theSIGNAL SCIENCE
19 June 2026
"The goal of medicine is to make it unnecessary."
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Science

A Vaccine That Has Made a Cancer Vanish

A landmark Lancet study reveals that HPV vaccination has driven cervical cancer deaths in young English women to virtually zero — but the gains are now at risk.

Here is a number worth pausing on. Between 2020 and 2024, not a single woman aged 20 to 24 died of cervical cancer in England. Not one. For context, roughly 3,300 women in England are still diagnosed with the disease every year, and cervical cancer remains the fourth most common cancer in women worldwide, according to the World Health Organization.

Yet for one entire age group, the death toll has been erased — and researchers think they know exactly why. The credit goes to a jab that has been offered to schoolchildren in England since 2008. A new analysis led by Professor Peter Sasieni of Queen Mary University of London, funded by Cancer Research UK and published in The Lancet, is the first study to measure not just whether the HPV vaccine prevents cancer, but whether it actually prevents death. The answer is striking.

Girls who were vaccinated at age 12 or 13 now face an almost zero probability of dying from cervical cancer before the age of 30.

Photo: CDC / Unsplash
A nurse administers an HPV vaccine to a young student during a school immunisation programme.
Discuss
  • Why might vaccination rates have fallen after the pandemic, and how could this be reversed?
  • The study was conducted in England — how might its findings apply differently in lower-income countries?
  • Should the HPV vaccine be made compulsory for schoolchildren, or should it remain a personal choice?
  • What does it mean for public health policy when a disease death toll for an entire age group reaches zero?
  • If this vaccine result had been announced for a disease affecting mainly men, would public attention have been different?
Science

California's Earthquake Gate Is Fully Loaded

In 1857, a magnitude 7.9 earthquake tore through Southern California along the San Andreas Fault — and then, remarkably, nothing comparable happened again. That silence has lasted nearly 170 years, and new research suggests the pressure building beneath Cajon Pass, northeast of Los Angeles, has now reached levels not seen at any point in the past millennium. Dr. …
  • Should cities near earthquake gates face stricter building codes than other seismic zones?
∞
We estimate that since its introduction, HPV vaccination has prevented nearly 200 young women from dying from cervical cancer in England.
Peter Sasieni, Professor of Cancer Epidemiology, Queen Mary University of London
Science

The Climate Database Missing 70% of Car Emissions

In Indianapolis and Nashville, the gap is staggering — over 90% of vehicle CO₂ emissions may be invisible to one of the world's most prominent climate databases. A new study from Northern Arizona University compared Climate TRACE — co-founded by Al Gore and powered by artificial intelligence — against Vulcan, a database built from real traffic records. Across 260 U.S. …
  • Can AI-powered climate databases ever be trusted for major policy decisions?
MIDDLE EAST · Science
Climate models are missing the first warning signs of deadly Middle East heat waves, study finds
GLOBAL · Science
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EUROPE · Science
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WORLD · Science
Fungal highways are vast, yet hidden underground—new study
theSIGNAL IN THE LAB
1VOCABULARY
erasedstriking
circulateimmunisedcascade
undercountedconverges
2GRAMMAR FOCUS
Subjunctive mood — it is essential that he be, I suggest she leave
The subjunctive mood uses the base form of the verb (infinitive without 'to') after expressions like 'it is essential/vital/recommended that' and 'suggest/insist/demand that'. The base form does not change for third-person singular — we say 'it is vital that she be vaccinated', not 'she is'.
be · reach · remain · increase · act · publish · address
  1. Researchers insist that governments on the evidence showing the HPV vaccine eliminates deaths in young women.
  2. The WHO recommends that every country 90% vaccination coverage among girls by 2030.
  3. It is essential that climate databases accurate if world leaders are to make well-informed policy decisions.
  4. Scientists demand that Climate TRACE updated to reflect real traffic data rather than AI estimates alone.
  5. It is vital that England's falling vaccination rates addressed before more progress is lost.
  6. Experts suggest that the findings on the earthquake gate in the most widely read scientific journals.
  7. It is critical that the stress building at Cajon Pass a central concern in Southern California's disaster planning.
3IDIOMS
Define each idiom in your own words. Then write one sentence of your own using it.
  1. a number worth pausing on (Vaccine article)
  2. the death toll has been erased (Vaccine article)
  3. the science is settled (Vaccine article)
  4. the shadow over these results (Vaccine article)
  5. the gate opens (Earthquake article)
  6. missing half the picture (Climate article)
4CRITICAL THINKING
All three articles involve institutions — governments, universities, and technology companies — being trusted to protect or inform the public. Across the vaccine, earthquake, and climate stories, where do you see the biggest gap between what institutions know and what they are actually doing about it? Which failure do you consider most dangerous, and why?
5CREATIVE · HEADLINES
Write a headline for the top story in each of the following styles. One line each, no explanation:
  • TABLOID NEWSPAPER
  • LUXURY MAGAZINE
  • ACTIVIST BLOG
6WRITING
The three articles each describe a problem that could be solved — or at least reduced — but where progress is stalling for non-scientific reasons. Choose one story and argue what the single most important non-scientific obstacle to progress is, and what it would take to overcome it.
7DEGREES OF EXTREMITY
Complete each ladder from mild to strong using words from the articles.
  • uncommon→→
  • noticeable→→
  • some pressure→→
  • undercount→→
  • concern→→
  • disrupted→→
  • gap→→
8SPEAKING
  1. Which article's findings would you act on most urgently, and why?
  2. Does a zero death toll prove a vaccine has succeeded completely?
  3. Who bears moral responsibility when climate data quietly undercounts emissions?
  4. How should governments communicate earthquake risk without causing panic?
  5. Can science ever truly be described as settled on any question?