The Year 2017 In Review, by Claus D. Volko

This is the second time I am writing an annual review. Indeed, it is necessary that such a thing is done at least once a year, facing the sheer amount of science and technology news. It is important to occasionally stop just collecting and reading news in order to reflect on what has happened in the past year and evaluate what is really important.

Contents:

• Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence
• Quantum Computing
• Other Non-Standard Approaches to Computing
• Regenerative Medicine
• Molecular Biology, Genetics and Gene Therapy
• Artificial Life and Synthetic Biology
• Neuroscience and Brain Research
• Psychiatry and Mental Health
• Immunity and Infectious Diseases
• Endocrinology and Hormones
• Oncology and Cancer
• Longevity and Aging
• Nutrition and Metabolism
• Nanotechnology
• Physics and Chemistry
• Miscellaneous
• Conclusions

Machine Learning and Artificial Intelligence

• Statements of Political and Economic Leaders

  This year, the media contained much more reports on machine learning and artificial intelligence than in the previous year, reflecting the public interest in this exciting branch of computer science. Many observers consider AI "the most important technology of our time", and even high-rank politicians such as Russian President Vladimir Putin ("What Putin Has To Say About AI?", "Putin says the nation that leads in AI 'will be the ruler of the world'") and the former US Presidential Candidate Hillary Clinton ("'Artificial intelligence is not our friend:' Hillary Clinton is worried about the future of technology"), entrepreneurs such as Elon Musk ("Elon Musk says artificial intelligence arms race most likely to cause World War III", "Podcast: Life 3.0 - Being Human in the Age of Artificial Intelligence", "If Humans Are to Survive, We Must Merge With Machines") and Bill Gates ("This Will Be the Biggest Technological Breakthrough of Our Lifetime") and also scientists such as Richard Dawkins ("A.I. Might Run the World Better Than Humans Do") expressed their views, expectations and concerns about it in public.

• AlphaGo Zero

  One of the latest milestones is AlphaGo Zero, developed by DeepMind, a subsidiary of Alphabet (the corporation which Google belongs to). While its predecessor AlphaGo made it to the press in 2015 for beating the human world champion in Go, AlphaGo Zero is a step ahead, as it "learns to learn entirely on its own" and "becomes Go champion without human input". Quote from the article "AlphaGo Zero: Learning from scratch": "Previous versions of AlphaGo initially trained on thousands of human amateur and professional games to learn how to play Go. AlphaGo Zero skips this step and learns to play simply by playing games against itself, starting from completely random play. In doing so, it quickly surpassed human level of play and defeated the previously published champion-defeating version of AlphaGo by 100 games to 0."

  As EdgyLabs reported, "New AlphaGo Zero 'Unsupervised' AI is 100X Better While Using 10% Computing Power". MIT Technology Review even stated: "AlphaGo Zero Shows Machines Can Become Superhuman Without Any Help", and Carlos E. Perez, the author of Artificial Intuition and the Deep Learning Playbook, wrote on Medium that "AlphaGo Zero is a Quantum Leap Forward in Deep Learning".

  In December a video documentary about AlphaGo was released in the Google Play Store.

• Applications: Healthcare

  Many articles have been published about possible benefits AI will bring to healthcare and other aspects of human life, such as the article "How artificial intelligence will save lives in the 21st century". More concretely, Insilico Medicine reported in July that the "first molecules discovered by next-generation artificial intelligence [are] to be developed into drugs" and that they are using artificial intelligence "to fight premature aging". That's exciting news, just like the promise of "beating cancer sooner with data and artificial intelligence".

  There is also an article that boldly states: "Artificial Intelligence is the Stethoscope of the 21st Century" and another one expressing the view: "Artificial Intelligence Will Redesign Healthcare". The statements "There Is No Precision Medicine Without Artificial Intelligence" and "The rise of artificial intelligence means doctors must redefine what they do" (the latter written by Bryan Vartabedian, an assistant professor of pediatrics) are also to be understood in this context.

  The website Medical Futurist also published an article about "Six Challenges To Tackle Before Artificial Intelligence Redesigns Healthcare". Also, MIT Technology Review published the article: "The Machines Are Getting Ready to Play Doctor", while techemergence wrote about "How America's 5 Top Hospitals are Using Machine Learning Today" as well as about "Machine Learning in Genomics - Current Efforts and Future Applications". Regarding genome research, there is also an article written by Francis Collins, the director of the National Institutes of Health, called "Creative Minds: Using Machine Learning to Understand Genome Function".

• Other Applications

  Artificial intelligence has also been successfully used in physics, as the article "The Neural Network: How artificial intelligence is fuelling 'Phasebook'" explains. Video game enthusiasts might be interested in the article: "Artificial intelligence uses less than two minutes of videogame footage to recreate game engine". Regarding applications in natural language processing, you might be interested in the articles "Artificial intelligence goes bilingual - without a dictionary" and "Natural Language Processing Projects & Startups to watch in 2017". Google is also trying to "reinvent chat with machine learning". In this context, Thomas Hornigold published the article "How Close Is Turing's Dream of Conversational Machines?" on the website Singularity Hub.

• Future Developments

  In order to "accelerate artificial intelligence", hardware manufacturers such as Intel are developing self-learning chips (Google is doing something similar) while researchers at the California NanoSystems Institute are trying to build computers that "match some of the brain's computational and energy efficiency with systems that mirror the brain's structure".

  Not totally unrelated to this, you might also be interested in Tara Karimi's talk about the "Next Generation of Biologically Inspired Artificial Intelligence" as well as the articles "Machines Are Getting Smarter - Now They Should Explain Themselves" and "What Intelligent Machines Need to Learn From the Neocortex".

  Riza C. Berkan also published an article about the question "Can Machine Learning Use Knowledge instead of Data?" in which he compares the methods of deep cloning and deep learning. Similar to this, Vincenzo Lomonaco wrote about continuous learning, which he deems "the key towards Machine Intelligence".

  One of the future challenges is to get conscious machines, about which Singularity Hub featured an article.

• Criticism

  But there are also some critical voices, such as the one of the former head of Uber's AI Labs, Gary Marcus, who "warns that the field isn't moving nearly as fast as many people think", or as the one of Ron Miller, who writes that "artificial intelligence is not as smart as you (or Elon Musk) think". Also, Oren Etzinio, the chief executive of the Allen Institue for Artificial Intelligence, pondered on the question whether society should regulate artificial intelligence and proposed "three rules for artificial intelligence systems". The articles by Shamli Prakash, "Man Vs. Machine: Understanding the Perils of Artificial Intelligence", and by Ariel Conn, "Artificial Intelligence: The Challenge to Keep It Safe", have a similar undertone.

  It is also worth mentioning that Geoffrey Hinton, one of the pioneers of artificial intelligence and deep learning, has stated that "his breakthrough method should be dispensed with, and a new path to AI found". Quote from the article: "Speaking with Axios on the sidelines of an AI conference in Toronto on Wednesday, Hinton, a professor emeritus at the University of Toronto and a Google researcher, said he is now 'deeply suspicious' of back-propagation, the workhorse method that underlies most of the advances we are seeing in the AI field today, including the capacity to sort through photos and talk to Siri. 'My view is throw it all away and start again,' he said. [...] 'I don't think it's how the brain works,' he said. 'We clearly don't need all the labeled data.'" He also explained this view in a video talk. His own new approach to solving this problem is called "capsule network", and The New York Times featured an article about it: "A New Way for Machines to See, Taking Shape in Toronto". Medium also published a series about how Hinton's Capsule Networks work (part 1, part 2, part 3; a fourth part is still to come).

• Links to Companies and Other Resources

  An overview of companies investing in artificial intelligence is given by the articles "Artificial Intelligence Leaders You Must Know", "Where Major Corporations Like Salesforce And NVIDIA Are Investing In Artificial Intelligence" and "The Race For AI: Google, Baidu, Intel, Apple In A Rush To Grab Artificial Intelligence Startups". Regarding applications to neurosurgery, there is a systematic review that can be accessed for free. Concerning radiology, you might be interested in the article "The Future of Radiology and Artificial Intelligence".

  Tons of links regarding artificial intelligence and machine learning are provided in the article "The Non-Technical Guide to Machine Learning & Artificial Intelligence". A list of courses for beginners can be found in the articles "How To Become A Machine Learning Engineer: Learning Path", "Over 150 of the Best Machine Learning, NLP, and Python Tutorials I've Found" and "My Curated List of AI and Machine Learning Resources from Around the Web".

  It is also worth mentioning that the Nature Publishing Group is going to launch a journal on Machine Intelligence in January 2019, called "Nature Machine Intelligence".

Quantum Computing

• Introductory Articles and Tutorials

  While machine learning is already having an impact on the real world, a future technology that will have an even greater impact and "has the potential to change the world" if it works out is quantum computing, as it is "exponentially faster than digital computers". If you are new to this matter, you might also want to check out EdgyLabs' article "11 Facts That Help Explain the Quantum Computer" as well as the article "Quantum Computing explained" on Hackernoon and Gizmodo's "What the Hell Is a Quantum Computer and How Excited Should I Be".

• Headlines

  One of the most exciting headlines from the past year regarding quantum computing has been: "An Entirely New Type of Quantum Computing Has Been Invented". Quote from the article: "Broadly speaking, there are currently a number of ways to make a quantum computer. Some take up less space, but tend to be incredibly complex. [...] Some tried and true ways to capture a qubit are to use standard atom-taming technology such as ion traps and optical tweezers that can hold onto particles long enough for their quantum states to be analysed. Others use circuits made of superconducting materials to detect quantum superpositions within the insanely slippery electrical currents. [...] Thanks to coding information in both the nucleus and electron of an atom, the new silicon qubit, which is being called a 'flip-flop qubit', can be controlled by electric signals, instead of magnetic ones. That means it can maintain quantum entanglement across a larger distance than ever before, making it cheaper and easier to build into a scalable computer."

