This article lists a number of significant events in science that have occurred in the first quarter of 2023.
Events
January 3 January – Researchers report molecular mechanisms that appear to underlie some of the reported health benefits of periods of intermittent fasting: changes to gene expression or rhythmicity of ~80% of young male mouse genes in at least one tissue.
4 January – Metascientists introduce the 'CD index' intended to characterize "how papers and patents change networks of citations in science and technology" and report that it has declined, which they interpret as "slowing rates of disruption". They propose linking this to changes to three "use of previous knowledge"-indicators ("the diversity of work cited, mean number of self-citations and mean age of work cited") which they interpret as "contemporary discovery and invention" being informed by "a narrower scope of existing knowledge". The overall number of papers has risen while the total of "highly disruptive" papers hasn't. The 1998 discovery of the accelerating expansion of the universe has a CD index of 0. Their results also suggest scientists and inventors "may be struggling to keep up with the pace of knowledge expansion". 5 January Scientists report the discovery of an unknown thin membrane meningeal layer in brain anatomy, the SLYM, that likely plays a role in CSF functions and is both a protective barrier and host of immune cells. It appears to be substantially involved in major brain diseases and brain aging that monitor the brain for infection and neuroinflammation. University press release: Archaeologists report that notational signs from ~37,000 years ago in caves, apparently conveying calendaric meaning about the behaviour of animal species drawn next to them, are the first known (proto-)writing in history. Progress in climate change mitigation implementation research: A meta-analysis reports "required technology-level investment shifts for climate-relevant infrastructure until 2035" within the EU, which it finds to be "most drastic for power plants, electricity grids and rail infrastructure", ~€87 billion above the planned budgets and in need of sustainable finance policies. Expert reviews of the study: A study (12 Jan) suggests that applying the principle of extended producer responsibility to fossil fuels could deconflict energy security and climate policy at an affordable cost, in particular authors suggest the responsibility could be used to establish the financing of storage and nature-based solutions. A study (30 Jan) outlines challenges of aviation decarbonization by 2050 whose identified factors mainly are future demand, continuous efficiency improvements, new short-haul engines, higher SAF (biofuel) production, removal to compensate for non- forcing, and related policy-options. With constant air transport demand and aircraft efficiency, decarbonizing aviation would require nearly five times the 2019 worldwide biofuel production, competing with other hard-to-decarbonize sectors and land-use (or food security). News article about the study:
6 January An international collaboration shows that hidden marine heatwaves, associated with ocean eddies that modulate undersea internal waves, threaten coastal ecosystems by driving unexpected sub-surface heating and severe coral bleaching and mortality across depths. News outlets report on a brief meta-analysis (21 Dec 2022) that confirms gas stoves are a major risk factor for asthma and updates effect-size estimates, finding around one in eight cases in the U.S. could be attributed to these. 9 January A study suggests logged and structurally degraded (South Asian) tropical forests are carbon sources for at least a decade – even when recovering – due to larger carbon losses from soil organic matter and deadwood, indicating the tropical forest carbon sink "may be much smaller than previously estimated". Researchers demonstrate an open-brain surgery-free brain implant, Stentrode, that can record brain activity from a nearby blood vessel, showing it can be used to operate a computer. 10 January A second potentially Earth-like planet in the TOI 700 system is reported using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). The long-term impact of biodiversity loss in Madagascar is modelled, suggesting that recovery from extinctions could take as long as 23 million years. Cyclic sighing is found to be effective in reducing anxiety, negative mood and stress, and more so than mindfulness meditation. 11 January NASA scientists report the discovery of LHS 475 b, an Earth-like exoplanet – and the first exoplanet observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. NASA publishes images of a debris disk surrounding the red dwarf AU Mic, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, capturing details as close to the star as 5 astronomical units (~750 million km) – the equivalent of Jupiter's orbit in the Solar System. Teleportation of energy is demonstrated for the first time by researchers using an IBM quantum computer. Cellular bioengineers report the development of nonreplicating bacterial 'cyborg cells' (similar to artificial cells) using a novel approach, assembling a synthetic hydrogel polymer network as an artificial cytoskeleton inside the bacteria. The cells can resist stressors that would kill natural cells and e.g. invade cancer cells or potentially act as biosensors. The White House and federal agencies in the U.S. (a major source region of scientific work globally) declare the Year of Open Science, listing several actions towards open science. The science policy "Framework for Federal Scientific Integrity Policy and Practice" issued by the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy a day later is criticized as a "gag order" on scientists by PEER in an open letter (30 Jan).
