Tim Hammond

Intelligence analyst turned electromagnetic environment researcher. How light regulates biology, and the implications for individuals and institutions.

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

Biological coherence is dependent upon the marriage of information and energy. Energy without information is noise, and information without energy cannot propagate.

Health is a state where they are coupled - where the energy flowing through biological systems carries meaningful information that coordinates function across scales.

[Michael Levin @drmichaellevin]

Here it is - the official, revised, peer-reviewed version of my Platonic Space paper. https://t.co/PXNpx5FgFN Of all the many unpopular positions I’ve taken over the decades - bitter controversies around the origin of left-right asymmetry in embryogenesis, bioelectricity and genetics, diverse intelligence, etc., this one has by far generated the most pushback: serious (grateful for those!) and energetic attempts to move me to other views, pleas to just drop it and not talk about it (for several different reasons), nasty emails and accusations, impacts on reviews of papers that have nothing to do with this, etc. Kind of amazing to me how incendiary this is. What can I say... Our job is to call it as we see it, and right now for me, this is it. Apologies to collaborators and colleagues for any shrapnel! Time will tell if this pans out or not; I've placed my bets. And btw, if you think this stuff is weird and uncomfortable, just wait… There’s much more on the way. The knob turns slowly but as long as the data keep coming, I'm going to say what I think it all means and follow it to the next steps it enables. Buckle up!

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

@ze_rusty I absolutely experienced the same.

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

@matthew_pines @alexwg @AKlokus @Breakthrough Congratulations, Matt!

[REGENERINT | Regenerative Intelligence @REGENERINT]

We optimized modern lighting for electrical efficiency but failed to consider biological efficiency.

Incandescent light produces a broad spectrum rich in red and infrared. Modern LEDs remove that infrared energy while concentrating their output in the visible spectrum, with a sharp spike in blue light.

In this clip from my conversation with Les Raymond on The Mindful Movement Podcast, I explain how infrared interacts with mitochondria - including the water surrounding ATP synthase, the molecular nanomotor responsible for producing cellular energy.

If mitochondria are the engine, infrared may help create the environment that allows that engine to run efficiently.

This is one reason our light environment deserves far more attention when we think about mitochondrial health, metabolic health, and chronic illness.

🎙️ Link to the full conversation in the comments below.

[REGENERINT | Regenerative Intelligence @REGENERINT]

I recently joined Les Raymond on The Mindful Movement Podcast for a wide-ranging conversation about my journey with Lyme disease and some of the science that has shaped my thinking.

We discussed:

• Circadian entrainment and the SCN - how light signals through the eyes help synchronize biological timing, and the effects this has on cortisol and melatonin rhythms.

• Natural versus artificial light spectra - particularly how static, isolated LEDs differ from dynamically-shifting sunlight and infrared-rich incandescents.

• Infrared light and mitochondrial bioenergetics - including the electron transport chain, ATP synthase, and the interaction between infrared energy and the water surrounding mitochondrial machinery.

• Biological or “exclusion-zone” water - its charge-separated properties and proposed role in cellular energetics and fluid dynamics.

• Seasonality and metabolic signaling — including mTOR, AMPK, dietary deuterium, and the idea that light, food, geography, and season provide interacting environmental signals.

• Why I view light as a foundational biological input, and why circadian timing and the indoor light environment deserve more attention.

Episode available at https://t.co/ZRl2ePr09F

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

My career has had one throughline: building capabilities where none existed, and translating complex information into intelligence people can act on.

That's taken a lot of forms. Standing up open-source and protective intelligence for high-profile principals and major international events. Helping unmask a state-backed disinformation campaign targeting a U.S. ally — 23,000+ coordinated inauthentic accounts across six campaigns. Building a data-privacy program from zero for a global platform under the largest FTC enforcement action in U.S. history. Teaching thousands of Marines to read a region before they deployed into it. Serving as connective tissue between government, industry, and academia at National Defense University.

Different domains, one method: break the problem down to first principles, then build.

Lately I've been applying that same lens somewhere less expected — the electromagnetic environment, and what light, screens, and wireless infrastructure quietly do to the biology behind human cognition. That's REGENERINT, my research and advisory practice, with direct application to cognitive resilience and cognitive security. Same throughline: find the variable everyone's overlooking, and make it legible to the people who have to act on it.

All of it now lives in one place — anonymized case studies, endorsements, writing → https://t.co/WOU3QGcsUF

Always open to the right conversations. If the work resonates, let's talk.

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

Available at https://t.co/MeAZ59W7Jk

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

The context: Life on Earth evolved under repeated cycles of light and darkness, bathed in a full, specific range of electromagnetic energy that shifts continuously across the day. Our cells evolved clock genes to read that light and know when to ramp activity up and when to wind it down, so that our biological systems run coherently, as one unit.

The shock: In just a few generations we have dramatically altered that environment. We now spend about 93% of our lives indoors, under static artificial light with isolated, unnatural spectra that confuse our cells' sense of time and strip out the very wavelengths that help power our mitochondria.

