<![CDATA[Scivillage.com Casual Discussion Science Forum - All Forums]]> https://www.scivillage.com/ Fri, 25 Sep 2026 18:43:13 +0000 MyBB <![CDATA[Really weird shit caught on video]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21428.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 17:47:08 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21428.html
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2602188466907580

Here's the same thing filmed in Hawaii:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcZdpjZplhA]]>
https://www.facebook.com/reel/2602188466907580

Here's the same thing filmed in Hawaii:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JcZdpjZplhA]]> <![CDATA[Cosmic lockdown: how the environment can isolate quantum fields]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21427.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 16:39:28 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21427.html https://jnews.sissamedialab.it/en/cosmic...tum-fields

PRESS RELEASE: The vacuum is not always so empty. "When we talk about a vacuum in cosmology, we do not mean completely devoid of energy," explains David Wands, Professor at the Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth. "A vacuum is rather a state in which a field sits at a minimum of its energy. The true vacuum is the lowest possible minimum, but there can also be local minima, which we call false vacua."

We can picture this as a landscape made up of valleys of different depths: the true vacuum is the deepest one, while the others are false vacua. Something sitting in one of these depressions can remain "trapped" there even if, somewhere else, a lower-energy state exists.

This is exactly what can happen to quantum fields, fundamental physical objects that permeate the Universe. A classical field is something that has a value at every position in space, like a magnetic field, whose strength changes from point to point. Quantum fields behave in a similar way, and their excitations appear as particles.

In a new study published in JCAP, Robson Christie, Jaewoo Joo, Greg Kaplanek, Vincent Vennin and David Wands used a simplified model to investigate what determines which vacuum a field may end up in within an expanding Universe.

The case of the Higgs field. To understand why this question matters, the authors themselves point to the case of the Higgs field. Its vacuum value contributes to giving mass to the particles of the Standard Model — the theory that describes the known elementary particles and three of the four fundamental forces — and helps determine the structure of low-energy physics.

According to some calculations based on the Standard Model, it is possible that the Higgs field does not sit in the lowest possible energy state, but in a false vacuum, while at very large field values a second, deeper minimum may exist.

The study is not directly about the Higgs field, but uses it as a concrete example of what can happen when a field becomes trapped in a local minimum even though a lower-energy state is available.

“In principle, a transition to that deeper minimum would take the Universe into a radically different state, in which the structure of matter and the forces that govern it would be altered,” explains Robson Christie, a researcher at the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Portsmouth and first author of the study.

Such a transition can be made possible by a quantum phenomenon. Let us return to the picture of vacua as valleys separated by mountains. In classical physics, a system sitting at the bottom of the shallower valley can reach the deeper one only if it has enough energy to climb over the mountain between them. In quantum mechanics, by contrast, the state of the system can extend beyond the barrier, leaving a small probability that it will appear on the other side: this is quantum tunnelling.

No field is ever truly isolated. In their work, Christie and colleagues built a simplified model to understand how the environment affects the evolution of a field. Many calculations of tunnelling treat the field as completely isolated.

“We know, however, that perfect isolation is an idealisation,” explains Greg Kaplanek, a researcher at Syracuse University, New York. In reality, fields continuously interact with other fields and with what surrounds them — in other words, with their environment. “Think, for example, of quantum computers: we go to enormous lengths to protect the quantum information stored in these machines from the environment, because even weak interactions with it can quickly alter the quantum state. Something similar happens in cosmology: a field is never really alone.”

Interactions with the environment produce a phenomenon known as decoherence. A quantum system can exist in a superposition of different possibilities: using the analogy of a coin, it is not simply heads or tails, but a quantum state that includes both possibilities at once. Interaction with the environment makes it increasingly difficult to keep this superposition, causing the system to behave more and more like an ordinary classical system.

In the authors’ model, the environment is represented by other fields interacting with the main field. The latter can also initially be in a quantum superposition involving both vacua. One of the surprises of the study, however, is that the environment does not appear to play a decisive role in the initial choice of vacuum.

Light fields and heavy fields. What matters more is whether the field is “light” or “heavy” relative to the Hubble scale, that is, relative to the rate at which the Universe is expanding.

“A field that is heavy compared with the Hubble scale can quickly adjust to the changes as the Universe expands,” Christie explains, “and in this case it is highly likely to move towards the true vacuum, the deepest energy minimum.”

Something different happens for lighter fields. “If the expansion is too rapid compared with the dynamics of the field, the system cannot keep up with the changes,” Christie continues. “In this case there can remain a significant probability that the field will also end up in the false vacuum.”

In other words, the initial choice between the true and false vacuum is influenced mainly by the relationship between the field’s own dynamics and the rate of cosmic expansion.

Cosmic lockdown. So let us imagine a light field that has ended up in a false vacuum. What happens next?

In a perfectly isolated quantum system, tunnelling towards the other minimum would still be possible. But in the authors’ model, interaction with the environment produces decoherence and destroys the quantum properties needed to maintain a coherent superposition between the two vacua.

“The interesting thing is that it is not primarily the environment that decides where the field will end up,” explains Kaplanek. “Once the field has localised in one of the two minima, however, decoherence tends to keep it there. Tunnelling towards the other vacuum is strongly suppressed.”

This is the phenomenon the authors call “cosmic lockdown”: a kind of lock that stabilises the field in the vacuum it has reached. The authors interpret it as a manifestation of the quantum Zeno effect: under certain conditions, a quantum system that is continuously monitored can have much more difficulty moving from one state to another.

Of course, no one is literally observing the field in the model. “You do not need a conscious observer,” Kaplanek explains. “The environment continuously gathers information about the state of the system. This process destroys the coherence between the two possible vacua and makes tunnelling from one to the other much more difficult.”

Good news for our Universe? The work remains a simplified model and does not show that our current Higgs vacuum is protected by cosmic lockdown. The result does, however, suggest an interesting principle: interactions with the environment can make a false vacuum more stable by suppressing tunnelling towards another state.

“If a mechanism of this kind were relevant in more realistic cosmological situations, then it could help stabilise a field that is already sitting in a false vacuum,” Wands concludes. “But understanding how far this can be applied to the Higgs field will require more realistic models.”

If our Higgs field really is sitting in a false vacuum, then cosmic lockdown points to at least one reassuring possibility: interaction with its surroundings could help make a transition to a radically different state even more difficult.]]> https://jnews.sissamedialab.it/en/cosmic...tum-fields

PRESS RELEASE: The vacuum is not always so empty. "When we talk about a vacuum in cosmology, we do not mean completely devoid of energy," explains David Wands, Professor at the Institute of Cosmology & Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth. "A vacuum is rather a state in which a field sits at a minimum of its energy. The true vacuum is the lowest possible minimum, but there can also be local minima, which we call false vacua."

We can picture this as a landscape made up of valleys of different depths: the true vacuum is the deepest one, while the others are false vacua. Something sitting in one of these depressions can remain "trapped" there even if, somewhere else, a lower-energy state exists.

This is exactly what can happen to quantum fields, fundamental physical objects that permeate the Universe. A classical field is something that has a value at every position in space, like a magnetic field, whose strength changes from point to point. Quantum fields behave in a similar way, and their excitations appear as particles.

In a new study published in JCAP, Robson Christie, Jaewoo Joo, Greg Kaplanek, Vincent Vennin and David Wands used a simplified model to investigate what determines which vacuum a field may end up in within an expanding Universe.

The case of the Higgs field. To understand why this question matters, the authors themselves point to the case of the Higgs field. Its vacuum value contributes to giving mass to the particles of the Standard Model — the theory that describes the known elementary particles and three of the four fundamental forces — and helps determine the structure of low-energy physics.

According to some calculations based on the Standard Model, it is possible that the Higgs field does not sit in the lowest possible energy state, but in a false vacuum, while at very large field values a second, deeper minimum may exist.

The study is not directly about the Higgs field, but uses it as a concrete example of what can happen when a field becomes trapped in a local minimum even though a lower-energy state is available.

“In principle, a transition to that deeper minimum would take the Universe into a radically different state, in which the structure of matter and the forces that govern it would be altered,” explains Robson Christie, a researcher at the School of Mathematics and Physics at the University of Portsmouth and first author of the study.

Such a transition can be made possible by a quantum phenomenon. Let us return to the picture of vacua as valleys separated by mountains. In classical physics, a system sitting at the bottom of the shallower valley can reach the deeper one only if it has enough energy to climb over the mountain between them. In quantum mechanics, by contrast, the state of the system can extend beyond the barrier, leaving a small probability that it will appear on the other side: this is quantum tunnelling.

No field is ever truly isolated. In their work, Christie and colleagues built a simplified model to understand how the environment affects the evolution of a field. Many calculations of tunnelling treat the field as completely isolated.

