SCROLL NEWS / DISCOVERY
Search headlines
Find the stories shaping the conversation.
Results for " aria " 1,580 found 🔀 AI-powered Shuffle
Intel shows Texture Set Neural Compression, claims up to 18x smaller texture sets
TSNC Variant A delivers 9x texture compression, lower-quality B variant up to 18x Intel has shared new details on Texture Set Neural Compression, or TSNC,
Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 Leaks: 5,000mAh Battery and 45W Charging Finally Confirmed?
Massive Samsung Galaxy Z Fold 8 leaks reveal a game-changing "Wide" variant with a 3:4 aspect ratio, 5,000mAh battery, and 45W charging
1000 new African genomes added to global science
Wits-led AGenDA project sequenced 1,000+ African genomes, uncovering vast genetic diversity and novel variants. This helps correct Eurocentric bias in global datasets, improving disease prediction, treatment design, and ensuring African populations benefit from genomic medicine.
What is Cicada COVID? Is it in Arizona yet? All about variant BA.3.2
Vaccination and past infection may not protect against a new strain of the COVID-19 virus known as Cicada. Here's what you need to know.
Owlet nursed back to health, thanks to woods visitors, local veterinarian, firefighters
A great-horned owlet originally found on the ground in need of critical care in the UNC Asheville woods is now back home, living a healthy life.
Gemma 4 and what makes an open model succeed
Having written a lot of model release blog posts, there’s something much harder about reviewing open models when they drop relative to closed models, especially in 2026. In recent years, there were so few open models, so when Llama 3 was released most people were still doing research on Llama 2 and super happy to get an update. When Qwen 3 was released, the Llama 4 fiasco had just gone down, and a whole research community was emerging to study RL on Qwen 2.5 — it was a no brainer to upgrade. Today, when an open model releases, it’s competing with Qwen 3.5, Kimi K2.5, GLM 5, MiniMax M2.5, GPT-OSS, Arcee Large, Nemotron 3, Olmo 3, and others. The space is populated, but still feels full of hidden opportunity. The potential of open models feels like a dark matter, a potential we know is huge, but few clear recipes and examples for how to unlock it are out there. Agentic AI, OpenClaw, and everything brewing in that space is going to spur mass experimentation in open models to complement the likes of Claude and Codex, not replace them. Especially with open models, the benchmarks at release are an extremely incomplete story. In some ways this is exciting, as new open models have a much higher variance and ability to surprise, but it also points at some structural reasons that make building businesses and great AI experiences around open models harder than the closed alternatives. When a new Claude Opus or GPT drops, spending a few hours with them in my agentic workflows is genuinely a good vibe test. For open models, putting them through this test is a category error. Something else to be said about open models in the era of agents is that they get out of the debate of integration, harnesses, and tools and let us see close to the ground on what exactly is the ability of just a model. Of course, we can’t test some things like search abilities without some tool, but being able to measure exactly the pace of progress of the model alone is a welcome simplification to a systematically opaque AI space. Share The list of factors I’d use to assess a new open-weight model I’m considering investing in includes: Model performance (and size) — how this model performs on benchmarks I care about and how it compares to other models of a similar size. Country of origin — some businesses care deeply about provenance, and if a model was built in China or not. Model license — if a model needs legal approval for use, uptake will be slower at mid-sized and large companies. Tooling at release — many models release with half-broken, or at least substantially slower, implementations in popular software like vLLM, Transformers, SGLANG, etc due to pushing the envelope of architectures or tools. Model fine-tunability — how easy or hard it is to modify the given model to your use-case when you actually try and use it. The core problem is that some of these are immediately available at release, e.g. general performance, license, origin, etc. but others such as tooling take day(s) to week(s) to stabilize, and others are open research questions — with no group systematically monitoring fine-tunability. In the early era of open models, the days of Llama 2 or 3 and Qwen pre v3.5, the architectures were fairly simple and the models tended to work out of the box. Some of this was due to the extremely hard work of the Llama, Qwen, Mistral, etc. developer teams. Some is due to the new models being genuinely harder to work with. When it comes to something like Qwen 3.5 or Nemotron 3, with hybrid models (either gated delta net or mamba layers), the tooling is very rough at release. Things you would expect to “just work” often don’t. I’ve been following this area closely since we released Olmo Hybrid with a similar architecture, and Qwen 3.5 is just starting to work well in the various open-source tools that need to all play nice together for RL research. That’s 1.5 months after the release date! This is just to start really