The result: Roughly six in ten American adults now live with at least one chronic illness, a diagnostic label that names a cluster of symptoms without identifying a root cause. It drives the majority of our healthcare costs, lowers quality of life, and erodes the productivity and readiness that give a country and its institutions their strategic advantage.

The problem underneath is metacognitive. We can't see it because we're inside it. The light environment we live and work in every day is regulating the cognitive substrates our critical thinking depends on, and we have stopped noticing the input entirely.

What to do about it: Get your light right. I explain exactly how, and why, in my newly updated Circadian Optimization Guide. It comes in two halves: the first lays out the science of circadian biology and mitochondrial bioenergetics; the second turns it into simple, actionable steps for your daily routine and the design of your environment. If you care about your own health and cognitive function, or the productivity and wellbeing of your team, this guide is for you.

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

Every role I've had came down to one job: build the capability that doesn't exist yet, and turn complex information into something people can act on.
Intelligence, disinformation, privacy — and now cognitive security.

I built a home for the work → https://t.co/K2SJawBh7O

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

We cannot effectively build cognitive resilience or ensure cognitive security if the electromagnetic operating environment is actively degrading the underlying biological systems that support cognition.

[REGENERINT | Regenerative Intelligence @REGENERINT]

https://t.co/85Qn8hLSv0

[REGENERINT | Regenerative Intelligence @REGENERINT]

1/ I recently had the honor of presenting the science and application of insights from the fields of circadian and quantum biology to department heads at Utah State University. The title of my presentation was "Electromagnetic Environmental Variables for Cognitive Resilience." Its central point was this:

➡️ We cannot effectively build cognitive resilience or ensure cognitive security if the electromagnetic operating environment is actively degrading the underlying biological systems that support cognition.

Inputs determine outputs. If we fail to consider the physiological and psychological effects of the electromagnetic environment on our workers, students, and soldiers, then we will fail to anticipate our outputs within those environments and we will lose competitive advantage while also decreasing productivity and lowering quality of life across society.

The good news? By understanding how our biology works in interaction with its natural environment, we can make simple, accessible changes to our lifestyles and indoor environmental designs with profound positive impacts.

🧵

[REGENERINT | Regenerative Intelligence @REGENERINT]

Up to an estimated 80% of your genome is regulated by circadian signals — a biological clock set by the spin of the planet.

And in just the last few decades, we've scrambled it.
Here's how light runs your health, and how modern lighting broke the rhythm:

[REGENERINT | Regenerative Intelligence @REGENERINT]

1/ I presented at Utah State University on a topic almost no one is talking about: your electromagnetic environment is degrading your cognitive performance. Measurably. Predictably. Invisibly. New article up — here's the short version. 🧵

[Roger Seheult, MD @RogerSeheult]

There is no other US legislation pending to go into effect that could have more effect on human beings than this one. If you are looking for a hill: here it is...

[Roger Seheult, MD @RogerSeheult]

🚨🚨🚨We may be less than two years away from losing access to some of the most biologically useful forms of indoor lighting in the United States.

On July 25, 2028, the Department of Energy’s 125 lumens-per-watt standard for General Service Lamps is scheduled to take full effect. From that date forward, covered light bulbs manufactured in or imported into the United States will have to meet that efficiency threshold.

The problem is that lumens measure visible brightness—not biological usefulness.

A bulb designed to provide a broad, sunlight-like spectrum, support circadian physiology, reduce blue light exposure in the evening, or emit near-infrared wavelengths may use energy in ways that are not fully reflected in its lumen rating. Near-infrared light, for example, is invisible to the human eye and therefore contributes no lumens, even though it may have important biological effects.

In practical terms, the 125-lumen-per-watt rule could eliminate many circadian, broad-spectrum, and infrared-emitting bulbs from the American market.

On April 8, 2025, a formal Petition for Rulemaking was submitted to the DOE requesting the creation of a new “General Wellness Lamp” product class. These lamps would be exempt from the 125-lumen-per-watt requirement while still meeting the 45-lumen-per-watt congressional backstop—representing approximately 75% lower energy use than traditional incandescent lighting.

There have been encouraging political signals supporting consumer choice in lighting. However, executive orders and departmental policy statements do not, by themselves, change the Code of Federal Regulations.

The 125-lumen-per-watt rule remains legally binding, with a compliance date of July 25, 2028. There is currently no waiver protecting general-wellness lighting. Proposed legislation that would repeal the rule has not passed.

A durable solution requires the DOE to complete a formal rulemaking that creates a legally recognized General Wellness Lamp category.

This is becoming urgent. A typical federal rulemaking may take 18 to 24 months. For a final rule to be completed with a reasonable margin before July 2028, the DOE would need to begin the formal process very soon.

This should not be framed as a choice between energy efficiency and health. We should be able to preserve efficient lighting while also recognizing that light is more than visual illumination. Its spectrum, timing, intensity, and wavelength composition can affect circadian rhythms, sleep, alertness, metabolism, and potentially mitochondrial biology.

