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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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A quick recap of prior events: Subnautica 2 is an unreleased, underwater survival adventure and the most-wishlisted game on Steam. Last year, longtime Unknown Worlds CEO Ted Gill, along with studio co-founders Charlie Cleveland and Max McGuire, were fired by Krafton. They swiftly sued, saying the publisher had terminated them to avoid paying out up to $250 million in potential performance-based bonuses. The studio leaders had hoped to earn that with an early access release of the game, which Krafton had blocked. The publisher argued in court that Subnautica 2 wasn’t ready, which the ousted execs disputed. On Monday, Will ruled that Krafton had violated its contract, firing the execs to avoid the performance payouts, and that it had to reinstate Gill and give him full authority over any early access release for Subnautica 2. On Tuesday, IGN reported on a new memo issued that day to Unknown Worlds staff by Steve Papoutsis, the executive Krafton had put in charge of Unknown Worlds after the 2025 firings. In the note, Papoutsis said that Subnautica 2 had passed a key development milestone “last week” and that he and Krafton had determined the game “is ready for Early Access release in May.” This news appeared to catch the lawyers for Gill, Cleveland and McGuire by surprise. On Tuesday night, they sent a letter to Will expressing “serious concerns” about whether it would be possible to forge an agreement with Krafton consistent with the judge’s order. Papoutsis’ memo was a problem, they wrote. He didn’t have the authority to declare anything about Subnautica 2’s release. As of 9am ET on Monday, March 16, the effective date of Will’s order, Papoutsis wasn’t CEO of Unknown Worlds. Gill was. And, per Will’s order, only Gill could make Subnautica 2 release decisions. They continued: Krafton self-servingly announced the launch without any regard to its impact on the game, the team, or the community—let alone this Court’s Opinion. Announcing the release of a game is momentous, and it is typically accompanied by significant marketing activity, fanfare, and community coordination. And most importantly, the announcement is carefully designed to maximize excitement for the game. That entire process was supposed to be driven by Mr. Gill. However, in defiance of the Court’s Opinion, Krafton has now taken that away, further damaging the game and sowing additional confusion among the Subnautica community. The lawyers speculated that Krafton had “intentionally leaked” Papoutsis’ memo and then issued an official statement to confirm the leak. Game File is a reader-supported publication. My reporting is only possible through support from readers like you. To support my work, consider becoming a free or paid subscriber. Subscribe On Wednesday, lawyers for Krafton defended their client in their own letter to vice chancellor Will, saying nothing they did violated her order nor showed contempt: Papoutsis’s message was simply celebrating the UW employees’ efforts toward a past event: Krafton’s pre-Opinion determination that Subnautica 2 was ready for Early Access release. There was nothing improper about conveying the results of the milestone review or thanking the development team for their dedication and talent. They added that Gill could still make his own call about Subnautica 2’s release: In his role as CEO, Gill will be able to assess independently his views on the state of Subnautica 2 and the appropriate release schedule; nothing in Papoutsis’s message alters Gill’s authority or discretion. Vice chancellor Will has not responded to the letters and doesn’t necessarily have to. Both parties were previously ordered by Will to confer this week and submit a proposed judgment consistent with her ruling. The letter from Gill’s attorney’s this week doesn’t indicate whether he would or would not support a May release for Subnautica 2. But it could limit his options. And, if Gill’s lawyers are right, the lack of marketing fanfare around the leak of the May date could dull the launch of the game. Any harm to Subnautica 2’s launch is an extra sensitive issue given the context of the legal dispute: millions of dollars of payouts are on the line, tethered to the scale of the game’s initial performance. In her ruling on Monday, Will noted that there was obvious “bad blood” between Gill’s side and Krafton but that the two would need to work together: “They can—and must—act in good faith to navigate their remaining contractual relationship.” Item 2: A new kind of couch co-op game A highlight of GDC each year is the Alt.Ctrl showcase that features games played with extremely experimental controllers. Perusing this year’s offerings last Friday, I found a game controlled with giant scissors, another with big toothbrushes and one that amounted to dumpster diving. My favorite was Pivot, a co-op game about collectively maneuvering a couch. It was developed by students at the University of Utah’s masters of arts and engineering games program. Players lift and tilt the physical couch in order to control the position of a virtual one. That virtual one is moving through an obstacle course on-screen, while being pursued by a giant skull. Developer Nishant Verma told me at GDC that the couch is made of styrofoam (this became more evident as I watched!) and that the name was a riff on an episode of the sitcom Friends. Item 3: In brief… 🚫 Ubisoft is laying off more than 100 workers at its Red Storm studio, as the North Carolina location known for decades for its Tom Clancy games, ceases in-house game development, VGC reports. 👀 On Monday, Nvidia’s revealed its DLSS 5 AI-driven graphics technology that purports to improve game graphics… and it has been roasted about it by the media and the online gaming public for the remainder of the week. The tech changed the faces of characters in footage from Resident Evil Requiem, Hogwarts Legacy and EA Sports FC, drawing accusations of giving carefully art-directed games the generic look of AI “slop.” Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang had said on Monday that “DLSS 5 is the GPT moment for graphics—blending handcrafted rendering with generative AI to deliver a dramatic leap in visual realism while preserving the control artists need for creative expression.” By mid-week, Huang was telling Tom’s Hardware that the new tech’s critics were “completely wrong” because game-makers could still “fine-tune the generative AI” to suit their game’s aesthetics.

