Mind Matters Natural and Artificial Intelligence News and Analysis

CategoryScience

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A business team with raised fists celebrating a milestone, highlighting workplace enthusiasm and achievement

Group Founded by Francis Collins Starts PR Campaign for “Science”

The answer to lack of public trust in science does not lie in PR. It lies rather in addressing the attitudes and practices that lead to loss of trust
The growing crisis of confidence in science isn’t because people believe “science” is bad. It’s because they believe the current scientific elite is untrustworthy. Read More ›
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eccentric mad scientist set against a solid green felt background, showcasing their quirky personality and wild inventions. Ideal for promoting creativity, science events, or educational materials

The Wrong Tool to Fix Woke Science Journals

The government has no business pressuring medical journals about their content — even if their bias is ruining historic reputations
The First Amendment applies here. The editors and publishers have every right to destroy their journals’ reputations without fear of being investigated. Read More ›
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Rainbow over stormy sky. Rural landscape with rainbow over dark stormy sky in a countryside at summer day.

Idealism: Rethinking Reality Through a Divine Lens

Douglas Axe’s defense of idealism as a philosophy in a recent podcast should prompt deep questions: In what sense is the physical world real?
Idealism’s challenging alternative to physicalism and dualism proposes a resolution to metaphysical issues that aligns with quantum mechanics’ peculiarities. Read More ›
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Closeup view of a frayed end of a braided rope showcasing the frizzy and tangled fibers

Science Writer: Research Should Not Be Publicly Funded

He defends his view by pointing out that waste, futility, and fraud are too frequent outcomes of taxpayer funding
English's proposal is perhaps best seen as a call to assess what the taxpaying public is really buying for all that science funding. Are there smarter ways to spend the money? Read More ›
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Nobel Prize Medal on a Velvet background

University Science War: Ideas vs “Dollars per Net Square Footage”

Katalin Karikó, obscure and mistreated at the University of Pennsylvania, won the Nobel Prize. Shouldn’t we have some questions?
Karikó’s story, as outlined in her book, highlights a big problem with universities: ideas matter less than sheer numbers of papers published. Read More ›
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Cave entrance with sunlit stone steps, man ascending stairs towards bright light at end of tunnel. Symbolizing afterlife, near-death experience, inspiration, or hope beyond darkness.

Near-Death Stories: Has An Undiscovered Country Been Discovered?

A Catholic priest looks at ways we can understand these brushes with an unseen world
Fr. Hilbert notes that such documented lucid experiences as he recounts can hardly be the mere outcome of a dying brain shutting down. Read More ›
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Young scientist wearing a lab coat and protective glasses is adjusting a microscope while working late in a laboratory

At NIH, Bhattacharya Hopes to Restore Open Discussion in Science

In a recent interview, he seemed surprisingly conciliatory to those who attempted to ruin his career over his dissenting views on Covid.
What he most wants to advance is open discussion in science. Science, after all, advances more from doubt than from certainty. Read More ›
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Brain psychology mind soul and hope concept art, 3d illustration, surreal artwork, imagination painting, conceptual idea

The Enduring Self and the Case for Substance Dualism

On our most recent podcast, philosophers make the case that if mind is illusion, so too is the scientific enterprise
Scientists form hypotheses, interpret data, and act with purpose. These activities cannot be reduced to neurons firing without undermining science itself. Read More ›
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Close-up shot of microscope with metal lens at laboratory.

75% of Scientists in Nature Survey Thinking About Leaving U.S.

But there is less to this "trend" than meets the eye, when we look more closely at the survey
Respondents were self-selected and are probably more ideological or more personally impacted by the changes in approach. Read More ›
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Woman yelling into a bullhorn

Stand Up for (Ideological) Science 2025 Day!

The protestors should have rallied against themselves
Trust in the science sector ebbed precisely because the establishment became intolerant of dissent and pushed ideology in the guise of pursuing knowledge. Read More ›
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handcuffs on the red book of laws. close-up. Black background.

Science Blogger: Make Violating “Scientific Consensus” a Crime

Attitudes like those expressed by Ethan Siegel have cost the scientific sector much of the public’s trust and goodwill.
A properly balanced relationship with expertise won’t be restored by imposing autocratic consensus rules. “Science” really needs less hubris and more humility. Read More ›
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Colorful space galaxy cloud nebula. Stary night cosmos. Universe science astronomy. Supernova background wallpaper

Ross Douthat Makes the Case that Religious Belief Is Rational

His new book is written largely with the agnostic or full-on atheist in mind but believers would certainly also benefit, as I did
He notes, if our brains evolved merely to help us stay alive, then it’s strange that those same mental states could invent the telescope to explore the cosmos. Read More ›
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Topological phases in quantum systems represent new states of matter with unique properties offering potential applications in quantum computing and material science Background Illustration, Bright

Does Everyone Think We Should Exaggerate Scientific Advances?

Many “breakthroughs” reported breathlessly in media are nowhere close to resulting in usable products or services
Companies, universities and almost everyone else hypes the latest advances while those who question the hype are told that they are the problem. Read More ›
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Dreamy foggy dark forest. Trail in moody forest. Alone and creepy feeling in the woods

1. When actual experiences challenge the viewpoints of skeptics

Sean McDowell recently hosted J. Steve Miller to talk about his top five believable near-death experiences
Mark Twain and Michael Shermer each had an anomalous experience that he could not explain but would not deny. Read More ›
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Panoramic view of the Earth, sun, star and galaxy. Sunrise over planet Earth, view from space. Elements of this image furnished by NASA

New Book: The Catholic Case for the Design of Nature

Fr. Martin Hilbert notes that the history of life seems more like a separate collection of bushes than a single tree
The great Catholic theologian Aquinas noted that “what happens in the working of nature is either always, or mostly, for the better,” which rules out chance. Read More ›
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Person is looking for way out of psychedelic maze. A surreal labyrinth in magical forest. Human consciousness is at dead end, searching for solutions. Created with Generative AI

Scientists Wrestling With Human Consciousness Are In For the Win

Yet they can’t win because what they are doing amounts to a form of shadow boxing
If consciousness is immaterial, a scientific explanation must address and include that fact. The hard problem is impossible if that fact cannot be accepted. Read More ›
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Land with dry and cracked ground. Desert,Global warming background

Daniel Dennett Made Atheism Easy to Understand

In the process, he somehow also made it less believable
Dennett may be best remembered for inadvertently helping to reduce the popularity of atheism Read More ›
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Green grass and blue sky with white clouds

Is Science in Our Frame of Reality Inevitably Incomplete?

It’s becoming increasingly obvious that human consciousness isn’t a material phenomenon like any other; it has one foot in time and another in eternity
Efforts to jam both feet into time have gone nowhere and are likely to continue to do so. Read More ›
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side view of cyborg robot writing a story using old typewriter and looking at paper laying next to it on table, generative AI

Evolution Journal Editors Resign After AI Takes Over

Publisher Elsevier seems to have created a lot of extra work for the editors by introducing AI-generated errors into the publishing process
Was a journal that tries to explain the origin of the unique human mind without any reference to the Mind that created the universe bound to end up here? Read More ›
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Universität Hörsaal mit schwebenden transparenten Blasen

Michael Shermer: Wokeness Poisons Science and I Am No Longer Woke

A number of well-known one-way skeptics and atheists are beginning to feel the consequences of prescribed insufferable virtue
Maybe we need to believe that there is a Mind behind the universe in order to provide guardrails against deeply crazy stuff claiming to be science. Read More ›