Taliban v education Further depressing news from Afghanistan about the crack-down on  female education. Oh well, it’s up to them, but they will be the long term losers, as every possible statistic will soon start to show. The Conversation has the details:

https://theconversation.com/what-happened-to-afghanistans-female-academics-283000?utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Latest%20from%20The%20Conversation%20for%20June%201%202

Yet more hope on cancer  Here’s what happens in societies that do educate women. A new drug that goes by the snappy name of  GRWD5769 may be on the brink of transforming prospects for late-stage cancer patients   To rub the point in we’ve stories from opposite ends of the political spectrum our old stand-bys,The Mail and the Guardian.

Wonder pill shrinks tumours in a third of patients with six hard-to-treat cancers, early trial shows | Daily Mail Online

.Smart drug that strips cancer cells of ‘invisibility cloak’ can shrink tumours by 30%, trial shows | Cancer | The Guardian

Super El Niño      Better keep your ice cubes ready if you read our cocktail column (LSS passim) Because you are going to need them says the Mail, who, despite what you might think, are having a good Climate Crisis.

Super El Niño is on its way: Scientists warn there’s now an 80% chance the unusual climate pattern will arrive this summer – bringing extreme heat ‘nearly EVERYWHERE’ | Daily Mail Online

AI and Vaccines come together Are we a medical blog or an AI one? Looks like the difference doesn’t matter any more, as the two fields seem to be in fusion. This is a remarkable one, gentle readers so if you need a bit of cheering up, read it, from the BBC

‘World-first’ vaccine designed by artificial intelligence – BBC News

CAR-T enables kidney transplants  reports Nature Briefing Yet Another  LSS Favourite  New Techniques (FNT) takes yet another  encouraging step forward, this time in the world of transplant medicine:

A single dose of engineered immune cells has helped three people with ‘highly sensitized’ immune systems to receive life-saving kidney transplants. People in this group are often ineligible for transplants because their bodies usually reject the donated organ. Researchers engineered the recipient’s own immune cells into chimeric antigen receptor (CAR) T cells that ultimately reduce the trouble-making antibodies that push their immune systems into overdrive. More than a year after receiving the cells, the three people are now living with new kidneys and without notable side effects.

Nature | 5 min read
Reference: New England Journal of Medicine paper 1 & paper 2

We think that lot more or less makes our point for today. Except for this thought from some American bloke:

An investment in knowledge pays the best interest.” — Benjamin Franklin

#cancer #CAR-T  #Artificial Intelligence #transplants  #climate change #health #medicine #women #education #afghanistan