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2023 news review

Read 91av’s selection of the biggest science and technology news stories of 2023

Mathematics

Mathematicians found a guaranteed way to win the lottery in 2023

A pair of mathematicians studied the UK National Lottery and figured out a combination of 27 tickets that guarantees you will always win, but they tell 91av they don't bother to play

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Earth

China started drilling ultra-deep holes in 2023 in a hunt for oil

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Technology

The best robot photos of 2023, from fashion shows to Hollywood strikes

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MRI scans of a healthy brain (left) and a brain with amyloid plaque deposits (right), a sign of Alzhiemer's disease

Health

2023 saw a cautious hope for Alzheimer’s treatment but doubts remain

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Life

The best animal photos of 2023, from hyenas to southern stingrays

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Environment

The best photos of the natural world in 2023

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Space

The biggest science news stories of 2023 as chosen by 91av

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EVROS, GREECE - AUGUST 31: A firefighters runs as wildfire intensifies in the village of Sidiro and Yannuli in Evros, Greece on August 31, 2023. Efforts to extinguish wildfire continues. (Photo by Ayhan Mehmet/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)

Environment

Why 2023 was almost certainly the hottest year ever recorded

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Wolf-Rayet stars are known to be efficient dust producers, and the Mid-Infrared Instrument (MIRI) on NASA?s James Webb Space Telescope shows this to great effect. Cooler cosmic dust glows at the longer mid-infrared wavelengths, displaying the structure of WR 124?s nebula. The nebula is made of material cast off from the aging star in random ejections, and from dust produced in the ensuing turbulence. This brilliant stage of mass loss precedes the star?s eventual supernova, when nuclear fusion in its core stops and the pressure of gravity causes it to collapse in on itself, and then explode. As MIRI demonstrates here, Webb will help astronomers to explore questions that were previously only left to theory about how much dust stars like this create before exploding in a supernova, and how much of that dust is large enough to survive the blast and go on to serve as building blocks of future stars and planets.

Space

Six of the most amazing space pictures from 2023

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2NK6HH7 CHINESE SPY BALLOON seen from a US Air Force U-2 above America. Photo: USAF

Technology

The spy balloon saga of 2023 inflated US-China political tensions

One of the year’s most unexpected controversies exploded after a US fighter jet shot down a Chinese balloon that drifted across North America – it also sparked fears over other unidentified flying objects

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Health

Cancer in young people is rising and 2023 saw a plan to figure out why

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Technology

2023 was the year that artificial intelligence went mainstream

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Health

Wegovy and Ozempic made 2023 a revolutionary year for weight loss

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Space

India made history with 2023’s low-budget Chandrayaan-3 moon landing

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