A YEAR OF DISCOVERY AND WONDER

 

In many respects 2024 has not been a year to foster fond memories. Two major wars continue to rage in the Middle East and in Eastern Europe. Natural disasters domestically and abroad, destroyed thousands of lives. Around the world, liberal democracies were challenged by authoritarian political actors.

In the United States, while the wealthy benefited from a rising economy, inflation made it difficult for many Americans to maintain their standard of living. Following the national election, half of the voting public was at first depressed and then angered when a convicted felon, Donald Trump, was easily elected president. The country remains more divided than ever.

While many aspects of human social progress appeared to backslide in 2024, significant technological and scientific advancements exploded. These events did not garner our attention like the many social disruptions. Thankfully, important scientific discoveries happen in an environment independent of societal changes.  Scientific and medical progress is not linked to how people think, interact or treat each other within a society. For the most part, scientists continue to challenge accepted solutions until better ones are discovered, free from political conflict.

To encourage some year-end holiday joy and “good will toward men,” I will highlight some amazing discoveries that should give us hope for the future.

Energy. “Water splitting” to form hydrogen and oxygen using solar energy in the presence of semiconductor photocatalysts has long been studied as a potential means of clean, large-scale fuel production.  In 2024, there were advances in using photocatalytic sheets to split water into its elements using the power of the sun. Photocatalytic reactors can be used in a variety of applications, including the conversion of pharmaceuticals, wastewater treatment, and air purification. 

The Heart. It may soon be possible to “repair a broken heart.” Previous heart developments included tests that identify hidden heart disease and images of a “digital twin” of a patient’s heart that enables precise pre-surgery modeling.

Major progress was made in using genetically modified pigs to provide personalized organ donors. A company called “Organamet Bio” has mastered growing heart cells from stem cells cultured from a patient’s blood. The cells are “engrafted” into a scaffold created with a pig’s heart that closely resembles the human heart anatomically. Clinical trials will begin soon.

In addition, advances have been made to regrow heart muscle after heart attacks using stem cells. This approach would reverse rather than alleviate chronic organ illness. According to the Wall Street Journal, “Damaged heart muscle affects about 6.5 million people in the U.S. and is the leading cause of hospitalization among Medicare patients.”

Cancer Treatment. Researchers are making great strides toward developing vaccines that instruct healthy people’s immune systems to eliminate the presence of cancer before it can develop. According to Dr. Ajay Bansal from the University of Kansas Cancer Center, “It is the future of cancer prevention.”

In fact, a cancer-vaccine renaissance is underway after decades of false starts. A better understanding of the immune system has rejuvenated the field. Companies like Moderna, that helped develop the Covid-19 vaccine, are working to bring new treatments to market.

Pre-cancer and cancer cells know how to hide from the immune system. The new vaccines use proteins that cancer cells produce to train the immune system to hunt down the abnormal cells. The new vaccines boost the immune response and direct it where to go.

Help for the Blind. Blind people are missing out on how the rest of us use electronic devices for reading, movies, and accessing the internet. New touch technologies are about to bring screentime to the blind. Specialized digital devices are being manufactured that display raised braille text and tactile graphics, refreshing in real time. Researchers are working on ways to permit live sports to be followed by touch.

A South Korean company, Dot Inc., has created an electromagnetic system that allows thousands of tiny pins to move up and down on the surface of a digital pad that is part of a refreshable braille display.

According to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention, more than seven million U.S. citizens have impaired vision. One million are totally blind, and 50 percent are unemployed. Experts have determined that in education “listening is not literacy.”  The blind must be able to access books, classroom materials, and technologies in order to be productive. The South Korean device, the “Dot Pad” is making this possible.

Ultrasound waves treat addiction. Neuroscientists have long defined addiction as a brain disease. Now, some addicts are undergoing a procedure where more than 1,000 probes of ultrasound waves are directed to the brain’s reward center. The goal is to reset harmful thought patterns.  In many cases, addictive cravings immediately disappeared. Therapy and coping mechanisms are introduced as part of the treatment. About 75 percent of participants remained substance-free several months later.

Artificial Intelligence. In 2024, the biggest technological development under discussion was artificial intelligence. According to computer scientist and author, Ray Kurzweil, “Artificial intelligence will reach human levels by around 2029. Follow that out further to, say, 2045, we will have multiplied the intelligence, the human biological machine intelligence of our civilization a billion-fold.”

If this prediction is correct, our social disputes, policy making and scientific discoveries are about to meet head on and shape the path of civilization. May this holiday season give us time to reflect on how such a future could benefit all of humanity.