Scientific Discovery

Why were Covid vaccine trials so fast?

The timeline to develop coronavirus vaccines blew many predictions out of the water.

Published on The Clinical Trials Abundance blog • Jun 26

December 2025

Medical breakthroughs in 2025

... and a happy new year.

Dec 28, 2025 • Saloni Dattani

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Saloni's guide to data visualization

Why data visualization matters, and how to make charts more effective, clear, transparent, and sometimes, beautiful.

Dec 9, 2025 • Saloni Dattani

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September 2025

Proteins, weird blobs that do important things

Proteins are all around us, doing amazing things to keep life going.

Sep 4, 2025 • Saloni Dattani

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July 2025

What's new in biology: summer 2025

The first gonorrhea vaccination program, contact lenses that see infrared light, the protein behind sweet tastes, a baby cured with gene therapy, and…

Published on The Works in Progress Newsletter • Jul 9, 2025

June 2025

Hard Drugs, my new podcast with Jacob Trefethen, and the story of a drug that could end AIDS.

How to speed up medical innovation, how to scale it up, and how to make sure lifesaving tools reach the people who need them the most.

Jun 11, 2025 • Saloni Dattani

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May 2025

What's new in biology

Return of the screwworm, new DNA vaccines, gene editing at scale, and more

Published on The Works in Progress Newsletter • May 2, 2025

April 2025

The decline in cancer mortality is about much more than smoking

I respond to the claim that the decline in cancer mortality is mostly, or almost entirely, just because of the decline in smoking.

Apr 24, 2025 • Saloni Dattani

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We don't have to sit back and just watch the horror unfold

This month, I signed a pledge to donate at least 10% of my lifetime income to effective charities.

Apr 11, 2025 • Saloni Dattani

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December 2024

Five medical breakthroughs in 2024

It's December, and time for a retrospective on some breakthroughs in medical innovation this year.

Dec 9, 2024 • Saloni Dattani

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April 2024

Four charts to understand causes of death across the lifespan: A dataviz walkthrough

The key question I ask myself while making data visualization: What question am I trying to answer?

Apr 20, 2024 • Saloni Dattani

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March 2024

#20: Many great things you missed this year

This week: Birth seasonality, causes of death across the lifespan, progress against HIV/AIDS & cystic fibrosis, very rare infectious form of…

Mar 16, 2024 • Saloni Dattani

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