In a live broadcast from the White House, US President Joe Biden unveiled the first image from a new space telescope. Millions of people around the world marveled at a crush of thousands of galaxies that were 13 billion years old. Biden said it was difficult to even comprehend.
The gold- plated wunderkind of astronomy built by NASA with the help of the European and Canadian space agencies deserves to be introduced by the president. It's the most expensive science mission ever put into space. It didn't come easily. It took 20 years for it to be built on earth. During the telescope's monthlong, 1.5 million-kilometer journey into space, new perils came as its giant sun shield unfurled. Had the mission gone wrong, engineers would have had to tick off a total of 343 critical steps. The full story can be read.
JWST captures the birth of a star, only visible in the infrared light the telescope is designed to capture. (The image has been recolored.)NASA; ESA; CSA; STSCI; JOSEPH DEPASQUALE, ALYSSA PAGAN, AND ANTON M. KOEKEMOER/STSCI
In a live broadcast from the White House, US President Joe Biden unveiled the first image from a new space telescope. Millions of people around the world marveled at a crush of thousands of galaxies that were 13 billion years old. Biden said it was difficult to even comprehend.
The gold- plated wunderkind of astronomy built by NASA with the help of the European and Canadian space agencies deserves to be introduced by the president. It's the most expensive science mission ever put into space. It didn't come easily. It took 20 years for it to be built on earth. During the telescope's monthlong, 1.5 million-kilometer journey into space, new perils came as its giant sun shield unfurled. Had the mission gone wrong, engineers would have had to tick off a total of 343 critical steps.
Data and images beamed back to Earth suggest it was worthwhile. Astronomers who spoke with Science said they were beautiful and mind-blowing. One person said it was like putting on glasses and seeing the universe again.
The images only show what is to come. The largest mirror ever flown in space and a suite of instruments that are sensitive to the light of the stars will allow the JWST to peer deeper into the past than any previous telescope. It can reveal details in objects that are not visible to the naked eye. Within days of the data being released, papers started to show up on the arXiv server, but the results are not very good. The telescope will change the way we view the universe, and so we named it the breakthrough of the year.
The universe is undistorted by Earth's atmosphere, whose shifting air causes stars to scintillate, or twinkle. The mirror in the Hubble telescope was very powerful. More than 20,000 papers have been fueled by its data.
Astronomers began to plan for Hubble's successor before it became a reality. Next time, they wanted a telescope that looked like the sun's rays. The earliest stars and galaxies are bright at the visible and ultraviolet levels. The universe expanded in the billions of years it took that light to reach Earth. The best view of those early times can be seen through the use of IR light.
Astronomers wanted to capture enough light from the far reaches of the universe to separate it out into a spectrum of its colors, which show what an object is made of and how it is moving. The spectrum of starlight passing through the atmosphere of an exoplanet shows the fingerprints of gases in the planet's atmosphere and hints as to whether conditions are favorable to life.
Astronomers drew up plans for a telescope with a mirror that is three times the width of Hubble. That was too large to fit in a rocket, so it had to be folded up. Keeping the telescope cold was one of the challenges. Engineers decided to make the mirror from toxic beryllium instead of the usual glass because it is light and performs better.
The mission was almost doomed due to the expense and complexity of these innovations. The project was threatened with cancellation by the congress due to delays and costs. Lawmakers relented and set a deadline and cost ceiling for the project. The limits were kept by NASA for a while.
On December 25, 2021, a European Ariane 5 rocket deposited JWST in space. The telescope opened its solar array and set off for a place far away from the noise and warmth of the Sun and Earth. Engineers and astronomy watched nervously as the sun shield unfurled, mirror sections swung into place, and starlight passed through its instruments for the first time.
The first images and spectrum were released by NASA on July 12th. Researchers began to find more distant galaxies within days. When the universe was just 3% of its current age, the most distant galaxy it found was shining. The record was pushed back by 50 million years and another 100 million years by the revelation of a galaxy in just 12 hours. The ages are rough and are only beginning to be confirmed, but they show that JWST can peer into the universe.