investing more into understanding the behavior of the models. Of course, others started working on these models sooner by investing more engineering resources or relying on partially closed software. The fully open and distributed ecosystem takes a long time to get going on some new models. All of this is lead-in for the most important question for open models — how easy is it to adapt to specific use-cases? This is a different problem for different model sizes. Large MoE open-weight models may be used by entities like Cursor who need complex capabilities in their domain, e.g. Composer 2 trained on Kimi K2.5. Other applications can be built on much smaller models, such as Chroma’s Context-1 model for agentic search, built on GPT-OSS 20B. The question of “which models are fine-tunable” is largely background knowledge known by engineers across the industry. There should be a thriving research area here to support the open ecosystem model. The first step is to understand characteristics of different base and post-trained models to understand what they look like. The second step is to tune pretraining recipes for open models so they’re more flexible. Interconnects AI is a reader-supported publication. Consider becoming a subscriber. Subscribe For The ATOM Project and other Interconnects endeavors, we’ve put in substantial effort to measuring adoption trends in the open ecosystem. Everything takes a long time to unfold after a model is first publicly available — and adaptability is why. What we know for sure now, when Qwen has been going from strength to strength with its releases, is that technical staff across the industry has gotten comfortable working with Qwen models. Countless research methods and datasets were made to work with Qwen. It’ll take patience for any other model family to get to this point — a patience I’m not sure many open model builders have. This takes us to Gemma 4, Google’s latest open models. Gemma 3 was released more than a year ago, in March of 2025, and is a bit underrated. Gemma 4 comes in 4 sizes for now, with a bigger, MoE model of over 100B total parameters rumored but not released yet. The models we have today come in sizes of ~5B dense, 8B dense, 26B total 4B active MoE, and 31B dense. I’m most excited that they’re finally adopting a standard Apache 2.0 open source license. This’ll massively boost adoption. The standard of better licenses for strong open-weight LLMs was set by mostly Chinese open model labs in the last 1-2 years, and now U.S. companies are following suit. I will personally be so happy if the horrible Llama licenses and Gemma terms of service were an ~18-month transient dynamic of the industry being nervous about releasing strong open models. The Gemma 4 scores look very solid, the small models have incredible benchmark scores (especially in general domains like LMArena) and the 31B model rivals the recent Qwen 3.5 27B, which is the leading member of that class. The ~30B size range is an important one, as it’s accessible both to researchers and to enterprises looking to deploy the model in real use-cases. Where the 7B model scale is the default for tinkering and research, a 30B model is the default for seeing if an open model can unlock substantial value in your specific workflow — a good mix of intelligence, low price, tractability for downstream training, etc. This takes us back to the above adoption criteria I mentioned for open models and the bigger question — do I think Gemma 4 will be an overwhelming success? Previous Gemma models have been plagued by tooling issues and poorer performance when being finetuned. Gemma 4’s success is going to be entirely determined by ease of use, to a point where a 5-10% swing on benchmarks wouldn’t matter at all. It’s strong enough, small enough, with the right license, and from the U.S., so many companies are going to slot it in. I’m cautiously optimistic that Gemma 4 is going to work better here. Winds are shifting for open models built in America. We saw GPT-OSS go through a bumpy launch to become an overwhelming success. There’s a collective energy around the likes of Reflection, Arcee, Nemotron, Gemma, Olmo, and peers that show substantial demand for building new stacks around open models. There’s capital to be spent on AI stacks across the economy by those who want more ownership of everything, including the model. After launching The ATOM Project 240 days ago, the conversation is shifting into the next stage. Summer of 2025 was a crisis moment where the U.S. AI scene realized it can’t wait and figure out open models after building AGI. The two markets will capture different areas and proceed in parallel. Now that more companies in the U.S. are releasing strong models, we need to improve the ecosystem so that these models are easy to use, understand, and build value around. It’s the hard work to build another inflection point in these adoption plots I’ve been updating consistently, but that’s the work to be done. Join me in it. More data coming soon! Here’s a sneak peek:
Exclusive: US upends global supply program for malaria and HIV amid warnings of gaps
The U.S. is upending the way it delivers medical supplies for diseases such as HIV and malaria to lower-income countries, according to seven sources and an internal email, risking a second dislocation of life-saving services in just over a year.
