Every year, scientists make the most incredible discoveries, from minor ones to turning points in the history of all mankind, from completely accidental ones to those that researchers have been pursuing for years and decades. Breakthroughs are occurring in completely different fields, from space exploration and archeology to biology and many other scientific fields. Some of these discoveries help us understand the world's most mysterious mysteries or allow us to see something completely incredible for the first time. Intrigued? From Martian tsunamis to the Shroud of Turin, here are 25 of the most amazing discoveries that will be hard to believe.
25. Headless Vikings from Dorset
In June 2009, archaeologists made a shocking discovery near the coastal town of Weymouth in the English county of Dorset (Weymouth, Dorset). During preparatory work for the opening of a new highway, local workers came across mass graves in which they discovered 54 skeletons and 51 skulls. The remains were buried in the area of a Roman quarry that had long been abandoned. Experts believe that among the buried corpses were those who were decapitated during a public execution.
24. Galilean satellites
When the famous Italian Renaissance astronomer Galileo Galilei pointed his brand new telescope into the sky in January 1610, he had no idea that he would soon discover the 4 largest moons of Jupiter, now known as the Galilean moons. By and large, until that very moment, not a single scientist imagined that other planets could also have their own satellites.
23. Evolution of microbes
Antibiotics and vaccines have already saved millions of lives, but to the surprise of scientists, some microbes are developing and changing faster than we can find a way to destroy them. The flu virus, for example, mutates so quickly that last year's vaccines are no longer effective against new strains. It turns out that some hospitals are infected with bacteria that have become almost resistant to antibiotics, and if this is the case, then even a small cut can lead to life-threatening infections.
22. Moa birds
When moa bones were first discovered in the 1830s, biologists were not immediately able to get used to the idea that these were the remains of birds. These bones were so unusual and large that scientists were reluctant to recognize their belonging to the class of birds. Today we know that moas were huge animals and could not fly. They lived mainly in New Zealand, but did not survive to this day. Their extinction occurred approximately between 1300 and 1440 AD. The reason for the disappearance of such an unusual species was the exorbitant hunting of the Maori tribes, whose representatives settled the island at the end of the 14th century.
21. Yonaguni Monument
In 1987, during a search good place for sightings of hammerhead sharks, the head of the Yonaguni-Cho tourism association, Kihachiro Aratake, noted in sea water unusual single formations reminiscent of architectural structures. The discovery was made off the coast of Yonaguni, the southernmost landmass of Japan's Ryukyu archipelago. There is still no consensus in the scientific community about whether this formation is natural, whether man had a hand in it, or whether this place is entirely the fruit of human labor.
20. Baghdad battery
If you have lived without electricity for some time, you should know that batteries are a very important source of energy. The Baghdad battery proves that humanity tried to create batteries several thousand years ago. The battery is a set of 3 artifacts discovered in the Kuzhut Rabu area of Iraq near Baghdad. The 2,000-year-old find consists of a ceramic pot, metal cylinder and rod. If the pot is filled with vinegar or a similar liquid, it can produce up to 1.1 volts of energy. No written explanations were found on the use of this ancient device, but archaeologists agreed that most likely it was an ancient battery.
19. Baby in the coffin of a mummified priest
Researchers from the University of Lund in Sweden (Lund) were incredibly surprised by the results of scanning the coffin of a Scandinavian mummified priest. Scientists have discovered the remains of a tiny baby hidden under a man's feet. Archaeologists believe that the child could either be a relative of the clergyman, or someone else's illegitimate child, whose remains were placed in the coffin so that the dead baby could be buried according to religious customs, despite its unholy origins.
18. Infrared radiation
Infrared rays were discovered by British astronomer William Herschel in 1800 when he was studying the effect of heating different colors. In his experiments, the scientist used a prism to split light into a color spectrum, and thermometers to measure the thermal effect of each individual color. Today, infrared radiation is used in many areas of our lives, including heating systems, search engines, meteorology and astronomy.
17. Temperatures below absolute zero
Previously, scientists believed that −273.15° C was absolute zero, below which it was impossible to fall, and which was the limit for the thermodynamic temperature scale. However, a team of researchers from the German Max Planck Institute was recently able to disprove the theory of absolute zero. Under vacuum conditions, scientists managed to cool a cloud of gas atoms to below −273.15° C. The result of the experiments was so unexpected that the researchers at first had no idea what to do with the frozen particles.
16. Martian tsunamis
Recently, scientists published studies proving that a powerful tsunami erupted on the surface approximately 3.4 million years ago. This discovery literally stunned members of the astronomical community. Experts believe that the red planet suffered a lot from two meteorite impacts, which provoked huge tidal waves that could reach up to 50 meters in height.
15. Stone balls of Costa Rica
In the river delta area small island Isla del Cano, located in the territorial waters of the Republic of Costa Rica (Isla del Caño, Costa Rica), you can find very unusual stone formations. Also known as petrospheres, these man-made spheres are scattered throughout the island - over 300 of them have already been found on Isla del Cano. For the first time in modern times, these stones were found in the 1930s, when workers were clearing an area here for a banana plantation. According to researchers, the balls were made by the ancestors of the indigenous people who lived here during the Spanish invasion. Their exact age and purpose are still unknown.
