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Orlando City signs Antoine Griezmann in landmark MLS move
Orlando City has completed one of the most significant signings in Major League Soccer history, confirming the arrival of Antoine Griezmann from Atlético de Madrid.The French forward will join the cl...
Bioresorbable microneedles track organ health
Nature Reviews Bioengineering - An article in Nature Biomedical Engineering reports a bioresorbable flexible microneedle sensor array for continuous monitoring of organ function for at least 7...
Mike Tomlin reportedly signs with sports media agency, expected to have multiple broadcasting suitors
MLB Opening Day 2026: Top 50 people who will impact the MLB season, starting with Nos. 50-26
Mike Tomlin Signs With Sports Media Agent Sandy Montag
Sandy Montag and sportscaster-turned-agent Alex Flanagan will represent Mike Tomlin in potential talks with networks and streamers.
Students compete at Central Nebraska science fair in Kearney
Organizers said the regional competition featured 40 projects from schools across central Nebraska.
How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science
How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science: Seemingly harmless data tweaks are undermining the integrity of the entire field. We must define the problem to prevent it
Tone, Humor, and the Performative Aspect of Politics
Senators John Kennedy (R-LA) and Peter Welch (D-VT) joined C-SPAN "Ceasefire" host Dasha Burns to discuss the roles of tone and humor in politics.
Hornets eyeing entertainment district around Spectrum Center
That new headquarters and practice facility is supposed to be open by early 2027.
Marathon has sold 1.2M copies across Steam, PS5, and Xbox
Alinea Analytics estimates show that Marathon has generated gross revenues of $55M via 1.2M copies sold on Steam, PS5, and Xbox: Looking at the split between Steam, PS5, and Xbox, Steam is clearly the main platform for Marathon, accounting for a little under 70% of the audience (800K copies sold). Meanwhile, PS5 takes about 19% (217K) and Xbox (including console, PC, and cloud) accounts for a bit over 11% or 133K. Marathon is technically a first-party Sony title, so seeing the home console struggle to break 20% of the volume is a notable data point for the ongoing platform-agnostic debate. PlayStation Studios online games will almost certainly continue being multiplatform (despite Sony reportedly pulling back on PC releases). Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe As for Marathon, the consensus among hardcore players who pushed through the awkward onboarding phase – myself included – is that it’s fantastic. The gunplay, aesthetic, and presentation are among the best in the shooter genre. A great game doesn’t always equal an immediate hit, though, as shown by our estimates. Things are looking lukewarm right now. But this might be one of those marathon-not-a-sprint situations. Had to, didn’t I? Why wasn’t Marathon a hit on the same level as Arc Raiders? One topic that came up in a lot of conversations at GDC this year was why Marathon hasn’t hit the same stratosphere as Arc Raiders. On paper, they’re both extraction shooters, and Marathon has the Bungie pedigree – the house that built the gold standard for gunplay in Halo and Destiny. Marathon’s neon-futuristic aesthetic also distinguishes itself from the gritty realism of Tarkov or the post-apocalyptic hope of ARC Raiders. But vibes can only get you so far for first impressions if the onboarding feels like a brick wall. Marathon is a sweaty PvP-focused experience with a first-time user experience and UI that I can only describe as dreadful. Players are dropped into a complex ecosystem where the UI, though visually striking, is functionally uninformative, forcing users to manually hover over nondescript, identical icons just to identify basic gear or weapon mods. This lack of clarity is compounded by punishing mechanics like a severe heat gauge for movement and a scarcity of vital resources, all without a clear tutorial or a low-stakes mode to learn the ropes. Most people – even top streamers and veteran shooter players – have no idea what’s going on in Marathon at first. Arc is on the complete other end of the spectrum. As we covered here and here, Arc Raiders offers a more collaborative, approachable loop where players often work together toward shared goals. And the objectives are instantly clear. To many players, this contrast only emphasised Marathon’s issues, especially during the testing period. Players understand the Arc Raiders loop within 30 minutes, while Marathon acts as a massive filter, chewing up newcomers and spitting them out before they can experience the depth of Bungie’s signature gunplay. What I’m getting at here is that the poor first-time user experience of Marathon’s Server Slam likely stifled launch sales, while the opposite was true for Arc. Let’s look at the pre-launch copies sold for each game during