January • – The
Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) publishes its JRA-55 dataset, confirming 2023 as the warmest year on record globally, at above the 1850–1900 baseline. This is above the previous record set in 2016. • – The first functional
semiconductor made from
graphene is created. • – A
review indicates
digital rectal examination (DRE) is an outdated routine medical practice, with a lower cancer detection rate compared to
prostate-specific antigen (PSA) testing and no benefit from combining DRE and PSA. • • Scientists report that
newborn galaxies in the very
early universe were "banana"-shaped, much to the surprise of researchers. • An analysis of
sugar-sweetened beverage (SSB) taxes concludes scaling them could yield substantial
public health benefits. • • Scientists report studies that seem to support the hypothesis that
life may have begun in a shallow lake rather than otherwise – perhaps somewhat like a "
warm little pond" originally proposed by
Charles Darwin. • A group of scientists from around the globe have charted paradigm-shifting restorative pathways to mitigate the worst effects of
climate change and
biodiversity loss with a strong emphasis on
environmental sustainability, human wellbeing and reducing
social and
economic inequality. • Researchers have discovered a new phase of matter, named a "light-matter hybrid", which may reshape understanding of how
light interacts with
matter. • A study
of proteins in
cerebrospinal fluid indicates there are five subtypes of
Alzheimer's disease, suggesting it to be likely that subtype-specific treatments are required. • A study finds
seaweed farming could be set up as a resilient food solution within roughly a year in
abrupt sunlight reduction scenarios such as
after a nuclear war or a large volcano eruption. • • Chemists report studies finding that
long-chain fatty acids were produced in ancient
hydrothermal vents. Such fatty acids may have contributed to the formation of the first
cell membranes that are fundamental to
protocells and the
origin of life. • Scientists report the
extinction of
Gigantopithecus blacki, the largest
primate to ever inhabit the Earth, that lived between 2 million and 350,000 years ago, was largely due to the inability of the ape to adapt to a diet better suited to a significantly changed environment. • • Biologists report the discovery of the oldest known
skin, fossilized about 289 million years ago, and possibly the skin from an ancient reptile. • Scientists report the discovery of
Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, an older species of
Tyrannosaurus that lived 5-7 million years before
Tyrannosaurus rex, and which may be fundamentally important to the evolution of the species. • A study of the
Caatinga region in
Brazil finds that its
semi-arid biome could lose over 90% of
mammal species by 2060, even in a best-case scenario of
climate change. • A
graphene-based implant on the surface of mouse brains, in combination with a two-photon microscope, is shown to capture high-resolution information on neural activity at depths of 250 micrometers. • A review of genetic data from 21 studies with nearly one million participants finds more than 50 new genetic loci and 205 novel
genes associated with
depression, opening potential targets for drugs to treat depression. • The
Upano Valley sites are reported as the oldest
Amazonian cities built over 2500 years ago, with a unique "garden urbanism" city design. • A study presents results of a
Riyadh-based trial of eight
urban heat
mitigation scenarios, finding large cooling effects with combinations that include reflective
rooftop materials, irrigated greenery, and
retrofitting. • •
Global warming: 2023 is confirmed as the hottest year on record by several science agencies. •
NASA reports a figure of 1.4 degrees Celsius above the late 19th century average, when modern record-keeping began. •
NOAA reports a figure of 1.35 degrees Celsius. •
Berkeley Earth reports a figure of 1.54 degrees Celsius. • An AI-based study shows for the first time that
fingerprints from different fingers of the same person share strong detectable similarities. • – NASA fully opens the recovered container with samples from the
Bennu asteroid, after three months of failed attempts. • – The first successful
cloning of a
rhesus monkey is reported by scientists in China. • • NASA reports the end of the
Ingenuity helicopter's operation, after 72 successful flights on
Mars, due to a broken rotor blade. • A potential candidate for the first known radio
pulsar-
black hole binary is reported by astronomers. The heavier of the two lies in the "mass gap" between neutron stars and black holes. The pair are located in the
globular cluster NGC 1851. • Two
insect-like robots, a mini-bug and a water strider, are reported as being the smallest, lightest, and fastest fully-functional micro-robots ever created. •
Bottom trawling is found to release 340 million tonnes of
carbon dioxide (CO2) into the atmosphere each year, nearly 1 percent of all global CO2 emissions in addition to
acidifying oceans. • – Japan becomes the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on the
Moon, with its
SLIM mission. • – Biologists report the discovery of "
obelisks", a new class of
viroid-like elements, and "oblins", their related group of proteins, in the
human microbiome. • – A viable and sustainable approach for gold
recovery from
e-waste is demonstrated. : A global analysis of
groundwater levels is published, including widespread rapid declines of over 0.5 meters per year. • • The discovery of 85
exoplanet candidates based on data from the
TESS observatory is reported. All have orbital periods of between 20 and 700 days, with temperatures similar to those of
Solar System planets. • A global analysis of
groundwater levels reports rapid declines of over 0.5 meters per year are widespread and that declines have accelerated over the past four decades in 30% of the world's regional
aquifers. The study also shows cases in which depletion trends have reversed following interventions such as
policy changes. • – The
Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is given the go-ahead by the
European Space Agency (ESA). It will launch in 2035. • •
Elon Musk's startup
Neuralink implants their first
microchip into a human brain. • A robotic sensor able to read
braille with 87.5% accuracy and at twice the speed of a human is demonstrated. • – NASA reports the discovery of a
super-Earth called TOI-715 b, located in the
habitable zone of a red dwarf star about 137 light-years away. • : a self-powered solar panel cleaning system using an electrodynamic screen, removing contaminants through high-voltage electric fields, is demonstrated (4 Jan), an
atmospheric water generator (WaterCube) for humidity levels above 40% is released (9 Jan). • : mouse-tested novel antibiotics class (including
Zosurabalpin) against
A. baumannii (3 Jan), small-trialed
focused ultrasound for
blood–brain barrier opening for better medication (
Aducanumab) entry against Alzheimer's disease (3 Jan), a
review supports the of
exercise against depression (15 Jan), an available blood test to detect
Alzheimer's disease with high accuracy using p-tau217 (22 Jan), one of two small-trialed gene therapies against
DFNB9-deafness (24 Jan), phase 3-trialed
dengue vaccine effective against at least two of four dengue types (31 Jan) • : ~240.000 particles of
microplastic and
nanoplastics (~90%) per liter are found in samples of
plastic-
bottled water (8 Jan), a study estimates harmful chemicals used in plastic materials have caused $249 billion U.S. healthcare system costs in 2018 (11 Jan), a study indicates fungal infections may be causing millions more deaths annually than thought (12 Jan), a study of European
plastic waste exports to Vietnam finds a large fraction is dumped in nature and suggests air pollution from melting plastics and untreated wastewater have significant impact on health (18 Jan).
