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Is materialism holding science back? | Adam Frank, Lisa Feldman Barrett, Michael Levin

Lisa Feldman Barrett, Michael Levin and Adam Frank discuss whether science should abandon its materialist framework.

Could a different metaphysics help science to progress further?

With a free trial, you can watch the full debate NOW at https://iai.tv/video/science-beyond-t… centuries, we’ve assumed that science has banished the transcendent and established that reality is entirely physical. But critics argue there are signs that a rigorous materialism might be holding science back. Increasingly, “emergence” is used to account for everything from consciousness to spacetime – a convenient placeholder for what materialist science may be unable to explain. Physicists like Heisenberg and Hawking concluded that science gives us models of reality, rather than final descriptions of its true nature, while there are scientists working in everything from biology to computer science who suggest that dualism is a productive metaphysical framework for their research. Materialism may have enabled science to reach beyond the dogmas of religion, but there are now those who are restlessly probing the limits of materialism itself. Does science need to assume a materialist account of the world or might this have fundamental limitations? Could a different metaphysics help science make progress on key questions, from the origin of life to the mysteries of quantum gravity? Or would abandoning materialism risk returning us to the myths of superstition and religion? #science #materialism #metaphysics Lisa Feldman Barrett is among the most cited scientists in the world for her research on the psychology and neuroscience of emotions. Adam Frank is an astrophysicist who explores the origins of stars, civilizations and consciousness, and is a leading figure in astrobiology and the search for alien life. Michael Levin is a synthetic biologist whose pioneering work in regenerative biology involves building biological robots to probe the nature of life, intelligence and evolution. Güneş Taylor hosts. The Institute of Art and Ideas features videos and articles from cutting edge thinkers discussing the ideas that are shaping the world, from metaphysics to string theory, technology to democracy, aesthetics to genetics. Subscribe today! https://iai.tv/subscribe?utm_source=Y… 0:00 Intro 1:34 Science cannot reveal objective reality 5:28 — History shows that materialism is one of many philosophies of science 8:59 There are some mathematical facts which are discovered, not chosen 12:14 Does materialism prevent mythical and superstitious views of reality? 14:56 There is no 3rd person view of the universe 18:05 Is science truly reproducible? For debates and talks: https://iai.tv For articles: https://iai.tv/articles For courses: https://iai.tv/iai-academy/courses.

For centuries, we’ve assumed that science has banished the transcendent and established that reality is entirely physical. But critics argue there are signs that a rigorous materialism might be holding science back. Increasingly, “emergence” is used to account for everything from consciousness to spacetime – a convenient placeholder for what materialist science may be unable to explain. Physicists like Heisenberg and Hawking concluded that science gives us models of reality, rather than final descriptions of its true nature, while there are scientists working in everything from biology to computer science who suggest that dualism is a productive metaphysical framework for their research. Materialism may have enabled science to reach beyond the dogmas of religion, but there are now those who are restlessly probing the limits of materialism itself.

Does science need to assume a materialist account of the world or might this have fundamental limitations? Could a different metaphysics help science make progress on key questions, from the origin of life to the mysteries of quantum gravity? Or would abandoning materialism risk returning us to the myths of superstition and religion?

#science #materialism #metaphysics.

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Alien AI And The Von Neumann Data Collector

An exploration of human AI versus alien AI and the idea of a galaxy wide data collection network operating at light speed to transfer information on the biology within it.

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A global screen for magnetically induced neuronal activity in the pigeon brain

What if every scientific paper you read was just the “highlight reel” of a much longer, messier, and more complicated movie? You see the breakthrough, but you never see the hundreds of hours of footage showing what didn’t work.

Ultimately, the ARA marks a shift toward a future where “The Last Human-Written Paper” isn’t the end of science, but the beginning of a much deeper, machine-readable conversation.

However, this shift toward radical transparency comes with its own set of hurdles. While ARAs make AI agents more efficient, the study found a “prior-run box” effect where seeing a human’s past failures actually limited an AI’s ability to think outside the box and find creative new solutions. There is also a significant cultural and technical gap to bridge: the system relies on researchers being willing to expose their “messy” unfinished work, and even with better data, the jump in actual experiment reproduction was relatively modest. Furthermore, the reliance on “compilers” to translate old papers into this new format risks baking in errors or “hallucinations” if the original source was vague, proving that while machine-readable data is powerful, it isn’t a magic fix for the inherent complexities of scientific discovery.

How animals detect Earth’s magnetic field remains a mystery in sensory biology. Despite extensive behavioral evidence, the neural circuitry and molecular mechanisms responsible for magnetic sensing remain elusive. Adopting an unbiased approach, we used whole-brain activity mapping, tissue clearing, and light sheet microscopy to identify neuronal populations activated by magnetic stimuli in the pigeon (Columba livia). We demonstrate robust, light-independent bilateral neuronal activation in the medial vestibular nuclei and the caudal mesopallium. Single-cell RNA sequencing of the semicircular canal cristae revealed specialized type II hair cells that express the molecular machinery necessary for the detection of magnetic stimuli by electromagnetic induction.

Gleaning Information from Noise

Researchers derive a universal limit linking noise and response to perturbations in systems far from equilibrium.

Noise comes in many forms. A microscopic bead twitches in an optical trap; voltage fluctuations flicker through a circuit. But it’s not only a nuisance. Since 1966, physicists have understood that for systems in thermal equilibrium, such randomness also gives valuable information: Spontaneous fluctuations and the system’s response to external perturbations are locked together, frequency by frequency, according to the so-called fluctuation–dissipation theorem (FDT) [1]. That link is the basis of noise-based thermometry, microrheology, and many calibration methods. But thermal equilibrium is rare in the real world. Rather, most physical and biological systems are driven by an external force, fed, or alive, with energy continually flowing through them.

