“The idea behind a cancer vaccine is to introduce neoantigens directly into the body, thereby training the immune system to see any cancer that carries them as a foreign body, ripe for elimination. The theory is solid, but creating such a bespoke vaccine quickly enough to be of use is a different matter. “Not many years ago,” says Alan Melcher, a clinical scientist at the Institute of Cancer Research in London, “I would have said, hang on, that’s never going to be technically possible.” The fact that this is now possible within as little as six weeks—albeit at a cost—is in no small part due to the accelerated development of mRNA vaccines (which carry a molecule of messenger RNA) during the covid-19 pandemic. The vaccines that were used against covid-19 caused the body to build one of the constituent proteins of SARS-CoV-2, which the immune system then used to create antibodies. Cancer vaccines would do something similar for the proteins that tumors produce.” (The Economist)

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In 2025, people will try living in this underwater habitat built by the British startup Deep, which is pioneering a new way to study the ocean.

“Ocean-exploration organization Deep has embarked on a multiyear quest to enable scientists to live on the seafloor at depths up to 200 meters for weeks, months, and possibly even years. Deep’s agenda has a major milestone this year—the development and testing of a small, modular habitat called Vanguard. This transportable, pressurized underwater shelter, capable of housing up to three divers for periods ranging up to a week or so, will be a stepping stone to a more permanent modular habitat system—known as Sentinel—that is set to launch in 2027. “By 2030, we hope to see a permanent human presence in the ocean,” says Krack. All of this is now possible thanks to an advanced 3D printing-welding approach that can print these large habitation structures.” (via IEEE Spectrum)

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