February • • Scientists report a possible way of solving the
three-body problem; a notable problem of particular importance to
physics and
classical mechanics. •
Apple releases the
Vision Pro as a
virtual reality tool with
visionOS. • • The proposed name
Zoozve for
Venus'
quasi-moon 2002 VE is approved and announced by the
International Astronomical Union's Working Group Small Bodies Nomenclature (WGSBN). • A study based on 300-years-long temperature records preserved in Caribbean
sclerosponge carbonate skeletons shows
industrial-era warming already began in the mid-1860s and that by 2020, global warming was already 1.7±0.1 °C above pre-industrial levels. However, their reference period is not used by the
IPCC and the
1.5 °C climate goal and the study's authors suggest their results show a better baseline. • A study reports
high life satisfaction in people
with low incomes among small-scale societies outside mainstream societies, in contrast with conclusions of a 2023
adversarial collaboration. • • Scientists report a new species of
mussel named
Vadumodiolus teredinicola. • Biologists report a new species of
jellyfish named
Santjordia pagesi. • • Reported science studies suggest that
cosmic dust particles may have spread, in a process termed
panspermia,
life to Earth and elsewhere in the
Universe. • A battery based on
calcium, able to charge and discharge fully 700 times at room temperature, is presented. It is described as a potential alternative to
lithium, being 2,500 times more abundant on Earth. •
Saturn's moon Mimas is reported to
have a subsurface ocean which formed recently (
precision fermentation-derived
beta-lactoglobulin is released as a substitute for
whey protein amid growth of a nascent animal-free dairy industry (19 Feb), researchers describe an approach for an
optical disk with
petabit capacity (21 Feb). • : phase 3-trialed
R21/Matrix-M vaccine against Malaria (1 Feb), phase 3-trialed
resmetirom as first medication against
nonalcoholic steatohepatitis of the liver (7 Feb), a blood test against
heart attacks, the
top cause of human deaths (12 Feb), a low-cost saliva test against breast cancer (13 Feb), pigs-tested patient repositioning method for magnetic
microbot navigation against liver cancer (14 Feb), antibiotic
cresomycin against multiple
drug-resistant bacterial strains (15 Feb), small-trialed 15 min exposure to 670 nm
red light against blood glucose spikes following meals (20 Feb), small-trialed
Omalizumab against food allergies (25 Feb), a
donor heart is transplanted after 12 hours of preservation and transport using an airplane, small-trialed
headgear for
gamma stimulation to recruit the
glymphatic system to remove brain
amyloid against Alzheimer's disease (28 Feb). • : several dietary habits and products including
teabags are linked to
PFAS intake (4 Feb), an additional three billion people may face
water scarcity by 2050 when
river pollution is considered, an aspect neglected by prior assessments (6 Feb),
HPV infection linked to higher cardiovascular mortality (7 Feb), researchers use simulations to develop an early-warning signal for a
potential collapse of the atlantic meridional overturning circulation (AMOC) and suggest it indicates the AMOC is "on route to tipping" (9 Feb), researchers report the
H5N1 bird flu virus may be changing and adapting to infect more mammals (12 Feb), researchers report how compounding disturbances could trigger unexpected ecosystem transitions in the
Amazon rainforest (14 Feb), harmful
chlormequat is found in ~80% of U.S. adult urine samples, rising during 2023, and in
oat-based
foods widely thought to be healthy (15 Feb), excess amounts of widely-supplemented
niacin (B3) are
linked to cardiovascular risk (19 Feb), a
review concludes available evidence on the use of
puberty blockers and
cross-sex hormones in minors with
gender dysphoria is very limited and based on only a few studies with small numbers which have problematic methodology and quality, warning about their use outside of clinical studies or research projects after careful risk-benefit evaluation (27 Feb).