The nursery is overcrowded. The initial glimpse of the JWST revealed a lot more than researchers had anticipated. Broader surveys are now underway to see if the crowding is an artifact due to a telescope calibration issue, or if it is an outlier due to the dust that reddens them. Historians will have to rewrite their accounts of the universe's early history if the JWST shows that this era is bustling and bright.
A planet seven times the mass of Jupiter was the focus of the JWST in September. Only about 20 exoplanets have been caught on camera so far. The star's glare was blocked by using an optical mask. Important clues to how planetary systems form will be provided by capturing the planet's own glow. Researchers are looking forward to seeing smaller exoplanets down to the size of Neptune.
The spectrum of starlight that filters through an exoplanet's atmosphere was captured by the telescope. The spectrum shows that WASP 39 b is covered in gases including water vapor, salt, and carbon monoxide.
Carbon dioxide and sulfur dioxide were not previously seen around an exoplanet. The ultraviolet light from the star is causing the formation of sulfur dioxide in the same way the Sun creates ozone in our atmosphere. It is the first evidence of photochemistry around an exoplanet, and it indicates that as JWST probes exoplanet atmospheres, it will deliver new surprises.
The pace of discoveries will accelerate as data continues to pour in and thousands of astronomer around the world mold them into concrete results. They should come for a long time. The telescope has enough fuel to last well into the 2040s, because it used less fuel than expected. The first wave is a time of wonder for those on it. There are fireworks in arXiv every day according to an astronomer.
*Because of the controversy surrounding the telescope’s name, Science now refers to it as JWST.
For every harvest, rice, wheat, corn must be replanted. It is a lot of work for farmers and can contribute to environmental issues. Perennial grains that last a long time could ease the burden, but breeding plants that are long-lived and productive has been a challenge. Researchers in China showed this year that perennial rice can be used to save farmers time and money.
The variety was created by crossing a commercial variety of Asian rice with a perennial wild rice that grows in Africa. It took more than 20 years to improve its yield and quality. After releasing PR23 to farmers in China, researchers enlisted them in a large-scale experiment to find out how many times they can harvest the rice.
The team reported last month that PR23 yielded the same amount of rice as regular rice. It cost the same in the first year. Farmers could eliminate a major task in the second year if they wanted to. The amount of work perhectare was reduced by as much as 77 person days each season, thanks to the perennial rice. Perennial rice fields have increased in the amount of soil nutrition. Perennial rice needs to be replanted after the fifth year.
More and more farmers are getting help to grow PR23 thanks to the government. There were more than 15,000 hectares planted in southern China last year. Similar varieties are being tested in Africa. Perennial rice can help reduce soil erosion. Plants need to be adapted to that environment's less fertile soil. Long-term impacts are a concern for researchers. There is a concern that weeds and pathogens will accumulate in the unplowed fields, requiring more pesticide than conventional rice does. Is the rice emitting more nitrous oxide? The costs and benefits of perennial rice should be in the forefront.
Artificial intelligence is making inroads in areas once thought of as unique to humans. This year the machines became a land grab.
Text-to-image models are the most stunning evidence. Machine learning is used to find patterns that allow them to create new images. A software system called DALL-E was presented by the research lab Openai last year and it was able to spit out several charming examples. DALL-E 2 was released by Openai. It implemented a machine-learning technique called diffusion, in which images emerge from "noise." The method can create attractive pictures. Several models became available for public use this year, and an artist using one won a fine art competition. There are models that can conjure videos.
Machine learning is showing off its creativity in a number of areas. Artificial intelligence tools were honored by Science for their predictions of the 3D structure of the human body. Researchers are using artificial intelligence to design novel proteins that could be used in vaccines, building materials, ornano machines. One technique, called "hallucination," starts with random sequence and changes them to sequence that other tools are confident will fold up into stable proteins
Alpha Tensor is a tool that is useful for computer graphics, physics simulations, and machine learning itself. It discovered that human mathematicians had overlooked certain things for a long time. AlphaCode is a system that is used to write programs to solve numerical problems. The model is trained on previous programs and their descriptions to pick the best candidates. Alpha Code is in the middle of the pack.
