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Pearl Abyss boss admits the studio "could have done a better job" with Crimson Desert's totally underwhelming story
Pearl Abyss' CEO has addressed widespread disappointment with Crimson Desert's story.
Trump imagines negotiation with Sharpie maker for $5 signature pens
Trump told a lengthy story about negotiating over the price of Sharpie pens. The company says it has no record of any such conversation.
Opinion | History Can Teach Us About ‘Settled Science’
Knowledge is always evolving, and we could do with a little more scientific humility.
Studying human-robot interaction, CWRU researcher explores tech-enabled mental health support | CWRU Newsroom | Case Western Reserve University
Editor’s note: Jasmine Vo, the author of this story, is a student employee in the University Marketing and Communications department. She is a fourt...
Pearl Abyss CEO Addresses ‘Disappointment’ In Crimson Desert’s Story
Crimson Desert has a great sandbox but a lackluster story, so much so that the CEO has addressed the problem with shareholders.
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.
'Major disruption in Neanderthal history': 65,000 years ago, all Neanderthals in Europe died out except for one lineage
The last Neanderthals to survive in Europe came from a single lineage that survived the worst period of the ice age, ancient DNA reveals.
Cultural program explores gender and politics in the kitchen in ‘Cookbooks Against War’
The Cedar Rapids Public Library will host a presentation by Dr. Abby M. Dubisar, “Cookbooks Against War,” exploring domestic roles and how these works ignite activism. This free event is open to the public and funded by Humanities Iowa, a private nonprofit supporting culture and history programs in the state.
Opinion: A billionaire walks into a Golden Corral: The Rick Jackson story
Voters at Jackson's stump speech connected with the wealthy health care executive. Some said they were reminded of Trump.
Consumer Discretionary - Casino Operator Stocks Q4 Recap: Benchmarking Golden Entertainment (NASDAQ:GDEN)
Quarterly earnings results are a good time to check in on a company’s progress, especially compared to its peers in the same sector. Today we are looking at Golden Entertainment (NASDAQ:GDEN) and the best and worst performers in the consumer discretionary - casino operator industry.
Top 'I told you so' moments in the history of science
Talking about how science functions and malfunctions is important for people to understand.
Q4 Consumer Discretionary - Casino Operator Earnings: PENN Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) Earns Top Marks
As the Q4 earnings season wraps, let’s dig into this quarter’s best and worst performers in the consumer discretionary - casino operator industry, including ...
Q4 Consumer Discretionary - Casino Operator Earnings: PENN Entertainment (NASDAQ:PENN) Earns Top Marks
As the Q4 earnings season wraps, let’s dig into this quarter’s best and worst performers in the consumer discretionary - casino operator industry, including PENN Entertainment NASDAQ:PENN and its peers. The Consumer Discretionary sector, by definition, is made up of companies selling non-essential…
Preserving Detroit History: City awards grants to 30 long-standing local businesses
On Thursday evening, 30 Detroit legacy businesses were awarded a grant by the Detroit Economic Growth Corporation and the mayor's office.
Know your exposure story: military to provide access to individual occ
In a significant move toward greater transparency and health care empowerment, the Military Health System is urging service members to "Know Your Exposure Story." Starting March 23, 2026, U.S. service
The Tacit Politics of Pixar’s Latest Hit, ‘Hoppers’
Hoppers offers a surprisingly radical message for a story about talking animals.
D.H.S. Funding Lapse Leads to Longest Partial Shutdown in History
If the shutdown continues after this weekend, it will be longer than any previous shutdown, partial or full.
Google Gemini Adds Tool to Make It Easier to Switch from ChatGPT
Google released new tools for its Gemini artificial intelligence assistant that will let users upload chat history and context from other AI apps, a move to lure users from rivals like OpenAI’s ChatGPT and Anthropic PBC’s Claude.
Colorectal Cancer Awareness Month: Disney executive shares story to encourage people to get screened
Disney VP Mitch Gubin shares his experience with colorectal cancer, highlighting why it's important to get tested at any age.
'Come Back for the Adventure' — After a Turbulent 6 Months, Borderlands 4 Gets Its First Big DLC, and Gearbox Hopes Lapsed Fans Return for It
IGN interviews Gearbox on Borderlands 4's first Story Pack DLC: Mad Ellie and the Vault of the Damned.
