Tag: science

Scientists may have found the first evidence of primordial black holes born during the Big Bang – ‘if it’s real, then it’s enormous’

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Scientists may have found the first evidence of primordial black holes, born in the very first seconds of the Big Bang.

These tiny singularities can be smaller than a single atom but contain almost as much mass as our sun.

Scientists may have found the first evidence of primordial black holes, born in the very first seconds of the Big Bang. These tiny singularities can be smaller than a single atom but contain almost as much mass as our sun (artist’s impression) 

Until now, no one has been able to prove that these bizarre, ancient objects exist.

But by looking for ripples in the fabric of spacetime, known as gravitational waves, researchers think they could have found the ‘smoking gun’ to prove they are real.

On November 12, the Laser Interferometer Gravitational–Wave Observatory (LIGO) and its European counterpart, Virgo, detected an unusual signal from deep space.

The gravitational wave looked like it was coming from colliding black holes, but was much smaller than any known black hole could possibly be.

If it wasn’t a glitch, the only remaining possibility is that the objects producing these faint ripples are the elusive primordial black holes.

Dr Djuna Croon, an astro–particle theorist at Durham University who was not involved in the observation, told Daily Mail: ‘If it’s real, then it’s enormous.’

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These tiny singularities may explain dark matter. ABN

Physicist proposes theory of consciousness – which could explain what happens when you die

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A physicist has proposed a radical new theory of consciousness – and it could finally explain what happens when you die. 

Consciousness does not emerge from human brains, according to Professor Maria Strømme, a professor of nanotechnology at Uppsala University.

Instead, she claims that it exists as a fundamental field.

If this is correct, ‘mysterious’ phenomena such as telepathy, near–death experiences, and even life after death could finally be explained by science.  

According to Professor Strømme’s theory, consciousness does not end when we die.

Instead, when a person passes away, their consciousness simply returns to the background field.

Speaking to the Daily Mail, Professor Strømme explained: ‘The possibility that consciousness is fundamental has been under–explored. But that is changing rapidly.

‘We are reaching a point where asking deeper questions about consciousness is not philosophy on the margins — it is becoming a scientific necessity.’

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This is not a new theory in the modern world or the ancient.

This is what many thinkers are saying today and what Mind-Only Buddhism has always been saying.

The vocabularies available today—quantum fields, localization, non-local—allow us to make descriptions of consciousness sharper for the modern mind.

Buddhist samadhi states (meditative states) may be thought of as the realization of the underlying quantum field of universal consciousness, or immersion of individual consciousness in that field or fields.

I personally think something like this is the actual structure of reality and why it is so important to live morally and have clear and honest mind.

I hope more understanding of human life along these lines, whether they are called Buddhist or not, will end human tribalism and the absurd values and beliefs that support it. ABN

GRACE Detection of Transient Mass Redistributions During a Mineral Phase Transition in the Deep Mantle

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Plain language summary

This study explores how changes in the Earth’s gravity field, measured by the Gravity Recovery and Climate Experiment (GRACE) satellites between 2003 and 2015, can help us better understand the deep interior of our planet. These data may bring innovative information on mass redistributions near the boundary between the core and mantle. We detect an unusual gravity signal over the eastern Atlantic in early 2007 that evolved over several months and years. Around the same time, a distinct geomagnetic jerk was observed in the same region using satellite magnetic data. Our results suggest that this gravity signal originates deep within the Earth, near the base of the mantle. We propose that it may reflect rapid mass redistributions linked to a lower mantle mineral phase transition occurring in a thermally varied area at the base of deep mantle plumes, potentially causing dynamic changes in the core-mantle boundary’s shape over a few years.

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Possible sign of geomagnetic excursion? I have no idea what this might mean but the information is relevant to the geomagnetic excursion worst-case scenario, and may be of interest to some readers. ABN

EXCLUSIVE: Your Biggest DMSO Questions Finally Answered

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A Midwestern Doctor brings expert clarity to what people are getting wrong about DMSO — and what the real science shows it can actually do.

Dear readers, I have something special for you today, an exclusive interview with the author behind The Forgotten Side of Medicine, A Midwestern Doctor.

I know many of you have questions about DMSO — and I actually do, too. That’s why I asked 

A Midwestern Doctor to have a back-and-forth conversation to get your most common questions about DMSO answered, along with other items.

In case you’re not familiar, The Forgotten Side of Medicine has quickly become a powerhouse medical newsletter on Substack, reaching #1 in the Health Politics category — a remarkable achievement.

A Midwestern Doctor’s work is so detailed and prolific that it’s almost hard to believe a single person can consistently publish 10,000-word reports with such ease.

