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Good morning. It’s Sunday. Here is what is going right.
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ZERO
In England, between 2020 and 2024, not one woman between the ages of 20 and 24 died from cervical cancer. Zero. The first time that has happened in any five-year period on record.
A study published Thursday in The Lancet, led by researchers at Queen Mary University of London and funded by Cancer Research UK, traced the finding to the HPV vaccine, introduced in English schools in 2008. Coverage reached nearly 90% of eligible girls. Cervical cancer is caused almost entirely by the human papillomavirus, and the vaccine blocks the strains responsible. The researchers estimate the vaccine has already saved approximately 200 young women’s lives in England alone. In 2000–2004, 25 women in that age bracket died. Without the vaccine, 23 deaths would have been expected in the 2020–2024 period. There were none.
“It’s amazing news that no women aged between 20–24 died from cervical cancer in the whole of England between 2020 and 2024,” said Professor Peter Sasieni, the study’s lead author. “That remarkable fact is thanks to nearly 90% of Gen Z women having received the HPV vaccine through the school vaccination and catch-up programmes.”
The number of lives saved will keep rising as vaccinated generations grow older. The 80% reduction in deaths in the preceding period, between 2015 and 2019, shows the trajectory. Michelle Mitchell, chief executive of Cancer Research UK said, “Thanks to HPV vaccination and cervical screening, a future where almost nobody gets cervical cancer is now firmly in sight.”
In February, India launched a free nationwide HPV vaccination programme for 11.5 million girls aged 14. More than half of Africa’s 54 nations now include the vaccine in their national immunisation programmes.
A generation of women will live their lives not knowing how close they came.
Sources: Medical Xpress / The Lancet (primary — Lancet study confirmed, June 18, Sasieni lead author, 200 lives saved estimate, 2000-04 vs 2020-24 figures, 23 expected deaths vs zero); Queen Mary University of London (UK — Sasieni quote, 90% Gen Z coverage, Mitchell quote, Cancer Research UK funding); Al Jazeera (Qatar — India February programme, Africa coverage figures, global context, 80% reduction 2015-19)
THE HIGHWAY UNDER YOUR FEET
Beneath every forest, every grassland, every field, and quite probably beneath wherever you are standing right now, there is a network. It is made of fungal threads so thin that a teaspoon of soil can hold up to ten metres of them. It has been there for hundreds of millions of years, quietly feeding plants, moving water, and locking carbon into the ground. Until this month, no one had mapped it.
Scientists published the first global map of arbuscular mycorrhizal fungal networks in the journal Science on June 12. The numbers are almost impossible to hold in your head. Earth’s topsoils contain approximately 110 quadrillion kilometres of these living threads — nearly a billion times the distance from Earth to the Sun. They partner with roughly 70% of all plant species on Earth, exchanging nutrients and water for carbon fixed by plants. They move an estimated 4 billion tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent into soils every year, accounting for roughly 11% of all human-related carbon dioxide emissions — silently, invisibly, every day.
The densest networks are not, as many scientists assumed, beneath forests. They are beneath wild grasslands: the flooded grasslands of South Sudan, the Florida Everglades, the Tibetan Plateau. These are among the most overlooked and least protected ecosystems on Earth. The map changes what we know to protect.
Dr Merlin Sheldrake, co-author of the study and author of Entangled Life said, “Mycorrhizal fungi have shaped life on Earth for hundreds of millions of years, but we still understand too little about how the infrastructure of these living transport systems is distributed across the planet.”
The researchers also released an interactive global visualization showing where these networks are found and how dense they are — a map of something that has been under our feet the entire time.
Sources: ScienceDaily / Society for the Protection of Underground Networks (primary — Science journal publication June 12, 110 quadrillion km estimate, 4 billion tonnes CO2, 11% human emissions, Sheldrake quote, interactive map); University of Sheffield (UK — grassland density finding, South Sudan/Everglades/Tibet detail, conservation implications, 70% of plant species, Prof Kate Field co-author quote); ZME Science (science — teaspoon of soil detail, solar system distance comparison, grassland vs forest finding confirmed)
THE SWITCH
Salamanders regrow lost limbs. Axolotls rebuild their hearts. Humans make scar tissue and call it done. For centuries, scientists treated this as a fixed biological limitation, something mammals gave up somewhere in their evolutionary history in exchange for other advantages. A study published in Nature Communications on June 17 suggests the trade was never as permanent as we thought.
A team led by Dr Ken Muneoka at Texas A&M University discovered that mammalian healing cells retain a surprising degree of developmental flexibility. They are capable of more than scar formation. They just need to be told what to do. Using two growth factors applied in sequence — fibroblast growth factor 2 (FGF2) applied after a wound closes, followed by bone morphogenetic protein 2 (BMP2) — the team redirected normal wound-healing cells in mice away from scar formation and toward regeneration. The result: bone, joints, ligaments, tendons, and cartilage regrew after amputation. No external stem cells. No genetic modification. Two signals, applied in the right order, waking up machinery that was already there.
“Why some animals can regenerate and others, particularly humans, can’t is a big question that has been asked since Aristotle,” Muneoka said. “I’ve spent my career trying to understand that.”
His answer is not that mammals lost the ability. They grew a switch to turn it off. It is still there. “Once you show regeneration can be activated,” he said, “it opens the door to new questions.”