“We know, however, that perfect isolation is an idealisation,” explains Greg Kaplanek, a researcher at Syracuse University, New York. In reality, fields continuously interact with other fields and with what surrounds them — in other words, with their environment. “Think, for example, of quantum computers: we go to enormous lengths to protect the quantum information stored in these machines from the environment, because even weak interactions with it can quickly alter the quantum state. Something similar happens in cosmology: a field is never really alone.”

Interactions with the environment produce a phenomenon known as decoherence. A quantum system can exist in a superposition of different possibilities: using the analogy of a coin, it is not simply heads or tails, but a quantum state that includes both possibilities at once. Interaction with the environment makes it increasingly difficult to keep this superposition, causing the system to behave more and more like an ordinary classical system.

In the authors’ model, the environment is represented by other fields interacting with the main field. The latter can also initially be in a quantum superposition involving both vacua. One of the surprises of the study, however, is that the environment does not appear to play a decisive role in the initial choice of vacuum.

Light fields and heavy fields. What matters more is whether the field is “light” or “heavy” relative to the Hubble scale, that is, relative to the rate at which the Universe is expanding.

“A field that is heavy compared with the Hubble scale can quickly adjust to the changes as the Universe expands,” Christie explains, “and in this case it is highly likely to move towards the true vacuum, the deepest energy minimum.”

Something different happens for lighter fields. “If the expansion is too rapid compared with the dynamics of the field, the system cannot keep up with the changes,” Christie continues. “In this case there can remain a significant probability that the field will also end up in the false vacuum.”

In other words, the initial choice between the true and false vacuum is influenced mainly by the relationship between the field’s own dynamics and the rate of cosmic expansion.

Cosmic lockdown. So let us imagine a light field that has ended up in a false vacuum. What happens next?

In a perfectly isolated quantum system, tunnelling towards the other minimum would still be possible. But in the authors’ model, interaction with the environment produces decoherence and destroys the quantum properties needed to maintain a coherent superposition between the two vacua.

“The interesting thing is that it is not primarily the environment that decides where the field will end up,” explains Kaplanek. “Once the field has localised in one of the two minima, however, decoherence tends to keep it there. Tunnelling towards the other vacuum is strongly suppressed.”

This is the phenomenon the authors call “cosmic lockdown”: a kind of lock that stabilises the field in the vacuum it has reached. The authors interpret it as a manifestation of the quantum Zeno effect: under certain conditions, a quantum system that is continuously monitored can have much more difficulty moving from one state to another.

Of course, no one is literally observing the field in the model. “You do not need a conscious observer,” Kaplanek explains. “The environment continuously gathers information about the state of the system. This process destroys the coherence between the two possible vacua and makes tunnelling from one to the other much more difficult.”

Good news for our Universe? The work remains a simplified model and does not show that our current Higgs vacuum is protected by cosmic lockdown. The result does, however, suggest an interesting principle: interactions with the environment can make a false vacuum more stable by suppressing tunnelling towards another state.

“If a mechanism of this kind were relevant in more realistic cosmological situations, then it could help stabilise a field that is already sitting in a false vacuum,” Wands concludes. “But understanding how far this can be applied to the Higgs field will require more realistic models.”

If our Higgs field really is sitting in a false vacuum, then cosmic lockdown points to at least one reassuring possibility: interaction with its surroundings could help make a transition to a radically different state even more difficult.]]> <![CDATA[How psychosis may arise when the body attacks itself]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21426.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 16:37:43 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21426.html https://knowablemagazine.org/content/art...-psychosis

INTRO: Peter Jones once treated a patient with strikingly vivid hallucinations of animals. During ward visits, the patient would stroke and interact with the critters “in as real a way as he was with me,” says Jones, an academic psychiatrist at the University of Cambridge in England.

Antipsychotic drugs did nothing to dissolve these Snow White-esque visions. But when the patient received plasma exchange –– a treatment normally reserved for a misbehaving immune system –– his hallucinations dissipated.

Clearly, this was not a textbook case of schizophrenia. Rather, the patient’s symptoms stemmed from autoimmune encephalitis, a rare form of brain inflammation that can, in some cases, cause hallucinations and other symptoms of psychosis. When these patients are treated with drugs that tamp down the immune system, the psychotic symptoms often disappear.

Could the immune system be key to Alzheimer’s disease?

Autoimmune encephalitis is usually first identified through testing blood or spinal fluid for certain types of antibodies. If patients test positive for these antibodies, it’s a sign that their immune system may be attacking the brain. Other signs can help to solidify diagnosis: bright patches of inflammation on MRI scans, quickly worsening psychotic symptoms and — importantly — clear neurological symptoms such as seizures.

But Jones’ patient didn’t have those obvious neurological symptoms. If Jones hadn’t suspected an autoimmune cause, the case likely would have been missed.

Some experts suspect that the field of psychiatry is overlooking a small number of patients like this, and they are working to find more of them. They’re considering screening a broader array of psychiatric patients and seeking out new antibodies that may be involved in autoimmune encephalitis.

At the same time, many worry that there’s a risk of planting false hopes and diverting patients from the psychiatric treatments the vast majority will actually need, should autoimmune encephalitis become overdiagnosed...

[...] Autoimmune encephalitis is commonly caused by antibodies that bind to the NMDA receptor, known as NMDAR antibodies. But researchers have uncovered dozens more antibody types that are associated with encephalitis, some of which also appear to produce psychiatric symptoms.

[...] University of Oxford psychiatrist Belinda Lennox has observed similarly striking transformations. Around the time of the 2007 paper, she began conducting antibody tests on psychiatric patients whose symptoms seemed to overlap with signs of autoimmune encephalitis, such as quickly shifting psychotic symptoms or neurological features like seizures.

[...] Researchers are also continuing to search for new brain-targeting antibodies. Their hope is to understand patients who don’t have known antibodies but do have symptoms that look like autoimmune encephalitis. Detecting such new antibodies doesn’t prove they are driving the symptoms — cause and effect takes time to disentangle. But it gives researchers clues.

[...] The initiative, Kushner says, is starting to identify a few cases and to treat them with immune-suppressing drugs, after multiple rounds of testing. He says that so far, they’ve screened a few hundred people.

At some point in the future, Kushner says his team will share how many patients they’re finding with autoimmune conditions, and how those patients are faring after treatment. But he says that the primary goal of the project isn’t science; it’s patient care. “We’re trying to help people,” he says... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://knowablemagazine.org/content/art...-psychosis

INTRO: Peter Jones once treated a patient with strikingly vivid hallucinations of animals. During ward visits, the patient would stroke and interact with the critters “in as real a way as he was with me,” says Jones, an academic psychiatrist at the University of Cambridge in England.

Antipsychotic drugs did nothing to dissolve these Snow White-esque visions. But when the patient received plasma exchange –– a treatment normally reserved for a misbehaving immune system –– his hallucinations dissipated.

Clearly, this was not a textbook case of schizophrenia. Rather, the patient’s symptoms stemmed from autoimmune encephalitis, a rare form of brain inflammation that can, in some cases, cause hallucinations and other symptoms of psychosis. When these patients are treated with drugs that tamp down the immune system, the psychotic symptoms often disappear.

Could the immune system be key to Alzheimer’s disease?

Autoimmune encephalitis is usually first identified through testing blood or spinal fluid for certain types of antibodies. If patients test positive for these antibodies, it’s a sign that their immune system may be attacking the brain. Other signs can help to solidify diagnosis: bright patches of inflammation on MRI scans, quickly worsening psychotic symptoms and — importantly — clear neurological symptoms such as seizures.

But Jones’ patient didn’t have those obvious neurological symptoms. If Jones hadn’t suspected an autoimmune cause, the case likely would have been missed.

Some experts suspect that the field of psychiatry is overlooking a small number of patients like this, and they are working to find more of them. They’re considering screening a broader array of psychiatric patients and seeking out new antibodies that may be involved in autoimmune encephalitis.

At the same time, many worry that there’s a risk of planting false hopes and diverting patients from the psychiatric treatments the vast majority will actually need, should autoimmune encephalitis become overdiagnosed...

[...] Autoimmune encephalitis is commonly caused by antibodies that bind to the NMDA receptor, known as NMDAR antibodies. But researchers have uncovered dozens more antibody types that are associated with encephalitis, some of which also appear to produce psychiatric symptoms.

[...] University of Oxford psychiatrist Belinda Lennox has observed similarly striking transformations. Around the time of the 2007 paper, she began conducting antibody tests on psychiatric patients whose symptoms seemed to overlap with signs of autoimmune encephalitis, such as quickly shifting psychotic symptoms or neurological features like seizures.