Is Brain Health the Next Healthcare Frontier?
Arianna Huffington breaks down the impact of daily behaviors on brain health.
Gavin Williams, Jose Ramirez power Guardians over Dodgers in LA
Gavin Williams had 10 strikeouts, Gabriel Arias and Jose Ramirez hit home runs and the Cleveland Guardians beat the Los Angeles Dodgers on April 1.
Politics Is Hungary's Top Problem as Election Nears
Ahead of one of the EU's most closely watched votes, Hungarians most often cite politics as the country's top problem, and a majority lack confidence in the honesty of elections.
Movie Review: Jittery, edgy and magnetic, Riz Ahmed takes 'Hamlet' for a spin
Riz Ahmed puts his own spin on the world's most famous troubled prince in Aneil Karia's “Hamlet,” a pared-down version that clocks in under two hours. Ahmed portrays a prince in a rush and recalls...
Movie Review: Jittery, edgy and magnetic, Riz Ahmed takes 'Hamlet' for a spin
Riz Ahmed puts his own spin on the world's most famous troubled prince in Aneil Karia's “Hamlet,” a pared-down version that clocks in under two hours. Ahmed portrays a prince in a rush and recalls...
Movie Review: Jittery, edgy and magnetic, Riz Ahmed takes 'Hamlet' for a spin
Riz Ahmed puts his own spin on the world's most famous troubled prince in Aneil Karia's “Hamlet,” a pared-down version that clocks in under two hours. Ahmed portrays a prince in a rush and recalls...
Movie Review: Jittery, edgy and magnetic, Riz Ahmed takes 'Hamlet' for a spin
Riz Ahmed puts his own spin on the world's most famous troubled prince in Aneil Karia's “Hamlet,” a pared-down version that clocks in under two hours. Ahmed portrays a prince in a rush and recalls...
Movie Review: Jittery, edgy and magnetic, Riz Ahmed takes 'Hamlet' for a spin
Riz Ahmed puts his own spin on the world's most famous troubled prince in Aneil Karia's “Hamlet,” a pared-down version that clocks in under two hours. Ahmed portrays a prince in a rush and recalls...
Movie Review: Jittery, edgy and magnetic, Riz Ahmed takes 'Hamlet' for a spin
Riz Ahmed puts his own spin on the world's most famous troubled prince in Aneil Karia's “Hamlet,” a pared-down version that clocks in under two hours. Ahmed portrays a prince in a rush and recalls...
US on brink of major crypto breakthrough despite bank pushback
Coinbase chief legal officer Paul Grewal joins 'Mornings with Maria' to discuss the race in Washington to finalize the Clarity Act, mounting pushback from big banks and how looming crypto regulations could reshape investing for Americans.
The Authoritarian Playbook: The sexual politics of meat under Trump
Feminist scholar Carol Adams argues that the oppression of women and animals is inextricably linked. She asks: What can meat eating tell us about Western authoritarians?
UEFA Women’s Champions League Preview: FC Bayern vs. Manchester United
FC Bayern Munich look to finish the job at the Allianz Arena as they welcome UEFA Women’s Champions League debutants Manchester United. The Bavarians won the first leg of the quarter-final tie 3-2 a...
🔍 Nacional host Cúcuta: through, but under scrutiny
Atlético Nacional returns to the Atanasio Girardot this Wednesday at 20:30 to face Cúcuta Deportivo. Although Diego Arias’ team has already secured its spot in the Liga BetPlay-I playoffs with an ...
Geico plans to stake its claim in women’s sports, starting with March Madness
Geico CMO Arianna Orpello shares her plans to cement the brand in women's sports, starting with a March Madness campaign.
