It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
Thursday, June 04, 2026
Mathematical modeling of the human psychedelic experience
Mathematical Modeling of the Human Psychedelic Experience
Subtitle
A new collaboration, publication, and conversation illuminate how a new theory of reality based on consciousness will enable scientific study of the human psychedelic experience.
Main Text
Psychedelic drug experiences are among the most fascinating but mysterious journeys of the human mind. Long the domain of indigenous shamans and modern "psychonauts" who seek self-discovery, the sensory rich experiences often include kaleidoscopic geometries and intelligent entities that defy description - until now. A new research collaboration and scientific preprint between two frontier research organizations, the Trace Institute and Noonautics, respectively, detail a plan to study the mathematical architecture of human experience based on the psychedelic compound N,N-dimethyl tryptamine (DMT).
Noonautics, led by the psychedelic researcher, neurobiologist Dr. Andrew Gallimore, will use their extended state DMTx protocol - which can extend DMT experiences from a few minutes to hours - to send trained scientists and other experts into the DMT space to make precise observations and conduct experiments. Trace Institute Founder and Scientific Director, Professor Emeritus Donald Hoffman, and colleagues will deploy their arsenal of mathematical models, including a new version of the trace logic for conscious observers, to develop a quantitative framework to interpret the rich details of the DMT experience.
The collaboration will combine a theoretical basis for the psychedelic experience with human experiments to test predictions of the models for an empirical understanding of altered states of consciousness. The two scientific leaders will have a conversation about their research, and its background and implications for a new science of reality, on Saturday, June 13, 2026, at the Lighthouse, an applications-only creative campus at the historic Venice Beach Post Office, with plans for video releases to the public on YouTube.
The project, Hoffman says, "will provide a new framework for exploring the effects of psychoactive substances such as DMT on the structure and function of spacetime." Adds Gallimore, "With a theoretical foundation for the highly unusual state of consciousness induced by DMT, we can test these theories experimentally." Reflecting forward, Gallimore says, "This collaboration is a first step to a mathematics of altered states of consciousness and, ultimately, for engineering our perceptual interface to expand our view of reality."
Preprint Paper Link
Gallimore, A.R., Hoffman, D.D., Hermansson, N., Traces of the Other - Are DMT Entities Real? DMT Phenomenology in the Framework of Conscious Realism. PsyArXiv, DOI: https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/8qvgy_v2
Noonautics is a 501(c)(3) non-profit research organization supporting public-facing research into the structure of the mind and the nature of non-ordinary experience. Director Andrew R. Gallimore is a pioneer of DMT research and co-inventor of the DMT extended state pharmacokinetic model, termed DMTx, with Dr. Rick Strassman. He is based at the Okinawa Institute of Science & Technology.
Website
https://noonautics.org
Contact
press@noonautics.org
Trace Institute
The Trace Institute is a non-profit research organization with a mission to build a science of reality based on mathematical modeling of conscious observers. Founder and Scientific Director Donald D. Hoffman is Professor Emeritus at the University of California-Irvine, who developed the interface theory of perception, conscious agent theory, and the trace logic of conscious realism, among the first unified, observer-centered models of nature.
Demonstrator of a bidirectional single-phase 3-kW DC charger with GaN power electronics. Researchers at Fraunhofer IAF developed the power electronics module (top) using gallium nitride (GaN) power semiconductors and alternative insulating substrates. The demonstrator was built and the module integrated by GaN4EmoBiL project partner Ambibox GmbH.
Researchers at the Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF have developed a gallium nitride-(GaN-)based power electronics module for 800 V bidirectional direct current (DC) charging systems. The module is part of the GaN4EmoBiL project (“GaN Power Semiconductors for Electric Mobility and System Integration via Bidirectional Charging”) funded by the Federal Ministry for Economic Affairs and Energy (BMWE). Project partner Ambibox GmbH integrated the module into the demonstrator of a bidirectional, single-phase off-board charger for electric vehicles (EV).
The Fraunhofer IAF module uses 1200 V GaN devices fabricated on an insulating substrate. The superior properties of the devices are to be evaluated through their use in the demonstrator with battery voltages ranging from 150 V to a maximum of 920 V. The successful development underscores the enormous potential that GaN-based power electronics hold for the future of electric mobility.