Practical and ethical questions are raised by the feats of Silicon. Artificial coders and artists may violate copyright, perpetuate stereotypes, or eliminate jobs according to some observers. We used looms, cameras, and other once-unsettling inventions to extend our own creativity.
Biology was shook this year by the discovery of a giant bacterium. Microbes are supposed to be small, but this one can be 5000 times larger than the average human cell. There are threadlike cells on the surface of dying leaves in a mangrove swamp.
Researchers thought thatbacteria need to be small because they don't have the internal transport systems that other cells do. The thinking was that diffusing molecule can't travel very far, limiting how large a bacterium can be. Researchers said in February that T. magnifica has several internal compartments.
A sac filled with water may have allowed the microbe to grow. All of the cell's components are pushed against the outer cell envelope, putting them in a range of oxygen, sulfur, and other essential molecule in and out of the cell. The researchers were able to show that the production of proteins takes place near the cell's center. A few otherbacteria, including one no bigger than a poppy seed, have the same structures.
Other features seem to be different to T. magnifica. T. magnifica packages its huge 12-million-base genome into membranous sacs and the researchers call them pepins. T. magnifica is able to produce enough fuel for a large cell because it has a network of internal cells that make the energy molecule ATP.
The traditional division of life is changed by these structures. Plants, animals, and other organisms have complex cells that divide their components into separate compartments. bacteria and other single-celled organisms that lack organelles have been described as "bags of proteins." It seems like T. magnifica represents something in between.
Large scale clinical trials of two vaccines against respiratory syncytial virus have proved that they can protect infants and elderly people. The vaccines prevented diseases in people.
No serious side effects over 60 years old. Babies were protected for 6 months when given to their mothers in the late stages of their pregnancies.
In the elderly, the virus can cause lung and heart problems, and in babies it can cause airway inflammation. A clinical trial of an experimental candidate more than 50 years ago left two children dead and 80% of those who received it hospitalized. The vaccine only elicited weak antibodies, which did not stop the virus, but helped it damage the airways.
Barney Graham and co-workers at the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases made a key advance in the development of the vaccine. The shape of the viral surfaceProtein used in the vaccines changes when it docks onto a cellularreceptor and the virus enters the cells. The team was led by Graham, who is now at the Morehouse School of medicine. The vaccine causes much higher levels of potent antibodies.
Good news from this year's trials vindicated the strategy. There are efficacy trials of their own for older adults. The vaccines performed well in the early stages.
Glaxosmithkline stopped its maternalRSV vaccine after safety signals came up in clinical trials. Several of the candidate vaccines could receive approval from regulators around the world next year.
Researchers this year found that a common herpes virus is an important player in multiplesclerosis, a disease in which the immune system attacks neurons. The findings may lead to new ways to treat or prevent the mysterious disorder, which causes mild symptoms, including blurred vision, fatigue, and numbness, in some of its 2.8 million sufferers around the world.
The most likely cause of multiplesclerosis is the Epstein-Barr virus, which is found in most people in childhood. Teens and young adults can get infectious mononucleosis, or "kissing disease," when they are exposed to the virus. It's difficult to nail down the cause of multiplesclerosing choriosclerosing choriosclerosing choriosclerosing chorosclerosing chorosclerosing chorosclerosing chorosclerosing chorosclerosing choroscleros
In order to confirm the link, epidemiologists looked at medical records for more than 10 million military recruits. All but one of the soldiers who developed Multiplesclerosis had previously tested positive for a different disease. In January of this year, the team reported in Science that soldiers who were initially negative for multiplesclerosing choriosclerosing choriosclerosing choriosclerosing choriosclerosing chorosclerosing chorosclerosing chorosclerosing cho Smoking increases the risk of lung cancer.
It was reported in Nature that the virus may awaken and cause nerve damage. The immune system tricks the brain and spine into attacking the nerve cells that are essential for conducting electrical signals, according to a report. Roughly 20% to 25% of the patients had antibodies in their blood
Efforts are being made to develop drugs to treat the disease. If one of the Epstein-Barr vaccines proves to be effective and given to children around the world, there's a chance thatMS will be wiped out.
