • helpnetsecurity.com

Meta expands Muse AI agent to small business market

Meta expands Muse AI agent to small business market

Sep 29 • 8:18 AM EDT • Business • investing.com

Meta laid me off in May, but here's why I felt prepared

Adekunle Ayodele shares his experience getting laid off from Meta in May, including what preparation helped it feel like less of a shock.

Sep 29 • 8:09 AM EDT • Business • businessinsider.com

Magic in Store: This month, a witchy business will put you in the right spirit

Abby Minnich is a planetary scientist who puts complex concepts into plain language. “I like to connect with the earth,” she said. “Trying to figure out how things came to be. I would say that is my purpose, almost, trying to figure it out and sharing it.” Which leads her to visit metaphysical shops like […]

Sep 29 • 7:40 AM EDT • Business • theburgnews.com

Meta is expanding its Muse AI agent to target small businesses

The new Muse for Small Business connects to tools including Canva, Slack, and Intuit, and links to Meta ad accounts and business profiles

Sep 29 • 7:07 AM EDT • Business • qz.com

Meta expands Muse AI agent for small businesses

Meta Platforms is expanding its AI agent Muse to small businesses, adding integrations with ​tools such as Shopify, QuickBooks, Stripe and ‌Canva to help owners run their businesses and find new customers, as the Facebook-parent aims to diversify ​its revenue beyond advertising.

Sep 29 • 6:34 AM EDT • Business • reuters.com

Meta launches Muse for Small Business as Zuckerberg pushes beyond consumer AI market

Following the success of its Muse personal AI agent, Meta is introducing a specialized version for small businesses.

Sep 29 • 5:30 AM EDT • Business • cnbc.com

Long After Wildfire Smoke Is Gone, Heavy Metals Could Still Be Harming Survivors’ Lungs

A new study from University of Hawai‘i researchers links metals found in the ash of the 2023 Maui wildfires with impaired lung function.

Sep 29 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • insideclimatenews.org

Metal Gear Solid Moves From PlayStation To ESP32

If you haven’t heard of Metal Gear, you probably haven’t played video games these last few decades. The original Metal Gear dates back to 1987 and launched on the MSX, but the real rise…

Sep 29 • 4:00 AM EDT • Technology • hackaday.com

Caribbean Diet: Traditional Foods, Nutrition, and Cardiometabolic Health

Traditional and neo-traditional Caribbean food patterns emphasize locally produced plant foods, roots, legumes, fruits, and seafood, with observational evidence linking these patterns to more favorable cardiometabolic profiles. Nutrition transition, import dependence, changing food practices, and structural pressures are reshaping these diets, highlighting the potential value of culturally relevant and locally resilient food systems.

Sep 29 • 12:02 AM EDT • Health • news-medical.net

Residents near Maui wildfires show elevated metals linked to impacted lung health, study says

Sep 28 • 7:50 PM EDT • Health • yahoo.com

Health experts stress importance of newborn screening

Screenings look for rare but serious health conditions that may not present right away and detect concerns like metabolic, endocrine and blood disorders.

Sep 28 • 7:41 PM EDT • Health • uppermichiganssource.com

MediaDailyNews: Meta Forms Business-Facing AI Product Platform

Meta will begin selling its AI tools to businesses and developers with its newly founded "Meta Enterprise Platform."

Sep 28 • 5:33 PM EDT • Business • mediapost.com

Trump unveils $15B planned Iowa steel project

Mesabi Metallics plans a $15 billion steel mill in Iowa using iron ore from its Minnesota mine, creating thousands of jobs and boosting us manufacturing.

Sep 28 • 4:50 PM EDT • Business • virginiabusiness.com

Meta hires MongoDB CEO CJ Desai to lead new enterprise AI business

Meta hires MongoDB CEO CJ Desai to lead new enterprise AI business - SiliconANGLE

Sep 28 • 4:13 PM EDT • Business • siliconangle.com

Meta's splashy new business AI hire offers yet another reason to bank on Zuckerberg

By poaching MongoDB's CJ Desai, Mark Zuckerberg shows he's serious about building an enterprise AI business.

