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Physicists have taken a major step toward using AI not just to analyze data, but to uncover entirely new laws of nature. By combining a specially designed neural network with precise 3D tracking of particles in a dusty plasma—a strange “fourth state of matter” found from space to wildfires—the team revealed hidden patterns in how particles interact. Their model captured complex, one-way (non-reciprocal) forces with over 99% accuracy and even overturned long-held assumptions about how these forces behave.

Physicists have taken a major step toward using AI not just to analyze data, but to uncover entirely new laws of nature. By combining a specially designed neural network with precise 3D tracking of particles in a dusty plasma—a strange “fourth state of matter” found from space to wildfires—the team revealed hidden patterns in how particles interact. Their model captured complex, one-way (non-reciprocal) forces with over 99% accuracy and even overturned long-held assumptions about how these forces behave.

This interesting case was reported in the literature in 2007. For some reason it was then widely published in the mainstream media in 2015. Now it is making the rounds again on social media to support a false narrative about brain function. The story is of a 20 year old German woman who suffered a traumatic brain injury in a car accident. Over the next several months she started to slowly lose her vision – which is an important detail, it was not a sudden loss as a result of the physical trauma. After evaluation she was diagnosed with psychogenic blindness, meaning that it was not due to any physical damage to her visual system but was rather due to psychological stress. This patient also has what is now called dissociative disorder, or multiple personality, with 10 distinct personalities.

What makes the case even more interesting is that, with therapy, some of her personalities regained vision while others did not. Eventually eight of her ten personalities regained vision. This presented a rare, perhaps unique, opportunity to study the underlying neuroanatomical correlates of psychogenic blindness – what is happening in the brain when someone loses the ability for conscious sight despite their visual system working?

Psychogenic or functional neurological disorders are a complex and poorly understood phenomenon in which emotional stress and trauma presents as physical neurological symptoms. Common presentations include paralysis, language difficulty, sensory loss, and blindness. The diagnosis is mostly one of exclusion, which means sufficient examination and study is done to rule out any demonstrable damage, lesion, or other physical cause. This does not mean the patient is faking (technically called malingering) – that is a distinct condition that can usually be distinguished from a functional disorder. Usually patients with a functional disorder are very distressed by their symptoms and want further examination to find out what is wrong. In addition to simply ruling out physical causes, the diagnosis of a functional disorder can be supported by some positive evidence from the neurological exam. With psychogenic blindness, for example, patients will have normal pupillary responses (assuming no separate baseline deficit), and will have a normal reaction to optokinetic testing.  This involves moving vertical black and white stripes horizontally across their vision. This will cause an involuntary response of tracking the stripes with eye movements. If this happens then we know that visual information is getting in and making its way to the visual cortex.

With functional neurological disorders what we do not know is what specific pathways in the brain are causing the symptoms. The hypothesis is that higher brain functions are somehow interfering with or inhibiting more basic functions. Those higher brain functions, the ones responsible for our subjective awareness and consciousness, are extremely complex. There is a lot of emergent behavior there, where we experience the net effect of many processes in the brain. Also, the more we investigate brain function with the latest tools the more we are discovering that communication in the brain does not just flow from basic inputs (like vision) to the higher conscious centers of the brain, but also back down, meaning that our higher brain centers can influence the basic processing of information. When you think you hear something, your brain makes it sound more like what you think you are hearing. When you see a shape that your brain matches to a giraffe, your cortex then sends signals back down the chain to construct the image to make it look even more like a giraffe. This is critical for pulling signals out of noise and for our ability to make sense of all the information coming it, but it also tends to generate illusions.

We also have to note that there is a lot of neurodiversity when it comes to brain anatomy and function – some people literally have pathways in their brain that most other people do not, or the relative robustness of specific pathways may differ wildly. Some people, therefore, may simply have neurological abilities that others lack. This case is very unusual – the person in question is neurologically capable of having a dramatic functional disorder, which may not be true of everyone. She also has dissociative disorder, which again is extremely rare. It would not be reasonable to assume she is neurotypical, and that we can extrapolate from her to the general population.

With those caveats in mind, the doctors studying her did something interesting – they performed a visual evoked potential (VEP) on her while she was exhibiting a personality that was blind and again while she was exhibiting a personality that could see. What a rare opportunity to compare the two states. The VEP essentially is a test in which a flash of light is given to the patient while electrodes record the response from her visual cortex. There is typically a delay of about 100 ms. If this is significantly slow or absent that could indicate a lesion in the visual pathway. This was a common test to evaluate patients with MS, for example, but is less common now due to more advanced MRI scans and other methods. They found that the VEP was present and normal while she expressed a personality that could see, but was absent when she had a personality with persistent psychogenic blindness. That is a rather incredible result, indicating that there is some process in her brain that is actually suppressing her visual system. To be clear, there is no conscious way to do this (again, at least not known, but I guess this could be the way in which she is very neuroatypical). So it seems that her psychogenic blindness was do to a reversible inhibition of her visual pathway, in a way that would block the VEP.