  Another article reported that "Scientists Achieve Direct Counterfactual Quantum Communication For The First Time". A further breakthrough was that scientists have used a newly found phase of matter (topological insulator) "in shrinking an electrical component called a circulator 1,000 times smaller", which is "super good news when it comes to squeezing more qubits into a small enough space" ("Physicists Just Invented an Essential Component Needed For Quantum Computers").

• Programming and Working with Quantum Computers yourself

  For those who would like to experiment with quantum computers, "D-Wave Systems and IBM are offering free access to their superconducting quantum computers in the cloud, along with access to their continually evolving programming tools". It is also interesting that Microsoft has developed a new programming language for quantum computers. As Singularity Hub writes, quantum computing might even "demand a whole new kind of programmer".

• Applications

  Haig Ferris, the co-founder of D-Wave (which, according to PC World, is the only company that is currently selling a quantum computer), suggests that in combination with machine learning, quantum computing will revolutionize cancer research. Quote from the article: "'Whether it's brain research or cancer research, understanding and being able to model and learn from various ways you might design a drug to address a particular cancer this is going to be probably the most important application that you and I will benefit and notice,' said Farris. When queried about how soon we would begin to see the impact of the company's work, the D-Wave co-founder said we are already living in the quantum computing era. 'It's happening now,' he said. 'We've been working with some startup companies on some machine learning applications for drug design. There's probably things within the next three or four years that will have had an impact in drug design that nobody will be talking about but it will have, in fact, happened. Ten years from now you will probably be being treated with some quantum computing designed drug.'" The media also reported about a "record-breaking molecule simulation using a quantum processor, opening new promising paths to chemistry and materials science" conducted by IBM.

• Threats

  As some people are pretty excited about Bitcoin and the Blockchain technology, one should not forget to mention that quantum computing might be an "existential threat" to Blockchain technology. There is also an article on that issue at MIT Technology Review.

• Links to Companies

  To get an overview of companies that are into quantum computing, you might be interested in checking out EdgyLabs' article "11 Companies set for a Quantum Leap in Computing".

Other Non-Standard Approaches to Computing

In an article at phys.org, the authors write that "scientists have built tiny logic machines out of single atoms that operate completely differently than conventional logic devices do". Quote from the article: "Instead of relying on the binary switching paradigm like that used by transistors in today's computers, the new nanoscale logic machines physically simulate the problems and take advantage of the inherent randomness that governs the behavior of physical systems at the nanoscale - randomness that is usually considered a drawback."

According to another article, scientists can now store data in DNA with 100% accuracy. As a reporter writes on ZDNet, DNA can now store 215 petabytes of data per gram - Science writes in this context: "DNA could store all of the world's data in one room". Also, the media report that "Sudoku Hints at New Encoding Strategy for DNA Data Storage".

It may also be possible to physically create a computer that "grows as it computes", a so-called nondeterministic universal Turing machine, using DNA molecules.

Regenerative Medicine

This is a huge field of modern medicine that attempts to regenerate organs either by injecting molecules into the body that make it regrow organs on its own or by creating new artificial organs and transplanting them. It also encompasses stem cells and tissue engineering.

According to the collected news items, progress in this field has been made in 2017 regarding heart, lung, kidney, bone, skin, female genitale tract and even the brain. It is difficult to sort these news items by priority since everybody will have a different opinion on that, depending on what diseases he or she has been confronted with. Therefore I will not even make an attempt to sort these news items by priority and only put them into the following categories: stem cells, cell generation, tissue engineering, artificial organs, 3D printing, organ transplantation.

• Stem Cells

  • Engineering human stem cells to model the kidney's filtration barrier on a chip
  • Inside the Lab Building a Stem Cell Gun to Heal Skin
  • Stem cell discovery refreshes the heart
  • Stanford Medicine opens center for stem cell, gene therapy
  • New type of stem cell line produced offers expanded potential for research and treatments
  • Conversion of adult endothelium to immunocompetent haematopoietic stem cells
  • Scientists reverse diabetes in a mouse model using modified blood stem cells
  • Paraplegic rats walk and regain feeling after stem cell treatment
  • Major Lupus Stem Cell Study Receives Funding
  • Regeneration of the entire human epidermis using transgenic stem cells
  • The future is here: Genetically engineered stem cells save a patient
  • Novel harvesting method rapidly produces superior stem cells for transplantation

• Cell Regeneration

  • New discovery could reverse tissue damage caused by heart attacks
  • Scientists have found a new mechanism for the liver cell regeneration
  • New regulator for liver regeneration
  • Heart Self-Repair May be Prompted with Regulatory RNAs
  • The Immune System Is Critical to Tissue Regeneration
  • This Radical New Method Regenerates Failing Lungs With Blood Vessels Intact
  • Scientists have found a drug that can repair cavities and regrow teeth
  • Scientists Have Uncovered a Way to Regenerate Human Bone and Tissue
  • Scientists have learned to grow brain tissue to 100x (just add water)
  • A Demonstration of Rejuvenation in Old Human Cells

• Tissue Engineering

  • Simplified Production of Human Brain and Muscle Cells
  • New Hydrogel That Mimics Cartilage Could Make Knee Repairs Easier
  • Magnetic cellular 'Legos' for the regenerative medicine of the future
  • Lab-grown bone cell breakthrough heralds new benefits for orthopaedics
  • Are we ready to transplant new brain cells?
  • Human skin cells transformed directly into motor neurons
  • Granulocyte-derived TNFa promotes vascular and hematopoietic regeneration in the bone marrow
  • Scientists Replace 80 Percent Of Boy's Skin With Epidermis Grown In Lab, Saving His Life

• Artificial Organs

  • Lab-grown mini-organs help model disease, test new drugs
  • Testing a soft artificial heart
  • Artificial 'skin' gives robotic hand a sense of touch
  • The UK is Pioneering a Heart Transplant Program That Could Cut Waiting Lists in Half
  • Organs on Chips
  • World's First Artificial Kidney Is All Set To Replace Dialysis in 2-3 Years
  • Human Mini-Brains Growing Inside Rat Bodies Are Starting to Integrate
  • Donor organs created by dissolving and rebuilding pig livers
  • Lab-Grown Skin Saves Dying Boy with Rare Disease
  • Printable Organs Will Put an End to Transplant Lists
  • Tiny Human Brains Inside Rats Are Sparking Ethical Concern
  • Donor organs created by dissolving and rebuilding pig livers
  • Scientists have created a silicon beating heart

• 3D Printing

  • 3-D printed ovaries produce healthy offspring
  • 3-D-Printed Artificial Heart Beats Like the Real Thing But Isn't Much Use Yet
  • 3-D Organoids And RNA Sequencing Reveal The Crosstalk Driving Lung Cell Formation
  • Harvard's Hybrid 3D Printing Method Creates Electronic Second Skin
  • 3D printing gives Brisbane man a new shinbone and lease on life
  • New 3D Printers Can Print Materials as Strong as Steel
  • Oxford 3D bioprinting scaling to industrial scale tissue printing and organ printing
  • Here's how 3D printing could change the future of medicine

• Organ Transplantation

  • Superhemophobic surface could make implants safe in blood
  • Revised understanding of graft-versus-host disease origins offers new direction for potential therapy
  • Groundbreaking technology successfully rewarms large-scale tissues preserved at low temperatures

Molecular Biology, Genetics and Gene Therapy

This field, which some consider a bit controversial (see the articles "Eugenics 2.0: We're at the Dawn of Choosing Embryos by Health, Height, and More" and "Do We Have the Right to Edit the Genes of an Entire Species?"), is making tremendous progress thanks to the CRISPR gene editing technology. In 2017, the first human embryos were modified in the US using this technology. There are speculations that CRISPR might cure cancer, muscular dystrophy, diabetes, and even HIV.

• Genetics

  • New 'Gene Silencer' Drug Reduces Cholesterol by Over 50 Percent
  • Isolated Greek villages reveal genetic secrets that protect against heart disease
  • New gene mutations found in white blood cells in patients with rheumatoid arthritis
  • Thousands of genes influence most diseases, researchers report
  • Fathers pass on four times as many new genetic mutations as mothers - study
  • 23andMe is getting serious about drug development - and it could signal a fresh approach to finding new medicines
  • Exciting advancements for the future of DNA sequencing
  • Experiences in Childhood Can Alter Your DNA For The Rest of Your Life
  • Newly identified method of gene regulation challenges accepted science
  • Big data yields surprising connections between diseases
  • Controversial Study Predicts What People Look Like From Their DNA
  • These mutations could be key to understanding how some harmful conditions develop
  • Biophysics study makes exciting advancements for the future of DNA sequencing
  • Pacific Islanders Appear to Be Carrying The DNA of an Unknown Human Species
  • Geneticists pan paper that claims to predict a person's face from their DNA
  • Chromosome motor discovery supports DNA loop extrusion
  • Team finds that telomere length can have a direct correlation to heart failure in humans
  • Massive Genetic Study Shows How Humans are Evolving
  • How superstar geneticist Craig Venter stays ahead in science
  • Largest ever genetic study marks likely osteoporosis treatment target
  • Diabetes and heart disease linked by genes, study reveals
  • Sequencing all 24 human chromosomes uncovers rare disorders
  • Scientists develop new theory of molecular evolution
  • Saving hearts after heart attacks: Overexpression of a gene enhances repair of dead muscle
  • Genetic Struggles Within Cells May Create New Species
  • CDK9-dependent RNA polymerase II pausing controls transcription initiation
  • On the Relation between Chemical Oscillations and Self-Replication
  • The Evolution of Sex through the Baldwin Effect
  • Genetics Researchers Just Disproved a Long-Held Racist Assumption
  • Inter-species population dynamics enhance microbial horizontal gene transfer and spread of antibiotic resistance
  • The formation of the light-sensing compartment of cone photoreceptors coincides with a transcriptional switch
  • 5 Rare Diseases That Turn Their Carriers Into X-Men
  • Could Genetic Testing Companies Violate Your Privacy?

