Today in Science: Surprising science of near-death experiences

A community of science-loving readers June 11, 2024: What scientists know about near-death experiences, elephants call each other by name, and this strange fungal condition makes you drunk without any alcohol.  —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor TODAY'S NEWS Mammoth carbon removal plant in Reykjavik, Iceland. John Moore/Getty Images • Carbon removal is catching on, mostly in the form of planting trees, but it needs to go faster. | 5 min read • This strange fungal condition makes you drunk without drinking. | 4 min read • Research-based hacks for improving your prospective memory (that is, remembering to remember). | 5 min read • Mexico's new president is a climate scientist. Nature reviewed the legacy of well-known politicians with backgrounds in science and engineering, and evaluated how they fared. | 6 min read More News TOP STORIES A New View of Consciousness Some 5 to 10 percent of the general population is estimated to have memories of a near-death experience (NDE); between 10 and 23 percent of these cases involve cardiac arrest survivors. Many recollections of NDEs share common themes: people separate from their body, many see a long tunnel, they hear the voices of dead loved ones or other omnipresent being, and most people say the experience is positive, with transformative after-effects on their lives once they recover.  How it happens: In 2023, researchers analyzed EEG data from four comatose patients before and after their ventilators were removed. As the patients' brains became deprived of oxygen, two showed an unexpected surge of gamma activity, a type of high-frequency wave linked to the formation of memory and the integration of information. Some patients who have flatlined show brain activity for up to an hour during CPR (with no heartbeat). And in a forthcoming study researchers will measure EEG and brain-oxygen readings in about 100 patients, and they will survey survivors in several rounds of interviews. What the experts say: Recent discoveries are changing the outdated views of consciousness and have practical implications for resuscitation practices. "If we understand the mechanisms of death, then this could lead to new ways of saving lives," says Jimo Borjigin, a neuroscientist from the University of Michigan Medical School. Rumble My Name Researchers used machine learning to analyze 469 contact, greeting and caregiving rumbles made by wild savanna elephants in Kenya, and they discovered that the animals use specific names to identify one another. The scientists analyzed the acoustic features of elephant calls for signs of individual vocal labels (similar to names). The machine learning model was able to predict the specific receiver of a call with a success rate far better than chance. The researchers then went into the field to test out their findings: they approached 17 wild elephants and used a speaker to play calls specific to each of them. Although the elephants rarely reacted to the "names" of other animals, they quickly responded to their own. Why this matters: This is the first study documenting the use of names in a nonhuman animal species. Some animals, like bottlenose dolphins and orange-fronted parakeets seem to address peers with specific calls, but in fact they are imitating the receiver's "signature" sound.   What the experts say: The data didn't reveal which part of a call was labeling an individual, or whether multiple elephants use the same name for an individual, says Michael Pardo, a behavioral ecologist at Cornell University. Humans are clearly just scratching the surface of elephant communication. yrdyak/Getty Images EXPERT PERSPECTIVES • AI-powered apps are enabling teenagers to make deepfake nudes of classmates and share them widely on social media. Schools, technology developers and parents need to act now to curb these violations, writes Riana Pfefferkorn, a research scholar at the Stanford Internet Observatory. "Advocate for your child's school to develop a comprehensive plan for deepfake nudes, with parent and student input. It should include training for educators about the laws governing fake (and real) nude images and their legal obligations when students victimize other students," she says. | 6 min read More Opinion If you've been lucky enough to meet an elephant in person, one look into their dark eyes suggests that humans have much to learn about how their minds and societies work. Scientists have observed that elephants grieve for family members and friends, play throughout youth and into adulthood, and form close social networks. It's important not to project our human values onto animal behaviors, but it's hard not to see ourselves in some of Earth's most majestic species. This newsletter is for you! Let me know how you like it and how it can be improved by emailing: newsletters@sciam.com. Until tomorrow. —Andrea Gawrylewski, Chief Newsletter Editor Subscribe to this and all of our newsletters here. Scientific American One New York Plaza, New York, NY, 10004   Support our mission, subscribe to Scientific American here   Unsubscribe Email Preferences View in browser