2024 in science

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The following scientific events occurred or are scheduled to occur in 2024.

Events

January

• 2 January – The Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) publishes its JRA-55 dataset, confirming 2023 as the warmest year on record globally, at 1.43 °C (2.57 °F) above the 1850–1900 baseline. This is 0.14 °C (0.25 °F) above the previous record set in 2016.
• 3 January – The first functional semiconductor made from graphene is created at the Georgia Institute of Technology.
• 5 January – Scientists report that newborn galaxies in the very early universe were "banana"-shaped, much to the surprise of researchers.
• 9 January
  • Scientists report studies which seem to support the hypothesis that life may have begun in a shallow lake rather than otherwise - perhaps somewhat like a "warm little pond" originally proposed by Charles Darwin.
  • A group of scientists from around the globe have charted paradigm shifting restorative pathways to mitigate the worst effects of climate change and biodiversity loss with a strong emphasis on environmental sustainability, human wellbeing and reducing social and economic inequality.
  • In a scientific breakthrough that could reshape our understanding of how light interacts with matter, researchers from the Attoscience and Ultrafast Optics group at the Institute of Photonic Sciences (ICFO) in Barcelona have discovered a new phase of matter, aptly named a "light-matter hybrid."
• 10 January
  • Chemists report studies finding that long-chain fatty acids were produced in ancient hydrothermal vents. Such fatty acids may have contributed to the formation of the first cell membranes that are fundamental to protocells and the origin of life.
  • Scientists report the extinction of Gigantopithecus blacki, the greatest primate known to inhabit the Earth, that lived between 2 million and 350,000 years ago, was largely due to the inability of the ape to adapt to a diet better suited to a significantly changed environment.
• 11 January
  • Biologists report the discovery of the oldest known skin, fossilized about 289 million years ago, and possibly the skin from an ancient reptile.
  • Scientists report the discovery of Tyrannosaurus mcraeensis, an older species of Tyrannosaurus that lived 5-7 million years before Tyrannosaurus rex, and which may be fundamentally important to the evolution of the species.
  • A study of the Caatinga region in Brazil finds that its semi-arid biome could lose over 90% of mammal species by 2060, even in a best-case scenario of climate change.
  • A graphene-based implant on the surface of mouse brains, in combination with a two-photon microscope, is shown to capture high-resolution information on neural activity at depths of 250 micrometers.
  • A review of genetic data from 21 studies with nearly one million participants finds more than 50 new genetic loci and 205 novel genes associated with depression, opening potential targets for drugs to treat depression.
• 12 January
  • Global warming: 2023 is confirmed as the hottest year on record by several science agencies.
    • NASA reports a figure of 1.4 degrees Celsius above the late 19th century average, when modern record-keeping began.
    • NOAA reports a figure of 1.35 degrees Celsius.
    • Berkeley Earth reports a figure of 1.54 degrees Celsius.
• 13 January – NASA fully opens the recovered container with samples from the Bennu asteroid, after three months of failed attempts.
• 16 January – The first successful cloning of a rhesus monkey is reported by scientists in China.

19 January: Japan becomes the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon.

• 17 January – A study in Nature finds that the Greenland ice sheet is melting 20% faster than previous estimates, due to the effects of calving-front retreat. The current loss of 30m tonnes of ice an hour is "sufficient to affect ocean circulation and the distribution of heat energy around the globe."
• 18 January
  • NASA reports the end of the Ingenuity helicopter's operation, after 72 successful flights on Mars, due to a broken rotor blade.
  • A potential candidate for the first known radio pulsar-black hole binary is reported by astronomers. The heavier of the two lies in the "mass gap" between neutron stars and black holes. The pair are located in the globular cluster NGC 1851.
  • Two insect-like robots, a mini-bug and a water strider, are reported by Washington State University as being the smallest, lightest, and fastest fully-functional micro-robots ever created.
  • Bottom trawling is found to release 340 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO₂) into the atmosphere each year, nearly 1 per cent of all global CO₂ emissions.
• 19 January – Japan becomes the fifth country to achieve a soft landing on the Moon, with its SLIM mission.
• 21 January – Biologists report the discovery of "obelisks", a new class of viroid-like elements, and "oblins", their related group of proteins, in the human microbiome.
• 24 January – The discovery of 85 exoplanet candidates based on data from the TESS observatory is reported by the University of Warwick. All have orbital periods of between 20 and 700 days, with temperatures similar to those of our own Solar System planets.
• 25 January – The Laser Interferometer Space Antenna (LISA) is given the go-ahead by the European Space Agency (ESA). It will launch in 2035.
• 26 January – Astronomers report the detection of water vapor in the atmosphere of GJ 9827 d, an exoplanet about twice the size of Earth.
• 29 January
  • Elon Musk's startup Neuralink implants their first microchip into a human.
  • A robotic sensor able to read braille with 87.5% accuracy and at twice the speed of a human is demonstrated by the University of Cambridge.
• 31 January – NASA reports the discovery of a super-Earth called TOI-715 b, located in the habitable zone of a red dwarf star about 137 light-years away.

February

• 2 February – Scientists report a possible way of solving the three-body problem; a notable problem of particular importance to physics and classical mechanics.
• 6 February
  • Scientists report a new species of mussel named Vadumodiolus teredinicola.
  • Biologists report a new species of jellyfish named Santjordia pagesi.
• 12 February – The first detection of water molecules on the surface of asteroids is announced, following spectral analysis of 7 Iris and 20 Massalia, two large main-belt objects.

Predicted and scheduled events

See also: 2024 in spaceflight

• Upcoming astronomical and space events for 2024 according to The New York Times.
• Expected system first light of the Vera C. Rubin Observatory and launch of the NASA-ISRO Synthetic Aperture Radar.
• Science-related budgets
  • US: Various requested changes to budgets of science-related US institutions have been described with some information about the respective planned research programs.

Astronomical events

• Close approach of asteroid 2020 BX₁₂ to Earth
• Potential collision of lost asteroid 2007 FT₃ with Earth

See also

• Category:Science events
• Category:Science timelines
• List of emerging technologies
• List of years in science

External links

• Media related to 2024 in science at Wikimedia Commons