2022: A Year In Science

What moved the world of science in 2022? Here are my top picks, all of which have been covered in the monthly science show Curiosity over on my YouTube Channel.

Video version of this story

1. James Webb Space Telescope started revealing the most ancient pictures of our universe. Launched in 2021 on Christmas day. Many stunning images, including Deep Field, the most famous among all.
2. AI reveals new (entirely new) antibiotic peptides in metagenome sequences of microbes. Remember AlphaFold, the defining science story of 2021? Quite a similar approach.
3. ChatGPT AI Powered essay writing and DALL E-2 AI-powered text-to-illustration
4. Back to the moon: NASA’s Artemis manned lunar mission begins on November 16. Dec 11 Orion splashed down in the Pacific
5. Thanks to 2021-the year of vaccines, in 2022 world went back to normality at large. However, Omicron spiked, MPox too. At present BF.7 and other variants
6. Chinese space station up and running. Tiangong Space Station at present has three astronauts.
7. Lost cities of Amazon (famously Cotoca) rediscovered by German Archeological team using LiDAR
8. NASA’s DART mission Double Asteroid Redirection Test, slammed into Dimorphos, a 500-foot-wide asteroid, to alter its trajectory. The orbit was shortened by 32 minutes. Video
9. Pig heart in human, xenotransplant. David Bennett, pig was genetically modified with ten gene edits to lower immune rejection.
10. Phylogeny of an ancient Neanderthal family of 14 individuals, including a father and a teenage daughter who lived in a Siberian cave 54000 years ago
11. 2 million years old eDNA metagenetics from frozen Arctic desert. Analysis revealed a lush forest of poplars, thujas, and other conifers; black geese and horseshoe crabs; and mammals such as reindeer, lemmings — and mastodons.
12. Tonga volcano eruption on 15th Jan, the most powerful eruption of 21st century, sends shockwaves that circled around the planet for days. The eruption sent enough vapour to the space to fill 58,000 Olympic pools, escalating Climate Change. Mauna Loa Volcano, Hawai (World’s largest active volcano) began eruptions after 38 years
13. Bivalent COVID Vaccines. Possibility of multivalent vaccines. Also sniffable vaccine. Incovaac by Bharat Biotech. WashU’s nasal vaccine too gets emergency approval in India
14. Disastrous floods in Pakistan that killed 1400 people, Silchar in Assam over 300, record-breaking heat waves in Europe with England hitting 40C first time ever, and right now, Arctic blizzard is spreading havoc in US. COP27 in Egypt (plus Amarnath floods, Morbi Bridge collapse killing 135 people, Trikut cable car collision in Jharkhand, Surat gas leak, Vaishno Devi Temple stampede, Delhi Fire and Mumbai building collapse)
15. Discovery of Thiomargarita magnifica the giant bacterium 5000 times larger than a normal one; approx size of a pushpin/eyelash. Mangrove epiphyte. The largest plant too: the clonal colony of seagrass Posidonia australis, is about 4,500 years old.
16. Epstein-Barr virus-Multiple Sclerosis link. 32 fold!
17. Perennial Rice released. PR23
18. Bulk synthesis of graphyne-allotrope of carbon
19. An explanation for the origin of the rings of Saturn. Saturn once had an icy moon, which they dubbed Chrysalis, that was torn apart approximately 160 million years ago by tidal gravitational interactions from Saturn and its moon Titan. Saturn’s rings are the shimmering remains.
20. Finding of Endurance of Shackleton, 107 years after it sank off South Georgia, Antarctic Sea.

Nobel Prizes 2022 (Total:14)

1. Biology or Medicine: Svante Pääbo for Neanderthal DNA Phylogenetics
2. Physics: Alain Aspect, John F. Clauser and Anton Zeilinger-Entangled photons in quantum entanglement
3. Chemistry: Carolyn R. Bertozzi, Morten Meldal, and K. Barry Sharpless for Click Chemistry (Quick intro to Click Chemistry)
4. Literature: Annie Ernaux. French author of ‘A Man’s Place’, ‘A Woman’s Story’ and ‘Years’.
5. Peace: Ales Bialiatski (Belarus activist), Memorial (A banned pro-rights foundation in Russia), and Centre for Civil Liberties (A Ukrainian democratic organization)
6. Economics: Ben S. Bernanke, Douglas W. Diamond, and Philip H. Dybvig-banks and financial crises

Science to look for in 2023

1. Hybrid solar eclipse April 20 (last was in 2016, next in 2030)
2. Jul. 3, Aug. 1, Aug. 31, and Sep. 29: Supermoon
3. More missions to the moon, including StarX’s lunar flyby with a Japanese millionaire Yusaku Maezawa and his 8 friends! India’s Chandrayan 3, Japan’s HAKUTO-R Mission 1 attempting soft lunar landing, and UAE’s Rashid Rover. Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICEby NASA in April
4. CRISPR therapy for diseases like thalassemia, sickle cell disease etc.
5. Loss and damage to be fruitful? As promised in COP27 in Egypt.
6. Lecanemab to get FDA approval for Alzheimer’s treatment? Another drug blarcamesine too.
7. World’s first spent fuel (nuclear waste) facility to be opened in Finland
8. NextGen vaccines, multivalent and vaccines against cancer.
9. WHO’s proactive pathogen watchlist. More than 25 viral and bacterial families.
10. Looking forward to what mysterious deep secrets of our universe will be revealed by JWST in 2023!