2023 Biggest Breakthroughs in Science - Tier List
HTML-код
- Опубликовано: 31 май 2024
- Head to www.squarespace.com/drbenmiles to save 10% off your first purchase of a website or domain using code drbenmiles
Fusion? LK-99? Antimatter doesn't fall up? As the year comes to an end, let's look back and rank the most incredible Science Breakthroughs of 2023. From the seemingly impossible to the literally impossible!
Merch!
I think Scientists are Rockstars so I made t-shirts to celebrate it
Einstein Rockstar Tee: www.drbenmiles.com/merch/p/ro...
Curie Rockstar Tee: www.drbenmiles.com/merch/p/ro...
Schrodinger Rockstar Tee: www.drbenmiles.com/merch/p/ro...
#physics #science #breakthough #technology
Previous featured episodes:
NASA Test World's Most Powerful Ion Engine - • How NASA Is Reinventin...
Toyota's Solid State Batteries - • Battery 4.0: The Solid...
Wormhole Created in a Quantum Computer - • How Google Physicists ...
Double Slit in Time Experiment - • Prof Riccardo Sapienza...
Creating Oxygen On Mars - • Making Oxygen on Mars ...
Chapters:
0:00 Science Breakthroughs 2023 Tier List
1:10 LK-99 - Scam Or Bad Data?
2:42 The NIF Fusion Breakthroughs
4:46 NASA Test World's Most Powerful Ion Engine
6:25 Toyota's Solid State Batteries
7:36 Antimatter Doesn't Fall Up
8:50 Ozempic and Wegovy
10:13 Wormhole Created in a Quantum Computer
11:13 Ad Read
11:59 First Detection of Background Gravitational Waves
13:29 Double Slit in Time Experiment
14:46 Creating Oxygen On Mars
15:53 The James Webb Space Telescope
17:38 Breakthrough Alzheimer's Treatment
18:27 First CRISPR Therapy Approved - Sickle Cell
19:31 ChatGPT and A.I Science
If you enjoy the channel and want even more physics, tech, and business content, I've just launched new Instagram and Threads pages. Follow on the links below
Insta: / drbenmiles
Threads: threads.net/drbenmiles
Newsletter drbenmiles.substack.com/
A few people have asked so I've added the info below. Some of these are affiliate links. If you make a purchase it doesn't cost you anything extra, but a percentage of the sale will help support this channel and my work to bringing entrepreneurship into science.
My camera : amzn.to/3ed5Xac
My lens: amzn.to/3xIAZyA
My lav: amzn.to/2SeE20Y and amzn.to/3nK33wA
My mic: amzn.to/3gUYYEv 
Наука
A lot happened in 2023! What was your top science story? Let me know down below 👇
And yes technically quantum wormholes were last year, but they snuck into this year...
Nobody cares about anything you have to say, denier. You obviously have zero genuine scientific knowledge.
So many event this year... difficult to pin down, and whilst more grateful for Alzheimer's advancements, I think LLMs will have some or close to most impact in the short term. Solid State batteries sounds amazing, though I think we must strive to decouple from fossil fuels with what is available more than wait for fundamentally new metallurgy and chemical compounds to sufficiently ramp up.
I learn so much from your presentations, so many thanks :> Though, why place non-adsense midway through video? More people appear to be coalescing around the expectation of mutual consideration in light of more sympathy for creators in how little YT pays now. If non-adsense were placed at very front/back/both, but *not interrupting like TV,* I think more people would appreciate that immensely, and be more inclined to take offers.
The by far most important scientific breakthrough is far beyond all the candidates you go over in your video, and nothing alike such a breakthrough will ever happen anymore in the next 800 million years or so either. If you want to know what it's about, check out "Ethics on Cosmic Scale".
MIT was working on Cognito Therapeutic's Brain Wave Entrainment using Flickering Light Simulation and Multi-Sensory Stimulation to activate Glial Cells to target Amyloid, its effectiveness in recent studies was around a 30% decrease in disease progression as measured by brain volume decrease. The Lily's medicine also slows disease progression by around 30%, is on market, but has brain hemorrhaging as one of its adverse side effects.
This means that older study shows potential for something with fewer side effects, and similar effectiveness, and it has the same therapeutic target.
Cmon man, JWST breaking cosmology and the hubble tension stuff deserves at least an A tier! That is going to be big once we get our head around it.
Yeah i agree, its not C at all.