Do you have the flu, Covid or RSV? Look out for these symptoms
Flu and Covid, including a new variant called BA.3.2, nicknamed “cicada,” are still circulating, along with several other respiratory illnesses and a nasty stomach bug.
Mark your calendars: Weekly sports schedule for March 31-April 4
Take a look through the weekly sports schedule for the Central Coast. Read our coverage online or in print.
Baylor students explore stress, connection in ‘The Science of Thriving’
In Baylor’s Department of Public Health, a one-credit-hour course aims to help students manage stress and build resilience, but questions remain about whether well-being can truly be taught.
Issue of wildlife trafficking a $20B a year business, Wildlife Conservation Society EVP says
Wildlife Conservation Society executive vice president John F. Calvelli details the impact of the DHS shutdown on zoos and aquariums, the illegal wildlife trafficking trade and the Wildlife Confiscations Network Act on 'Mornings with Maria.'
Health experts urge caution as new COVID variant emerges in Massachusetts
A new COVID-19 variant known as “Cicada” has been detected in more than 24 states, including Massachusetts, as health officials monitor its rise across the country.
'The Librarians' to be screened at Southwest Harbor library
The Southwest Harbor Public Library will host a screening of the 2025 documentary “The Librarians” on Tuesday, April 7, from 5:30-7 p.m.
Is an IDA Health Window the Global Health Financing Solution?
The global health architecture is facing intense scrutiny. There are now an A-Z of initiatives launched to lead the reform, from the Accra Reset to the Lusaka Agenda Secretariat and a WHO-led process. Critics have argued that the current system fails to focus on the poorest countries, fragments national systems, undermines country ownership, and displaces domestic health spending.
Scientists solve 40-year-old biological mystery behind sleeping sickness
To survive in the human bloodstream, the African trypanosome parasite wears a "cloak" made of proteins known as a variant surface glycoprotein (VSG). The study, published in Nature Microbiology, identifies ...
Maria Elvira Salazar part of successful petition forcing House vote on TPS for Haitians
She will spearhead a similar effort with Darren Soto to grant Venezuelans the same treatment.
‘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.
Actor James Tolkan of 'Top Gun' and 'Back to the Future' fame dies at 94
Actor James Tolkan, who was known for roles as authoritarian figures in the hit films “Back to the Future” and “Top Gun,” has died.
‘No Kings Day’ protests against Trump administration expected in NYC
Organizers said it’s part of a mobilization to defend democracy and fight against authoritarianism.
What we know about the new 'cicada' COVID-19 variant
Its official name is BA.3.2, but it’s earned the nickname "cicada" because, analogous to the insect’s pattern, it first appeared back in 2024, went dormant for a while, and resurfaced in the U.S. late last year.
Jane Fonda Warns of ‘Authoritarian Takeover’ in Kennedy Center Protest
'Culture is downstream from entertainment' — An Interview with Rob Schneider
'You have a left that is totalitarian in the sense that they’re not for free speech. They don’t really have the best interests of the culture in mind. They’re not open for debate. They’re open for demonization. They want to demean you, they want to demoralize you, they want to prevent you from speaking, and they want to take away your ability to make a living.'
World Health Organization tracking new COVID variant, found in more than 20 states
The World Health Organization is tracking a new COVID variant, known as Cicada
New COVID 'Cicada' Variant Is Spreading — What Experts Want You To Know
By HealthDay Staff HealthDay ReporterFRIDAY, March 27, 2026 (HealthDay News) — Another new COVID variant is starting to spread. Health officials say the variant — known as BA.3.2 or "Cicada" — has been quietly circulating for years but is now being detected more often in the United States and around ...
Friday's schedule: Morocco on OneFootball, more friendlies
FRIENDLIES05:30 - Solomon Islands x Bulgaria - DAZN and FIFA+06:10 - Australia x Cameroon - DAZN and FIFA+07:00 - Venezuela x Trinidad and Tobago - DAZN and FIFA+10:00 - Indonesia x Saint Kitts and Ne...
New COVID-19 variant, ‘Cicada,’ spreading in US, health officials say
Health officials are closely watching a new COVID variant after a rise in cases.