Bidirectional, single-phase 800-V DC charger for 3 kW power
“The single-phase demonstrator of an off-board EV charger with up to 3 kW of bidirectional power addresses an existing gap in the trade-off between cost, flexibility, efficiency, and compactness for bidirectional charging,” explains Jun.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Mönch, coordinator of the GaN4EmoBiL project. Currently, electric vehicles are equipped with permanently installed on-board chargers to convert the alternating current (AC) from a household outlet or public charging station into the direct current (DC) required by the electric car, for example, at a power level of 11 or 22 kW for fast charging.
However, on-board chargers incur high costs due to their size, weight, and technical complexity. The off-board charger developed in GaN4EmoBiL represents a significantly more affordable and flexible alternative: Although its 3 kW power output results in a slower charging speed compared to on-board charging systems, it is mobile, much more compact, lighter, and versatile thanks to its CCS (Combined Charging System) plug and Schuko plug. The demonstrator has a total volume of 8.3 liters and a total weight (including plugs) of 5.7 kg.
Another advantage is its bidirectional charging capability. “Bidirectional charging at high reverse voltages, as enabled by the demonstrated GaN charging system, is a key pillar in making the energy system more flexible,” emphasizes Achim Lösch, Business Developer for High-Frequency and Power Electronics at Fraunhofer IAF. Through bidirectional charging, an electric car can function not only as a means of transportation but also as an energy storage device. During periods of oversupply, it draws power from the grid; during peak loads, it feeds power back into the grid.
GaN power Electronics for energy technology: Fraunhofer IAF at PCIM Expo & Conference 2026
“At Fraunhofer IAF, we are developing innovative GaN devices and integrated power circuits (GaN power ICs) that are not only efficient but also significantly advance miniaturization at the system level through functional integration,” explains Dr. Michael Basler, researcher in the field of GaN power electronics at Fraunhofer IAF. “At the same time, we are advancing the scalability of these technologies in terms of voltage class, current carrying capacity, and wafer size. Our goal: wide-bandgap performance at silicon prices.”
Fraunhofer IAF will provide an overview of its research and development activities in the field of GaN power electronics at this year’s PCIM Expo & Conference, which takes place from June 9 to 11, 2026, in Nuremberg and focuses on the topic “Power Electronics for Energy Technology” in 2026. At the exhibition, Fraunhofer IAF will showcase various GaN-based power electronic components and modules at Booth 260 in Hall 6—with the highlight being the bidirectional EV charging system demonstrator. During the conference, four researchers from Fraunhofer IAF will present their current work in lectures and poster sessions.
Of particular note is the keynote presentation by Dr. Michael Basler on June 9 at 9:45 a.m.: “The GaN Evolution: Lateral, Vertical, and Bidirectional – What’s Next?” This year, the presentation will open the PCIM Conference. In it, Basler will provide an overview of the development of GaN transistors for power electronics to date, explain their advantages, and look ahead to upcoming innovations.
Dr. Richard Reiner will give two presentations: On June 9 at 11:40 a.m., he will compare two different concepts for GaN devices (“GaN-HEMTs vs. GaN-‘Bricks’”), and on June 10 at 10:25 a.m., Reiner will speak on the Technology Stage about “Scaling Up the Power of GaN Technologies”. In addition, Reiner will participate in the panel discussion “What’s up, What’s Next for GaN?” hosted by Bodo’s Power Systems on June 11 at 11:45 a.m.
Jun.-Prof. Dr. Stefan Mönch will participate in the “Advanced Power Devices” poster session on June 10 between 12:45 p.m. and 2:15 p.m. in Hall 4A. He will present his poster “A 600 V Three-Phase Inverter as GaN Power Converter IC on Substrate Biasing-Free Isolating Substrate.” Daniel Fugmann will present his poster “The Influence of Field Plates on the Dynamic RON in GaN-Based Monolithic Bidirectional Switches” at the poster session “GaN Devices and Driving,” which will take place on June 10 between 3:30 p.m. and 5:00 p.m. in Hall 4A.
