Science Year 2023: Medical successes for millions

Every year in December the renowned specialist journal selects the winners »Science« the scientific breakthroughs of the year. This list contains research successes, for example in medicine, climate research, computer science, paleoanthropology and astronomy. A closer look at four of them:

Injections against obesity

According to “Science”, the scientific breakthrough of 2023 is the new weight loss injection, which is sold under the name “Wegovy”. The drug offers hope for millions of obese people worldwide. The British newspaper “The Guardian” speaks of 650 million whose body mass index is 30 or higher. In the USA, around 70 percent of the population is overweight. Being very overweight is considered a risk factor for a whole range of diseases such as type 2 diabetes, cardiovascular diseases, fatty liver disease and certain types of cancer.

The new drug, which was originally developed to treat diabetes, could help to overcome prejudices against people affected by obesity, because losing weight is often explained as a pure question of will, or, if it doesn’t succeed, it will be done equated to a weakness of the patient’s will. The active ingredient in the injection is called semaglutide and mimics the intestinal hormone GLP1. This increases insulin secretion by the pancreas after eating, which is intended to counteract diabetes in the semaglutide preparation marketed under the name “Ozempic”. “Wegovy” is also said to increase the feeling of satiety.

Now there is probably no drug without side effects, and this also applies to the semaglutide injections. The undesirable effects that have been identified so far include nausea, headaches, fatigue and also a possible risk of thyroid cancer. And the weight loss injection probably doesn’t offer a cure for all time if used for a short time. One year after the end of therapy, patients in a study had regained two thirds of the body weight they had lost, as “Science” reports. This confirms those scientists who attribute obesity to a chronic character – long-term drug treatment would therefore be necessary.

Medicines against obesity, like those against diabetes, are a gigantic market with growth potential, including a promising black market. There were medical emergencies in Austria because people injected fake Ozempic. And since losing weight is not only the wish of obesity patients, but also of many people who just want to follow a general body ideal, there is likely to be high demand here too, without a doctor’s prescription. This is particularly problematic for diabetics, as it can lead to a shortage of Ozempic.

Vaccinations against malaria work

While the weight loss injection can be used to combat one of the major diseases of civilization, the development of a new malaria vaccine holds hope, especially for millions of babies and small children. According to the Robert Koch Institute, 200 million people get malaria every year, 600,000 die from it, and according to Unicef, 500,000 of them are children. Therefore, it is also the youngest who should receive the first vaccinations with a second vaccine called R21/MatrixM recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO). Since 2019, vaccinations have initially been carried out in a pilot phase with the vaccine Mosquirix, also called RTS,S. Two million babies and young children in Ghana, Kenya and Malawi received the substance as part of the WHO pilot study. According to the WHO, deaths in the pilot regions fell by 30 percent. Mosquirix was recommended for widespread use in 2021.

However, the manufacturer Glaxosmithkline’s production capacities are currently limited, as “Science” reports. 18 million doses could be produced by 2025. Since every child has to receive four doses, this is only enough for 4.5 million of the 40 million who are born in malaria areas every year. The fact that a second malaria vaccine was recommended this year is just right. The vaccine R21 was administered to 4,800 children in a phase 3 study and was just as effective as Mosquirix in the first 18 months. It is also encouraging that R21, developed by the University of Oxford, can be produced cheaper and in larger quantities than Mosquirix. The Serum Institute of India now wants to produce 100 million vaccine doses per year at a price of between two and four dollars.

The malaria vaccination, also ranked among the scientific successes of the year by “Science,” has the potential to save hundreds of thousands of lives. It is also pleasing that the focus here is on the medical benefits, while the potential profit margin remains rather small.

The circulation of the oceans

It hasn’t been officially confirmed yet, but 2023 is likely to be the warmest year globally since weather records began. Climate reporting was primarily characterized by temperature records on land and at sea. Climate research provided further interesting and no less worrying observations. In its list of scientific breakthroughs, “Science” highlights the finding that the circulation in the Southern Ocean has weakened significantly. This is part of a global flow system, also known as a global conveyor belt. “If the world’s oceans had a heart, it would be in the Southern Ocean,” writes Paul Voosen in “Science.” Off the coast of Antarctica, saline water is drawn into the ocean depths and with it heat, oxygen and carbon dioxide. The Antarctic circulation pump helps to permanently store carbon dioxide in the sea; if it weakens, the ocean could conversely absorb less carbon from the air than before, which would cause greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere to rise more quickly. Unfortunately, there is little historical measurement data for Antarctica. NOAA scientists fed the few that were delivered from ships into a climate model and concluded that circulation in the Southern Ocean had weakened by up to 20 percent. Australian researchers reported in the journal in May »Nature Climate Change«, that the circulation in the depths of Antarctica decreased by almost 30 percent between 1992 and 2017. The cause is probably the melting of the Antarctic ice sheets. Fresh water is supplied to the sea from above, making the upper layers less salty and therefore less dense. This makes it harder for surface water to sink to depth, weakening the entire global overturning circulation. By 2050, the deep overturning movement could slow by 40 percent, calculated a research team led by Matthew England from the Australian University of New South Wales. This would have consequences for the distribution of heat, fresh water, oxygen, carbon and nutrients in the oceans. And thus for all life in the sea. The deep circulation in the Southern Ocean therefore deserves much more attention in the future.

Weather forecasts with AI

When people talked about artificial intelligence (AI) in 2023, the Chat GPT program was usually not far away, a so-called large language model that can give seemingly intelligent answers to all sorts of questions, even if they are not always correct. But artificial intelligence is also used in completely different places than spitting out encyclopedic knowledge in understandable language. According to Science, AI has made significant progress in weather forecasting this year, up to ten days in advance. Large corporations such as Google and Huawei have trained the AI ​​models that now produce forecasts that are as accurate as those based on traditional weather calculation models. Even without AI, weather forecasts have long been calculated by computers, simulating the dynamics in the atmosphere. AI models learn from the patterns of the past and can – without “understanding” them – make predictions based on the experiences of the best numerical weather models. AI, once trained, can produce its prediction within a minute, while traditional numerical models still require hours and the capacity of supercomputers. However, artificial intelligence remains a black box because no one can say exactly which structures it learns. Nevertheless, it will find its way into everyday weather forecasting. However, if weather patterns change due to climate change, the AI ​​could sometimes be wrong.

The 2023 scientific year has produced many other highlights, such as the evidence of much earlier human immigration to America, which “nd” reported on. Or the reception of gravitational waves in space using pulsars, which could also be read about on these pages.