The United States has been leading the world in documenting the risks of climate change. The world's second largest producer of greenhouse gases had never passed a law to substantially reduce those emissions. Attempts to pass such a bill were doomed this summer.
It all changed when a key senator dropped his opposition. TheIRA's climate provisions are the biggest step the US has taken to slow global warming. $369 billion over 10 years is provided to support electricity from renewable sources and nuclear power, as well as spurring a move to electric vehicles and research into ways to reduce industrial emissions. The United States should cut its greenhouse gas emissions by 40% by the end of the decade, according to several research groups.
The United States needs more than the IRA to meet its commitment under the Paris agreement to cut emissions by half. Analysts say that states will have to increase their clean energy generation. Future presidents and the courts will need to sustain the greenhouse gas regulations that the EPA will have to issue. The IRA's provisions to allow continued oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico have been criticized by some climate activists. The measures won the support needed to pass the bill, but critics say they perpetuate a fossil fuel industry that doesn't need help.
Since preindustrial times, a world that has already warmed 1.2C has little time left before the global average surpasses 1.5C. Climate scientists believe the world is certain to overshoot 1.5C this year, despite the IRA's steps in the right direction.
The Black Death killed one-third to one-half of the people living in Europe 700 years ago. People with particularly effective immune defenses were the ones who were favored by the devastating Pandemic. It's not possible to detect its legacy because our immune genes change frequently.
Researchers harnessed tools for studying ancient DNA to look at differences in immune genes in the people who lived and died during the plague, and identified a dramatic effect. More than 500 people were buried before, during, and after the Black Death in London. They reported in October that survivors were more likely to carry genes that boosted their immune response to the plague.
After the Black Death in London, there was a rise or fall in the number of genes that were different from one another. The ERAP2 was one of the genes that stood out. Immune cells have been shown to be able to recognize and fight threatening viruses by using the endoplasmic reticulum.
There are two different versions of the same genetic code. There is a full-size and truncated version. The people who had two copies of the variant were more likely to survive the plague than the people who had only one copy. The researchers cultured immune cells from 25 modern-day British people in the lab, and found that cells with the full-size, protective version of ERAP2 produced more immune system cytokines when exposed to Y. pestis.
The strongest example of natural selection on the human genome has been the rapid spread of this protective gene variant in Europe. In 45% of British people, the protective variant of ERAP2 is still present. It is thought that the plague was endemic in Europe and Asia until the early 19th century. The variant that protects may have a price, as it increases the risk of developing autoimmune diseases.
For thousands of years, a small moon named Dimorphos circled a larger asteroid. NASA demonstrated a strategy that might one day save humanity on 26 September when it hit it with a spaceship.
Scientists celebrated the first-ever mock trial of a planetary defense mission when the Double Asteroid Redirection Test satellite slammed into the 160-meter-wide Dimorphos. NASA wanted to knock Dimorphos slightly closer to its partner, shorten its orbital period and demonstrate a strategy for preventing future Earth-bound asteroids from being detected.
Scientists used computer simulations and small-scale replicas of asteroids with projectiles to forecast how much momentum would be transferred. The predictions ranged from whether the target was a monolith or a heap of rubble.
In the minutes leading up to the final collision, DART's onboard cameras broadcasted images of Dimorphos, which was an egg-shaped rubble pile. Two weeks after the impact, scientists compiled observations to confirm that the moon's nearly 12-hour circle had shortened by 32 minutes. The collision gave scientists a key data point for the models they would use to design future asteroid-deflection missions.
Calculating the number of asteroids large enough to decimate a large city and common enough to pose a threat is still being done. The Near-Earth Object Surveyor, a long-awaited space-based telescope, has faced funding cuts and delays from NASA. DART has shown what can be done, but a capable planetary defense system will need more information about the threat.
The shelf life of DNA used to be about one million years. The genetic material is too old to be read. At least 2 million years ago, scientists were able to extract tiny DNA snippets from frozen soil in a desert in the northern part of the world.