their respective Server Slams (launch-aligned) : Looking at the trajectory: Arc Raiders saw a massive 80% jump in copies sold during its three-day Server Slam (day -13 to -11). Players jumped in, realised the water was fine, and immediately opened their wallets. Marathon, meanwhile, saw a 49% increase in the four days following its Slam (Day -7 to -3). At the time of each game’s respective launch, Arc Raiders had nearly double the Steam footprint of Marathon – and word of mouth only continued to grow. Bungie could have had more time to fix the onboarding process had the beta happened earlier. But Marathon launched three days after the beta finished. These factors limited the launch sales quite a bit, I reckon. Marathon has found a niche audience, though Despite the friction-heavy start, the data suggests that those who survived Marathon’s onboarding are loving life. We’ve been tracking cross-platform DAUs, and while there’s the expected post-launch leakage, many players are sticking with it. After peaking at 478K total DAUs on its first Saturday, Marathon has settled into a respectable rhythm, holding 345K DAUs as of yesterday and averaging 380K DAUs across the weekend. Steam continues to do the heavy lifting here, consistently accounting for the lion’s share of the daily players. Players have been putting in the hours, too: On Steam, Marathon’s average playtime has climbed to 27.8 hours, significantly outpacing the console averages on PS5 (16.5h) and Xbox (17.3h). Even more telling than the averages: 22% of the Steam audience has surged past the 50-hour mark, and nearly 7% have already logged over 100 hours. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe This data suggests that once the Bungie magic clicks, it hooks players deeper than the average extraction shooter. There’s also started to be a shift in the game’s discourse. Marathon launched as one of those games that’s cool to hate. But as Marathon’s 100-hour club grows, we’re seeing conversations around its mechanical merit outweigh the negativity. Several high-profile creators, who were initially vocal critics, have spent the last week coming around on the mechanical depth of the endgame. It’s a subtle but positive signal; the hate train is losing steam, and a new narrative about the game is emerging. Bungie faithfuls unite Another interesting metric in Marathon’s first few weeks is who, exactly, is playing. Bungie leans heavily on its prestige as the “makers of Halo and Destiny,” in its marketing, and that message has clearly hit the mark. On Steam, the gravity (hammer) of Bungie’s previous work is unavoidable. A staggering 78.2% of Marathon players also played Destiny 2. The trend carries across other platforms, with 74.2% of PS5 players and 82.7% of Xbox players also having played Destiny 2. The Halo legacy lives on, it seems. More on that in a bit. While Destiny 2 went free to play, these numbers still represent a high-intent migration of a fanbase that trusts Bungie’s specific brand of kinetic gunplay and cryptic world-building. The Xbox data adds another layer of legacy. About 85.7% of Marathon players on Xbox have played Halo Infinite, while over half of the Steam audience has spent time in Halo Infinite and 36.1% in the Master Chief Collection (a paid collection of the old Bungie-made legacy games). Interestingly, we see a 55.9% overlap with ARC Raiders on Steam. Overlap is even higher there on PlayStation (60.5%) and Xbox (66.5%). And there’s also significant crossover with Helldivers 2 on all platforms, too. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe Bungie has found some of its fans with Marathon, and the challenge now is keeping this engaged in a high-stakes PvP environment when they’ve spent the last decade primarily enjoying the power fantasies of PvE. On that note… Go the full 26 miles? Or cut and run? Time for some could’ve, should’ve, would’ve. These things would have improved Marathon’s performance at launch: A more robust onboarding process, perhaps in the form of a short single-player/PvE campaign. We know Bungie fans love this stuff. A traditional arena-based mode akin to Destiny’s Crucible could have been a bridge for the cautious players who’d have been otherwise deterred by the Server Slam. It’s also a great palate cleanser after getting merked. Introducing a dedicated PvE environment would have similarly diversified the conversation and lowered the barrier for the Bungie faithful who found the pure PvP extraction loop too abrasive. PvE is safer than PvP these days. There’s an argument that a thin PvE mode would have just felt like a budget Destiny, potentially hurting the brand more. But given how dire the FTUE is, I think it would have been a net positive. Any kind of tutorialised loop that demystifies the stakes, really. While there is merit in a studio sticking firmly to a singular creative vision, and going all in on the hardcore extraction loop. Less forgiving is the technical reality is that the user interface