December 22, 2024The Climate, Health and Tech Stories Were Following in 2025Were closing out the year with a roundup of the science stories that stood out to our editors in 2024. Anaissa Ruiz Tejada/Scientific AmericanSUBSCRIBE TO Science QuicklyApple | Spotify | RSSRachel Feltman: Happy Monday, listeners! For Scientific Americans Science Quickly, Im Rachel Feltman.Weve had a busy and exciting year here at Science Quickly. After a few months of working behind the scenes, I officially started hosting the show back in May. Ive had so much fun chatting with you all three times a week since then, and I cant wait for all the conversations well get to have in 2025.Before we here at SQ take a short break for the holidays, I thought it would be fun to ask a few Scientific American editors about the biggest science stories of the year. Lets get into it.On supporting science journalismIf you're enjoying this article, consider supporting our award-winning journalism by subscribing. By purchasing a subscription you are helping to ensure the future of impactful stories about the discoveries and ideas shaping our world today.Andrea Thompson: Im Andrea Thompson. Im the Earth and environment news editor at Scientific American.So the biggest weather and climate stories this year are a lot of what weve seen in recent years: hurricanes, floods, record heat.Hurricanes were a big story, especially in the U.S. this year. We had several really devastating ones and really surprising ones, kicking off with Hurricane Beryl, which was the earliest Category 5 on record for the Atlantic Ocean, and it really rapidly intensified, and meteorologists were just sort of left with their mouths hanging open watching this storm develop.We had two really devastating hurricanes.[CLIP: NBC 6 meteorologist John Morales speaks about Hurricane Milton in October:  Incredible hurricane. It has dropped [chokes up]it has dropped 50 millibars in 10 hours. I apologize. This is just horrific.]Thompson: Hurricane Milton and then particularly Hurricane Helene, which dropped tons of rain on western North Carolina and wreaked absolute devastation there.But it wasnt just the U.S. that was hit by these storms. The Philippines actually had five typhoons, which are the same type of storm as a hurricane; its just called a different name in the Pacific than it is in the Atlantic. So they had five typhoons and a tropical storm, all within a month, which is a lot of storms. And that wreaked a lot of devastation and killed a lot of people there.Besides those sort of big storms we had a number of heat waves, which is just something that is incredibly connected to climate change and is one of the easiest weather events to see the imprint of climate change in and is something we just see more of every year. They last longer, they are hotter, and they happen more frequently than they have in the past. And one of the notable ones this year was in the Southwest U.S. ...[CLIP: CBS Morning News anchor Anne-Marie Green discusses the heat wave in June:  A dangerous heat wave is threatening more than 30 million people across the Southwest this morning.]Thompson: Which has sort of been a focal point for these year after year. But Phoenix in particular had 113 consecutive days with high temperatures of 100 degrees Fahrenheit [nearly 38 degrees Celsius] or higher. The previous record was 76 days in 1993. So that is a substantial increase on that. And so that heat caused hundreds of deaths just in Phoenix alone. So when you consider that those heat waves were over a broader area, you know, youre looking at much higher numbers.Of course, that wasnt the only place that saw heat. There were also really terrible spring heat waves across a large swath of Asia, from the Palestinian territories to India, Thailand and the Philippines.There were also huge floods.[CLIP: PBS News Hour co-anchor Amna Nawaz speaks about flooding in October:  In Spain, where crews are searching for bodies in abandoned cars and swamped buildings after devastating flash floods.Thompson: Spain was one of the sort of hallmark events this year because it was, I think, very surprising to people there; they werent expecting it. That caused a huge amount of devastation and death. There are also really major floods in parts of AfricaSudan, Nigeria, Cameroon, Chadand all of these also have some fingerprints of climate change on them.So probably the biggest climate story this year is that its going to be the hottest year on record, which we know before its even technically over. We really knew this, honestly, at the end of October, just based on how hot all of the months of the year so far had been. And its going to surpass the record just set last year, which itself was record hot by a record margin.So 2024 is even hotter than 2023, and that is also one of the hallmarks of climate change: that we see record-hot years increasingly happen. In fact, all of the hottest 10 years on record have been in the 21st century, and its probably not going to be long before the 2024 record falls.You know, if I could pick just a couple words or phrases to describe 2024, it would be record-hot and extreme. And I feel like those are probably [laughs] the words I would have picked in a lot of other years, too, but its justthat fact is a sign that climate change is here and its happening now. Its not a future problem, as I think we thought about it as, you know, a couple decades ago; were living it right now, and every year really bears that out.And, you know, looking ahead to 2025, we obviously cant know if 2025 might be the year that breaks 2024s record. I think right now climate scientists would probably say its not as likely, in part because were expecting a weak La Nia.So most people have heard of El Nio. La Nia is the opposite; its sort of the flip side of an El Nio. An El Nio happens when water temperatures in the tropical Pacific Ocean are higher than normal, and that releases heat into the atmosphere that causes this cascade of changes in weather around the globe. So La Nia is the opposite; its when those temperatures are colder than normal. That alsoit changes weather patterns. It also tends to slightly cool global temperatures, whereas El Nio slightly raises them. And part of why 2023 and 2024 were