Science in 2022, listing out major breakthrough

This year, the world stepped out from the quarantine period and tried to progress in their lives and in science and technology. Like the previous year, science research has reached new heights. So, here are some of the mind-blowing scientific advancements in 2022.

January

Launch of OpenAlex – January 3, 2022

The year started with the launch of OpenAlex beta, a free and open catalogue of research papers, researchers, journals, and institutions. It also gives a way for different institutions to connect. It also gives you a lineage to develop your own scholarly search engine, recommender service, or knowledge graph. As of June 2022, it has metadata for 209M works, including journal articles, books, papers, etc., 109k institutions, and 65k wikidata concepts.

Europe’s First Annealing Quantum Computer – January 17, 2022

On January 17, 2022, for the first time in Europe, a 5000-qubit quantum annealer became operational in Jülich, Germany. Annealing quantum computer is a part of the JUNIQ (Jülich UNified Infrastructure for Quantum computing), established in 2019 to provide access to quantum systems to researchers in Germany and Europe.

February

ROSALIND 2.0 – February 17, 2022

Biotechnologists developed a system called ROSALIND to sense 17 different contaminants in a single drop of water. As of February 2022, Julius Lucks and his team added a new version called ROSALIND 2.0, in which they added a “molecular brain.”

CINDELA, a CRISPR-Cas9-based therapy – February 21, 2022

CINDELA is a CRISPR-Cas9-based therapy to kill cancer cells without having normal tissues. Cancer-Specific Insertions-Deletions (InDels) Attacker (CINDELA) is a therapeutic strategy developed by South Korean researchers. They proposed an idea that CRISPR-Cas9 produce breakage in cancer-specific cells such that normal cells are not affected.

March

Senolytics drug combination Dasatinib plus Quercetin (D+Q) – March 12, 2022

Biomedical researchers demonstrated the effect of a senolytic drug combination of Dasatinib plus Quercetin (D+Q) on mice and humans such that the protein α-Klotho is increased. α-Klotho protein is an essential component in maintaining good health. As it decreases with age, senior citizens get more prone to diseases such as Alzheimer, diabetes, and kidney diseases. Therefore, this drug increases the level of α-Klotho protein, and other findings can be accessed here.

RNA told how life may have emerged – March 18, 2022

For the first time in science, researchers at the University of Tokyo created a self-replicating RNA molecule. This would indicate how organisms of complex systems have emerged from a single molecule following Darwinian evolution. Well, for several decades, it was a topic of debate that RNA could initiate life on Earth, and it was theorised as the RNA world hypothesis. The team, through the experiment work, showed the transition from a chemical molecule to a biological life. This study can answer one of the most important questions of science, how life may have originated?

Genetic engineering with CRISPR Cas can increase rice and maize yield by up to ten per cent - March 24, 2022

CRISPR Cas gene editing is an emerging scientific toolkit to edit genes. It can be used to engineer or modify different crops in the agriculture sector. Xiaohong Yang and his colleagues at China Agricultural University identified the gene OsKRN2 in rice and KRN2 in maize, respectively, that affect crop yield. Turning off these genes using CRISPR Cas can increase the yield up to eight and ten per cent, respectively. It also won't lead to negative side effects.

April

DNA Nanotechnology to speed up vaccine development - April 4, 2022

Work published in the journal Natural Chemistry reported the development of a DNA nanotechnology-based novel technique that could speed up the production of vaccines and other pharmaceutical products. 

Building blocks of DNA and RNA are found in meteorites - April 26, 2022

The "nitrogenous bases" - adenine, guanine, cytosine, thymine, and uracil, when combined with sugar and phosphate groups, forms nucleic acid, DNA and RNA. These are the genetic bases for life. The following bases have been discovered in the meteorite, which indicates that life on the Earth could have emerged from outer space. 

May

The first image of Sagittarius A* - May 12, 2022

Sagittarius A* is the supermassive black hole present at the centre of the Milky way galaxy. For the first time ever, scientists have unravelled the image of Sagittarius A* produced by the data from the Event Horizon Telescope (EHT). 

Demonstration of the world's smallest robot - May 25, 2022

Northwestern University demonstrated the world's smallest remote-controlled walking robot, 0.5 mm wide. It has been developed to clear blocked arteries. The size and shape of the robot resemble crabs with eight legs and two frontal claws, having the ability to walk, crawl, bend, twist, turn, and jump. 

