I cannot help but always be reminded of the one thing that matters in 2026, which is how easy something is to pay attention to.

For example, this week there was a big hubbub about a guy who perhaps slowed the progression of his dog’s cancer by developing an mRNA vaccine with the help of some large language models and, though this part was less discussed, a whole bunch of cancer scientists.

This certainly could potentially be cool, but it is also possible that the dog’s partial response was due, at least in part, to another treatment… a checkpoint inhibitor, which was given alongside the vaccine.

But of course, the reason this story went viral was less “dog might live longer” and more “what if the reason people are still dying of cancer isn’t that cancer is hard, but that bureaucracy is in the way?”

And look, cancer treatment really is slowed down by logistics, regulation, manufacturing, cost, and caution. And it might seem like this story is easy to pay attention to because, if it pans out, it would be very good. But I'm worried that one reason this story is easy to pay attention to is mostly because, if it were true, it would be terrible. It would mean that the barrier between us and dramatically better cancer care was mostly paperwork. That would be disgusting, and disgusting gets clicks.

As proof of this, here’s a cancer story from this week that got vastly less attention.

Researchers published a study showing that they could use CRISPR to create cancer-fighting CAR-T cells directly inside the bodies of mice with a simple injection.

CAR-T is one of the coolest things we do in cancer medicine. We take immune cells, genetically reprogram them to recognize cancer, and put them back in. In some blood cancers, it can work astonishingly well. But it is also slow, custom, and extremely expensive. Doctors have to remove a patient’s T cells, ship them off to a specialized facility, engineer them, and ship them back. That can take weeks and cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.

So this new result is exciting, not because it means cancer was easy all along, but because it might make one of our best cancer treatments less logistically absurd. Instead of doing all that engineering outside the body, the researchers used delivery particles to send CRISPR machinery and new instructions directly into T cells inside the mice. In some of the animals, the results were dramatic.

Now, mice are not people. This might not work in humans. Safety still matters. Trials are still slow. Cancer is still hard. But to me, this is what real progress usually looks like. Not a secret miracle being held back by bureaucracy, but careful engineering aimed at an actual bottleneck.

It isn’t that cancer is easy and institutions are stupid. Cancer is hard, and we get better at it every day.

Hank

Just a decade ago, almost three times as much electricity in the European Union was coming from fossil fuels as from solar and wind.

But last year, for the first time, solar and wind produced more than coal, gas, and oil combined. They accounted for just over 30% of total electricity production.

You can see this rise of solar and wind — and fossil fuels’ decline — in the chart.

This record happened despite a poor year for wind output due to low wind speeds and a slight increase in gas to compensate for lower hydropower output from dry conditions.

We know smoking causes cancer. But the journey to that knowledge is way wilder than you think. In our last episode of Crash Course Scientific Thinking, we’ll explore what happens when scientific research clashes with public opinion, individual values, and corporate interests.

At the Solnhofen formation in Germany, over 500 fossils of 15 pterosaur species have been found. But it might be hiding a dark secret, one that’s been massively distorting our view of who was living and dying there, and why they left so much evidence behind.

Metazooa

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Poet John Keats died of tuberculosis at the tender age of 25. He was a prolific poet whose life was cut short by the disease. John Green loves his poetry very nearly as much as he hates tuberculosis, which is why we created Keats & Co Coffee & Tea, named after John Keats, with the promise that 100% of profits fund TB testing and treatment.

On World Tuberculosis Day (Tuesday, March 24th), we will send our coffee and tea subscribers an exclusive video of John Green reading his favorite John Keats poem. Not subscribed? You can still get in on the fun. Receive delicious tea or coffee, help fight TB, and get a bit of Keats as a treat. Shop tea and coffee.

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