New COVID-19 variant, ‘Cicada,’ spreading in US, health officials say
Health officials are closely watching a new COVID variant after a rise in cases.
New COVID-19 variant, ‘Cicada,’ spreading in US, health officials say
Health officials are closely watching a new COVID variant after a rise in cases.
New COVID-19 variant, ‘Cicada,’ spreading in US, health officials say
Health officials are closely watching a new COVID variant after a rise in cases.
New COVID-19 variant, ‘Cicada,’ spreading in US, health officials say
Health officials are closely watching a new COVID variant after a rise in cases.
New COVID-19 variant, ‘Cicada,’ spreading in US, health officials say
Health officials are closely watching a new COVID variant after a rise in cases.
New COVID-19 variant, ‘Cicada,’ spreading in US, health officials say
Health officials are closely watching a new COVID variant after a rise in cases.
Scientists Discovered What Makes Coral Cities So Strong—and Want to Copy Their Blueprint
The tiny cnidarians that build massive structures like the Great Barrier Reef out of their skeletons have inspired new advances in materials.
NYC Health + Hospitals Honors Nursing Home Resident Centenarian Carmen Augustin at Age 112 - NYC Health + Hospitals
NYC Health + Hospitals/Coler honored Carmen Augustin marking her 112th birthday celebration. Augustin is the oldest long-term care resident across the
Essentia Health-Duluth Clinic welcomes Mariah O’Connell to practice family medicine
Mariah O’Connell, an advanced practice registered nurse and certified nurse practitioner specializing in family medicine, is thrilled to join the Essentia Health-Duluth Clinic.
READY, SET, IMPLEMENT! Lifelines in Crisis: Prioritizing Women’s, Children’s, and Adolescents’ Health in Humanitarian, Conflict and Climate-affected Settings
This dialogue is part of PMNCH’s Ready, Set, Influence series, bringing together policymakers, humanitarian leaders, donors, and grassroots experts. The webinar will focus on accelerating the implementation of health commitments within humanitarian affairs, specifically focusing on the need for integrated, rights-based health services that remain resilient in the face of conflict, disaster and climate events.
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
State health plan for teachers faces 'death spiral,' Treasury warns
Rates expected to go up at least 10%, actuarial report says, as local districts pull their employees from system in search of lower premiums
Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6, 8 Elite Gen 6 Pro specifications leaked well before official announcement
Leak reveals Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Elite Gen 6 chips with 2nm process, dual variants, LPDDR6 support, and upgraded GPUs. Read more about expected specifications here
Ron DeSantis says Sean Hannity helped mend 2018 tiff between Donald Trump, top Florida Republicans over Hurricane Maria
It could have gone very differently had the conservative media icon not persuaded the President to drop a grudge.
DCCC reaches voters at the pump in 4 Florida congressional districts
The campaign will reach people in districts represented by Laurel Lee, Anna Paulina Luna, Cory Mills and Maria Elvira Salazar.
Georgia: Opposition politician Elene Khoshtaria given politically motivated prison sentence for graffiti
In Elene Khoshtaria’s case, the severity of the punishment appears related not to material damage, but to her political opinions and the symbolic damage she has inflicted on the ruling party
Pop-up bar dedicated to women's sports now open in Boston
261 at Para Maria is named for the bib number worn by the first woman to officially run the Boston Marathon.
Paul Renner seeks crackdown on Muslim immigration, Sharia law
'The long-term compatibility of Islam in this country does not exist.'
Can Treating Peyronie’s Disease Improve Mental Health?
A University of Miami Miller School study explores how treatment for Peyronie’s disease may improve depression, anxiety and quality of life.
H-1B Health Care Workforce Bill Introduced
On March 17, Congressman Mike Lawler (NY-17) introduced the H–1Bs for Physicians and the Healthcare Workforce Act , bipartisan legislation with Reps. Sanford D. Bishop, Jr. (GA-02), Maria Elvira Salazar (FL-27), and Yvette Clarke (NY-09). This legisla...
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.
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.
