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Measles cases are going up—and a federal scientist has warned that case counts have probably been underreported. Another vaccine-preventable illness, whooping cough, sees a troubling increase in cases. Ancient humans found sun-protection solutions when Earth’s magnetic poles wandered. A colossal squid has been captured on video in its natural habitat for the first time. Plus, we discuss evidence that Mars once had a carbon cycle and a planet that is orbiting a pair of brown dwarfs.

Episode Transcript: https://www.scientificamerican.com/po… reading: This Is the First Colossal Squid Filmed in the Deep Sea—And It’s a Baby! • See the first colossal squid ever cau… RFK, Jr., Is Wrong about Cause of Rising Autism Rates, Scientists Say https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar… How to Talk about Vaccines in an Era of Scientific Mistrust https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar… E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover! Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ge… And sign up for Today in Science, our daily newsletter: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ac… Science Quickly is produced by Rachel Feltman, Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Naeem Amarsy and Jeff DelViscio. This episode was hosted by Rachel Feltman. Our show is edited by Alex Sugiura with fact-checking by Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck. The theme music was composed by Dominic Smith.

Recommended reading:
This Is the First Colossal Squid Filmed in the Deep Sea—And It’s a Baby! • See the first colossal squid ever cau…
RFK, Jr., Is Wrong about Cause of Rising Autism Rates, Scientists Say https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar
How to Talk about Vaccines in an Era of Scientific Mistrust https://www.scientificamerican.com/ar

E-mail us at [email protected] if you have any questions, comments or ideas for stories we should cover!

Discover something new every day: subscribe to Scientific American: https://www.scientificamerican.com/ge

Are black holes really cosmic shredders—or are they complex quantum structures storing everything they consume? Discover the revolutionary Supermaze Hypothesis and Fuzzball Theory in this deep dive into black hole physics, quantum mechanics, and string theory. This could change everything we know about the universe!

Paper link : https://arxiv.org/abs/2312.

Chapters:
00:00 Introduction.
00:44 Inside the Supermaze – A New Perspective from String Theory.
02:42 The Fuzzball Revolution – Solving the Information Paradox.
04:43 Scientific Debate and the Road to the Theory of Everything.
06:57 Outro.
07:16 Enjoy.

MUSIC TITLE: Starlight Harmonies.

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Real-world social cognition requires processing and adapting to multiple dynamic information streams. Interpreting neural activity in such ecological conditions remains a key challenge for neuroscience. This study leverages advancements in de-noising techniques and multivariate modeling to extract interpretable EEG signals from pairs of participants (male-male, female-female, and male-female) engaged in spontaneous dyadic dance. Using multivariate temporal response functions (mTRFs), we investigated how music acoustics, self-generated kinematics, other-generated kinematics, and social coordination uniquely contributed to EEG activity. Electromyogram recordings from ocular, face, and neck muscles were also modeled to control for artifacts. The mTRFs effectively disentangled neural signals associated with four processes: (I) auditory tracking of music, (II) control of self-generated movements, (III) visual monitoring of partner movements, and (IV) visual tracking of social coordination. We show that the first three neural signals are driven by event-related potentials: the P50-N100-P200 triggered by acoustic events, the central lateralized movement-related cortical potentials triggered by movement initiation, and the occipital N170 triggered by movement observation. Notably, the (previously unknown) neural marker of social coordination encodes the spatiotemporal alignment between dancers, surpassing the encoding of self-or partner-related kinematics taken alone. This marker emerges when partners can see each other, exhibits a topographical distribution over occipital areas, and is specifically driven by movement observation rather than initiation. Using data-driven kinematic decomposition, we further show that vertical bounce movements best drive observers’ EEG activity. These findings highlight the potential of real-world neuroimaging, combined with multivariate modeling, to uncover the mechanisms underlying complex yet natural social behaviors.

Significance statement Real-world brain function involves integrating multiple information streams simultaneously. However, due to a shortfall of computational methods, laboratory-based neuroscience often examines neural processes in isolation. Using multivariate modeling of EEG data from pairs of participants freely dancing to music, we demonstrate that it is possible to tease apart physiologically established neural processes associated with music perception, motor control, and observation of a partner’s movement. Crucially, we identify a previously unknown neural marker of social coordination that encodes the spatiotemporal alignment between dancers, beyond self-or partner-related kinematics alone. These findings highlight the potential of computational neuroscience to uncover the biological mechanisms underlying real-world social and motor behaviors, advancing our understanding of how the brain supports dynamic and interactive activities.

In a future of limitless resources, what challenges remain when scarcity fades but human desires endure? Join us as we explore the path to post-scarcity civilizations, where technology solves material needs—but purpose, meaning, and new challenges await.

Watch my exclusive video Post-Consciousness Civilizations: https://nebula.tv/videos/isaacarthur–… Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Get a Lifetime Membership to Nebula for only $300: https://go.nebula.tv/lifetime?ref=isa… Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30. Visit our Website: http://www.isaacarthur.net Join Nebula: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur Support us on Patreon: / isaacarthur Support us on Subscribestar: https://www.subscribestar.com/isaac-a… Facebook Group: / 1,583,992,725,237,264 Reddit: / isaacarthur Twitter: / isaac_a_arthur on Twitter and RT our future content. SFIA Discord Server: / discord Credits: Post-Scarcity Civilizations: Infinite Resources & Our Future Episode 495; April 17, 2025 Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur Edited by: Donagh Broderick Graphics: Jeremy Jozwik, Ken York YD Visual Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator Markus Junnikkala, “A Fleet Behind the Moon” Phase Shift, “Forest Night” Kai Engel, “Endless Story About Sun and Moon” Chris Zabriskie, “Unfoldment, Revealment”, “A New Day in a New Sector” Taras Harkavyi, “Alpha and…” Stellardrone, “Red Giant”, “Billions and Billions“
Get Nebula using my link for 40% off an annual subscription: https://go.nebula.tv/isaacarthur.
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Use the link gift.nebula.tv/isaacarthur to give a year of Nebula to a friend for just $30.

