Happy Friday! Shameless request - please click ANY link in this newsletter.

This keeps us out of SPAM folders (and other unsavory destinations). Heck, if you really wanna make our day, also reply to this email with literally anything. Perhaps a hot take?

Three three fun facts... 1) SPAM is a portmanteau for "spiced ham." 2) Portmanteau is a word blending the sounds and meanings of two other words. 3) SPAM's association with junk mail comes from a Monty Python sketch where the spiced ham product is deemed annoying and unavoidable. The more you know!

As always, please forward IQNEWS to a friend if you're a fan!

The world could be just a few years away from a cancer vaccine, according to BioNTech's husband-and-wife founders. Reminder: These are the folks behind the Pfizer-BioNTech COVID vaccine that's now been administered ~400 million times.

Professors Ugur Sahin and Ozlem Tureci founded BioNTech in 2008 with the goal of developing treatments for individualized cancer immunotherapy using messenger RNA (mRNA) technology. Screeeech - then the pandemic hit. They pivoted, adapting their tech to address the Coronavirus.

Now, the couple is having a full-circle moment. Building on the scientific breakthroughs they made with their COVID vaccine, they’re creating an mRNA cancer vaccine. And they expect it to be widely available by 2030.

Some researchers are developing vaccines to prevent cancer, but this vaccine is for people already battling cancer. After having surgery to remove tumors, the patient would receive a personalized vaccine that prompts the immune system’s T-cells to search the body for remaining cancer cells and eliminate them.

When the couple was asked if there’s a chance the cancer vaccine won’t work, Tureci simply replied, “I don’t think so.” Pretty badass.

Let's say you find yourself in a hotel room and you need to charge your phone. You have a USB cable, but no wall adapter. What do you do? Cry?

If the room has an even semi-modern TV, you can save those tears.

Most flatscreens nowadays have a USB port that will also charge your phone. Sounds obvious, but admit it - you wouldn't have thought of that. Admit it!

If you don’t have a USB cable, visit your hotel’s front desk before running to the store. Most hotels have a lost and found box overflowing with phone chargers.

If neither approaches pans out, crying may very well be an appropriate move.

1. Winter is the only season that occurs twice a year.
2. Starbucks is the world’s largest drug empire.
3. The ice cream cone is the ultimate biodegradable food container.
4. We get more starlight during the day than we do at night.
5. Due to the curvature of the earth, >99.9% of all people are below your feet.

Zig Ziglar: “You don’t have to be great to start, but you have to start to be great.”

Today I learned that Abraham Lincoln signed the bill creating the Secret Service on April 14, 1865 - the day he was assassinated. (more here)

sangfroid [ sang-froyd ] - noun
composure or calmness in difficult or dangerous situations
The fireman displayed remarkable sangfroid as he rescued the child.

Q: What food was the first to be grown in outer space?
A: (see below next section)