Breakthrough of the year

Historical Origin

1989 (as Molecule of the Year)

2024 Science Winner

Lenacapavir (HIV capsid inhibitor)

2025 All-In Winners

Asteroid Bennu discovery; Humanoid Robots

2025 Science Winner

Dragon Man DNA extraction (Harbin, China)

Awarding Body (Journal)

Science (AAAS)

Awarding Body (Podcast)

All-In Podcast (Bestie Awards)

1989-01-01

1996-01-01

2021-12-16

2024-12-12

2025-12-15

The Breakthrough of the Year is an annual award for the most significant development in scientific research made by the AAAS journal Science "Science (journal)"), an academic journal covering all branches of science. Originating in 1989 as the Molecule of the Year, and inspired by Time "Time (magazine)")'s Person of the Year, it was renamed the Breakthrough of the Year in 1996. ## Molecule of the Year [edit] [...] | Science "Science (journal)") award | 1989: PCR and DNA polymerase 1990: the manufacture of synthetic diamonds 1991: buckminsterfullerene 1992: nitric oxide 1993: p53 1994: DNA repair | [...] 10. ^ Elizabeth Pennisi (1997). "BREAKTHROUGH OF THE YEAR. Cloning: The Lamb That Roared". Science "Science (journal)"). 278 (5346): 2038–2039. Bibcode "Bibcode (identifier)"):1997Sci...278.2038P. doi "Doi (identifier)"):10.1126/science.278.5346.2038. PMID "PMID (identifier)") 9432711. S2CID "S2CID (identifier)") 83255402.

When Google DeepMind unveiled its protein-structure predictor AlphaFold2 in 2020, it upended expectations for what artificial intelligence (AI) could accomplish in science. Fittingly, it was named Science’s 2021 Breakthrough of the Year—and won a share of the 2024 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for its creators. Few imagined that general-purpose large language models (LLMs), trained on trillions of words and optimized simply to regurgitate humanlike text, might follow suit. That view is now [...] That changed this year, after researchers in China managed to extract DNA from an ancient skull found decades ago near Harbin, China. The DNA came from an unusual source—not the teeth or inner ear bones, common sources for ancient genetic material, but a tiny, 0.3-milligram sample of hardened plaque scraped from Dragon Man’s sole remaining tooth. (The genetic material captured in dental plaque comes mostly from bacteria, but also includes DNA from saliva and other fluids in the mouth.) [...] That change in motivation may be the most important breakthrough of all, ensuring that this year’s inflection points are just the beginning. ### The green giant Images of China’s clean energy infrastructure reveal a transformation of unmatched scale and speed ByTim Appenzeller Photography byGeorge Steinmetz

JWST—the largest and most powerful space telescope ever built and Science’s 2022 Breakthrough of the Year—was specifically designed to study the universe’s first billion or so years, capturing more faint red light than prior instruments. In its first months, the telescope observed perhaps 1000 times more galaxy candidates at cosmic dawn than anticipated. Based on their unusual brightness, researchers estimated that some were Milky Way–size behemoths, which shouldn’t have been able to grow so [...] is suppressed also rarely infect others, a discovery that led Science to declare “treatment as prevention” the 2011 Breakthrough of the Year. As more people around the world gained access to the drugs, new global infections plummeted from 2.1 million in 2011 to 1.3 million last year. [...] But that’s not the only reason Science has named lenacapavir its 2024 Breakthrough of the Year. The off-the-charts success of the drug as PrEP sprang from a basic research advance: a new understanding of the structure and function of HIV’s capsid protein, which lenacapavir targets. Many other viruses have their own capsid proteins, which form a shell around their genetic material, so this drug’s triumph raises the exciting prospect that similar capsid inhibitors could fight other viral

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