Saturdays for the Overnight News Digest are generally focused on science happenings. On the last Saturday of the year we are looking back at 2023 and looking ahead to 2024. This is an open thread, so feel free to leave comments below.
The biggest event for citizen science this coming year is perhaps the total solar eclipse that will cut across the United States. A couple of articles, beginning with this from space.com:
By Jamie Carter
On April 8, 2024, the U.S. will experience its second total solar eclipse in seven years, but only parts of 15 U.S. states will experience totality.
On April 8, 2024, the U.S. will witness a total solar eclipse, when the moon moves in front of the sun to cause daytime darkness and a chance to see the sun's corona. The last time that happened in the U.S. was on August 21, 2017, and memories are fresh.
Seven years ago, the path of totality was relatively remote. This time, it will pass by some vast cities and metropolitan areas, ranging northeast from Texas through Maine. Only from within this path will it be possible to witness totality for up to 4 minutes and 26 seconds.
From NASA:
NASA has awarded funding for three science teams to conduct citizen science investigations as a total solar eclipse sweeps across North America on April 8, 2024. In these experiments, volunteers will help study the Sun and its ethereal outer atmosphere, called the corona, which is revealed when the Moon completely covers the Sun’s bright disk.
“During next year’s total eclipse, hundreds of volunteers will capture images of the Sun and its corona to help answer real science question about our star and how it affects us,” said program scientist and eclipse lead at NASA Headquarters, Kelly Korreck.
From Lonely Planet:
In the new year, get ready to turn your eyes to the skies. Between sparkling meteor showers, annual equinox celebrations and one total solar eclipse, 2024 promises to be sensational for stargazers.
You might consider planning a trip to view celestial events at a certified Dark Sky Place, a designation the International Dark Sky Association (IDA) awards to locations unspoiled by light pollution. Yet armchair astronomers can still admire plenty of stars, planets and meteors from their backyards.
The space stories to come. From the BBC:
It promises to be a remarkable moment in the history of space exploration.
A year from now, on 24 December, Nasa's Parker Solar Probe will race past the Sun at the astonishing speed of 195 km/s, or 435,000 mph.
No human-made object will have moved so fast nor, indeed, got so close to our star - just 6.1 million km, or 3.8 million miles from the Sun's "surface".
From space.com:
By Samantha Mathewson
From long-awaited rocket launches and lunar landers to crewed flights around the moon, here are a few exciting spaceflight missions to look forward to in 2024.
Next year is bound to be packed with exciting spaceflight missions, from long-awaited rocket launches to incredible moon missions — including some that'll dabble in lunar landers and crewed flights — a new Jupiter probe headed to the beyond and even a demonstration flight of a new
International Space Station resupply spacecraft. With that in mind, here are a few particular missions we're looking forward to in 2024.
2023 in retrospect includes a lot of top 10 (or more) lists. From Heritage Daily:
The field of archaeology has been continuously evolving in 2023, making significant strides in uncovering new historical findings, preserving cultural heritage, and employing innovative technologies to study the past.
From artnews:
Where were you when they found that picture of pizza at Pompeii?
Looking back at 12 months’ worth of archaeological discoveries is learning that what’s old—really old, in fact—can be new again.
Over 2023, Artnet News has covered the discovery of relics, shipwrecks, coin caches, cave art, burial sites, personal artifacts, and at least one infamous Roman theater, all of which have refreshed our understanding of how ancient peoples lived. Many of these finds were made by archaeologists and experts, but others also came by way of metal detectorists (a lot of them), amateur sleuths, and even people just trying to remodel their kitchen, proving that you don’t have to dig very far to stumble upon layers of history.
There are also stories about finds in Anatolia (Turkey) and China, among others.
From Science:
In-depth investigations, fascinating findings, and writers’ field reports from around the world—these are the stories that stuck with our news editors
This year, in late June, Science launched our first editorial newsletter: ScienceAdviser. Every weekday for the past 6 months, newsletter subscribers have received an email packed with the most interesting and important updates from Science and science writ large, including exclusive reporting and analysis. (You can sign up for free.)
In the giving spirit of the holidays, I—your friendly, neighborhood newsletter editor—let my colleagues take the helm for a day. The editors of News from Science selected their favorite stories from the past year, explaining their selections with a brief note. From the personal side of science—as told from a writer’s own unique perspective—to in-depth investigations and fascinating findings, these stories showcase the talents of Science’s journalists. It would be a shame if only newsletter subscribers could enjoy these selections. So read on!
From Salon:
From dark stars to new laws of evolution, the year was full of mind-blowing scientific research
The world of scientific research was a bonanza for brain-bending discoveries in 2023, with experts from the fields of astronomy, cosmology, neuroscience and chemical engineering left us questioning the very nature of our reality with eye-popping new data.
The outer worlds of our so-called reality were especially shaken as the James Webb Space Telescope brought us closer to proof of an unseen universe, a mysterious hum was discovered pervading the galaxy and a groundbreaking journalistic investigation revealed the possibility of aircrafts designed by non-human intelligence.
Looking ahead, with IFLS:
Scientific bodies from across the world will meet to decide whether we are officially living in a new geological epoch, one defined by human impacts on the planet.
