Greater sustainability and reducing environmental impact will be important themes of 2022

Happy New Year! I hope you had a great start to the year, and I want to wish you a healthy and happy 2022.

Eagle-eyed readers will have noticed that the print version of C&EN is now showing the volume number as 100. Typically, the volume number refers to the number of years the publication has been circulated. But because volume numbers don’t start at zero, this means that 2022 is C&EN’s 99th—not 100th—year of circulation. C&EN officially launched in 1923, so we will celebrate our 100th anniversary in 2023. And we are looking forward to it! If you have ideas about how C&EN should celebrate turning 100, please get in touch by emailing cenfeedback@acs.org.

This year, science will again be formally celebrated around the world: the member states of the United Nations unanimously approved naming 2022 the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development.

The focus on basic sciences will support the UN’s Agenda 2030 for Sustainable Development, which aims to “ensure a balanced, sustainable and inclusive development of the planet.” Science is crucial to solving the world’s ongoing challenges, such as access to food, clean water, affordable medicines and sustainable energy sources.

By designating 2022 as the International Year of Basic Sciences for Sustainable Development—or IYBSSD2022—the UN is reaffirming the links between basic sciences and achieving its sustainable development goals.

IYBSSD2022 will be officially inaugurated with a conference at the end of June at the headquarters of the UN Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization in Paris. Events will be organized around the world until June 30, 2023.

In other news, the year opened and closed with high-profile court cases that will have long-lasting implications for the way scientists operate.

One of these cases was that of Harvard chemist Charles Lieber. C&EN had a front-row seat, as Senior Correspondent Bethany Halford was able to attend the proceedings and report directly from Boston. If you followed her daily updates, you’ve read that Lieber was found guilty of making false statements and of tax offenses relating to his work with a university in China.

Many fear that this case will negatively affect international scientific collaborations—in particular, those between scientists in the US and China. Others worry that it may create an environment in the US that is less welcoming for Asian scientists. Only time will tell.

The other case was the trial of Elizabeth Holmes, founder of blood-testing start-up Theranos. Holmes was convicted of investor fraud and conspiracy. She had convinced investors that the technology her company was working on offered something revolutionary: diagnoses of a range of conditions using a single drop of blood from a person.

This case teaches us that the “fake it till you make it” philosophy, often associated with Silicon Valley, is not a viable way of doing business when it comes to products and technologies in medicine, where there are life-and-death ramifications.

Looking forward, I invite you to read C&EN’s World Chemical Outlook 2022 and review our analysis of the trends, economic drivers, and policies that will affect the chemical world over the next 12 months. The pandemic was an important theme during 2020 and 2021, and we expect 2022 to continue in the same vein.

Greater sustainability and reducing environmental impact will be important drivers. And so will the effort to keep plastics out of the environment and to develop clean and sustainable technologies. The race is on.