and first-time user experience (FTUE) were not at a commercial standard for launch. Subscribe for free to get the most accurate games estimates in your inbox twice a week 🫶 Subscribe In a landscape where player time is oversaturated and the most contested currency, a flawed FTUE is a critical failure point. But it’s not all doom and gloom, as Marathon has an incredible, unique gameplay loop, suggesting that financial success is still attainable if Bungie can pivot effectively. Bungie and PlayStation now face a difficult strategic crossroads, though – one within a challenging games market. They could: Double down on Marathon with a long-term Rainbow Six Siege- or No Man’s Sky-style recovery plan, which is something I heard Last Stand Media’s Chris Maldonado mention last week. While this could be a sunk-cost fallacy in action, it could eventually yield the audience the game’s mechanical depth deserves. Shift focus toward the inevitable Destiny 3 or another project, mitigating the escalating opportunity cost and cutting their losses, so to speak. Doing both is an expensive proposition, given the high overhead and burn rate of operating out of Bellevue, Washington. With Sony recently demonstrating a lower threshold for underperforming studios and projects, the margin for error has vanished. Whatever happens, the next six months will determine whether Marathon becomes a cornerstone of Sony’s live-service portfolio or a cautionary tale of vision exceeding accessibility. I’m hoping it’s the former, because Marathon rocks. As always, hit subscribe to get updates on Marathon and other relevant games. Subscribe Want to get your hands on our data for yourself – for free? We’re offering a free trial of our platform for games companies. Send us a message here, or reply to this email, and we’ll set you up. The last word Reply to this email – or reach out here – if you have any feedback for the newsletter – or want to request a game for us to cover. [Alinea Analytics boasts the most accurate PC and console estimates in the business. Game makers use our platform to understand their audience, keep an eye on the competition, monitor sales trends, and spot new opportunities. We equip game studios and financial institutions with accurate data and the confidence to make smarter, data-driven decisions. Want to talk about all things games market data? We’d love to chat!]
MLB Opening Day 2026: Expert predictions for World Series champion, division winners, surprise playoff teams, Cy Young, MVP and more
2026 MLB Division Winner Odds: Dodgers, Mariners Favored to Repeat
The Dodgers and Mariners are expected to repeat as division champs. Every other division? Up for grabs. See the Opening Day odds.
Pacers Sports & Entertainment Launches Fieldhouse Media Network, Delivering First-Of-Its-Kind Global Media Channel for Partners
Deloitte and Yieldmo help PS&E to grow market size through first-party fan data while producing convertible ROI...
Antoine Griezmann to join Orlando City in MLS when Atletico Madrid season ends: Why 35-year-old is still great
Griezmann, a World Cup winner with France in 2018, joins an influx of star players like Lionel Messi and Son Heung-min in MLS
The NFL's ever-expanding slate is coming for your Wednesdays
In today's edition: Wednesday Night Football, the best division in hockey, ranking MLB's young talent, the world in photos, FGCU flashback, and more.
G7 Entertainment Marketing Launches Wild by G7 to Help Destinations Turn Culture Into Travel Demand
G7 Entertainment Marketing Launches Wild by G7 to Help Destinations Turn Culture Into Travel Demand...
MLB World Series predictions: Expert picks for 2026 champion, pennant winners
Here are the title predictions from our CBS Sports MLB staff for the 2026 season
Designing Growth That Feels Seamless for Customers
We’ve redesigned our U.S. Licensed Coffeehouse Business, and we’re now positioned to grow with greater focus in the places where customers already are.
MLB Opening Day 2026: How to watch every game, including Yankees vs. Giants, full four-day schedule, streaming info and more
Notre Dame, NBC Sports panel reflects on 20 years of ‘What Would You Fight For?’ storytelling
On Thursday (March 19), the University of Notre Dame hosted an event celebrating 20 years of storytelling through the “What Would You Fight For?” (WWYFF) campaign. Part of the 2025-26 Notre Dame Forum, the panel discussion brought together leaders from the University and NBC Sports to reflect on the impact and evolution of this storytelling platform.
Former Cardinals players & coaches in the UFL
Keeping the dream alive
Crowded Democratic Race for California Governor Could Open Door for Republicans
By Joseph Ax and Costas Pitas March 24 (Reuters) - By many measures, California is the center of the Democratic Party's political universe. The most populous U.S. state, it is home to both the party's last presidential nominee, Kamala Harris, and possibly its future one, Governor Gavin Newsom. But ...
