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2024 news review

From climate chaos to pig kidney transplants, read 51¶¯Âþ’s selection of the biggest science and technology news stories and most stunning images of 2024
An artistic celebration of the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) year-one data, showing a slice of the larger 3D map that DESI is constructing during its five-year survey. By mapping objects across multiple periods of cosmic history with extremely high precision, DESI is allowing astronomers to make unprecedented measurements of dark energy and its effect on the accelerating expansion of the Universe. DESI???s map reveals the large-scale structure of the Universe, showing clumps of galaxies separated by voids where there are fewer objects. This pattern is a result of large pressure waves that permeated the early Universe and is reflected in the cosmic microwave background ??? a 2D snapshot of the radiation that filled the Universe shortly after the Big Bang, which bears the imprint of the 3D galaxy distribution. DESI is mounted on the U.S. National Science Foundation Nicholas U. Mayall 4-meter Telescope at Kitt Peak National Observatory, a Program of NSF NOIRLab. This version of the DESI map includes 600,000 galaxies ??? less than 0.1% of the survey's full volume. The locations of objects in the data slice do not correlate with their locations on-sky shown in this image.

Space

Could 2025 be the year we finally start to understand dark energy?

A map of 31 million galaxies created by the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument will be released next year, and could shed light on the origins of this mysterious force

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B6DT04 Alzheimers disease. Series of computed tomography (CT) scans of an axial section through the head of a 74-year-old patient.

Health

We'll learn about Ozempic's potential for Alzheimer's disease in 2025

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Jacklyn Gates (Staff 51¶¯Âþ, Heavy Element Group) at the Berkeley Gas-filled Separator, BGS, in Building 88 on Monday, July 8, 2024 at Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory in Berkeley, Calif. Experts in the Nuclear Science Division use the 88-Inch Cyclotron to test a new way to make superheavy element 116, livermorium.

Physics

We could discover a new element on the periodic table in 2025

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Genus CRISPR edited pig

Environment

Disease-resistant pork may go on sale in 2025 thanks to gene editing

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The world?s largest Direct Air Capture facility from 1PointFive, STRATOS, currently being developed in Ector County, TX

Environment

Direct CO2 capture from the atmosphere will scale up massively in 2025

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Digit GXO

Technology

Humanoid robots will march into factories and homes in 2025

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Mandatory Credit: Photo by Dominika Zarzycka/SOPA Images/Shutterstock (14937083f) Activists stage a protest during a press conference in Blue Zone during United Nations Climate Change Conference COP29, an event held by United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) in Baku Olympic Stadium. COP29, running from November 11-22 focuses on climate funding. UN Climate Conference COP29 in Baku - Day eleven, Azerbaijan - 22 Nov 2024

Environment

COP30 host Brazil aims to get 2025 climate talks back on track

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Space

These are all of the missions heading to the moon in 2025

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The eye of Hurricane Beryl on 1 July

Earth

The most powerful images of the natural world from 2024

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Mathematics

Mathematicians spent 2024 unravelling proof almost no one understands

The geometric Langlands conjecture poses deep questions for mathematicians, and a 1000-page proof published this year has left them both celebrating and puzzled

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Space

NASA’s Mars helicopter was grounded in 2024 after surprise success

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Life

The most inspiring conservation success stories in 2024

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Space

The best space images from 2024

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Environment

The most encouraging climate solutions and green technologies of 2024

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