These 5 science wonders will make 2023 great!

Ordinary people often do not understand in detail how a computer works. Anything containing electronics, circuit boards, bits and bytes, copper wires and fiber optic cables, and such unidentified metal particles. It gets even more inexplicable and surprising when you look at the computers that researchers are currently working on and that breakthroughs are expected in 2023. It is well known that quantum computers are the next step in computing. Less well known is biocomputers, a field of research whose progress will be held during the first week of January 2023 at an international research symposium in Hawaii. Biocomputers are based on DNA and amino acids. By manipulating the natural chemical reactions that occur in these substances, researchers can perform storage and computational functions. In the future, biocomputers could be stored in the DNA of living cells. This technology can store almost unlimited amounts of data and allow biocomputers to perform complex calculations beyond our current capabilities.

Genetic diseases such as sickle cell anemia, in which red blood cells do not form properly, have been difficult to treat until now. Because the stem cells that make up other cells are already damaged. Crispr-Cas9 technology (Crispr technology for short) tries to solve such problems “at the source” – genetic material, so to speak. In this process, the person’s own stem cells are removed and the faulty gene is replaced using Crispr technology before the person’s “repaired” cells are “inserted” again, and additional, specialized cells such as red blood cells can then be produced without error.

Promising results are already emerging from clinical trials using the Crispr system to treat two genetic blood disorders. The treatment is being developed by Boston-based Vertex Pharmaceuticals and Cambridge, Massachusetts-based Crispr Therapeutics. Vertex is expected to file with the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in March for approval of the technology for people with blood disorders. Therefore, approval could happen as early as next year. This will not only make sickle cell anemia treatable, but will also be the starting signal for a variety of custom-made “Crispr gene editing” therapies that can be used for other genetic diseases.

They were first used during the Covid-19 pandemic: mRNA vaccines. Biontech in Mainz and Pfizer in New York are now developing a number of new vaccines using this technology. Biontech is expected to begin trials of mRNA vaccines against malaria, tuberculosis and genital herpes in the coming weeks. Overall, various forms of herpes will soon be under control: The company is also testing a candidate for an mRNA-based vaccine to reduce shingles, in collaboration with Pfizer. Also, shingles triggered by a herpes virus is a possible late consequence of common chickenpox or smallpox, which is also a herpes virus.

Well-known waves of illness in winter may soon be a thing of the past: Last November, Biontech and Pfizer began examining phase I of an mRNA vaccine intended to protect against both Covid-19 and flu.

If you ask Google something, you will get a link. If you log in to openai.com and ask something to the AI-based chatbot «Chat GPT», you will get a written response. “What should I do with the kids on holidays in Chur?” In response to your question. You get ten concrete suggestions and the bot wishes you fun and good time. But “Chat GPT” can do much, much more: it can write stories, program websites, solve differential equations, explain historical processes, answer philosophical and ethical questions, and spit out the best chocolate cake recipe. He writes a letter to the tax authorities, telling me what to add and explaining dark matter or what caused the First World War. As a result, the chatbot is miles ahead of Google when it comes to engagement: You get personalized, detailed responses without having to click through ads and a lot of information. Everything is so fun. And: The more users use the chatbot, the consistently better.

In the near future, such AI-based “answering machines” could seriously compete with established search engines like Google and permanently change the way we use the internet. At the same time, they contain dangers that are already worrying researchers. For one, the platform offers endless potential to bypass school and college paperwork. More importantly, it is more likely to make mistakes, as AI derives its information from what people write on the internet. Researchers are therefore calling for regulation.

But one thing is clear: anyone using «Chat GPT» will only have a contemptuous smile to Google.

Last year, the world marveled at the beautiful and detailed images provided by the James Webb Space Telescope of our Universe. The instrument was launched into space in late 2021 by NASA, the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Canadian Space Agency (CSA).

But James Webb is just the beginning: ESA plans to launch the Euclidean telescope in the third quarter of this year. It is designed to enter solar orbit and send images back to ESA for six years. This is how a 3D map of the universe should be created.

Other countries’ space organizations are also planning big things for 2023: The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency studies and maps X-rays of distant stars and is working on the mission to explore the Milky Way. Meanwhile, Chile is building the Vera C. Rubin telescope, which currently has a camera with a resolution of over 3000 million pixels and will begin taking pictures in July.