Sep 28 • 4:01 PM EDT • Business • cnbc.com

Residents near Maui wildfires show elevated metals linked to impacted lung health, study says

A new study finds that metal mixtures found in smoke, ash and debris after the 2023 Maui wildfires affected human lung health.

Sep 28 • 3:12 PM EDT • Health • seattletimes.com

Residents near Maui wildfires show elevated metals linked to impacted lung health, study says

A new study finds that metal mixtures found in smoke, ash and debris after the 2023 Maui wildfires affected human lung health.

Sep 28 • 3:11 PM EDT • Health • newsday.com

Residents near Maui wildfires show elevated metals linked to impacted lung health, study says

A new study finds that metal mixtures found in smoke, ash and debris after the 2023 Maui wildfires affected human lung health. Researchers from the University of Hawaii, Honolulu studied

Sep 28 • 3:11 PM EDT • Health • bozemandailychronicle.com

Residents near Maui wildfires show elevated metals linked to impacted lung health, study says

A new study finds that metal mixtures found in smoke, ash and debris after the 2023 Maui wildfires affected human lung health.

Sep 28 • 3:11 PM EDT • Health • clickorlando.com

Residents near Maui wildfires show elevated metals linked to impacted lung health, study says

A new study finds that metal mixtures found in smoke, ash and debris after the 2023 Maui wildfires affected human lung health

Sep 28 • 3:11 PM EDT • Health • abcnews.com

Meta’s Smart Glasses PR Cleanup Campaign Is in Full Swing

This year's Meta Connect was all about public perception.

Sep 28 • 2:20 PM EDT • Technology • gizmodo.com

Google is killing off Gemini's Gems in favor of 'skills'

As all-in-one AI agents like Meta's Muse and Instinct take off, Google is opting to end a feature which built task-specific agents.

Sep 28 • 1:29 PM EDT • Technology • techcrunch.com

An Old Paper Really Did Suggest A Mathematical "Doomsday" On 13 November 2026, But There's No Need To Worry

The paper, written in 1960, suggests "doomsday" will occur on 13 November 2026. But unless there are billions of secret pregnancies out there, you shouldn't be all that concerned.

Sep 28 • 1:02 PM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Microbes Could Thrive Inside Enceladus And Its Geysers Could Help Us Find Them

When it comes to where it sends its spacecraft, is NASA looking for life in all the wrong places?

Sep 28 • 12:07 PM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

Meta launches enterprise AI business seeking to cash in on vast spending

Chief executive Mark Zuckerberg opens a new front in his push to turn huge investment in the technology into profits

Sep 28 • 11:54 AM EDT • Business • ft.com

Meta is launching an enterprise AI business, sending MongoDB stock plunging

Chirantan "CJ" Desai stepped down from MongoDB on Monday to become Meta's chief enterprise platform officer, reporting to Mark Zuckerberg

Sep 28 • 10:48 AM EDT • Business • qz.com

Scientists Studied A Teenager With One Of The Rarest Memory Abilities Humans Can Have. Here’s What They Found

People with highly superior autobiographic memory have incredible recall for events in their own lives.

Sep 28 • 10:28 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com

President Trump to announce $15 billion steel plant in eastern Iowa

Republican President Donald Trump will announce that Mesabi Metallics will invest $15 billion into building a steel plant in eastern Iowa.

Sep 28 • 9:56 AM EDT • Politics • desmoinesregister.com

Slipknot to perform in Hershey next summer; here are the details

Heavy metal band Slipknot recently announced a stadium tour, and Hershey is one of its planned stops in 2027.

Sep 28 • 9:55 AM EDT • Entertainment • lancasteronline.com

Gorgeous Lost Bird Species The Ghana Cuckooshrike Rediscovered In Forests Of The Cote d'Ivoire

The bird had not been seen in over 13 years.

Sep 28 • 9:31 AM EDT • Science • iflscience.com