GaN Power Electronics for the All-Electric Society
One of the key technological requirements of the All-Electric Society is the continuous development of increasingly powerful and efficient power electronics—particularly in energy conversion and storage systems. In these applications, power electronic components represent a bottleneck: The maximum voltage a converter can handle is typically determined by the breakdown voltage of the semiconductors used, thereby defining a critical system limit. Accordingly, the performance of these components is decisive for the performance of the entire system.
Due to its physical properties, GaN enables significant advances in power electronics for energy conversion applications. GaN-based components enable the development of faster, more compact, and more efficient systems. In the field of electromobility, GaN opens the door to the use of power electronics in voltage classes up to 1200 V and, in the future, up to 1700 V, thanks to its combination of performance, efficiency, and reduced costs.
Such high-performance systems have a positive impact on both the range of electric vehicles and their cost-effectiveness. They help to further establish electric mobility across broader segment of society.
About the GaN4EmoBiL Project
The goal of the GaN4EmoBiL consortium is to demonstrate an intelligent and cost-effective bidirectional charging system using new semiconductor, component, and system technologies. To this end, the project partners are researching new semiconductor devices (GaN high-voltage transistors on cost-effective alternative substrates), component concepts (bidirectional blocking power switches), and new system components (on- and off-board AC and DC chargers), including their reliability for significantly extended operating durations.
Demonstrators are intended to address the remaining research and development gap that currently exists in the tension between cost, efficiency, compactness, functionality, power class, and voltage class (800 V batteries). In this way, GaN4EmoBiL makes an important contribution to large-scale bidirectional system integration in electric mobility.
The GaN4EmoBiL project is funded by BMWE as part of the “Elektro-Mobil” program.
About Fraunhofer IAF
The Fraunhofer Institute for Applied Solid State Physics IAF is one of the world’s leading research institutions in the fields of III-V semiconductors and synthetic diamond. Based on these materials, Fraunhofer IAF develops components for future-oriented technologies, such as electronic circuits for innovative communication and mobility solutions, laser systems for real-time spectroscopy, novel hardware components for quantum computing as well as quantum sensors for industrial applications. With its research and development, the Freiburg research institute covers the entire value chain — from materials research, design and processing to modules, systems and demonstrators. https://www.iaf.fraunhofer.de/en.html
Close-up of the power module developed and manufactured at Fraunhofer IAF, featuring 1200-V-class GaN transistors on an insulating substrate for use in bidirectional DC charging systems
A new international study is challenging a long-held belief about how ecosystems continue absorbing carbon under global warming. Scientists found that carbon uptake increased during recent decades, but not primarily due to plants adapting to higher temperatures, as previously thought. Instead, the increase is largely driven by plants using water more efficiently while at the same time developing larger tree and crop canopies giving plants more leaf area to absorb light and fix carbon. These factors appear to matter much more than temperature adaptation to determine how much carbon dioxide ecosystems can absorb in a warming world.
An international team of scientists has discovered that plants are not responding to global warming in the way researchers long assumed. Scientists have expected that ecosystems would keep pace with warming by rising the temperature at which photosynthesis works best. A new study published in the Cell Press journal One Earth is challenging that theory. The study reveals that land ecosystems absorbed more carbon dioxide in recent decades, but that the increase in carbon uptake was caused primarily by improved water use and greater canopies, and less by increasing the temperature optimum for photosynthesis. The findings mark a fundamental shift in how researchers view the carbon cycle. They suggest that future climate models must look beyond temperature alone to forecast how much carbon dioxide ecosystems can remove from the atmosphere to reduce climate change.
The research was led by Prof. José M. Grünzweig and Dr. Chongyang Xu of the Robert H. Smith Institute of Plant Sciences and Genetics in Agriculture at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, in collaboration with Prof. Hongyan Liu of Peking University and Prof. Dan Yakir of the Weizmann Institute of Science and other colleagues.
Land ecosystems are one of Earth's most important natural defenses against climate change, absorbing roughly a quarter of the carbon dioxide released by human activities each year. By removing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere, plants help slow global warming. Understanding what controls this natural carbon storage and how it continues in a warming world is therefore essential for predicting future atmospheric carbon dioxide levels and the pace of climate change.