Mar 19 • 5:28 PM EDT • Technology • gamefile.news

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Mar 16 • 1:17 PM EDT • Health • usatoday.com

Rochester Regional Health Launches Targeted Loan-Support Program to Strengthen Access to Critical Healthcare Services

Rochester Regional Health (RRH) today announced a targeted student-loan support program designed to strengthen access to essential clinical care across the region. Through a partnership with Clasp, Rochester Regional will help future Certified Registered Nurse Anesthetists (CRNAs), Surgical Technologists, and Radiologic Technologists finance their education and begin their careers serving the patients of Rochester and the Finger Lakes Region.

Mar 16 • 10:00 AM EDT • Health • finance.yahoo.com

A Life in Science: The role of data in advancing medicines

New in our A Life in Science series, we hear from Audrey Clapéron, Translational Biology Director, about the essential role of data in

Mar 16 • 9:47 AM EDT • Science • ipsen.com

Caddo Parish restaurants cited for critical health violations

The Louisiana Department of Health revealed Caddo Parish restaurants with at least four critical health violations the week of Feb. 15-21.

Mar 16 • 5:02 AM EDT • Health • shreveporttimes.com

Middletown health inspectors cite 10 spots for serious violations

Out of 47 inspections in January, Middletown health inspectors cited 10 eateries for priority item violations, the most serious type.

Mar 16 • 5:00 AM EDT • Health • middletownpress.com

Hansi Flick closing in on Pep Guardiola record at Barcelona

The team’s home record is something else.

Mar 16 • 2:00 AM EDT • Sports • sports.yahoo.com

Oscars 2026 Politics: Winners, Presenters Slam Gun Violence, Trump, Wars

Javier Bardem, Jimmy Kimmel, Conan O’Brien and the winners in the documentary categories all used their time on stage Sunday to share some political commentary.

Mar 15 • 11:20 PM EDT • Politics • hollywoodreporter.com

Darwin and me: A science teacher's tale - Lutheran Alliance for Faith, Science and Technology

Retired high school science teacher Frank Girolami shares his journey learning about evolution, teaching biology, and exploring science and faith.

Mar 15 • 8:37 PM EDT • Science • luthscitech.org

Strengthening One Health Field Epidemiology Capacity in the WHO South-East Asia Region

