The human genome, the target of the moon, the hand of the Basques … the most prominent scientific and medical news in 2022

eye. In 2022, science and medicine will still be the first stunning images offered by the James Webb Space Telescope. With this tool of unparalleled power, the entire world has been able to dream in front of unprecedented representations of our solar system and galaxies far beyond.

Human beings, like the universe, continue to reveal their most intimate secrets. Thus, the decoding of the human genome, which began thirty years ago, has just been completed, with the exception of the Y chromosome. The year 2022 was also marked by medical feats, such as the first transplantation of the heart of a transgenic pig, which allowed a 57-year-old American convicted of a short sentence to survive for sixty days.

Three years into the pandemic, Covid-19 is less in “one” media, but it still challenges researchers, in particular with its prolonged forms, which affect 10% to 30% of infected people.

From astronomy to zoology, the review is – not exhaustive – in text and images.

Space and astronomy

With Artemis-1, the United States is returning to the moon

After several delays, due to technical problems and also due to a hurricane, NASA’s Artemis-1 mission was able to take off on November 16 from Cape Canaveral (Florida), marking the return of the United States to the race for the moon.

This mission, which did not carry a crew, aimed to test both the SLS (Space Launch System) rocket, which had its first flight, and the habitable Orion capsule, and in particular to return it to Earth with reentry. in the atmosphere at a speed of 40,000 km / h. It took off without a hitch, with a successful orbit around our satellite and a flawless landing in the Pacific Ocean on December 11th.

The second flight of the Artemis program, scheduled for 2024, will consist of a repeat of this mission, but this time with a crew on board.

Asteroid deflection test successfully

On September 27, NASA’s Dual Asteroid Redirection Test’s Kamikaze Probe (DART) hit the small asteroid Dimorphos at a speed of 22,000 km/h. The purpose of the exercise was to see if a half-ton device could deflect an object with a diameter of 160 meters from its trajectory, and if so, by how much. A critical test of how to protect Earth from a possible asteroid that could darken directly above it and whose impact would have disastrous consequences.

Successful exercise: The shocker reduced by thirty-two minutes the period of Dimorphos’ revolution around a larger asteroid, a result that exceeded astronomers’ expectations. To properly model the event, they must know Dimorphos’ mass as well as its internal properties, and visualize the crater left by DART. This will be the mission assigned to the European probe Hera, which will be launched at the end of 2024.

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