For years, scientists believed that persisting increase in carbon uptake by ecosystems at the same time as the globe is warming would be possible only when plants adapt to rising temperatures by shifting the temperature at which photosynthesis works best. If this were the main way plants responded to climate change, the optimal temperature of photosynthesis would be expected to rise as the planet warms.
To investigate the ecosystem carbon uptake and the optimal temperature, the researchers combined two decades of global observations from ground-based carbon measurements and satellite observations between 2000 and 2019.
What the researchers found was a striking mismatch. While ecosystems around the world increased their maximum rates of carbon uptake by photosynthesis over the past two decades, the temperature at which photosynthesis works best remained largely unchanged, particularly in arid and cold regions.
The study found that the rise in the optimal temperature of photosynthesis accounted for less than 20% of the global increase in maximum carbon uptake. Instead, plants grew more leaves and used water more efficiently by absorbing more carbon dioxide for every drop of water they spent. The higher efficiency of water use was the dominant factor even in humid environments, such as tropical, temperate and cold regions. The researchers also found that drier air and soils further reduced the importance of temperature adaptation, highlighting canopy growth as a key factor shaping how ecosystems respond to climate change.
"These findings make it clear that we cannot predict future carbon storage by looking at temperature responses alone," said Prof. Grünzweig. “Our study shows that water plays a much bigger role than previously recognized. Understanding how plants use water and build their canopy will be critical for predicting the future of Earth's natural carbon dioxide absorption.”
In addition, understanding why arid regions continued to increase their carbon uptake under global warming is critical for evaluating the global carbon storage potential. “Our findings were surprising,” Dr. Xu said. “Although arid regions showed little evidence of adapting to rising temperatures, their carbon uptake continued to increase over the past two decades. We found that this increase was mainly due to canopy expansion, with ecological restoration programs contributing substantially in some areas.”
As temperatures rise and droughts become more common, the study points to a new direction for climate science: understanding how plants manage water and expand their canopies will be critical to predicting the future of Earth's natural carbon uptake. The findings could help scientists build more accurate climate models and better forecast the planet's carbon balance in a warming world.
Photosynthetic Optimum Temperature Plays a Minor Role in the Recent Increase of Terrestrial Carbon Uptake (2000–2019)
Why ‘charming’ matters: Study reveals the power of puffery
New University of Missouri research shows that vague, feel good language long dismissed by marketers and the law can meaningfully influence consumer behavior
Big brands have built empires on slogans, declaring themselves the best among their competitors.
These claims — glowing, subjective and impossible to verify — fall under what marketers call puffery. For decades, they’ve been treated as harmless fluff, waved through the court system on the assumption that consumers tune them out.
New research from the University of Missouri suggests otherwise.
A study by Michael Thomas, an assistant professor of marketing in Mizzou’s Robert J. Trulaske, Sr. College of Business, finds that puffery can meaningfully shape consumer behavior, even when it comes from unknown sellers with no brand reputation to lean on.
“Courts assume reasonable consumers ignore this kind of language,” Thomas said. “But when we looked at real decisions involving real money, we saw that these words were quietly doing a lot of work.”
A rare chance to isolate language
Testing the impact of puffery has long been a problem for researchers. In traditional advertising, slogans rarely change, and they’re often inseparable from the brands behind them. When a tagline sticks for decades, it becomes nearly impossible to tell whether it’s influencing consumers or simply riding on reputation built over generations.
Airbnb — a U.S. company operating an online marketplace for short-term rentals — offered a way around that.
Unlike legacy brands, Airbnb listings are constantly revised. Hosts tweak descriptions while the underlying property stays the same, creating a rare opportunity to isolate the effect of language. Using data from more than 219,000 listings, Thomas analyzed how changes in wording affected booking rates over time.
Once the language was isolated, the pattern was hard to miss. Adding words such as charming, cozy or lovely boosted bookings by roughly 0.2%, about the same amount as adding an objective claim about an amenity or location detail.
“At scale, we can observe small effects,” Thomas said. “When you see the same pattern across hundreds of thousands of listings, it tells you something meaningful is happening.”
The findings challenge a foundational assumption behind puffery that subjective praise is essentially meaningless.
Consumers didn’t ignore it. Instead, they buy without apparent remorse.
