Technology

Wildlife trade increases transmission of pathogens to humans by 50%: Study: Researchers analyzed the wildlife import-export data along with a compilation of host-pathogen relationships. (Maria Mocerino, Apr 12, 2026, Interesting Engineering)

Researchers from Yale, the University of Maryland, and Idaho investigated host-pathogen relationships and found, stunningly, that wild mammals are 1.5 times more likely to share infectious agents with humans. Illegal dealings even increase these adverse interactions.

“It is important to understand that the probability of being infected by playing a piano with ivory keys or wearing fur is almost nonexistent,” explains Jérôme Gippet, first author of the study. “The problem lies at the beginning of the chain: someone had to hunt the animal, skin it, transport it…”

Belief in the lab leak is just Sinophobia.

EMPATHY IS A LIE WE TELL OURSELVES:

Inside voice: what can our thoughts reveal about the nature of consciousness?: Scientists and philosophers studying the mind have discovered how little we know about our inner experiences (Michael Pollan, 19 Feb 2026, The Guardian)

So is the effort of sampling inner experiences a game worth the candle? The half century Hurlburt has spent collecting samples of conscious experience has yielded some interesting and important findings. The first finding, to which I can personally attest, is just how little most of us know about the characteristics of our own inner experiences. “That’s probably the most important finding that I’ve got,” Hurlburt said.

Inner speech, which many of us – including many philosophers and neuroscientists – believe is the common currency of consciousness, may actually not be all that common. Hurlburt estimates that only a minority of us are “inner speakers”. So why do we think we talk to ourselves all the time? Perhaps because we have little choice but to resort to language when asked to express what we are thinking. As a result, we’re “likely to assume that’s the medium for inner thought”. We’ve also read so much about the importance of words to thinking – words written by philosophers and scientists (not to mention novelists) for whom it may well be true.

But that doesn’t make it true for everyone. Fewer than a quarter of the samples that Hurlburt has gathered report experiences of inner speech. A slightly lower percentage report either inner seeing, feeling, or sensory awareness. Still another fifth of his samples report experiences of “unsymbolised” thought – complete thoughts made up of neither words nor images.

The fact that there is so much variation from person to person in our modes of thinking is itself an important finding of descriptive experience sampling. Most of us assume that our inner lives must be substantially similar – not necessarily in content but in the form our thoughts take. Hurlburt has suggested that we fail to recognise the diversity of thinking styles because we lump them all together under that single word – thinking – and assume we mean the same thing by it, though in actuality we don’t.

ALL IN YOUR HEAD:

Dr. Sanjay Gupta explains what we do — and still don’t — know about pain (Marielle Segarra & Margaret Cirino, 4/04/26, Life kit)

In your book, you say that one of the most significant developments emerging in pain treatment is the fact that the brain is at the center of any pain experience. Can you tell us more about why that matters?

What I think has become clear — and I’m not the first person to say this — is the idea that if the brain doesn’t decide you have pain, then you don’t have pain.

The brain can also create pain where it seems like it wouldn’t exist.