Faced with the imminent arrival of 2014, the two most prestigious scientific journals in the world, Nature and Science , have produced compilations of the most relevant discoveries and researchers of 2013. Both publications rank at the top of their “top ten” the development of a new DNA editing technique, the design of cheaper and more efficient solar panels, and the cloning of embryonic stem cells, all of them scientific milestones of great importance that will still take twenty years to have an impact on our real lives.
Among the personalities of the year stands out Fen Zhang, the young neurologist who has developed a new genetic engineering system called CRISPR that allows editing of human DNA , which lays the foundation for the development of personalized medical treatments. Also on the list is the virologist who treated a baby born with HIV to cure it and the Philippine diplomat who warned about the effects of global warming after the serious consequences of Typhoon Haiyan in the Philippines. In the field of space science, Michel Mayor is cited, who determined that the Kepler-78b exoplanet is the most similar to Earth, and Viktor Grokhovsky, for leading the work to collect the parts of the asteroid that fell in Russia on 15 February.
Regarding scientific works, the first place is held by research on immunotherapy against cancer , since according to experts, this type of non-invasive treatment is reaching its maturity, although at the moment it is only effective in certain types of cancer and for some few patients. This is followed by the obtaining of embryonic stem cells with the same genetic endowment as an adult, that is, cloned, and the creation of human mini-brains in the laboratory that offer great possibilities for the study of the first stages of brain development. Reference is also made to the field of astronomy, with the discovery this year of the origin of cosmic rays, and to that of renewable energies, with the manufacture of solar panels five times cheaper.
The journal Nature also mentions the researchers who will be in the spotlight for the next twelve months. Jean-Pierre Bourguignon, the next president of the European Research Council, and Masayo Takahashi, the Japanese researcher who plans to use stem cells from patients to regenerate their retinas, are among them.