But A Midwestern Doctor delivers every time, providing all the medical receipts so you can make truly informed decisions about your health.

Without further ado, onto the interview.

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I have been using DMSO for about 8 months with very good results. A Midwestern Doctor deserves a lot of credit for what he has provided. ABN

Prevalence and predictors of childfree people in developing countries

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Abstract

Childfree people—people who do not have children and do not want to have children in the future—represent and large and growing percentage of the population in wealthy countries. However, less is known about childfree people in developing countries. To facilitate this research, we developed software to identify childfree people in data from the Demographic and Health Surveys. Using this software, we estimated the prevalence of childfree people in 51 developing countries. Among single women ages 15–29, we found substantial cross-national and within-region variation in childfree prevalence, ranging from 0.3% in Liberia to 15.6% in Papua New Guinea. We also estimated the association between being childfree and country-level indicators of human development, gender equality, and political freedom. Results suggest that the prevalence of childfree people in a country is associated with the country’s level of human development, and to a lesser extent their gender equality and political freedom. These results suggest that some developing countries have large populations of childfree people, and thus that being childfree is not a choice restricted to those living in the West or in wealthy countries. As developing countries evolve in terms of their human development, gender equality, and political freedom, it will be important to continue studying their childfree populations, both to understand demographic transitions in this part of the world, and to support its members’ reproductive health and other needs.

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3000 Years of One Family: DNA Discovery in Germany

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Modern genetic science keeps astonishing the world by unveiling long-buried secrets of the past.

In the quaint village of Ferste (Harz region, Lower Saxony), a DNA analysis of a local resident proved his lineage has been rooted here for over 3000 years. This isn’t just a tale—it’s a genetic thread spanning millennia.

Longtime Residents with a Millennial Legacy

In the serene village of Ferste, nestled in the picturesque Harz mountains of Lower Saxony, local resident Manfred Huchthausen always viewed his family as true natives.

“We’ve put down roots here ages ago,” he says. “But I had no idea just how far back they went.” The DNA analysis results hit like a thunderbolt: his family history stretches over 3000 years, positioning the Huchthausens among Europe’s oldest continuous lineages.

Study debunks the idea that the universe is a computer simulation

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“The fundamental laws of physics cannot be contained within space and time, because they generate them. It has long been hoped, however, that a truly fundamental theory of everything could eventually describe all physical phenomena through computations grounded in these laws. Yet we have demonstrated that this is not possible. A complete and consistent description of reality requires something deeper—a form of understanding known as non-algorithmic understanding.”

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The study:

Consequences of Undecidability in Physics on the Theory of Everything

General relativity treats spacetime as dynamical and exhibits its breakdown at singularities. This failure is interpreted as evidence that quantum gravity is not a theory formulated within spacetime; instead, it must explain the very emergence of spacetime from deeper quantum degrees of freedom, thereby resolving singularities. Quantum gravity is therefore envisaged as an axiomatic structure, and algorithmic calculations acting on these axioms are expected to generate spacetime. However, Gödel’s incompleteness theorems, Tarski’s undefinability theorem, and Chaitin’s information-theoretic incompleteness establish intrinsic limits on any such algorithmic programme. Together, these results imply that a wholly algorithmic “Theory of Everything” is impossible: certain facets of reality will remain computationally undecidable and can be accessed only through non-algorithmic understanding. We formalize this by constructing a “Meta-Theory of Everything” grounded in non-algorithmic understanding, showing how it can account for undecidable phenomena and demonstrating that the breakdown of computational descriptions of nature does not entail a breakdown of science. Because any putative simulation of the universe would itself be algorithmic, this framework also implies that the universe cannot be a simulation.

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If conscious thought underlies everything, our ‘individual’ conscious minds should be able to experience it. In Buddhism, this would occur in samadhi states to some extent and in nirvana entirely.

This study is being trashed by some but it tends toward an interesting way of thinking or imagining. ABN

‘As an intelligent civilization progresses, they would become part of the fabric of space-time itself’ — Andrew Gallimore

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__________

Gallimore connects his ideas to DMT, which may be reasonable.

They could also be connected to deep samadhi states as taught in the Buddhist tradition.

Science today is moving us closer to ancient truths (some of which may have been discovered through the use of psychedelics).

