What's next for science in 2020

What's next for science in 2020? What we are seeing here is that the new science arrives with a new year. Here's a look at the events, projects, and findings our journalists saw, or wished for, in 2020. When astronomer writer Lisa Grossman and physics writer Emily Conover predicted in 2018 that the Event Horizon Telescope, or EHT, would soon capture the image of Sagittarius A in a black hole in the center of the Milky Way, they were half correct.

The first EHT image came in 2019, but it was of a black hole at the center of the M87 galaxy. Grossman and Conover keep their fingers crossed for Dhanu to have her big moment in A 2020. Another cosmic recluse, Dark Matter, may also appear in 2020. The experiment, the LUX-Zeplin, or LZ, located in the former South Dakota gold mine, will begin its search for WIMPs, which will interact with massively weaker particles.

These still theoretical particles "have been the preferred candidates for the explanation of dark matter," says Conover. Other searches have failed, but LZ will be 20 times more sensitive than previous WIMP searches. Grossman expects the mid-year launch of two missions to Mars: NASA's Mars 2020 and Exomars, a joint mission of the European Space Agency and Russia's Roskosmos space agency. The scouts on the mission will look for signs of past lives.

NASA rover robots will also lift rocks to collect on potential future missions that will bring fragments of the red planet to Earth. Headlines and summaries of the latest science news articles delivered to your inbox. Meanwhile, physics writer Maria Teming prepares for a more distant visitor. This year, astronomers identified another known interstellar object in the solar system, which appears to be a comet.

The first visitor, or Oumuamua, was seen in 2017). Estimates suggest that such hosts should show up once a year, Teming says. Biomedical writer Amy Cunningham awaits the results of a clinical trial of a male birth control pill. An early test found that the hormonal pill is safe and suppresses the level of hormones necessary for sperm production (SN: 4/14/18, p. 10). The new study will evaluate how well the pill works.

A potential drug for Alzheimer's disease called educanumab could be close to being approved. Pharmaceutical company Biogen is expected to sell the drug to the US Let's take the Food and Drug Administration's approval, "a move that promises to be controversial given the drug's past," says neuroscience writer Laura Sanders. Aducanumab made our top 10 list in 2016 after preliminary studies suggested that the drug could clear the beta amyloid plaque seen in Alzheimer.

But the subsequent results were disappointing, until a recent report indicated that the highest dose of the drug was a memory decline (SN Online: 12/5/19). Direct-to-consumer genetic testing companies can cause their own controversy, predicts molecular biology writer Tina Heasman Say. Many of these companies, like AncestryDNA, are expanding their services to provide more health information, Saey says, and the FDA may prohibit such information.

Behavioral science writer Bruce Bower hopes that molecular biology will be needed to play a larger role in human development studies. Increasingly, researchers are complementing the study of ancient DNA extracted from hominin fossils with analysis of extracted proteins, which preserve fossils better in bones and teeth than DNA, he says. Like DNA, proteins can help identify new species and uncontrolled developmental relationships.

Science and politics

2020 will be a great year for science and policy. The US Census is being presented online for the first time and field workers are moving into the homes of those who do not respond, they will give their answers on smartphones. Social science writer Sujata Gupta told how it would happen. Many people still lack reliable access to the Internet, so this will not be counted? And between what? What about the cyber attack? 

The impact of politics on wildlife affects the minds of life science writers Susan Millius and Jonathan Lambert. As the UN decision on biodiversity comes to an end in 2020, a preliminary report says the world did not meet most of the decade's targets, Milius says. You're ready to see the experts sign up. For Lambert, questions arise about the future of some species, altering how the Endangered Species Act of the United States is enacted, announced by the administration of President Donald Trump in August.

Grizzly bears have benefited from conservation under the Endangered Species Act of America. Changes in the way the law is implemented may limit the protection of species. Carolyn Gramling, author of Earth and Climate, says: "By the end of 2020, the world can see a commitment to address the nations of climate change." In 2015, the signed Paris climate treaty agreed to keep global warming below 2 ° C by 2100 relative to pre-industrial levels.

But we don't have the current carbon reduction promises there. By December 2020, countries must submit updated emissions targets. The U.S. exit from the deal will be finalized in November 2020, but that month's U.S. presidential election may determine whether the country will rejoin the treaty in 2021.

What is possible: science?

Fortunately, ensuring nature and providing water, nutrition and vitality to the developing world requires no suggestion. Rather, our approach calls for spectacular vitality, water, air, wellness, and biological systems activities that equally balance the needs of monetary development and asset protection. Rather than a defeat-like situation, these components are adjusted in favor of a situation, highlighting the path to the future where the person and nature flourish together.

This vision is anything but dismissing what others have announced. Several researchers and specialized associations have advanced necessary and practical approaches for an affordable future; Although these schemes often think about the needs of individuals and the nature of being isolated from each other, they use examinations confined to restricted fields or geology, or they hope that some difficult trade will take place.

