SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " master " 3,483 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Available Careers with a Master’s Degree in Business in AI
Discover the demand for leaders who can scale AI responsibly and the available artificial intelligence job opportunities after a Master’s Degree in Business in AI.
I tried Shake Shack's new Clubhouse Pimento Cheese menu
Who needs to fly to Georgia and pay thousands to get into the Masters when you can get your own pimento cheese sandwich at Shake Shack?
TMZ tracks US lawmakers vacationing amid the partial government shutdown
Tabloid outlet has covered Republicans and Democrats relaxing at places like Disney World as shutdown drags on
We need a credible plan for science funding in the UK
Letters: Prof Ruben Saakyan and Prof Sheila Rowan respond to Prof Charlotte Deane of UK Research and Innovation
Deepwater discoveries: scientists find more than 110 new fish and invertebrate species in the Coral Sea
Brittlestars, sea anemones and a catshark among new-to-science species collected during expedition off the Queensland coast
U.S. Bank, Mastercard take Amazon's small-business cards from Amex
The Minneapolis-based bank will issue the cards, and Mastercard will act as the network provider. American Express formerly ran the e-commerce giant's business credit card programs.
Nigel Farage to snub US conservative conference brought to UK by Liz Truss
Exclusive: Reform UK will be ‘steering well clear’ of CPAC event in July, says a source, as will senior Tories
How Bryson DeChambeau helped Rory McIlroy win the 2025 Masters
Rory McIlroy revealed Bryson DeChambeau's miscue on the 15th hole at the 2025 Masters helped him avoid disaster.
Trump administration sues Minnesota for allowing trans athletes in girls’ sports
Justice department claims the state is violating Title IX – the federal law that prohibits sex-based discrimination
CEO of Epic Games apologizes after laying off employee with terminal brain cancer
Tim Sweeney, chief of firm that created Fortnite, received backlash after worker’s wife revealed loss of life insurance
Zack Polanski meets unions in attempt to get them to switch party funding to Greens
Leader understood to have spoken to 10 trade unions after party claimed working class voters are turning to them
Kemi the attention-seeker somehow always makes two plus two equal five
The looming oil crisis caused by the Iran war gives the Conservative leader a platform from which to jump to the wrong conclusions
‘Boxing is a dirty business, like politics, bro’: Derek Chisora on Nigel Farage, brain damage and burgers
The great old warhorse of British boxing, who faces his 50th and final bout on Saturday, talks to Donald McRae about retirement, Deontay Wilder and his friendship with the Reform leader
May elections come at time of war on two fronts, Starmer says
At campaign launch, PM acknowledges concern over events in Ukraine and Iran as well as over rising cost of living
Unseen Grand Theft Auto 4 Dev Kit Assets Have Leaked
If you thought you'd seen everything that GTA 4 had to offer, you need to check out a leaked dev kit revealing never-before-seen assets.
Improving Connecticut’s Public Health Through Cross-Sector Data-Sharing
The Prevention Data Portal, launched in 2018 by Connecticut’s State Epidemiological Outcomes Workgroup (SEOW), houses data from local, state, and federal sources to advance health promotion and substance use prevention in the state.
Is it true that … you can never eat too much fibre?
Fibremaxxing is everywhere, and most of us should eat more roughage, but your gut won’t thank you for overloading
Monday briefing: Has the single-use vape ban made any difference to our health or our environment?
In today’s newsletter: Nearly a year after disposable vapes were outlawed, new figures suggest the policy has delivered only modest gains while creating new challenges
MPs wary of move against Starmer while war is raging
Even after electoral disaster, Iran war gives many MPs pause for thought about timing of leadership contest
Malnourished children and desperate mothers: the healthcare facility on the frontline of Nigeria’s hunger crisis
About 6.4 million Nigerian children are expected to be acutely malnourished by the end of the year, putting impossible pressure on scarce treatment centres
‘Wow, people were so angry at Labour!’ Green MP Hannah Spencer on politics, plumbing, smears and snobbery
The 34-year-old plumber last month secured the Green party its first byelection victory and a record fifth concurrent MP. She discusses the problem with career politicians – and being screamed at by voters
‘The Count of Monte Cristo’: Will Jeremy Irons Be Back as Abbé Faria?
The Oscar winner made his debut in Episode 2 of the 'Masterpiece' adaptation of the literary classic.
Trump news at a glance: Generational divide over Iran war emerges at key conservative conference
Younger conservatives say they are disappointed by Donald Trump’s decision to launch war against Iran. Key US politics stories from 29 March
The Guardian view on peptides: Robert F Kennedy Jr would leave public health policy to the hucksters
Editorial: The US health secretary says he is a big fan of peptides. Many are promising drugs, but the only way to know their utility is proper clinical trials
EU offers UK ‘emergency brake’ on youth mobility scheme numbers
Britain wants limits on young people entering country but Europe opposes this as scheme aims to celebrate links
Millions of boomer small business owners will soon retire. Will their companies just disappear?