S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope - First Details About the Major Heart of Chornobyl Expansion
A massive new storyline, two new regions - including the Chornobyl Nuclear Power Plant - that can take dozens of hours to explore, and much more. All in the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. 2: Cost of Hope expansion announced at #XboxPartnerPreview:
WEBTOON Entertainment Announces Unified International CANVAS Platform, Helping Creators Grow Their Audience and Earnings
WEBTOON Entertainment Inc. (Nasdaq: WBTN), a global entertainment company and home to some of the world’s largest storytelling platforms, today announced a u...
Return of ‘No Kings’: Here’s what to know about third Seattle protest
Seattle organizers hope to mobilize more than 100,000 people this time around, which would make it perhaps the largest protest in the city's history.
Fourteen Emory faculty named Fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science | Emory University
A record number of Emory faculty have been elected to the newest Class of AAAS Fellows in recognition of outstanding efforts to advance science.
UCLA softball coach Kelly Inouye-Perez breaking records amid changing landscape
Last month, Inouye-Perez became the winningest coach for the winningest program in softball history.
Radio, TV, newspaper, digital: Women in regional media
Worcester Magazine's annual Women Making History special feature focuses on movers, shapers and thinkers in the region's news and entertainment media.
Jokic, Murray, put up historic numbers together in Nuggets' win
Jamal Murray and Nikola Jokic have had historic games for the Denver Nuggets before, but rarely do they occur on the same night. Murray scored a season-high 53 points and Jokic had his 30th triple-double of the season with 23 points, 21 points and 19 assists in a 142-135 win over the Dallas Mavericks. Denver is the first team in NBA history to have one player with 50 points and another with at least 15 points, 15 rebounds and 15 assists in the same game.
New ‘Prehistoric Wisconsin’ exhibit features items from the former Weis Earth Science Museum
The exhibit is located at the History Museum at the Castle in Appleton.
Two from Cornell elected 2025 AAAS Fellows
Engineering professor Lara Estroff and plant science professor Klaas van Wijk have been elected fellows of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the world’s largest general scientific society.
Scientists open a million-year-old time capsule beneath New Zealand
Deep inside a cave, scientists uncovered fossils from 16 species, including a newfound kākāpō ancestor that may have been able to fly. These remains reveal that New Zealand’s ecosystems were constantly disrupted by volcanic eruptions and rapid climate shifts. Long before humans, waves of extinction and replacement reshaped the islands’ wildlife. It’s a rare window into a missing chapter of natural history.
‘Beyond the Gates’: Tamara Tunie on Anita’s Devastating Cancer Low Point
Tunie opens up about the emotional and physical toll of the 'powerful' storyline, as well as how viewers have responded to Anita's cancer experience.
A story of carnival, dance and politics
“I saw the power of combining story with dance and fashion and was really intrigued by the dynamics of that combination,” Amy Kimberly, former executive
There's no such thing as a shark, suggest scientists | BBC Science Focus Magazine
Analysis of shark DNA has thrown a wrench into our understanding of these sharp-toothed predators and their evolutionary history
How to watch ‘Wuthering Heights’ on Prime Video
Margot Robbie and Jacob Elordi star in this tumultuous love story set against the Yorkshire moors.
Dogs were man's best friend far earlier than thought
A jawbone found in a Somerset cave rewrites the story of when and how dogs became our best friends.