Most of the B tier should have been higher IMO.
0:54 I think he is ranking it lower because "confines of the lab and academic journal"
It didn't break cosmology, it helped fill in gaps we had previously
never mind we never be able to go there)
Discovering a room temp, ambient pressure, super conductor wouldn't even be a discovery of this decade... It would be the discovery of the millennium. That thing can rewrite how we treat and see electronics in general and revolutionise ALL sectors of production, on top of a giant pile of researchs that aren't related but would benefit massively from such discovery.
AGI will probably invent it within the next 10 years. (IF its even possible in the first place)
Exactly, I agree 100%
If you add all the James Webb discoveries into one story, as opposed to everything else on your list, it has to be S-tier. It just weighs more.
I think his rationale was justified. ChatGPT and Crispr are far FAR more reaching than James Webb. James Webb is great, but for a lot of people, it's just eye candy and doesn't affect imminent problems that require infinitely more collaboration and organization, especially at the social level.
What has the James webb done for you. Its cool and all but it has no benefit. At least for a many centuries.
@@grdfhrghrggrtwqqu ye we just get co space pictures that we cant make sense of
It has pretty much zero impact on society, it’s cool but in relative terms useless
@@J0k3rz i wouldn't be dumb enough to call it no benifits. It has already started discovery exoplanets and many other things but it's not S or A. B at max
Plasmogen therapy that allows the mitochondria to regenerate, gives more ATP and cell energy. This in turn provides cells with ability to clean out junk, repair DNA, and regain lost function. Trials have shown a reversal of Alzheimer's disease. One patient who could not walk, talk or recognize family members, after two weeks of plasmogen treatment, was walking and talking with her family that she knew. If verified would definitely be an S.
There's no "plasmogen therapy" anywhere in Google or pubmed. Source?
agreed but sounds like something to be skeptical of
The double slit in time discovery is even more mind-blowing than the original double slit experiment. Time increasingly feels like an iceberg where all we know about it is just the tip, and it may not be anything like what we think it is.
Not a scientist or engineer but this experiment does seem on par with quantum entanglement. Pretty sure Lunar communication experiments are now being designed. Imagine I instant communication with Mars. And then add the recent transport using entanglement and the Star Trek teleporter is doable.
@@clavo3352 yep, u said something very unscientific. it is just not possible.
@@kaanozk That's exactly what they told the Wright Brothers. I'm pretty sure you are right though. Still I'll admit; I don't know everything.
@@clavo3352 your curiousity is appreciated and I wanna be proven wrong.
@@clavo3352 Instant communication is not possible with our current understanding of physics as the speed of causality is limited to c (speed of light). As far as i know, both general relativity and quantum physics agree on this point.
Nice video! James Webb should be an S. FYI, Toyota first announced they would have a solid state battery in two years in 2015. Then again in 2017, 2020 and now again in 2023. You had it right, this is just a bait to delay people from buying any car and make existing EV's look inferior to the near future that never arrives.
Toyota maybe should name their EV Mañana?
I agree that jwst is fkn awesome but the impact it has on the average person is just not that big so I agree with the B rating although it still hurts
JWST should be S tier, totally agree.
Can u explain y toyota would want to sell less cars?😊
@@lukasaoo88 read it again carefully
I've been using Ozenpic for the last 18 months +- and lost about 26Kg. It helps a lot but it just makes the dieting easier. I still had to change my eating habits and reduce/replace the many tasty things I indulged in. Coincidentaly I did a check-up today and my IMC is now normal, my blood pressure is also back to normal, my liver fat is gone, etc. I now need to increase my muscle mass but that's expected. Phase 2 starts in January :)
I think Semaglutide should be at least A tier. If costs come down and availability improves, it could be a game changer for healthcare!
I agree but people who don't struggle with weight probably don't rate it as high because they may think it is easily solved with diet.@@GrapplingwithPhysics
Congrats on your journey! I guess most people who recover their previous weight don't understand that Ozempic by itself is not what will ultimately help you get healthy. It may be a useful tool, but you got to change your habits: start eating more vegetables, have better divided meals throughout the day and start exercising.
@@miguelfrancovieira Thanks Miguel. That's exactly the point. People cannot think of it as the solution, it is just a tool to help you. The only way to lose weight is to consume less than you spend. Period. If you don't learn how to eat right and spend those extra calories, you will gain it all back and more.