[...] Researchers are also continuing to search for new brain-targeting antibodies. Their hope is to understand patients who don’t have known antibodies but do have symptoms that look like autoimmune encephalitis. Detecting such new antibodies doesn’t prove they are driving the symptoms — cause and effect takes time to disentangle. But it gives researchers clues.

[...] The initiative, Kushner says, is starting to identify a few cases and to treat them with immune-suppressing drugs, after multiple rounds of testing. He says that so far, they’ve screened a few hundred people.

At some point in the future, Kushner says his team will share how many patients they’re finding with autoimmune conditions, and how those patients are faring after treatment. But he says that the primary goal of the project isn’t science; it’s patient care. “We’re trying to help people,” he says... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[Fool us once: the effort to covertly bring RCP8.5 back to climate policy]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21425.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 16:04:44 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21425.html https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/fool-us-once

EXCERPTS: Yesterday’s New York Times featured an op-ed by David Wallace-Wells and Zeke Hausfather — a journalist and climate scientist respectively — both well-known for their commitments to climate advocacy. Normally, yet-another-apocalyptic-op-ed would not be worth commenting on, as they are a dime a dozen.

However, yesterday’s op-ed demonstrates how the new CMIP7 climate scenarios — discussed in detail here at THB — can be used to smuggle the implausibly extreme and retired RCP8.5 right back into discussions of climate science and policy. According to Hausfather, an IPCC AR7 lead author, the IPCC AR7 is going to adopt this strategy as well.

Misuse of RCP8.5 started early and snowballed from there, because no one corrected correctable missteps early on. We should not fall for this again.

The op-ed starts off well enough, asserting accurately: "Projected future warming has fallen quite a bit, and a worst-case emissions scenario known as “RCP8.5” - in which coal use would roughly quintuple by 2100 - is being phased out as implausible."

The op-ed then takes a sharp turn. Wallace-Wells and Hausfather claim: "A new round of forecasts from the climate science community is pretty alarming."

There are no new “forecasts” from the “climate science community.” The IPCC has always carefully explained that it does not forecast the future — appropriately so. It produces projections conditional on scenarios.

Further, the results of earth system model research with such conditional projections incorporating the new scenarios are still a ways off. An assessment of the “climate science community” will have to await the IPCC AR7. 

[...] "The high-end warming sometimes described as a 'worst-case scenario' remains very much on the table, too."

That last sentence is a not-so-subtle reference to the climate outcomes that emerged from the retired RCP8.5. How can it be that RCP8.5 is being “phased out” yet its implications remain ”very much on the table”?

Below I show how RCP8.5 is being brought right back into the discussion of climate science and policy via a Trojan Horse that carries a misuse of scenario extensions... (MORE - missing details)]]> https://rogerpielkejr.substack.com/p/fool-us-once

EXCERPTS: Yesterday’s New York Times featured an op-ed by David Wallace-Wells and Zeke Hausfather — a journalist and climate scientist respectively — both well-known for their commitments to climate advocacy. Normally, yet-another-apocalyptic-op-ed would not be worth commenting on, as they are a dime a dozen.

However, yesterday’s op-ed demonstrates how the new CMIP7 climate scenarios — discussed in detail here at THB — can be used to smuggle the implausibly extreme and retired RCP8.5 right back into discussions of climate science and policy. According to Hausfather, an IPCC AR7 lead author, the IPCC AR7 is going to adopt this strategy as well.

Misuse of RCP8.5 started early and snowballed from there, because no one corrected correctable missteps early on. We should not fall for this again.

The op-ed starts off well enough, asserting accurately: "Projected future warming has fallen quite a bit, and a worst-case emissions scenario known as “RCP8.5” - in which coal use would roughly quintuple by 2100 - is being phased out as implausible."

The op-ed then takes a sharp turn. Wallace-Wells and Hausfather claim: "A new round of forecasts from the climate science community is pretty alarming."

There are no new “forecasts” from the “climate science community.” The IPCC has always carefully explained that it does not forecast the future — appropriately so. It produces projections conditional on scenarios.

Further, the results of earth system model research with such conditional projections incorporating the new scenarios are still a ways off. An assessment of the “climate science community” will have to await the IPCC AR7. 

[...] "The high-end warming sometimes described as a 'worst-case scenario' remains very much on the table, too."

That last sentence is a not-so-subtle reference to the climate outcomes that emerged from the retired RCP8.5. How can it be that RCP8.5 is being “phased out” yet its implications remain ”very much on the table”?

Below I show how RCP8.5 is being brought right back into the discussion of climate science and policy via a Trojan Horse that carries a misuse of scenario extensions... (MORE - missing details)]]> <![CDATA[This is how they will take away your assets (Survival Lilly)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21424.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 15:33:24 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21424.html Air conditioners take off in energy-strapped Europe

SURVIVAL LILLY
https://youtu.be/mSeLZDo7ym8

VIDEO EXCERPTS: Today I was at the gas station in Austria, and believe me or not, the price is around ten dollars a gallon. This is the highest diesel price ever recorded in Austria. In Germany, it's even worse. In Germany, the diesel price in euros translates to maybe 11 USD per gallon.

So, it's really expensive. I don't know what the intention is, but this will basically destroy the entire economy here in Europe. So high gas and diesel prices will inevitably be passed on. Food prices and other goods and services. So basically this will perpetuate inflation even more.

A lot of infrastructure is getting destroyed in the wars. So, for example, this weekend, Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones. Some have been intercepted; others hit the refinery. So, now we have another refinery burning, and also there were attacks in Iran, which is going to increase the price of oil again.

I think now people are finally realizing that there's nothing ever good coming from war and that we all have to pay for it. It doesn't matter where you live in this world. ... It not only kills people and animals. It destroys houses that people have built, maybe putting their life's work into a house, and then it's getting bombed down in a day. It destroys ecosystems, forests, and everything. It puts a financial burden on everybody.

[...] The governments cannot get more taxes from industry because the economy is breaking down, so they will come for your assets. [...] Most of the really rich people already have left Germany and Austria and Europe all together. They won't stay here with their companies. They have their companies somewhere else where they are paying less taxes. So basically here they will just tax the middle class, and also with this asset registry they will take into account the specific items you own...

[...] And what can Germany learn from Poland? Well, first, with regard to migration and social unrest, Poland is super safe. People are friendly. It's still quite cheap. You have a lot of opportunities. The taxes are low. So, I'm not surprised that a lot of young people are moving to Poland....

This is how they will take away your assets ... https://youtu.be/mSeLZDo7ym8

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/mSeLZDo7ym8]]> Air conditioners take off in energy-strapped Europe

SURVIVAL LILLY
https://youtu.be/mSeLZDo7ym8

VIDEO EXCERPTS: Today I was at the gas station in Austria, and believe me or not, the price is around ten dollars a gallon. This is the highest diesel price ever recorded in Austria. In Germany, it's even worse. In Germany, the diesel price in euros translates to maybe 11 USD per gallon.

So, it's really expensive. I don't know what the intention is, but this will basically destroy the entire economy here in Europe. So high gas and diesel prices will inevitably be passed on. Food prices and other goods and services. So basically this will perpetuate inflation even more.

A lot of infrastructure is getting destroyed in the wars. So, for example, this weekend, Ukraine attacked Moscow with drones. Some have been intercepted; others hit the refinery. So, now we have another refinery burning, and also there were attacks in Iran, which is going to increase the price of oil again.

I think now people are finally realizing that there's nothing ever good coming from war and that we all have to pay for it. It doesn't matter where you live in this world. ... It not only kills people and animals. It destroys houses that people have built, maybe putting their life's work into a house, and then it's getting bombed down in a day. It destroys ecosystems, forests, and everything. It puts a financial burden on everybody.

[...] The governments cannot get more taxes from industry because the economy is breaking down, so they will come for your assets. [...] Most of the really rich people already have left Germany and Austria and Europe all together. They won't stay here with their companies. They have their companies somewhere else where they are paying less taxes. So basically here they will just tax the middle class, and also with this asset registry they will take into account the specific items you own...

[...] And what can Germany learn from Poland? Well, first, with regard to migration and social unrest, Poland is super safe. People are friendly. It's still quite cheap. You have a lot of opportunities. The taxes are low. So, I'm not surprised that a lot of young people are moving to Poland....

This is how they will take away your assets ... https://youtu.be/mSeLZDo7ym8

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/mSeLZDo7ym8]]> <![CDATA[UN delegates walk out on Netanyahoo's speech]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21423.html Fri, 25 Sep 2026 03:40:21 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21423.html
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1658269175873205]]>
https://www.facebook.com/reel/1658269175873205]]> <![CDATA[Biology might not be quantum, but its math Is quantumlike]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21422.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:24:35 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21422.html https://www.quantamagazine.org/biology-m...-20260923/

INTRO: Two decades ago, scientists seemed on the verge of understanding biology in a new, quantum way.