Recent public health emergencies—including the COVID-19 pandemic, recurrent zoonotic disease outbreaks, and the high level of antimicrobial resistance—have underscored the urgent need for strong, multisectoral field epidemiology capacities. This reinforces the importance of a workforce equipped with One Health field epidemiology competencies. To address this need, WHO works with the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO), the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP), and the World Organisation for Animal Health (WOAH), as part of Quadripartite Alliance for One Health, to strengthen field epidemiology training programmes using a One Health approach.These efforts are aligned with WHO SEARO’s Strategic Framework for Action for Strengthening Surveillance, Risk Assessment and Field Epidemiology and the Regional Roadmap to Advance Field Epidemiology Capacities 2025–2029 emphasize workforce development, multisectoral collaboration, and enhanced preparedness for health emergencies. With funding from the Pandemic Fund, The Competency for One Health Field Epidemiology (COHFE) integration within Field Epidemiology Training Programmes (FETPs) or similar initiatives has been initiated in Bangladesh and India and is planned in Sri Lanka.BangladeshIn Bangladesh, COHFE is being adapted to strengthen the Field Epidemiology Training Programme, Bangladesh (FETP-B) Advanced programme. Initiated in July 2025 and led by the Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), the process brought together stakeholders from human, animal, and environmental health sectors, academia, and laboratories.A Multisectoral Working Group (MWG) was established to guide implementation, conduct readiness assessments, and identify opportunities to institutionalize One Health collaboration. Through national multisectoral consultations and a competency prioritization workshop held in Dhaka in November 2025, stakeholders identified priority technical competencies for surveillance, outbreak investigation, data analysis, and risk assessment, alongside functional competencies related to leadership, coordination, and the laboratory–epidemiology interface. The process also surfaced systemic barriers—such as challenges in data sharing and limited joint investigations—enabling targeted recommendations. These outcomes are guiding curriculum revision, the introduction of One Health simulations and joint field exercises, and the development of a national multisectoral mentorship pool, with updated training materials expected to be implemented in the upcoming cohort.Figure 1. Competency prioritization involving multisectoral stakeholders“COHFE represents a significant step forward in operationalizing the One Health approach. The collaboration between national institutions and the Quadripartite partners is critical for building resilient systems to address complex health challenges in the region.”, Prof. (Dr) Tahmina Sirin, Director, Institute of Epidemiology, Disease Control and Research (IEDCR), Bangladesh.Aligning India’s One Health Training with COHFEIn India, the National Centre for Disease Control (NCDC) has strengthened One Health workforce development through its SectorConnect initiative. WHO supported a comprehensive competency mapping and curriculum review to align the Field Epidemiology Programme in One Health (FEP-OH) with all 14 COHFE domains. The review identified strong foundations while generating actionable recommendations to strengthen One Health learning outcomes, expand joint field-based learning, and enhance competency-based assessment. These improvements are informing programme refinement and phased scale-up across additional states.Figure 2. Strengthening learning outcomes for the SectorConnect FEP OH CurriculumThrough these efforts, WHO SEARO will continue to support countries to move from separate sector-based training toward an integrated, impact-driven One Health field epidemiology workforce capable of addressing complex health threats at human-animal-environment interface.ReferencesFood and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, World Health Organization, & World Organisation for Animal Health. (2024). Competencies for One Health field epidemiology (COHFE) framework. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789240080058World Health Organization. (2023). Strategic framework for action for strengthening surveillance, risk assessment and field epidemiology for health security threats in the WHO South-East Asia Region. WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789290210030World Health Organization. (2024). Regional roadmap to advance field epidemiology capacities in the WHO South-East Asia Region 2025–2029. WHO Regional Office for South-East Asia. https://www.who.int/publications/i/item/9789290229544

Mar 15 • 8:00 PM EDT • Health • who.int

Arizona cardiology group pays $4.75M over unnecessary care allegations

Tri-City Cardiology, a Phoenix-area physician group, has agreed to pay millions to resolve allegations of unnecessary care.

Mar 15 • 8:01 AM EDT • Health • azcentral.com

New Data Centers Will Be Powered by Human Brain Cells

Cortical Labs announced that it's working on "biological data centers" in Melbourne, Australia, and Singapore.

Mar 14 • 9:00 PM EDT • Technology • futurism.com

Scientists discover ALS protein that links DNA repair to cancer and dementia

A protein tied to ALS and dementia may have a much bigger role in disease than scientists realized. Researchers found that TDP43 controls a key DNA repair process, but when the protein becomes imbalanced, the repair system can spiral out of control, harming neurons and destabilizing DNA. The team also discovered that high levels of the protein are linked to increased mutation rates in cancer. The discovery places TDP43 at the center of both neurodegeneration and cancer biology.

Mar 14 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

The world’s oldest wild bird has a new grandchick

Biologists have been tracking Wisdom, the roughly 75-year-old Laysan albatross, since the 1950s.

Mar 14 • 10:03 AM EDT • Science • popsci.com

This doctor treated migrants’ severe injuries at the US-Mexico wall: ‘Political decisions made it as violent as possible’

Dr Brian Elmore witnessed a public health crisis unfold at the border near El Paso. He reflects on why it was like a ‘perverse Groundhog Day’

Mar 14 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • theguardian.com

Jeffco Public Schools found in violation of Title IX

Civil rights office: Male students occupy 61 roster positions on girls’ sports teams The U.S. Department of Education announced Friday that the Jeffco Public Schools district violated Title IX by permitting male students to access female bathrooms and compete in girls sports. After a nearly nine-month investigation, the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil […]

Mar 13 • 3:01 PM EDT • Politics • coloradopolitics.com

Inspectors find food buildup, too-warm sushi in Reno, Sparks restaurants

Eight restaurants were cited for violations during the period of Feb. 7-13. Here are the details.