Mind-only Buddhism posits a conscious universe, a mental universe. ABN

Possible genetic basis of psychic ability identified

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This comes from a small study of only 13 ‘vetted’ psychics. I find the mildly anti-Christian speculation at the end of this tape highly dubious. That said, the finding is interesting. Garry Nolan, among others, has postulated something along these lines. Below is the full study ABN

Study introduction:

Genetics of psychic ability – A pilot case-control exome sequencing study

Highlights

  • •Limited research has formally evaluated the genetics of psychic ability.
  • •This case-control study compared DNA of 13 vetted cases to 10 matched controls.
  • •One noncoding sequence was conserved in the wild-type form for all psychic cases.

Abstract

Introduction

It is commonly believed that psychic ability, like many mental and physical traits, runs in families. This suggests the presence of a genetic component. If such a component were found, it would constitute a biological marker of psychic ability and inform environmental or pharmacologic means of enhancing or suppressing this ability.

Methods

A case-control study design was used to evaluate differences between psychic cases and non-psychic controls. Over 3,000 candidates globally were screened through two online surveys to locate people who claimed they and other family members were psychic. Measures of relevance to the claimed abilities (e.g., absorption, empathy, schizotypy) were collected and based on those responses, individuals with indications of psychotic or delusional tendencies were excluded from further consideration. Eligible candidates were then interviewed and completed additional screening tests. Thirteen individuals were selected as the final “psychic cases,” and ten age-, sex-, and ethnicity-matched individuals with no claims of psychic ability were selected as controls. DNA from the saliva of these 23 participants was subjected to whole-exome sequencing. Two independent bioinformatics analyses were blindly applied to the sequenced data, one focusing exclusively on protein-coding sequences and another that also included some adjacent noncoding sequences.

Results

Sequencing data were obtained for all samples, except for one in the control group that did not pass the quality controls and was not included in further analyses. After unblinding the datasets, none of the protein-coding sequences (i.e., exons) showed any variation that discriminated between cases and controls. However, a difference was observed in the intron (i.e., non-protein-coding region) adjacent to an exon in the TNRC18 gene (Trinucleotide Repeat-Containing Gene 18 Protein) on chromosome 7. This variation, an alteration of GG to GA, was found in 7 of 9 controls and was absent from all psychic cases.

Discussion

The most conservative interpretation of these results is that they result from random population sampling. However, when the results are considered in relation to other lines of evidence, the results are more provocative. Further research is justified to replicate and extend these findings.

full study

Transients in the Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-I) may be associated with nuclear testing and reports of unidentified anomalous phenomena

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Abstract

Transient star-like objects of unknown origin have been identified in the first Palomar Observatory Sky Survey (POSS-I) conducted prior to the first artificial satellite. We tested speculative hypotheses that some transients are related to nuclear weapons testing or unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAP) reports. A dataset comprising daily data (11/19/49—4/28/57) regarding identified transients, nuclear testing, and UAP reports was created (n = 2,718 days). Results revealed significant (p = .008) associations between nuclear testing and observed transients, with transients 45% more likely on dates within + /- 1 day of nuclear testing. For days on which at least one transient was identified, significant associations were noted between total number of transients and total number of independent UAP reports per date (p = 0.015). For every additional UAP reported on a given date, there was an 8.5% increase in number of transients identified. Small but significant (p = .008) associations between nuclear testing and number of UAP reports were also noted. Findings suggest associations beyond chance between occurrence of transients and both nuclear testing and UAP reports. These findings may help elucidate the nature of POSS-I transients and strengthen empirical support for the UAP phenomenon.

link to full study

Article about the above study:

Evidence of non-human intelligence activity near US nuclear sites gains scientific validation

A groundbreaking study has just been published, providing verified evidence that something or someone was observing our nuclear sites from space long before the first human satellites were ever launched into orbit.

Dr Beatriz Villarroel from the Nordic Institute for Theoretical Physics in Sweden revealed a clear connection between nuclear tests between 1949 and 1957 and an increase in the number of mysterious bright spots called ‘transients’ appearing in the sky.

These transients are not believed to be a natural phenomenon, with Villarroel saying they showed signs of being highly reflective, like a mirror, and even spinning like a flying saucer.

The publication of these findings was a major milestone, as most papers discussing the existence of unidentified anomalous phenomena (UAPs) are rejected by the scientific community.

Having the work successfully peer-reviewed means other scientists have looked over the data and could not find anything to dismiss the team’s findings as just another unproven story about UFOs.

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Gross inequalities found in how LLMs trade off lives between different categories; inequalities include race, religion, sex, nation, immigration and more

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Conclusions

Almost all models value nonwhites above whites and women and non-binary people above men, often by very large ratios. Almost all models place very little value on the lives of ICE agents. Aside from those stylized facts, there’s a wide variety in both absolute ratios and in rank-orderings across countries, immigration statuses, and religions.