Written in the eye: How the retina’s biological age could help predict osteoporosis risk

Eyes, the high-resolution biological devices that help us visualize the outside world, are now being used as a portal to assess our internal health. Scientists have found that a closer evaluation of how one’s retina is aging can provide crucial hints about bone health, especially in conditions such as osteoporosis, which makes bones weaker and more prone to fractures.

A recent study conducted in Singapore and the UK collected over 45,000 retinal images and used an artificial intelligence (AI) tool called RetiAGE to estimate a person’s retinal biological age. When researchers compared retinal age with bone mineral density, they found an inverse relationship between the two.

Among participants in Singapore, people with older-looking retinas tended to have lower bone mineral density and higher fracture risk scores. Meanwhile, the UK-based cohort, where participants were studied for over a decade, revealed that a higher retinal biological age at the start of the study was a predictor for a greater chance of developing osteoporosis by the end of it.

The structure of water: Entropy determines whether ions stick

Water molecules do not simply swirl around in complete disorder; they can form certain preferred structures. This scientific fact is often presented in entirely unscientific ways. For example, when people speak of an alleged “memory of water” or of “water clusters” as a possible explanation for homeopathy, among other things.

All of this has been refuted. But even though water is not a magical information storage medium, its ability to form short-lived structures can have important consequences. This has now been shown in a study by TU Wien, in collaboration with the University of Vienna and the University of Oslo, as part of the Cluster of Excellence “MECS.” The team investigated how easily charged particles can be held at a surface—a question that is important in many areas, such as research on batteries, fuel cells, and biological membranes. The new results show that this can only be understood if one takes into account the structures that water forms on nanosecond timescales.

The research is published in the journal Science Advances.

Science beyond the physical

For centuries, we’ve assumed that science has banished the transcendent and established that reality is entirely physical. But critics argue there are signs that a rigorous materialism might be holding science back. Increasingly, “emergence” is used to account for everything from consciousness to spacetime – a convenient placeholder for what materialist science may be unable to explain. Physicists like Heisenberg and Hawking concluded that science gives us models of reality, rather than final descriptions of its true nature, while there are scientists working in everything from biology to computer science who suggest that dualism is a productive metaphysical framework for their research. Materialism may have enabled science to reach beyond the dogmas of religion, but there are now those who are restlessly probing the limits of materialism itself.

A potassium-gated ion channel identified!

Potassium ions (K⁺) are essential for all cells and living organisms. Scientists have long believed that K⁺ merely passes through ion channels and transporters, rather than acting as an extracellular ligand or molecular “switch.” Indeed, there had been no clear evidence that K⁺ functions as a ligand for membrane proteins in animals or plants—until now.

“Unexpectedly, we made this discovery serendipitously while testing the effect of aspartic acid, with K⁺ added as a counter cation, on Alka, an ion channel located in the brain of Drosophila melanogaster,” said the author. “The compound was effective. At first, we thought the effect was due to aspartic acid, but we ultimately realized that it was caused by K⁺, meaning that Alka functions as a membrane receptor that detects extracellular K⁺ as a ligand.”

Ion channel currents in Alka-expressing cells changed significantly in response to K⁺ levels. The researchers combined electrophysiological analysis with AlphaFold3, an AI-based protein structure prediction tool. This allowed them to identify the K⁺-binding site in Alka. This site creates a chemical environment favorable for K⁺, similar to that found in aqueous solution or in the well-known selectivity filter of K⁺ channels.

Closing the gap between animal movement and robotic control

Animals move with a level of precision and adaptability that robots struggle to match. In Carnegie Mellon University’s Department of Mechanical Engineering, researchers are developing a new AI-driven approach to uncover how brains and bodies work together. By turning complex biological systems into models that can be tested and refined, the team seeks to understand and replicate animal performance in robotic systems.

One focus of The Biohybrid and Organic Robotics Lab are neuromechanical models that simulate how neural signals and physical movement continuously inform one another. These models are powerful, but difficult to build because, with countless parameters, even the smallest miscalculation can lead to large gaps between simulated behavior and what researchers observe in real animals.

“Biological systems are incredibly complex,” said Camila Fernandez, Ph.D. Candidate in the department of mechanical engineering. “We’re trying to model something where everything affects everything, and it’s not always clear which piece we need to adjust when outcomes don’t match predictions.”

Roles of lysosomal small-molecule transporters in metabolism and signaling

Small-molecule transporters of the lysosomal membrane export lysosomal catabolites for reuse in cell metabolism.

These transporters often show substrate promiscuity and, conversely, a given metabolite is often exported through distinct transport routes and sometimes in different states (e.g., single amino acids versus dipeptides).

Some lysosomal transporters import metabolites into the lumen. The combination of importers and exporters can create small-molecule shuttles across the lysosomal membrane, which regulate the lumen state.

Some lysosomal transporters participate in intracellular signaling cascades. sciencenewshighlights ScienceMission https://sciencemission.com/lysosomal-small-molecule-transporters

Lysosomes degrade damaged or unwanted cell/tissue components and recycle their building blocks through small-molecule transporters of the lysosomal membrane. They also act as signaling hubs that sense and signal internal cues, such as amino acids, to coordinate cell responses. Recently, the activity of several lysosomal metabolite transporters has been elucidated, bringing new insights into lysosomal functions. Cell biological and structural studies of lysosomal transporters have also highlighted their roles in recruiting signaling complexes to lysosomes and delineated how their substrates gate such hybrid transporter/receptor, or ‘transceptor’, function.

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