Mar 13 • 8:02 AM EDT • Health • rgj.com

Mills proposes permanent funds for crime victims

The money through the Victims of Crime Act, which Mills says will help cover a federal funding shortfall, pays for domestic violence and sexual assault services, civil legal representation for victims and services for elder abuse victims.

Mar 13 • 7:47 AM EDT • Politics • spectrumlocalnews.com

Ward Melville, Great Neck teams win LI Science Bowl

The contest tested teams' knowledge on science disciplines including biology, chemistry and physics.

Mar 13 • 5:00 AM EDT • Science • newsday.com

Scientists crack a 20-year nuclear mystery behind the creation of gold

Gold and other heavy elements are born in some of the universe’s most violent events—but scientists still struggle to understand the nuclear steps that create them. Now, nuclear physicists have uncovered three key discoveries about how unstable atomic nuclei decay during the rapid neutron-capture process, the chain reaction responsible for forging elements like gold and platinum.

Mar 12 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

The surprising new ways bacteria spread without propellers

Scientists at Arizona State University have uncovered surprising new ways bacteria move, even without their usual whip-like propellers called flagella. In one study, E. coli and salmonella were found to spread across moist surfaces by fermenting sugars and creating tiny fluid currents that carry them forward — a newly identified behavior researchers call “swashing.” In another study, a different group of bacteria was shown to control its movement using a microscopic molecular “gearbox” that can reverse direction like a biological snowmobile.

Mar 12 • 8:00 PM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Course-based research experiences opens science opportunities

When Maribel Lupe took biology at her rural Fresno County high school, she didn’t get opportunities to do lab work. As a Fresno State undergraduate, she was able to work hands-on in scientific research through the Course-based Undergraduate Research Experiences (CUREs) program. The opportunity to do research work transformed Lupe from a disengaged student to […]

Mar 12 • 4:51 PM EDT • Science • today.fresnostate.edu

Aging could slow down with one common daily habit: 'Live longer and better'

Daily multivitamin use slowed biological aging by about four months in a two-year study of nearly 1,000 participants, with the biggest benefits in older adults.

Mar 12 • 2:37 PM EDT • Health • foxnews.com

ASU-led SPARCS mission achieves 'first light,' marking the start of its science operations in orbit

The Star-Planet Activity Research CubeSat, or SPARCS, has captured its first images of stars from space. This milestone marks the start of its science operations in orbit.Arizona State University leads the SPARCS mission, which is funded by NASA. It is the first CubeSat mission dedicated to long-term ultraviolet monitoring of nearby low-mass stars. These stars are the most common in our galaxy and often have Earth-sized, possibly habitable planets.

Mar 12 • 12:00 PM EDT • Science • news.asu.edu

Argonne receives DOE funding to advance AI for science

Argonne receives funding from DOE’s Genesis Mission to conduct transformative AI research that will push the boundaries of energy, biology, materials science and more.

Mar 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • anl.gov

This Free Tool Can Predict 30-Year Heart Disease Risk for Younger Adults

In TODAY.com's Expert Tip of the Day, cardiologists advise trying an online calculator that lets younger people find out their 30-year heart disease risk.

Mar 12 • 8:00 AM EDT • Health • today.com

Sports bar along New Bern Avenue in Raleigh loses permits after multiple shootings

The North Carolina ABC Commission has officially suspended the operating permits for Touchdown Sports Bar in Raleigh following a series of violent incidents over the past year or so.

Mar 11 • 8:19 PM EDT • Sports • wral.com

Man charged with threatening Trump and Democratic representative Swalwell

Diego Villavicencio also made violent threats against an unnamed individual, who appears to be Jerome Powell

Mar 11 • 7:20 PM EDT • Politics • theguardian.com

Whooping Cough Continues Wyoming Spread - Wyoming Department of Health

Wyoming Department of Health (WDH) officials are concerned about the ongoing, active spread of pertussis (whooping cough) across the state. Kaylyn Friesen, vaccine-preventable disease epidemiologist with WDH, said there have been 26 confirmed pertussis cases in Wyoming so far this year. “While roughly two-thirds of the reported cases have been among Fremont County residents, pertussis […]

Mar 11 • 5:20 PM EDT • Health • health.wyo.gov

Breakout Ventures raises $114M fund to back AI science startups

Breakout Ventures is finding growing success by backing early-stage startups in scientific fields such as biology and chemistry.

Mar 11 • 2:06 PM EDT • Science • techcrunch.com

El Paso health inspectors find dozens of violations at 2 businesses

El Paso health inspectors found 39 violations at Valley Supermarket and Phoenix Palace Restaurant in February inspections.