March • • Astronomers report that the surface of
Europa, a moon of the planet
Jupiter, may have much less
oxygen than previously inferred, suggesting that the moon has a less hospitable environment for the existence of
lifeforms than may have been considered earlier. • Biochemists report making an
RNA molecule that was able to make accurate copies of a different type of RNA molecule, moving closer to an RNA that could make accurate copies of itself, and, as a result, providing support for an
RNA world that may have been an essential way of starting the
origin of life. • – The first creation of
induced pluripotent stem cells for the
Asian elephant is reported by
Colossal Biosciences, a key step towards
de-extinction of the
woolly mammoth. • – Geologists identify a 2.4-million-year cycle in deep-sea sedimentary data, caused by an orbital interaction between Earth and Mars. • • The
Artificial Intelligence Act, the world's first comprehensive legal and regulatory framework for
artificial intelligence, is passed by the
European Union. • The largest inventory of
methane emissions from U.S. oil and gas production finds them to be largely concentrated and around three times the national government inventory estimate. On 28 March, methane emissions from U.S.
landfills are quantified, with super-emitting point-sources accounting for almost 90% thereof. , the EU passes the world's first comprehensive legislation governing the technology. • –
SpaceX successfully launches the
Starship spacecraft, but loses the rocket upon re-entering the atmosphere. • • Scientists demonstrate a wireless network of 78 tiny sensors able to gather data from the brain, with potential to be scaled up to thousands of such devices. • Researchers with the
National Severe Storms Laboratory,
Storm Prediction Center,
CIWRO, and the
University of Oklahoma's School of Meteorology publish a paper where they state, ">20% of supercell
tornadoes may be capable of producing
EF4–EF5 damage" and that "the legacy
F-scale wind speed ranges may ultimately provide a better estimate of peak tornado wind speeds at 10–15 m AGL for strong–violent tornadoes and a better damage-based intensity rating for all tornadoes" and also put the general 0–5 ranking scale in question. • – The removal of
HIV from infected cells using
CRISPR gene editing technology is reported. • – A study outlines identified ecological
pandemic prevention measures for policy frameworks. : A study calculates the production
costs of
diabetes medications such as
insulin and
ozempic. • • The
Event Horizon Telescope team confirms that strong
magnetic fields are spiralling at the edge of the Milky Way's central black hole,
Sagittarius A*. A new image released by the team, similar to
M87*, suggests that strong magnetic fields may be common to all
black holes. • A study calculates the production
costs of
diabetes medications such as
insulin and
ozempic and finds them to be much lower than
market prices. • –
LHS 3844 b is confirmed as the first
tidally locked super-Earth exoplanet. • : researchers demonstrate simultaneous
radiative cooling and solar power generation from the same area (13 Mar). • : a blood test against colon cancer (13 Mar), mice-tested antibody-mediated depletion of myeloid-biased
hematopoietic stem cells
against immune system aging (27 Mar). • : a small trial links micro- and nanoplastics in
carotid artery plaque to
higher risks (6 Mar), U.S. land area of ~1200 km² is threatened by
coastal subsidence by 2050 due to
sea level rise (6 Mar), an
EEA risk assessment finds Europe
underprepared for climate risks across five broad clusters (11 Mar), a
preprint trial suggests
large language models could be used for tailored
manipulation, being more persuasive than humans when using personal information (21 Mar).
April • • An entirely new class of
antibiotics with potent activity against multi-
drug resistant bacteria is discovered. These compounds target a protein called LpxH, and are shown to cure bloodstream infections in mice. • An analysis of the
European Union's
Common Agricultural Policy suggests 82% of the EU's
agricultural subsidies are used for animal-based foods which "are associated
with 84% of embodied greenhouse gas emissions of EU food production".
organelle in a
marine alga (
Braarudosphaera bigelowii) is reported, the
nitroplast.The early evolutionary stage organelle provides a view into the transition from an
endosymbiont into a proper organelle. • –
NASA selects three companies –
Intuitive Machines, Lunar Outpost and Venturi Astrolab – to develop its
Lunar Terrain Vehicle, for use in crewed
Artemis missions from 2030 onwards. • • A study in
Nature finds that
global CO2 emissions increased by only 0.1% in 2023, suggesting that a plateau may have been reached. • The
Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) project releases multiple papers which report unprecedented measurements of
dark energy, find indications that dark energy which is
expanding the Universe is evolving over time, and release the most detailed largest 3D
cosmic map to date. • – A numerical toolkit designed for modelling
warp drive spacetimes is introduced in
Classical and Quantum Gravity. • – A rare genetic variation in a gene that makes
fibronectin is shown to reduce the odds of developing
Alzheimer's disease by over 70%. • – The first
nitrogen-fixing organelle in a
marine alga is reported, the
nitroplast. The early evolutionary stage organelle provides a view into the transition from an
endosymbiont into a proper organelle that receives about half of its proteins from the alga. • • Biologists report that
bonobos behave more aggressively than thought earlier. • Scientists describe how
tardigrades are protecting themselves from large radiation exposure and damage, which is quickly repaired, using the
Dsup protein. • • The
NOAA confirms a fourth global
coral bleaching event. • The world's first commercial-scale factory producing sustainable
high-protein food from air, microbes and solar energy,
Solein, launches. • – Scientists at the
Riken institute demonstrate "advanced dual-chirped optical parametric amplification", which provides a 50-fold increase in the energy of single-cycle
laser pulses. This new technique may advance the development of
attosecond lasers. • – The world's largest