“We might be concerned that puffery would encourage consumers to make purchases that they would later regret,” Thomas said. “But we find no evidence of this in the reviews they leave on Airbnb.”
Studying puffery at scale
To analyze such a massive volume of text, Thomas turned to ChatGPT.
Artificial intelligence helped him break listing descriptions into individual claims and classify which ones counted as puffery under established legal standards — a process he validated against real court cases. That approach made it possible to study subjective language at a scale that would be impossible by hand and opens new doors for advertising research more broadly.
“This kind of analysis just wasn’t feasible a few years ago,” Thomas said. “AI allows us to study how language works in the real world, not just in controlled lab settings.”
The findings carry practical implications for individual sellers and may extend to global brands.
Objective details still matter. Consumers want to know where a place is, what it includes and what it costs. But when this information is readily available, Thomas suggests that puffery can further increase demand.
The study, “Does puffery sell? Evidence from Airbnb,” was published in the Journal of Marketing Research.
Affective polarization – i.e., an aversion toward supporters of the opposing party – has been shaping American society for years, including when it comes to finding a partner. A new sociological study by Dr Ansgar Hudde and Shannon Taflinger from the University of Cologne’s Department of Sociology and Social Psychology dives deeper into this phenomenon, examining how political information on a dating profile influences the romantic interest of young Americans. The study was published under the title, “Why do young US Americans avoid cross-partisan dating? A closer look at mediators and variation by gender and party” in the journal European Sociological Review.
The results of the study show that supporters of the Democratic Party are mainly distinguished by their reluctance to date supporters of the other party rather than by a preference for fellow Democrats. Republican supporters, by contrast, both favour fellow Republicans and avoid Democratic partners. The study additionally found that politics matters for dating because political views are often seen as reflecting a person’s values, lifestyle, character, and whether they expect their social circle to approve of dating someone.
In an online experiment, 1,097 Americans aged 20 to 33 evaluated fictional dating profiles similar to those found on dating apps such as Tinder, Bumble, or Hinge. The profiles included the label ‘Democrat,’ ‘Republican,’ or no party affiliation. The results reveal that political party alignment has a significant impact on perception of the profile and the likelihood of making contact. While people have only a slight preference for supporters of their own party, they are far more likely to reject supporters of the other party.
The study shows that people infer non-political characteristics such as values, lifestyle, and character traits from political orientation. They also anticipate how their social circle might react – specifically, whether their family and friends would approve of a relationship with that person. “Before you message someone on a dating app or swipe left or right, you only have a profile in front of you – and you have to make a quick judgment: Are we a good match? Do we have similar interests? Is the person friendly, open-minded, and intelligent? If a profile includes political orientation, people use that information to answer exactly those kinds of questions,” says doctoral researcher Shannon Taflinger.
Supporters of the Democratic and Republican parties differ significantly in how shared party affiliation shapes their dating preferences. While Republicans also show a clear preference for like-minded individuals, Democrats do not exhibit the same pattern. They rated Republican profiles lower than profiles with no party affiliation but made little distinction between the no party affiliation and Democratic profiles. “Many Democrats do not necessarily search for a fellow Democrat. They search for ‘not Republican’,” summarizes Taflinger. Shared political party is particularly important in dating for Democratic women, among whom rejection of the opposing political side is roughly four times more common than among Republican women or men.
While this study was conducted in the United States, the two researchers see parallels to dating behaviour in other societies, including European countries, alongside some country-specific differences.
Most other democracies have multiparty systems, where compatibility or rejection can differ across party constellations. When two people support different parties within the same broader political camp, they can bridge those differences more easily than supporters from opposite ends of the spectrum. “A common feature across many countries is a widespread rejection of radical-right parties and their supporters, and this might extend to dating as well,” says Hudde.
People around the world use apps like Bumble or Hinge to look for partners, indicating their political views alongside their occupation or relationship preferences. “Often you can dismiss someone for political reasons before you have exchanged a single word,” Hudde notes.
A further parallel concerns the political gender gap. In several countries, young women increasingly vote more left leaning than young men. In sum, Hudde expects the consequences to reach well beyond the United States: “Politics is likely to play an increasingly important role in dating in many countries — and to make the search for a partner more complicated.”
