Skip to main content

The translation has been generated automatically  (elia.eus)

Zientzia 10 albiste nabarmenak

Elhuyar stresses that the crucial limit in temperature rise has been exceeded among the most relevant scientific news of 2024

2024 | December 18
  • Elhuyar has listed the most relevant news of the year in the field of science and technology
  • The list consists of 10 news items, both international and from our environment.

The year 2024 has been a successful year in the scientific field. Astonishing news has happened with other worrying ones. The Elhuyar media dedicated to science have spread endless news throughout the year, but they have made a list of the 10 most relevant.

1. The crucial limit on temperature increases has been exceeded. Scientists predicted that, if the temperature was above 1.5°C, the planet could suffer irreversible effects. The limit has been exceeded this year. In parallel, some extreme weather phenomena have been the protagonists.

Revista Elhuyar: News
Ekosfera Radio Program: Reflection on the DANA
Teknopolis Television Programme: extreme weather phenomena

2. Avian influenza is rapidly progressing. Following the continuing outbreaks this year, it has been known that avian influenza is risking even wildlife.

Elhuyar Magazine: News
Teknopolis TV Program: the next pandemic

3. The hidden face of the moon is exposed. China's space missions are leaving the Moon without secrets. They have taken samples of their hidden parts and produced the most detailed geological atlas of the satellite.

Elhuyar Magazine:

4. Microplastics are 20 years old. They have already reached every corner of the planet: food, drink, brain... Remnants have also been found in the placenta and in the human testicles this year. Experts consider the news “very serious”.

Elhuyar Magazine: News
Teknopolis TV Program: Plastic Seas

5. The rare earth crisis. They are essential for the energy transition, but mining is very polluting and also very geopolitically conflicting. Rare earth recycling is key.

Radio programme Norteko Ferrokarrila: news

6. Innovations in artificial intelligence and pollution. Generative AI systems have brought continuous innovations for Euskera.

Radio program Norteko Ferrokarrila: news
Revista Elhuyar: news

On the other hand, the global environmental impact of AI is chilling: AI systems will produce 5 million tons of electronic waste by 2030.

Teknopolis television programme: New European
legislation Elhuyar Magazine: news

7. The brain in nanometric resolution. The most spectacular images of this year correspond to the map of the brain of flies. Human brain research has also borne fruit: a cubic millimeter of brain has been recreated in a 3D model, in nanometric resolution. That model shows structures so far never seen in the human brain.

Elhuyar Magazine:

8. Is Andere the oldest Neanderthal woman in the Basque Country? The Biscayan cave of El Polvorín has been the scene of an amazing discovery. Archaeologists, guided by the bones found in 1983 by the group of José Miguel Barandiaran, returned to the cave and discovered that these bones correspond to a Neanderthal woman who lived more than 150,000 years ago.

Elhuyar Magazine: News
Teknopolis TV Program: The New Face of Neanderthals

9. Redefining obesity and health. Last year, Science described the new anti-obesity drugs as the great scientific breakthrough of the year, and the success of those medicines has been spectacular in 2024. A real bicoke for the pharmaceutical industry, but a news item containing not a few areas of shadow. In fact, the need to redefine obesity and health has been demonstrated.

Teknopolis TV programme: obesity, a disease conditioned by society

10. First functional semiconductor of graphene. Researchers have been waiting for it for many years, but at last a breakthrough has been achieved that opens the door to a new way of making electronics. It's said to be the basis of quantum computing.

Elhuyar Magazine: news