12 January Progress in life extension research: A team led by David Sinclair shows how DNA breaks are a major driver of epigenetic change, and how the loss of epigenetic information is a cause of aging in mammals. Using a treatment based on Yamanaka factors, they demonstrate an ability to drive aging in both the forward and reverse directions in mice. In a review, the authors of a heavily cited paper on the hallmarks of aging update the set of proposed hallmarks after a decade (3 Jan). On the same day, a review with overlapping authors merge or link various hallmarks of cancer with those of aging. A study reports the development of deep learning software using anatomic magnetic resonance images to estimate brain age with the highest accuracy for AI so far, including detecting early signs of Alzheimer's disease and varying neuroanatomical patterns of neurological aging (3 Jan). University press release: In a preprint, another team of researchers reports the use of reprogramming to modestly extend the lifespan in elderly mice. However, if it was also applicable to humans, risks reportedly may include the formation of cancer (5 Jan). A study concludes that retroviruses in the human genomes (endogenous) can become awakened from dormant states and contribute to aging which can be blocked by neutralizing antibodies (6 Jan). A study reports large reductions of snow cover in the Alps, emphasizing climate change adaptation needs due to their impacts on the climate and socio-economic activities. 13 January – A study of ancient DNA supports or confirms that recent human evolution to resist infection of pathogens also increased inflammatory disease risk in post-Neolithic Europeans over the last 10,000 years, estimating nature, strength, and time of onset of selections. 16 January NASA announces preliminary considerations of several future space telescope programs, including the Great Observatory Technology Maturation Program (GOMAP), Habitable Worlds Observatory and New Great Observatories. Researchers for the first time demonstrate redirection of lightning with lasers. 17 January Promising results of therapeutic candidates are reported:a third phase 3-trialed RSV vaccine candidate, a prebiotic fibre formula against type 2 diabetes (3 Jan), a bifunctional therapeutic and vaccine against brain cancer (4 Jan), a phase 2-trialed probiotic against S. aureus infection (13 Jan), the mice gene therapy-tested LAV-BPIFB4 protein (or this gene in gene therapy) against heart aging (13 Jan), mice-tested in-use anakinra (or blockade of its target IL-1β) against haematopoietic blood aging (17 Jan), mice-tested phase 2-scheduled IkT-148009 against Parkinson's disease (18 Jan), C. elegans-tested in-use rilmenidine as a CRM against aging (20 Jan). 18 January News outlets report on an investigation and a set of recent studies that indicate that carbon emission reductions from projects launched to earn carbon-offset credits have been vastly overstated to the extent that ~90% of rainforest offset credits of the Verified Carbon Standard are called likely to be "phantom credits". A metagenomic analysis provides data and insights into microbial sharing between individuals, finding substantial strain sharing among cohabiting individuals, with median strain-sharing rates for the gut and oral microbiomes being 12% (34% for mothers and their 0–3-years-old offspring) and 32% (38% for partners) in the used data. Time since cohabitation was the largest factor and bacterial strain sharing "recapitulated host population structures better than species-level profiles did". 19 January A study using electronic health records shows 45 (with 22 of these being replicated with the UK Biobank) viral exposures can significantly elevate risks of neurodegenerative disease, including up to 15 years after infection. Progress in healthy/sustainable food system research: a review outlines benefits (such as high protein production per acre), recent advancements and challenges of developing algae as a large-scale food source, a study identifies "11 key measures" that can reduce nitrogen chemicals pollution of air (NH3, NOx and N2O) and water from croplands (4 Jan), a first review indicates vegan diets, which are more sustainable, would not have adverse impacts on the health of both pet dogs and cats (12 Jan), researchers outline large environmental benefits of using insects for animal feed (12 Jan), Chinese scientists report the cloning of multiple "supercows" with a substantial milk productivity increase (31 Jan). Researchers from Scripps Institution of Oceanography discovered the Pyrolycus jaco. It was first detailed in a paper published in the journal Zootaxa on January 19, 2023. ~20 January Progress in AI software and applications: News outlets report on a preprint (26 Dec 2022) that describes the development of a large language model software that can answer medical questions with a 67.6% accuracy on US Medical License Exam questions and nearly matched human clinician performance when answering open-ended medical questions, Med-PaLM. The AI makes use of comprehension-, recall of knowledge-, and medical reasoning-algorithms but remains inferior to clinicians. As of 2023, humans often – if not most often – conduct query-based web searches, read websites and/or conduct physical doctor's visits to inquire health information, despite various difficulties, partly as they typically did not undergo any formal training in media literacy, digital literacy or health literacy, as such is not part of schools curricula in most education systems as of 2023. A novel potentially significantly more efficient text-to-image approach, as implemented in MUSE, is reported (2 Jan). A first successful autonomous long-duration operation (Dec 21 and/or Dec 22), including simulated combat, of a modified F-16 fighter jet, X-62A, by two AI software is reported (4 Jan). A text-to-speech synthesizer, VALL-E, that can be trained to mimic anybody's voice with just three seconds of voice data and may produce the most natural-sounding results to date is reported in a preprint (5 Jan).