It’s likely, but it also could be a boon for a new generation of entrepreneurs willing to take over established operations
One in five UK hospitality businesses fear collapse as costs surge
Exclusive: Pubs, restaurants and hotels warn of mounting pressure days before rates rises and higher wage bills take effect
Readers reply: American football takes for ever. In which other sports do you spend most of your time not playing the game?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
‘It’s biblical’: Maga anxiety over Iran war on display at CPAC as Trump skips event
Attendees at Conservative Political Action Conference express support and concerns amid rift over Trump’s action
Full network of clitoral nerves mapped out for first time
Anatomy of one of least studied human organs could improve outcomes for women who have pelvic surgery
Reform insiders fear links to extreme figures such as Andrew Tate will scare off voters
Nigel Farage has called Tate an ‘important voice’ for young men and held back from criticising his misogynistic views
JD Vance leads CPAC poll for next Republican presidential candidate
Vice-president received about 53% of votes at Conservative Political Action Conference held in Texas this year
Badenoch criticised for ‘peddling dangerous fantasy’ about North Sea oil drilling
Conservative leader expected to call for government to lift suspension on licences in drive to reduce energy prices
‘No kings, just vaccines!’: demonstrators gather at NIH headquarters to protest against cuts to medical research
Protesters decried Trump administration healthcare policies and direction of HHS under leadership of RFK Jr
I tried HigherDose’s $1,400 PEMF mat to help me relax. I got weird dreams and disappointment
This pricey infrared therapy mat claims to help mood, sleep and muscle recovery. It felt more like a glorified heating pad
Young voters shake Italy’s political calm as referendum exposes tensions for Giorgia Meloni
Prime minister is scrambling to clean up her government after youth vote powered a damaging referendum defeat
‘They feel true’: political deepfakes are growing in influence – even if people know they aren’t real
AI images of people – such as women in military contexts – are making money and serving as propaganda, researchers say
Explore the best of Nordic music with Orchestra Iowa
Orchestra Iowa will perform their “Masterworks V” program, featuring music from Nordic composters, on Saturday, April 11 at the Paramount Theatre and Sunday, April 12 at the Coralville Performing Arts Center.
‘Canadians don’t want to come here any more’: anger over Trump squeezes US border businesses
Shops and restaurants once bustling with tourists now struggle for survival as Canadians think twice about crossing the border
From The Magic Faraway Tree to 5 Seconds of Summer: your complete entertainment guide to the week ahead
Enid Blyton’s classic kids’ fantasy novel gets the big-screen treatment, while the Aussie boyband hit the UK’s arenas
Minnesota lawmakers head for a short break, legislation continues to backlog in the House
MPR News host Clay Masters and the politics team recap a week in state politics.
Connecticut officer fired after shooting man in mental health crisis as others tried to de-escalate
Mayor of Hartford has fired a white police officer who fatally shot a Black man in a mental health crisis nine times
Keir Starmer: Where Did It All Go Wrong? review – is the PM just useless at politics or is it something more sinister?
Westminster insiders try to get to the bottom of Starmer’s awful unpopularity and frequent blunders – but fail to consider less palatable possibilities
Sony to hike PS5 prices by $100 as AI and Iran war push up memory chip costs
Updated prices of PlayStation 5 consoles to go into effect on 2 April as electronics makers face rising cost pressures
Reform candidate in Wales steps down after apparent Nazi salute
Party announces Corey Edwards’ decision to quit Senedd election campaign on grounds of mental health
Scientists film whale giving birth while other whales work together to help her
Female named Rounder was surrounded by family members and others as she was about to give birth to her second calf
Brian Cox says physics faces ‘unquantifiable’ threat under punishing funding cuts
Cuts of nearly 70% may force university departments to close and damage UK’s research progress, senior scientists say
Resident Evil Lore Master Reflects on What Requiem Got Right and Wrong as the Franchise Returned to Raccoon City and 'Retconned' Its Destruction
Resident Evil's unofficial lore master has weighed in with his thoughts on Resident Evil Requiem, which adds a sizable new chapter filled with story revelations to Capcom's veteran horror franchise.
iOS 26.4 is Here: 12 Settings to Change for Better Battery and Privacy
Master the new iOS 26.4 update with these 12 essential setting changes. From optimizing Liquid Glass UI to enabling Adaptive Power Mode.
Cabinet Office to ask Mandelson to provide messages from personal phone
Exchanges about US ambassador appointment may be lost after McSweeney’s phone was stolen
Number of AI chatbots ignoring human instructions increasing, study says
Exclusive: Research finds sharp rise in models evading safeguards and destroying emails without permission
Trump EPA relied on industry science to weaken formaldehyde cancer rules, documents show
Papers reveal how chemical lobby influenced policy, reversing Biden-era limits on a common carcinogen
Billy Bragg calls for big turnout at London march against far right
Musician urges public to send clear message at what is expected to be UK’s biggest ever multicultural rally
Sports quiz of the week: a fight, a joke, a gift and a Liverpool legend
Have you been following the big stories in football, rugby union, snooker, baseball and athletics?