Ешьте меньше на два ведра еды в день.
One of the least covered and most important scientific discoveries in 2023 was the discovery of a pinacosaurus specimen. One, with an intact larynx! It was previously thought that dinosaurs didn’t have larynx’s and so couldn’t make complex vocalisations. But this discovery completely changed our understanding of prehistory!
The restoration of an optic nerve by Sinclar et. al, and the realization that cellular senescence may underlie most/all neurodegeneration. Think about those implications.
One to consider for D tier in mathematics - some of the advances in Ramsay theory. It's an advance in graph theory specifically, but these often show up in other fields later, especially around neural networks.
Crazy to see a toucan guy here. If you are focused on real applications, ramsey theory is very directly applicable to theoretical computer science fields such as generating random numbers better, and some existensial problems about number sequences and logic.
@@lordvig8884 yeah I figure a complete solution (closed form expression for all Ramsay numbers) would be A tier but this was a pretty small but useful step
Thanks for that, was there a particular paper you're talking about? Wouldn't mind checking it out.
@@alexharvey9721 if you search for 2023 Ramsay theory improvements in bounds you'll find it
Thanks for all the great content this year. Your ability to relay scientific information in an understandable manner is extraordinary. Keep on rocking in 2024.
Low frequenzy gravi waves is easily S tier for me XD. That's another nobel prize.
Absolutely agree. I think they'll get the Nobel price 2024 for sure.
@@sunriselgNo way🫵🤦🤦🤦
Don't agree with all the rankings but great video. Also. I thing you missed two big ones.
1) Canon nonimprint lithography breakthrough.
2) A mathematician recently released an improved version of shor's algorithm if that's hownits spelled.
Just came upon your channel: well thought out and interesting! Keep up the good work!
That antimatter is affected by gravity deserves more, experiments like that are hard to run and if we only had theories for all we knew it might not have been affected by gravity.
As a dietetics student who is focusing heavily on obesity, I feel like semaglutide is at least worth a B tier classification. Or at least it would be if it were new in 2023. We've been aware of the weight-control potential of semaglutide as far back as 2020 (if not earlier). Also, don't sleep on 15% weight loss - that's 30 lbs in those weighing 200 lbs as a starting weight and most individuals being prescribed these drugs are starting at a much higher weight than that. Furthermore, gaining weight when getting off the medicine is a weird double standard that doesn't exist with other drugs - blood pressure medicine is considered effective if it lowers blood pressure as long as someone stays on it, but nobody acts like it's worthless if blood pressure goes back up when a person stops taking the drug.
All that said, one new thing that happened in 2023 was Tirzepatide being approved for weight management. This stands out because Tirzepitide is both works on both GLP-1 and GIP pathways and it has also been demonstrated as being more effective than semaglutide. The future of weight management pharmacology is looking promising, the present is pretty hopeful itself too.
JWST images should be higher than B. ChatGPT and related AI are more hype than anything else. They either should not be included because they are not pure science, or they should get no more than a C rating until they can prove themselves to be more useful and less error-prone.
I mostly agree. But the hype of ChatGPT and Stable Diffusion has flooded society with articles and images created by AI. most AI art and text is uncanny or innacurate, but every month it gets more advanced.
I saw some programs that take the User prompt and add tons terms to make stable diffusion return a better Image. and stuff like the "Bad Hands Library" which shows the AI thousands of examples of how not to draw hands.
Honorable mention: All the discoveries about the micro biome and how it is far more important to humans in many ways. I think some big things are coming in the next few years there.
That's a good one. It also ends up being one of the best predicters of Alzheimer's disease too. Inexpensive biomarker tests are also going to be up there in 2024 I'm sure.
Cool, just subscribed, thankyou 👊😎
Thanks ! Excellent summary.
Man was the scientific community buzzing about it; that fluke of a superconductor prank. Even I was excited for a minute until it was debunked😂😂
What about genetic engineering of T-cells in blood that can potential treat and cure many different cancers in patients?
James Web is the very best of the year, it’s contributions will go on for years.
This video is so cool! Thank you for making it. Out of all of them, large language models are the most _terrifying_ new breakthrough, and that's certainly big in its way. The three medical breakthroughs are probably the most helpful in terms of saving lives and making life better for people. And other things like the ion engine, making oxygen on Mars and the discoveries of the James Webb telescope are extremely awesome. But for me, the discovery of background gravitational waves is probably the coolest breakthrough. The competition is tough, but that idea of using pulsars to determine how far Earth has shifted is just amazing.