The tissues that regrew were not perfect anatomical replicas. But they were bone, joint, tendon, and ligament where there had been amputation. “We regenerated what you would expect to see at that level of injury,” Muneoka said. “The structures are there — just not in a perfect form.” Even an imperfect result that reduces scar formation and restores partial function would transform outcomes for millions of people with injuries the medical system currently has no way to reverse.
Sources: ScienceDaily / Texas A&M University (primary — Nature Communications June 17, Muneoka lead author, FGF2/BMP2 sequence, bone/joint/ligament/tendon regrowth confirmed, Aristotle quote, “perfect form” quote); ScienceAlert (science — blastema formation explained, fibroblast redirection mechanism, salamander/axolotl comparison, “opens the door” quote); The Debrief (US — “critical step” characterization, skeletal and connective tissue confirmed, clinical implications)
THE MEADOW
In February, on a flat, calm day off the coast of Cairns, Australia, a mother named Jan Pope was diving as part of the Great Reef Census, a citizen science project run by Citizens of the Reef in which volunteers photograph coral to help scientists monitor reef health. She noticed an unusual pattern in the water below her. She dropped in to investigate.
“When I got in the water, I’d never seen coral growing like this before,” Jan said. “It looked like a meadow of coral. It just went on and on.”
She had found what is now believed to be the largest coral colony ever documented. The Pavona clavus colony stretches approximately 111 metres at its maximum length and covers an estimated 3,973 square metres, just over half the size of a football pitch. The following week, Jan returned with her daughter Sophie Kalkowski-Pope, who serves as marine operations coordinator at Citizens of the Reef and who had grown up diving these waters. They brought drone boats, photogrammetry equipment, and a team. The 3D model they built confirmed what Jan had seen: something extraordinary.
Pavona clavus grows at a rate of about one centimetre per year. The colony’s age has not been determined, as genetic testing across its full area is still underway to confirm it is a single organism, but scientists estimate it is at least several hundred years old. Some reef ecologists from the University of Queensland believe it may be over 1,000 years old. It has survived bleaching events, cyclones, crown-of-thorns starfish, and the warming that has devastated large sections of the Great Barrier Reef. No one knows exactly why. The currents in the area may bring fresh, cooler water. The depth, 25 to 50 feet, may have kept it from the worst of the warming. Its exact location is being withheld to protect it.
“Discoveries like this are significant because the reef still holds so many unknowns, and we don’t know what we stand to lose,” Sophie said. “I think this shows why reef conservation efforts like the Great Reef Census matter now more than ever.”
A mom and a daughter, on their family boat, on an ordinary day, found something that has been quietly growing for centuries.
Sources: Scuba Diving Magazine (US — Jan Pope full account, “meadow of coral” quote, Sophie Kalkowski-Pope identified, 3,973 sq m confirmed, potential 1,000 years old from UQ researchers, AIMS age estimate, fish/anemone ecology, photogrammetry 3D model); DIVE Magazine (UK — Great Reef Census programme, family boat detail, 111m measurement, AI analysis context, genetic testing required); Oceanographic Magazine (UK — Sophie’s “I knew right from the minute” quote, 3D verification confirmed, location withheld detail, Sophie conservation quote); Divernet (UK — Citizens of the Reef CEO Andy Ridley quote, Solomon Islands comparison, “meadow” confirmed, manual underwater measurements)
SIGHT
Jean Bennett is a molecular biologist. Albert Maguire is an ophthalmic surgeon. They are also married to each other, and for decades they shared a question: could gene therapy restore sight to children born with a defect that was slowly and irreversibly taking it away?
Leber congenital amaurosis is a rare inherited disease caused by a defective RPE65 gene. The gene produces a malfunctioning version of a protein critical to the visual cycle, the process by which the retina responds to light. Without it, the retina degrades. Children born with the disease typically lose their sight completely in early adulthood. There was no treatment.
Bennett and Maguire spent years developing one. The therapy they created replaces the defective RPE65 gene directly. They tested it in animal models first, including a breed of Swedish Briard dogs born with the same genetic defect, and restored the dogs’ sight. They went on to adopt the dogs. Then they moved to human trials. The therapy worked. In 2017, the FDA approved it: the first gene replacement therapy for an inherited disease ever approved in the United States.
Children who had been going blind gained their independence. They attended regular schools. They played outside at night. Some qualified for driver’s licenses. Their world, which had been slowly narrowing, opened back up.
In April 2026, Bennett, Maguire, and their colleague Katherine High were awarded the Breakthrough Prize in Life Sciences, $3 million given annually to scientists whose work is significantly advancing human knowledge. The citation recognized not just the treatment for Leber congenital amaurosis, but the broader path it opened: the same scientific architecture has since been applied to develop treatments for sickle cell disease, beta-thalassemia, ALS, and frontotemporal dementia.
The work began with a question two scientists asked together. It ended with children who can see the night sky.
Sources: Breakthrough Prize Foundation (primary — Bennett/High/Maguire citation confirmed, April 18 2026, $3 million prize, RPE65 gene description, FDA approval context, sickle cell/beta-thalassemia/ALS/FTD extensions, Swedish Briard dogs adopted, driver’s licenses detail, “play outside at night” confirmed)
That’s Sunday. See you tomorrow.
“Whenever the people are well informed, they can be trusted with their own government.” — Thomas Jefferson, 1789
