Science in 2026: what to expect this year

0:03Welcome to the first episode of the Nature Podcast for 2026. I'm your host, Nick Petrich-Howell, and for this Momentous show, we're looking ahead at what might be the biggest stories this coming year. And joining me to discuss this is nature reporter Miriam the Deaf. Miriam, hi, how's it going? Hi, Nick, how are you? I'm good. I'm excited to be doing the look ahead this year with you. It's the first time that I've done this, but it's actually the fourth time you've done this. Sadly, the budget does not stretch to any champagne, but congrats nonetheless. Thank you, Nick. And so, as is usual, you've written an article for Nature all about what might be the biggest stories this coming year.

0:45And I was wondering, before we get into it, how exactly do you do it? Do you actually gaze into a crystal ball or is it a bit more sophisticated than that? It's a bit more sophisticated than that. I'd hope so. So I reach out to all the news reporters and editors, everyone at the Nature family, and I ask what they think will be in store for science in the year ahead. And so far, I think it's been pretty accurate. And I know this is a popular show for our listeners. So let's get into it and go through some of the things for people to look out for. And to start with, I wanted to talk about a story that basically seems to percolate everything these days, and that's artificial intelligence.

1:26And when I was reading the story, this struck me as maybe this isn't the artificial intelligence that we're used to. This isn't all about chat bots and LLMs, right? So AI is here to stay, but things will look a little bit different this year. For example, we are expecting to see more models that move beyond the large language models. So these chatbots that we are seeing, which are very expensive to train. Instead, we may see newer approaches that design small scale AI models that learn from a limited pool of data, but can be specialised to solve specific reasoning puzzles. And these compact AI systems do not generate text as in large language models, but instead they process mathematical representation of information and they may be very helpful in mastering particular reasoning puzzles or so.

2:19And we saw last year one such tiny AI model beat massive LLMs at a logic test. And will these perhaps overcome some of the concerns that have plagued large language models such as hallucinations and things like that? So we will have this year to see whether this is true. We may be able to see whether they're more efficient than the current LLMs when it comes to issues like hallucinations or sycophancy. Well, yeah, as expected, there'll be more AI news to come, I'm sure. And the next story I wanted to talk to you about is another science fiction sounding advance. it's about gene editing. What are we expecting in this space?

2:59So we are entering this era where gene editing can be personalized down to an individual person to treat rare genetic disorders. Last year, the whole world heard about baby boy KJ Muldoon, who received a CRISPR therapy tailored specifically to treat a mutation in his genome, which causes a rare metabolic disease. Now the team who treated baby boy Muldoon want to expand the approach to children with similar mutations. So this year we may see the launch of two clinical trials to develop personalized gene editing therapies for children with rare genetic disorders. Now the team that treated Muldoon plans to file for approval to the US Food and Drug Administration to run a clinical trial in Philadelphia to test gene editing therapies in more children with rare metabolic disorders.

3:53So the idea is to treat children with conditions that are caused by variants in seven genes. And these mutations can be treated with the same type of gene editor that was used in Muldoon's therapy. And there's another team as well that hopes to begin a similar trial for genetic disorders of the immune system. And there's other big clinical trials that will be occurring this coming year, as there's a big UK-based trial about a way to detect cancer, right? That's right. So a huge clinical trial in the UK for a single blood test that detects around 50 types of cancers before the symptoms begin is expected to report results.

4:35And this test screens for bits of DNA that cancer cells release into the blood and it can predict the tissue type or the organ that the signal comes from. And that trial involved more than 140 ,000 participants and if the results are promising, the UK health authorities may plan to roll out the tool across hospitals. And also in the UK there's going to be some new laws around clinical trials as well. So this is going to be the biggest regulatory update to clinical trials in two decades. Under this new law, the researchers in the UK can apply for ethics and regulatory approval in one application, but it also mandates that all trials involving medicines to be publicly registered before recruiting the first participant and to publish a summary of the results within 12 months at the end of the trial.

5:30And what's the hope with this change in the law? So the goal is really to speed up research, boost the diversity of trial participants and to reduce the time it takes for promising treatments to reach the patients who need them. And moving away from planet Earth, I guess, we've got a few space-based stories that we're going to be keeping an eye on this year. Now, we've talked a lot on the podcast about missions to the moon, Earth's moon, that is, but researchers are looking a bit farther now, aren't they, to Mars' moons? That's right. The Look Ahead podcast this year has, once again, a lot of space chat.