Trump to Maria Bartiromo: Iran wants to make a deal badly, could be within 5 days or sooner
Maria Bartiromo reports that President Donald Trump says Iran ‘wants to make a deal badly’ as he orders a five-day pause on planned strikes against key infrastructure, signaling ongoing high-level talks and triggering a sharp market rebound.
There’s little information about a large measles outbreak in Florida, so we went to see it
One of the largest measles outbreaks the US has seen in decades erupted at Ave Maria University in Florida, but very little information was being shared with the public. So CNN went to the small Florida town to learn what’s driving the case count.
Diabetes, Overlooked and Unchecked, Poses New Risks in Africa
As deaths from diabetes start to rival those from infectious threats like malaria, a new form of the condition linked to malnutrition is surfacing in patients who can afford neither screening nor care.
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.
Scientists Uncover Hidden “Second Layer” in Human DNA
A newly identified cellular system monitors subtle variations in genetic coding, hinting at a hidden level of control over how genes are expressed.
Tusk claims no surprise over alleged Hungarian leaks to Moscow
Polish Prime Minister said suspicions had long made him keep quiet during EU Council talks
Flexitarian and the MIND included in top diets for a healthy brain, according to U.S. News
Discover four top diets that may support sharper focus, steadier mood, and long-term brain resilience
The reality of death and the Trinitarian “science” of salvation
Readings: • Ez. 37:12-14 • Psa. 130:1-2, 3-4, 5-6, 7-8 • Rom. 8:8-11 • Jn. 11:1-45 We live in a time of astounding scientific breakthroughs and unprecedented medical marvels. In my lifetime alone, we’ve witnessed men landing and […]
An Iranian-American political science expert talks about Iran's nuclear program
NPR's Scott Simon speaks to Ariane Tabatabai, the Public Service Fellow at Lawfare, about the nature of Iran's nuclear program, and whether it, as President Trump has said, posed an "imminent threat."
Trump and the politics of death
COVID, gun violence and Iran reveal a governing instinct based on authoritarian violence disorder
Simply Secunda Baking founder discusses sweet potato pie business, $10K startup
Simply Secunda Baking founder Secunda Anderson shares how she launched her sweet potato pie business during COVID-19 with a $10,000 investment on ‘Mornings With Maria.’
Steelers showing strong interest in talented WR draft prospect
The Pittsburgh Steelers hosted Georgia wide receiver Zachariah Branch for a pre-draft dinner ahead of the 2026 NFL Draft.
Librarians seek continued funding from Congress to support local libraries
Librarians are breathing a temporary sigh of relief after President Trump signed the 2026 federal budget last month
AEO Engine Launches ’AEO Engine AI Search’ Podcast – First Show Dedicated to How AI Is Reshaping Business Discovery, Search Visibility, and Brand Trust
AEO Engine logo representing the launch of the new "AEO Engine AI Search" podcast, hosted by Aria Chen and focused on
Implementing the Trump Administration’s America First Global Health Strategy in Angola - United States Department of State
Today, the United States and the Republic of Angola signed a five-year bilateral health cooperation Memorandum of Understanding (MOU), advancing the Trump Administration’s America First Global Health Strategy in Africa. Working with Congress, the Department of State intends to provide $71 million to support HIV, malaria, and global health security programming, while Angola will invest […]
Treasury Secretary Bessent unveils plan to flood market with oil amid Iran war
Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent joins ‘Mornings with Maria’ to discuss the Iran war, surging oil prices, market volatility, Fed uncertainty, Powell’s future and the U.S. strategy to stabilize the global economy.
Sandhills Calving System continues to protect calf health, ranch profitability
Twenty-five years ago, a collaboration between a Sandhills ranch family, a rural veterinarian and Husker researchers led to a management innovation that transformed how cattle producers prevent calf scours. Known today as the Sandhills Calving System, the approach has become one of the most widely recommended strategies for preventing neonatal calf diarrhea.
'The Adding Machine' review: Elmer Rice's play gets a sluggish revival
Elmer Rice's "The Adding Machine," an expressionist classic on automation and worker insecurity, speaks directly to an age in which livelihoods are threatened by AI innovation.