DR. RUSSELL MOUL
As we approach the end of the year, we may not only be saying goodbye to 2023, but also the geochronologic unit of time we have been living in to date. In 2024, scientists will be making a decision on whether we have entered the Anthropocene, a new epoch marked by human impact on the planet.
Broadly speaking, the Anthropocene (derived from the Greek words anthropo, meaning “man” and cene for “new”) represents a time of planetary change that has come as a direct result of human activities, such as burning fossil fuels and increased deforestation. The idea was first made popular in 2000, by the late meteorologist Paul Crutzen.
From Science Focus:
Forget the disheartening headlines, 2023 has seen stories of true hope for the planet's future.
Bad news this year has, at times, felt relentless. And towards the end of 2023, we were reminded, by the latest UN climate talks in Dubai, that global efforts to overcome the worst effects of climate change are progressing much slower than the pace of global warming.
But please don’t sigh and lose all hope. There was a genuine breakthrough at that COP28 meeting. For the first time, countries agreed to "transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems”. Whatever you think of these COP meetings, and they are far from perfect, for once the world came together and said: “We want to move away from fossil fuels.”
From inews (not all science):
From health breakthroughs to wildlife success stories, literary festivals to wellbeing schemes, there are plenty of reasons to raise a glass to the year ahead
Young people will get free access to RSPB nature reserves
“Anyone aged 16 to 24 will get free entry to RSPB nature reserves in 2024, simply by showing a valid photo ID,” says the charity’s campaigns director, Alice Hardiman. It is part of a push to encourage more young people to engage with wildlife and wild places. “Young people face barriers accessing nature on a daily basis. By removing entry charges, we hope more will come to explore these wonderfully wild spaces and connect with the great outdoors in new ways.”
From the Business Standard (India):
The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO) is set to begin the new year with the launch of XPoSat.
After the momentous landing on the moon's south pole, India has now set its sights on more challenging missions -- sending humans to space and getting samples from the lunar surface back to earth. Test flights for both the projects are scheduled in the new year.
For Indian scientists it is just not about the moon and beyond. Furthering deep ocean exploration, the country is scheduled to send aquanauts on board the "Samudrayaan", first to a depth of 500 metres in March, and later, achieve its targeted depth of up to 6,000 metres.
From Scientific American (originally published in Ensia):
Low-carbon fertilizer, printable DNA, bird-bashing buildings and a dozen other trends could greatly help or hurt biodiversity in 2024
BY MARY HOFF & ENSIA
From the Quantum Insider:
The quantum community has a reason to celebrate some important milestones in 2023, while looking ahead with a mix of optimism and even a little concern.
Here’s a collection of reflections of 2023 and predictions for 2024 contributed by some of the ecosystem’s best known experts and thought leaders, including officials from Quantinuum, Terra Quantum, IQM Computers, Keysight and D-Wave.
And from Scientific American, which dates the story to 1 January 2024(!):
Deciphering a scorched scroll from ancient Herculaneum, unlikely flavors in climate-change-affected wine, an undiscovered ore found in China, and more in this month’s Quick Hits
BY LORI YOUMSHAJEKIAN
Some speculative things to look forward to in 2024, all from New Scientist (perhaps behind a paywall but you can at least get a sense of them):
From a new Adrian Tchaikovsky novel to pandemic echoes in Haruki Murakami's The City and its Uncertain Walls (fingers crossed we get an English translation), there is loads of excellent science fiction reading ahead next year, says Sally Adee
By Sally Adee
EVEN in the future, history never stays in the past tense. The most anticipated books of 2024 explore the deep roots of the moral and philosophical quandaries shaping our times.
20 non-fiction and popular science books to look forward to in 2024
By Simon Ings
TRUTHS and consequences dominate the books we are likely to read in the year ahead. We escaped the food chain, but now we have to defend the living world we once fought against. We have left the planet only to discover all the unexpected ties that bind us to it. Some of us now lead easy lives – for which we reap surprising and unhappy consequences. What can the science that drove our success do to ensure our survival?
The 13 best sci-fi series and science shows to look forward to in 2024
By Bethan Ackerley
GOD laughs at those who make plans. The same could be said of those who write television previews. Last December, I blithely enthused about the 2023 arrival of 3 Body Problem, Fallout and the second series of Severance, none of which ultimately materialised. This year’s Hollywood strikes, needlessly drawn out by those seeking to deny writers and actors a fair shake, delayed TV production for months and put paid to those already quixotic predictions.
And, finally, from IFLS:
It's that time of year again.
JAMES FELTON
It's that time of year again when news outlets begin publishing their big lists of things that 16th Century CE astrologer Nostradamus predicted would happen in the following year.
Last year, predictions included everything from
disaster on Mars to a "celestial fire on the Royal edifice", which Nostradamus-enablers took to mean a meteor could set
Buckingham Palace on fire and force the King to live in one of his
many other palaces, castles, or cottages. Well, we made it through those things which definitely happened – but don't get too cozy, for this year outlets are claiming that we will have to deal with all of the above things that failed to materialize, as well as global disasters and a war with
China.
Though none of that sounds very nice, it's not bad considering Nostradamus "predicted" that the world would end in 1999. Here's what Nostradamus supposedly has in store for 2024, 25 years after the apocalypse.