June

The Cellular Aging, concluding a new theory of ageing - June 1, 2022

Researchers at Cambridge University concluded a breakthrough study that the catastrophic changes in blood composition have made senior citizens of 70+ years prone to several chronic diseases such as cancers and anaemia, and the inefficiency of white blood cells decreases their efficiency to fight infections. This blood composition change could be a result of genetic mutation. 

Successful transplantation of a 3D printed human ear - June 2, 2022

In San Antonio, Texas, at Microtia-Congenital Ear Deformity Institute, a surgeon and his team successfully transplanted an ear made up of the patient's cell. This 3D print of the ear was developed by New York-based 3DBio Therapeutics. 3DBio's AuriNovo used 3D printing technology to form an ear from the patient's auricular cartilage cells with the help of a 3D scan of the opposite ear.

July

Biosignatures discovered at the Galactic centre - July 8, 2022

Spanish scientists, when examining gas clouds near the galactic centre, reported the presence of nitriles, which are the precursor of RNA. It provides evidence for the beginning of the biological evolution of the universe. It is also in agreement with the RNA world hypothesis that life has emerged from RNA.

August

World’s first hydrogen-powered trains in Germany - August 24, 2022

Germany has developed fourteen hydrogen trains powered by fuel cell propulsion, which will run on Bremervörde, Lower Saxony route. The trains are emissions-free and noise-less and can cover a range of 621 miles. They can run on the track with a single tank of hydrogen. 

September

 First direct picture of an exoplanet, NASA reports - September 1, 2022

For the first time, NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope took a direct image of the exoplanet HIP 65426 b. This exoplanet, discovered in 2017 with the SPHERE instrument, is a gaseous giant having six to twelve times the mass of Jupiter. It is a 15 - 20 million years old exoplanet, much younger than the Earth.

Lecanemab, a breakthrough drug in Alzheimer's treatment - September 28, 2022

Pharmaceutical companies Eisai and Biogen developed a drug called Lecanemab, designed to remove the toxic protein beta-amyloid that builds up in the brain when a person has Alzheimer’s disease. In the 18-month clinical trial, lecanemab injections were given to the volunteered patients every two weeks, and their brain activities were regularly monitored. The drug has reduced beta-amyloid protein levels. 

October

DNA phenotyping to generate the 3D facial image of crime suspects - October 4, 2022

Parabon NanoLabs, with the help of DNA evidence from a 2019 sexual assault case, created a 3D image of the crime suspect. It was shared by the Edmonton Police Service (EPS) on their social media handles. The factors such as the suspect’s age, BMI, facial hair, tattoos, and scars were not included in the 3D print of the DNA phenotype. 

Tiny magnetic robots may destroy cancer - October 26, 2022

The “micro-robots” were developed by a team of researchers in Zürich, Switzerland. The purpose of these micro-robots is to kill cancer-killing compounds and tumours. They can hunt and converge on a specific tumour such that bacteria’s naturally produced anti-cancer chemicals shrink the cancer cells.

November

The discovery of Gaia BH1 - November 4, 2022

Astronomers have discovered the closest black hole to the Earth, Gaia BH1, which is only 1,566 light-years away. It is a part of the Ophiuchus constellation having ten times more massive than the Earth. Gaia BH1 is a part of binary sun-like stars. It was discovered using Gemini Observatory, operated by NSF’s NOIRLab.

Photochemistry of an exoplanet revealed by James Webb Space Telescope - November 22, 2022

Recently, a team of astronauts detected several signatures, including sulfur dioxide in the atmosphere of WASP-39b using James Webb Space Telescope (JWST). The exoplanet WASP-39b is a Jupiter-sized planet orbiting another sun-like star outside the solar system. Along with carbon dioxide, JWST also detected carbon monoxide, potassium, sodium, sulfur dioxide, and water.

December

Two-million years old genetic material in Greenland - December 7, 2022

Scientists in Greenland identified the oldest DNA, about two million years ago, from animals, plants and microbes. They detected DNA fragments from animals such as mastodons, reindeer, hares, lemmings and geese, and plants including poplar, birch and thuja trees, and microbes such as bacteria and fungi. It was reported that these were at least 2 million years old.

Exoplanets Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d are likely to be water worlds - December 15, 2022

A study was published in the journal Nature Astronomy by a team led by Caroline Piaulet, PhD student at Trottier Institute for Research on Exoplanets (iREx), Université de Montréal. He and his team reported that two exoplanets, Kepler-138c and Kepler-138d, one and half times larger than the earth, could be mostly composed of water.