• Molecular Biology

  • Saving hearts after a heart attack: Overexpression of a cell-cycle activator gene enhances repair of dead heart muscle
  • Medicine Nobel awarded for work on circadian clocks
  • Cells divide by contracting a disordered Action filament network
  • To trim away a protein
  • Simultaneous enumeration of cancer and immune cell types from bulk tumor gene expression data
  • An Extremely Sensitive Protein And Virus Detection Platform

• Epigenetics

  • Epigenetics
  • Epigenetics - An Introduction
  • Epigenetics and the influence of our genes
  • An epigenetics gold rush: new controls for gene expression
  • Scientists reveal how epigenetic changes in DNA are interpreted

• Embryology and Developmental Biology

  • Scientists Discover Children's Cells Living in Mothers' Brains
  • The Evidence Is Building That Our Teeth Evolved From Fish Skin
  • Embryos kill off male tissue to become female
  • A fascinating new science experiment proves that we can grow babies outside of their mother's womb
  • Dynamics of embryonic stem cell differentiation inferred from single-cell transcriptomics show a series of transitions through discrete cell states
  • A protein phosphatase network controls the temporal and spatial dynamics of differentiation commitment in human epidermis

• Genetic Engineering, Gene Editing and CRISPR

  • What Is Gene Editing?
  • US science advisers outline path to genetically modified babies
  • Scientists use stem cells to create human/pig chimera embryos
  • Gene editing of human embryos yields early results
  • Genetic details of controversial 'three-parent baby' revealed
  • First Ever Gene Editing Treatment Conducted Inside a Human Patient
  • First Human Embryos Edited in U.S.
  • First Human Embryos Edited in the US, Scientists Say
  • After Human Embryo Edit, 'Designer Baby' Threat Greater Than Ever
  • Genome editing reveals role of gene important for human embryo development
  • Scientists Create First Human-Pig Chimeric Embryos
  • Do We Have the Right to Edit the Genes of an Entire Species?
  • The First Human-Pig Hybrid Has Been Successfully Created
  • Doctors are attempting the first case of gene editing inside the body of a living human
  • Eugenics 2.0: We're at the Dawn of Choosing Embryos by Health, Height, and More
  • Curing Cancer with CRISPR
  • Die 5 wichtigsten Fragen zu CRISPR/Cas9
  • First results of CRISPR gene editing of normal embryos released
  • CRISPR Could Treat Muscular Dystrophy
  • CRISPR mines bacterial genome for hidden pharmaceutical treasure
  • Boom in human gene editing as 20 CRISPR trials gear up
  • CRISPR gene editing can cause hundreds of unintended mutations
  • Ist die Gentechnikwunderwaffe doch fehleranfällig?
  • New CRISPR Technique Targets and Destroys Cancer's Command Center
  • CRISPR Eliminates HIV in Live Animals
  • Gentherapie mit Teilerfolg gegen HIV
  • CRISPR: gene editing is just the beginning
  • Most Accurate CRISPR Gene Editing Yet
  • Unexpected effects on scientific publishing after CRISPR-Cas9 editing in vivo
  • Crispr Fans Dream of a Populist Future for Gene Editing
  • A "Fourth-Generation" DNA Base Editor Could Replace CRISPR
  • Scientists Doubt Results of CRISPR'd Embryos
  • Researchers engineer CRISPR to edit single RNA letters in human cells
  • RNA editing with CRISPR-Cas13
  • CRISPR 2.0 Is Here, and It's Way More Precise
  • Gold nanoparticle used to replace virus in new CRISPR approach
  • The big names at this startup have big plans to speed drug discovery - with 'CRISPRomics'
  • Watch CRISPR Edit DNA in Real Time
  • CRISPR Editing Creates TCR Swap-Shop for Cancer Immunotherapy
  • CRISPR-carrying nanoparticles edit the genome
  • Biohackers are using CRISPR on their DNA and we can't stop it
  • Mail-Order CRISPR Kits Allow Absolutely Anyone to Hack DNA
  • A new study suggests CRISPR gene editing therapies should be customized for each patient
  • In Vivo Target Gene Activation via CRISPR/Cas9-Mediated Trans-epigenetic Modulation
  • Scientists modify CRISPR to epigenetically treat diabetes, kidney disease, muscular dystrophy
  • A Modified CRISPR Could Treat Common Diseases Without Editing DNA
  • CRISPR's not the only gene-editing game in town. Remember TALENs and zinc fingers?
  • Are home DNA kits really accurate? Jeff Rossen investigates
  • This scientist has edited his own DNA, and the results are mindblowing

• More on Gene Therapy

  • Engineers Made Fake DNA To Fix Genetic Disorders
  • Game-Changing Gene Therapy Nullifies Patient's Sickle Cell Disease
  • Repairing Mitochondrial DNA for Cancer and Age-related Diseases
  • Researchers target gene to treat inflammatory bowel disease
  • A new wave of gene therapies ready to hit US shores
  • Researchers uncover new instruction manual to repair broken DNA
  • Key factor identified in gene silencing
  • Gene Therapy and Drug Combination Reverses MS in Mice
  • Unique gene therapy prevents, reverses multiple sclerosis in animal model
  • Gene Therapy for the Bacteria of Our Microbiome Could Improve Our Health
  • Genetically Modified Immune Cells Have Killed a Patient, Halting Two Cutting-Edge Trials
  • Has the Era of Gene Therapy Finally Arrived?
  • FDA Approves Groundbreaking Gene Therapy for Cancer
  • US regulators approve 2nd gene therapy for blood cancer
  • Gene Therapy to Cure Blindness Gets Approval from FDA Advisers
  • Baby gene therapy study offers hope for fatal muscle disease
  • Gene Therapy Could Help People Overcome Meth Addiction
  • Cell and gene therapies offer promise, but face market access challenges
  • FDA Breaks New Ground With First Approved Gene Therapy for Cancer
  • Hacking Your Genes Has Never Been Easier
  • Base Editing Now Able to Convert Adenine-Thymine to Guanine-Cytosine
  • First Human Gene Therapy hits the US
  • Doubling Down on Gene Therapy for Heart Failure
  • Can We Rejuvenate Our Bodies with HGH Boosting Gene Therapy?
  • Easy-Bake Oven for Biology, DNA Playground - Official Release: Genetic Engineering is Now Child's Play
  • Spark gene therapy nearly eliminates bleeding episodes in hemophilia B patients

Artificial Life and Synthetic Biology

This field, which is related to both biotechnology and computing, is still an emerging field. The subfield of Artificial Life has been existing for 30 years now and it has focused on simulating complete organisms or ecosystems in silico, i.e. on the computer. There is still a lot of space for development. Synthetic Biology was founded by J. Craig Venter and his team in 2010 when they synthesized the first man-made bacterium with modified DNA.

There have been a couple of highly interesting publications in this field, covered by news items such as "New organisms have been formed using the first ever 6-letter genetic code", "New Artificial Chromosomes Set Stage for First Complex Synthetic Genome" and "Quantum Artificial Life in an IBM Quantum Computer". Here is a complete list of the news items mentioned in 21st Century Headlines in the course of 2017 regarding to Artificial Life and Synthetic Biology.

• Computational Biology in the 21st Century
• Creating Artificial Life
• Audiocast: Synthetic Biology: Our Salvation or Annihilation?
• New organisms have been formed using the first ever 6-letter genetic code
• New Artificial Chromosomes Set Stage for First Complex Synthetic Genome
• Scientists Just Took a Giant Leap Forward in the Quest to Create Artificial Life
• Quantum Artificial Life in an IBM Quantum Computer
• Artificial Life in Quantum Technologies
• Is quantum artificial life possible?
• Zellattrappe betreibt Fotosynthese
• Scientists Are Inching Closer to Bringing Synthetic Human DNA to Life
• New computational model of chemical building blocks may help explain the origins of life
• Artificial Human Embryos are Almost a Reality and we Need to Prepare
• A synthetic biology approach to probing nucleosome symmetry
• Revolutionary process could signal new era for gene synthesis
• The Audacity of Synthetic Biologists
• Mapping and elucidating the function of modified bases in DNA
• Scientists Hacked a Cell's DNA and Made a Biocomputer Out of It
• This Chip Uses Electricity to Reprogram Cells for Healing
• New Semi-Synthetic Organism Can Make Molecules We've Never Seen Before
• Assembling Life's Molecular Motor
• Semi-Synthetic Life Form Now Fully Armed and Operational
• Virtual Embryo Predicts Real Gene Expression Patterns, Cell by Cell
• Biohacking: Bundesamt warnt vor Do-It-Yourself-Kits

Neuroscience and Brain Research

This is a broad and massively diverse field, ranging from basic sciences to the treatment of neurological disorders such as Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, and ADHD. There have been many publications in the past year and it is difficult to determine which have been the most important ones; but probably the reports about technology to upload the contents of a brain to a computer or to download from the computer to the brain are among the most exciting ones (such as this one). Here is a list sorted into several subcategories.

