I pummelled the towering avian monster with a battery of blows, pulling one of her arms clean off and flinging it aside as I continued my assault. Just as quickly, a new limb sprung forth from the stump. Our furious battle raged on, spraying showers of jewel-hued embers of light.

You’d be forgiven for assuming this moment came from the third act of God of War Ragnarok. You’d also be wrong. But Sony’s lauded gods-and-monsters series was a major, if unlikely, influence on one of the most anticipated games of 2023 — Final Fantasy XVI.

If you’ve watched the most recent episode of HBO’s The Last of Us, you know that happiness and dread can coexist in the same scene — and sometimes even in the same moment. (And if you haven’t watched the latest episode, stop reading now because there are spoilers ahead.)

It sounds like the stuff of pipe dreams, but for the past two decades, a handful of scientists around the world have been investigating the tumor-fighting properties of cannabis or, more specifically, the potential tumor-fighting properties of different cannabinoids — distinct compounds found in the cannabis plant.

Legal restrictions in the United States and elsewhere have historically stimied cannabis research, though those roadblocks have started to crack in recent decades. Israel, which has a much more open and robust history of medical cannabis research, has also seen advancements in this area. All of this, including research done in a few other countries, points to a promising, if complex, future for cannabinoids and cancer treatments.

For most of us watching HBO’s The Last of Us on Sunday nights from the comfort of our couch, the show’s postapocalyptic premise feels as distant from our real world as outer space — the slightly chilling parallels to the Covid-19 pandemic notwithstanding.

But The Last of Us’ fictional fungal threat may actually reveal a real-world danger on our warming planet. Let’s get this out of the way first: No, you’re not going to turn into a fungus-ravaged zombie anytime soon. But in the show’s opening episode, scientists explain how global warming could make funguses more of a threat. In the broad strokes — if not the details — the show might actually be right.