This was exactly what the researchers were looking for, trying to determine at which neurological level the psychogenic blindness originates, at least in this subject. This also means that VEPs cannot be used to reliably distinguish organic blindness from psychogenic blindness. I really want to know what her optokinetic testing found, but could not find this information in the report. However – a 2001 study of 72 subjects with psychogenic blindness found that every one had normal VEPs. VEPs are still used to assess these patients – a normal VEP does suggest a nonorganic cause of blindness, however it is recognized that an abnormal VEP does not rule out a psychogenic cause.

As interesting as all this is, this case is being used by some promoters of a particular type of dualism, specifically the notion that the brain is a receiver or filter for an external consciousness. The case is being misinterpreted as meaning that “experience determines neurological function” rather than the other way around. This, of course, is not true, for the reasons I outlined above. Experience is in the brain, and this just represents the brain affecting itself. I always find it sad and frustrating when truly interesting science is missed because it is being misused to promote pseudoscience or magic.

The post A Unique Case of Psychogenic Blindness and Multiple Personality first appeared on NeuroLogica Blog.

It breaks my heart to have to report this, but somehow Vashti and her brood of seven ducklings vanished from Botany Pond sometime after Tuesday morning, and have not been seen since.

I have no idea what happened. They were last seen at the pond during Tuesday’s morning rain showers, with the brood warmly tucked under Vashti’s belly.  Now: no ducks—not a trace. The only one left is Armon, who swims disconsolately around the pond and refuses food. He has lost his family.

It was probably not predators: no bodies were found. I’ve ascertained that no workpeople were in the pond during the week.  Either someone scared them away or they walked away, something that hasn’t happened before.

Whatever is the case, the ducklings will probably perish, as the nearest body of water is too far away for little ones to walk.

The members of Team Duck and I are devastates. The seven ducklings were healthy, Vashti was being a great mother, and even Armon stepped up to protect the brood. The invading undocumented drakes left the brood alone. Everything promised a great duck season, and I was looking forward to helping the little ones grow up into adult mallards.

That, it seems, is not to be. This portends to be The Year Without Ducklings.

One side is scorched to over 200 degrees, while the other is plunged into a darkness so cold it falls below minus 200. Welcome to TRAPPIST-1b and 1c, two rocky worlds that have just revealed the first ever climate maps of Earth sized planets beyond our Solar System. The James Webb Space Telescope has been watching, and what it found tells us something profound about where life might, and might not exist in our Galaxy.

At the heart of our Galaxy lurks a supermassive black hole four million times the mass of our Sun. For decades, astronomers have watched mysterious gas clouds drifting towards it on almost identical paths, wondering where they came from and why. Now, a team of researchers think they have finally cracked the puzzle and the answer involves two massive stars locked in a violent embrace!

Scientists are grappling with a cosmic mystery: why does the Universe behave differently on massive scales compared to our own solar system? While distant galaxies reveal clear signs of something bending the rules of gravity—often attributed to dark energy or a hidden “fifth force”—everything nearby seems to follow Einstein’s playbook perfectly.

A breakthrough in brain-inspired computing could make today’s energy-hungry AI systems far more efficient. Researchers have engineered a new nanoelectronic device using a modified form of hafnium oxide that mimics how neurons process and store information at the same time. Unlike conventional chips that waste energy moving data back and forth, this device operates with ultra-low power—potentially slashing energy use by up to 70%.

An international team led by Monash University has uncovered evidence of a rare form of exploding star, helping to shed light on one of the most cataclysmic events in the universe. At the end of their lives, most massive stars collapse into black holes—objects with gravity so strong that not even light can escape. But some are completely destroyed in pair-instability supernova explosions. This can explain the so-named "Forbidden Gap" in black hole masses.

Bill Maher’s “New Rules” segment from the week before last is about AI, its history, its dangers, and its errors.  Maher doesn’t think too much of it, for, after all, AI can’t cure cancer.  I think he gives these bots overly short shrift, and neglects the productive things AI really can do.  But he then implies that it’s run by sociopaths and could drive humanity extinct.

The guests for that week were journalist Kara Swisher, politician Rahm Emanuel, and attorney and security advisor Jake Sullivan.

MSL Curiosity found 7 new organic molecules preserved in Martian sandstone. While they aren't proof that life existed on Mars, they are important. They show that the planet is capable of protecting ancient biosignatures from radiation and preserving them in rock.

Photographer Yuri Segalerba explores how dengue has spread to Nepal's Himalayan districts, and how locals are fighting back

The food industry has made big promises to reduce emissions and become more sustainable, but a review concludes that many of the pledges are not backed up by evidence

The books, TV, games and more that New Scientist staff have enjoyed this week

The idea that EV batteries age poorly is a misconception – and a new report has found they often outlive the cars themselves

A seaside town is devastated when a small fishing boat, the Rose of Nevada, disappears at sea. Thirty years later, the boat reappears in the harbour and sets off a moving story, says Bethan Ackerley

Feedback, always on the hunt for absurd units of measurement, is delighted by recent attempts to convey the 406,771 kilometres that the Artemis II crew travelled from Earth

Discovering he is getting old before his time, David Cox tries to lower his biological age by changing his diet in a helpful new book, The Age Code, says Graham Lawton

The rise of a new generation of radiotherapies means we will soon need much greater quantities of radioactive atoms. That's why companies are scrambling to refine them from all manner of radioactive waste

A robot built by Sony AI is rapidly learning how to beat the world's very best table tennis players