Wats the point of knowing that tho?
It's real-life evidence that confirms Einstein's theory of General Relativity. Also, these waves are incredibly faint signals sent by objects (probably huge black holes orbiting each other) that are very far away. By measuring the waves, scientists are learning something about the universe that we couldn't otherwise perceive.
Wow. You covered my year of reading in 21 minutes. Loved it. And I do agree with your tiering
However, I long for a new fundamental discovery
real
We live in Matrix
Wonderful, thanks!
JWST is 100% S Tier!
The Toyota press release really isn’t worth being mentioned. It’s vaporware fluff that Toyota has spouted on multiple occasions over the years, including promising a prototype at the 2020 Olympics that never happened, even with the rescheduling delay to 2021. Not to mention, sometime around 2016, solid-state batteries were already in the *Nissan* roadmap for manufacturing in the late 2020s.
Amazing video man!
Hi Ben, thank you for the cool video's, I love them, so yes, I want that T-shirt to support you. Where can I buy it?
I searched for it, but I don't seem to find the one you are wearing.
The medical break throughs really resonate with me. I am mostly excited about them but concerned that only those with great financial means will be able to access them. I find that throughout history our over estimation of the future is largely dictated not by technological capability but by the overwhelming costs involved. I will remain cautiously optimistic that significant medical break throughs will be available to the masses.
I echo these concerns. The cost of treating genetic diseases in utero is probably well worth the cost considering the cost of supporting incurable genetic disease.
The cost of treating Alzheimer disease however is huge and will bankrupt society as it is not a cure and there are enormous costs of care remaining as these people decline.
I think JWST should at least be A tier for its part in growing the astronomy community. I’ve never seen so many people so invested in the cosmos. The fact that it can detect atmospheric composition so much better than Kepler for example is incredible. Space science isn’t directly relevant to the common person, or actually anyone for that matter really so I see why it’s C, but solely for its publicity and impact it could be higher
Naww, it should be C tier
I remember reading about CRISPR so many years ago and was wondering "Why the hell aren't we using this to treat all kinds of things?". Excited to see it finally start happening.
and S tier for you Dr Ben Miles, for finding the best mix between vulgarisation, technicality, and consiveness
I love these tier lists , someone rated Self Development stuff by tiers and I was like nice!
Given our limited knowledge about parallel dimensions, Isn’t it possible that antimatter has been allocated in one of multiple parallel dimensions? Kind of like a mirror reflection of reality ? Or am I going too far? 🤨
On Fusion power, just wanted to note we have to figure out how to manage the immense neutron radiation produced by fusion reactions first before there is anything practical. We are using Deuterium and Tritium to produce the Helium product and there is an extra neutron produced in that fusion reaction. The other option of simple Deuterium and Deuterium, in which an extra neutron is not produced, requires many more times the pressure and temperature that we are using now and is just outside of anything we could ever do probably. The neutron radiation is just going to destroy everything around a Tritium and Deuterium reaction process. A Lthium or Boron jacket is just not going to work after a few hours.
This is so important, almost no one mentions this when discussing “new”fusion strartups like Helion
This is gonna sound terrible but......👀👀 Maybe use those to start a fission reaction 👀@@nielsdeschaap
You forgot to mention the scientific breakthrough i made.
Poor quality chicken nuggets taste better with milk, because chemistry and biology and stuff. Easily a-tier.
Thank you.
Thank you for taking the time to showcase the best scientific advancements of 2023.
😢The missing anti-matter could be in one or more parallel universes. I happen to think that there an unlimited number of them. That view helps with the Anthropic principle too.
Thanks for putting this thought provoking listing together. I do think that JWST deserves an A rating as it is forcing us to reevaluate fundamental concepts of the universe, such as the big bang theory.
Nothing we haven’t already been doing
I used semaglutide for diabetes and did lose weight, but after 18 months my body no longer responded to it and I regained the weight and had to switch to other diabetes medicines.
Ben - great video. At the top of my list for 2024 might be to eliminate the usage of the word “bespoke” lol. Will you join me in this effort? Seriously, it is a confusing British English term when we already have a word that does the job - custom, or maybe tailored. I’m also waiting for more progress on thermo-electric energy, I think called the Seebeck effect.
I tought JWST would get a S and I'm happy with the B!