Sky River's Five-Story Parking Garage Opens, Advancing Entertainment and Tribal Development in Elk Grove
Sky River Casino has now opened its new five‑story parking structure, an investment that strengthens Wilton Rancheria’s long‑term economic development strategy that is firmly rooted in the Tribe’s resilience and vision for future generations. Featuring 1,600 parking stalls across 681,263 square feet, the structure seamlessly connects with the recently expanded 20,000‑square‑foot gaming floor through an […]
Glyphosate: A story of science, risk, and nuance
In the summer of 2014, a California groundskeeper named Dewayne Johnson started noticing patches of raw, weeping skin spreading across his body. He had spent years applying Roundup, Monsanto’s glyphosate-based herbicide, for a school district, sometimes drenched in it when equipment malfunctioned. By 2014, he had a diagnosis: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma. In 2018, a jury awarded him $289 million in damages, later reduced on appeal. Tens of thousands of lawsuits followed. The story hasn’t quieted down. It’s all over the internet, swinging between “this will kill you, buy organic” and “relax, you’re fear-mongering.” Some of that recent chatter stems from an Executive Order protecting glyphosate and its production, which set off intense infighting within the MAHA movement. Some of it reflects a deeper truth: Americans genuinely care about harmful chemicals in their environment (see poll below). And the conversation isn’t going anywhere, with a Supreme Court case involving Monsanto set for this April. Glyphosate (the active ingredient in Roundup) is one of the most widely used herbicides in the world. But does glyphosate cause cancer? And how much exposure is actually risky? With so much mistrust in institutions and corporations (and some genuine conflicts of interest), making sense of the actual scientific evidence is genuinely hard. Here is a translation of what the scientific evidence actually says. Does glyphosate cause harm? Glyphosate is an herbicide that kills most plants it contacts rather than targeting specific species. It works by blocking an enzyme pathway (EPSPS) that plants and many microorganisms need to produce essential amino acids. Without those amino acids, the plant can’t grow and dies. Glyphosate was first developed by Monsanto in the 1970s and became ubiquitous after the company introduced “Roundup Ready” crops in the 1990s. In 2024, Bayer removed glyphosate from residential Roundup-branded products due to litigation pressure. But today it is still the most widely used herbicide in the world. Farmers also discovered they could spray it directly on crops like oats, lentils, beans, and peas just before harvest to dry them out faster and make harvesting easier. Because of its widespread use, it’s obviously really important to understand if it’s harmful to humans. The key principle: The dose makes the poison The most important concept in toxicology is that “the dose makes the poison.” Sixteenth-century physician Paracelsus articulated what remains the foundational principle of toxicology: sola dosis facit venenum. Water will kill you if you drink enough of it. Aspirin saves lives at 81 milligrams and causes internal bleeding at higher chronic doses. So, at what dose is glyphosate poisonous? The LD50 in rats (the dose that kills half the test animals) is around 5,600 mg/kg body weight. Table salt is roughly 3,000 mg/kg. By that classic measure, glyphosate is less acutely toxic than salt. But some people are exposed to a lot of glyphosate through their work. And among the general public, there are many questions about low-dose, cumulative exposure from multiple sources over long periods. Does glyphosate cause health problems? Cancer Correlation maps are striking, with one analysis finding that 60% of counties that spray the most glyphosate have non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma rates above the national average. But correlation alone doesn’t establish cause, which is why animal and human studies matter. In animals: Rat studies are typically what most fear is rooted in, but most people don’t know the study details on the dosage given to rats. A pooled analysis of the 13 most rigorous rat studies found evidence that very high doses, around 55,000 times greater than typical food residue exposure, can cause certain cancers. In humans: One of the strongest studies followed 55,000 herbicide users over 20 years and found no overall increased cancer risk. There was one signal: among those with the highest use, rates of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) appeared elevated. A broader meta-analysis of 18 human studies also found no overall cancer risk, though a separate meta-analysis focused specifically on non-Hodgkin lymphoma found that people with high cumulative glyphosate exposure faced a 41% higher relative risk compared to those with low or no exposure. These human studies are observational studies (randomized controlled trials would be unethical), and meta-analyses are only as reliable as the studies they pool. But the story seems consistent: at very high exposure levels, there may be some cancer risk. But that’s about as far as the science currently takes us. Emerging research: gut and reproductive health Gut: Because glyphosate targets a pathway that exists in some gut bacteria, scientists have questioned whether it could affect the microbiome. In mice, a 2023 University of Iowa study found that glyphosate altered gut bacterial composition and raised markers of intestinal inflammation. A 2024 systematic review found similar patterns: disrupted gut bacteria and problems with the mucus