For example, ending population growth worldwide, reduce GDP. Recovering growth or moving carnivores. Our new research considers the need for financial reform and protection around the world simultaneously, more broadly, to find an appropriate way forward. Over the next 30 years, we feel that we will face accelerated population growth and a greater burden on our common heritage.

Measurements are calming down: with 9.7 billion people on the planet by 2050, we can expect a 54 percent expansion worldwide. How can an alternative future be? We have used the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as our standard, a system of 17 measures for an existence in which all people are encouraged, solidified, used, taught, empowered and prospered, although not to the detriment of other life forms on earth.

Our research specifically addresses ten of those goals. Using the SDGs as our guide, we envision a world in 2050 that appears to be exceptionally unique today, and not fundamentally the same as we would find at that event. , That we proceed in the design of the same as always. In order not to do anything new in an increasingly economical way, we take a gland in 14 estimates, including changes in temperature, carbon dioxide levels, air pollution, water use, livelihood and vitality impressions, and safe areas.

Over the next 30 years, we realize that we will face rapid population growth and a more prominent burden on our exclusive wealth. With metrics measuring 9.7 billion people on the planet by 2050, we can expect a 54 percent expansion in global requests and a 56 percent increase in vitality requests. While it is helpful to collect these requests in development and realize manageability, it is helpful to test where we will find this criterion.

The World Health Organization, the World Economic Forum and other associations driving global progress say that air pollution and water scarcity - natural hardships - are currently the greatest threats to human well-being and prosperity. Furthermore, our investigation of the same old stuff makes clear what has been said about fear thus far: Human advancement based on similar practices today will not prepare us for a world of roughly 10 billion people.

To say only that, in the event that we persist in the current form, we will stagnate in a great cycle of scarcity, heads the opening of our development and our common scenarios are seriously debated. Under this new circumstance, we can estimate that the world temperature will increase by 3.2 ° C; Rapid air pollution affecting an additional 4.9 billion people; The fish population must exceed 84 percent; And over 2.75 billion notable water pressures. The regional misfortune leaves 50 percent of the local grasslands and some types of forests.

However, the picture may seem particularly unique in the middle of the century on when and how we respond to the demands of subsistence, water and vitality for the global development of the population and the wealthy. This "maintenance" approach incorporates a global temperature rise, which is limited to complying with the 1.6 ° C-Paris - 90 climate agreement by introducing dangerous and zero air pollution with more fishing yields.

Percentage decline and concentrated agricultural fields with little water in individuals, waterways. These goals can be met while normal living spaces are extended both within and outside of the secured area. All signatories to the Aichi Targets serve national and regional security goals, and more than 50 percent of each stands apart from being silent and more than 50 percent of which have changed since today.

What's Possible: Achieving this reasonable future for people and nature is discernible with existing and expected innovation and use, but with significant examples still ongoing. Creating these movements would require defeating major financial, social, and political difficulties. To put it bluntly, Earth's biophysical omen is unlikely to determine our future; however, our thinking and opposing thinking act on equivalent equilibrium as central parts of financial reform and equal status. Curiosity will decide our future.

NASA Mars 2020 Mission: All of you must know and give news. Drones have been integrated into Mars 2020 Mission Rover. With less than a year until the next launch window to Mars, preparations for the March 2020 mission are progressing rapidly. As a reminder, this is a rover that largely incorporates the architecture of the Curiosity rover. Its mission is distinguished by the fact that the rover will collect specimens that normally must be collected within ten years and returned to Earth.

Another quirk, the mission also involves a drone, the first heavier-than-air object to fly in an environment other than Earth. This drone and its launch pad were integrated into the rover a few weeks ago after passing several tests. It is now secured under a plate placed under the belly of the March 2020 rover. This should allow it to avoid landing the retrofuse. Once the Mars 2020 mission lands on Mars, NASA will take its time to find an ideal test site.

The scientific mission of this helicopter is not a great challenge, it is above all technology demonstrators. If this first drone works well, the US Space Agency could combine all its missions to Mars with increasingly ambitious scientific goals. But flying a 1.8kg machine in a very thin and dusty environment is a risky gamble. The helicopter's own team recognizes that it is a high-risk mission.

Perhaps the technical options (counter-rotating blades, solar power and mass reduced to extremes) are not good. The best way to detect it is to perform this test under real conditions. The March 2020 trip to Mars will begin in the summer of 2020, with the drone's first flight likely to take place next year. Mars Helicopter Scout, the helicopter that beats the Mars 2020 Rover, continues Martian simulation tests. 2020 will be an important year for the discovery of Mars.

This year, three missions to Mars will launch, including the Mars 2020 mission, an American rover based on the Curiosity rover, and collected samples sent to Earth by another mission ten years later. should do. Mars 2020 will also scan Mars for traces of water from the past, and perhaps some biological traces as well. The MARS 2020 mission will explore a well that can host a lake and a river delta for a relatively long time, perhaps long enough for life to emerge.