3D printer, dubbed Factory of the Future 1.0 (FoF 1.0), is presented by the
University of Maine. Using
thermoplastic polymers, the machine can print objects as large as long by wide by high, at a rate of per hour. • – Demonstration of
synthetic diamond created at 1 atmosphere of pressure in around 150 minutes without needing seeds. • – The first
meta-analysis of 665 trials of
conservation action such as
invasive species control measuring
biodiversity is published. • –
mRNA-4157/V940, the first personalised
melanoma vaccine based on
mRNA, enters a final-stage
Phase III trial. • • Timothy A. Coleman, with the
University of Alabama in Huntsville, Richard L. Thompson with the NOAA
Storm Prediction Center, and Dr. Gregory S. Forbes, a retired meteorologist from
The Weather Channel publish an article to the
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology stating, "it is apparent that the perceived shift in tornado activity from the traditional
tornado alley in the Great Plains to the eastern U.S. is indeed real". • Physicists outline how a subluminal
warp drive that does not require exotic negative energy may be possible. • : phase 2-trialed
GLP-1 receptor agonist diabetes 2 drug
lixisenatide against (early)
Parkinson's disease motor disability (3 April). • : a study assesses the global extent of
PFAS contamination
of surface waters and groundwaters, finding many samples exceed PFAS
drinking water guidance values and a "need to better understand the use, fate and impacts of anthropogenic chemicals" (8 April), a study estimates how much inorganic carbon
soils store globally and 23 billion tons over the next 30 years in a business-as-usual scenario (11 April), a study of satellite data suggests because of
city subsidence and
sea-level rise, by 2120, 22 to 26% of China's coastal lands will be below sea level, hosting 9 to 11% of the coastal population (18 April), a study suggests
vitamin D deficiency may be a determinant of cancer immunity and immunotherapy success (25 April), and researchers report
H5N1 bird flu was found in
raw milk (29 April).
May • – A new brain circuit that may act as a "master regulator" of the immune system is reported. • – The first bioprocessing system for human
brain organoids performing
computational tasks enabling remote
wetware computing research via a Python library,
NeuroPlatform, is released. • – China launches its
Chang'e 6 probe, a robotic
sample-return mission to the
far side of the Moon. • • A new theory states that
Venus may have lost its water so quickly due to HCO+ dissociative recombination. • People aged over 65 with two copies of the APOE4 gene variant are found to have a 95% chance of developing
Alzheimer's disease. • • Google introduces
AlphaFold 3, a new AI model for accurately predicting the structure of
proteins,
DNA,
RNA,
ligands and more, and how they interact. • Atmospheric gases surrounding
55 Cancri e, a hot rocky exoplanet 41 light-years from Earth, are detected by researchers using the
James Webb Space Telescope. NASA reports this as "the best evidence to date for the existence of any rocky planet
atmosphere outside our solar system." • The first
AI-generated song made with
Suno AI reaches over a million listens, shortly after
a song with samples generated with
Udio became viral. During 2024, AI-generated music created with tools like, most notably, Suno or Udio became sophisticated and popular. Just one year earlier, many experts reportedly thought that AI models capable of generating complete high-quality songs
from text prompts wouldn't arrive any time soon. • • A record annual increase in
atmospheric CO2 is reported from the
Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii, with a jump of 4.7 parts per million (ppm) compared to a year earlier. • A cubic millimetre of the
human brain is mapped at nanoscale resolution by a team at Google. This contains roughly 57,000 cells and 150 million synapses, incorporating 1.4 petabytes of data. • A study in
Physical Review Letters concludes that the black hole in
VFTS 243 likely formed instantaneously, with energy mainly expelled via
neutrinos. This means it would have skipped the
supernova stage entirely. • An analysis of
ocean protection for the global conservation target to protect at least 30% of the ocean by 2030 (
30 by 30), finds around a quarter of
marine protected area (MPA) coverage is not implemented, and one-third is incompatible with the conservation of nature due to the occurrence of highly destructive activities. According to the study, indicators of MPA quality, not only coverage, are needed. On 11 June, a study finds MPAs' effectiveness is not determined by any specific governance approaches or incentives, but the combination of many different integrated incentives. • –
A series of solar storms and intense
solar flares impact the Earth, creating
aurorae at more southerly and northerly latitudes than usual. • –
OpenAI reveals
GPT-4o, its latest AI model, featuring improved multimodal capabilities in real time. • • Astronomers report an overview of preliminary analytical studies on returned samples of
asteroid 101955 Bennu by the
OSIRIS-REx mission. •
SPECULOOS-3 b, an exoplanet nearly identical in size to Earth, is discovered orbiting an
ultracool dwarf star as small as Jupiter and located 55 light-years from Earth. • Solar energy is combined with synthetic quartz to generate temperatures of more than 1,000°C. This proof-of-concept method shows the potential of clean energy to replace fossil fuels in heavy manufacturing, according to a research team at
ETH Zurich. • – A
multimodal algorithm for improved
sarcasm detection is revealed. Trained on a database known as MUStARD, it can examine multiple aspects of audio recordings and has 75% accuracy. • – The world's smallest quantum light detector on a silicon chip is demonstrated, 50 times smaller than their previous version. • – The first measurements of an exoplanet's core mass are obtained by the
James Webb Space Telescope. This reveals a surprisingly low amount of methane and a super-sized core within the super-Neptune
WASP-107b. • • New images from the
Euclid space telescope are published, including a view of the
Messier 78 star nursery. • Astronomers using
TESS report the discovery of