• General Brain Research

  • Neuroscientists Have Accidentally Discovered a Whole New Role for the Cerebellum
  • Study finds some significant differences in brains of men and women
  • New research on how the brain makes preference-based decisions
  • Uncovering why playing a musical instrument can protect brain health
  • Cliques of Neurons Bound into Cavities Provide a Missing Link between Structure and Function
  • Sleep: It's not all in the brain
  • Researchers Make Surprising Discovery About How Neurons Talk to Each Other
  • Scientists discover genetic timetable of brain's aging process
  • Teens' ability to consider the intentions of others linked to structural changes in the brain
  • Eye Changes May Signal Frontotemporal Lobe Degeneration
  • Neuroscience of Mindfulness: What Happens to Your Brain When You Meditate
  • Brain Bugs
  • Lengthy scans yield detailed maps of individual brains
  • A path to the brain's secrets
  • Forever young(er): Meditation might slow the age-related loss of gray matter in the brain
  • Are There Optical Communication Channels in Our Brains?
  • Glia Drive Brain Development
  • Neurobiological changes explain how mindfulness meditation improves health
  • Could a videogame strengthen your aging brain?
  • 'Seeing' robot learns tricky technique for studying brain cells in mammals
  • The Scary Things That Happen to Your Brain When You're Stressed-And How to Calm Down
  • Decoding the Tripping Brain
  • Searching for the brain cells that control our breathing
  • Love your beauty rest? You can thank these brain cells
  • Brain Regeneration: Why It's Real and How To Do It
  • Biologists Identify New Source for Brain's Development
  • New research shows the brain can be tricked into feeling pain relief
  • Women have more active brains than men, according to science
  • Here's How Sleeping Too Little Literally Transforms Your Brain
  • Migraines May Be Brain's Way of Dealing With Oxidative Stress
  • Brain function does not die immediately after the heart stops finds study
  • New Imaging Approach Reveals Lymph System in Brain
  • Where's the Proof That Mindfulness Meditation Works?
  • Living near a forest keeps your amygdala healthier
  • Navigational view of the brain thanks to powerful X-rays
  • Inside the Moonshot Effort to Finally Figure Out the Brain
  • TFH-derived dopamine accelerates productive synapses in germinal centres
  • 3D Atomic Structure of Ion Channel Implicated in Rare Neurodegenerative Disease
  • International collaboration is the best way to understand the complexities of the brain
  • Acupuncture Works by 'Re-Wiring' the Brain, Evidence Suggests
  • NIH researchers uncover drain pipes in our brains
  • Confirmation of Quantum Resonance in Brain Microtubules
  • Amazingly flexible: Learning to read in your 30s profoundly transforms the brain
  • Astrocytes control brain connections
  • A Neuroscientist Reveals The Most Important Choice You Can Make in Life
  • Brain's response to mid-life surge in cell aging starts or ends a path to dementia
  • Classical and Jazz musicians show different brain responses to unexpected events, study finds
  • Synopsis: Brain Tissue Amplifies Waves
  • Brain Architecture: Scientists discover 11 dimensional structures that could help us understand how the brain works
  • The Neuroscience of Changing Your Mind
  • Neuroscience Could Bring Us Eternal Bliss, But Is That a Good Thing?

• Neuroengineering, Brain-Brain and Brain-Computer Interfaces

  • It May Soon Become Possible to Download Dead People's Personalities into Robots
  • Meet the encephalophone: An instrument you can play with your mind, just by thinking
  • Facebook will sich direkt mit dem Gehirn verbinden
  • Predicting the optimal brain computer interface of the future
  • The Hypothesis of Connecting Two Spinal Cords as a Way of Sharing Information between Two Brains and Nervous Systems
  • Sicherheit von Passwörtern gefährdet durch Hirnwellen-Auswertung
  • Neuroscientists rewire brain of one species to have connectivity of another
  • DARPA backs 6 brain-computer interface projects
  • What would happen if we upload our brains to computers?
  • DARPA Picks Dream Teams to Develop Wireless Brain Interface
  • Cross-Disciplinary Medical Advances with Neuroengineering
  • Researchers Have Linked a Human Brain to the Internet for the First Time Ever
  • Researchers Demonstrate 'Mind Reading' Brain Decoding Technology
  • DARPA Is Planning to Hack the Human Brain to Let Us "Upload" Skills
  • Newton Howard (MIT Synthetic Intelligence Lab) - The Future of Brain Implants
  • Researchers Have Linked a Human Brain to the Internet for the First Time Ever
  • For The First Time Ever Scientists Have Boosted Human Memory With a Brain Implant
  • Scientists Connect A Human Brain To The Internet For The First Time
  • A Wearable Chip to Predict Seizures

• Neuroimmunology and Multiple Sclerosis

  • Link discovered between immune system, brain structure and memory
  • Freaky New Evidence Suggests Your Immune System Could Be Controlling Your Behaviour
  • Cognitive decline after surgery tied to brain's own immune cells
  • Brain's immune cells linked to Alzheimer's, Parkinson's, schizophrenia
  • Further evidence statins could help control multiple sclerosis
  • Vitamin D levels in blood may help predict risk of multiple sclerosis
  • Gut Microbes Could Actually Be Triggering Relapses of Multiple Sclerosis
  • Fördern Darmbakterien multiple Sklerose?
  • Allergy Drug Improves Function in Patients with Chronic Injury from Multiple Sclerosis
  • Neutrophils are a Key Player in Nerve Regeneration
  • After 40-year odyssey, first drug for aggressive MS wins FDA approval
  • Activation of immune T cells leads to behavioral changes
  • Novel immune cells control neurons responsible for fat breakdown
  • Scientists are seeking new strategies to fight multiple sclerosis

• Neuropharmacology

  • Homing system delivers drugs to specific neurons
  • Scientists discover common obesity and diabetes drug reduces rise in brain pressure
  • How binge drinking alters brain activity
  • Agent clears toxic proteins and improves cognition in neurodegeneration models
  • Non-psychotropic cannabinoids show promise for pain relief
  • IV Drip Drug Used During An MRI Leaves Behind Toxic Metal Residue In Brains Of Patients
  • Ketamine May Help Treat Pain in Migraine Suffers Unresponsive to Other Treatments
  • New Therapy Halts Rare Brain Disease Depicted in 'Lorenzo's Oil'
  • Scientists Discover Neuronal Effects of Psychedelic Drugs Using Human Minibrains
  • 2-Minute Neuroscience: Benzodiazepines
  • Promising New Drug for Migraine Passes Third Clinical Trials
  • New Drugs Could Prevent Migraine Headaches For Some People
  • These Groundbreaking Migraine Prevention Drugs Just Smashed Clinical Trials
  • Using Cocaine Only One Time Can Alter Your Brain Structure Forever, According to Researchers

• Sensory Organs, Vision and Perception

  • Double filters allow for tetrachromatic vision in humans
  • Ringing in Ears Keeps Brain More at Attention and Less at Rest
  • Neurons That Recognize Tone Identified
  • Human brain recalls visual features in reverse order than it detects them
  • Biomedical engineer finds how brain encodes sounds
  • Scents and social preference: Neuroscientists identify the roots of attraction
  • High-speed locomotion neurons found in the brainstem

• Alzheimer and Dementia

  • Human enzyme may be key to unraveling Alzheimer's disease
  • Extra-virgin olive oil preserves memory and protects brain against Alzheimer's: study
  • Lasers Might Beat Alzheimer's Disease
  • Researchers Identify Virus and Two Types of Bacteria as Major Causes of Alzheimer's
  • Mind-Altering Cat Parasite Just Got Linked to a Whole Lot of Neurological Disorders
  • Study Investigates Vaccine and Oral Medication to Stop Alzheimer's Years Before it Begins
  • This Is The Closest Look We've Ever Had at The Proteins Linked to Alzheimer's Disease
  • Which genetic marker is the ring leader in the onset of Alzheimer's disease?
  • Scientists Use Artificial Intelligence To Spot Alzheimer's Before Onset of Symptoms
  • Microglia turnover with aging and in an Alzheimer's model via long-term in vivo single-cell imaging
  • RNA Transcripts in Blood Could Help Detect Alzheimer's Disease Earlier
  • Altered Tetanus Vaccine May Protect Against Allergies and Alzheimer's
  • Do Microbes Trigger Alzheimer's Disease?
  • How a green tea compound could prevent Alzheimer's
  • New Mechanism Detected in Alzheimer's Disease
  • Menopause Triggers Metabolic Changes in Brain That May Promote Alzheimer's
  • Researchers Develop New Tech to Predict Alzheimer's Disease Earlier Than Ever
  • Researchers Discover Key to Alzheimer's Disease in Our Brains
  • New Details on Aged Brain, Alzheimer's and Dementia
  • Bill Gates: why I'm spending $50 million of my own money to fight Alzheimer's
  • Saving neurons may offer new approach for treating Alzheimer's disease
  • Higher brain glucose levels may mean more severe Alzheimer's
  • Is Alzheimer's disease a disorder of energy metabolism?

• Parkinson and ALS

  • Cell Therapy 2.0: Reprogramming the Brain's Own Cells for Parkinson's Treatment
  • Voyager Therapeutics adds proof its gene therapy for Parkinson's can work, shares soar
  • Body's own defense against ALS actually drives disease progression at later stages
  • Treating with antioxidants early in Parkinson's disease process may halt degeneration and improve neuronal function
  • Parkinson's Risk Halved by Asthma Drug
  • Reprogrammed cells relieve Parkinson's symptoms in trials
  • Asthma drug may thwart Parkinson's disease
  • Monkeys With Parkinson's Disease Successfully Treated With Human Stem Cell Transplants
  • A new discovery means gene-targeting drugs could slow down the progression of Parkinson's
  • Professional Jobs Linked With ALS and Parkinson Disease Deaths
  • An Epilepsy Drug Could Illuminate Our Understanding of ALS
  • Longtime Antidepressant Nortriptyline Could Inhibit Parkinson's

• Epilepsy, Dyslexia, ADHD and Autism

  • New Autism Study A "Shocking Wake-Up Call" For Society
  • Dyslexia: scientists claim cause of condition may lie in the eyes
  • Symmetrical Eyes Indicate Dyslexia
  • Lack of CLOCK Protein Appears Key in Severe Epilepsy Forms
  • Brain Imaging Reveals ADHD as a Collection of Different Disorders
  • Cells spun from baby teeth implicate astrocytes in autism
  • Could this be the first prescription video game? New data show it helps kids with ADHD
  • Epilepsy: Building Personalised Models of the Brain