March 2020 will explore this environment with a partner. A year ago, we discovered that the US Space Agency linked the Mars 2020 mission to a small solar-powered helicopter. This helicopter called Mars Helicopter Scout will fly for a few minutes in reconnaissance of the ground. This will be the first time that a ship has left the earth heavy by the wind. Your first flights will face many obstacles.

First, gravity is less strong on Mars and it has to adapt to an atmosphere much thinner than Earth. Controlling the helicopter will be a real challenge, since communication takes a few minutes to move between Mars and Earth. Therefore, the helicopter must have a great autonomy. Very light, it will not produce any scientific instruments except a high resolution color camera that will send out beautiful images of the surface of Mars.

The small helicopter from the Mars 2020 mission has just carried out several tests. In January, it flew in a simulated Martian environment. Last month, they conducted extreme temperature and vibration tests. Despite its mass of only 2 kg, the little explorer survives all obstacles. This first helicopter is primarily a technology demonstrator. If its record on Mars is positive, NASA could go further. Mars is a planet that has been given many reliefs.

For example, it is the highest mountain in the solar system. Its rocks are not always accessible with rovers. However, these are ideal targets for a radio controlled helicopter. Therefore, the integration of such devices in future missions may become the norm. The Mars helicopter rover will continue testing until this summer. It will then be integrated into the Mars 2020 rover at launch.

By then NASA could have gone even further. We know that NASA has a drone project for Titan, Saturn's largest moon. This will be an environment in which we will have to learn to fly differently. However, the project accompanies another competition to become the fourth mission of NASA's New Frontiers program. The decision must be made later in the year.

NASA plans to add a helicopter to the Mars 2020 mission

Last Saturday, Mission Insight flew to Mars aboard the Atlas 5 rocket. It seems that everything is planned and now we will have to wait seven months for the lander. NASA is not wasting time: it is currently a rover called Mars 2020 preparing for the next mission. With Mars 2020, NASA will continue to exploit platforms that have proven their worth on the Red Planet.

The architecture of the Insight Phoenix mission and the Mars 2020 rover handled the architecture of the Curiosity mission. Mars 2020 will weigh about a ton. NASA will give its final approval to assemble the rover in late May. One of the final decisions to be made is the subject of much debate: Should helicopters be added to the mission?

The helicopter is already a prototype for a few years. They also conducted flight tests in an environment that reproduces Martian conditions. It is a separate JPL project, but it was thought that it could be rover ready from the start. The Mars 2020 helicopter has few rivals within the US Space Administration and has been accused of increasing mission risks by making minimal scientific contributions.

It is primarily the demonstrators that serve as proof of concept for future missions. As currently planned, only the Martyr helicopter will be active for the first 30 days of the mission. The first 30 days of the rover will also be important and some teams would prefer to spend all their time under Mars 2020 rather than do flight tests in the atmosphere of Mars.

The size of its rotors and the weight of its wings will allow it to grow in fine martial environments up to 400 meters high. It will only send a small battery recharged by photovoltaic cells and will be able to provide three minutes of flight per day. Your payload will be a high resolution camera and communication system.

With the rover, the helicopter's only mission would be to build a reconnaissance for Mars 2020. Its high-resolution camera should provide images ten times more detailed than the satellites currently orbiting Mars, ideal for selecting the most promising sites for a rover. As of the launch date, NASA has yet to identify the landing site and resolve some technical problems such as fractures discovered in the heat shield that should allow the return to the Martian atmosphere.

NASA begins construction of the Mars 2020 rover

In 2020, three rovers will arrive on Mars: a Chinese rover, a European rover, and an American rover. NASA has just started building the American rover. NASA is substantially recovering from the Curiosity Rover platform that has been on Mars since the summer of 2012. The Mars 2020 Rover exploration mission was built for a long time - the Mars 2020 Rover is responsible for collecting samples that NASA expects return to Earth. Five years and ten years later.

Therefore, a large part of the rocket payload carried by the rover would be spent collecting and storing samples for missions on Earth. But the Mars 2020 rover, which would still weigh more than a ton, would benefit from more powerful equipment and a mission other than curiosity. In the past, Curiosity was tasked with determining the vibrancy of Mars, while Mars 2020 will go straight for traces of fossil life. They are probably very old.

It is likely that Mars hosted abundant liquid water about 3.7 billion years ago. If these conditions allowed life to emerge, perhaps the rover would arrive to find a fossil. But the hospitable state of Mars has lasted a very short time on the scale of evolution: certainly a few hundred million years. In the best of cases, germs or bacteria will be found on Mars 2020. To fulfill its mission, Mars 2020 Rover will conduct an on-site analysis.

Some Mars 2020 devices will be much more powerful than Curiosity. The rover can thus detect a subtle supernatural. NASA has also equipped the rover with devices that will allow it to return to Earth and determine the most promising samples for analysis. Radar and cameras should help Mars 2020 pierce through the red planet's most interesting layers. The mission to bring the samples to Earth has not yet been included in the budget and it is not certain that the United States Congress will agree.