A physicist has proposed a radical new theory of consciousness – and it could finally explain what happens when you die. Consciousness does not emerge from human brains, according to Professor Maria ...

It is therefore easy to think that consciousness evolved to benefit us as individuals. But we have argued that consciousness may have evolved to facilitate key social adaptive functions. Rather than ...

Michael Pollan's widely anticipated new book, A World Appears: A Journey into Consciousness, brings his signature acumen and wit to one of science's essential mysteries. Along the way, he pursues ...

As AI—and the ethical debate surrounding it—accelerates, scientists argue that understanding consciousness is now more urgent than ever. They argue that explaining how consciousness arises—which could ...

Why did the experience of consciousness evolve from our underlying brain physiology? Despite being a vibrant area of neuroscience, current research on consciousness is characterised by disagreement ...

With its triumphant descriptions of a range of subatomic phenomena, quantum mechanics is one of the most successful scientific theories of all time. Now it holds out the tantalising prospect of ...

What if our puzzlement about consciousness is itself a clue? A physicist turns the hard problem into a striking argument ...

Google executive Blaise Agüera y Arcas challenges conventional ideas about AI consciousness, arguing that our understanding ...

What gives rise to human consciousness? Are some parts of the brain more important than others? Scientists began tackling these questions in more depth about 35 years ago. Researchers have made ...