6:07So Japan is planning to launch a mission to visit the red planet's two moons, Phobos and Deimos. And the goal is to collect samples of the surface of Phobos and return them to Earth in 2031, which has never been done before. And this should help researchers understand whether or not Mars' moons were formed by an impact of a large object with the planet, like is for Earth's moon, or if they're captured asteroids. And it's not just Japan that's heading out to the stars. The European Space Agency also has a mission. Can you tell me about this one? Yeah, so late this year, around December, the European Space Agency is planning to launch its planet-hunting satellite.

6:53And it is called PLATO. So the PLATO satellite has 26 cameras and it will monitor more than 200 ,000 bright stars and identify planets where the temperature is just right for liquid water to form. So looking for life, essentially. Essentially. And so these are all stories that are like far up in the heavens, but coming back down to Earth and even below it, there's some researchers that are going to be drilling quite deep. Is that right? That's right. So China's ocean drilling ship Ming Shang is expected to embark on its first scientific expedition this year. And this vessel is designed to drill up to 11 kilometres through the ocean's crust into Earth's mantle and collect samples.

7:40And this will help researchers learn about how the ocean floor forms and that sort of thing. Yes, and it will also help researchers to learn about the tectonic activity of oceans. And so this is a story that will tell us some of the fundamentals about our planet. And there's also some advancements, changes this year in the world of physics, which is probing our fundamental understanding of the universe. For example, the Large Hadron Collider is going to get an upgrade. And this is happening this summer. So the Large Hadron Collider will collide its lost particles for three years before it shuts down to install a machine of monster intensity.

8:20A machine of monster intensity sounds intense. It is intense and physicists call this the high luminosity LHC. So the idea is that the higher the luminosity, the more data the experiments can gather to allow researchers to observe rare processes. And this upgrade will enable researchers to study known mechanisms in greater detail. And this will begin operating in 2030. So it's starting this year, but by 2030 we might start to see some results. And they're not the only ones. The Fermilab, which many people will be familiar with, is also doing a bit of building work. Indeed. So the Fermilab is hoping to finish building their muon to electron detector in April.

9:06So the experiment will test whether the muon, which is this mysterious and extremely short-lived subatomic particle, can convert into an electron. And this process is not possible in the standard model, which is the current description of the building blocks of matter and how they interact. But in recent years, particle physicists have increasingly turned their attention to finding physics beyond the standard model. And this is why scientists are so excited about the Muon to Electron experiment. Physicists absolutely love to challenge the standard model. I know that for a fact, so I'm sure they'll be interested to see the results.

9:43and data collection will start for that one in 2027. So construction complete this year and then data next year. And so for our final topic of things that will be big stories in science is something that has been a big story in science in the past year and that is the impact of the Trump team on science. So there's been a lot of impacts that we've discussed throughout the year and that's something that's likely to continue into the future. Yeah, so the aftershocks of Trump's return are still working their way through the US science and the education system. Last year, his team brought sweeping policy changes.

10:19And this year, we will continue to see the consequences of these policies. For example, we will continue to see ongoing battles between the White House and Congress over science funding cuts. There may also be changes to public health policies that have drawn criticism from researchers, including conflicting advice on vaccines and cuts to international aid. Last year, the White House announced that it would pull out of UNESCO, the Paris Agreement on Climate Change and the World Health Organization, so the country's climate and health policies could face further erosion. Some of the policy changes as well have affected many US universities, and that's something that's set to continue.

11:01Indeed, so US universities must scrabble with restrictions around immigration that could affect the movement and enrollment of international students and scientists. Also, one of the changes the Trump team has made is they've moved some of the research priorities, right? That's right. The administration has refocused the national research priorities on AI and quantum technologies. And while some researchers welcome this, others are concerned that it will draw resources away from other fields. Well, I guess this is something we're just going to have to wait and see how it will turn out. But thank you so much for taking the time to tell me all about the biggest stories that are set to come out this year in science.

11:41I think that's all we've got time for. So I'll just leave it by saying, Miriam, thank you so much for joining me. It's been a pleasure, Nick. Thank you so much and Happy New Year. Happy New Year to you too and to everyone listening to the podcast.