It is inherent to science to bring unexpected discoveries, but there are ongoing investigations and projects that are already known to change the world and deliver essential results for the advancement of knowledge. The journal Nature has selected ten of the scientific advances and events that will impress us over the next 365 days.
1. Lighting up the universe
In April, nine ground-based radio telescopes will team up to observe a supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way. The Event Horizon Telescope project brings together observatories such as the Atacama Pioneer Experiment (photo), located at 5,100 meters above sea level in the Chilean region of Atacama. This work is expected to clarify the nature and behavior of black holes, and to contrast some points of the General Theory of Relativity formulated by Einstein a century ago.
2. Genetic competition
The CRISPR / Cas9 genome editing system is going to get justice. A US court will decide this year who owns the patent for this revolutionary method that allows genes to be modified to combat hereditary diseases. The contenders are the University of California at Berkeley and the Broad Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. There is a lot of money at stake, and the result will affect the development of this technique, called to be one of the protagonists of science in 2017 .
3. What will happen in the fight against climate change?
The arrival of Donald Trump to the US presidency threatens the commitments made by the superpower to reduce polluting emissions. These have stagnated globally for the past three years, and scientists expect the trend to continue. This year, the robotic probes that plow through the Antarctic Ocean will reveal to us how much carbon dioxide is absorbed by the sea around Antarctica, a fundamental piece of information for evaluating the evolution of the planet’s climate.
4. The Moon and Saturn on target
The Chinese mission Chang’e 5-T1 will return to Earth with the first samples from our satellite since the 1970s. It will be 2 kilos of rock and soil that will help study the formation and evolution of the Moon. In September, the Cassini-Huygens probe will end its 20-year life in a big way: it will fall on the inner rings of Saturn, from which it will send data until it disappears.
5. Deconstructing the human microbiome
The countless viruses, bacteria and microorganisms that populate the body influence our health and behavior. The Human Microbiome Project is expected to provide essential data on this “microfauna” related to type 2 diabetes, premature birth and inflammatory bowel disease in the coming months.
6. Wonderful materials
2017 will be the year of the commercialization of perovskite solar cells, much cheaper and easier to manufacture than those of silicon, which dominate the world market. Its diffusion could bring solar energy to remote places that lack electricity, and change the energy landscape.
7. Quantum computing (but REAL)
Quantum computers will perform calculations impossible for the most powerful of conventional computers; D-Wave 2X, thousands of times faster than this, enters service this year.
8. Cornering Cancer
Immunotherapy takes advantage of the potential of the patient’s immune system to fight cancer. This year the first drugs based on CART immunotherapy will be marketed, which involves genetically manipulating the patient’s T lymphocytes to fight the disease. The beneficiaries will be those affected by leukemias and lymphomas.
9. Exploring the Big Blue
Much of what will happen on Earth during this century depends on the state of the oceans. Hence their study is intensified. Research on the reaction of corals to global warming will be among the scientific protagonists of the year, as will the monitoring of the retreat of the Antarctic ice.
10. On the hunt for “planet 9”
Many astronomers believe that in the coming months the existence of a new planet in the confines of the solar system will be confirmed. It would be a giant that would take 20,000 years to orbit the Sun. The first indications of its existence arose from the observation of the irregular behavior of some objects in the Kuiper belt, which could be due to the presence of a large mass to be discovered: the so-called “planet 9 or” planet X “.