14. The Mandela Effect
Today science fiction writers and some scientists are speculating on the topic of parallel worlds, but have you heard about parallel memories? Self-identified medium Fiona Broome says that while most people remember the death of legendary South African President Nelson Mandela in 2013 from old age and illness, there are those who remember his death in the 1980s, when Mandela was still in prison. This strange phenomenon the woman called it “The Mandela Effect,” although all over the world people talk about alternative memories that are not at all about the apartheid-era hero.
13. Tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun
The tomb of King Tutankhamun, preserved almost intact, was discovered by Egyptologists Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon in 1922. Tutankhamun was one of the most famous pharaohs, and his death at the age of 18 remains a mystery in ancient Egypt. The news of the archaeological find was so widely reported in the media around the world that it even spurred a revival of public interest in the history of ancient civilization.
12. Hurricane on Saturn
In 2013, a major hurricane was recorded by a NASA spacecraft orbiting Saturn. The epicenter of the storm was about 2,000 kilometers in diameter, and the speed of the clouds reached 530 kilometers per hour. On Earth, hurricanes are fed by warm ocean waters, but on Saturn there are no oceans or seas. And this leads scientists to a dead end, since it is not clear how else to explain the occurrence of such a serious storm on a distant planet.
11. Songs of humpback whales
Humpback whales make strange sounds that scientists have been unable to decipher for decades. In 2015, near the Hawaiian island of Maui, researchers recorded a completely new type of whale sound. The mysterious noise is so low that it is barely audible to the human ear. Biologists still cannot understand how humpback whales make these sounds and what their purpose is.
10. Moving stones
Death Valley National Park in California, USA, despite its gloomy name, can boast of a completely positive attitude, because even the stones come to life here. At the beginning of the 20th century, the public first heard about the migrating stones of this reserve, and since then many versions have been put forward about how they move. Experts offered a choice of theories about alien intervention and magnetic influence, or about the pranks of animals or simple jokers. But the solution was found quite recently - it turned out that the stones shifted under their own weight during strong winds, moving rock on a thin layer of ice.
9. Child sacrifices
In 1999, archaeologists working in the area of Argentina's Llullaillaco volcano made a shocking discovery when they found three mummified children left to die of exposure during an ancient Inca religious ritual. The cruel tradition was carried out by the ancient Incas most often in honor of some important events, or to ward off natural disasters.
8. Mary Celeste
Mary Celeste was an American merchant ship abandoned in the waters Atlantic Ocean in the area of the Azores Islands. The ship sailed from New York to Genoa on November 7, 1872, and was discovered again only on December 5. Almost all the supplies were still on the ship, and even the personal belongings of the crew and captain lay in their places untouched. But the Mary Celeste team itself was not in sight. Since then, no one has heard of them, and this case is still considered one of the biggest mysteries in the history of modern navigation.
7. Black holes
Black holes are some of the strangest and most fascinating celestial objects we have ever discovered in deep space. These are space-time regions that have such a powerful gravitational force that it is simply impossible to get out of there. Albert Einstein was the first to predict the existence of these objects back in 1916, using only the theory of relativity. The term “black hole” itself appeared in 1967, and was coined by American astronomer John Wheeler, but the first black hole was truly discovered only in 1971.
6. Antikythra mechanism
It may sound crazy, but the first analog computer was created around 100 BC. The Antikythera mechanism is an ancient version of a computer that was used to predict the positions of astronomical bodies and eclipses. Discovered in July 1901 among the remains of a crashed ship off the Greek island of Antikytra, the device is believed to have been designed and installed by Greek scientists between 200 and 100 BC.
5. RNA interference
In 1998, through a series of experiments, scientists found that gene expression (the process of transforming hereditary information from genes into functional RNA or protein) is controlled by a phenomenon later called RNA interference. This process protects us from viruses that try to invade our DNA and controls gene expression. For their work studying this phenomenon, scientists Craig Mello and Andrew Fire were awarded the Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. Subsequently, this discovery contributed to the study of gene silencing - turning off genes, which causes diseases such as high blood pressure and a number of other ailments.
4. Shroud of Turin
The Shroud of Turin is one of the most mysterious archaeological discoveries of all time. It is believed that this fabric is the same shroud in which Jesus Christ was buried. This long piece of fabric is stained with blood, and the dark imprint of a human body is clearly visible on it. Catholic Church officially reported the existence of this item back in 1353, when it appeared in the church of the French commune of Lirey. However, the legend of the shroud has existed much longer, and the first mentions of it were known as early as 30 or 33 AD.
3. Voynich Manuscript
Perhaps one of the most mysterious manuscripts in human history, the Voynich manuscript is an amazing artifact, the origin and ownership of which is still completely unknown. The manuscript is full of illustrations of plants, strange symbols and diagrams, and is written in a mysterious language that does not belong to any civilization known to historians and archaeologists.