Outside Lands act to play intimate Bay Area shows ahead of festival
Mariah the Scientist will be in San Francisco and Oakland for her “Hearts Sold Separately” tour, in support of her recent album of the same name.
Mark your calendars: Weekly sports schedule for March 17-22
Take a look through the weekly sports schedule for the Central Coast, and make your plans to get out and attend, to support local sports programs. Read our coverage online
Samsung admits 'some variation' will be seen on the Galaxy S26 Ultra's screen brightness due to Privacy Display — but it should be 'negligible'
A confirmation and reality check
State Announces Intent to Award $20 Million to Santa Barbara County for New Behavioral Health Residential Facilities in Santa Maria
Funding Through California’s Behavioral Health Continuum Infrastructure Program Will Support Two 16-bed Community Residential Treatment Facilities Focused on Diversion and Recovery
Inklings | HNPW and the politics of pooled funds
Notes on aid: Where US pooled fund cash isn’t going, “reset” hurdles, and what HNPW says about humanitarianism’s crossroads.
Galaxy Z Fold 8’s widescreen version reportedly has a bigger battery
Samsung is expected to launch a variant of the Galaxy Z Fold 8 with a wider screen aspect ratio, and its battery capacity has been revealed.
Hungarian opposition picks top business executives to dismantle Orbán’s rule
Péter Magyar reckons boardroom veterans will have the experience needed to secure frozen EU funds and release Fidesz’s grip on state bodies.
Girls & Science 2nd Saturday
2nd Saturdays at CSU Spur are free and open to the public for lots of family-friendly programming, including cooking activities in the CSU Spur kitchen, opportunities to watch veterinarians perform surgery on dogs and cats, see horses assisting with human therapies, engage with scientists at work, and play in a kid's kitchen and kid's vet clinic - allowing kids to become a veterinarian for the day and fix up stuffed animals.
WHO releases US$2 million in emergency funds to support health response in Lebanon, Iraq and Syria
15 March 2026, Cairo, Egypt — As humanitarian health needs continue to rise across parts of the Middle East, WHO has released US$2 million from its Contingency Fund for Emergencies (CFE) to support the health response...
Big Mac price experiment: Delivery fee changes, surveillance pricing
We ordered Big Macs on Uber Eats — the costs were all over the place. The chaotic variation is a product of our modern pricing economy.
Millions of Americans are skipping meals or cutting back on utilities to afford health care
“I never thought I’d be living like this,” said Sheila Nesbit, a retired librarian.
Pope Leo addresses French Christian entrepreneurs business leaders
In a message sent for the centenary of the French Movement of Christian Entrepreneurs and Leaders (EDC), gathered in Lyon, France, Pope Leo XIV ...
Congestion pricing, energy demands driving up cost of doing business in New York
United Refining Chairman and CEO John Catsimatidis joins 'Mornings with Maria' to discuss Strait of Hormuz tensions, oil price swings, President Donald Trump’s response to Iran and New York City’s budget crisis.
Child and Adolescent Firearm Deaths: National Trends and Variation by Demographics and States
This brief analyzes the latest youth mortality data from the CDC, finding that nearly 22,000 children and adolescents died by firearm in the past decade. More information on trends over time, type of firearm deaths, and how these deaths vary by demographic and state are available in this brief.
Should You Lower Your Bedroom Temperature for Better Heart Health?
New research suggests that higher bedroom temperatures may be linked to a higher heart rate and lower heart rate variability.
Memphis People in Business for March 12, 2026
A look at promotions, hirings, movers and newsmakers in the Memphis area business scene.
Hidden Majoritarianism Hinders Women's Political Careers -
In the APSA Public Scholarship Program, graduate students in political science produce summaries of new research in the American Political Science Review. This piece, written by Ximena Caló, covers the new article by Daniel M. [...]
Tracie Thoms Joins Pamela Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton & Ariana Greenblatt In Brian Klugman Drama ‘Somedays’
EXCLUSIVE: Tracie Thoms (upcoming The Devil Wears Prada 2) has landed a role alongside Pamela Anderson, Billy Bob Thornton, and Ariana Greenblatt in Somedays, the new indie drama from writer-director ...