Elections are an essential part of democracy. But they often fall short of the ideals of enabling citizens to hold their governments to account and to bring about peaceful transitions in power. Toby James and Holly Ann Garnett provide an assessment of the quality of national elections around the world from 2012-21, based on nearly 500 elections across 170 countries. Their research found the US to be the lowest ranked liberal democracy on the list. How politicians and political parties receive and spend money was found to be the weakest part of the electoral process in general.

Cytokines are a natural part of your immune system. But an excess of these proteins has been linked to inflammatory diseases like rheumatoid arthritis as well as the “cytokine storm” thought to precipitate severe disease and death from COVID-19. Their potency also makes them a promising cancer treatment. One particular cytokine, IL-12, had undergone clinical trials in people but was shelved due to severe side effects. Aslan Mansurov and his colleagues found an elegant solution: “mask” the cytokine as it travels through the body, then “unmask” it when it reaches the tumor.