Opinion | Why Are So Many Democrats So Far Out of Touch?
Candidates in safe districts are under no pressure to moderate in order to win.
Titans schedule Top 30 visit with versatile Clemson offensive tackle
The Tennessee Titans are adding another offensive lineman to the Top 30 visit list with Clemson tackle Tristan Leigh.
Oil rises as markets assess supply risks after Iran denies US talks
Oil prices rose in early trade on Tuesday on supply fears, as Iran denied it had held talks with the United States to end the war in the Gulf, contradicting President Donald Trump, who said a deal could be reached soon.
Ecological and demographic drivers of Oropouche virus transmission
Nature Health - Nationwide analysis of 30,086 confirmed Oropouche virus cases in Brazil between 2014 and 2025 shows that rural municipalities had over 11-fold-higher incidence than urban areas and...
Aramark Sports + Entertainment’s Culinary Creativity Takes the Field at Eight MLB Stadiums as Umpires Shout “Play Ball!”
As Major League Baseball prepares to welcome fans back for another season of unforgettable moments, Aramark Sports + Entertainment (Aramark; NYSE: ARMK) is stepping up to the plate with a new lineup of culinary innovations, collectible souvenirs, and fan‑driven experiences debuting across eight MLB stadiums nationwide.
From radio to newsreels to Netflix, Yankees chart course through entertainment history
For more than a century, the Yankees have been more than a baseball team. The sport’s most storied franchise is a pop culture touchstone, a versatile backdrop that serves as both a symbol of excellence and a punchline across television, movies and more. So as the Yankees prepare to break
F1 CEO talks US growth as business accelerates
Formula One (F1) CEO Stefano Domenicali joins Yahoo Finance Executive Editor Brian Sozzi to discuss F1's rapid growth in the US market, new racing regulations, and more. Watch the video above to hear more on the sport's focus on expansion and entertainment.
Microsoft-backed startup raises $40 million for advanced chipmaking equipment tech
Lace, a Norway-headquartered chipmaking equipment startup which is backed by Microsoft, has raised $40 million in funding to further develop a technology that could enable significant advances in semiconductor design and manufacturing, the company said on Monday. To make cutting-edge chips, manufacturers such as Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co and Intel employ a process called lithography that uses light to draw complex circuits that form the foundation of advanced artificial intelligence chips. Manufacturers use light-based lithography systems made by the Dutch company ASML - which dominates the market - as they race to shrink chip components and squeeze in more features to boost the computing horsepower on a limited area of silicon.
2026 MLB standings predictions: Expert picks for every division, full projections as baseball season begins
Here are the predictions from our CBS Sports MLB staff for the 2026 season
Causal Inference Is Eating Machine Learning
Your ML model predicts perfectly but recommends wrong actions. Learn the 5-question diagnostic, method comparison matrix, and Python workflow to fix it with causal inference.
Watch sperm whale headbutt another for no apparent reason
Researchers have captured extraordinary footage of sperm whales randomly headbutting each other, confirming anecdotal reports from mariners and whalers in the 18th and 19th centuries.
2026 Fantasy Baseball Rankings: Sleepers, busts, breakouts from model that nailed Cal Raleigh's epic season
SportsLine simulated the entire MLB season 10,000 times and identified 2026 Fantasy baseball sleepers, breakout and busts
MLB Power Rankings: Dodgers open 2026 season as best team (again) with a World Series three-peat on the line
Ready for another MLB season? How many teams can win the World Series?
How ‘Tiny Shortcuts’ Are Poisoning Science
Seemingly harmless data tweaks are undermining the integrity of the entire field. We must define the problem to prevent it.
How Obama’s Strategist Discouraged Biden From Running in 2016
In a new set of oral histories, David Plouffe, President Barack Obama’s political adviser, described how he urged Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr. not to challenge Hillary Clinton for the nomination.
Science diplomacy, research and global health
Nature Microbiology - As a young scientist from the global south, engaging in science diplomacy has brought greater purpose and meaning to my career, writes Delfina Fernandes Hlashwayo.
Science diplomacy, research and global health
Nature Microbiology - As a young scientist from the global south, engaging in science diplomacy has brought greater purpose and meaning to my career, writes Delfina Fernandes Hlashwayo.
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.
Messi expected to play, NYCFC vs. Inter Miami live updates
Lionel Messi and Inter Miami shift their focus to MLS play with a matchup against New York City FC at Yankee Stadium on Sunday, March 22.