Gliese 12 b, a Venus-sized exoplanet located 40 light-years away, with an equilibrium temperature of 315 K (42 °C; 107 °F). This makes it the nearest, transiting, temperate, Earth-sized world located to date. • A team shows that
iron instead of
cobalt and
nickel can be used as a
cathode material in
lithium-ion batteries, improving both safety and sustainability. • – Researchers from the
Chinese Academy of Sciences report tuning of the
Casimir effect using magnetic fields. • – NASA reports that the
James Webb Space Telescope has discovered
JADES-GS-z14-0, the most distant known
galaxy, which existed only 290 million years after the
Big Bang. Its
redshift of 14.32 exceeds the previous record of 13.2, set by
JADES-GS-z13-0. • – Biologists report that
Tmesipteris oblanceolata, a
fern ally plant, was found to contain the largest known
genome. • : a mRNA vaccine-like
immunotherapy against
brain cancer tested in a preliminary small trial (1 May), ferrets-tested
mRNA vaccine against the clade 2.3.4.4b H5
bird flu amid concerning developments of the
2020–2025 H5N1 outbreak (23 May), mice-tested antibiotic
lolamicin specific to
Gram-negative bacteria that spares the gut microbiome (29 May). • : researchers report
gas stoves disperse
nitrogen dioxide – associated with respiratory conditions such as
asthma – at unsafe levels also outside kitchens for hours (3 May), a study reported large amounts of
microplastic in brains with concentrations being much larger in samples from 2024 compared to 2016 (6 May), an experimental study finds GPT-4-based
large language model-powered conversational search increases selective exposure compared to conventional
Web search (11 May), a study indicates
fish oil omega-3 supplements, widely taken due to associations of high omega-3 levels and good health or cognition, might be a substantial risk factor for
atrial fibrillation and
stroke except for those who took these already having atrial fibrillation (21 May), and researchers report continued transmission
of bird flu within dairy cattle and show that their raw milk can infect mice (24 May).
June • – China successfully lands
Chang'e 6 on the
lunar far side. The robotic probe is set to begin sample collection before returning its 2 kg (4.4 lb) cargo on 4 June. • – The
China National Space Administration's
Chang'e 6 spacecraft lifts off from the surface of the
far side of the Moon carrying samples of
lunar soil and rocks back to
Earth. • – Astronomers identify
ASKAP J1935+2148, the slowest-spinning
neutron star ever recorded, which completes a rotation just once every 54 minutes. • – A paper challenges the public perception and media depictions of
large language models like especially
ChatGPT, arguing that "bullshitting" in the sense of the book
On Bullshit and a fundamentally flawed design are a better approach or terminology for understanding the flaws of these AI architectures or the behavior of the systems based on these as opposed to occasional or frequent "
hallucinations". In agreement with many other experts, they find these models are in an "important way indifferent to the
truth of their outputs". This notion has also been applied to
Perplexity AI that is typically used for generating outputs that are less inaccurate than ChatGPT's – or contain fewer "hallucinations" – and which was scaled up substantially during 2024. An investigation by
WIRED reportedly showed the
chatbot at times closely paraphrased WIRED stories, and at times summarized stories inaccurately and with minimal
attribution. Approaches to mitigate inaccurate information and hallucinations include the use of
retrieval-augmented generation and "grounding" by configuring the corpus to be used by the AI which is used for example in the open source chatbot "WikiChat" that essentially prevents the hallucinations by retrieving facts only from a multilingual Wikipedia corpus, thereby providing a
novel way to use Wikipedias. On 12 August, researchers demonstrate an
open source 'AI Scientist' which generates novel research ideas, writes code, executes experiments, and writes a final research paper in the field of
machine learning evaluated by an automated reviewer. The authors of the
preprint advise "treating generated papers as hints of promising ideas for practitioners to follow up on". On 11 May, a study shows that 52% of ChatGPT answers to 517 programming questions on
Stack Overflow contain incorrect information and 77% are verbose where study participants still preferred ChatGPT answers 35% of the time but also overlooked the
misinformation in the ChatGPT answers 39% of the time. • – A study finds
African elephants use
personal name-like calls to
address one another. • – Scientists report that serious
kidney disease may be associated with
human spaceflight. • • A study links the apparent gap in
life expectancy between male and female organisms to reproductive cells driving sex-dependent differences in lifespan and suggests a role for
vitamin D in improving longevity. •
The Economist reports that
China has become a "scientific superpower", citing numerous examples of its rapid development across a wide range of fields. • – Following a surge in population of the
Iberian lynx – from 62 mature individuals in 2001 to 648 in 2022 – the
International Union for Conservation of Nature removes the animal from its "endangered" list, classing the animal as "vulnerable" instead. • – The discovery of three
Super-Earth candidates around
HD 48948, a K-type dwarf star located 55 light-years away, is reported. One planet lies within the habitable zone. • –
China's
Chang'e 6 lunar exploration mission successfully returns to
Earth after taking rock and soil samples from the
far side of the Moon. The orbiter proceeded on a mission to carry out observations at Sun-Earth Lagrange point L2 after dropping the sample off to Earth. • : a blood AI test of
plasma proteins that predicts
Parkinson's disease up to 7 years before symptom onset (18 June),
walking programs as a cost-effective method against lower
back pain recurrence (19 June). • : a study finds toxic metals including lead and arsenic in
tampons (22 June), and a study indicates ocean water intrusion causing
Antarctic ice-sheet grounding zones melting is a further
tipping point in the climate system (25 June).