Agree with your ranking, thanks!
A "room temperature superconductors" breakthrough would absolutely carry fusion!
S tier indeed
I tought JWST would get a S and I'm happy with the B! 🙏🏻
Agree with your ranking, thanks!
JWST should be a C tier ranking. It does practically nothing, except take pictures.
@8:20 I was think about this the other day. How do we know that other galaxies and clusters are not made of antimatter? Sorry, mathematician, not physicist asking.
incredible
The company novo nordisk that made ozempic and the company vertex pharmaceutical that made the cure for sickle cell anemia by gene editing... I owned those stocks when the medication first came out
The most important event in science is the paradigm shift away from gravity based astrophysics. The shift towards a more electrically focused model
> Fusion power provides net thermal power for the first time in history
"Meh, C tier"
damn, tough crowd
You can tell you love physics and astronomy. Wegovy is A tier, potentially S. Goldman Sachs has a major program to understand the effects of this on many industries. Like huge impact on society, medicine, etc. Maybe you should investigate / research more. The Alzheimer’s breakthrough is D. It doesn’t really work.
Gimli?!? The fact that you named your dog after one of the goats of fantasy lore is an S Tier discovery for me personally 😁
I think there were plenty of archeological discoveries that you couldve added to the list while not necessarily anywhere near the top of the list worthy some of them i would argue definitely have a profound impact on society so maybe i the future i would include news out of the archeology field.
I like the content, thanks
Should be in schools 🎉
TOYOTA makes a breakthrough EVERY year. At this point, it should be the number 1 in this technology...
Wait a minute...
My mom has been on ozempic for almost a year. Has lost enough weight for her hip surgery. The amount she lost is about 20 years worth (last time she looked like she does now 20 years ago. She has gained a lot over that time. About 60 lbs)
I'm considering using it so I can drop 30 lbs that i can't seem to lose. I'm military so you have an idea that i keep up with physical fitness. But as the years keep going, the lbs keep coming too. Mind you i don't eat like a pig.
As much as I think Generative AI deserves its own category above S-Tier, the Gemini demo referred to turned out to be a fake and ChatGPT was released in 2022. The one actual breakthrough though was generative movies, which appeared in early 2023 and by now have become pretty realistic and customisable.
14:11 i feel like i understood the 1st experiment, I’m not sure what’s happening in the 2nd
i feel like the antimatter experiment is on par with the Moxie. We don't have applications for it. Yes, that is correct. How long will it be until we have people breathing on Mars?
James Webb really should be an S tier
That numbering system literally had nothing to do with where you placed anything lol
Longevity science ought to get mentioned... We're attaining a far deeper understanding of the aging process, in finer detail, than the old "oh, it just happens!" - including extending the life and/or healthspan in some animal models
The example of Toyota’s battery claims could be a ploy to indirectly slow electric car sales for the time being is genius. I love looking on the second layer of corporate decisions to see possible hidden meanings
Is there a time stamp for the description or explanation of the "S tier"?
good video
Imo chat gpt is a minor step forward the only breakthrough is in more extensive databases they've stolen off the Internet and better marketing. Since the release is where the real improvements have came about in regards to how it has spurred other companies to also start putting more funding into development and the vast amounts of user data that can be used to improve the software that didn't exist before. Frankly the whole "AI" hype is just a marketing ploy.
Do black holes differ in their physical dimensions... length, width, height? Or are they all the same size and differing masses?
They differ. A formula called the Schwartzchild radius determines how big the event horizon of any black hole would be. There are also differing types of black holes like resting mass black holes, these are black holes that don’t spin and Kerr black holes which are black holes that do spin. It is more than likely that all black holes have some amount of spin, but it is uncertain. We mainly have resting mass black holes as an idea because the math was easier for them before Kerr introduced his formula for spinning black holes.
It is also of fun note that all spinning black holes wouldn’t necessarily be perfectly spherical but instead more oval as the equator of the spinning black hole would be wide than at its north and south poles much like earth.
What about Space X returning a rocket for landing?
What about the 1st Neuralink install into a paralyzed patient?
Detecting gravity waves has an interesting implication to me. Correct me if I'm worng, but don't most waves have an associated particle and visa versa?
can't wait for NEP (nuclear electric propulsion) and NTP (nuclear thermal propulsion)
@20:45 "AI in 2023" takes a 5/5 for marketing, 4/5 for misunderstanding and misuse and 1/5 for impact to society, since it only replicate work that one child can do and develop for free and to their own future benefit by consuming the resources of server farms.