• Memory and Learning

  • Scientists Have Figured Out How Our Brains Sharpen Our Memories While We Sleep
  • Gen für traumatische Erinnerungen entdeckt
  • Neuroscientists identify brain circuit necessary for memory formation
  • Select memories can be erased, leaving others intact
  • Is the World's Memory Span Increasing or Decreasing?
  • A Key to Long Term Memory Discovered
  • New Math Model Shows How Neural Networks Create Memories
  • A New Learning Rule for Memory Formation and Storage Revealed
  • Strong bones may be vital for maintaining memory in old age
  • Rhythm of Breathing Affects Memory and Fear
  • Researchers Uncover Brain's Filing System for Storing Experiences
  • Physicists Make the Case That Our Brains' Learning Is Controlled by Entropy

• Cognition, Personality and Consciousness

  • "Hyper Brains"? High Intelligence and Health
  • Brain shape linked to personality differences
  • The discovery of a giant neuron could help explain how the brain creates consciousness
  • 'Smart genes' account for 20% of intelligence: study
  • Magnetic stimulation of the brain improved awareness of subject's own cognitive abilities
  • Neurofeedback Could Increase Cognitive Performance by Reconnecting the Brain
  • Study Shows Midlife Physical Activity Not Linked to Later Life Cognitive Fitness
  • Nerve implant 'restores consciousness' to man in vegetative state
  • Magnetic Stimulation Improves Awareness of Cognitive Abilities
  • Brain waves reflect different types of learning
  • DARPA's New Brain Device Increases Learning Speed by 40%
  • World's Smartest Physicist Thinks Science Can't Crack Consciousness
  • A new theory of consciousness: the mind exists as a field connected to the brain
  • What Is Synesthesia?
  • How It Feels to Think: Experiencing Intellectual Invention
  • Hyper Brain, Hyper Body: The Trouble With High IQ
  • Scientists Just Used Brain Stimulation to Literally Change How People Think
  • Psychologists: Consciousness is an illusion, like a rainbow
  • Research Finds It Might Not Be Consciousness That Drives The Human Mind
  • Do you daydream too much? It could signal creativity and intelligence
  • Harvard scientists think they might have pinpointed the source of human consciousness
  • Bad News for the Highly Intelligent
  • Being forgetful is actually a sign you are unusually intelligent, according to scientific research
  • Smart people have better connected brains

Psychiatry and Mental Health

This is a field in which I have worked myself, and I am especially delighted at the publication "The role of stress-regulation genes in moderating the association of stress and daily-life psychotic experiences" and the article "Depression May Be a Physical Illness Linked to Inflammation"; which confirm some of the hypotheses my own research group adhered to. In addition, there have been several other publications speculating on the cause of psychiatric disorders. One of them suggested that some psychiatric disorders might be a pH problem. Also, the debate whether schizophrenia is really a disease entity has continued.

• Mental Health in General

  • Long-lasting mental health isn't normal
  • Mental Illness Is Far More Common Than We Knew
  • Are Some Psychiatric Disorders a pH Problem?
  • Mathematical Tools Improve Theory and Prediction in Psychiatry
  • Alternative to Deep Brain Stimulation Could Revolutionize Mental Health
  • Rethinking serotonin could lead to a shift in psychiatric care
  • Geneticists are starting to unravel evolution's role in mental illness
  • On the Myth of the Chemical Imbalance
  • It's time for physicists to talk about mental health
  • Psychologist Warns That Christmas Songs Played On A Loop Can Be Bad For Your Mental Health
  • Science says holiday music is bad for your mental health
  • The Science Is In. Spanking Children Does Serious, Long-Term Damage

• Schizophrenia

  • "Schizophrenia" Does Not Exist, According to This Psychiatric Expert
  • Do Schizophrenia and Autism Share the Same Root?
  • A Trip inside the Schizophrenic Mind
  • New Cause of Schizophrenia Uncovered
  • The concept of schizophrenia is coming to an end - here's why
  • Is the association between offspring intelligence and parents' educational attainment influenced by schizophrenia or mood disorder in parents?
  • Schizophrenia and creativity: A meta-analytic review
  • The role of stress-regulation genes in moderating the association of stress and daily-life psychotic experiences
  • Human iPSC Glial Mouse Chimeras Reveal Glial Contributions to Schizophrenia
  • Research Identifies Brain Chemical Abnormalities in Earliest Stage of Psychosis
  • Prenatal 'Mini-brain' Scans May Solve Schizophrenia origins

• Mood Disorders and Depression

  • Hirnsignal verrät die richtige Therapie bei Depression
  • Bipolar disorder: New method predicts who will respond to lithium therapy
  • Neuropsychology study finds negative stimuli captures the attention of depressed people
  • Inflammatory illness: Why the next wave of antidepressants may target the immune system
  • Researchers: Depression May Be a Physical Illness Linked to Inflammation
  • Yogic breathing helps fight major depression, study shows
  • Google's New Quiz Helps Determine If You Should Seek Help For Depression
  • 'Magic Mushrooms' Might Ease Depression Symptoms
  • Magic Mushrooms Treat Depression

• Obsessive-Compulsive Disorder

  • OCD-like behavior is caused by dysfunction of thalamo-amygdala circuits and upregulated TrkB/ERK-MAPK signaling as a result of SPRED2 deficiency
  • Brain Inflammation Discovered in Those With OCD
  • Four brain genes help explain obsessive compulsive disorder

• Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder

  • New PTSD study identifies potential path to treatment
  • All clear for the decisive trial of ecstasy in PTSD patients
  • Still No Proof that Pot Can Help PTSD and Pain, Say Scientists

• Chronic Fatigue Syndrome

  • Brain chemistry study shows chronic fatigue syndrome, Gulf War illness as unique disorders
  • Blood cells in chronic fatigue syndrome are drained of energy

Immunity and Infectious Diseases

There have been several interesting publications in this field, such as "Immune and Nerve Cells Work Together to Fight Gut Infections" and "Rejuvenating the Thymus to Prevent Age-related Diseases". Here is the full list.

• Immune System and Inflammation

  • We Were Wrong - the Testes Are Connected to the Immune System
  • Immune System Maintains Brain Health
  • Active ingredients in both hot peppers and cannabis calm the gut's immune system
  • New types of blood cells discovered
  • Bioelectricity new weapon to fight dangerous infection
  • Researchers uncover key role for microRNA in inflammatory bowel disease
  • Can Zapping the Vagus Nerve Jump-Start Immunity?
  • Immunotherapy Triggers Release of Mitochondrial DNA and Trips Alarm
  • Antibodies prove better at reprogramming skin cells into stem cells
  • The turbulent healing powers of plasma
  • Immune and Nerve Cells Work Together to Fight Gut Infections
  • Chimeric Antigen Receptor (CAR) T Cell Therapy for Malignant Pleural Mesothelioma (MPM)
  • FDA Approves Second CAR T-Cell Therapy
  • Scientists Now Know HIV's Complete Structure, Clearing Path To Cure
  • Senescent T Cells Generate the Same Damaging Secretions as Other Senescent Cells
  • A Potential Path to Treating Inflammation-related Aging and Cancer
  • Dr. Greg Fahy - Rejuvenating the Thymus to Prevent Age-related Diseases
  • Can We Restore Thymus Function to Cheat Death?
  • TH2 cell development and function

• Autoimmunity

  • New discovery may 'impact treatment of autoimmune diseases'
  • IBM to investigate role of microbiome in autoimmune disorders
  • Drug companies flock to supercharged T-cells in fight against autoimmune disease
  • Probing what fuels "Runaway Train" of Autoimmune Diseases
  • We May Have Finally Discovered The Trigger That Starts Autoimmune Diseases
  • Massage Therapy for Lupus & Fibromyalgia

• Bacteriology

  • New molecule knocks out superbugs' immunity to antibiotics
  • A superbug resistant to every available antibiotic has killed a woman in the US
  • Die neue Welt der Superbakterien
  • No more 'superbugs'? Maple syrup extract enhances antibiotic action
  • Floating in microgravity gives bacteria permanent genetic boost
  • Antibiotic breakthrough: Team discovers how to overcome gram-negative bacterial defenses
  • New method of microbial energy production discovered
  • Modified viruses deliver death to antibiotic-resistant bacteria
  • Cholesterol-lowering drugs may fight infectious disease
  • Riesenbakterium verblüfft Mikrobiologen
  • Bacteria Use Brainlike Bursts of Electricity to Communicate
  • The Immune System Explained I - Bacteria Infection
  • IBM, Scientists Seek Public's Help With Millions Of Virtual Experiments Mapping The Human Microbiome
  • Stealthy Bacteria and Fungi Lurk in Medical Marijuana
  • Connection Between Microbiome and Autoimmune Disorders
  • Bacteria in Your Mouth Could Fuel Gut Diseases
  • Add penis bacteria to the list of HIV risk factors
  • Pneumonia vaccine under development provides 'most comprehensive coverage' to date, alleviates antimicrobial concerns
  • Evidence found of oral bacteria contributing to bowel disorders
  • Bacteria Found in Women's Upper Reproductive Tracts
  • Opinion: Microbiology Needs More Math
  • Environmental triggers in IBD: a review of progress and evidence
  • How Bacteria Rule Over Your Body - The Microbiome
  • Living Bacteria "From Outer Space" Have Been Found on The Outside of The ISS
  • Poo Pills Really Are Becoming Our Answer to Dangerous Superbug Infections
  • The Once-Deadly Scarlet Fever Is Making a Weird Comeback Around The World
  • Rare strain of gonorrhea identified in Canada, compounding fears of drug resistance
  • Researchers discovered a way to make bacteria more vulnerable

