Spare Earth, HIV treatment, and other groundbreaking scientific discoveries of 2024.

Drug for HIV Infection Prevention

In 2022, medical organizations worldwide, including the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), approved lenacapavir as a treatment for HIV/AIDS. By 2024, results from two trials conducted by the drug's manufacturer, Gilead Sciences, revealed that the efficacy of the drug was 96% in one trial and 100% in the other.

Lenacapavir can be used as a pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) and is administered via subcutaneous injections twice a year. It is similar to Truvada—a once-daily pill that helps prevent HIV/AIDS. Sometimes, taking pills can be less effective since not everyone remembers to take them daily, making the injection a good alternative.

Lenacapavir acts on the HIV capsid protein—the shell that protects the virus's genetic material. As further research on this drug progresses, it is possible that other vaccines targeting the capsid proteins of different viruses will emerge.

New Super-Earth in the Habitable Zone

In January 2024, NASA announced the discovery of a "super-Earth" located approximately 137 light-years away from us. The planet, TOI-715 b, may be capable of supporting life.

According to NASA, TOI-715 b is about 1.5 times wider than Earth and resides in the "conservative habitable zone," orbiting its small reddish star. The habitable zone refers to a planet being at the ideal distance from its star, allowing water to remain in a liquid state on its surface rather than freezing or evaporating.

There may be another Earth-like planet orbiting this star. Although it has yet to be confirmed, the smaller planet, TIC 271971130.02, would be the smallest known exoplanet in the habitable zone.

Researchers discovered both of these planets using the Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS).

Combining CRISPR and AI

The Clustered Regularly Interspaced Short Palindromic Repeats (CRISPR) technology allows geneticists to cut and edit specific sections of DNA strands. This could aid in treating individuals with genetic disorders.

Emmanuelle Charpentier and Jennifer Doudna received the Nobel Prize in 2020 for developing CRISPR/Cas9 genetic scissors—a tool that can change countless lives. Now, this technology may receive a new boost.

Researchers hope to implement large language models (LLMs) similar to the artificial intelligence (AI) behind ChatGPT. The Profluent team has named their new technology OpenCRISPR-1 and created an open-source gene editor so that other research groups around the world can access it. They emphasize that their development is intended for ethical use only. AI could help make gene editing more precise and safe.

Oldest Reptile Skin

Fossil remains are all we have to study the creatures that lived on Earth before us. These remains typically consist of fossilized bones, teeth, eggshells, and even feces. When researchers reconstruct prehistoric creatures, they usually only have skeletal remains. Since soft tissues do not preserve well, finding fossilized tissues is rare.

However, in 2024, researchers discovered what they believe to be the oldest known fossilized reptile. This creature lived at the end of the Paleozoic era, around 20 million years ago, and was possibly semi-aquatic. Researchers believe that the evolution of squamates has not undergone significant changes in the last 20 million years. They also think the skin may have belonged to Captorhinus aguti, a reptile the size of an iguana, but they are not certain.

New Moons of Neptune and Uranus

Like Earth, Uranus and Neptune have their own moons. However, unlike our single moon, these icy giants have multiple moons. Until 2024, astronomers only knew that Uranus had 27 moons and Neptune had 14. However, according to the International Astronomical Union's Minor Planet Center, there are three new moons orbiting these two planets.

Using powerful ground-based telescopes—Magellan in Chile and Subaru in Hawaii—astronomers spotted two moons orbiting Neptune and one orbiting Uranus. The new moon orbiting Uranus is only about 8 km in diameter and is likely the smallest of the 28 moons. Astronomers also state that it takes the moon 680 days to orbit Uranus.

The new moons around Neptune are slightly larger. One has a diameter of about 22 km and takes 9 years to orbit Neptune, while the other is approximately 12 km in diameter and completes its orbit in 27 years.

Astronomers say these are the faintest moons ever observed by ground-based telescopes, and special image processing was used to identify them.

Farthest Galaxy

Back in mid-2022, just before the official start of JWST's scientific operations, the most distant cosmic object was considered to be the galaxy GN-z11, discovered by the Hubble Space Telescope. By the end of 2024, this galaxy is no longer among the top ten most distant objects, as all ten spots are now occupied by galaxies discovered or spectroscopically confirmed by JWST. This year, a new galaxy—JADES-GS-z14-0, discovered as part of the JWST Advanced Deep Extragalactic Survey (JADES)—has risen to the top of the leaderboard.

It is incredibly bright and massive for its early period in cosmic history, as its light comes from a time when the universe was only 285-290 million years old, or just 2.1% of its current age. It is also unlikely that this galaxy will hold the record for long: many candidate galaxies are at even greater redshifts/distances and are just awaiting spectroscopic confirmation. Given that JWST scientific data will continue to come in for another 20 years, it's certain that this record will be broken multiple times in the coming 2020s and 2030s.

Samples from the Far Side of the Moon

Since humanity first captured images of the far side of the Moon during the early stages of the space race, we have wondered why the near and far sides of the Moon look so different. The near side is filled with dark basaltic "seas": flows of lava that filled massive basins. In contrast, the far side is at a significantly greater elevation than the near side and has only a few small basins.

One compelling and exciting theory will soon be tested thanks to the return of samples from the Chinese mission Chang'e-6. While the Apollo missions brought back numerous lunar rocks to Earth, all of them were from the near side of the Moon. Now, with samples from Chang'e-6, we can obtain samples from the far side of the Moon here on Earth. Although the samples are still awaiting extensive analysis, it is very possible that we already have data that will confirm or refute the picture of the Moon's formation and how the near and far sides became so different.

First Mission to Europa

Is there life somewhere else in the universe? Why not take a look in our own backyard and explore the worlds of our solar system? Europa is an intriguing candidate: the second Galilean moon of Jupiter, which has an icy crust where a subsurface ocean is presumed to exist.

The Europa Clipper mission, launched by NASA in October 2024, will be the first specialized mission to Europa in history. It is expected to arrive at its destination in 2030 after two gravitational assists from Mars and Earth in 2025 and 2026, respectively.

Although we will have to wait until 2030 for the first results, the launch was successful, and the Europa Clipper mission has successfully begun. This is the only rocket launch in 2024 that deserves attention at the year's end, as this mission has the potential to significantly change our understanding of the solar system and the search for extraterrestrial life.