AI chatbots and a weight-loss drug swept the world, temperature records tumbled and India landed on the moon in a year of astonishing science news
By Jacob Aron
15 December 2023
The spiral galaxy M51, as viewed by the James Webb Space Telescope
ESA/Webb, NASA & CSA, A. Adamo (Stockholm University)/FEAST JWST team
From extraordinary heat to stunning space imagery, New Scientist has brought you extensive coverage of the biggest developments, discoveries and events in science, technology, health and environment in 2023. Here is our recap of some of the best stories this year.
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Wildfires raged on the Greek island of Rhodes in July 2023 ANGELOS TZORTZINIS/AFP via Getty Images
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The number of heat records broken in 2023 is simply astounding. While we can’t say for sure until official figures are in next month, this year was almost certainly the hottest ever recorded. In a sign of how extraordinary temperatures have been, New Scientist was already reporting this possibility in mid-June, well before the northern hemisphere summer had got into gear.
A few weeks later saw a particularly surreal string of events. The average global air temperature recorded 2 metres above Earth’s surface – essentially, a way of taking the temperature of the entire planet – hit its highest ever figure on 3 July, but this record was immediately broken on 4 July, which was then matched on 5 July and broken again the next day. By the end of August, we had seen the hottest three-month period on record, and it was followed by the hottest September ever. In November, researchers declared the hottest 12 months on record.
Against this backdrop, negotiations at the COP28 climate summit in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, were a fraught affair. Whether the world would finally take action against fossil fuels was a key point of disagreement, and at one point looked set to scupper the summit. In the end, the world agreed to begin “transitioning away” from fossil fuels – which was the first time they have been mentioned in a COP text – but many questions remain about what that means in practice.