Some recent advances in science are:

Finding seven earth-sized planets: NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope has revealed the first known system of seven Earth-size planets around a single star. Three of these planets are firmly located in the habitable zone, the area around the parent star where a rocky planet is most likely to have liquid water.

Gene therapy’s transition from idea to revolutionary medicine: There were some successes recently in gene therapy, i.e.,  fixing your DNA to cure sickness. During 2016, Italian scientists at Milan’s San Raffaele Telethon Institute for Gene Therapy reported that they had cured 18 children of a rare but terrible immune deficiency disease, ADA-SCID.

In February 2016, doctors in Texas were laying plans to inject genes from light-sensing algae into the eyes of a blind person, potentially restoring the ability to see. The test, carried out a month later, was the first time a whole gene from a different species had been used in a human being.

With so many promising results in human tests, 2017 will be the year that several gene therapies end up before the Food and Drug Administration. These include a treatment for hereditary blindness developed by Spark, Glaxo’s Strimvelis, and cancer treatments from Novartis and Kite Pharma.

Note: This page is not current and needs to updated from the Year 2016 information to the Year 2020.