Researchers, clinicians, manufacturers, and members of the public who care about healthy lighting should begin paying attention to this issue now. We need coordinated engagement with the DOE, Congress, the scientific and medical communities, and the public before the regulatory window closes.

We should not allow a standard based solely on visible lumens to unintentionally remove lighting designed around human biology.

@SecretaryWright
@realDonaldTrump
@HHSGov
@RobertKennedyJr

https://t.co/KaqkUah6Qf

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

@AmmousMD First, by dealing with Lyme disease and multiple coinfections, and spending years navigating the centralized medical system, corruption around groups controlling testing, and broken incentive strructures. Second by learning the impact of light on biology.

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

@ProfAviLoeb We are living in very interesting times. Congrats and thank you for all your work.

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

@StevePhillipsMD Hard to recall exactly. It was during the Delta wave. Was intensely difficult for several days, and had lingering issues for weeks. I was given monoclonal antibodies.

[Tim Hammond @timghammond]

Green light is the only known non-drug intervention that activates both the body’s endogenous opioid and endocannabinoid pain-relief systems through the visual system.

[REGENERINT | Regenerative Intelligence @REGENERINT]

Biological Effects and Clinical Implications of Green Light:

Green light is visible electromagnetic energy with wavelengths ranging roughly from 495 to 570 nanometers, and it makes up about 11% of full-spectrum sunlight.

Green light's effects fall into a few buckets. The best-established is pain relief (analgesia). Alongside it, green light appears to calm inflammation and to gently turn down the nervous system's pain amplifier — a process called central sensitization. Other studies suggest it may also reduce itch and support wound healing.

Green light reaches the body through two distinct routes: visual and cutaneous. Light entering the eyes acts through neural circuits that drive its pain-relieving and anti-inflammatory effects. Light absorbed directly in the skin accounts for the wound-healing and mast-cell effects.

The pain relief is the most firmly established: green light's clinical benefit has been confirmed by several independent laboratories for migraine, fibromyalgia, post-surgical pain, and osteoarthritis. These analgesic effects occur through three parallel pathways, all working through the visual system.

Visual Pathway 1 — Endogenous opioid release

Green light entering the eyes is absorbed by M-type cone photoreceptors in the retina, which convert it into electrical signals sent to a structure in the thalamus called the ventrolateral geniculate nucleus (vLGN). The vLGN then triggers enkephalinergic neurons that release the body's own opioids (β-endorphin and proenkephalin) which act as natural pain relievers and mood lifters.

The vLGN also contains GABAergic neurons (cells that release the calming, inhibitory neurotransmitter GABA), and these appear to suppress itch — raising the possibility of dual pain-and-itch relief from the same brain region.

Visual Pathway 2 — Emotional disconnection from pain

Green light through the eyes sends a signal — carried by the neurotransmitter glutamate — from the visual cortex to a brain region called the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), which handles the emotional processing of pain. There, the green-light signal switches on GABAergic neurons that deliver calming, inhibitory signals to the ACC's pain-processing cells, quieting their firing.

That’s how this pathway supports emotional resilience: the raw physical sensation may still be present, but the brain registers it as less distressing.

Visual Pathway 3 — Endocannabinoid Activation

Green light raises lipid messengers in the blood called N-acyl-glycines. Once elevated, these lipids engage a cell-surface receptor called GPR18, which belongs to the body's endocannabinoid system.

Activating GPR18 sets off calming, pain-relieving signals inside the cell. GPR18 is also a key receptor for resolving inflammation and guiding immune cells — so this pathway may additionally help quiet the overactive immune activity that fuels chronic pain.

Cutaneous Pathway

When green light (around 518 nm) reaches human skin cells called fibroblasts — the cells that build and maintain the skin's connective scaffolding — it selectively turns up three repair signals: leptin, IL-8, and VEGF. Each plays a distinct role in healing: leptin acts as a metabolic and immune coordinator, IL-8 recruits white blood cells to clear debris and guard against infection, and VEGF drives the growth of new blood vessels to feed the repairing tissue. In studies of wounded mice, green light measurably shrank wounds and sped the regrowth of new skin. Green light has also been shown to influence mast cells — the skin's resident, histamine-releasing immune cells — shifting how they behave during healing.

Takeaway

We know that time among the trees is good for our health. Part of this is chemical: as part of their natural defense and signaling, trees release airborne compounds called phytoncides, and spending days in a forest has been shown to raise the activity of natural-killer immune cells and anti-cancer proteins in humans, while lowering stress hormones.

But the biological effects are not only chemical, and not only psychological. They are also photonic. The light environment itself is shifted beneath a forest canopy: the leaves absorb red and blue wavelengths while reflecting the green light and invisible, restorative near-infrared.

A growing body of work in quantum biology describes the body as an open system, continuously reading and responding to its electromagnetic environment. Specific wavelengths set off real, traceable changes in our nervous system, immune signaling, and biochemistry. Targeted green light therapy — via LEDs or green-tinted eyewear — may be a powerful nonpharmaceutical option for pain relief; but at a lower, more continuous level, so may simply spending time in natural green spaces.