The following scientific events occurred or are scheduled to occur in 2023.

Events

January

• 6 January – Hidden heatwaves on coral reefs: an international collaboration led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is published in Nature Communications showing that hidden marine heatwaves, associated with ocean eddies that modulate undersea internal waves, threaten coastal ecosystems by driving unexpected sub-surface heating and severe coral bleaching and mortality across depths. ^[1]
• 10 January
  • A second potentially Earth-like planet in the TOI 700 system is reported using data from NASA's Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS). ^[2]
  • The long-term impact of biodiversity loss in Madagascar is modelled, suggesting that recovery from extinctions could take as long as 23 million years. ^{[3] [4]}
• 11 January
  • NASA scientists report the discovery of LHS 475 b, an Earth-like exoplanet – and the first exoplanet observed by the James Webb Space Telescope. ^[5]
  • NASA publishes images of a debris disk surrounding the red dwarf AU Mic, taken by the James Webb Space Telescope, capturing details as close to the star as 5 astronomical units (460 million miles) – the equivalent of Jupiter’s orbit in the Solar System. ^[6]
  • Teleportation of energy is demonstrated for the first time by researchers in New York, using an IBM quantum computer. ^[7]
• 12 January – A team led by David Sinclair shows how DNA breaks are a major driver of epigenetic change, and how the loss of epigenetic information is a cause of aging in mammals. Using a treatment based on Yamanaka factors, they demonstrate an ability to drive aging in both the forward and reverse directions in mice. ^[8]
• 16 January – NASA announces preliminary considerations of several future space telescope programs, including the Great Observatory Technology Maturation Program ( GOMAP), Habitable Worlds Observatory and New Great Observatories. ^{[9] [10]}
• 23 January – The most affordable carbon capture and conversion system to date, bringing the cost down to just $39 per metric ton, is revealed by scientists at Pacific Northwest National Laboratory. The process takes flue gas from power plants, uses a solvent to strip out the CO2, then converts it to industrially-useful methanol. ^[11]
• 25 January – Engineers at the Chinese University of Hong Kong design millimetre-sized robots able to rapidly shift between liquid and solid states. The devices could be used to fix electronics or remove objects from the body. ^[12]

Predicted and scheduled events

• Science policy
  • In January, the US NIH will begin "requiring most of the 300,000 researchers and 2,500 institutions it funds annually to include a data-management plan in their grant applications — and to eventually make their data publicly available". Advantages of such requirements may include making science more accessible, increasing public trust in science and increasing efficiency and reproducibility. ^[13]
• Search for extraterrestrial intelligence (SETI) and ufology
  • First major observational campaign of the SETI project COSMIC. ^[14]
  • Expected public release date of the first study by NASA on UAP in spring. ^{[15] [16]}
  • Expected public first release of results from the international UFO investigation project The Galileo Project led by astronomer Avi Loeb. ^[17]
  • Rocket Lab's Venus probe is scheduled to be launched and to arrive on Venus in October, partly to search for signs of life on Venus. ^{[18] [19] [20]}
• Expected start of the Vera Rubin Observatory, the Qitai Radio Telescope, the European Spallation Source and the Jiangmen Underground Neutrino Observatory. ^[21]
• Nature has listed 11 clinical trials to watch in 2023. ^[22] Results of the Participatory Evaluation (of) Aging (With) Rapamycin (for) Longevity Study (PEARL) clinical trial investigating a life extension intervention are expected to be released. ^{[23] [24]}
• Science-related budgets
  •   US: several fields, research topics and agencies are provided with increased budgets, including the new Advanced Research Projects Agency for Health (ARPA-H). ^{[25] [26] [27]} Various changes to the budgets of US institutions like NASA, FDA, EPA and NIH have been described. ^{[28] [27]}
  •   UK:
    See also: Advanced Research and Invention Agency

Astronomical events

Awards

Deaths

See also

• Category:Science events
• Category:Science timelines
• List of emerging technologies
• List of years in science

References

External links

• Media related to 2023 in science at Wikimedia Commons