In 2022, Science Magazine selected NASA’s new space telescope,
JWST, as its Breakthrough of the Year.
After a successful launch and a near-perfect
unfolding and commissioning process, the data coming in
are already giving us a much clearer picture
of the cosmos than we’ve ever seen.
But there was a lot of ground-breaking science last year
in the lab, the field, and even in congress.
Here are a few other advances that made 2022
a big year for science.
2021’s Breakthrough of the Year was AI’s ability
to predict protein structures.
This year, AI continued to get creative,
from designing novel proteins,
to writing computer code that can solve numerical problems.
On the visual front, text-to-image models
like DALLE-2 generated intricate and captivating images.
In the coming years, humans will continue to use AI
as a tool to innovate and create.
NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test crashed a spacecraft
into a little moon called Dimorphos,
permanently altering its orbit.
This was the first-ever trial of a planetary defense strategy
that could be used if we ever detected an asteroid
on a collision course with Earth.
Using medical records from millions
of U.S military service people,
researchers found that an infection by the Epstein-Barr virus,
a common herpes virus, raised the risk of developing
multiple sclerosis 32-fold.
Another team of scientists discovered that one of Epstein-Barr's
proteins can trick the immune system into attacking neurons.
These new discoveries could spur efforts
to develop antiviral drugs to treat MS,
and raise the possibility that vaccines could prevent it altogether.
Researchers have extracted two-million-year-old DNA snippets
from northern Greenland, doubling what was thought
to be the shelf life of DNA.
Analysis of the environmental DNA, or eDNA, paints a picture
of a lush forest unlike anything that exists today.
eDNA from sites with similar preservation could provide new
insights into other arctic areas where fossils are sparse.
Figuring out how the Black Death left its mark
on survivors has been difficult.
But by studying the ancient DNA of 500 people buried in Europe
before, during and after the Black Death,
researchers found that survivors had gene variants that boosted
their immunity to the flea-borne bacterium that causes the plague.
One protective variant persists in some Europeans today,
but it also puts these individuals at a higher risk
for developing autoimmune diseases.
Large-scale clinical trials of two vaccines
against respirator syncytial virus, or RSV,
can safely protect the two groups hardest hit
by this common infection: infants and the elderly.
RSV vaccine development was derailed for decades
after a trial 50 years ago made infections worse.
But the new vaccines use advanced technology
to trigger a far better antibody response.
In the mangroves of the French Antilles,
researchers discovered a bacterium up to two centimeters long,
five thousand times longer than a typical microbe.
Unlike other bacterial cells, Thiomargarita magnifica
packages its DNA into sacs called pepins.
Its unique internal structure could represent a
transitional form between eukaryotes and prokaryotes.
Researchers in China showed that a new strain of perennial rice
can survive year after year and produce crop yield
similar to regular seasonally-planted rice.
The new strain, called Perennial Rice 23, is a cross
between Asian rice and a wild rice from Africa.
Perennial food crops like this could make feeding the world
far less expensive and labor-intensive.
For the first time, the US passed a law
that could substantially reduce climate emissions.
The climate provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act
will provide $369 billion over 10 years to support renewable
energy and nuclear power, facilitate the shift to electric vehicles,
and fund research on industrial emissions reductions.
While critics say it still isn’t enough to meet globally
established targets, it marks the biggest legislative step
the U.S. has ever taken to slow global warming.
That wraps up our list of major advancements for 2022,
and our staff is already looking at the year ahead.
New treatments, launches, and legislation are just a few
of the areas to watch that will
push the boundaries of science in 2023.