From AI regulation to HIV treatment: the events that shaped science in 2024

6. Impossible images: first woman at the head of the Royal Academy of Sciences

In May, the first images began to arrive from Euclid, the European Space Agency’s space telescope. But the summer left other shocking images. In June, Ana Crespoa lichen biologist, was elected president of the Royal Academy of Exact, Physical and Natural Sciences of Spain, becoming the first woman to head the academy since it was created 177 years ago.

Ana Crespo at the Royal Academy of Exact SciencesEuropa Press News/Getty Images

7. Dengue and West Nile Fever Outbreak

As the European authorities had been warning, 2024 was a complicated year for diseases transmitted by mosquitoes. At the end of August, an outbreak of indigenous dengue was detected in the province of Tarragona, which ended up being the largest recorded in Spain with eight confirmed cases. There was also an outbreak of Nile fever, a potentially fatal disease transmitted by a mosquito endemic to Spain. This outbreak has also been the largest recorded to date, with at least 70 cases and 8 deaths confirmed.

Everything we know about the Oropouche virus, the pathogen that spreads with deforestation

We still do not know all the animals that can serve as vectors of transmission of the Oropouche virus.

8. The vaccine for lung cancer advances

The first human trials of a promising vaccine against lung cancer began in September. The treatment has been promoted by Regeneron and BioNTech, and is similar in design to RNA vaccines for COVID-19. Among the medical centers that will test the vaccine are the Provincial Hospital of Castellón and the Hospital la Fe in Valencia. We will have to wait to see the results.

2024 has also brought other advances in biomedicine that have gone more unnoticed, such as the research of Carmen Ayuso (CIBERER), Isabel Fariñas (CIBERNED) and Ramón Martínez Máñez (CIBER-BBN), which have received the national research award for their contributions to personalized medicine, disease treatment and nanotechnology respectively.

9. Nobel Prize for Artificial Intelligence

2024 may go down in history as the year AI won the Nobel Prize. This year there have been two categories, physics and chemistry, that have rewarded scientific advances based on this technology. In the Physics category, the Swedish academy has awarded Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield for laying the foundations of artificial intelligence. In the Chemistry category, David Baker, Demis Hassabis and John Jumper have been awarded for developing a system that allows us to design proteins and predict their structures using computing and artificial intelligence.

Physicists Geoffrey Hinton and John Hopfield, co-awarded the 2024 Nobel Prize in PhysicsPONTUS LUNDAHL/Getty Images

10. Climate emergency: an unprecedented DANA devastates Valencia and leaves 222 dead

There are no words to describe the unprecedented disaster caused by DANA that devastated Valencia on October 29, leaving at least 222 dead and tens of thousands affected. Beyond political and management errors, the tragedy made three things clear: the human-caused climate crisis will aggravate these types of devastating climate phenomena, early warnings and the role of emergency systems matter, and building in areas Flooding is common in Spain and can be very expensive.

Valencia was still recovering from the tragedy when the United Nations agreed at COP 29 that developed countries pay $300 billion annually to developing countries so they can confront the climate crisis. A figure much lower than the 1.3 billion that developing countries had requested.