Life unfolds over an incomprehensible span of scales, from our planet-enveloping biosphere at one end, to individual cell-building biomolecules at the other. Even at its most microscopic, though, biology doesn’t really reach down to the quantum realm, in which particles act like waves, become entangled with one another, and exist in superpositions of multiple states at once.

But scientists in the field of quantum biology are searching for ways that organisms might be able to push quantumness into the space, time, and temperature domains relevant to life, to make use of its strange properties. In photosynthesis, for example, organisms use specialized pigments and proteins to harvest light with nearly perfect quantum efficiency; they convert almost every incoming photon into useful chemical energy.

In 2007, new evidence suggested that life might accomplish this feat by taking advantage of a quantum effect called coherence. The result buoyed the controversial idea that, despite being a warm, wet, and decidedly classical environment, a living cell could maintain — and even exploit — fragile quantum states.

Gregory Scholes, a chemist at Princeton University, was initially enthusiastic about the result. He and colleagues followed up with experiments on photosynthesizing proteins and pigments and came away with similar conclusions. But today, Scholes is skeptical that quantum effects play a role in life.

In fact, he’s convinced that the way forward for quantum biology might not be quantum at all. Rather than taking advantage of genuine quantum effects, Scholes proposes, life might be imitating them instead. In several papers published over the past three years, Scholes and colleagues have shown that complex networks of classical objects can conspire to produce phenomena that mathematically mimic quantum objects.

Don’t be fooled: The states that these networks produce are not truly quantum; they’re only “quantumlike.” They arise when many interacting, oscillating parts add up to a collective whole whose behavior obeys the same mathematics that makes predictions about the quantum world.

“Maybe quantum biology, at the biggest scales, means using 3 1/2 billion years of evolution to work out how to get the functionality that you could get from quantum systems,” Scholes said.

Researchers in the foundations of quantum mechanics have been exploring how to classically re-create certain aspects of the quantum world for decades, said Markus Müller, a physicist at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Vienna. What Scholes has done, Müller said, is show how quantumlike behavior can emerge from relatively unremarkable complex networks — of the sort that abound in nature.

“Classical systems can mimic some of the key features of quantum information,” said Sabre Kais(opens a new tab), a quantum chemist developing quantum computing algorithms for complex systems at North Carolina State University. “This is an exciting new direction.” (MORE - details)]]> https://www.quantamagazine.org/biology-m...-20260923/

INTRO: Two decades ago, scientists seemed on the verge of understanding biology in a new, quantum way.

Life unfolds over an incomprehensible span of scales, from our planet-enveloping biosphere at one end, to individual cell-building biomolecules at the other. Even at its most microscopic, though, biology doesn’t really reach down to the quantum realm, in which particles act like waves, become entangled with one another, and exist in superpositions of multiple states at once.

But scientists in the field of quantum biology are searching for ways that organisms might be able to push quantumness into the space, time, and temperature domains relevant to life, to make use of its strange properties. In photosynthesis, for example, organisms use specialized pigments and proteins to harvest light with nearly perfect quantum efficiency; they convert almost every incoming photon into useful chemical energy.

In 2007, new evidence suggested that life might accomplish this feat by taking advantage of a quantum effect called coherence. The result buoyed the controversial idea that, despite being a warm, wet, and decidedly classical environment, a living cell could maintain — and even exploit — fragile quantum states.

Gregory Scholes, a chemist at Princeton University, was initially enthusiastic about the result. He and colleagues followed up with experiments on photosynthesizing proteins and pigments and came away with similar conclusions. But today, Scholes is skeptical that quantum effects play a role in life.

In fact, he’s convinced that the way forward for quantum biology might not be quantum at all. Rather than taking advantage of genuine quantum effects, Scholes proposes, life might be imitating them instead. In several papers published over the past three years, Scholes and colleagues have shown that complex networks of classical objects can conspire to produce phenomena that mathematically mimic quantum objects.

Don’t be fooled: The states that these networks produce are not truly quantum; they’re only “quantumlike.” They arise when many interacting, oscillating parts add up to a collective whole whose behavior obeys the same mathematics that makes predictions about the quantum world.

“Maybe quantum biology, at the biggest scales, means using 3 1/2 billion years of evolution to work out how to get the functionality that you could get from quantum systems,” Scholes said.

Researchers in the foundations of quantum mechanics have been exploring how to classically re-create certain aspects of the quantum world for decades, said Markus Müller, a physicist at the Institute for Quantum Optics and Quantum Information in Vienna. What Scholes has done, Müller said, is show how quantumlike behavior can emerge from relatively unremarkable complex networks — of the sort that abound in nature.

“Classical systems can mimic some of the key features of quantum information,” said Sabre Kais(opens a new tab), a quantum chemist developing quantum computing algorithms for complex systems at North Carolina State University. “This is an exciting new direction.” (MORE - details)]]> <![CDATA[Proof that particles take all paths at once? + Physicists made light "swim" upstream]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21421.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:23:33 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21421.html Physicists made light swim upstream and broke Newton’s third law?
https://www.zmescience.com/science/physi...third-law/

INTRO: This is all covered by Isaac Newton’s third law of motion, which is one of physics’ most familiar rules: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. But physicists in China have now built a “river” out of light and watched another sliver of light move upstream without propelling itself.

The trick was to engineer a nonreciprocal interaction, in which the effective force one part of the system exerts on another is not matched by an equal-and-opposite force in return. Between the two interacting beams, in other words, the usual action–reaction symmetry breaks down.

“For me, the biggest takeaway is that active behaviour does not necessarily require an intrinsically active particle or swimmer,” Yi Hu, a physicist at Nankai University and an author of the study, told New Scientist. The researchers didn’t send photons swimming through an actual liquid. Instead, they built an optical analogue of a quantum fluid, using light propagating through a nonlinear crystal.

They sent two laser beams through the crystal. One was broad and played the role of the flowing fluid. By slightly tilting this beam, the researchers could set the direction and speed of its transverse flow. The second beam was much narrower and acted as the “swimmer.” It was shaped into a stable solitary wave and sent through the optical fluid.

Under ordinary reciprocal interactions, the experiment behaved much as intuition suggests: the flowing optical fluid carried the swimmer downstream. Then the researchers changed the way the two beams interacted.

They engineered the system so that the swimmer affected the surrounding optical fluid differently from how the fluid affected the swimmer. This kind of interaction is called nonreciprocal.

The uneven light distribution produced a force on the swimmer pointing against the direction of the flow. Instead of being swept downstream, the beam began moving upstream.

In an ordinary interaction, the forces between two objects come in equal and opposite pairs. Here, the effective forces between the swimmer and the optical fluid did not balance that way, allowing the swimmer to move against the current without supplying its own propulsion.

Intriguingly, turning everything up to maximum did not produce the strongest effect. The swimmer travelled upstream most effectively at intermediate fluid speeds and densities.

That does not mean physicists have discovered that Newton was wrong. Newton’s third law applies straightforwardly to isolated mechanical interactions. Effective forces can break action-reaction symmetry in open, nonequilibrium systems, where other parts of the environment participate in the exchange of momentum. Scientists have previously studied such nonreciprocal effective forces in plasmas, colloids and living systems... (MORE - details)

Finally: A proof that particles take all paths at once?

PRESS RELEASE: https://phys.org/news/2026-08-physicists...-path.html

SABINE HOSSENFELDER
https://youtu.be/A2ImadKWaHA

INTRO: Eighty years ago Richard Feynman said that a quantum particle takes every possible path at the same time. A team of physicists in China now says they have experimentally shown this is not just an interpretation but physical reality, and the headlines duly followed. I had a look at what they actually measured. [#9 on the BS meter]

Finally: A proof that particles take all paths at once? ... https://youtu.be/A2ImadKWaHA

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/A2ImadKWaHA]]> Physicists made light swim upstream and broke Newton’s third law?
https://www.zmescience.com/science/physi...third-law/

INTRO: This is all covered by Isaac Newton’s third law of motion, which is one of physics’ most familiar rules: for every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction. But physicists in China have now built a “river” out of light and watched another sliver of light move upstream without propelling itself.

The trick was to engineer a nonreciprocal interaction, in which the effective force one part of the system exerts on another is not matched by an equal-and-opposite force in return. Between the two interacting beams, in other words, the usual action–reaction symmetry breaks down.