Well, like they say, practical fusion power is 20 years away and always will be.
If laser beams can PUSH, a light physics phenomenon called ‘Repercussion’, could they modify the design of the ion propulsion system of space crafts, to use lasers to contain and push the expelled ionized gas in a much longer and faster action-reaction stream, to get a LOT more mileage?
This guy shouldn’t be in charge of making lists anymore, but you did a good job of reporting on stories
4:11 baby steps
In the 80s I used to take Joe Wilder's weight gain. As long as I was on it I gained weight. Once I stopped I lost more weight than I gained.
Trying to gain weight sucks.
You only really need ozempic if you have little self control honestly.
The thing it does is make you feel full, but it won't increase your metabolism, ultimately if you have self control and don't just eat too much you can save a lot of money.
I disagree with the fusion energy one, the lab stated that they had no reason to use more efficient lasers because of what they were trying to prove is that it was possible for Q to be higher, there are lasers that operate north of 50% efficiency had we used those we would’ve seen maybe somewhere closer to it being able to return 50 to 70% of the energy
Ion thrusters and oxygen creation on Mars I would prefer to see to see in B-D tier. Both seem to me not relevant. An alternative system that will be used to save 'fuel' on satellites? And a chemical reaction known and tested on earth just recreated on Mars for a potential colony in potentially 30 years?
Where would you put attosecond pulses of light?
Even though it is confirming what was expected for antimatter, I consider the antimatter result an S-tier finding in that while it was still unknown the potential ways all of cosmology and the future of space travel changed dramatically (for the worse, but still a major change). For instance, had antimatter also been anti-gravity then building gravitationally inert spaceships would be possible. Expensive with todays tech, but with near-term fusion tech a real possibility. Apart from that one, I agree with all your other findings. As well this negates the idea that antimatter dispersed from matter gravitationally and vastly reduced the likelihood that we'll be running into antimatter galaxies out there.
Double slit in time experiment
We already have bits next to each other in time it's called serial data communications
Chat GTP has been pretty great as a tool for finding out what question I need to ask when I have a hard time putting it into words.
An example would be I have little to no knowledge about a subject but I know what I dont know. It is a really good starting point and leads to me asking better questions.
That provides an excellent perspective. I can find better answers on a search engine than many of my students because I know how to formulate good search terms/questions. That goes away with LLMs.
Insted of putting chat gpt you could have said simply A.I knowing gpt has been around since 2018 and you could also access the beta before realese if you asked for it.
Bro knew robbing JWST would get him more comments for the 'algorithm'. Well played Ben, well played.
They have folded all the known proteins. A billion years worth of research they say
Ooeee! we did it twiceI We created enough energy to run an ant farm. It only cost a billion dollars! 😅
I think antimatter should be B or above
7:10 long live the king! No but really I'm all for electricification as long as you don't take away my ICE. Most drivers? Sure. Those of us addicted to carcaine and building our own engines? Let us continue
I like to think that in the incomprehensibly distant future, PDS70 eventually yields 1 habitable planet that develops intelligent life, more than several millennia after humans are gone. Just cool to think that we’ve possibly taken a look at the home solar system of many, before their solar system was fully developed.
Is this all likely? Probably an astounding no, but I can dream.
How do you repeat something for the second time and only do it twice?
Didn't we confirm that antimatter responds to gravity the same as normal matter?
Its just matter with opposite charge no?
Dunno if it needs to be up here but brainoware had another recent breakthrough for Organoid intelligence
JWST has to be S tier for what it already provided and what it will provide for the next 20 years
Next-Generation Quantum Processor does that count?
Fakers and scammers need to be punished and not published!!!
As with most of our discoveries, when we find answers we are faced with many more questions. Explanation being a big example. We have discovered thousands of planets but know very little about them. My big interest is in Gen 4 nuclear fission reactors. So far wind and solar provide less than 10%of our energy. We need more options for low carbon energy. China now has 2 operating Gen 4 research reactors. By 2030 some Western nations may have some. Current reactors in common use are barely economical and have other problems. Gen 4 reactors use the laws of physics for frater safety, lower cost and cleaner energy. Gen 4 reactor development is accelerating slowly with limited investment. Gen 4 is a vital option that needs greater investment and government support.