Cloud Hosting

A famous story about the Beatles tells of the collaboration between Paul McCartney and John Lennon on the song Getting Better for their legendary Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album. After McCartney wrote the lines I've got to admit, it's getting better; a little better all the time, Lennon wryly added, It can't get no worse. This story could serve as an epigraph as the calendar turns from the year 2020, which could hardly have gotten much worse, to 2021, when we hope life will indeed get a little better all the time. Better from COVID-19 because of the vaccines, better from misinformation spread by outgoing president Donald Trump and his allies, and better, we can hope, when it comes to the production and distribution of scientific knowledge.

There's plenty of exciting science to be optimistic about in 2021 (see News on p. 6). At the end of 2020, the DeepMind group in the United Kingdom announced a major advance in long-standing challenges in protein folding, predicting three-dimensional (3D) structures of proteins from their amino acid sequence. The next year portends even more exciting advances in protein structure and design.

On the cosmic front, there are many efforts underway to bring samples from the Solar System back to this planet. The Hayabusa2 mission that traveled to the asteroid 162173 Ryugu retrieved what could be a treasure trove of material revealing details about the ancient delivery of water and organic molecules to Earth. Similarly, the OSIRIS-REx (Origins, Spectral Interpretation, Resource Identification, Security, Regolith Explorer) mission has collected samples from the asteroid Bennu that, when they arrive, could reveal important aspects of the formation of the Solar System. The new Mars rover Perseverance will land in February and, in addition to transmitting important data from the red planet, will begin the process of collecting samples that may eventually be studied in terrestrial laboratories.

In biology, the COVID-19 pandemic led to major advances in the development and application of messenger RNA (mRNA) vaccines. It is stunning that science not only came up with a vaccine to a new pathogen so quickly but also advanced a brand new vaccine technology, albeit one that was already in development for several years. The application of mRNA therapies to other problems in infectious diseases and throughout medicine will be exciting to follow.

Quantum computing remains an important area to watch. This year, Science published a paper that describes the application of a quantum computer to an important problem in theoretical chemistry. In the coming months, it's likely that there will be progress in addressing the problem of quantum error correction, pushing quantum computing a little closer to routine application.

Additive manufacturing and 3D printing continue to become more practical. In particular, the ability to apply these techniques to new types of materials will make it more likely that advanced manufacturing can benefit from the science behind these processes.

On the policy front, the continued development of the UK Research and Innovation (UKRI) organizationas described in a recent editorial by Ottoline Leyserwill be of keen interest as the Brexit process continues. Despite choppy politics, the scientific vision of UKRI is strong and could lead to advances in British science.

In the United States, although the Biden White House will certainly be friendlier to science, the science denial that fueled the Trump administration will linger in the American population and among some conservative politicians. The battles ahead are not to be underestimated. Continued denial of climate change and COVID-19 is sadly inevitable, and it will take everything U.S. science and the Biden administration can muster to stay strong. Still, as new leaders are named and confirmed in health and science policy, U.S. science should be able to at least catch its breath and feel optimistic about a new era.

Although 2020 will certainly go down as a year that couldn't get much worse, there is plenty to be proud of and reason to hope that things will be getting better. The virus was confronted. Epidemiologists and other scientists became household names. And the scientific community found a much stronger voice, one that will serve us all well in 2021 and beyond.

Go here to see the original:
A little better all the time in 2021 - Science Magazine