CU Boulder Leeds Launches 9-Month Master’s In Sustainable Business Built With Engineers
Leeds School of Business' new Master of Science in Sustainable Business is designed with engineers and natural sciences to fast-track graduates into climate and sustainability careers.
Trump describes UK aircraft carriers as ‘toys’ in latest anti-Nato jibe
Starmer tells MPs he will not react to US president’s repeated insults amid Iran war
‘Survivor 50’: Charlie Reveals Who Really Masterminded His Blindside
Plus, which Taylor Swift song would sum up his experience on Season 50?
Parties launch Holyrood campaigns against backdrop of voter indecision
Change is on offer across the political spectrum, but no one knows whether apathy or tactical voting will prevail
Sperm get lost in space, Australian research into microgravity impacts suggests
Study into how fertilisation could work in space finds sperm may get disorientated when trying to find an egg
Out-of-state tuition hike approved for two UF business master’s programs
Service of the University of Florida Community since 1901
Eastern University Launches 100-Percent-Online Master’s in AI Business Strategy
Eastern has launched an online Master of Science in AI Business Strategy to equip leaders with the skills to harness AI for strategic growth.
Resistance movement: how a play about penicillin brought the arts, science and politics together
Championed by a former chief medical officer, Lifeline is both a musical following Alexander Fleming’s discovery of the first antibiotic and a warning about the threat of superbugs in the present day
Fears net zero is ‘next Brexit’ as oil crisis fuels political climate divide
Rising energy bills give Reform and Tories opening to attack net zero while government hesitant to make case for clean energy
WHO warns of health crisis ‘unfolding in real time’ across Middle East
Hostilities should halt and healthcare facilities must be treated as ‘safe havens’, WHO’s regional chief has said
The Guardian view on a significant week for European politics: progressives have some reasons to be cheerful
Editorial: Events in Denmark and Italy show geopolitical instability is creating opportunities for a centre-left response to the far right
What are the rules on cryptocurrency donations to parties?
Ministers to introduce temporary ban on cryptocurrency donations to political parties after review
2025 Publisher Ranking Shows Sony Near Last, Square Enix, Capcom At Top
Sega and EA make the top 10 while Sony's best-reviewed game was a PC port of a PS4 remaster
The creator of Fortnite has laid off more than 1,000 staff – despite billions in revenue
Huge cuts announced this week show that truly no developer working in games is safe from corporate whims
Political donations in cryptocurrency could be blocked in blow to Reform UK
Government review also recommends political funding from Britons living abroad be capped at about £300,000 a year
Woods targets Masters after return to action in TGL
Tiger Woods says he is "trying to play" at next month's Masters after returning to action for the first time in more than a year in the TGL.
Le Bris 'at his brilliant best' to mastermind derby win
Leading up to Sunday's derby at Newcastle, all the talk centred around which of our injured players might be available and it ended up becoming a bit of a distraction from what was actually important - the players who were definitely fit to play their part. While I'm sure Regis le Bris would have loved a fully fit squad, he is not daft enough to get too distracted by the possibilities of having several of his walking wounded involved at the last minute. It meant that while Newcastle were distracted by European football, we were on the training ground figuring out how we were going to walk away from St James' Park with three points.
How magnetic is the moon? A new study cracks the long-standing mystery
Researchers believe rock samples taken from the Apollo missions gave scientists a misleading impression
Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox
Alinea Analytics estimates show that Marathon has generated gross revenues of $55M via 1.2M copies sold on Steam, PS5, and Xbox: Looking at the split between Steam, PS5, and Xbox, Steam is clearly the main platform for Marathon, accounting for a little under 70% of the audience (800K copies sold). Meanwhile, PS5 takes about 19% (217K) and Xbox (including console, PC, and cloud) accounts for a bit over 11% or 133K. Marathon is technically a first-party Sony title, so seeing the home console struggle to break 20% of the volume is a notable data point for the ongoing platform-agnostic debate. PlayStation Studios online games will almost certainly continue being multiplatform (despite Sony reportedly pulling back on PC releases). Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe As for Marathon, the consensus among hardcore players who pushed through the awkward onboarding phase – myself included – is that it’s fantastic. The gunplay, aesthetic, and presentation are among the best in the shooter genre. A great game doesn’t always equal an immediate hit, though, as shown by our estimates. Things are looking lukewarm right now. But this might be one of those marathon-not-a-sprint situations. Had to, didn’t I? Why wasn’t Marathon a hit on the same level as Arc Raiders? One topic that came up in a lot of conversations at GDC this year was why Marathon hasn’t hit the same stratosphere as Arc Raiders. On paper, they’re both extraction shooters, and Marathon has the Bungie pedigree – the house that built the gold standard for gunplay in Halo and Destiny. Marathon’s neon-futuristic aesthetic also distinguishes itself from the gritty realism of Tarkov or the post-apocalyptic hope of ARC Raiders. But vibes can only get you so far for first impressions if the onboarding feels like a brick wall. Marathon is a sweaty PvP-focused experience with a first-time user experience and UI that I can only describe as dreadful. Players are dropped into a complex ecosystem where the UI, though visually striking, is functionally uninformative, forcing users to manually hover over nondescript, identical icons just to identify basic gear or weapon mods. This lack of clarity is compounded by punishing mechanics like a severe heat gauge for movement and a scarcity of vital resources, all without a clear tutorial or a low-stakes mode to learn the ropes. Most people – even top streamers and veteran shooter players – have no idea what’s going on in Marathon at first. Arc is on the complete other end of the spectrum. As we covered here and here, Arc Raiders offers a more collaborative, approachable loop where players often work together toward shared goals. And the objectives are instantly clear. To many players, this contrast only emphasised Marathon’s issues, especially during the testing period. Players understand the Arc Raiders loop within 30 minutes, while Marathon acts as a massive filter, chewing up newcomers and spitting them out before they can experience the depth of Bungie’s signature gunplay. What I’m getting at here is that the poor first-time user experience of Marathon’s Server Slam likely stifled launch sales, while the opposite was true for Arc. Let’s look at the pre-launch copies sold for each game during their respective Server Slams (launch-aligned) : Looking at the trajectory: Arc Raiders saw a massive 80% jump in copies sold during its three-day Server Slam (day -13 to -11). Players jumped in, realised the water was fine, and immediately opened their wallets. Marathon, meanwhile, saw a 49% increase in the four days following its Slam (Day -7 to -3). At the time of each game’s respective launch, Arc Raiders had nearly double the Steam footprint of Marathon – and word of mouth only continued to grow. Bungie could have had more time to fix the onboarding process had the beta happened earlier. But Marathon launched three days after the beta finished. These factors limited the launch sales quite a bit, I reckon. Marathon has found a niche audience, though Despite the friction-heavy start, the data suggests that those who survived Marathon’s onboarding are loving life. We’ve been tracking cross-platform DAUs, and while there’s the expected post-launch leakage, many players are sticking with it. After peaking at 478K total DAUs on its first Saturday, Marathon has settled into a respectable rhythm, holding 345K DAUs as of yesterday and averaging 380K DAUs across the weekend. Steam continues to do the heavy lifting here, consistently accounting for the lion’s share of the daily players. Players have been putting in the hours, too: On Steam, Marathon’s average playtime has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly outpacing the console averages on PS5 (16.5h) and Xbox (17.3h). Even more telling than the averages: 22% of the Steam audience has surged past the 50-hour mark, and nearly 7% have already logged over 100 hours. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe This data suggests that once the Bungie magic clicks, it hooks players deeper than the average extraction shooter. There’s also started to be a shift in the game’s discourse. Marathon launched as one of those games that’s cool to hate. But as Marathon’s 100-hour club grows, we’re seeing conversations around its mechanical merit outweigh the negativity. Several high-profile creators, who were initially vocal critics, have spent the last week coming around on the mechanical depth of the endgame. It’s a subtle but positive signal; the hate train is losing steam, and a new narrative about the game is emerging. Bungie faithfuls unite Another interesting metric in Marathon’s first few weeks is who, exactly, is playing. Bungie leans heavily on its prestige as the “makers of Halo and Destiny,” in its marketing, and that message has clearly hit the mark. On Steam, the gravity (hammer) of Bungie’s previous work is unavoidable. A staggering 78.2% of Marathon players also played Destiny 2. The trend carries across other platforms, with 74.2% of PS5 players and 82.7% of Xbox players also having played Destiny 2. The Halo legacy lives on, it seems. More on that in a bit. While Destiny 2 went free to play, these numbers still represent a high-intent migration of a fanbase that trusts Bungie’s specific brand of kinetic gunplay and cryptic world-building. The Xbox data adds another layer of legacy. About 85.7% of Marathon players on Xbox have played Halo Infinite, while over half of the Steam audience has spent time in Halo Infinite and 36.1% in the Master Chief Collection (a paid collection of the old Bungie-made legacy games). Interestingly, we see a 55.9% overlap with ARC Raiders on Steam. Overlap is even higher there on PlayStation (60.5%) and Xbox (66.5%). And there’s also significant crossover with Helldivers 2 on all platforms, too. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe Bungie has found some of its fans with Marathon, and the challenge now is keeping this engaged in a high-stakes PvP environment when they’ve spent the last decade primarily enjoying the power fantasies of PvE. On that note… Go the full 26 miles? Or cut and run? Time for some could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. These things would have improved Marathon’s performance at launch: A more robust onboarding process, perhaps in the form of a short single-player/PvE campaign. We know Bungie fans love this stuff. A traditional arena-based mode akin to Destiny’s Crucible could have been a bridge for the cautious players who’d have been otherwise deterred by the Server Slam. It’s also a great palate cleanser after getting merked. Introducing a dedicated PvE environment would have similarly diversified the conversation and lowered the barrier for the Bungie faithful who found the pure PvP extraction loop too abrasive. PvE is safer than PvP these days. There’s an argument that a thin PvE mode would have just felt like a budget Destiny, potentially hurting the brand more. But given how dire the FTUE is, I think it would have been a net positive. Any kind of tutorialised loop that demystifies the stakes, really. While there is merit in a studio sticking firmly to a singular creative vision, and going all in on the hardcore extraction loop. Less forgiving is the technical reality is that the user interface and first-time user experience (FTUE) were not at a commercial standard for launch. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe In a landscape where player time is oversaturated and the most contested currency, a flawed FTUE is a critical failure point. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Marathon has an incredible, unique gameplay loop, suggesting that financial success is still attainable if Bungie can pivot effectively. Bungie and PlayStation now face a difficult strategic crossroads, though – one within a challenging games market. They could: Double down on Marathon with a long-term Rainbow Six Siege- or No Man’s Sky-style recovery plan, which is something I heard Last Stand Media’s Chris Maldonado mention last week. While this could be a sunk-cost fallacy in action, it could eventually yield the audience the game’s mechanical depth deserves. Shift focus toward the inevitable Destiny 3 or another project, mitigating the escalating opportunity cost and cutting their losses, so to speak. Doing both is an expensive proposition, given the high overhead and burn rate of operating out of Bellevue, Washington. With Sony recently demonstrating a lower threshold for underperforming studios and projects, the margin for error has vanished. Whatever happens, the next six months will determine whether Marathon becomes a cornerstone of Sony’s live-service portfolio or a cautionary tale of vision exceeding accessibility. I’m hoping it’s the former, because Marathon rocks. As always, hit subscribe to get updates on Marathon and other relevant games. Subscribe Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
Scottie Scheffler withdraws from Houston Open, likely won't play again until 2026 Masters
The World No. 1 withdrew from his Masters tune up event on Tuesday
Ed Davey accuses Reform UK and Tories of importing ‘Trump-style divisive politics’
Lib Dems will focus on ‘rolling up their sleeves and getting things done’, leader says at launch of local election campaign
Why going to an HBCU might be better for Black students’ health
A study found correlation between the environment and long-term wellness in sample of 1,978 who attended college between 1940-80
US democracy has settled into diminished state, experts find
Bright Line Watch researchers see stabilization in democratic health but at lower levels after sharp decline
Victorian business fined for telling influencers to lie about paid Instagram post in first of its kind penalty
Watchdog also fines PhotobookShop for editing a paid review from an influencer who had described process as ‘fiddly’
NIU Today - Two business graduate degrees reimagined with a bold AI focus
Beginning this fall, two graduate degrees within the College of Business’s Department of Operations Management and Information Systems (OM&IS) will be reimagined to emphasize their focus on artificial intelligence and analytics. Formerly known as the Master of Science in Data Analytics (MSDA) degree, this degree has been transformed into the Master of Science in Business...
2026 NCAA Tournament second round schedule: March Madness bracket, game dates, tip times, TV channels
Check out the master schedule for the first and second rounds of the 2026 NCAA Tournament so you can watch all the March Madness
Bipartisan Senate bill would ban sports betting on online prediction markets
Bill was introduced in the Senate on Monday as prediction market companies face greater scrutiny on state level
Cycling, crystals and cutting-edge science: the secrets of Hodgkinson and Hunter Bell’s success
The training duo who oversaw famous medal success in Torun believe the best is yet to come for their athletes
Data Is at the Heart of What Public Health Does
Data is key to protecting the health and safety of a community, from identifying and tracking disease outbreaks to ensuring that water is safe to drink. Data is also vital to understanding where resources are most needed. This value is especially apparent to the officials charged with protecting public health, such as Dr. Janet Berreman, Kauai’s (Kauaʻi’s)* district health officer.