Chicago Cubs news and notes
#Cubs, #MLB, and #MiLB news.
One Of Resident Evil's Fundamental Joys Is Watching Beautiful Men Get Hurt
The people love Leon Kennedy for more than his action-game pedigree.
Recap: Sporting KC suffers 4-1 loss to Colorado
Sporting Kansas City suffered a 4-1 loss to the Colorado Rapids on Saturday at Sporting Park. Shapi Suleymanov scored the lone goal for SKC in the defeat as the visitors prevailed behind a brace from Paxten Aaronson to go along with a goal from fellow Designated Player Rafael Navarro and
Nurses rally in Alameda to protest federal health care cuts
A large group of nurses rallied outside Alameda Hospital as part of a nationwide “Red Alert" tour, protesting proposed federal cuts to Medicare and Medicaid.
Mapping a career in electron microscopy
Nature Reviews Chemistry - Ahead of his 60th birthday, Paul A. Midgley, Professor of Materials Science at the University of Cambridge, discussed his life in science.
Super PAC spending passes $200M, with some groups hiding their cause
Groups that include pro-Israel organizations obscured their spending in some midterm races to try to defeat candidates that oppose their cause.
Apple TV Is Now Almost 20 Years Old
The Apple TV is now almost two decades old amid rumors of the announcement of a new model. Today marks 19 years Apple launched the original Apple TV. Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the Apple TV at Macworld Expo in January 2007 alongside the original iPhone, but it didn't launch until March. The Apple TV was initially previewed as the "iTV". The device allowed users to wirelessly stream movies, TV shows, music, and photos from their Mac or PC directly to their TV.
Player status report, presented by Orlando Health: Orlando City SC at Nashville SC
Here is the Player Status Report, presented by Orlando Health, for Saturday's away match at Nashville SC
Why are humans the only species with a chin?
Potential explanations abound, yet recent research has shed new light on the question.
Hawaiian Airlines Boeing 787-9 Dreamliner business class review
Hawaiian Airlines' Dreamliners' stunning business class features privacy suites, closing doors, creative menus, and colorful Hawaiian accents all over.
What Giants learned from spring training using MLB's ‘interesting' ABS system
The San Francisco Giants learned plenty from a full spring training using MLB's "interesting" ABS system.
These are the women exec moves you need to know across sports, finance, and media
From women rising across the MLB and a new volleyball league to the next move for the founder of Baked by Melissa.
Player availability report, presented by Orlando Health Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute: Orlando Pride vs Denver Summit
Here is this week's player availability report, presented by Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute, for Friday's home match vs Denver Summit
Allina-Sutter deal will likely boost AI in Minnesota health care
Contractor who tests accuracy of AI tools used by both health systems said they are liked-minded in their ambitions to improve care through technology.
“Loyal Slaves” and Campfire Entertainment in Frank Vizetelly’s Confederate Camp
Frank Vizetelly’s illustration titled “Night Amusements in the Confederate Camp” appeared in the Illustrated London News on January 10, 1863. It was one among a number of wartime scenes that Vizetelly captured for the newspaper. Subscribe Following the war, the illustration appeared in a number of books, including John O. Casler’s Four Years in the Stonewall Brigade (1893) and Campfires of the Confederacy (1898) by Ben La Bree. The scene depicts a Confederate camp at night with an enslaved man, most likely a camp servant, performing a dance around a fire with the music provided by a soldier playing a banjo. Another enslaved man looks on at the right. Vizetelly likely witnessed the scene—one that would have been common throughout the war. It’s a wonderful example of the way in which Confederates—slaveowners and nonslaveowners alike—experienced the presence of slave labor in the army. Vizetelly was deeply sympathetic to the Confederate cause. His depiction of the enslaved man as more than happy to entertain the very people who were fighting to keep him enslaved was precisely the kind of image designed to reassure a British audience that slavery was benign, and by implication, that Britain need not feel morally troubled about recognizing or supporting the Confederacy. Share Just as importantly, the sight of a dancing slave reassured Confederates themselves that the institution of slavery remained secure even after President Lincoln signed the Emancipation Proclamation. I’ve come across this illustration many times before and I plan on using it in my next book project on the role of enslaved labor in the Confederate army during the Gettysburg Campaign, but this is not the reason I am sharing it with you today. It has to do with where I recently found it, which came as a complete surprise and is incredibly revealing. Let’s take a look.