The study, hailed as a tour de force, demonstrates the power of environmental DNA to reconstruct lost worlds, in this case, a coastal forest unlike any in existence today that flourished during a warm climate episode. A lush forest of conifers, black geese, and horseshoe crabs, as well as mammals such as reindeer, lemmings, and mastodon, were found in 41 organic-rich samples. The range of this extinct relative of elephants to the north was not expected.
The natural icebox of permafrost was only one of the ways in which the DNA was kept safe. The team spent years honing techniques for prizing DNA from the minerals.
It is possible to extract eDNA at other highArctic sites where fossils are rare. The harder it will be to identify some species the further back in time.
Plants and animals were able to thrive in the far north because of their genetics. More controversially, novel genes may be plucked out of ancient genomes and used to help crops grow earlier. The prospect of resurrecting ancient genes is bound to make many scientists uncomfortable.
Zero carbon dioxide was a success at the beginning. China's strict policy strained its economy, frustrated its citizens, and did more harm than good to public health. The government started relaxing restrictions this month.
The epicenter of the epidemic was China, and it took 76 days for it to burn out. There was a return to almost normal life in Wuhan. Zero-COVID policies were adopted by New Zealand, Australia, Singapore, and Taiwan in order to buy time until the vaccine arrived. The countries relaxed their controls and started to live with the virus.
Despite having its own vaccine, China did not have a goal in itself. mass of citizens were tested every other day to see if they had infections. If they were positive, their apartment blocks were locked. The Omicron variant caused infections to rise to levels not seen since the Wuhan outbreak. Growth in China's gross domestic product is expected to fall to 3% this year.
People in China are losing patience. On 14 November, residents of Guangzhou poured into the streets, breaking the barriers that were supposed to keep them away. After 10 people died in a high-rise apartment building fire in Urumqi on 24 November, deaths were blamed on an ongoing lock down in China. Protesters demanded the end of zero carbon dioxide and the end of mass testing, and some even called for the resignation of the president. Authorities are rolling back restrictions because of an Omicron surge.
China is ill-prepared to live with the virus and ending zero COVID carries risks of its own. Only 40% of people over the age of 80 have gotten boosters to protect them against infections. China could have planned and executed a more orderly transition from zero COVID.
Superpower science collaborations this year were not always smooth.
Most major research funders in Europe decided to sever relations with the Russian government after the invasion of Ukraine. The European Space Agency stopped work on the Mars rover mission because of Russian assistance. There is a plan to fly the rover without Russia. After pacts with Russia and Belarus end in four years, the European particle physics laboratory said it would no longer accept scientists from those countries. In June, the US said it would stop most science projects with Russia.
There were disagreements between China and the West. New limits on the ability of government-supported scientists to work with Chinese institutions were put in place due to concerns that China was stealing the fruits of federally funded research. Some universities in Europe stopped working with Chinese partners due to fears. In August, China suspended work with the United States to protest a visit to Taiwan by a high-ranking member of Congress.
The leaders seem to be open to some scientific cooperation. Russia contributes to the ITER fusion reactor under construction in France as well as supplies to the International Space Station. After a lengthy meeting aimed at defusing tensions, U.S. and Chinese leaders said they would resume their paused work on climate and other issues. Both sides agreed that cooperation is in the best interests of the world.
Global energy markets were disrupted by the war in Ukraine.
Plans to use gas as a lower carbon substitute for coal in Europe were upended by steep cuts in Russia's natural gas imports. In order to keep the lights on, Germany and Austria have decided to delay closing some coal-fired power plants. Researchers say that it could increase their carbon emissions by up to 20% over the next two years. Europe is trying to import more natural gas from the United States and the Middle East, which could lead to more leaks of methane, a potent warming gas.
The transition to cleaner energy will be sped up by the crisis. The International Energy Agency said in October that the current global energy system is unsustainable. The changes will increase global spending on clean energy by at least 50% over the next ten years, according to analysts. The crisis-driven increase in coal use will be short-lived, according to the IEA.
Climate advocates hope so. Predicting global energy markets has been hazardous.
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