• Virology

  • Hidden HIV reservoirs exposed by telltale protein
  • Geheimes HIV-Versteck enttarnt
  • Giant viruses found in Austrian sewage fuel debate over potential fourth domain of life
  • Riesen unter den Riesenviren entdeckt
  • Molecules with potential against HIV produced by scientsts
  • Turns Out Urine Generates Electricity, Destroys Salmonella
  • Chemists forge a new path in the search for antibiotics
  • Could calcium hold the key to fighting a dangerous hospital infection?
  • 'Mind-blowing' cows hold clue to beating HIV
  • New antibody attacks 99% of HIV strains
  • The 10 Most Innovative HIV Treatments to Defeat AIDS
  • MIT Exposes how Flu Virus Mutates-Just in Time for Flu Season
  • Scientists solve a dengue mystery: Why second infection is worse than first
  • Woman Sues Sephora - Can You Get Herpes from Lipstick?
  • Is 'Man Flu' Real? Men Suffer More When Sick, Study Suggests
  • Actinobacteria Found in Atacama May Help Create Treatment for HIV

• Parasitology and Mycology

  • Parasite Linked with Alzheimer's and Parkinson's Diseases, Epilepsy, and Cancer
  • When a fungus invades the lungs, immune cells can tell it to self-destruct
  • A New Vaccine Could Eradicate Flesh-Eating Parasites
  • Fatty molecule in human blood controls malaria parasites' decision to leap to mosquitoes
  • Researchers Reveal New Vaccine to Target Malaria

• Wound Healing

  • This 3D Printer Could Revolutionize Burn Treatment
  • Scientists Have Developed Surgical Glue That Seals Wounds in 60 Seconds

Endocrinology and Hormones

Some of the more interesting publications in this field are about gut bacteria, which are supposed to talk to the brain through cortisol and be able to trigger a gene that protects against type 1 diabetes. Regarding my own group's focus on the connection between steroidal hormones and the immune system, there has been a related publication about the possibility of estrogen stopping infection induced brain inflammation.

• Mutation of growth hormone receptor gene in men found to lengthen lifespan
• Gut Bugs Linked to Brain Development Disorders via Cortisol
• Hormonal Birth Control Pill May Prevent Rheumatoid Arthritis In Some Women
• We May Have Just Found The Hormone That Lets Gut Bacteria Talk to The Brain
• Gut microbes may talk to the brain through cortisol
• FDA approves first blood sugar monitor without finger pricks
• Researchers uncover the source of diabetic nerve pain
• Novel way to present pancreatic proteins increases the sensitivity of type 1 diabetes tests
• Genotrophic effect of neurotrophins – Restart of β-cell regeneration in diabetes mellitus
• When is stress good for you?
• Testing Testosterone Is A Waste Of Time
• Gut bacteria found to trigger gene that protects against type 1 diabetes
• New treatment on the horizon for type 1 diabetes sufferers
• Substance in coffee delays onset of diabetes in laboratory mice
• Warum Stress juckt
• Mystery solved: How thyroid hormone prods red blod cell production
• GLP-1 and the kidney: from physiology to pharmacology and outcomes in diabetes
• Removing Senescent Cells Partially Reverses Osteoporosis in Mice
• How Estrogen May Stop Infection Induced Brain Inflammation
• Testosterone May Protect Against Allergic Asthma In Men: Male Sex Hormone Holds Key To Asthma Treatments
• Raspberry Pi Glucometer
• Diabetes Technology Moves Closer To Making Life Easier For Patients
• Study shows stress could be just as unhealthy as junk food
• Artificial pancreas automatically manages diabetics' glucose levels
• Do Animals Have Menopause?
• First steps toward male infertility treatment
• Cardiovascular Disease Linked to Social Stress Factors

Oncology and Cancer

There have been numerous publications about cancer treatment, biomarkers and possible agents causing cancer, but nothing really revolutionary.

• DNA Replication Errors Contribute to Cancer Risk
• Most cancer mutations arise from 'bad luck,' but many cases still preventable, researchers say
• Microbiota: a key orchestrator of cancer therapy
• CRISPR/Cas9 Reveals Cancer's Synthetic Lethal Vulnerabilities
• The high price of anticancer drugs: origins, implications, barriers, solutions
• Scientists turn food poisoning microbe into powerful cancer fighter
• This Amazing Herb Kills Cancer Cells In 48 Hours And Is Much Better Than Chemotherapy
• Vitamin C Kills Cancer Stem Cells
• Dietary anti-cancer compound may work by influence on cellular genetics
• Early Clinical Trial Shows 'Cancer Vaccines' Can Protect Humans From Tumours
• Scientists Have Found a New Way to Get Cancer Cells to Self-Destruct
• Scientists may have found a way to stop cancer from metastasizing
• Blocking cancer - scientists find new way to combat disease
• New Drugs Targeting Cancer 'Biomarkers' Could Revolutionize Care
• Combining vitamin C with antibiotics destroys cancer stem cells
• Scientists move closer to detecting cancer long before any symptoms appear
• Engineered cell therapy for cancer gets thumbs up from FDA advisers
• A Brilliant New Cancer Treatment That Re-Engineers Human Cells Just Got Approved
• Pioneering cancer drug, just approved, to cost $475,000 - and analysts say it's a bargain
• Tausendfach wirksamere Viren gegen Krebs
• Opinion: More Biomarkers Needed for Cancer Immunotherapy
• Vitamin B supplements linked to lung cancer – here's why you probably don't need to worry
• Clear link between heavy vitamin B intake and lung cancer
• Vitamin C Depletion Accelerates Leukemia in Mice
• How HIV Became a Cancer Cure
• Scientists develop blood test that spots tumor-derived DNA in people with early-stage cancers
• Vitamin C helps genes to kill off cells that would cause cancer
• Research and Development Spending to Bring a Single Cancer Drug to Market and Revenues After Approval
• Swedish Scientists Launch Online Pathology Atlas of All Known Cancer Genes
• Cancer is an environmental disease
• Cancer Drugs Cost Way Less to Develop Than What We've Been Led to Think, Study Claims
• A Man Got Cyanide Poisoning From Taking Apricot Kernel Extract to Prevent Cancer
• How to blow cancer cells up from the inside
• These Proteins That Regulate Cellular Stress Response Are the New “Hot Target” for Oncology
• The cure for cancer
• Cannabis oil 'saved' cancer survivor after she was told tumour would kill her
• An in-silico approach to predict and exploit synthetic lethality in cancer metabolism
• Two New Groundbreaking Cancer Treatments
• 6 Common Misconceptions About Cancer
• Why We Haven't Cured Cancer
• Cancer is 'natural.' The best treatments for it aren't
• This One-Cent Lab-on-a-Chip Can Diagnose Cancer and Infections
• Study finds vegan blood is 8 times more effective at killing cancer cells
• Zika Virus Kills Brain Cancer Stem Cells
• New device accurately identifies cancer in seconds
• U of A Physicists Develop New Tool That Could Improve Cancer Research
• Methadon: Wirkung gegen Krebs nicht belegt
• New Low-Cost Cancer Treatment Could Kill Tumors With Ethanol
• How a simple ethanol injection could revolutionize some cancer treatments
• Nigerian Inventor Creates Computer That Can Smell Explosives And Cancer Cells
• Scientists Have Found a Completely New Way to Attack And Kill Cancer Cells
• App detects pancreatic cancer from the whites of your eyes
• Why Don't The Amish Get Cancer?
• How Creating a Gene Circuit Could Help to Combat Cancer
• FDA Approves A Game-changing Treatment for Blood Cancer
• FDA approves a game-changing treatment for blood cancer
• In Japan, Chickens Have Been Genetically Engineered to Lay Eggs That Fight Cancer
• Drug yields high response rates for lung cancer patients with harsh mutation
• Getting on cancer's nerves: A surprising way to thwart tumours
• A cancer treatment that's part of 'a big new field of medicine' just got approved
• A Cutting-Edge Immunotherapy Treatment Was Just Approved For Another Deadly Cancer
• Compound Found in Red Wine Boosts Immune Cell Function
• Asiatische "Heilpflanze" verursacht Krebs
• A Nine-Year Collaboration Has Just Shown How Sugar Influences Cancer Cell Growth
• Novel Treatment Causes Cancer to Self-Destruct Without Affecting Healthy Cells
• Biologists identify possible new strategy for halting brain tumors
• Obesity-related cancers rising, threatening gains in U.S. cancer rates
• Cancer: 40 percent of all cases related to obesity, overweight
• MYC regulation of glutamine–proline regulatory axis is key in luminal B breast cancer
• Chemo Brain Starts During Cancer's Progression, Not Just After Treatment
• New Cancer Vaccine Moves On To Human Trials
• Ketones and lactate increase cancer cell “stemness”, driving recurrence, metastasis and poor clinical outcome in breast cancer
• How a poorly explored immune cell may impact cancer immunity and immunotherapy
• Synthetic T Cells Seek and Destroy Cancer
• Engineering non-immune cells to kill cancer cells
• Rotavirus infection
• The bacteria in your gut could help determine if a cancer therapy will work
• Agios unveils new leukemia drug data to support end-of-year FDA approval filing
• Hyperglycemia Impairs Neutrophil Mobilization Leading to Enhanced Metastatic Seeding

Longevity and Aging

Most of the articles that have been published in this field are more of speculative nature, but some have brought concrete results, such as "Fatty worms live longer, according to Stanford study" and "Eat fat, live longer? Mouse study shows a high fat diet increases longevity, strength".