Why do young US Americans avoid cross-partisan dating? A closer look at mediators and variation by gender and party
Article Publication Date
1-Jun-2026
Fever and chills can make respiratory diseases more contagious
A study by URV reveals that when the difference between body temperature and the ambient temperature is greater, the clouds of particles generated by coughing or sneezing disperse more and maintain a higher concentration
When a person coughs or sneezes, they expel a cloud of microscopic particles capable of carrying viruses and bacteria that act as vectors for respiratory diseases such as flu, COVID-19 or tuberculosis. Understanding how these aerosols disperse in the air is crucial for minimising the transmission of pathogens in indoor spaces, but their dynamics are complex and depend on many factors: the force of the exhalation, the morphology of the respiratory system, the characteristics of the space, etc. Now, a new study led by researchers from the Universitat Rovira i Virgili has shown that temperature also plays an important role.
Their findings indicate that the difference between the temperature of exhaled air and that of the ambient air causes the cloud of particles to remain more concentrated and travel further. The greater this difference, the more noticeable the effects are. The research continues a line of work initiated by the URV's ECoMMFiT research group, which developed a simulator capable of reproducing coughs and sneezes to study how respiratory aerosols disperse. As a result of that study, the team demonstrated that the nasal cavity significantly alters the trajectory of expelled particles. Now, the researchers have incorporated a new factor into the analysis: temperature.
To do this, they modified the simulator to heat the exhaled air to 37 °C, a temperature that mimics that of a person with a slight fever. The experimental phase was carried out inside a climate chamber at the Catalonia Institute for Energy Research (IREC), where the URV researchers were able to recreate different controlled environmental conditions. More specifically, they studied the behaviour of respiratory aerosols in environments at 27 °C, 17 °C and 7 °C, combining these temperatures with different exhalation intensities and the two simulator configurations: sneezing with the nasal cavity open and sneezing with it closed. In total, they analysed eighteen different experimental configurations, each repeated ten times to ensure the reliability of the results, thus meaning they completed 180 experiments.
"We wanted to understand to what extent ambient temperature can alter the dynamics of particle clouds," explains Nicolás Catalán, a researcher in the URV’s Department of Mechanical Engineering and co-author of the study. "What we observed was that, when the temperature difference between exhaled air and ambient air increased, the cloud remained more cohesive and traveled greater distances," he adds. This understanding of how pathogens are transmitted through the air can contribute to the design of more efficient safety protocols, ventilation systems and control strategies. The results could be particularly useful in sensitive indoor spaces, such as schools, hospitals, biological laboratories or public transport, where the risk of respiratory disease transmission is higher.
To record these phenomena, the research team used high-speed cameras and laser lighting systems, which allowed them to visualise and record the aerosol dispersion in detail. The images showed how, in cold environments, the density differences between the warm exhaled air and the ambient air generate buoyancy forces that modify the trajectory and structure of the respiratory particle cloud. This causes the concentrations of the aerosols to remain higher for longer and to travel further before dispersing completely.
The nose plays a decisive role
The study also confirmed that the geometry of the respiratory system remains a determining factor. When the airflow passes partially through the nose, the horizontal range is reduced and vertical dispersion increases. In contrast, when exhalation occurs exclusively through the mouth, the cloud tends to advance more horizontally. This combination of temperature, exhalation intensity and nasal involvement generates very different dispersion patterns depending on the environmental conditions.
In addition to its results, the research provides experimental data that are uncommon in this field. Until now, many studies on respiratory aerosols had relied on numerical simulations or experiments with human volunteers, making it difficult to precisely control variables such as flow rate, temperature or respiratory geometry. The simulator developed by the URV allows these conditions to be reproduced stably, thus generating highly valuable data to feed computational models capable of more accurately simulating aerosol dynamics and the transmission of respiratory diseases.
However, the researchers stressed that the actual behaviour of respiratory aerosols is extremely complex and that research must continue into factors such as humidity, ventilation, and the persistence of suspended particles.
Reference: Catalán, N., Cito, S., Varela Ballesta, S., Fabregat, A., Vernet, A., Graus, D., & Pallarès, J. (2026). Bioaerosol transport dynamics in cold and warm environments: An experimental study using a three-dimensional-printed human airway model. Physics of Fluids. https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0303143
