Jakarta, CNN Indonesia —
A series of successes and events in the field science and technology happen in 2022. What are these things?
To collect The Guardianbased on scientists’ choice, several major achievements in 2022 include the mission to divert the orbit of an asteroid, to the creation of a Covid-19 booster.
With this set of progress, is it possible that next year we will get closer to Mars and the pandemic will be wiped out? We will just wait for your reply.
What is clear, here is a list of scientific developments during 2022:
1. DART mission
The US Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and the European Space Agency (ESA) are working together to test Earth’s defense system. The two space agencies are working together to complete the Double Asteroid Re-Direction Test (DART) mission.
The mission seeks to divert space objects by accidentally crashing a plane into the Dimorphos asteroid, which is a satellite asteroid of Didymos.
The collaboration of NASA and ESA on Tuesday (27/9) successfully crashed the plane into the smaller Dimorphos asteroid.
This mission also managed to shorten Dimorphos’ orbit by about 32 minutes from its original 11 hours 55 minutes to 11 hours 23 minutes. This figure is believed to exceed the target, which was originally estimated to change orbit in just 73 seconds.
The asteroids Dimorphos and Didymos are actually harmless to Earth. Dimorphos is a satellite asteroid measuring 160 meters from the larger Didymos, which is 780 meters.
Because of this size, the asteroid is considered the right experiment to test NASA’s planetary defense system. Following the DART mission, ESA will conduct the Hera mission in 2024 to study the impact of the collision.
2. Artemis mission 1
NASA in early December 2022 successfully completed the Artemis 1 mission. This was marked by the landing of the Orion capsule in the Pacific Ocean on Sunday (11/12).
The capsule with a mannequin-shaped crew had previously “ridden” the SLS rocket in orbit around the Moon. NASA itself is organizing the Artemis 1 mission with the goal of returning humans to the Moon by 2025.
NASA took astronauts to the moon for the last time during the Apollo 17 mission on December 19, 1972. Subsequently, due to very high costs, NASA was unable to carry out a similar mission again.
Orion flew to the moon without astronauts. Instead, NASA brought in three dummies and other items to examine the effects of radiation on astronauts on subsequent missions.
Orion’s flight to the Moon with the SLS rocket took place on November 16 from the Kennedy Space Center, Florida, USA. He traveled for 25 days and managed to get close to the orbit of the Moon with a distance of 130 km.
3. Covid-19 boosters
The emergence of Covid-19 has triggered creation and innovation in terms of vaccine administration and boosters. One of them is the effort to create multivalent vaccines, not just bivalent ones.
To collect Cancer, a bivalent vaccine is a vaccine that works by stimulating an immune response against two different antigens such as two different viruses or other microorganisms.
The presence of Covid-19 has prompted experts to try to create a multivalent vaccine, meaning it can fight more than two viruses. In addition, experts are also trying to change the way the vaccine is given by inhalation.
This vaccine is already used in China against Covid-19 and could offer long-term protection against the respiratory virus.
4. AI in the medical world
The use of Artificial Intelligence (AI) or Artificial Intelligence has also seeped into the medical world. AI applications are even helping experts fight antimicrobial resistance (antimicrobial resistanceAMR) which has become a global threat.
Quoting the site Waters Veterinary CenterAntimicrobial resistance is a condition in which microorganisms such as bacteria, viruses, fungi and parasites become resistant or immune to antimicrobials (antibiotics, antiviral, antifungal, antiparasitic) that were previously effective against them.
Research on AMR, released this year, indicated that 4.95 million deaths were associated with anti-drug bacteria in 2019. These bacteria make infections that cannot be treated a leading cause of death.
But the use of artificial intelligence provides a glimmer of hope against AMR. Yue Ma and colleagues at the Chinese Academy of Sciences used machine learning techniques to identify antimicrobial peptides encoded by genome sequences in microbes in the human gut.
The algorithm used identified 2,349 potential antimicrobial peptide sequences. Of that amount, 216 peptides were synthesized by chemical methods.
A total of 181 of them showed antimicrobial activity. The success rate is quite impressive, which is impossible to achieve without the help of AI.
According to the IPB website, antimicrobial peptides are a group of compounds that can be used as an alternative to conventional antibiotics to eradicate various pathogenic microbes.
5. Sickle cell
Experts are also making small advances in the treatment of sickle cell disease (sickle cell anemia). It is a disease in which red blood cells turn into crescents which can cause anemia.
A drug originally developed to treat enzyme deficiency could be used to treat anemia and reduce the acute, severe pain phase in sickle cell disease.
While it’s only an early stage, experts have found it by looking at the character of sickle cell disease patients, rather than focusing on their red blood cells.
This development is also said to benefit those suffering from other conditions and bring hope to the whole world, especially in Africa, the Indian subcontinent and South America.
More progress on the next page…
