If 2023 is anything to go by, the year to come will witness breakthroughs across every field of science. From cutting-edge advances in artificial intelligence to revolutionary discoveries in health and space exploration, here’s what to expect…
FUTURE
Looking up
If all goes to plan, 2024 will see humanity return to the Moon for the first time in 50 years. NASA’s Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch in late 2024, carrying a crew of four (left), including the first woman and first person of colour to join a lunar mission.
NASA’s Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem (PACE) satellite mission should launch at the beginning of the year, collecting data to help scientists measure the health of Earth’s oceans.
The long-delayed debut of Ariane 6, ESA’s heavy-lift rocket, is pencilled in for mid-2024. In October, NASA’s Europa Clipper will begin its journey to one of Jupiter’s icy moons to investigate the possibility of life. And, the Jupiter Icy Moons Explorer (JUICE) spacecraft, launched by ESA in 2023 with a similar mission, will make its first lunar-Earth flyby in August.
And on 8 April a total solar eclipse will sweep across Mexico, Canada and the US – the last to be seen in the contiguous US until 2044.
New frontiers in health
Following the attention focused on weight-loss drug semaglutide in 2023, phase 3 trials of a similar antidiabetic, tirzepatide (Mounjaro), are expected to produce results towards the end of 2024.
Advances in CRISPR therapy are also anticipated after the gene-editing tool received UK approval in November 2023 for the treatment of sickle cell disease and the blood disorder Beta-thalassaemia. US approval is expected by March 2024.
Transplant medicine looks set to reach new heights, too. Biotech company eGenesis has suggested that this year it could provide gene-edited pig organs for human babies in need of transplants.
We should also see the results of clinical trials investigating how AI could improve cancer diagnoses, test the efficacy of new cancer treatments and medication combinations, and trial vaccines against HIV and malaria.
Tech horizons
Speculations about OpenAI’s next projects abound, and – although nothing has been formally announced – we’ll be expecting updates to its Generative Pretrained Transformer (GPT) models. Generative AI will contin