record-hot is a little bit due to El Nio, although [the] vast majority of that heat is from long-term climate change.But with a weak La Nia likely developing in 2025, global temperatures might be a little bit lower, so its possible 2025 will come in under 2024 and 2023. But its still, even with a La Nia, going to be among the hottest years on record, almost certainly. The years where we see La Nias now are actually hotter than some El Nio years from 30 or 40 years ago. And that is really a mark of how much climate change has impacted global temperatures.You know, in terms of weather that we might see, sort of in broad seasonal trends, we are going to see heat waves somewhere. They are going to break records. There are going to be hurricanes and typhoons around the world. Where theyll hit, how strong theyll be, we cant know. There are going to be floods in places. These things are going to keep happening every year, and climate change is having an impact on all of them: to increase their likelihood, to make them worse and to make them happen more often.Feltman: Climate was obviously a major theme in the news this year, but we also had a lot of health stories to tackleincluding a few that arent existentially distressing. Lets look back on some awesome health advances from 2024.Tanya Lewis: Im Tanya Lewis, senior editor for health and medicine at Scientific American.So we actually learned a lot of really cool things about the human body this year. One thing we learned, which you might remember from an earlier podcast episode, is that scientists discovered a new pain medication that works by blocking nerve channels before the pain reaches the brain, and its not addictive like opioids.Another thing we learned is that vitamin D deficiency is not as big of a problem as we thought. Early in the 2000s studies suggested that vitamin D deficiency was a contributor to cancer, heart disease and many other illnesses and that taking vitamin D supplements might help. But more recent studies have failed to show as much of a benefit as we thought, and most people actually have adequate levels of vitamin D.Researchers have also discovered ancient brains that are miraculously well-preserved for thousands of years after death. And they think that these brains might be undergoing a process of protein misfolding, which resembles what happens in neurodegenerative diseases like Alzheimers or even mad cow disease.Finally, theres a new advancement that can help people who are born without a uterus. Scientists have found a way to actually transplant uteruses from a healthy donor into these individuals, who can then get pregnant and give birth to a live baby.If I could describe 2024 in three words, I think I would choose unexpected because we are constantly seeing and learning new things about the body and about new diseases that we didnt expect. I would say political because unfortunately, health, like all aspects of science, have become politicized. And then finally, not to leave on a downer, but I would say ominous because there are, unfortunately, some major public health threats looming, like the potential of a bird flu pandemic.In 2025 I will be keeping a close eye on bird flu, or H5N1, the virus thats been transmitting among wild birds and dairy cows and poultry in the U.S. Ill be following whats happening with the politicization of science under the new administrationa new presidential administrationand hope to see, you know, areas of consensus, hopefully, between the different parties so that we can keep Americans healthy.While there are many public health threats that loom on the horizon, theres still a lot to look forward to, and were just beginning to see some of the fruits of decades of research in things like mRNA vaccines and weight-loss drugs and many other developments. I think were in a pretty good position to tackle some of these major public health threats that we might be facing in the coming year.Feltman: I dont know about you, but Im grateful for that spot of optimism. Also, let me take this opportunity to sneak in my favorite reminder one last time this year: now is not the time to start exploring the world of raw dairy, no matter what people on TikTok might tell you. Just hit pause on that one at the very least.Speaking of the Internet: Heres associate technology editor Ben Guarino to tell us how the artificial intelligence conversation evolved in 2024.Guarino: The focus of 2024 in AI has definitely been on generative AI because the biggest developments this year were often in the new forms of what it could make. When ChatGPT was unveiled in 2022 we saw it make text, but now generative AI is making really convincing audio. I watched a demo of a ChatGPT-based voice where the user asked it to count to 30 really fast and then it paused to catch its breath in the middle of counting. So the folks who are developing these generative systems are really looking to: How do they sound human, and, and how do they feel authentic? So thereve definitely been improvements to audio.Generative AI has now been moving into things like video with OpenAIs really impressive video maker, Sora, which it showcased as a demo earlier this year and then, at the start of December, released to its paying customers. I tried to log in right away to use it, but the traffic was so heavy, I, I couldnt get in, so theres definitely an interest in using generative AI to make video.And with that also started to come some backlash. So Im thinking of, in November, Coca-Cola turned some of its iconic ads into movieinto video using generative AI and people piled on online, so theres definitely been, on the one hand, if were looking at the big trends in generative AI, an improvement in what it can do, but also, I would think, an awareness and maybe a more pronounced backlash this year than weve seen in previous years: understanding how generative AI was trained on data, on what artists made, on what writers have written. And also maybe some concerns about it taking work away from people.Pew Research has done surveys each year, going back for the past few years, looking at how people are excited about AI or concerned about AI, and over the past three years an increasing proportion have said that theyre more concerned