• Longevity

  • Who wants to live forever? Transhumanism's promise of eternal life
  • Google's chief futurist Ray Kurzweil thinks we could start living forever by 2029
  • Fatty worms live longer, according to Stanford study
  • A Japanese doctor who studied longevity - and lived to 105 - reveals the key to living a long life
  • Forget 'live fast, die young' – do the opposite instead
  • Will Increased Lifespans Lead to a Lack of Resources?
  • Neuronal inhibition of the autophagy nucleation complex extends life span in post-reproductive C. elegans
  • Eat fat, live longer? Mouse study shows a high fat diet increases longevity, strength
  • Biologists slow aging, extend lifespan of fruit flies
  • The Future of Human Longevity
  • Protein Turnover Could Be Clue To Living Longer
  • Will increased lifespans be boring?
  • Our calculator will guess how many healthy years of life you have left
  • Three Awesome Videos About Life Extension
  • Genome-wide meta-analysis associates HLA-DQA1/DRB1 and LPA and lifestyle factors with human longevity
  • The Geroscientist Aims To Add Years To Our Lives and Life To Our Years
  • What is Radical Life Extension? Is it possible to live forever?
  • Why a Longer Life Does Not Mean Longer Decrepitude
  • Can These New Advancements in Cryonics Revive Our Bodies After Freezing?
  • Why Longer Lives Thanks to Science Will Probably Not Create Cultural Stagnation
  • Why do some People Fear Using Science to Live Longer Healthy Lives?
  • More physical activity, higher intensity may significantly reduce risk of death in older women in the short term
  • The Age Wave Is Transforming Longevity - and It's Just the Beginning
  • Eternal Life Is Mathematically Impossible, Says New Aging Theory
  • The Death is inevitable, why bother with rejuvenation? Argument

• Aging

  • Developing medicines for aging I: Challenges
  • More evidence shows natural plant compound may reduce mental effects of aging
  • Time to pop an anti-ageing pill
  • Researchers report link between cells associated with aging and bone loss
  • Link between biological clock and aging revealed: Study shows low-calorie diet may help keep body young
  • Circadian Reprogramming in the Liver Identifies Metabolic Pathways of Aging
  • We Can Finally Read The 'Clock' That Tells How Long Human Cells Have Left to Live
  • Is It Time You Stopped Thinking About Living Longer?
  • The Scientist Who Discovered a Master Gene to Control Aging
  • Why We Age - And How We Can Stop It
  • Boosting a mitochondria-targeting protein could postpone aging
  • New Senolytics Reverse Aging “Can Transform Medicine” Says Leading Researcher
  • MouseAge: What are Biomarkers of Aging?
  • The first drugs designed to fight aging are ready for human testing
  • Ketogenic Diet Reduces Midlife Mortality and Improves Memory in Aging Mice
  • Identification of HSP90 inhibitors as a novel class of senolytics
  • If aging was curable, do you think should be allowed?
  • Researchers review the clinical potential of senolytic drugs on aging
  • Aging Hearts Find a New Lease of Life
  • Correlating Cytomegalovirus, T Cell Senescence, and Arterial Stiffness in Aging
  • Bone Derived Hormone Reverses Age Related Memory Loss: Mouse Study
  • Changes in the Nucleolus are a Possible Aging Biomarker
  • Intercellular competition and the inevitability of multicellular aging
  • To Stay Young, Kill Zombie Cells
  • Why Age? Should We End Aging Forever?
  • Why Rejuvenation Biotechnology Could Benefit You
  • Hallmarks of Aging: Epigenetic Alterations
  • A Healthy Aged Gut Is Similar to a Healthy Young Gut
  • The Hallmarks of Aging: Telomere Attrition
  • Is Aging a Gut Instinct?
  • The Good Sides of Aging?
  • Can Aging be Slowed by Shutting Off the Inflammatory Signaling of Senescent Cells?
  • Young Again: How One Cell Turns Back Time
  • Mushrooms are full of antioxidants that may have antiaging potential
  • Scientists Have Found the First Ever Anti-Aging Genetic Mutation
  • In pursuit of healthy aging
  • Aging tests yield varying results
  • A null mutation in SERPINE1 protects against biological aging in humans
  • Breaking the System – Rejuvenation and Social Change
  • Considering the Evidence for Vascular Amyloidosis as a Cause of Aging
  • Ending Aging in Portuguese
  • Fitness Hacks to Combat the Effects of Aging
  • Aging has distinct and opposite effects on tendon in males and females
  • Neurobiology: A genetic cause of age-related decline
  • Live Forever Young: Researchers Rejuvenate Old Human Senescent Cells
  • Could Blood Plasma Be The Fountain Of Youth?
  • Why Bringing Aging Under Medical Control Probably Will Not Create a Gerontocracy
  • Kurzgesagt – It's Time to Talk about Bringing Aging Under Medical Control
  • Why Eradicating Age-related Diseases is Unlikely to Create Immortal Dictators
  • Strength exercise as vital as aerobic, new research finds
  • A chemical in red wine and chocolate makes 'old cells look like young cells', according to a new study
  • More Scientists Are Pushing to Have Aging Classified as a Disease
  • This Anti-Aging Protein Could Be Targeted to Rejuvenate Our Immune Cells
  • SENS: Progress in the Fight Against Age-related Diseases
  • George Church Will Make Virus-Resistant Organisms, Transplant Pig Organs to Humans, and Reverse Aging
  • Why This Aging Expert Thinks First 1,000-Year-Old Person is Already Alive

Nutrition and Metabolism

2017 has brought us a couple of highly interesting inventions, such as edible water orbs that can help replace plastic bottles and a graphene-based sieve that turns seawater into drinking water.

• Scientists have created edible water orbs that can help replace plastic bottles
• Gerät gewinnt Wasser aus Luft
• Raising 'good' cholesterol doesn't protect against heart disease after all, study finds
• Graphene May Be the Key to Drinkable Ocean Water
• Insilico Medicine announces launch of intelligently-formulated nutraceuticals in Europe
• Researchers discover a new cause of high plasma triglycerides
• Scientists Have Invented a Graphene-Based Sieve That Turns Seawater Into Drinking Water
• Tea consumption leads to epigenetic changes in women
• Scientists just found another worrying link between sugar and depression
• Low-fat diet could kill you, major study shows
• The Genetics of Eating Disorders
• Heart hormones protect against obesity and insulin resistance
• Getting fat to 'talk' again could lower blood glucose and weight
• Newly deciphered vitamin D regulatory pathway opens doors to clinical research
• Reversing Muscle Atrophy With Food: Eating Apples, Green Tomatoes May Increase Muscle Strength
• We Finally Know Why Artificial Sweeteners Can Make You Put on Weight
• Richard Branson: In the Near Future, We'll Think It's “Archaic” to Kill Animals for Food
• Intermittent Fasting Promotes White Adipose Browning and Decreases Obesity by Shaping the Gut Microbiota
• Fatty acid-binding protein in children related to obesity
• Childhood Maltreatment May Change Brain's Response to Threat
• Too Much Fat Is Still Bad For Your Health
• 23-Year-Old VC Bets on Lengthening Health Span
• Ketogenic Diet Improves Lifespan and Memory in Aging Mice
• Caloric restriction for anti-aging
• Nutrition has benefits for brain network organization, new research finds
• Scientists Think Cockroach Milk Could Be The Superfood of The Future
• These Mice Stopped Eating Carbs So You (Maybe) Don't Have To
• Mysterious protein-folding molecule could trigger metabolic disorders
• Artificial enzyme functions as well as natural version
• This Biotech Clothing Automatically Ventilates When You Start to Sweat
• Breakthrough in understanding mitochondria
• Higher coffee consumption associated with lower risk of death
• This “Super Food” could end world hunger once and for all
• E-cigarettes may trigger unique and potentially damaging immune responses
• When Your Body Needs Nourishment, Your Brain Eats First
• The case against sugar
• Cutting Carbs Won't Save You From Cancer
• Current pharmacotherapy for obesity
• Hunger-blocking injection lets fat monkeys quickly lose weight
• Dutch courage - Alcohol improves foreign language skills
• Eating better throughout adult years improves physical fitness in old age, suggests study
• An 11-year-old has become 'America's Top Young Scientist' for her sensor detecting lead in water
• Lower Brain Glucose Levels in Brains of People With Obesity and Type 2 Diabetes
• Drinking more coffee may undo liver damage from booze
• Intermittent Fasting Boosts Fat Burning and Improves Metabolic Function
• Gut fungi might be linked to obesity and inflammatory bowel disorders
• Common acid reflux medications promote chronic liver disease
• Wiener Forscher erfassten alle "gezuckerten" menschlichen Proteine
• Dyslipidaemia in nephrotic syndrome: mechanisms and treatment
• Glucose transporters in the 21st Century
• Cinnamon turns up the heat on fat cells
• Scientists Invent Oxygen Particle That If Injected, Allows You To Live Without Breathing
• Which Is Worse For Your Health, Weed or Alcohol? Science Weighs In
• Metabolic Profiling of healthy and cancerous tissues in 2D and 3D
• In a Major Warning, Top US Cancer Doctors Are Asking People to Drink Less Alcohol
• Frequent alcohol drinking kills new brain cells in adults, females are more vulnerable
• Genetically Modified Apple That Doesn't Brown Hits US Stores This Month
• Breathing Pure Oxygen Could Repair Brain Damage Years After a Concussion
• Long-range hypoxia signaling in NAFLD
• Scientists think they've discovered a fourth type of fuel for humans - beyond carbs, fat, and protein
• Drug 'melts away' fat inside arteries
• Virtual cocktails hijack your senses to turn water into wine
• Nutrition can modify age-related inflammation according to expert report
• This Infographic Shows What Eating Too Much Sugar Does to Your Body And Brain
• The FDA Warns That Black Licorice Can Cause Heart Problems in Adults
• This Extreme Diet Reversed Type 2 Diabetes in Up to 86% of Patients
• Health Effects of Sucrose Withheld by Sugar Industry 50 Years Ago

Nanotechnology

This field has also brought some exciting news, such as "Nanochip could heal injuries or regrow organs with one touch" and "Nanoparticle-drug combo turns white fat to brown fat with potential to treat obesity, diabetes".