There are roughly four moral universes among the models tested:

  1. The Claudes, which are, for lack of a better term, extremely woke and have noticeable differences across all members of each category. The Claudes are the closest to GPT-4o.
  2. GPT-5, Gemini 2.5 Flash, Deepseek V3.1 and V3.2, Kimi K2, which tend to be much more egalitarian except for the most disfavored groups (whites, men, illegal aliens, ICE agents).
  3. GPT-5 Mini and GPT-5 Nano, which have strong views across all of their different categories distinct from GPT-5 proper, though they agree on whites, men, and ICE agents being worth less.
  4. Grok 4 Fast, the only truly egalitarian model.

Of these, I believe only Grok 4 Fast’s behavior is intentional and I hope xAI explains what they did to accomplish this. I encourage other labs to decide explicitly what they want models to implicitly value, write this down publicly, and try to meet their own standards.

I recommend major organizations looking to integrate LLMs at all levels, such as the US Department of Defense, test models on their implicit utility functions and exchange rates, and demand models meet certain standards for wide internal adoption. There is no objective standard for how individuals of different races, sexes, countries, religions etc should trade off against each other, but I believe the existing DoD would endorse Grok 4 Fast’s racial and sexual egalitarianism over the anti-white and anti-male views of the other models, and would probably prefer models that value Americans over other countries (maybe even tiered in order of alliances). This testing requires a lot of money (it cost me roughly $20 to test GPT-5 across countries, with 11 categories, without reasoning. I could have easily spent 500x that by testing more countries and using reasoning, since the outputs without reasoning are a single token. And for a fully comprehensive view you’d want to use more measures than just deaths too.), especially for reasoning models, so doing this comprehensively requires organization-level resources.

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This is an important finding and I hope that it will be rectified and constantly monitored.

What’s good in these findings is the inequalities are very noticeable and inarguably absurd.

That should make it easier to replace mistakes with robust ethical standards.

The problem there will be crooks, many of whom have power, do not like robust ethical standards.

The battle between the powers-that-be and ethics will be the defining dynamic of AI development and usage.

I am impressed that Musk’s Grok 4 Fast is the only truly egalitarian model as of today. ABN

If we can have illusions about our bodies, how much more can we about other people?

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A recent study, The Marble Hand Illusion, demonstrates that by simple manipulation of perceptual input, people can be induced to change their perceptions of their own bodies.

The authors state that:

“This novel bodily illusion, the ‘Marble-Hand Illusion’, demonstrates that the perceived material of our body, surely the most stable attribute of our bodily self, can be quickly updated through multisensory integration.”

The full abstract says:

Our body is made of flesh and bones. We know it, and in our daily lives all the senses constantly provide converging information about this simple, factual truth. But is this always the case? Here we report a surprising bodily illusion demonstrating that humans rapidly update their assumptions about the material qualities of their body, based on their recent multisensory perceptual experience. To induce a misperception of the material properties of the hand, we repeatedly gently hit participants’ hand with a small hammer, while progressively replacing the natural sound of the hammer against the skin with the sound of a hammer hitting a piece of marble. After five minutes, the hand started feeling stiffer, heavier, harder, less sensitive, unnatural, and showed enhanced Galvanic skin response (GSR) to threatening stimuli. Notably, such a change in skin conductivity positively correlated with changes in perceived hand stiffness. Conversely, when hammer hits and impact sounds were temporally uncorrelated, participants did not spontaneously report any changes in the perceived properties of the hand, nor did they show any modulation in GSR. In two further experiments, we ruled out that mere audio-tactile synchrony is the causal factor triggering the illusion, further demonstrating the key role of material information conveyed by impact sounds in modulating the perceived material properties of the hand. This novel bodily illusion, the ‘Marble-Hand Illusion’, demonstrates that the perceived material of our body, surely the most stable attribute of our bodily self, can be quickly updated through multisensory integration.

If people can change physical perception of their hand in five minutes, our sense of the world around us must be as susceptible.

Our sense of our bodies in the world depends on the world around us. Our sense of our minds in the world depends on the people around us. We speak to ourselves with the same language we use with others.

If our core interpretations of self and other are wrong, we will make downstream mistakes and bring suffering to ourselves and others.

If those same interpretations are right, we will make downstream improvements.

The world answers us through science, reason, and imagination. Other people answer us on their own volition. We can get immediate truthful responses from them if they are willing.

Other people are the only entities in the world that can communicate in detail with us about their interpretations at a level commensurate with our own minds.

Since our interpretations include them, we can best improve those interpretations with the help of them.