than excited about AI, and, and I think that might be a trend we will see continue into next year.One major area that AI had an impact in 2024 is definitely search. So at the start of this year Google didnt have AI answers in its search results, but to me thats almost wild to think about; Ive gotten so used to seeing them already, you know? If anybody is a regular user of Google Search, I have to imagine that youve seen the generative AI results at the top, and these are gonna stick aroundGoogles latest numbers, I think, were that one billion people have used Googles large language model, which is called Gemini, in Search, and talking to the New York Times recently, Google CEO Sundar Pichai said that, you know, to expect Google Search to continue to evolve in 2025, and I have to imagine thats gonna be more layering of artificial intelligence into search results.And theres also been an awareness, too, of the energy demands of generative AI. And there are some estimates, although the figures arent exact, that adding generative AI to search results is increasing, not insubstantially, the energy demands on every time that you search something on Google.If I could describe 2024 in three words, I would say boom. Were definitely in an AI boom. I think this really was the year that AI started showing up on our phones, started showing up on our computers, started showing up in our workplaces in more obvious ways than maybe we had been familiar with before. There have been huge investments in AI and continued investments in generative AI. We saw OpenAI make plans to move from a nonprofit to a profit. We saw Elon Musk break up with OpenAI and roll out his competitor, Grok, on X, formerly Twitter.The next word I would pick, I think, as a consequence of that boom is slop. Slop was a contender for Oxfords word of the year; it lost out to brain rot. But slop means this AI equivalent of spam. So if you were on Facebook at all earlier this year, maybe you encountered something like Shrimp Jesus, which was this phenomenon where people were using chatbots to make these bizarre chimeras of religious figures and crustaceans, or these clearly AI-made images of structures built out of Coca-Cola bottles, and its reallywas just engagement bait.Ill take a slightly more optimistic note with the third word and Ill say promise. I mean, we saw some clever and what I would consider good uses of AI in terms of pattern recognition, of using AI to help decipher a scroll that was burned by the Pompeii volcano from hundreds and hundreds of years ago, to AI helping in drug development for looking for novel forms of antibiotics. So there definitely is something here to AI. I dont want to be too cynical here; I think its good to be critical, but this definitely is a technology that has promise.In 2025 I think were going to see more about the hunger for water and energy and resources that generative AI needs, especially for the large data centers required to operate it. We know that Microsoft is looking at reviving, for instance, one of the mothballed reactors at Three Mile Island, the nuclear power plant, to power its data centers. Theres been more attention paid to whats called Data Center Alley in the mid-Atlantic. In terms of keeping these data centers active, that requires fossil-fuel plants.I also think were gonna start to see more forms of generative AIso thats AI based on LLM-type style modelsthat arent quite like the chatbots were familiar with. Im thinking specifically, as an example, what are called AI agents. So these are systems that you would access on your phone or computer like you would a chatbot, but its got more autonomy to do things.So one common example of what an AI agent might do is help book you a plane ticket. And you might tell itor it might know because its been analyzing your personal datathat, you know, you prefer aisle seats, so it will look for aisle seats for you and, and book an aisle seat. And these agents, in theory, have more autonomy to interact with other apps, and they dont require the hand-holding or the prompting that something like ChatGPT needs now. So if youve used ChatGPT with any regularity, you might know that it might take multiple prompts to get it to produce the thing that youre looking for. Withthe idea behind an AI agent is that you tell it what to do and, and it goes off and it interfaces with other apps, and you dont need to keep nudging it along.Feltman: Im glad we ended on AI because it gives me an excuse to plug some more Science Quickly before we sign off. One of my favorite SQ episodes is also one of our most recent: our deep dive on Googles AI podcast tool. If you havent listened yet, you should definitely go check it out while were off for the holidays.I also really loved our episode on folk music and the evolution of song. Im not going to say itll definitely be the only time youll ever hear me sing on Science Quickly, but thats not exactly going to be a regular thing.And I cant forget the episode where I got to interview an astronaut from actual space. In fact, we made history by conducting the first-ever live video interview from the cupola observatory! Thats definitely the best background Ive ever gotten to enjoy on a video call.We covered the science of fear, the fight to end implicit bias in health care and the dangers of weight stigma at the doctors office. We did deep dives on extreme archaeology, Antarctic exploration and the beauty and mystery of math. From learning about animal conservation to tackling zombie-apocalypse prep, weve done our best to help you stay curious. Heres to a whole lot more of that in 2025. Were taking a few weeks off from new episodes so our team has time to enjoy the holidays, but well be back bright and early in the new year.Science Quickly is produced by me, Rachel Feltman, along with Fonda Mwangi, Kelso Harper, Madison Goldberg and Jeff DelViscio. Todays episode was reported and co-hosted by Andrea Thompson, Tanya Lewis, and Ben Guarino. Shayna Posses and Aaron Shattuck fact-check our show. Our theme music was composed by Dominic Smith. Subscribe to Scientific American for more up-to-date and in-depth science news.For Scientific American, this is Rachel Feltman. Have a wonderful holiday season. See you next year!