The news that stirred the world of science throughout 2022

Every year brings us some scientific gift. Scientists throughout the years present us with the results of various scientific researches, which constantly take mankind to a unique height. 2022 was no exception. Let's take a look at some of the achievements of the scientific world over the past year.

NASA's DART mission

 Two astronomers have discovered that an unknown comet is heading towards Earth, which could turn Earth into hell. But their words are not heeded by the media or the White House, and the consequences are dire. This is how the plot of the satirical sci-fi movie Don't Look Up begins.

But the reality is completely opposite. Late last year, the International Space Community initiated the NASA-ISA joint mission DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test). The aim was to change the orbit of the 170m diameter asteroid by the spacecraft. No, no asteroids or comets are headed towards Earth. As a preliminary, NASA said that this test experiment was much more successful than expected.

The spacecraft was slammed into the chest of Dimorphos, the minor-planet moon Dimorphos, 6.8 million miles from Earth, at a speed of four miles per second. As a result, it moves slightly out of orbit. Given enough time, it is now possible to deflect a comet heading towards Earth.

Well, could NASA have saved the dinosaurs from a comet impact 65 million years ago?

Artificial Intelligence's New Antibiotic

The success of artificial intelligence over the years has forced us to rethink our future. Many people are worried about the success of artificial intelligence, but at the end of the day, AI is being used for the benefit of people.Artificial intelligence has changed the face of molecular biology in the last two to three years.

Among these, Google's Alphafold has created a stir in the science world. It can tell the complex three-dimensional structure of a protein in a matter of seconds. This work used to take days, sometimes years. From the structure of the protein it is possible to know what kind of application it can be used, and what kind of medicine can be made.

Antimicrobial resistance is a threat to humanity. According to a Lancet report, nearly 5 million people died in 2019 due to antibiotic resistance. On the other hand, the discovery of new antibiotics is also a long process. This is where AI starts to play an amazing role. 2,349 antimicrobial peptides were identified using machine learning algorithms. Of these, 216 were analyzed chemically, 181 exhibiting antimicrobial activity. Scientists have succeeded in using these peptides as a regulator of pneumonia in mice. This is a very time consuming process without the help of artificial intelligence.

James Webb Space Telescope

Although the successor to the Hubble Space Telescope, the James Webb, was launched in late 2021, it took much of the early 2020s to fully operate the telescope. On July 11, 2022, the first image of the universe captured by James Webb was released.

The James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) orbits several thousand miles further than the Hubble telescope. It operates at temperatures down to -370 degrees Fahrenheit, completely hidden from sunlight, with a multi-layer sunshield that's perfect for infrared sites.

JWST has also been able to capture images of galaxies never before seen by scientists. The ground-breaking telescope even broke the record for the most distant galaxy ever detected.

From searching for 13-billion-year-old galaxies to seeing exoplanets directly, scientists knew little about them. Learn how stars and galaxies are made of matter. Hubble could gather much less information about these.

AI surprises in language models from digital artists

Artificial intelligence has been the hotcake of the world of science and technology throughout the years. Notable among these were Digital Art's Midjourney and Dal-e. On the other hand, the amazing performance of Open-AI's GPT-3.5 model of ChatGPT Conversational AI has left many people speechless.

Open-AI's Dal-e and Midjourney are almost identical digital artist artificial intelligence. AI can generate images from text descriptions. The more descriptive the command text, the more perfect the image.

On the other hand, ChatGPT can chat like a real human. Not just talking; It is capable of answering any question from coding, writing songs, giving ideas like an expert in any subject to solving mathematical problems.

It is worth mentioning that the feature image of this article is also created by Midjourney AI.

Corona final vaccine dose?

Corona Booster Dose has undoubtedly boosted our immunity system. After Sars-Cov-2, Omicron was the cause of everyone's headache. In the mid-2020s, we got a bivalent booster dose of the vaccine that can fight against this variant of the corona virus. The fourth dose has been completed in the UK last autumn booster dose.

But what if the new variant comes in the future? Developing a vaccine for a new variant is a time-consuming process. So is it not possible to come up with a final corona vaccine that can fight against any variant?

A study published in Nature shows that a mucosal vaccine can provide longer-term protection than a booster dose. Even, able to fight against different variants. China has already successfully started this process in 2022.

In this procedure, the vaccine is not administered through a needle. Rather, it has to be taken through the respiratory process or breath. Although this may seem like a new process, it has been used in the treatment of flu for a long time.

The coronavirus usually enters the body through the mouth and nose. This is exactly where the mucosal immune system comes into play, forming a protective wall at the coronary entrance. Sheena Cruickshank of the University of Manchester said that doses of this vaccine could start very soon.

A ghost story from a distance

This is exactly how quantum entanglement was introduced by Albert Einstein. That is, two quantum particles behave like a single particle, even if they are hundreds of light-years apart, any action on one will have an effect on the other.

In October last year, three pioneers of quantum information science were awarded the Nobel Prize for their contributions to the study of entanglement. Alan Aspect (University of Paris-Saclay), John Clauser (JF Clauser & Associates), Anton Zeilinger (University of Vienna).

Their contribution will further accelerate quantum physics, quantum computing and quantum encryption. It will also help to answer one more question - how to reconcile quantum mechanics with Einstein's general theory of relativity?

NASA's Artemis – 1

NASA's much-anticipated Artemis I mission has finally taken off successfully after fuel leaks and hurricanes have delayed the mission several times over the past year. Finally, on November 16, the world's most powerful rocket was launched from the Kennedy Space Center, the first mission of the Artemis program, which aims to send explorers back to the Moon. But this inaugural mission was uncrewed, intended to test the massive SLS rocket and the Orion crew capsule.

After this launch, Orion spent about 25.5 days exploring the Moon thoroughly before heading back to Earth. The spacecraft crashed into the Pacific Ocean on December 11. NASA is currently timing its post-flight analysis, which will help reveal what is possible in this new chapter of space exploration.

The oldest discovery of DNA

After 16 years of efforts, the news of the discovery of 2 million-year-old DNA was announced at a press briefing on December 7. In 2006, Eske Willerslev of the University of Cambridge, along with his lab members, began testing sediment cores from North Greenland.

Then 16 long years were spent on DNA extraction and sequencing. After many failures, the team saw success at the end of this year.

Through this, not only a revolution in paleontology started, but a new door of ancient civilization was opened. The study reveals the diversity of flora and fauna in Greenland 2 million years ago.