Ask HN: What are the greatest discoveries in the last few years?
11 points
12 hours ago
| 2 comments
| HN
A repost of an old thread 11 years ago -

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=9731111

max_
8 hours ago
[-]
No particular order but;

1. Transformers

I think they need to be looked into more. They just work too well.

I feel like they have a secret within that is yet to be known.

[1] https://arxiv.org/abs/1706.03762

2. The 2016 Noble Prize in Medicine

Autophagy has such interesting properties. It can probably do alot more for us now than any new pill or gene editing tool

[2] https://www.nobelprize.org/prizes/medicine/2016/press-releas...

3. zk-STARKS

I can prove to you than X * Y = Z, without ever revealing what, X, Y or Z are. And I can do this for any function, or math operator.

https://eprint.iacr.org/2023/189

4. TLock

I can encrypt my will, in a way such that. It can only be read after X years.

And I do not need a trusted third party to do it.

[4] https://eprint.iacr.org/2018/046.pdf

[4] https://youtu.be/Xh849Ij3lhU

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cochinescu
10 hours ago
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I’d put CRISPR-based genome editing high on the list, especially with the recent prime and base editing advances. It’s wild how fast the tech moved from concept to real-world gene therapy trials. Curious what people think about AI-driven protein folding breakthroughs too.
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sjkoelle
10 hours ago
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Interesting that CRISPR was the top answer in 2015 too
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