This article is a summary of the 2020s in science and technology.
Biology and medicine
- DeepMind used artificial intelligence for the first time to predict protein folding.
- Singapore became the first jurisdiction to approve the sale of cultured meat.
- The vaccines produced by Pfizer/BioNTech and Moderna against Coronavirus disease 2019 became the first vaccines developed using messenger RNA and mark the fastest vaccine development and approval, taking only 10 months.
- Oregon became the first jurisdiction to legalize the medicinal use of psilocybin for mental health treatment.
Energy
- QuantumScape revealed that it had created the first functioning prototype of a solid-state battery, promising to massively increase battery capacity.
- The Chinese Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak was turned on for the first time. The China Fusion Engineering Test Reactor is being planned for commissioning later in the decade.
- Group14 Technologies has patented SCC55, a silicon-carbon composite, leading to 50% more in fully lithiated volumetric energy density than graphite used in conventional lithium-ion battery anodes.
Environmental sciences
- The United Nations has designated the 2020s as the Decade of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development.
Space
Transport
Air
- In 2021, United Airlines revealed plans to purchase 15 supersonic Boom Overture aircraft by the end of the decade.
Land
- Waymo became the first company to offer self-driving car services to the general public without a human supervisor in Chandler, Arizona.
- Autonomous delivery vehicles began transporting food to customers in Texas in 2021.
Computing and artificial intelligence
- Artificial intelligence-assisted coding began to emerge in the early 2020s.
- El Salvador passed Bitcoin law to become the first country to give cryptocurrency and bitcoin the status of legal tender.
Robotics and machine learning
Physics
- In January 2020, Physicists discovered a unique metal with billions of quantum entangled electrons.
- The Large Hadron Collider will once again begin operation in early 2021; the collider was shut down in December 2018 "to enable major upgrade and renovation works."
Paleontology
Archaeology
See also
- History of science and technology
- List of science and technology articles by continent
- List of years in science
- 2025 in science
- Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and technology
- History of technology by type
- List of science timelines
References