• Medicine of the future: New microchip technology could be used to track 'smart pills'
• Test strips for cancer detection get upgraded with nanoparticle bling
• Antennas Made 100 Times Smaller to Hook Up Tiny Wearables and Implants
• Nanoparticles For Medicine: Breakthrough Screening Method Makes Selection Viable And Easy
• Nanoparticles that chat back and forth could dispense medication
• Nanochip could heal injuries or regrow organs with one touch, say researchers
• Nanoparticle-drug combo turns white fat to brown fat with potential to treat obesity, diabetes
• Nanoparticle Delivery of Curcumin Induces Tumor Cell Death
• Self-assembling nanoparticle arrays can switch between a mirror and a window
• Rice University nanomachines constructed to deliver drugs, destroy diseased cells
• Ultralight Silver Nanowire Aerogel to Revolutionize Electronics
• New nanomaterial can extract hydrogen fuel from seawater

Physics and Chemistry

2017 has brought us a couple of exciting news in physics and chemistry, such as "Researchers create self-sustaining bacteria-fueled power cell" and "Gold chains give DNA semiconducting powers". There have also been inventions such as a spray that can turn any surface into a touch screen, a 2D magnet and a bionic lens that could push eyesight beyond 20/20 vision. Moreover, various websites reported that physicists confirmed evidence of a possible fifth fundamental force, that they discovered an "angel particle" that is its own antiparticle and that they demonstrated that 'impossible' tetraquarks can exist after all. Certainly some of these reports are to be taken with caution, but still, they are highly interesting and exciting.

• Astrophysics, Quantum Theory and Cosmology

  • New paper claims string theory can be tested with Bose-Einstein-Condensates
  • Physicists provide support for retrocausal quantum theory, in which the future influences the past
  • Life Is Inevitable Consequence Of Physics, According To New Research
  • The Multiverse Can Only Kill Physics by Becoming Physics
  • The Possibilist Transactional Interpetation of Quantum Mechanics
  • Is time travel possible, according to science?
  • We Now Have an Equation That Explains How The Hell Quantum Chaos Behaves
  • This Material Could Reveal the Link Between Classical Physics and the Quantum Realm
  • One of Our Fundamental Assumptions About Black Holes Was Just Overturned in The Lab
  • Gravitational Lensing Provides Rare Glimpse into Interiors of Black Holes
  • Ancient Parasitic Black Holes Could Be Responsible For Making The Universe's Heaviest Atoms
  • An Old Experiment May Be the Key to Uncovering The “Theory of Everything”
  • A New Quantum Theory Predicts That the Future Could Be Influencing the Past
  • Newfound Wormhole Allows Information to Escape Black Holes
  • Why Does Our Universe Have 3 Dimensions?
  • Universe Shouldn't Exist, CERN Physicists Conclude
  • Quantum Machine Goes in Search of the Higgs Boson
  • Stephen Hawking stellt Doktorarbeit online
  • New quantum entanglement record but still no Schrödinger's cat
  • Scientist sees evidence of planet formation in narrow rings of other solar systems
  • Space may not be as immaterial as we thought
  • The Nobel Doesn't Mean Gravitational Wave Astronomy Is Over; It's Just Getting Good
  • Inflation Isn't Just Science, It's The Origin Of Our Universe
  • The 5 biggest discoveries from the hunt for gravitational waves
  • Astrophysicists Discover Gravitational Waves From a Kilonova
  • We Simply Won't Go To Mars Without Digital Health
  • The era of multimessenger astronomy begins
  • Entanglement of photons in their dual wave-particle nature
  • Neutron star collision showers the universe with a wealth of discoveries
  • Astronomers Capture the First 'Image' of the Dark Matter That Holds the Universe Together
  • Planet Nine Does Exist, NASA Evidence Suggests
  • Are Space, Time, And Gravity All Just Illusions?
  • Einstein was Right: Nobel Prize Goes to LIGO Gravitational Waves Discovery
  • Meet the college dropout who invented the gravitational wave detector
  • Nobelpreis für Physik geht an Gravitationswellenforscher
  • Physicists Confirm That We're Not Living In a Computer Simulation
  • MIT physicist Rainer Weiss shares Nobel Prize in physics
  • Nobel Prize Awarded for Sensational Gravitational Waves Discovery
  • LHC Measurements Hint at Entirely New Physics Just Outside Our Reach
  • What is Time, According to Physics?
  • "There is no Universe"
  • A bizarre supernova keeps exploding over and over again
  • Scientists detect comets outside our solar system

• Power, Electricity and Electronics

  • Researchers create self-sustaining bacteria-fueled power cell
  • Laser breakthrough could make computers 100,000 times faster
  • Electrons Have Been Caught Disappearing and Reappearing Between Atomic Layers
  • Recipe for safer batteries - just add diamonds
  • Scientists Solve a Magnesium Mystery in Rechargeable Battery Performance
  • Gold chains give DNA semiconducting powers
  • A New Electric Car Battery Lasts for 200 Miles and Charges in Just 6 Minutes
  • New Photonic Synapses Mimic the Brain and Compute With Light
  • Scientists can now produce electricity from tears
  • A new way to store thermal energy
  • Physicists Just Found a Loophole in Graphene That Could Unlock Clean, Limitless Energy
  • Coffee-Based Biofuel Now Being Used to Power London Buses

• Inventions

  • This Spray Can Turn Any Surface Into A Touch Screen
  • Physicists Make a 2-D Magnet
  • Scientists Have Converted Carbon Dioxide Into Clean Air
  • Light Has Been Stored as Sound For The First Time
  • How supermarkets use particle physics to save thousands of tonnes of food waste
  • Two new ways to turn 'garbage' carbon dioxide into fuel
  • The Bionic Lens Could Push Eyesight Beyond 20/20 Vision
  • Europe's X-ray laser fires up
  • Breakthrough: Liquid Fuels at Room Temp by Converting CO2, Methane Directly
  • A miniature laser-like device for surface plasmons
  • Researchers develop earthquake-resistant concrete
  • Shot-Noise Limit has Been Broken, a New Record in Quantum Physics
  • New way to write magnetic info could pave the way for hardware neural networks
  • Scientists suggested a new technology for creating magnet micro-structures
  • Synthetic Circuits Powered by Photosynthesis and Quantum Coherence
  • Study Identifies how 3-D Printed Metals can be both Strong and Ductile
  • Digitally Printed Cyanobacteria Used to Create Bio-Solar Panel
  • Scientists making sustainable petrol using beer
  • China Has Launched World's First Electric Zero-Emissions Cargo Ship

• Chemistry and Physics in General

  • Physicists prove that it's impossible to cool an object to absolute zero
  • Physicists Just Confirmed Evidence of A Possible Fifth Fundamental Force
  • Der superflüssige Festkörper
  • Scientists discover "angel particle" that is its own antiparticle
  • The strange topology that is reshaping physics
  • Seltene Metalle - Fast alle lassen sich durch Kohlenstoff ersetzen
  • The 18 Biggest Unsolved Mysteries in Physics
  • In step toward 'controlling chemistry,' physicists create a new type of molecule, atom by atom
  • How to Solve the Biggest Mystery in Physics
  • Twice the Charm: A New Creature Joins the Particle Zoo
  • 5 years after the Higgs boson, the Large Hadron Collider is just getting started
  • This New Proof of Majorana Fermions Is Going to Be Massive For Quantum Devices
  • Physicists Just Caught Sight of Electrons Entangled in a Completely New State
  • In a Surprise Discovery, Engineers Have Turned a Laser Beam Into a Liquid Stream
  • Five Brilliant Ideas For New Physics That Need To Die, Already
  • Seeing Emergent Physics Behind Evolution
  • Scientists Behind Cryo-electron Microscopy Gets Nobel Prize in Chemistry
  • Nobel 2017: Chemistry prize goes to the coolest way to capture image of life's molecular machinery
  • Biophysiker Joachim Frank: "Die Leute sagten, ich sei verrückt"
  • Physicists Just Invented an Essential Component Needed For Quantum Computers
  • Dark-matter hunt fails to find the elusive particles
  • Physicists Have Demonstrated That 'Impossible' Tetraquarks Can Exist After All
  • How Popper killed Particle Physics
  • 8 More Physics Questions Science Hasn't Answered

Miscellaneous

Finally, there have been a couple of highly interesting general articles, some of them summarizing past events, some of them speculating about the future. I will list all of them here without further comments. Just read them.

• How the World Has Changed From 1917 To 2017
• Automation replaced 800,000 workers... then created 3.5 million new jobs
• Collective Intelligence Is the Root of Human Progress
• Answering all your questions about the mind boggling Singularity
• The World Is (Still) Better Than You Think
• The Great Enrichment Was Built on Ideas, Not Capital
• The Earth's population is going to reach 9.8 billion by 2050
• Stephen Hawking Warns: Humanity May Have Less Than 600 Years to Leave Earth
• Can Metamodernism, based in the exchange and continual revision of ideas, offer an alternative to the cultural problems of postmodernism and relativism?
• The 100 greatest innovations of 2017

Conclusions

In 2017, Artificial Intelligence has been the main buzzword. We have witnessed the success of AlphaGo Zero and can only wonder what is to come next year. Will Geoffrey Hinton's "Capsule Networks" cause the next paradigm shift? Is Ray Kurzweil right in that we will some day experience the "Singularity", when machine intelligence will surpass human intelligence?

Also, there has been considerable progress in Quantum Computing, threatening to render the Blockchain technology obsolete, which is currently quite popular considering the enormous increase of the value of a Bitcoin in the past few months.

In Biomedical Sciences, Gene Editing via CRISPR, Artificial Chromosomes and Brain-Computer Interfaces seem to be the hottest technologies where most progress is being made right now.

I am delighted that recent publications in Psychiatry, Endocrinology and Immunology have confirmed or at least supported some of the hypotheses that have been proposed by my own research group with Uwe Rohr.

Edible water orbs and graphene-based sieves have been some of the outstanding inventions of the past year, as well as bacteria-fueled power cells, a 2D magnet and other things I mentioned in the section about Physics and Chemistry.

All in all, it has been a decent year. See you again in 2018!