“For me, the biggest takeaway is that active behaviour does not necessarily require an intrinsically active particle or swimmer,” Yi Hu, a physicist at Nankai University and an author of the study, told New Scientist. The researchers didn’t send photons swimming through an actual liquid. Instead, they built an optical analogue of a quantum fluid, using light propagating through a nonlinear crystal.

They sent two laser beams through the crystal. One was broad and played the role of the flowing fluid. By slightly tilting this beam, the researchers could set the direction and speed of its transverse flow. The second beam was much narrower and acted as the “swimmer.” It was shaped into a stable solitary wave and sent through the optical fluid.

Under ordinary reciprocal interactions, the experiment behaved much as intuition suggests: the flowing optical fluid carried the swimmer downstream. Then the researchers changed the way the two beams interacted.

They engineered the system so that the swimmer affected the surrounding optical fluid differently from how the fluid affected the swimmer. This kind of interaction is called nonreciprocal.

The uneven light distribution produced a force on the swimmer pointing against the direction of the flow. Instead of being swept downstream, the beam began moving upstream.

In an ordinary interaction, the forces between two objects come in equal and opposite pairs. Here, the effective forces between the swimmer and the optical fluid did not balance that way, allowing the swimmer to move against the current without supplying its own propulsion.

Intriguingly, turning everything up to maximum did not produce the strongest effect. The swimmer travelled upstream most effectively at intermediate fluid speeds and densities.

That does not mean physicists have discovered that Newton was wrong. Newton’s third law applies straightforwardly to isolated mechanical interactions. Effective forces can break action-reaction symmetry in open, nonequilibrium systems, where other parts of the environment participate in the exchange of momentum. Scientists have previously studied such nonreciprocal effective forces in plasmas, colloids and living systems... (MORE - details)

Finally: A proof that particles take all paths at once?

PRESS RELEASE: https://phys.org/news/2026-08-physicists...-path.html

SABINE HOSSENFELDER
https://youtu.be/A2ImadKWaHA

INTRO: Eighty years ago Richard Feynman said that a quantum particle takes every possible path at the same time. A team of physicists in China now says they have experimentally shown this is not just an interpretation but physical reality, and the headlines duly followed. I had a look at what they actually measured. [#9 on the BS meter]

Finally: A proof that particles take all paths at once? ... https://youtu.be/A2ImadKWaHA

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/A2ImadKWaHA]]> <![CDATA[Finding light’s true nature (historical investigations)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21420.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 16:22:10 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21420.html https://www.astronomy.com/science/findin...ue-nature/

INTRO: Light exhibits some of the strangest properties in our cosmos. It manifests as both a wave and a particle, and its speed in a vacuum is invariant. While physicists now fully grasp the way light interacts with the universe, this understanding has not always been so solid.

Untangling its peculiar behavior has led to the formulation — and discarding — of several bizarre theories, all of which once seemed reasonable. One such theory is that of a weightless, transparent, rigid, frictionless, and ubiquitous substance, “luminiferous ether,” which scientists thought necessary for the transmission of light waves.

To detect this elusive ether, Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley, working at what is now Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, performed a comprehensive set of experiments between April and October 1887 using an ingenious apparatus in an effort to measure the effects of Earth’s motion through this medium. But despite numerous adjustments and modifications, every attempt failed to detect any ether. With these experiments, Michelson and Morley unwittingly placed the final nail in the coffin of the widely held idea.

Today, their findings are considered possibly the most significant negative result in the history of science: By killing off the idea of the ether, their work paved the way for Albert Einstein and the ideas that would define modern physics.... (MORE - details)]]> https://www.astronomy.com/science/findin...ue-nature/

INTRO: Light exhibits some of the strangest properties in our cosmos. It manifests as both a wave and a particle, and its speed in a vacuum is invariant. While physicists now fully grasp the way light interacts with the universe, this understanding has not always been so solid.

Untangling its peculiar behavior has led to the formulation — and discarding — of several bizarre theories, all of which once seemed reasonable. One such theory is that of a weightless, transparent, rigid, frictionless, and ubiquitous substance, “luminiferous ether,” which scientists thought necessary for the transmission of light waves.

To detect this elusive ether, Albert A. Michelson and Edward W. Morley, working at what is now Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, performed a comprehensive set of experiments between April and October 1887 using an ingenious apparatus in an effort to measure the effects of Earth’s motion through this medium. But despite numerous adjustments and modifications, every attempt failed to detect any ether. With these experiments, Michelson and Morley unwittingly placed the final nail in the coffin of the widely held idea.

Today, their findings are considered possibly the most significant negative result in the history of science: By killing off the idea of the ether, their work paved the way for Albert Einstein and the ideas that would define modern physics.... (MORE - details)]]> <![CDATA[Shorter, gentler exercise programs may ease pain more than tougher workouts]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21419.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 15:58:06 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21419.html Hilarious proposal. Doctors prescribing exercise instead of meds? No kickbacks offered in that.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Shorter, gentler exercise programs may ease pain more than tougher workouts
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-s...ugher.html

EXCERPTS: "These effects help explain why exercise can be such a powerful tool for pain management. Yet despite the evidence, it isn't used as routinely as it could be and is rarely prescribed with the same precision as medication.

"Instead, people experiencing pain may be told to 'stay active,' rather than being given a specific, evidence-based exercise program that considers what type of exercise to do, how hard to work and for how long."

Researchers examined how the type, intensity and duration of exercise influenced pain relief, as well as whether the benefits differed across acute and chronic pain conditions.

"Our study found that exercise was associated with substantial reductions in acute and chronic pain across all forms of exercise—whether through aerobic or resistance exercise, or through gentler movement such as yoga, Pilates or tai chi," Singh said.

"Importantly, we found that more exercise wasn't necessarily better. In fact, shorter-duration and lower-intensity programs showed greater reductions in pain, suggesting people may not need to exercise harder or for longer to experience meaningful benefits."

Senior researcher Carol Maher of Adelaide University said clinicians should be encouraged to integrate exercise as a core component of multimodal pain care. "Health care providers need definitive guidance, not just whether exercise helps, but which exercises work for which patients, and how to prescribe them effectively," Singh said.

"These findings should provide clinicians with considerable flexibility and increased confidence to prescribe exercise as a core, scalable component of pain management across diverse conditions. "At a time when we're looking for safe and effective ways to manage pain beyond medication, these findings provide strong evidence for making exercise a more routine part of pain care." (MORE - missing details)

More young adults are having strokes than three decades ago
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1144482

HIGHLIGHTS: Stroke rates among adults ages 20 to 54 nearly doubled over a 27-year period in a large U.S. population study. The increase was driven primarily by ischemic strokes, the most common type of stroke. Researchers found rises over time in high blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation and substance use among younger adults who had strokes. While stroke became more common in younger adults, 30-day death rates after stroke declined modestly. Findings suggest a growing number of younger stroke survivors may be living with long-term disability. (MORE - no ads)]]> Hilarious proposal. Doctors prescribing exercise instead of meds? No kickbacks offered in that.
- - - - - - - - - - - - -

Shorter, gentler exercise programs may ease pain more than tougher workouts
https://medicalxpress.com/news/2026-09-s...ugher.html

EXCERPTS: "These effects help explain why exercise can be such a powerful tool for pain management. Yet despite the evidence, it isn't used as routinely as it could be and is rarely prescribed with the same precision as medication.

"Instead, people experiencing pain may be told to 'stay active,' rather than being given a specific, evidence-based exercise program that considers what type of exercise to do, how hard to work and for how long."

Researchers examined how the type, intensity and duration of exercise influenced pain relief, as well as whether the benefits differed across acute and chronic pain conditions.

"Our study found that exercise was associated with substantial reductions in acute and chronic pain across all forms of exercise—whether through aerobic or resistance exercise, or through gentler movement such as yoga, Pilates or tai chi," Singh said.

"Importantly, we found that more exercise wasn't necessarily better. In fact, shorter-duration and lower-intensity programs showed greater reductions in pain, suggesting people may not need to exercise harder or for longer to experience meaningful benefits."

Senior researcher Carol Maher of Adelaide University said clinicians should be encouraged to integrate exercise as a core component of multimodal pain care. "Health care providers need definitive guidance, not just whether exercise helps, but which exercises work for which patients, and how to prescribe them effectively," Singh said.