layer that protects the intestinal wall in mice. Whether this translates to humans is an open question. The human gut is highly variable and resistant, and we don't yet have strong studies confirming the same effects in people. Reproductive health: Animal studies have found that glyphosate-based herbicides can interfere with reproductive hormones, including disrupting egg cell development in mice and reducing the number of eggs available in sheep’s ovaries. However, the doses used in these experiments were high, so it’s not yet clear whether the same effects would occur in humans. On the human side, a 2021 pilot study led by Mount Sinai researchers tested urine samples from pregnant women across the U.S. and found glyphosate in 95% of them. The study also found a possible connection between higher glyphosate exposure during pregnancy and a subtle physical difference measured in female newborns. That said, some connections weren’t statistically reliable and this was a small study. The researchers themselves said more and larger studies are needed before drawing firm conclusions. What do regulators say about glyphosate safety? In 2015, the International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC), part of the World Health Organization, classified glyphosate as "probably carcinogenic to humans" (Group 2A). The classification is worth taking seriously. But, there’s an important distinction: IARC classifies hazard, meaning the potential to cause harm under some conditions. It does not assess risk, which accounts for actual exposure levels and the real-world probability of harm. The U.S. EPA, the European Food Safety Authority, Health Canada, and regulatory agencies in Australia and Japan have all concluded that glyphosate is “unlikely to be carcinogenic to humans” at realistic exposure levels. They’re asking a different question: given how much of this people actually encounter, what is the probability of harm? Your actual exposure is what determines your actual risk. What does glyphosate mean for your daily life? At the grocery store: Food residues are small. The EPA’s acceptable daily intake is 1.75 mg/kg of body weight per day. To hit that threshold from oatmeal alone, a 150-pound adult would need to eat roughly 50 pounds of oats every day. But this calculation addresses only one pathway (food), and we don’t yet have robust tools to measure people’s actual total exposure. If reducing exposure matters to you, organic certification prohibits synthetic herbicides, and organic oat products generally test at lower or undetectable levels. Either way, a diet rich in whole grains, conventional or organic, is far better for your health than one that omits them out of fear of residues. On the farm: Occupational exposure is orders of magnitude higher than consumer exposure. Farmers and farm workers who mix, load, and apply glyphosate-based herbicides, especially without protective equipment, face meaningfully different risk profiles. Proper PPE isn’t optional. Integrated weed management strategies that rotate chemical modes of action are also worth taking seriously, both for health and for long-term effectiveness. If you live near a farm: Spray drift is real. Concentrations near field edges can spike during and after application, particularly on windy days. This is an area where I think public health could really step up and empower rural communities with buffer zones, rather than placing the onus on individuals. But for now, knowing your local agricultural calendar and keeping windows closed during application are the first steps. Bottom line Dewayne Johnson was exposed to glyphosate at levels most people will never encounter, and a jury decided he deserved compensation. That outcome is not evidence that the oatmeal in your pantry is dangerous. But it is a reminder that the dose, the context, and the person doing the exposing all matter enormously. Glyphosate is a chemical tool with benefits, trade-offs, and genuine open scientific questions. Learning to hold that complexity without collapsing into panic or dismissal is, honestly, one of the most useful and hardest things to do in navigating modern health science. Love, YLE Your Local Epidemiologist (YLE) is founded and operated by Dr. Katelyn Jetelina, MPH PhD—an epidemiologist, wife, and mom of two little girls. Hannah Totte, MPH, is an epidemiologist and YLE Community Manager. YLE reaches more than 425,000 people in over 132 countries with one goal: “Translate” the ever-evolving public health science so that people will be well-equipped to make evidence-based decisions. This newsletter is free to everyone, thanks to the generous support of fellow YLE community members. To support the effort, subscribe or upgrade below: Subscribe
Partnership in Action: Reimagining Climate and Health Funding Together
Climate Communities Network members explore funding strategies to sustain community-based climate and health work amid shifting challenges.
How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the New York Yankees
A feel-good story about winning, losing, raising kids, the joy of sports, and, well, the Battle of Stalingrad.
American Express Launches New Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card, Kicking Off the Most Significant Year for Commercial Product Expansion in Company History
American Express Launches New Graphite™ Business Cash Unlimited Card, Kicking Off the Most Significant Year for Commercial Product Expansion in Company History
DJ Lagway leaves Florida drama behind him, rewriting his story at Baylor
DJ Lagway was No. 1 QB in his recruiting class. But self-induced isolation and a run of injuries derailed Florida career. Baylor is a fresh start.