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Credits:
Post-Scarcity Civilizations: Infinite Resources & Our Future.
Episode 495; April 17, 2025
Written, Produced & Narrated by: Isaac Arthur.
Edited by: Donagh Broderick.
Graphics: Jeremy Jozwik, Ken York YD Visual.
Select imagery/video supplied by Getty Images.
Music Courtesy of Epidemic Sound http://epidemicsound.com/creator.
Markus Junnikkala, \

American composer Alvin Lucier was well-known for his experimental works that tested the boundaries of music and art. A longtime professor at Wesleyan University (before retiring in 2011), Alvin passed away in 2021 at the age of 90. However, that wasn’t the end of his lifelong musical odyssey.

Earlier this month, at the Art Gallery of Western Australia, a new art installation titled Revivification used Lucier’s “brain matter”—hooked up to an electrode mesh connected to twenty large brass plates—to create electrical signals that triggered a mallet to strike the varying plates, creating a kind of post-mortem musical piece. Conceptualized in collaboration with Lucier himself before his death, the artists solicited the help of researchers from Harvard Medical School, who grew a mini-brain from Lucier’s white blood cells. The team created stem cells from these white blood cells, and due to their pluripotency, the cells developed into cerebral organoids somewhat similar to developing human brains.

Physicist Dr. Lídia Del Rio, Essentia Foundation’s Research Fellow for Quantum Information Theory at the University of Zürich, explains to Hans Busstra one of the strangest quantum conundra confronting the foundations of physics: the Frauchiger-Renner (FR) thought experiment.

Scientific papers discussed in this video:

Quantum theory cannot consistently describe the use of itself.
Daniela Frauchiger & Renato Renner: https://www.nature.com/articles/s4146… experiments in a quantum computer, Nuriya Nurgalieva, Simon Mathis, Lídia del Rio, Renato Renner: https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.06236 Other interesting links related to the video: Quantum ‘thought experiment software’ https://github.com/XuemeiGu/Quanundrum Great Quantum artwork by Nuriya Nurgalieva: https://www.theoryverse.com/art Part One: Modelling Observers 00:00 Introduction 04:13 The object-subject divide in quantum mechanics 07:58 How would you explain the Wigner’s Friend thought experiment? 09:40 Observations are not facts 12:16 Is collapse relative? 14:11 Losing information = measurement 15:38 How do you model the agent in quantum mechanics? 17:54 What is reversibility in QM? Part Two: Explaining the Frauchiger-Renner Thought Experiment 22:14 Lídia explains Maxwell’s Demon and how the demon can be modelled 29:28 Formatting the ‘hard drive’ of the demon equals the energy gained 31:20 Lídia explains the Frauchiger-Renner thought experiment 41:51 The quantum circuit of the FR experiment 50:31 Where the experiment gets really weird 54:52 How to make sense of the weirdness? Part Three: The Implications and Meaning of the FR Experiment 1:03:59 What assumptions CANNOT all be true? 1:07:47 Critique from the physics community on the FR experiment 1:13:30 The philosophical implications of the FR experiment 1:16:04 Agreeing or disagreeing on Heisenberg cuts 1:17:27 Quanundrum software to test thought experiments 1:20:14 (No title – you might want to add something here) 1:23:16 Does the FR experiment “favor” a many-worlds interpretation, or does it require an epistemic approach? 1:25:04 Every theory, at some point, breaks 1:26:57 On the (in)completeness of quantum theory 1:29:35 What the FR experiment could mean for quantum computers… 1:32:06 What makes the FR experiment REALLY strange? 1:35:31 You cannot have an outside view AND know what’s going on inside… 1:36:01 What does it mean philosophically? 1:40:16 What if objective collapse or many-worlds is true? 1:43:20 Do you believe in free will? 1:45:54 Lídia does believe in an objective world… 1:47:15 What would a world weirder than quantum mechanics look like? 1:52:37 Where does thinking about “different” universes become relevant for physics? 1:55:51 On What the Bleep Do We Know, quantum woo, and the real meaning of quantum mechanics… 1:57:52 Nature doesn’t care about our Heisenberg cut… 1:59:33 Quantum mechanics and non-dualism 2:02:04 Physicists should be aware of their own faiths, religion, and mortality… 2:04:06 On the nature of the self, and how Lídia’s work has informed her outlook on life 2:09:31 Final words Sesame Street Russian Dolls video, under fair use: • Sesame Street Matryoshka Doll 10 All music licensed under Storyblocks and Soundstripe All stock footage licensed under Storyblocks Interview content copyright by Essentia Foundation, 2025 www.essentiafoundation.org.

Thought experiments in a quantum computer.
Nuriya Nurgalieva, Simon Mathis, Lídia del Rio, Renato Renner:
https://arxiv.org/abs/2209.

Other interesting links related to the video:

Quantum ‘thought experiment software’