Starmer says ‘every lever’ will be explored to ease rising costs of living from Iran conflict
PM will chair Cobra meeting with key ministers and Bank of England on Monday, as experts warn of economic shock
Trump whistleblower Alex Vindman: ‘Sitting on the sidelines was not an option’
Democratic Senate hopeful says experience of being key witness in Trump’s first impeachment makes him right choice for Florida
Small swings, high drama: why UK polls are less volatile than they seem
In what is beginning to look like a fragmented five-party system, small swings carry outsized political consequences
‘Anyone but Labour’ or ‘anyone but Reform’? Clash of animosities likely to define May local elections
While Labour braces for a rout that could see off Starmer, a rising drive to keep out Farage is complicating expectations
What’s at stake for UK in May’s local elections: six key questions
Reform, Plaid Cymru, the SNP and the Greens are all banking on big gains and nationwide repercussions
Breaking the Cycle review – meet the charismatic Thai politician striving to change his country’s history
Gripping documentary examines the Future Forward Party’s unprecedented 2019 election result, and its leader’s aim to break Thailand’s repeated military coups
Funding for populist-right ‘media-political complex’ exceeded £170m in five years, research finds
Handful of billionaires gave huge sums in particular to media organisations that boosted rightwing politicians, says Liam Byrne MP
Your Thymus and Your Healthspan
Our thymus gland plays a central role in the development or our immune system, specifically for supporting T cell development (how these cells got their name, maturation and differentiation in the thymus) and discriminating between self and foreign, non-self antigen proteins with production of dendritic cells. As we age, our thymus gland shrinks—the process known as involution—with progressive change from spongy to fatty tissue, with loss of functionality. But this process, with respect to timeline and extent, markedly varies from one person to the next. And to make things even more complicated, our thymus gland anatomy and precise location in the chest also is highly variable. So the famous Frank Netter diagrams from the 1960s (such as at left below) don’t capture the remarkable heterogeneity that a random set of 12 chest CT scans (below at right). What I consider as 2 landmark papers in Nature this week (here and here) used AI to quantify health of the thymus in 2 large cohorts, and then correlate the metric to a broad array of health outcomes. In this edition of Ground Truths, I’m going to cover three questions: (1) How was thymus health determined by AI?; (2) How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? and (3) Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? Subscribe 1. How was thymus health determined by AI? This was accomplished by extensive work developing and validating an AI pipeline for 2 stages, the first for localization and segmentation of the thymus bed, and the second to quantify a digital marker, termed the thymic health score. There’s a lot to this algorithmic development, so I won’t go into all the details, but just provide a rudimentary outline of what was done. The 1st stage used supervised learning with 2 radiologists reviewing 2,461 chest CT scans. That work trained a 3D U-Net model to automatically identify the thymic bed’s 3D cropped region using center of mass coordinates, which reached 99.8% accuracy. The 2nd stage used a foundation model that was pre-trained with SwAV (which stands for Swapping Assignment between multiple Views), a self-supervised model, that generated a high-dimensional thymus representation of 4,096 features. That compares to the radiology reductionist and subjective scoring of 0 to 3 where 0 means the thymus is fully degenerated and fatty, and 3 is considered dense, intact glandular soft tissue. Notably, the self-supervised learning (SSL) performance was superior to supervised (AUC ~0.75 vs 0.55, respectively) reflecting the shallowness of the 0-3 classifier vs SSL’s holistic, self-taught AI. The thymic health score ranged from 0 to 100, with the highest number indexed to fully preserved thymic health. The algorithmic work extended to explainability with both Shapely value distribution, meaning the model was holistic not relying on any “magic” pixel, and occlusion sensitivity, demonstrating the model’s performance was not affected by ribs, sternum, lung tissue, but rather focused on the thymic bed directly. Below are a few saliency maps from the occlusion sensitivity that indicate the thymic bed focus, not affected by neighboring structures, using the jet color scale. Now the AI was ready for processing ~25,000 CT scans, each over 30 MB files, from the 2 large participant cohorts to provide a thymic health score, it did so in less than 14 hours, which is less than 2 seconds per scan! Share 2. How is thymus health linked to key clinical outcomes? The two cohorts were the National Lung Screening Trial, NLST (N=25,031) and the Framingham Heart Study, FHS (N=2,581) each with baseline demographics and long term follow up of >12 years for health outcomes. From the NSLT, you can see below that increased age and body-mass index were correlated to reduced thymic health. And, overall, men had reduced thymic health scores compared with women. There are a lot of graphs in the paper for outcomes, for both the NLST and FHS cohorts. To simplify the major outcomes, below is a composite Figure with striking reduction of all-cause mortality and for the different causes of death. The results were consistent between the 2 cohorts. For example, the cardiovascular mortality hazard ratio average was 0.57 in NLST and 0.38 in FHS (weighted to be 0.53 for the aggregate). The reduction of mortality also extended to digestive diseases and pulmonary disease (data not shown below). Lung cancer incidence was reduced by 36% for high vs low thymic health (Figure below, with a panel -incidence and b panel-mortality, adjusted for age, sex, BMI, smoking status). Notably, there was a smoker’s paradox: lower incidence and improved survival for lung cancer in smokers who had a high thymus health score. Smoking was associated with lower thymic scores whereas alcohol was not. Higher thymic health was