2023 brought a lot of bad things: wars, coups, earthquakes and perhaps the hottest year in history. It’s normal to focus on the negative, but for a change we’re doing the opposite and looking at some of the most interesting scientific advances made this year.
Here’s a (very partial) list of the biggest discoveries and breakthroughs of 2023—advancements that have already made the world a better place or are likely to do so in the near future.
Artificial intelligence
Let’s start with the biggest story of the year: AI. Suddenly, at the beginning of the year, decades of research into so-called big language models came to fruition, and we had a number of AI-powered chatbots that could generate massive volumes of eerily human text in seconds on any topic you wanted to ask. . around. Did the AI write the paragraph you’re reading? No, that didn’t happen. But probably!
The incredibly rapid development of core language models, the most famous of which is OpenAI’s ChatGPT, which stunned the world with its fourth version in March, has incredible potential for automating endlessly tedious organizational tasks, but there is much more to it than that: The technologies behind these models can help us discover new drugs, truly understand our brains and the Earth’s climate, and more generally change science, economics, and the world at large.
Not everything is so positive. No one, not even the scientists who developed them, really knows what’s going on under the hood of these AI models. When they become smarter – perhaps much smarter than the smartest person – will we still be able to control them? In 2023, there was a lot of talk about how to deal with the risks of AI in the short term (which makes disinformation and fraud much easier), the medium term (replacing human jobs) and the long term (you saw). TerminatorRight?).
It is perhaps encouraging that, by hosting the AI Summit in November 2023, the UK has become a leading voice on AI safety – a movement to mitigate this potential harm and recognize the enormous benefits that AI will bring to us all.
Malaria vaccine
This is the biggest story of the year when it comes to the number of lives saved. Malaria is one of humanity’s worst scourges and has claimed the lives of millions of people since the first malaria vaccine, RTS,S, was invented in 1987. Until now, it has taken us an arduous process spanning decades to fully understand this. RTS,S pilot in Africa.
This data gives us fantastic news: the vaccine reduces cases of severe malaria by 22 percent and infant mortality by 13 percent. Once the vaccine is properly rolled out, and work is already underway, it will save tens of thousands of lives every year. Not only that, but there will be an even better and cheaper vaccine (called R21).
Developing a vaccine against one of the greatest killers in human history is just about the best scientific story imaginable, and you saw it happen in 2023.
Even greater medical progress
Malaria was not the only disease we successfully fought in 2023. In March, we saw significant progress in developing a vaccine against respiratory syncytial virus (RSV), which kills hundreds of children and thousands of older adults every year and is also a leading cause of the common cold.
In August, scientists described a new drug that successfully extended the lives of patients with a certain type of brain tumor that we have been trying to effectively treat for decades.
In November, researchers reported testing a remarkable new method to combat dengue fever, an extremely common mosquito-borne tropical disease, in Colombia. They introduced a special type of bacteria into mosquito eggs that blocks the dengue virus. The disease quickly spread to all mosquitoes in the region, eventually reducing the number of dengue cases by up to 97 percent.
These are just some of the medical advances we have made. And we’ve also made incredible strides in treating conditions unrelated to disease: In May, for example, scientists reported a new “brain-spine interface” that helped a quadriplegic, a quadriplegic known as quadriplegia)). ) I don’t get up anymore and can go. The future: you live in it.
Medicines for weight loss
Diet sucks. This basically summarizes all the research on methods like calorie counting, intermittent fasting, and the like. It’s a lot of effort, often with small benefits, for example, if you’re very successful, you’ll lose about 5 percent of your body weight.
Everything changed this year. While many in the media complained unsuccessfully about “ultra-processed foods”, in 2023 effective weight-loss drugs became widely available: semaglutide (marketed for diabetes as Ozempic and for obesity as Wegovy) led to studies using only processed foods , which led to weight loss. 15 percent, very mild side effects. The drug suppresses appetite, meaning users can continue to enjoy food but no longer feel the constant urge to snack (described in one memorable article as a “food noise” in the background) or have a second helping.
I wrote “widespread availability” above, but this was not entirely true: the understandably high demand for semaglutide caused a global supply collapse, which is only now being resolved. Fortunately, new drugs such as tirzepatide (17.5 percent weight loss) and retatrutide (over 20 percent weight loss) will soon hit the market. 2023 marked the beginning of the end of the obesity epidemic—without the need for strict government bans on certain foods.
To infinity and beyond (or at least to the moon)
While Elon Musk became famous in 2023 for his erratic behavior on Twitter (or as he called it “X”), it’s easy to forget that another of his companies, SpaceX, has made strides in rocket science.
Both Starship rocket launches – in April and November this year – suffered engine failures, but that’s the point: the idea is to do a lot of experimental test launches to figure out what the problems are. All of this represented progress toward the ultimate goal of sending super-heavy, reusable rockets to carry people and satellites into space.
SpaceX was far from alone: scientists made many other interesting innovations in space technology this year. For example, in June, Caltech scientists demonstrated for the first time that they could use a satellite in space to collect solar energy and then send it back to Earth, which could lead to much more efficient solar power in the future, unaffected by solar energy. . Clouds and the Earth’s atmosphere.
In August 2023, the Indian spacecraft Chandrayaan-3 successfully completed its mission. Vikram Land on the Moon’s rarely explored south pole. This bodes well for further lunar exploration in the future, with a Japanese lander currently underway and next year a US-led manned mission under the Artemis program will take humans to and return to the Moon for the first time since the early 1970s.
The beginning of a new era of space exploration is a great metaphor for how optimistic we should be about the future. Yes, we are facing some major challenges, but with all the scientific advances we have made in 2023, who can’t be confident that we can overcome these challenges?
There’s still a lot to do in 2024 – let’s get it done.
Source: I News
With a background in journalism and a passion for technology, I am an experienced writer and editor. As an author at 24 News Reporter, I specialize in writing about the latest news and developments within the tech industry. My work has been featured on various publications including Wired Magazine and Engadget.