July • • Two new
satellite galaxies of the Milky Way are discovered –
Sextans II and
Virgo III. • The fifth
busy beaver is proven. • – The first
mouse model with a complete, functional human
immune system is demonstrated. • – The first
local extinction due to
sea level rise in the United States is reported: that of the Key Largo tree cactus (
Pilosocereus millspaughii) in Florida. • • Using the
Hubble Space Telescope, scientists resolve the 3D velocity dispersion profile of a
dwarf galaxy for the first time, helping to uncover its
dark matter distribution. • Researchers report to have developed a
cell-free system that self-regenerates using carbon dioxide (CO2). They combined an artificial metabolic network that performs
CO2 fixation with cell-free protein synthesis using recombinant elements. According to the study this demonstrates how metabolic and genetic networks can be integrated and simultaneously operated outside of the cellular context towards self-maintenance of biological networks, a hallmark of life. • • Scientists announce the discovery of a lunar cave, approximately from
Apollo 11's
landing site. • China announces a plan to visit the asteroid in 2029. Similar to NASA's
Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART), a probe will impact the body at a speed of 10 kilometres per second, and the resulting changes to its orbit will be studied. This will occur when the asteroid is within seven million kilometres of Earth. • – A study proposes
polymetallic nodules produce oxygen
without light on the
abyssal seafloor, with relevance to potential
deep sea mining. • – Scientists publish research on the simulation of
gravitational waves from a failing
warp drive. • • A study (19 April) on
North Sea oil and gas extraction finds that pollution can spike by more than 10,000% within half a kilometre around offshore drilling sites. • The world's first fully
automated dental procedure on a human is reported by Boston company Perceptive. • : researchers report an apparent substantially improved prognoses of
head and neck cancers if
Fusobacterium is present in the patient's
oral microbiome, a common bacteria of mouths thought to make bowel cancer worse (6 July), phase 3-trialed
lenacapavir for
HIV prevention (24 July). • : a study finds
electric cars pose a twice as large collision risk to pedestrians in cities than
internal combustion engine cars, likely largely due to being quieter (10 July), and a study reports substantial
heavy metal contamination of cocoa products (31 July).
August • – A study in
Nature finds that based on current policies, there is a 45% risk of at least one major
tipping point by 2300, even if global warming is brought back to below 1.5 °C. The risk is "strongly accelerated" for peak warming above 2.0 °C. The
Atlantic Meridional Overturning Current (AMOC) is identified as being at the most urgent risk of collapse – possibly occurring as early as 2040 – followed by the
Amazon rainforest in the 2070s. • • A study indicates
vegetarian and vegan dog diets are healthier than both conventional meat and raw meat diets according to indicators like numbers of
veterinary visits and reported veterinary assessment of being unwell, consistent with all related studies published to date. • An analysis suggests
hydraulic lifts may have been used to
build ancient large Egyptian pyramids. • – Scientists in Australia publish a new 400-year temperature reconstruction for the
Coral Sea, showing that recent ocean heat has led to mass
bleaching on the
Great Barrier Reef. • – A study on the
terraforming of Mars suggests that releasing metal nanorods into the planet's atmosphere could warm it by 30 K, and would be far more efficient than trying to do so with greenhouse gases. • • Liquid water is confirmed to be present at depths of below the surface of Mars, based on a new analysis of data from NASA's
InSight lander. • An Earth-sized, ultra-short period exoplanet called TOI-6255b is found to be undergoing extreme tidal distortion, caused by the close proximity of its parent star. This has resulted in an egg-shaped planet, likely to be destroyed within 400 million years. • • The
World Health Organization (WHO) declares
mpox a
public health emergency of international concern for the second time in two years, following the spread of the virus in African countries. • Human
ageing is found to progress in two accelerated bursts from the ages of 44 and 60, rather than being a gradual and linear process. • – The
Planetary Habitability Laboratory publishes a report concluding that the
Wow! signal was likely caused by a rare astrophysical event, the sudden brightening of a cold
molecular cloud triggered by a stellar emission. • – The first
systematic analysis of 1,500
climate policy measures from 41 countries is published. Of the policy interventions that have been tried by 2022, it identifies 63 successful ones in terms of large trend breaks. The authors find that the introduction of a right combination of measures is crucial and that price-based instruments played a key role in these
policy mixes. • – BNT116, the world's first
mRNA lung cancer vaccine, begins a Phase I clinical trial in seven countries. • – The first global analysis estimating
inadequate intakes of 15
micronutrients is published, suggesting over half of the global population do not consume enough iodine (68%), vitamin E (67%), calcium (66%), iron (65%), riboflavin (55%), folate (54%), and vitamin C (53%). • : a study finds the likelihood of receiving a
dementia diagnosis varies 2-fold based on place of residence in the U.S. after adjusting for underlying sociodemographic and population dementia risk factors, indicating there to be further regional risk factors or especially worse diagnostics (16 Aug.), and a study shows of the
infant and toddler foods in 10 major grocery chains, 60% failed to meet the nutritional requirements of the WHO's nutrient and promotion profile model (NPPM) (21 Aug.).