Google Messages is getting the one feature I’ve actually wanted for years
Google Messages has finally rolled out live location sharing, and I can't believe it took this long.
From rare disease to Spring Breakout, Dinges' comeback fight continues
PHOENIX -- At his low point, Marco Dinges lay curled up in the fetal position in a Florida hospital bed. He had endured more than a month of sleep-deprived nights and 104-degree fevers with a disease the doctors couldn’t crack. His father remembers standing by with tears in his eyes
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Athletics - Live Score
View the Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Athletics game played on June 17, 2026. Box score, stats, play-by-play timeline, highlights, odds & more
Ypsilanti fire destroyed ‘sanctuary’ for many grieving business owners
The building will need demolished, officials said.
Analyst: Foldable iPhone Likely to Ship in December, iPhone 18 Plus is Possible Next Year
In a research note for investment bank Barclays earlier this month, Apple analyst Tim Long said his supply chain sources mentioned the possibility of the iPhone 18 base model being announced in March next year, rather than in September this year. This split launch has been widely rumored by multiple sources in recent months. More interestingly, Long dropped two unique pieces of information.
MLB further embraces sports betting in deal with prediction platform Polymarket
MLB is currently mired in a betting scandal involving several pitchers. MLB and Polymarket execs say deals like this make the game safer.
Trump Jokes About Pearl Harbor in Meeting With Japan’s Leader
Breaking a taboo, President Trump needled Japan’s prime minister about the World War II attack, as she widened her eyes and appeared to take a deep breath in the Oval Office.
Phillies and Aramark Sports + Entertainment Announce What’s New in the 2026 Food Experience at Citizens Bank Park
With just one week until the reigning, back-to-back NL East champions return for the home opener, the Philadelphia Phillies and Aramark Sports + Entertainment today announced an exciting new lineup of food offerings and experiences coming to Citizens Bank Park for the 2026 season. Highlights include the debut of new
MLB reaches agreements with Polymarket, federal commission
MLB has named Polymarket as the league's official prediction market exchange and announced an information sharing agreement with the CFTC, the federal body that oversees the growing industry.
What the blame narrative on chronic disease gets wrong
The nation’s health crisis is a design flaw, not a lack of personal responsibility.
This heart-healthy diet may also lower the risk of dementia
Two studies have found the DASH diet — either alone or combined with the Mediterranean diet — is a winner in terms of brain health.
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Athletics - Live Score
View the Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Athletics game played on June 16, 2026. Box score, stats, play-by-play timeline, highlights, odds & more
Messi scores 900th career goal in Inter Miami cup clash
Argentine superstar Lionel Messi bagged the 900th goal of his glittering career on Wednesday, scoring for Inter Miami in their CONCACAF Champions Cup clash with Nashville.- Clinical finish - The Argentine World Cup winner's 900th goal came early in Miami's last-16 second leg tie with MLS rivals Nashville.
Integrating health equity into energy transitions and climate governance
Nature Medicine - The health benefits of clean energy transitions are unevenly distributed, even when emissions targets are met. A health-centered global governance framework is urgently needed to...
Parking relief on Music Row pushed at Nashville Entertainment Commission meeting
There is a push to make parking easier for people who work on Music Row.
Unilever, Kraft Heinz held talks to merge food business and condiments division, FT reports
Unilever and Kraft Heinz held talks to merge Unilever's food business and Kraft Heinz's condiments division, the Financial Times reported on Wednesday, citing people familiar with the talks.
Matt Strahm Full Game Log
View Matt Strahm's full Game Log from the null MLB season
Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Athletics - Live Score
View the Pittsburgh Pirates vs. Athletics game played on June 15, 2026. Box score, stats, play-by-play timeline, highlights, odds & more
Peer review at the service of society
Nature Nanotechnology - The peer review system, as we know it now, is a relatively recent achievement. It will still evolve to better fit the needs of science and society in the future.
Thymic health and immunotherapy outcomes in patients with cancer
Nature - A deep-learning approach applied to routine CT scans is used to quantify the health of the thymus in a cohort of patients with cancer, and shows that thymic function is associated with...
Orange Bank & Trust Company Celebrates Women’s Leadership at Annual Bronx Women in Business Event
MIDDLETOWN, N.Y., March 17, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Orange Bank & Trust Company proudly hosted its second annual Bronx Women in Business ev...
