2022 is coming to an end.
This has not been an easy year for many people. In the new crown epidemic, the development of technology is not easy.
Just as none of us fell down, in 2022, human science and technology are still making their own pace.
This year, we have achieved milestone achievements and witnessed great changes in nature.
These 8 things will be written into the history of 2022.
Chinese space station
The Heavenly Palace is completed
In 2022, the Wentian Experimental Module and the Mengtian Experimental Module were launched successively to meet the long-awaited Tianhe Core Module in space.
Since then, the basic structure of the three-chamber “T” configuration of the Chinese space station has been completed.
After the follow-up on-orbit evaluation, the Chinese space station will officially transfer from the construction stage to the operation stage for more than ten years.
At that time, we will continue to carry out various scientific experiments and technical tests using 25 experimental cabinets inside the cabin and 67 exposed load support facilities outside the cabin.
The Tiangong space station will also gradually play the role of China’s space home port.
The space age belonging to the Chinese has opened a new and even grander chapter.
webb telescope
Universe HD Photo
The most beautiful nature photography this year must come from the James Webb Space Telescope.
On July 12, 2022, Beijing time, the first batch of five scientific images from the Webb Telescope were officially unveiled. The subjects were the galaxy cluster SMACS 0723, the exoplanet WASP-96b, the planetary nebula NGC 3132, the Stephen Quintet galaxy, the ship Pedestal Nebula.
These maps show us a universe that is deeper, farther, clearer, and older than ever seen by the Hubble Space Telescope.
The opening is amazing, and the follow-up must be more worth looking forward to.
Asteroid Defense Combat Exercise
Master the Power of Pushing the Stars
“Asteroid hitting the earth” may hardly be synonymous with the end of the world anymore.
After a 10-month trek, the DART (Double Asteroid Redirection Test Mission) probe crashed into a near-Earth asteroid twin with a diameter of 160 meters at a speed of 6 kilometers per second.
On the day after the impact, telescopes on the earth observed phenomena such as the brightening of the twin star and the appearance of sputtering; after more than ten days of observation, people found that the orbital period of the target asteroid had changed significantly;
Humanity’s first planetary defense mission was a big success!
You must know that an asteroid with a diameter of 20 meters will visit the earth once every 100 years on average. If it hits a densely populated city, the consequences will be incalculable. With the success of this mission, humanity has regained the initiative on this type of asteroid.
As for asteroids that are large enough to destroy the world, the probability of them hitting the earth is extremely low. It is believed that human beings have made sufficient preparations before the risks come.
AI painting chat
Unemployment or Employment?
AI is here again! They do not play Go this year, but engage in art, and it has become popular among ordinary users: just describe the picture, and you can generate a (possibly nonsensical) painting.
But as long as you are good at using and tuning AI, you may also get a very good masterpiece. This year, an AI-created painting even won first place in the digital art category of an art competition.
At the end of this year, OpenAI launched the chatbot ChatGTP. This AI can not only answer various questions, but also write scripts, novels, instructions, and even correct code errors.
AI once again refreshes people’s cognition. As for whether they will put people out of work, or help people get better jobs, what do you think?
synthetic embryo
Is artificial life coming?
On August 1, 2022, Israeli scientists published a paper stating that they had grown completely artificial mouse embryos outside the womb for the first time.
The mouse embryo did not come from the union of sperm and egg, but was grown entirely in a petri dish by scientists using stem cells.
The synthetic embryos survived a total of eight days and developed beating hearts.
This research allows us to better understand the embryo and the operation of life; in the future, it may also be used to study and solve the problem of lack of donors for organ transplantation.
transplant pig heart
New Hope for Organ Transplantation
On January 7, 2022, a heart from a gene-edited pig was transplanted into the chest cavity of a patient with end-stage heart disease, and began to beat, pump blood, and work for two months, creating a survival record for heart xenotransplantation.
With the development of gene editing technology, xenotransplantation rejection and coagulation problems are being gradually solved.
In addition to hearts, liver, lung, and kidney transplants from pigs are also being studied.
As the patient’s son put it: “We hope this story can be the beginning of hope, not the end.”
Controlled Fusion
eventually turn a profit
On December 13, 2022, the “National Ignition Facility” of the United States achieved the first positive return of human beings’ controllable nuclear fusion energy.
In the experiment, the device input a laser with a total energy of 2.05 megajoules, which triggered the fusion reaction of deuterium and tritium, and finally output an energy of 3.15 megajoules.
However, this experiment is still a long way from “infinite energy”. How to continuously generate electricity, how to collect electricity, and how to reduce costs are all severe challenges.
extreme heat wave
hotter, hotter times
In the summer of 2022, we experienced the rare heat together.
The highest daily temperature in many cities has exceeded 40°C or even 44°C; under the influence of high temperature, the shortage of water and hydropower has increased; “heat stroke” has become a familiar term.
According to the assessment of the National Climate Center, the comprehensive intensity of regional high temperature events this summer has reached the strongest since the complete meteorological observation records were available in 1961.
Not only China, but the entire northern hemisphere has experienced extremely high temperatures this summer. Even Finland and Norway, which are close to the Arctic Circle, have experienced high temperatures of nearly 34°C.
If the problem of global warming continues unabated, future summers will become hotter and more “invincible”.
Guokr
The haze of the new crown epidemic is dissipating, life is restarting, and the technological world in 2023 will definitely be more dynamic.
What is the most important thing for you in 2022?
Author: Li Xiaokui
Painting: Wang Pichai
Title picture source: Wang Pichai
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