From beyond the sky the comet of the century arrived in 2024, and it did so ahead of time. If Tsuchinshan-ATLAS had approached Earth at the dawn of Christmas, it would have been difficult to deny it a disturbing random hit.
Tsuchinhan-ATLAS was three months ahead of schedule. Josep M. Trigo, principal investigator of the Meteorites, Minor Bodies and Planetary Sciences Group of the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC), gave all the coordinates to locate it and he dwelled on the importance of studying these capricious wandering bodies. At the end of September Tsuchinhan-ATLAS became visible from Earth, sporting a spectacular coma, a breath of gas and dust as bright as the brightest stars. The comet passed by, like the Americans of Welcome, Mr. Marshallbut it left us looking at the sky.
In August 2024 we met the unusual nature of the projectile that excavated the Chicxulub crater and wiped out the dinosaurs. Dinosaurs that, if we compress the history of the Earth in one year, They became extinct in the era of Christmas carols, the planet’s Christmas.
Comet Tsuchinshan-ATLAS photographed in October 2024.
The groin and Elon Musk
“The groin and God. The groin that dominates me has not yet been born.”.
The phrase belongs to the masterpiece of José Luis Cuerda It dawns that it is not little. It is difficult to love Elon Musk publicly, but in 2024 we have talked about Elon and rockets, Elon and Tesla, Elon and satellites, Elon and Mars (will Elon Musk take us to Mars?), Elon and X.
The groin and Elon Musk! Relationship, if any
In January 2024, Neuralink, the company with which Elon designs augmented humans, implanted (with legitimate authorization) its N1 chip in the brain of a man with no mobility in his limbs. The UCM neuroscientist Manuel Martín Loeches had in The Conversation what’s behind and the future of brain implants like the one created by Elon Musk. Who Wants To Live Forever (Who wants to live forever), sang Fredy Mercury. And who doesn’t?
Of silicon gods
Chip, the little god of all things. That’s what he calls it Luis Antonio Fonseca Chácharoresearcher at the Barcelona Institute of Microelectronics (IMB-CNM-CSIC).
Chips are the destiny of what Paula Alvaredo Olmos, professor of materials science and engineering at Carlos III University, describes like materials in war. In the crazy race for chips, minerals and rare earth whose extraction violates all human rights, and are the technological oxygen that we breathe here, in the locomotive world. Chip, the basis of the future: the quantum supremacy, quantum projectileshe quantum computer that the Three Wise Men have not yet brought (let’s give the wise men some time, they still weigh a lot).
We will adapt
To Elon Musk and whatever it takes, we will adapt. An insightful article published this year explains it well: Humans adapted to the last ice age in a similar way to wolves and bears. The findings call into question long-held theories about how and where our ancestors lived during this harsh glacial period. They did not migrate to warm lands, some stayed in the cold, even if they did not have shoes.
In the effort for survival, today we develop megamaterials that, as indicated by José Manuel Torralba, deputy director of IMDEA materialsthey will transform our lives far beyond what we think they can transform. For the very optimistic, they will even free us from the evil that is coming, which is shown by the climate models generated by large computer machines, with artificial intelligence leading knowledge.
The Cambrian explosion of artificial intelligence
Is there anyone out there who doesn’t use AI in science? Is anyone left? The use of artificial intelligence has experienced its particular Cambrian explosion in 2024, the geological period in which living forms emerged en masse from the Earth.
2024 has been the year of recognition of AI by the Swedish academy, with two Nobel Prizes (Physics and Chemistry) to AI pioneers and researchers.
But the debate of the year 2024 has heated up between those who assure that AI will never become intelligent in a human way and those who predict the dominance of machines.
Ramón López de Mántarasresearch professor at CSIC, is on the side of humans: “Generative AI needs a body that allows it to interact with the world in order to achieve common sense knowledge,” says Mántaras. But Francisco Herrera Triguero, professor of Computer Science and Artificial Intelligence at the University of Granada, warns that the body is on the way: “Language models are already being integrated with intelligent robotics, playing an important role”.
In fiction, the movie Wild Robot gave an animated body to an AI that learns as we do, and reached the limit, the event horizon of artificial intelligence: emotions. the movie raised the dilemma of motherhood for machines.
Also in the Cambrian of AI came Nexus, the new book by the historian who advises presidents, Yuval Noah Harari. Harari warns of control by tyrants of artificial intelligence. AI scares us as much as Elon Musk.
Is fear growing? Fabian Patricio Cuenca, from the University of the Basque Country, says that we are even afraid of bread.
“By Tutatis! “The sky is collapsing on our heads!”
The end of the universe as we have told it
In 2024 the universe has been destroyed on paper. For decades, we accepted that The best possible description of the dark energy that dominates the universe is a cosmological constant: This is what is known as the Hubble Voltage. But Adam Riess, physicist and Nobel Prize winner, explained in April 2024 that measurements made with observations from the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) reveal a decades-long blindness:
“Once measurement errors are eliminated, what remains is the real and exciting possibility that we have misinterpreted the universe.”
The tension on Hubble tension that explained this year Vincent J. Martinezprofessor of Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Valencia, has generated controversies over the legitimate age of the universe (which could have aged noticeably) and the nature of dark energy. An intense debate that has as its cosmic background whether the universe is just as we have been told.
The wonders of science
Wonders arrived in 2024. We learned that The Earth could have had rings like those of Saturn and a Spanish study revealed that, between September 29 and November 25 we had a minimoonan asteroid just ten meters in diameter that was trapped by the Earth’s gravitational embrace. “More will come,” says astrophysicist from the University of Córdoba David Galadí: “The Earth inhabits a very busy cosmic neighborhood. Among the more than thirty thousand bodies near the Earth (most of them tiny) there are some in exotic orbits subjected to capricious gravitational games.
This year we have also known why are there orange cats (up to 700 genes regulate pigmentation in animals) and we reveal The surprising reason why insects fly around light.
Evidence was also found connection between black holes and their galaxiesand physicists, including the great José Ignacio Crespo Anadón of CIEMAT, are advancing in their prodigious effort to detect undetectable particles. Detect the undetectable. Only physicists know how to eat that, and what it means for understanding what we are, what we and the entire universe are made of.
This year 2024 we have fought hoaxes, fought against misinformation, responded to corrosive creationist messages. A wonderful article by César Menor-Salván, professor at the University of Alcalá, tells how we got here from the origin of life. Because, and Despite everything, the evolution of species continues its path.
And how does time pass?
Spoiler: The United Nations has proclaimed 2025 as the International Year of Quantum Science and Technology (IYQ). Let’s get ready, because physicists move like fish in water in the ocean of uncertainty.
A must have item Alberto Casas Gonzálezresearch professor at IFT-UAM–CSIC, addressed one of the main topics of debate: Modern physics suggests that time does not advance, it is just an illusion.
Geologists see time differently. The light is a giddy thing compared to the slowness at which the mountains grow. Carlos M. Pina told this year what it is deep timethe longest in the world, the one that was necessary for humans, prodigious chips and Elon Musk to be here today.
Happy New Year’s Eve!
