2023-12-20 13:13:54
In addition to rewarding the development of a drug against obesity and consider the potential use of hydrogen as a source of fuel and fertilizerMagazine Science highlighted three great advances that science lighted in 2023.
New supercomputers
After a decade of work, in 2023 the era of computers a exaescalacapable of processing one quintillion (a one followed by 30 zeros) of mathematical operations per second. Although there are rumors that China already has them, this year the first one was enabled for scientific use at an official level. Is called Frontier (Border) and is at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee, USA.
The first results are encouraging. A group of scientists managed to predict the behavior of up to 600,000 electrons in a magnesium alloy, which could lead to the development of ultralight and more efficient materials for cars and airplanes. Frontier allowed another group of experts to incorporate into their programs the physical laws that shape clouds around the planet, which – with the help of artificial intelligence – could substantially improve the climate change forecasts. Next year, more supercomputers are expected to be inaugurated in Germany, France and Japan.
“Clementina XXI”, the new Argentine supercomputer, is now working | Profile
The fight against malaria
Although in 2021 there were 247 million cases of malaria, an increase attributable to the interruption of health services during the pandemic, the disease is tending to be eradicated in more and more countries, including Argentina. But that scenario is still far from being realized in Africa, which accounts for 95% of infections. Efforts to combat it were redoubled this year.
A large-scale evaluation showed that Mosquirix, the first vaccine, managed to significantly reduce deaths, although with short-term protection. The second vaccine, R21, already has approval from the World Health Organization. With similar effects to its predecessor, it is cheaper and easier to produce, which should help narrow the gap that persists between supply and demand to cure a disease that, only in sub-Saharan Africa, It kills almost 500 thousand children a year.
A virus that causes symptoms of malaria, dengue and tropical infectious diseases was found in Peru
The sound of black holes
The record of a soft, dull noise that astrophysicists captured this year was, in truth, the trail of titanic masses in motion: two supermassive black holes intertwining in violent orbital pairs. Millions of times heavier than the Sun, their movement is imperceptible to the instruments available on our planet, but when they approach within a few light years of each other, They emit gravitational waves.
In June, five teams around the world announced that they had managed to eliminate noise from data collected over 15 years, concluding that what was heard was the combined roar of these black holes. The work is not finished: scientists are still looking for waves to map the hum of those dancing masses, and thus get a little closer to one of the great mysteries of modern astronomy.
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