Current State of Science in 2025

When I prepared for my high school graduation exams back in 2001, I had to compile a reading list for the subject English. That reading list was supposed to be focused on one particular theme. While the other students chose works of literature for their reading lists, I only chose non-fiction books and the theme "Modern science, technology and their impact on society". This was how it started: my lifelong occupation with modern science and technology shaping the world.

In 2001 the World Wide Web was quite new, so I mostly chose books dealing with the Internet, such as Cyberpunk, The Road Ahead or Release 2.0. But I was also interested in the Human Genome Project and therefore added some books dealing with genetics.

In the end I obtained university degrees in both computer science and medicine. So I am an expert in both fields. After graduating from university I founded the website 21st Century Headlines (http://www.21stcenturyheadlines.com/), where I keep posting news items about these subjects on a daily basis. Topics regularly covered include artificial intelligence, quantum computing, biomedical sciences, physics and chemistry.

Having maintained this website for ten years I feel entitled to write about my impression of the current state of science.


Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has made tremendous progress in the past decade. It mostly relies on algorithms that were invented in the 1980s, but computers were not strong enough back then to execute them. In addition new algorithms have been developed, mostly related to generative AI.

In 2022 ChatGPT shocked the world as it showed what a large language model (LLM) is capable of. The abilities of such chat agents are continuously improving and we might be greatly impressed by what is going to come in the next years.

Due to AI some white-collar jobs might become redundant. This is going to be a great transformation of society. Perhaps humans will in the future mostly work in jobs requiring manual and social skills.

AI has also been used in scientific research, culminating in the Nobel Prize in Chemistry for the developers of AlphaFold, a program to predict protein structures. This will definitely continue. There are also some companies such as Insilico Medicine that use AI in drug development.


Quantum Computing

Quantum Computing is still in its infancy. There are some experimental quantum computers, but their power is limited. It is not a technology ready for the mass market yet.

The big thing about quantum computing is that a quantum function is able to compute the result for all possible inputs at once, which is especially relevant in cryptanalysis (cracking the key).

Apart from Quantum Computing, there are also some other non-traditional approaches to building computers, such as DNA computers. They are also still in their infancy.


Molecular Biology

In Molecular Biology there have been some advances since the turn of the century mainly thanks to Next Generation Sequencing, which has made the sequencing of a genome quick and cheap, and the CRISPR/Cas9 system for genome editing. The genome of a species is still a very complex thing and difficult to understand as a whole.

Stem cells also pose a research subject. It is especially noteworthy that scientists have achieved the induction of stem cells by means of certain chemicals which transform adult cells back into stem cells.


Neuroscience

Neuroscience is limited by its methods. Most of the research is about defects of brain regions and their consequences. I have also noticed that some neuroscientists do the type of research that actually is what psychologists do.


Endocrinology

Endocrinology is a neglected field. I seldomly read news about this area. But it might be noteworthy that I worked in this field myself, investigating the relationship of hormones with stress and immunity. The idea that stress hormones can be converted to immunity hormones is a powerful concept for treating severe diseases such as cancer, infectious diseases and mental disorders.


Oncology

Recently the cancer immune therapy (CAR-T) has become popular. It is now widely used as an innovative way to treat oncological diseases. We should also not forget the "Modify and Repair" paradigm proposed by researchers of Harvard Medical School, which is about transforming cancer cells to regular, non-pathogenic cells.


Immunology

In this context, let me mention that I coined the term "Symbiont Conversion", which is a generalization of the "Modify and Repair" paradigm. Parasitic, pathogenic cells are generally supposed to be converted to regular, non-pathogenic cells. This also concerns bacteria causing infectious diseases and might be achieved by means of bacteriophages or genetic modification. If it works out, it would be a solution to the pressing problem of antimicrobial resistance.


Longevity

This is also a trending subject. At the moment the X-PRIZE competition is going on, in which the winner will earn 100 million dollars if he/she manages to treat patients in such a manner that their aging process is halted for a certain timespan.

However, my view on longevity research is that basically, lifespan depends on well-known things such as good sleep, healthy nutrition, avoiding of stress, etc., and all the nutritional supplements and drugs researchers have come up with play only an insignificant role in aiding this endeavour.


Conclusion

Science is definitely a very interesting thing. Innovations will continue to change the way people live. I hope that you have gained some insights from this short article.

Claus D. Volko

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