Giving Compass' Take:

• From smart bionics to increased social network transparency, this Horizon magazine article (via The Naked Scientists) explores some of the scientific breakthroughs that will make a difference in 2019.

• How can we support more research and development in the areas we care deeply about? On the flipside, which technology should be advanced with caution?

• Here are some facts to know when it comes to advancing women and girls in science.

Smart bionics, proof that gene editing can correct epilepsy and AI-designed drugs are just some of the breakthroughs that European scientists told Horizon would make the biggest difference to their field in 2019.

Scalable plasma wakefields — Dr. Edda Gschwendtner

Following 2018’s demonstration of a plasma wakefield accelerator that accelerated electrons to more than 1 gigaelectronvolt, a milestone in particle physics, Dr. Gschwendtner from CERN says that the next challenge is to show that the process is scalable and able to be used for experiments such as the search for dark photons.

Anti-vaccine rhetoric containment — Dr. Heidi Larson

Vaccination expert and anthropologist Dr. Larson from the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, UK, says that we should take lessons in how to combat negative messaging online from elsewhere in order to tackle anti-vaccination sentiment: "(We need) to bring to the whole social media landscape the kind of rigor that is currently going on around containing hate rhetoric … and bring that same lens to reduce the same dynamics which are happening across the vaccine landscape."

Social network transparency — Dr. Vidya Narayanan

Dr. Narayanan from the computational propaganda project at the UK’s Oxford Internet Institute is studying how the spread of misinformation on social platforms such as Facebook and Twitter is manipulating public opinion. She said to tackle the problem it is important for researchers to have access to public data on social media platforms: "An important breakthrough would therefore be increased transparency from social media platforms and a willingness to share public data with researchers."

Read the full article about the science to watch in 2019 by Horizon Magazine at The Naked Scientists.