Unilever considers separation of its food assets, Bloomberg News reports
Unilever is in the early stages of weighing a separation of its food assets as the consumer goods maker plans to streamline its business, Bloomberg News reported on Tuesday, citing people familiar with the matter.
PR firm solo operators use AI to support their strategic services
Boutique PR agency solopreneurs use AI to streamline tasks, allowing focus on client strategy and creative work.
Oppo’s Find N6 might be the foldable of your dreams
Just like a dream, the Find N6 it may be forever out of reach.
Reusse: St. Patrick’s Day parade of deep thoughts about Minnesota’s sports teams
This Patrick must confess he might have been wrong about the Wild, Jaden McDaniels and the MLB challenge system.
Characterising terpenic plant resins, wood tars and pitches in heritage science: analytical methods and applications
npj Heritage Science - Characterising terpenic plant resins, wood tars and pitches in heritage science: analytical methods and applications
A new era for understanding mental health with smartphone-derived digital traces
Nature Health - Smartphones offer a way to understand our lives and health through digital tracing, but trust, transparency and value of information exchange need to be preserved — which is...
Primary care consultation modality and acute mental health service use in adults
Nature Mental Health - Using retrospective health-record analyses, Hidalgo-Padilla et al. evaluated whether differences in remote versus in-person primary care consultations were associated with...
Insider’s view: how China mobilises resources nationwide to develop new weapons
The country’s military modernisation integrates civilian scientific and industrial capabilities into defence innovation allowing rapid development.
Gen Z Loves This Old-School Way of Shopping — But With a Twist: ‘Lines Out the Door’
Successful brands are meeting their young consumers where they want to be.
Factbox-Lawsuits Against Trump Administration's Health Policy Changes
March 16 (Reuters) - A federal judge on Monday blocked key parts of Health Secretary Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s effort to reshape U.S. vaccine policy, including a move to reduce the number of shots routinely recommended for children. U.S. District Judge Brian Murphy in Boston sided with medical ...
10 Ways to Increase Your Revenue With a Business Loan
A business loan offers many revenue-boosting opportunities, such as helping you expand to a new market or upgrade your equipment to streamline production.
McKee nominates Beacon Bank president to chair R.I. Life Science Hub
If confirmed by Senate, William Tsonos would replace Neil Steinberg, who stepped down in July 2025.
MLB Free Agency Outlook: Arozarena, Skubal among top names
Two-time Cy Young winner Tarik Skubal and Seattle Mariners OF Randy Arozarena could become free agents for the first time after the World Series next fall.
Health care cost illusions still underpin debates
North Carolina's 2026 session could reshape health care affordability statewide.
Apple Acquires Final Cut Pro Plugin Company MotionVFX
Apple today acquired the major Final Cut Pro plugin company MotionVFX. MotionVFX is a Polish company founded by Szymon Masiak in 2009. It creates high-quality plugins, transitions, templates, and visual effects (VFX) for video editors. The company specializes in tools for Final Cut Pro, DaVinci Resolve, and Apple Motion, such as mFilmLook, mO2, and the Design Studio extension.
How Healthy Is Corned Beef?
This St. Patrick's Day staple isn’t exactly good for you, but it still offers some nutritional benefits. Here’s what to know.
The Top Voices Launches Tech Impact Awards for Small and Medium Businesses Operating in the European B2B Market
LONDON, March 16, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The Top Voices Media announced the launch of the Tech Impact Awards for Business 2026, a new edition...
March Madness 2026: We had AI pick every game of the men's NCAA tournament bracket. Here's who won
How to watch Selection Sunday for the NCAA bracket release
Indiana enters Selection Sunday firmly on the wrong side of the bubble. Here’s how and when to watch the selection show.
2026 MLB Team Preview Series: Cincinnati Reds
The worst team to make last year’s playoffs, the Reds can once again compete as a fringe contender if things break right
Full injury report for Sunday's Timberwolves vs. Thunder matchup
Full injury report for Sunday's Minnesota Timberwolves vs. Oklahoma City Thunder matchup.
Player availability report, presented by Orlando Health Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute: Orlando Pride vs Seattle Reign
Here is this week's player availability report, presented by Orlando Health Jewett Orthopedic Institute, for Sunday's home match vs Seattle Reign