September • – The
ESA/
JAXA BepiColombo mission performs the closest ever flyby of a planet, as it speeds past
Mercury at a distance of just 165 km (103 mi). • – Researchers in Sweden demonstrate a
battery made of
carbon fibre composite as stiff as aluminium and energy-dense enough to be used commercially. • • A study finds that the
bluestreak cleaner wrasse (
Labroides dimidiatus), a small tropical fish, may possess a form of
self-awareness. • The
Jülich Supercomputing Centre in Germany announces the start of installation for
JUPITER, Europe's first
exascale supercomputer. • •
OpenAI releases its
"o1" series of
large language models (LLMs), featuring improved capabilities in coding, math, science and other complex tasks. • Jared Isaacman and Sarah Gillis complete the first commercial
spacewalk and test slimmed-down
spacesuits designed by
SpaceX. • A study suggests
Earth had planetary rings during the
Ordovician period, formed from the breakup of an asteroid, from which material deorbited during the ~40 million years long
Ordovician meteor event ~466 million years ago, resulting in an otherwise unlikely crater distribution. • A
policy study finds bans of
food waste disposals in landfills, which produce very large amounts
of greenhouse gases, in five U.S. states had almost no effect with the exception of the state of
Massachusetts. It suggests several makings that may have contributed to that states' success. • • Scientists at
CERN in
Switzerland, using the
ATLAS particle detector, observed
quantum entanglement between
quarks for the first time, and was also the highest-energy observation of entanglement so far. • The largest known pair of
astrophysical jets is discovered within the radio galaxy
Porphyrion, extending 23 million light-years from end to end. This surpasses
Alcyoneus, the previous record holder at 16 million light-years. • – A recently discovered
near-Earth object called
2024 PT5 is calculated to become a "mini-moon" with a temporary orbit around Earth from September 29 until November 25. It will return in the year 2055. • • Scientists publish the first multi-century, multi-model forecast of
Antarctic Ice Sheet loss derived from global climate models, which indicates that the
West Antarctic ice sheet may undergo a near-total collapse by 2300. • Researchers demonstrate an
asteroid deflection method using an X-ray pulse using a miniaturized mock asteroid for up to ~4 km diameter asteroids for which
DART-like impacts are thought to be insufficient. • – Researchers at
ETH Zurich demonstrate an image-based AI model able to solve Google's
reCAPTCHA v2, one of the world's most powerful tools for determining whether a user is human in order to deter bot attacks and spam. • – Researchers develop a new method merging
confocal fluorescence microscopy with
microfluidic laminar flow, that can detect
nanoparticles and
viruses quickly. It can be achieved by using the
3D-printed microscopy approach, Brick-MIC. • : a systematic analysis estimates 4.71 million deaths were associated with bacterial
antimicrobial resistance (AMR) in 2021, estimates the trends in AMR mortality since 1990, and finds AMR could cause 39 million deaths worldwide between 2025 and 2050 (16 Sep.), researchers publish on the detection of over 3000
food contact materials (FCMs) in humans (17 Sep.), and a study finds 189 (21%) of potential
breast carcinogens have been measured in FCMs, indicating at least 76 of these leach into foods of populations (24 Sep.).
October • – The
European Southern Observatory (ESO) reports the discovery of a sub-Earth-mass planet orbiting
Barnard's star, the closest single star to the Sun at six light-years away. • • Scientists announce the first ever complete mapping of the entire brain of a fruit fly,
Drosophila melanogaster, with a detail of 50 million connections between more than 139,000 neurons. • Scientists detect a new jet of
carbon monoxide (CO) and previously unseen jets of
carbon dioxide (CO2) gas on
Centaur 29P by using the
James Webb Space Telescope's Near-Infrared Spectrograph. • –
Google releases a new feature, "Video Search", which will allow people to ask a question while filming video of something, and get search results. • – Scientists develop artificial plants with leaves using
biological solar cells, which can perform
respiration,
photosynthesis and generate
electricity. • 7 October –
Victor Ambros and
Gary Ruvkun win the
Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine "for the discovery of
microRNA and its role in post-transcriptional gene regulation" • • Researchers at REMspace achieve the first communication between two individuals in
lucid dreams using specially designed equipments. •
John Hopfield and
Geoffrey Hinton win the
Nobel Prize in Physics “for foundational discoveries and inventions that enable machine learning with artificial neural networks” • • Pham Tiep, a professor of
mathematics, solves two long-standing problems, the Height Zero Conjecture and the Deligne-Lusztig theory. Mathematicians believe that it may lead to advances
in science and technology. • Astronomers confirm that
Jupiter's Great Red Spot is wobbling and fluctuating in size after observing its time-lapse video made from the images captured by the
Hubble Space Telescope between December 2023 to March 2024. • An
experimental study introduces a new
cognitive fallacy, the "illusion of information adequacy". It suggests many "assume that the cross-section of relevant information to which they are privy is sufficient to adequately understand the situation" to be able to form a reasonable conclusion, opinion, or
decision. • The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2024 was divided, one half awarded to
David Baker "for computational protein design", the other half jointly to
Demis Hassabis and
John M. Jumper "for protein structure prediction" • – Scientists use a high-level machine learning model "SHBoost", to process data and estimate precise stellar properties for 217 million stars observed by the
Gaia mission. • – Astronomers observe the "inside-out" growth of
NGC 1549 by using the
James Webb Space Telescope. Researchers assume that it could solve the mystery of how these complex structures are being formed from gas clouds. • – The long-period comet
C/2023 A3 (Tsuchinshan–ATLAS) makes its closest approach to Earth. • –
SpaceX achieves the
first successful return and capture of a Super Heavy booster from
Starship, the biggest and most powerful rocket ever to fly. • –
