Supercomputers, artificial intelligence and mosquitoes to fight diseases: according to the trade journal ‘Nature’, these will be the research highlights of the coming year.
According to the trade magazine, a whole range of new AI tools are being developed. After ChatGPT already had a profound impact on science in 2023, developer OpenAI is expected to release GPT-5, the next generation of the model, by the end of 2024. Gemini, Google’s competitor, has also already been launched.
According to Nature, a new version of the AI tool AlphaFold is also expected in 2024, which will allow researchers to predict the 3D shapes of proteins with high accuracy. This tool is intended to create new opportunities for the development of new medicines.
Starting signal for exascale supercomputers
Several new supercomputers will also be launched in 2024. The ‘Jupiter’ computer is expected to be switched on in Germany early this year. This device can perform one trillion (i.e. one billion billion) calculations per second. So-called exascale computers will also come onto the market in the US in 2024. And a new supercomputer is also expected to be ready in Switzerland in the spring of 2024. According to the Swiss National High Performance Computing Center (CSCS), the ‘Alps’ computer is said to be one of the fastest in the world.
Mosquitoes against diseases
The trade journal also considers the ‘World Mosquito Program’ as one of the most important research events expected in 2024. This is expected to begin production of disease-fighting mosquitoes in 2024 at a factory in Brazil. The mosquitoes are infected with a strain of bacteria that prevents them from transmitting disease-causing viruses, Nature explains. It could therefore protect up to 70 million people against diseases such as dengue and Zika.
Insights into dark matter
According to the trade journal, further insights into dark matter could also come in 2024. The results of an experiment to detect dark matter particles, so-called axions, will be published in 2024. According to Nature, 2024 could also be the year when scientists determine the mass of the neutrino – the most enigmatic particle in the Standard Model of particle physics.
New moon missions
The trade magazine also counts several space missions among the most important scientific events expected in 2024. NASA’s first manned moon mission could begin as early as November 2024, as ‘Nature’ wrote. The mission involves astronauts flying around the moon in preparation for a moon landing. China is also planning to launch its first-ever mission to the moon with the aim of using a probe to take samples from the ‘back’, i.e. the side of the moon facing away from Earth.
Source: Krone
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