"These findings should provide clinicians with considerable flexibility and increased confidence to prescribe exercise as a core, scalable component of pain management across diverse conditions. "At a time when we're looking for safe and effective ways to manage pain beyond medication, these findings provide strong evidence for making exercise a more routine part of pain care." (MORE - missing details)

More young adults are having strokes than three decades ago
https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/1144482

HIGHLIGHTS: Stroke rates among adults ages 20 to 54 nearly doubled over a 27-year period in a large U.S. population study. The increase was driven primarily by ischemic strokes, the most common type of stroke. Researchers found rises over time in high blood pressure, diabetes, atrial fibrillation and substance use among younger adults who had strokes. While stroke became more common in younger adults, 30-day death rates after stroke declined modestly. Findings suggest a growing number of younger stroke survivors may be living with long-term disability. (MORE - no ads)]]> <![CDATA[EU grid power struggle: capitals push back against Brussels (electrical network)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21418.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 14:35:06 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21418.html The backward grid cannot handle all the utopian dreams that Brussels and tech companies want to burden it with. Cracks in the push to eliminate fossil fuel consumption now expose the dual agenda of this green paradise idealism serving to grant Brussels even more power over member countries. Populations are taxed to support the massive cost of upgrading the grid over ensuing decades, causing public outcry over the increasing invoice payments.
- - - - - - - - - -

EU grid power struggle: capitals push back against Brussels tariff rules
https://www.euronews.com/2026/09/24/eu-g...riff-rules

EXCERPTS: European Union governments are pushing back against a Brussels drive to reshape electricity network costs, watering down plans for coordinated tariffs as the fight over the bloc’s expensive and congested power grids becomes increasingly political. European Union governments want to weaken a proposal that would hand Brussels greater control over the bloc's power grid, preferring to retain control of how electricity networks are paid for and managed, according to a Council document seen by Euronews.

Political talks over who will pay for the modernisation of the bloc's power grid, a crucial step in meeting the EU's 2050 climate neutrality goal, are underway in Brussels just as electricity moves to the centre of the bloc’s economic strategy.

The EU wants homes and businesses to switch from fossil fuels to electricity, while manufacturers, data centres, heat pumps and electric vehicles are all expected to drive up demand. But the cost of expanding and operating energy grids is increasingly showing up in electricity bills.

Grid charges and taxes combined often outweigh the price of the electricity consumed. Network charges accounted for 27% of household electricity bills and 21% for businesses, while national taxes and levies added another 24% for households and 16% for firms, according to EU data.

Europe's rising electricity bills prompted the European Commission to propose new rules in July designed to slash energy bills amid a growing crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The Commission also introduced an electrification plan setting a 46% goal by 2040 for the Union.

The Irish Presidency — the rotating chairmanship of the Council of the European Union — is seeking to keep the Commission's broad ambition of making electricity cheaper and easier to adopt, while also giving national governments and regulators more room to decide how the rules work in practice, the document reveals.

[...] "These [countries] are showing increasing unease about ceding power to Brussels amid the second energy crisis under the presidency of Ursula Von der Leyen and repeated market shocks the European Commission appears unable to control," said Sassi.  [...] The political stakes become even clearer when it comes to new grid connections.

The EU is facing growing queues for grid access as factories, renewable projects, data centres and other electricity-intensive investments compete for limited capacity. The proposed rules would allow EU countries to establish priorities when there is not enough room on the network.

The latest compromise would strengthen the role of member states in setting the general policy direction, leaving regulators the freedom to implement the rules. A large group of countries — including Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Lithuania and Latvia — broadly support giving governments a stronger role.

They argue that deciding which projects get scarce grid capacity is not merely a technical exercise, it involves political choices about industrial competitiveness, energy security and social priorities. The Commission argues that setting technical criteria and network charges is fundamentally a regulatory task.

Denmark has recently announced an emergency grid law that gives data centres the lowest priority for grid connections, after Copenhagen was forced to stop new connections early in the year because of a surge in data centre applications.

Several EU countries fear that the rapid expansion of data centres, which Brussels aims to triple capacity for across the bloc by 2035 as part of a push to reduce reliance on Big Tech and develop Europe's own AI capabilities, could strain electricity grids and drive up domestic energy prices.]]> The backward grid cannot handle all the utopian dreams that Brussels and tech companies want to burden it with. Cracks in the push to eliminate fossil fuel consumption now expose the dual agenda of this green paradise idealism serving to grant Brussels even more power over member countries. Populations are taxed to support the massive cost of upgrading the grid over ensuing decades, causing public outcry over the increasing invoice payments.
- - - - - - - - - -

EU grid power struggle: capitals push back against Brussels tariff rules
https://www.euronews.com/2026/09/24/eu-g...riff-rules

EXCERPTS: European Union governments are pushing back against a Brussels drive to reshape electricity network costs, watering down plans for coordinated tariffs as the fight over the bloc’s expensive and congested power grids becomes increasingly political. European Union governments want to weaken a proposal that would hand Brussels greater control over the bloc's power grid, preferring to retain control of how electricity networks are paid for and managed, according to a Council document seen by Euronews.

Political talks over who will pay for the modernisation of the bloc's power grid, a crucial step in meeting the EU's 2050 climate neutrality goal, are underway in Brussels just as electricity moves to the centre of the bloc’s economic strategy.

The EU wants homes and businesses to switch from fossil fuels to electricity, while manufacturers, data centres, heat pumps and electric vehicles are all expected to drive up demand. But the cost of expanding and operating energy grids is increasingly showing up in electricity bills.

Grid charges and taxes combined often outweigh the price of the electricity consumed. Network charges accounted for 27% of household electricity bills and 21% for businesses, while national taxes and levies added another 24% for households and 16% for firms, according to EU data.

Europe's rising electricity bills prompted the European Commission to propose new rules in July designed to slash energy bills amid a growing crisis triggered by the closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The Commission also introduced an electrification plan setting a 46% goal by 2040 for the Union.

The Irish Presidency — the rotating chairmanship of the Council of the European Union — is seeking to keep the Commission's broad ambition of making electricity cheaper and easier to adopt, while also giving national governments and regulators more room to decide how the rules work in practice, the document reveals.

[...] "These [countries] are showing increasing unease about ceding power to Brussels amid the second energy crisis under the presidency of Ursula Von der Leyen and repeated market shocks the European Commission appears unable to control," said Sassi.  [...] The political stakes become even clearer when it comes to new grid connections.

The EU is facing growing queues for grid access as factories, renewable projects, data centres and other electricity-intensive investments compete for limited capacity. The proposed rules would allow EU countries to establish priorities when there is not enough room on the network.

The latest compromise would strengthen the role of member states in setting the general policy direction, leaving regulators the freedom to implement the rules. A large group of countries — including Germany, France, Spain, Portugal, Poland, Sweden, Denmark, Finland, Belgium, Lithuania and Latvia — broadly support giving governments a stronger role.

They argue that deciding which projects get scarce grid capacity is not merely a technical exercise, it involves political choices about industrial competitiveness, energy security and social priorities. The Commission argues that setting technical criteria and network charges is fundamentally a regulatory task.

Denmark has recently announced an emergency grid law that gives data centres the lowest priority for grid connections, after Copenhagen was forced to stop new connections early in the year because of a surge in data centre applications.

Several EU countries fear that the rapid expansion of data centres, which Brussels aims to triple capacity for across the bloc by 2035 as part of a push to reduce reliance on Big Tech and develop Europe's own AI capabilities, could strain electricity grids and drive up domestic energy prices.]]> <![CDATA[Trump pushes unpopular diesel ban? (fuel fashions)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21417.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 14:14:56 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21417.html Too late to save the midterms, anyway. The time to have done that was getting out of the war after the originally promised 5 or 6 weeks. Or just showing signs of any consciousness at all of November back during January to March.
- - - - - - - - - - -

'He doesn't understand': Major Texas paper tears apart Trump's plan for diesel crisis
https://www.rawstory.com/houston-diesel-...ort-paper/

INTRO: The editorial board for the Houston Chronicle raked President Donald Trump over the coals Thursday morning for his plan to ban diesel exports from the United States for three months — a plan that even some of his own advisers have warned will only make the fuel crisis even worse.

Trump's solution, wrote the board, only proves he doesn't understand how energy markets work.

"There isn’t one big, frictionless domestic oil and gas market for Trump to micromanage," wrote the board. In Houston, they continued, there is surplus production of diesel, "but infrastructure bottlenecks and regulatory barriers like the Jones Act make it difficult to easily transport it to, say, Boston and the rest of the East Coast, so we export the rest to buyers across the planet. Hang out in Galveston and you can watch those diesel-filled tankers sail across the horizon."

At the same time, the board wrote, East Coast states are reliant on importing diesel because they can't make enough to meet demand. "Banning U.S. exports would make those global prices skyrocket — sending the price at the pump along the Atlantic coast skyrocketing, too."