NASA launches the
Europa Clipper from
Kennedy Space Center, which will study the Jovian moon
Europa while orbiting
Jupiter. • – Physicists and Researchers from the
Institute of Nuclear Physics of the Polish Academy of Sciences achieve the first coherent picture of
atomic nuclei made from only
quarks and
gluons, fusing this picture with the model of nuclei made from
protons and
neutrons. • – Researchers at the
University of Birmingham Medical School encounter a human
cadaver with three penises. • • Scientists observe a
black hole corona using
NASA's
Imaging X-ray Polarimetry Explorer, and determine its shape for the first time. • A study of 25 crowdsourced ideas aimed at reducing
political polarisation in the United States is published in the journal
Science. • Scientists build the world's smallest
quantum computer using a single
photon. • – Researchers develop a plant-based food supplement to protect
bees' brains from
neurotoxins. • • Physicists observe a "black hole triple" for the first time. • Astronomers using
NASA/
ESA's
James Webb Space Telescope detect the first
brown dwarf candidates outside the
Milky Way in
NGC 602. • Scientists works on ways to remove
CO2 from the air as levels rise. One method, called direct air capture, uses a strong material (COF with amines) that can absorb and release CO2 at low temperatures. It fits into machines that already capture CO2 from factories. • – A study of the Uranian moon
Miranda finds that it may contain a deep ocean of water below its surface. • – Researchers demonstrate using
trained rats as cost-effective detection tools for
illegal wildlife trade. • : phase 2-trialed at-home
transcranial direct current stimulation against
major depressive disorder (21 Oct.), an analysis of
electronic health records of 116 million US patients links
semaglutide to a significantly reduced risk for
Alzheimer's disease (24 Oct.). • : a study finds that the growth rate of
wildfires across the western U.S. more than doubled between 2001 and 2020 and that 'fast fires' accounted for ~78% of structures destroyed in the
contiguous U.S. (24 Oct.), and a study finds
sugar rationing during the first 1000 days after conception reduced type 2 diabetes and hypertension risk by about 35% and 20% (31 Oct.).
November • • AI-generated
poetry is shown to be indistinguishable from human-written poetry and is rated more favourably. • A study in the
British Journal of Sports Medicine finds that over-40s could live an extra five years if they adopted the exercise routines of the top 25% of the population, while the least physically active could potentially add 11 years to their lifespan. • The first direct image of what the shape of a
photon would look like is created. • –
Measles cases are reported to have surged across the world, with an estimated 10.3 million infections in 2023, a 20% increase from 2022. • –
Coal ash from power plants across the United States is likely to contain up to 11 million tons of
rare-earth elements – nearly eight times the amount the US has in domestic reserves – according to a study by the University of Texas at Austin. • • Northern and central parts of the
Great Barrier Reef are reported to have suffered their worst
coral bleaching on record, with up to 72 per cent mortality. •
Starship flight test 6 is launched. • •
Climate change is found to have increased
Atlantic hurricane wind speeds by 18 mph (29 km/h). • Progress on the
Human Cell Atlas is reported, with a collection of 40 new scientific papers in
Nature describing the project's latest discoveries. • – The first close-up image of a star outside the Milky Way is reported, using the
European Southern Observatory's
Very Large Telescope Interferometer. The star
WOH G64 is located in the
Large Magellanic Cloud, about 160,000 light years away, and is shown to be surrounded by a torus-shaped cloud.
December • – Recent studies reveal that the heart contains a small control center — an independent neural network that regulates its rhythm. Gaining deeper insight into this intricate and varied system, which proves to be far more sophisticated than earlier believed, may pave the way for innovative therapies for cardiovascular conditions. • – A single mutation known as Q226L is found to enhance the ability of
H5N1 ('bird flu') to infect human cells, particularly in the respiratory tract. Previously, at least three mutations were thought to be required for the virus to infect people and spread between them. • – A study in
The Lancet finds that
life expectancy progress in the United States is slowing. Only modest increases are likely by 2050, as the country falls below nearly all high-income and some middle-income countries in the global rankings. • – Astronomers report using the
infrared capabilities of the
James Webb Space Telescope to find 100 of the smallest
asteroids ever detected in the
main belt, some measuring just 10 metres in diameter. • –
AI-based
transfer learning predicts that
global warming will reach 3°C faster than previously expected. • – A new light-induced
gene therapy using
nanoparticles to target the
mitochondria of cancer cells is demonstrated. • – The
China Aerospace Science and Technology Corporation (CASC) launches the first batch of the Guowang (Xingwang) megaconstellation, a planned
constellation of 13,000
satellites using a
Long March 5 rocket at the
Wenchang Space Launch Site. • –
Zhúlóng ("Torch Dragon"), discovered by the
James Webb Space Telescope, is reported as being the most distant known
spiral galaxy ever found, seen as it appeared just 1.1 billion years after the Big Bang. • – A study published in
Optica reports the first demonstration of
quantum teleportation over
fibers carrying conventional telecommunications traffic. • – Researchers in South Korea demonstrate a way to revert cancer cells back to normal, healthy cells, using simulations to identify "master molecular switches" involved in cell differentiation. • – The
Parker Solar Probe breaks the previous record set in 2018 for the closest artificial object to the
Sun by 6.1 million kilometers (3.8 million miles). • • A new technique for lifelike facial expressions on
androids is reported by
Osaka University, using waveform movements to dynamically express mood states, such as "excited" or "sleepy". •
Carbon in outer space is shown to travel on a circumgalactic medium, resembling a series of giant
conveyor belts, which can extend beyond our galaxy and up to 400,000 light-years in length. ==See also==