FOR NEARLY THREE YEARS NOW, MUCH OF THE WORLD HAS SHARED A SINGLE hope as a New Year grew near: a return to some semblance of pre-pandemic normalcy. Looks like we’re making progress as we usher in 2023. COVID cases and deaths are down sharply from their peak; many people have taken off their masks; groups are gathering again in restaurants, stadiums, concert halls and airports, not to mention at home with family for the holidays. Sure, there will still likely be some tough times ahead: Forecasts of a looming recession linger; Ukraine and Russia remain at war; the U.S. continues to be deeply polarized; and, despite the improvement, COVID isn’t yet over. All the more reason, then, to grab joy where you can find it. Toward that end, here is Newsweek’s annual grab bag of the events, innovations and trends that will inform, inspire and entertain us in the New Year. ▸ Diane Harris, Deputy Editor
A UNIVERSAL VACCINE AGAINST COVID
THREE YEARS INTO THE PANDEMIC, SCIENTISTS are still engaged in a deadly game of cat-and-mouse with the coronavirus: They devise a vaccine that provides immune protection, only to have the virus mutate into a form that at least partially evades that protection. It happened in 2021 with the Delta strain of SARS-CoV-2, which causes COVID-19, and has continued through a succession of Omicron subvariants.
To outsmart the coronavirus, scientists have been working on vaccines that are more broadly effective against SARS-CoV-2 and all its variants—and perhaps against other coronaviruses that harass us humans. In September, a team at the Francis Crick Institute in London got good results in lab rats by targeting the S2 region of the coronavirus’s spike protein, which is considered less likely to mutate than the S1 region that current vaccines target. In July, scientists from CalTech and elsewhere published research on a vaccine candidate that provided protection to mice and nonhuman primates from several COVID variants as well as the first SARS virus in 2003. All told, about a dozen efforts are underway—and next year, some winners may emerge. ▸ FRED GUTERL
Puppy Love
It might just be the feel-good event of the year: the American Kennel Club’s Meet the Breeds gathering, kicking off in New York City on January 28-29. The event gives pet lovers the opportunity to meet and play with more than 150 different dog and cat breeds, including for the first time in 2023, six new breeds. Among them, the latest entrants to the AKC’s purebred lineup, introduced in 2022: the Hungarian mudi and the melt-your-heart Russian toy. Other Meet the Breed events will be held in Chicago on August 26-27 and in Columbus,