[...] The actual solution to the crisis, the board continued, is to end the Iran war that Trump started, which is destabilizing global energy markets in the first place.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

EU says US diesel export plan is 'bad idea' that risks hurting both sides
https://www.euronews.com/2026/09/24/eu-s...both-sides

INTRO: Brussels has pushed back against a US proposal to curb diesel exports, even as the White House insists it's aiming for targeted restrictions rather than an outright ban. The European Union has hit out at a possible US diesel export ban being considered by President Donald Trump, calling it a "bad idea" that could damage both economies.

Trump signalled support for a ban this week as surging fuel prices — driven by the war in the Middle East — threaten to cost his Republican party control of Congress in November's midterm elections. But European Commission spokesman Olof Gill said Brussels viewed the plans "with concern".

"We believe this is a bad idea," Gill told a press conference. "We believe it potentially can have a negative impact on both sides. We're making that point to our US counterparts at the highest level."

Europe has also grappled with high fuel prices since the US-Iran war began in late February, but it is far more reliant on imports than the US. The average diesel price across the EU's 27 member states hit a record €2.23 per litre, according to an AFP analysis of commission data published on Thursday. The US supplied around 50% of the bloc's diesel imports in August.

"We expect close partners to consult each other before taking measures that affect shared markets," Gill added.]]> Too late to save the midterms, anyway. The time to have done that was getting out of the war after the originally promised 5 or 6 weeks. Or just showing signs of any consciousness at all of November back during January to March.
- - - - - - - - - - -

'He doesn't understand': Major Texas paper tears apart Trump's plan for diesel crisis
https://www.rawstory.com/houston-diesel-...ort-paper/

INTRO: The editorial board for the Houston Chronicle raked President Donald Trump over the coals Thursday morning for his plan to ban diesel exports from the United States for three months — a plan that even some of his own advisers have warned will only make the fuel crisis even worse.

Trump's solution, wrote the board, only proves he doesn't understand how energy markets work.

"There isn’t one big, frictionless domestic oil and gas market for Trump to micromanage," wrote the board. In Houston, they continued, there is surplus production of diesel, "but infrastructure bottlenecks and regulatory barriers like the Jones Act make it difficult to easily transport it to, say, Boston and the rest of the East Coast, so we export the rest to buyers across the planet. Hang out in Galveston and you can watch those diesel-filled tankers sail across the horizon."

At the same time, the board wrote, East Coast states are reliant on importing diesel because they can't make enough to meet demand. "Banning U.S. exports would make those global prices skyrocket — sending the price at the pump along the Atlantic coast skyrocketing, too."

[...] The actual solution to the crisis, the board continued, is to end the Iran war that Trump started, which is destabilizing global energy markets in the first place.
- - - - - - - - - - - -

EU says US diesel export plan is 'bad idea' that risks hurting both sides
https://www.euronews.com/2026/09/24/eu-s...both-sides

INTRO: Brussels has pushed back against a US proposal to curb diesel exports, even as the White House insists it's aiming for targeted restrictions rather than an outright ban. The European Union has hit out at a possible US diesel export ban being considered by President Donald Trump, calling it a "bad idea" that could damage both economies.

Trump signalled support for a ban this week as surging fuel prices — driven by the war in the Middle East — threaten to cost his Republican party control of Congress in November's midterm elections. But European Commission spokesman Olof Gill said Brussels viewed the plans "with concern".

"We believe this is a bad idea," Gill told a press conference. "We believe it potentially can have a negative impact on both sides. We're making that point to our US counterparts at the highest level."

Europe has also grappled with high fuel prices since the US-Iran war began in late February, but it is far more reliant on imports than the US. The average diesel price across the EU's 27 member states hit a record €2.23 per litre, according to an AFP analysis of commission data published on Thursday. The US supplied around 50% of the bloc's diesel imports in August.

"We expect close partners to consult each other before taking measures that affect shared markets," Gill added.]]> <![CDATA[Medical gender reassignment does not reduce psychiatric problems]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21416.html Thu, 24 Sep 2026 00:46:57 +0000 Syne]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21416.html Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Contacted Specialised Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996-2019: A Register Study

Abstract

Aim: To examine the prevalence of severe psychiatric morbidity among gender-referred adolescents, focusing on gender differences and outcomes related to medical gender reassignment.

Methods: Finnish nationwide cohort of all under-23-year-old gender-referred individuals between 1996 and 2019 (n = 2 083) and 16 643 matched controls. Cross-tabulations with X2 statistics and Cox regression were used to analyse the data.

Results: Gender-referred adolescents showed significantly higher psychiatric morbidity than controls both before (45.7% vs. 15.0%) and ≥ 2 years after referral (61.7% vs. 14.6%). Those referred after 2010 had greater psychiatric needs than earlier cohorts, both before (47.9% vs. 15.3%) and ≥ 2 years after (61.3% vs. 14.2%) referral. Among adolescents who underwent medical gender reassignment, psychiatric morbidity increased markedly during follow-up-rising from 9.8% to 60.7% in feminising gender reassignment and from 21.6% to 54.5% in masculinising gender reassignment. After adjusting for prior psychiatric treatment, all gender-referred adolescents had similarly elevated risks of psychiatric morbidity, with hazard ratios approximately three times higher than female controls and five times higher than male controls.

Conclusion: Severe psychiatric morbidity is common among gender-referred adolescents and appears to be more prevalent in those referred after the recent surge in referrals. Psychiatric needs do not subside after medical gender reassignment.

]]> Psychiatric Morbidity Among Adolescents and Young Adults Who Contacted Specialised Gender Identity Services in Finland in 1996-2019: A Register Study

Abstract

Aim: To examine the prevalence of severe psychiatric morbidity among gender-referred adolescents, focusing on gender differences and outcomes related to medical gender reassignment.

Methods: Finnish nationwide cohort of all under-23-year-old gender-referred individuals between 1996 and 2019 (n = 2 083) and 16 643 matched controls. Cross-tabulations with X2 statistics and Cox regression were used to analyse the data.

Results: Gender-referred adolescents showed significantly higher psychiatric morbidity than controls both before (45.7% vs. 15.0%) and ≥ 2 years after referral (61.7% vs. 14.6%). Those referred after 2010 had greater psychiatric needs than earlier cohorts, both before (47.9% vs. 15.3%) and ≥ 2 years after (61.3% vs. 14.2%) referral. Among adolescents who underwent medical gender reassignment, psychiatric morbidity increased markedly during follow-up-rising from 9.8% to 60.7% in feminising gender reassignment and from 21.6% to 54.5% in masculinising gender reassignment. After adjusting for prior psychiatric treatment, all gender-referred adolescents had similarly elevated risks of psychiatric morbidity, with hazard ratios approximately three times higher than female controls and five times higher than male controls.

Conclusion: Severe psychiatric morbidity is common among gender-referred adolescents and appears to be more prevalent in those referred after the recent surge in referrals. Psychiatric needs do not subside after medical gender reassignment.

]]> <![CDATA[The strange radio signal coming from an abandoned factory (Owens brewing)]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21415.html Wed, 23 Sep 2026 20:54:53 +0000 C C]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21415.html The radio signal starts sounding substantively "ghostly" at around the fifteen-minute mark of the video and super-eerie at the sixteen-minute mark.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SIDETRACK ADVENTURES
https://youtu.be/8IB1XY29dL4

VIDEO EXCERPTS: When traveling through remote areas, you occasionally come across some strange things. North of here in the Owens Valley, there is said to be an eerie radio broadcast that can only be picked up in a small area. And to make things even stranger, the broadcast is coming from the ruins of an abandoned industrial plant. Well, today we're going to head up Highway 395 and investigate this for ourselves...

[...13:03 mark...] Okay, we are about eight miles away. First, let's tune this to 89.9 FM. All right, let's get the volume up here. I don't hear anything yet. Let's get a little bit closer, and we will try again.

Okay, we are about four miles away now, and there is a sound coming through the broadcast occasionally. Let's just listen for a second and see if we hear it again. It was really light right there, but sometimes it comes through really loud. ... Did you hear that? Sounds like a loud banging sound.

Now you can really hear it. It's starting to sound like a ghost or something now. It's getting really loud. I hope the camera mic is picking this up because this is a pretty weird radio broadcast. And in front of us right now are the ruins that this broadcast is coming from. And here we are. This was once the Bartlett railroad siding.

[...] Beginning in 2016, the studio's sonic division ... turned one of the abandoned silos on the site into a resonant chamber, where the sounds of the valley are amplified and broadcast. One of the first experiments was to treat the silo itself as an aeolian harp strung with wires along its surface. An aeolian harp is kind of a stringed instrument with no player. You stretch strings, you expose them to moving air, and the wind does the rest. And the faster the wind, the higher the pitch. But they took that idea and scaled it up to a multi-story steel silo in a valley that's known for brutal funneled wind.

So, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Factory ruins have effectively been turned into a musical instrument played by the wind currents coming off the dry lake bed. And that sound is amplified, miked, and transmitted. And not only is this sound transmitted on 89.9 FM, they also stream it online as well. And of course, the reason that we can only pick this signal up in this small area a few miles from the plant is it's a very small transmitter. It's low power.

[...] So, like I mentioned earlier, it's not much of a mystery. There's no secret government project or aliens or a lost transmitter still running on 40-year-old power. It's a dead chemical plant with strings on it. Which, honestly, I like better than it being a ghost. Because what you're actually hearing is the lake, the one Los Angeles drained a 100 years ago, still moving air across a factory that was built to mine what was left of it...

The strange radio signal coming from an abandoned factory ... https://youtu.be/8IB1XY29dL4

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8IB1XY29dL4]]> The radio signal starts sounding substantively "ghostly" at around the fifteen-minute mark of the video and super-eerie at the sixteen-minute mark.
- - - - - - - - - - - - - - -

SIDETRACK ADVENTURES
https://youtu.be/8IB1XY29dL4

VIDEO EXCERPTS: When traveling through remote areas, you occasionally come across some strange things. North of here in the Owens Valley, there is said to be an eerie radio broadcast that can only be picked up in a small area. And to make things even stranger, the broadcast is coming from the ruins of an abandoned industrial plant. Well, today we're going to head up Highway 395 and investigate this for ourselves...

[...13:03 mark...] Okay, we are about eight miles away. First, let's tune this to 89.9 FM. All right, let's get the volume up here. I don't hear anything yet. Let's get a little bit closer, and we will try again.

Okay, we are about four miles away now, and there is a sound coming through the broadcast occasionally. Let's just listen for a second and see if we hear it again. It was really light right there, but sometimes it comes through really loud. ... Did you hear that? Sounds like a loud banging sound.

Now you can really hear it. It's starting to sound like a ghost or something now. It's getting really loud. I hope the camera mic is picking this up because this is a pretty weird radio broadcast. And in front of us right now are the ruins that this broadcast is coming from. And here we are. This was once the Bartlett railroad siding.

[...] Beginning in 2016, the studio's sonic division ... turned one of the abandoned silos on the site into a resonant chamber, where the sounds of the valley are amplified and broadcast. One of the first experiments was to treat the silo itself as an aeolian harp strung with wires along its surface. An aeolian harp is kind of a stringed instrument with no player. You stretch strings, you expose them to moving air, and the wind does the rest. And the faster the wind, the higher the pitch. But they took that idea and scaled it up to a multi-story steel silo in a valley that's known for brutal funneled wind.

So, the Pittsburgh Plate Glass Factory ruins have effectively been turned into a musical instrument played by the wind currents coming off the dry lake bed. And that sound is amplified, miked, and transmitted. And not only is this sound transmitted on 89.9 FM, they also stream it online as well. And of course, the reason that we can only pick this signal up in this small area a few miles from the plant is it's a very small transmitter. It's low power.

[...] So, like I mentioned earlier, it's not much of a mystery. There's no secret government project or aliens or a lost transmitter still running on 40-year-old power. It's a dead chemical plant with strings on it. Which, honestly, I like better than it being a ghost. Because what you're actually hearing is the lake, the one Los Angeles drained a 100 years ago, still moving air across a factory that was built to mine what was left of it...

The strange radio signal coming from an abandoned factory ... https://youtu.be/8IB1XY29dL4

https://www.youtube-nocookie.com/embed/8IB1XY29dL4]]> <![CDATA[Hogsweat's delusion about military women exposed]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21414.html Wed, 23 Sep 2026 20:53:11 +0000 Magical Realist]]> https://www.scivillage.com/thread-21414.html
"For years, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that women couldn't keep up. Women "cannot physically meet the same standards as men," he wrote in his book -- and last fall he made the military's fitness test for combat troops tougher, scrapping the scoring scale for women so they'd have to clear the men's bar. Now the results are in -- and to Hegseth's likely chagrin, more than 9 in 10 female Marines have met or exceeded the new physical fitness standard. Kris Fuhr, co-founder of the Women in the Service Coalition, wasn't surprised: "The women prepare and they train and they're ready."

Hegseth manufactured a problem that didn't exist. Women in combat roles had been meeting the same standards as men all along -- he simply refused to believe it. For a decade, every woman in the infantry, artillery, or armor has had to meet the identical job requirements as the men beside her -- more than 5,000 have, and 174 have earned the Army's brutal Ranger tab under the same rules as their male peers. What Hegseth changed wasn't the combat standard. It was the annual fitness test, long graded on separate curves for men and women, which he ordered scored against the men's alone. The women are clearing that, too, at 91% -- nearly matching the men's 97%.

He has never been coy about what he thinks. "I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles," he said on a podcast weeks before his confirmation. His own military's numbers now undercut the very claim he built his case on: that women can't meet the men's standard. Undeterred in his quest to prove women inadequate, he has commissioned a formal review of women in combat that is currently ongoing -- one critics say was designed to reach its conclusion before it began, on a timeline too short to do the work honestly.

The Marine data reaffirms what women have already been proving in these roles for years: leading infantry platoons, flying combat missions, earning Ranger tabs and Green Beret qualifications that wash out most of the men who attempt them. The fitness numbers are simply the latest confirmation of what those women already knew.

"If you tell a woman what the standard is," Fuhr said, "she will do the work to not only meet it, but often exceed it."

For an inspiring children's book that gives groundbreaking women in the military, past and present, the respect they deserve, we highly recommend "Heroism Begins With Her: Inspiring Stories of Bold, Brave, and Gutsy Women in the U.S. Military" for ages 9 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/heroism-begins-with-her

For more books for young readers that honor the service of women in the military, visit our blog post "The Price of Peace: A Mighty Girl Recognizes Veterans" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12356

For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364

To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for our free email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter

To read more about female Marines and the fitness test results on the War Horse, visit https://thewarhorse.org/hegseth-marine-women-combat.../]]>
"For years, Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth has said that women couldn't keep up. Women "cannot physically meet the same standards as men," he wrote in his book -- and last fall he made the military's fitness test for combat troops tougher, scrapping the scoring scale for women so they'd have to clear the men's bar. Now the results are in -- and to Hegseth's likely chagrin, more than 9 in 10 female Marines have met or exceeded the new physical fitness standard. Kris Fuhr, co-founder of the Women in the Service Coalition, wasn't surprised: "The women prepare and they train and they're ready."

Hegseth manufactured a problem that didn't exist. Women in combat roles had been meeting the same standards as men all along -- he simply refused to believe it. For a decade, every woman in the infantry, artillery, or armor has had to meet the identical job requirements as the men beside her -- more than 5,000 have, and 174 have earned the Army's brutal Ranger tab under the same rules as their male peers. What Hegseth changed wasn't the combat standard. It was the annual fitness test, long graded on separate curves for men and women, which he ordered scored against the men's alone. The women are clearing that, too, at 91% -- nearly matching the men's 97%.

He has never been coy about what he thinks. "I'm straight up just saying we should not have women in combat roles," he said on a podcast weeks before his confirmation. His own military's numbers now undercut the very claim he built his case on: that women can't meet the men's standard. Undeterred in his quest to prove women inadequate, he has commissioned a formal review of women in combat that is currently ongoing -- one critics say was designed to reach its conclusion before it began, on a timeline too short to do the work honestly.

The Marine data reaffirms what women have already been proving in these roles for years: leading infantry platoons, flying combat missions, earning Ranger tabs and Green Beret qualifications that wash out most of the men who attempt them. The fitness numbers are simply the latest confirmation of what those women already knew.

"If you tell a woman what the standard is," Fuhr said, "she will do the work to not only meet it, but often exceed it."

For an inspiring children's book that gives groundbreaking women in the military, past and present, the respect they deserve, we highly recommend "Heroism Begins With Her: Inspiring Stories of Bold, Brave, and Gutsy Women in the U.S. Military" for ages 9 and up at https://www.amightygirl.com/heroism-begins-with-her

For more books for young readers that honor the service of women in the military, visit our blog post "The Price of Peace: A Mighty Girl Recognizes Veterans" at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=12356

For books for children and teens about the importance of standing up for truth, decency, and justice, even in dark times, visit our blog post, "Dissent Is Patriotic: 50 Books About Women Who Fought for Change," at https://www.amightygirl.com/blog?p=14364

To stay connected with A Mighty Girl, you can sign-up for our free email newsletter at https://www.amightygirl.com/forms/newsletter

To read more about female Marines and the fitness test results on the War Horse, visit https://thewarhorse.org/hegseth-marine-women-combat.../]]>