Charles County Science Fair Winners Announced Following Annual Expo
WALDORF, Md. – Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) held the 10th annual History, Industry, Technology and Science Expo, also known as HITS, on March 21 at St. Charles High School. Each year the Expo features student history and science fair projects on display for judging. Science fair project categories included behavioral/medicine and health science, chemistry, […]
‘Project Hail Mary’ Is Out-of-this-world Entertainment
Back in 2017, filmmakers Phil Lord and Christopher Miller were hired and, several months into filming, fired from the Han Solo prequel movie, “Solo: A Star Wars Story.”
Orlando City signs Antoine Griezmann in landmark MLS move
Orlando City has completed one of the most significant signings in Major League Soccer history, confirming the arrival of Antoine Griezmann from Atlético de Madrid.The French forward will join the cl...
Mohamed Salah: Who is the Premier League's greatest forward?
As Mohamed Salah announces he will leave Liverpool this summer, BBC Sport asks you to rank the best forwards in Premier League history.
Superstar Connor McDavid hits multiple milestones in Utah
McDavid became the third-fastest player in NHL history to hit 1,200 points — and that’s not the only milestone he hit on Tuesday.
Sphere Entertainment (SPHR) Stock Trades Up, Here Is Why
Shares of content production and distribution company Sphere Entertainment (NYSE:SPHR) jumped 3.1% in the afternoon session after positive analyst sentiment and a rating upgrade from an investment analysis firm fueled investor optimism.
Hubert Davis out as North Carolina men's basketball coach after five seasons
North Carolina fired men’s basketball coach Hubert Davis after five seasons during which the Tar Heels won but not at the consistent level of the program’s storied history.
FTI Consulting (NYSE:FCN): Strongest Q4 Results from the Business Process Outsourcing & Consulting Group
As the Q4 earnings season wraps, let’s dig into this quarter’s best and worst performers in the business process outsourcing & consulting industry, including FTI Consulting (NYSE:FCN) and its peers.
Commentary: When conservation becomes entertainment
My parents love to tell the story about the time I protested going to the aquarium when I was eight years old.
Pistons’ Duncan Robinson shares personal story while supporting Detroit youth mental health
The Detroit Pistons Foundation, Children’s Foundation of Michigan, Duncan Robinson, and the Robinson Family Foundation made a special announcement in support of SAY Detroit’s LiveWELL Program, which provides school-based youth development programming focused on mental health, wellness, and life skills for Detroit Youth inside the SAY Detroit Play Center at Lipke Park.
These politicians are putting politics over people, Kerri Urbahn says
Fox News legal editor Kerri Urbahn discusses efforts to stop illegal immigration amid instances of crime from illegal migrants on 'The Story.'
UCF is raising money for scholarship fund to honor Jim Clark
UCF plans to give out the Dr. James C. Clark Scholarship to a history enthusiast in honor of the late professor.
Leveraging storytelling in politics
Community college marketing and communications staff play a key role in providing the visuals and storytelling in a college's efforts to educate and influence lawmakers and other stakeholders. That...
Women-owned shops in Montgomery County bring variety to local business scene
In honor of Women's History Month, the Valley Forge Visitors and Convention Board puts the spotlight on a few of the many women-owned businesses in the county. From a cheese monger in Skippack at the Grand Fromage to Ardmore shop Plant 4 Good and Cyrenity Sips Winery in Hatboro.
CCPS students place in 2026 science fair
Charles County Public Schools (CCPS) held the 10th annual History, Industry, Technology and Science Expo, also known as HITS, on March 21 at St. Charles High School.
Charlie’s Beat: A healthy life, well lived
Today’s story comes from a personal perspective, about a person who’s been in my life for close to 50 years. Bryant Stamford was the Fitness & Nutrition columnist for the
Scientists Sequenced the DNA of the ‘Last Neanderthal’—and It Alters Human History
Discover new clues about how our ancient relatives disappeared from time.
Talking politics at work may support employee well‑being
Study challenges the conventional wisdom about avoiding talking politics at work, showing that it can sometimes benefit employee well-being.
