Building off of our look back at 2025 last week, this edition of Core Elements will focus on some of the major science stories, research areas, and technological hotspots to watch this year. But first we will review some new year’s resolutions for scientists and universities.
Rasoul Sorkhabi
Editor, Core Elements
Forbes' New Year Resolutions for Science in 2026
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Forbes suggests that universities and scientists make three resolutions for 2026:
Simplify the message of research: Make science accessible to the public.
Be humble and relinquish hubris: Communicate beyond the ivory tower through various media.
Connect with the people’s values: Consider your audience and cater to their needs.
Editor’s notes:
Historically, major scientific discoveries have stemmed from the curiosity, passion, and ingenuity of individual scientists and research groups.
The three resolutions Forbes suggestscan be boiled down to one valuable and important message: Scientists must reach out to people, and science must be popularized.
These are some of the key goals I hope to accomplish with each issue of Core Elements, and I will continue to prioritize connectivity/fellowship and popularizing science. A huge thank you to our subscribers for their support.
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Nature and Scientific American have outlined what they believe will be the most significant science stories of 2026.
Let’s look at the topics related to geoscience.
Nuclear power:
Expanding nuclear energy is on the U.S. Department of Energy’s priority agenda.
The nuclear-weapon-limiting New START Treaty between the United States and Russia will expire in February 2026. Will it be renewed, or will nuclear testing and weapon development resume?
Disaster response:
“The Trump administration,” writes the editor of ScienceAmerican, “is trying to reduce the federal government’s responsibility for disaster response by downsizing the Federal Emergency Management Agency and shifting the burden to states and local jurisdictions.”
Any natural disaster in 2026 will be a test of the efficiency for new protocols.
Space missions:
NASA’s Artemis II mission is scheduled to launch this year, taking four astronauts on a ten-day journey to the Moon (the last mission to the Moon was Apollo 17 in 1971). The mission will help prepare for subsequent missions that land astronauts on the Moon.
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is set to launch in autumn 2026.
China is scheduled to launch Xuntian, a space telescope that will orbit with the country’s space station, Tiangong.
China will also launch its next lunar probe, Chang’e-7, in August to land a hopper spacecraft near the Moon’s south pole to look for frozen water and study moonquakes.
India’s Gaganyaan orbital spacecraft will conduct an uncrewed test mission in 2026.
India’s first solar mission, Aditya-L1, will observe the solar storm maximum, a roughly 11-year cycle of solar activity.
Japan’s Martian Moons eXploration (MMX) mission will head to Phobos (one of Mars’s moons) to collect samples in 2031 and bring them back to Earth. This will be the first mission of its kind.
The European Space Agency will launch its planet-hunting satellite PLATO, equipped with 26 cameras to identify ‘Earth twin’ planets.
China’s ocean drilling:
China’s deepwater drillship, Meng Xiang, will sail for its first scientific expedition.
The goal is to drill up to 11 kilometers of oceanic crust to reach the Earth’s mantle and collect rock samples.
AI-powered research: According to Nature, “AI agents that integrate several large language models to carry out complex, multi-step processes are likely to be used more widely, some with little human oversight.”
Here comes the sun:
Since 1989, the AAAS’ Science magazine, echoing Time magazine’s Man of the Year, has selected a Breakthrough of the Year. For 2026, it has selected solar power, entitling the feature article after the Beatles hit “Here Comes the Sun.”
Science observes that the combined solar and wind electric power surpassed that of coal electric power generation for the first time in 2025.
“Falling prices,” according to Science, “have propelled a surge in solar and wind energy.”
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