🎗️ Now cancer vaccines are coming
The immune system can now be used to treat several types of cancer, and more than 2,500 immunotherapies are in development. Cancer vaccines have also started to show results in clinical trials, against melanoma, pancreatic cancer, and brain tumors, among others.
💊 GLP-1 drugs, such as Ozempic, linked to lower risk of cancer progression
Among women with breast cancer, more than 95 percent of GLP-1 users were alive after five years, compared to 89.5 percent of non-users. Women who had taken a GLP-1 drug had about 25 percent lower risk of receiving a breast cancer diagnosis.
🛰️ AI and satellite imagery help journalists map illegal mines in the Amazon
Machine learning analyzes satellite images covering more than 123 million acres of rainforest and identifies mining pits and airstrips. Venezuelan journalist Joseph Poliszuk has identified 3,718 gold mining sites. Some of the mines were located within protected indigenous lands.
🚰 Machine pulls water from the air - can produce 4,000 liters per day
Startup Atoco is preparing production of a machine that extracts water directly from the air using nanocrystalline materials. The container-sized prototype can produce up to 1,057 gallons of water per day and be installed at data centers, hospitals, and other critical infrastructure.
🦟 Malaria vaccine has reduced child mortality by 13% in three African countries
A study confirms that the RTS,S vaccine has reduced overall child mortality by 13 percent in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi. The effect was achieved even though only 71 percent of children received three doses and 40 percent received the fourth dose.
📚 More nine-year-olds are reading books daily
39 percent of 9-year-olds read books or newspapers daily, the highest share since the measurements began in 2012. Daily reading is increasing among children aged 9 to 11 compared with the previous measurement in 2022.
🌡️ Research committee that provides input to the IPCC drops the worst climate scenarios
The research committee ScenarioMIP, which develops the climate scenarios that form the basis for the IPCC's reports, has officially classified the previous worst-case scenarios RCP8.5, SSP5-8.5 and SSP3-7.0 as implausible.
☢️ Forty years after the disaster, Chernobyl teems with wildlife
Forty years after the accident at the nuclear power plant, the area around Chernobyl remains too dangerous for human habitation. But the wildlife has moved back in. Przewalski's horses, wolves, bears, lynx, moose, and red deer roam freely in the Chernobyl zone.
🛰️ Coffee companies launch satellite program to map deforestation
Several major coffee companies and coffee traders have joined forces to map coffee farms and deforestation using satellite imagery and AI models. The initiative will protect millions of smallholder farmers from being wrongly excluded from the EU market due to inaccurate maps.