We’re Suing the Trump Administration for Removing Science, History from Our National Parks
We cannot fully understand our country and climate without publicly accessible and accurate historical and scientific information.
Three Hawks Named to College Sports Communicators Women's Basketball Academic All-District Team
WEST HARTFORD, Conn. - On Tuesday, the College Sports Communicators (CSC) Academic All-District women's basketball teams were announced with three members of the Hartford volleyball team featured.
Notre Dame, NBC Sports panel reflects on 20 years of ‘What Would You Fight For?’ storytelling
On Thursday (March 19), the University of Notre Dame hosted an event celebrating 20 years of storytelling through the “What Would You Fight For?” (WWYFF) campaign. Part of the 2025-26 Notre Dame Forum, the panel discussion brought together leaders from the University and NBC Sports to reflect on the impact and evolution of this storytelling platform.
Women's NCAA Tournament Round 2 winners, losers: Virginia make history, Iowa fizzles
USA TODAY has followed every upset, buzzer-beater and game from the 2026 Women's NCAA Tournament and rounded up our winners and losers from round two:
Sports Take: 4 things to watch as spring practice approaches
Baylor football’s spring practice opens Tuesday. Here are four major storylines to watch for.
CuSTEMized: Personalized Storybooks Inspire the Next Generation of Female Scientists
Custom books feature girls as STEM heroes, aiming to build their confidence and encourage them to pursue their scientific ambitions through storytelling and pictures.
Review: Inside the night Jo Koy and Fluffy made comedy history at SoFi Stadium
The veteran comedians created an intimate experience despite the enormous venue, drawing the crowd together through storytelling and humor from start to finish.
Brian Doherty, 57, Dies; Chronicled Libertarians and Other Outsiders
Fascinated by the fringes, he wrote a definitive history of libertarianism and books about underground comics and the Burning Man festival.
From radio to newsreels to Netflix, Yankees chart course through entertainment history
For more than a century, the Yankees have been more than a baseball team. The sport’s most storied franchise is a pop culture touchstone, a versatile backdrop that serves as both a symbol of excellence and a punchline across television, movies and more. So as the Yankees prepare to break
Apple Reportedly Preparing 'Biggest Set of iPhone Revamps' Ever
Apple is working on "the biggest set of iPhone revamps in the product's history," according to the latest word from Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. Specifically, he is referring to the long-rumored foldable iPhone, as well as an ambitious 20th-anniversary iPhone with a truly "edge-to-edge" design.
A Look At PENN Entertainment (PENN) Valuation As Expansion Projects And New Financing Move Ahead
Expansion plans and fresh financing reshape the PENN Entertainment story PENN Entertainment (PENN) has put expansion and balance sheet moves front and center, with new casino and hotel projects in Aurora and Columbus alongside a fresh US$600 million senior notes offering. See our latest analysis for PENN Entertainment. Despite the new projects and financing, PENN’s 1 year total shareholder return of 21.21% and 5 year total shareholder return of 86.08% sit well behind peers. A recent 4.99% 1...
Inside the Turmoil at RFK Jr.’s CDC, as Told by Current and Former Employees
Forty-three current and former C.D.C. employees on the changes they say are replacing science with ideology — and making Americans more vulnerable.
Personnel note: Tampa Electric names Ed Narain as Director of Regional Affairs
'Tampa Electric has a long history of supporting the growth and success of the communities it serves, and I look forward to helping strengthen those partnerships.'
The politics of disability at the Academy Awards
Throughout history, disabled bodies have been portrayed as a burden.
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
The Christian Science Monitor Daily for March 23, 2026
Rethink the news: Reducing news to hard lines and side-taking leaves a lot of the story untold. Progress comes from challenging what we hear and considering different views.
Extendend interview: Dr Roham Alvandi on Iran, Britain, and the futures that might have been
From Cold War power games to the cultural aspirations of the Pahlavi era, this extended conversation pulls back the curtain on the global forces that continue to shape - and be shaped by - Iran today. Dr Roham Alvandi is Director of the Iranian History Initiative at the London School of Economics and Political Science.
Women's March Madness live updates, scores: LSU makes history in NCAA tournament; Minnesota stuns Ole Miss to advance to Sweet 16
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.
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