linked to higher HDL cholesterol, lower triglycerides, lower fasting blood glucose, and lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure. Inflammation biomarkers, such as C-reactive protein and interleukin-6, were elevated in the people with lower thymic health scores. In their second paper, the same team looked at the relationship between thymic score and outcomes for 3,476 patients receiving cancer immunotherapy. The non-small cell lung cancer progression-free survival was reduced in patients with low thymic health score. A parallel relationship for survival was seen for other types of cancer including melanoma, breast, and kidney with a 44% lower risk among high thymic scores (Figure). A similar pattern was seen with different immune checkpoint inhibitors. The thymus health score outperformed programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1)and tumor mutation burden (TMB) assay of the tumor and was an independent prognostic marker of progression-free survival. In this dataset, a direct connect with thymus score and adaptive immune function was noted with a correlation before cancer treatment for both T-cell diversity and thymus T-cell production (a metric known as T cell receptor excision circles). Thymus Removal Study There is a highly relevant citation about thymus function before moving onto ways to rejuvenate it. In 2023, a very important study of thymus removal during cardiothoracic surgery was published, with 1146 patients undergoing thymus removal vs 1146 matched controls (mean age 55 years). The adverse outcomes for thymus removal were striking, with a 2.9 higher risk of all-cause mortality and doubling of cancer incidence, 1.5 fold increase in cancer mortality, and 1.5-fold increase in autoimmune diseases. The immune function showed marked compromise after thymus removal, as reflected by CD4+ and CD8+ T cells (Figure below) Share Ground Truths 3. Are there ways we can promote a healthy (aka rejuvenate) thymus gland in our later years? In recent months we’ve learned a lot about the process of thymus involution and the pathways by which this may be modulated. Thymus involution is primarily due to loss to thymus epithelial cells (TECs) and there are 2 subtypes with different functions: the cortical, responsible for positive selection of T cells, and the medullary, for negative selection. When adipose tissue infiltrates the thymus, thymic adipocytes are pro-inflammatory, knocking out T-cell output. Likewise, systemic inflammation, or “inflammaging,” from smoking, obesity, and chronic stress promote thymic adipocytes. Now, from preclinical studies, we know about key pathways that account for these processes. Historically, back in 2014, FOXN1 was recognized as a single master transcription factor essential for TEC function, with studies in mice with forced FOXN1 upregulation leading to thymus regeneration. That laid the foundation for potential regrowth of quiescent thymus cells. It took awhile to find pathways to accomplish this goal and to even refute its role as the master regulator. The Liver-Thymus Axis Feng Zhang and his team recently showed that injection of an mRNA vaccine to the liver encoding DLL1, IL-7 and FLT3-L in combination, factors known to support thymopoiesis (Figure), successfully enhanced immune function in aged mice. However, the effect was transient. The FGF21 Story Two reports in 2025 addressed the thymus gland’s production of FGF21, a growth factor (fibroblast growth factor 21) and its control of thymus involution. This growth factor is also produced by the liver, but it doesn’t have impact on the thymus in aged rodent models. In contrast, The liver’s hepatocyte growth factor (HGF) has been shown to reverse senescent TEC structural changes. Growth hormone stimulates production of insulin growth factor-1 (IGF-1) in the liver and the thymus. Two small studies in human participants (TRIIM, for Thymus Regeneration, Immunorestoration, and Insulin Mitigation) of 6 and 50 people, respectively, treated with combined human growth hormone, metformin and DHEA, suggested the potential of slowing epigenetic aging and improving thymus mass and function. But the combination of drugs, small sample, and lack of controls make conclusions murky. Increased thymus FGF21 led to increased CD8 T cells in old mice and extended healthspan and improved physical performance. Building on the previous FOXN1 data, ablation of β-klotho, the obligatory co-receptor for FOXN1, accelerated thymic aging. The benefit to FGF21 was confirmed in a companion paper using an FGF21 knock-in mouse model showing thymus enlargement and increased TECs throughout the lifespan. (schematic Figure below). The accompanying editorial for these 2 papers speculated: “The proposed link between age-associated thymus involution and organismal aging is intriguing, and suggests we might seek to achieve systemic rejuvenation by counteracting thymic involution.” Other Factors Lessons from the Axolotl (Mexican Salamander) In an elegant set of experiments of the axolotl (Figure), known for its complete thymus regeneration after total surgical removal, mediators were identified. Surprisingly FOXN1 was dispensable. But midkine, a growth factor, appeared to be the driver, the initiator of thymus cell growth, survival, and repair. Other components that contributed were Postn+ (periostin-expressing mesenchymal niches) and Ccl19, a chemokine protein from the bloodstream. RANK and RANKL RANK (receptor activator of nuclear factor κB its ligand (RANKL) have been considered key regulators of medullary TECs. In a study of both aged mice and human thymus cell cultures, their key role was confirmed, with multiple benefits of resorting TEC function, recruitment of progenitor cells, and T cell development. Subscribe Summing Up This body of work strongly supports the health of the thymus gland as a critical regulator of human healthspan, not just a correlate or link. The new landmark studies are reinforced by the regenerative biology experimental models that have shown, via an array of mediators, that healthspan of aged mice is at least in part dependent on thymus gland function and its critical role for maintaining adaptive immunity. It sure seems that we’d be better off having an immune reservoir of naive T cells instead of a profile in older adults