Mar 11 • 8:38 AM EDT • Health • elpasotimes.com

Astronomers think they just witnessed two planets colliding

Astronomers have caught what may be a rare cosmic catastrophe unfolding 11,000 light-years away. A seemingly ordinary sun-like star suddenly began flickering wildly, puzzling scientists until they realized the strange dimming was caused by vast clouds of hot dust and debris drifting across the star. The most likely explanation is a violent planetary collision—two worlds smashing together and scattering glowing material throughout the system.

Mar 11 • 8:00 AM EDT • Science • sciencedaily.com

Trump Hotel restaurant flunked December health inspection because it was ‘affected by pests’

A city health inspector cited the restaurant at Trump's Chicago tower for a handful of violations in December.

Mar 11 • 7:00 AM EDT • Health • chicagobusiness.com

Political Theater at the U.N. on Iran

Antidemocratic leaders hold center stage, and the Human Rights Council is controlled by nations with records of violations.

Mar 11 • 6:45 AM EDT • Politics • wsj.com

Georgia Independent Wrestling’s Empire of Entertainment

“I remember just standing there that night, and I could feel this connection between the fans and the performers in a way that I hadn’t really ever felt before, which makes sense now that I know more about wrestling, because fans really have agency over the action in the ring. The louder they cheer, the more the wrestler is going to labor to his feet. Wrestling doesn’t really work without an audience,” says Athens journalist Alison Lyn Miller, who published the nonfiction book Rough House: A Father, a Son, and the Pursuit of Pro Wrestling Glory earlier this year. Miller wasn’t a wrestling fan when she attended the now-defunct Southern Violence And Wrestling match back in 2019, but her passion […]

Mar 11 • 12:30 AM EDT • Entertainment • flagpole.com

How pollutants interact inside the body to impact health | Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health

Peng Gao studies the “exposome”—the measure of an individual’s total environmental exposures over the course of their life and how those exposures impact biology and health.

Mar 10 • 4:37 PM EDT • Health • hsph.harvard.edu

Greater Binghamton Health Center employee to pay more than $6k after falsifying timesheets

An employee with the Greater Binghamton Health Center was ordered to pay a fine after committing ethical violations on his timesheets.

Mar 10 • 2:55 PM EDT • Health • wbng.com

What’s Your Chronotype? How Brain Science Can Boost Performance

A collaboration between Wharton and Slalom explores how aligning work with individuals’ biological rhythms can help teams perform their best.

Mar 10 • 12:35 PM EDT • Science • knowledge.wharton.upenn.edu

Trump’s Hotel Restaurants Busted for Truly Gross Health Violations

It is not the first time a Trump-owned business has run into trouble with health inspectors.

Mar 10 • 11:02 AM EDT • Health • thedailybeast.com

The Startup Trying a New Trick to Develop AI For Science Discovery

OpenAI and Anthropic have raised tens of billions of dollars on the promise of artificial intelligence that can make new discoveries in fields like medicine, biology and physics. And yet,we’re nowhere close to that. (You might recall this awkward moment from last fall when a ChatGPT-generated ...

Mar 10 • 10:38 AM EDT • Science • theinformation.com

Daily Multivitamins Slow Aging, Clinical Trial Finds

By Dennis Thompson HealthDay ReporterTUESDAY, March 10, 2026 (HealthDay News) — The health boost from daily multivitamins might actually extend to how quickly a person ages, a new study says. Researchers found slower “wear and tear” biological aging among seniors after two years on a multivitamin,

Mar 10 • 6:45 AM EDT • Health • usnews.com

Opinion: Youth Incarceration is a Public Health Crisis

Instead of receiving care, incarcerated youth are exposed to violence, isolation, chronic stress and medical neglect, write José Perez and Reggie Chatman.

Mar 10 • 6:00 AM EDT • Health • imprintnews.org

Ashley Judd Says 'Kiss the Girls' Uses Sexual Torture as Entertainment

Ashley Judd is calling out her own movie, 1997's 'Kiss the Girls,' for 'making entertainment out of sexual terror' and show male sexual violence.

Mar 9 • 5:46 PM EDT • Entertainment • variety.com

Live Nation: Bipartisan Group of State AGs Vows to Fight on Despite DOJ’s Proposed Settlement with Entertainment Giant

Democratic and Republican state attorneys general said the proposed settlement between DOJ and Live Nation Entertainment (LYV) to resolve the company’s alleged antitrust violations is insufficient and they’ll continue the monopoly suit.

Mar 9 • 1:47 PM EDT • Entertainment • thecapitolforum.com