This article lists a number of significant events in science that have occurred in the first quarter of 2022.
Events
January 1 January – Israel reports, for the first time, a case of flurona, a rare mixture of coronavirus and influenza infections.
3 January – OpenAlex, a free online index of over 200 million scientific documents – each with metadata such as sources, citations, author information and research topics – is launched. The API and open source website can be used for metascience, scientometrics and novel tools that query this semantic web of papers. 5 January – Scientists show how antibiotic resistance also evolves naturally, without and before the use of antibiotics. 6 January The global atmospheric methane concentration exceeds 1,900 parts per billion (ppb) for the first time in human history. Astronomers report the first direct detection of pre-supernova activity in a red supergiant star before a Type II supernova (SN 2020tlf). Scientists report the development of sensors to gather and identify DNA of animals from air (airborne eDNA). 7 January – Progress in cancer pre-screening, screening and early detection is reported: metabolomic biomarkers in blood (4 J.), circulating protein biomarkers (7 J.), and an optical biopsy system with a fine-needle probe (6 J.). 10 January The first successful xenogeneic heart transplant, from a genetically modified pig to a human patient, is reported in the United States. Researchers build upon previous studies documenting biodiversity loss to confirm that a sixth mass extinction event, entirely caused by anthropogenic activity, is currently underway. A study quantifies climate change mitigation potentials of 'high-income' nations shifting diets – away from meat consumption – and restoration of the land. 11 January The first known deformation of an exoplanet is detected by the CHEOPS mission, which finds that WASP-103b is being strongly influenced by its parent star's close proximity, making the planet shaped like an ellipsoid instead of a sphere. A study reports the likely detection of an extreme SEP event that hit Earth ~9000 years ago and, unlike known Solar storms, unexpectedly happened near a Solar minimum.
12 January A team reports the fastest ever sequencing of a human genome, accomplished in just five hours and two minutes. Molecular biologists show that the common assumption that mutations are "random" is wrong – mutation frequency can vary across regions of the genome, with such DNA repair- and mutation-biases being associated with various factors. Astronomers report, based on new spatial and dynamical constraints, that the Local Bubble, a ~1,000-light-years wide superbubble, is driving nearly all recent star formation near the Sun and that it originates ~14 Myr ago. 13 January NASA reports that Earth's global average surface temperature in 2021 was tied with 2018 as the sixth warmest on record, while the past eight years were collectively the warmest years since modern recordkeeping began in 1880. A study, based on data of millions of military personnel, suggests that the common Epstein-Barr virus is the leading cause of multiple sclerosis. 18 January Europe's first quantum annealer with more than 5,000 qubits is launched in Jülich, Germany. A study suggests and defines a 'planetary boundary' for novel entities such as plastic- and chemical pollution and finds that it has been crossed. A study for the first time attempts to assess and quantify complete societal costs of cars (i.e. car-use, etc). Microbiologists demonstrate an individually adjusted phage-antibiotic combination as an antimicrobial resistance treatment, calling for scaling up the research and further development of this approach.
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