of exhausted, low quality, memory T cells, with a senescent phenotype. It is striking that we ignored the importance of the thymus gland for many decades. A wake-up call was the results of the thymectomy matched control study reviewed here, with the opposite of high thymic health score improved health outcomes. The convergence of AI and healthspan here is notable. The exceptional and laborious work for developing and validating (no less explaining) the AI to quantify thymus health set the foundation for probing the connect the major health outcomes in two cohorts with extensive follow-up. We’ve never had a way to meaningfully quantify the thymus gland before, so this represents important leverage of supervised, self-supervised, and transformer models. The study wouldn’t have been possible without AI. And it begs the question as to whether there are ways we can maintain our thymus at a high health score. But it’s not so simple to rejuvenate our thymus. There are multiple risks including the induction of autoimmunity, increasing the risk of cancer, and inducing a pro-inflammatory state. For example, factors that increase TEC proliferation could compromise the medulllary negative selection process and leak out auto-reactive (self-attacking) T cells. Thymic cells could be induced to proliferate, but we know, for example, that growth hormone and IGF-1 are associated with an increase risk of cancer. If thymus rejuvenation doesn’t clear out the accumulated senescent cells in older adults, then inflammation within the gland could block the production of TECs. Keeping these risks in mind, we now have identified many ways to keep our thymus healthy as we age that undoubtedly will be tested in clinical trials going forward. Ultimately, the benefit-to-risk tradeoffs will be defined. In the meantime, we have desperately needed an immunome. As I’ve stressed in multiple prior Ground Truths, we have no test in the clinic to assess a patient’s immune status! It was very encouraging for me to get an email from Hugo Aerts, the senior author of the landmark papers in the days after they were published: “I also wanted to say that your Substack on “Why We Need an Immunome” was inspiring for this work. We found it a very compelling perspective and greatly enjoyed reading it.” Just having an assessment of a person’s immune status via a chest CT scan, with millions of these performed per year, might help in guiding the right immunotherapy for cancer (e.g. more intensive, combinations for those with low thymic health scores) and help define people who are increased risk for age-related diseases of cancer, cardiovascular, and neurodegenerative. The main theme of Super Agers is that we now have many layers of data (genetics, proteins, biomarkers, organ clocks that can be integrated via multimodal AI) for us to define a person’s specific risk decades before one of these age-related diseases leads to symptoms, enabling prevention. From the new studies this week, we can add thymus health score as yet another way to understand a person’s risk, a window into their adaptive immune system and healthspan. And perhaps someday we will be able to safely rejuvenate the thymus, or maintain its health through one’s life, and use the thymus health score to monitor. NB: I wrote this post (No A.I.) A Quick Poll Loading... ********************************************************************* Thanks to Ground Truths subscribers (now > 200,000) from every US state and 212 countries. Your subscription to these free essays and podcasts makes my work in putting them together worthwhile. Please join! If you found this interesting PLEASE share it! Share Ground Truths Paid subscriptions are voluntary and all proceeds from them go to support Scripps Research. They do allow for posting comments and questions, which I do my best to respond to. Please don’t hesitate to post comments and give me feedback. Let me know topics that you would like to see covered. Leave a comment Many thanks to those who have contributed—they have greatly helped fund our summer internship programs for the past two years. It enabled us to accept and support 47 summer interns in 2025! We aim to accept even more of the several thousand who will apply for summer 2026.
United Airlines Just Issued a Playbook for Any Business Staggered by Skyrocketing Costs
In a letter to employees, CEO Scott Kirby delivered a master class on boosting morale as he deals with the impact of surging jet fuel prices.
The trope of ‘choosing pets over people’ is not new
Letter: The problem isn’t the beaver on the banknote – it’s a politics that no longer recognises what holds value, writes Dr Michael J Richardson
‘You lose yourself’: inside the mental health crisis hitting gen X women
My generation had great role models, free university and the morning-after pill. We should be running the world. Instead, two-thirds of us are facing mental health problems – and it’s not all about the menopause
VoidStealer malware steals Chrome master key via debugger trick
An information stealer called VoidStealer uses a new approach to bypass Chrome's Application-Bound Encryption (ABE) and extract the master key for decrypting sensitive data stored in the browser.
American football takes for ever. In which other sports do you spend most of your time not playing the game?
The long-running series in which readers answer other readers’ questions on subjects ranging from trivial flights of fancy to profound scientific and philosophical concepts
It’s time to take politics out of the Small Business Administration
The White House’s politicization of the agency will have a real-world impact on small business owners in the US
It’s time to take politics out of the Small Business Administration
The White House’s politicization of the agency will have a real-world impact on small business owners in the US
‘We can create hype’: H&M’s UK boss on its commitment to the high street
As the chain marks 50th anniversary in Britain, Karen O’Rourke explains what makes it stand out against cut-price rivals
Jacob Devaney: Man United loanee puts in midfield masterclass
Manchester United had six players in loan action on Saturday afternoon.To find out where all of Manchester United’s loanees are plying their trade this season, click hereEthan EnnisEnnis played the ...