A hidden T cell switch could make cancer immunotherapy work for more people

Over the past ten years, T cell immunotherapy has emerged as one of the most promising developments in cancer treatment. These therapies work by training a patient’s own immune system to detect and destroy dangerous cells. Despite their success, scientists have struggled to fully explain how these treatments function at a molecular level. This lack … Read more

The gear meant to protect firefighters may carry hidden dangers

A new study published on Dec. 16 in Environmental Science & Technology Letters reports that some firefighter protective gear contains brominated flame retardants, chemicals that may pose health risks to firefighters. The research is the first U.S. study to formally examine and document the use of brominated flame retardants in firefighter turnout gear, which is … Read more

Your body feels cold in two different ways

Researchers led by Félix Viana, co-director of the Sensory Transduction and Nociception laboratory at the Institute for Neurosciences (IN), have discovered that the body does not sense cold in a single, uniform way. Instead, the skin and internal organs rely on different molecular systems to detect drops in temperature. The Institute for Neurosciences (IN) is … Read more

The western U.S. Tried to stop wildfires and it backfired

Wildfires are not always purely destructive. In many forests, fire can clear out built up dead material, return nutrients to the soil, and help ecosystems reset. For more than 100 years, the United States has spent billions of dollars on fire suppression to protect people, homes, and sensitive environments. But putting out too many fires … Read more

Astronomers just watched a black hole twist spacetime

The universe has delivered a rare breakthrough for researchers chasing one of the hardest effects to catch in the night sky. In findings reported in Science Advances, scientists describe the first observations of a spiraling swirl in spacetime linked to a fast spinning black hole. First evidence of black hole frame dragging This phenomenon is … Read more

Why Biden Is Losing Support Among Voters Of Color

Among the most politically tuned-in, last week saw the kind of hand-wringing and accusations of bias surrounding the polls that you’d usually expect from the final two months of a campaign, not the final year and two months of a campaign. The focus was largely on general election polls: Whether a Wall Street Journal poll … Read more

Why ‘Bidenomics’ Isn’t Working For Biden

Welcome to FiveThirtyEight’s politics chat. The transcript below has been lightly edited. nrakich (Nathaniel Rakich, senior elections analyst): For a long time, the economy has been seen as a big liability for President Biden in his reelection bid. Inflation soared in 2021 and 2022, culminating at a rate of 9.1 percent last June. The same … Read more