2. Extraterrestrial neutrinos and Antarctica
Using equipment from the IceCube Neutrino Observatory in Antarctica, physicists have recently finally discovered evidence of the existence of cosmic rays beyond our solar system. These energetic beams are very difficult to detect, so scientists have to rely on studying neutrinos (subatomic particles) created when the beams interact with their surroundings.
1. Mass burial of animals
In 1971, paleontologists discovered a huge animal burial in a cornfield in Idaho. Once upon a time there was a basin of a large reservoir, and this place became the last refuge for the skeletons of almost 200 animals. Apparently, these animals died of suffocation approximately 12 million years ago and were hidden for a long time from prying eyes under a deep layer of volcanic ash. Following the unexpected discovery, the site was designated Ashfall Fossil Beds State Historic Park.
Photo sources:
25 – MaxPixel; 24 – Kevin Gill / flickr; 23 – serendigity / flickr; 22, 12, 8, 7, 4, 3, 1 – Wikimedia; 21 – Vincent Lou; 20 – Boynton / flickr; 19 – frankjuarez / flickr; 18 – AIRS, the Atmospheric Infrared Sounder / flickr; 17 – Guy vandegrift, Gas thermometer and absolute zero; 16 – Pixabay; 15 – Rodtico21, Stone spheres of Costa Rica. Museo Nacional; 14 – Pixabay; 13 – Carsten Frenzl; 11 – hit Welles Wwelles14, Humpback stellwagen edit; 10 – Mike Baird / flickr; 9 – grooverpedro, Momias de Llullaillaco en la Provincia de Salta (Argentina); 6 – Marsyas; 5 – Pixabay; 2 – Wikipedia
In the 15 years since the beginning of the new millennium, people have not even noticed that they have found themselves in another world: we live in another solar system, we can repair genes and control prosthetics with the power of thought. None of this happened in the 20th century
The human genome has been completely sequenced
Robot sorts human DNA in petri dishes for a project The Human Genome
Human Genome Project ( The Human Genome Project) began in 1990, a working draft of the genome structure was released in 2000, and the complete genome in 2003. However, even today additional analysis of some areas has not yet been completed. It was mainly carried out at universities and research centers in the USA, Canada and the UK. Genome sequencing is critical to drug development and understanding how the human body works.
Genetic engineering has reached a new level
IN last years developed a revolutionary method for manipulating DNA using the so-called CRISP-mechanism. This technique makes it possible to selectively edit certain genes, which was previously impossible.
Mathematics
Poincare's theorem has been proven
In 2002, Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman proved Poincaré's theorem, one of the Seven Millennium Problems (important mathematical problems whose solution has not been found for decades). Perelman showed that the original three-dimensional surface (if there are no discontinuities in it) will necessarily evolve into a three-dimensional sphere. For this work he received the prestigious Fields Medal, the equivalent of the Nobel Prize in mathematics.
Dwarf planet Eris discovered
Eris was first photographed on October 21, 2003, but was noticed in photographs only at the beginning of 2005. Its discovery was the last straw in the debate about the fate of Pluto (whether it should continue to be considered a planet or not), which changed the usual image of the solar system (see pp. 142–143).
Water discovered on Mars
In 2005, the European Space Agency's Mars Express probe discovered large deposits of water ice near the surface - this is very important for the subsequent colonization of the Red Planet.
Global warming - faster than expected
In 2015, scientists from the World Glacier Monitoring Center at the University of Zurich (Switzerland), led by Dr. Michael Zemp, working together with colleagues from 30 countries, found that the rate of melting of glaciers on Earth to date, compared with the average for the 20th century, increased two to three times.
Quantum teleportation discovered
Such teleportation differs from the teleportation that science fiction writers like to talk about - with it, matter or energy is not transferred over a distance. Transmission experiments quantum states over long distances have been successfully carried out over the past 15 years by no less than a dozen scientific groups. Quantum teleportation is very important for the creation of ultra-secure ciphers and quantum computers.
The existence of graphene has been experimentally confirmed
Its two-dimensional (one atom thick) crystal lattice exhibits unusual electrical properties. Graphene was first obtained by Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov in 2004 (Nobel Prize for 2010). It is planned to be used in electronics (in ultra-thin and ultra-fast transistors), composites, electrodes, etc. In addition, graphene is the second strongest material in the world (carbyne is in first place).
The existence of quark-gluon plasma has been proven
In 2012, experiments by physicists working with the RHIC accelerator at Brookhaven National Laboratory (USA) were included in the Guinness Book of Records with the wording “for the most high temperature obtained in laboratory conditions." By colliding gold ions in an accelerator, scientists achieved the emergence of quark-gluon plasma with a temperature of 4 trillion ° C (250 thousand times hotter than in the center of the Sun). About a microsecond after the Big Bang, the Universe was filled with just such plasma.
Higgs boson discovered
The existence of this elementary particle, which is responsible for the mass of all other particles, was theoretically predicted by Peter Higgs back in the 1960s. And it was found during experiments at the Large Hadron Collider in 2012 (for which Higgs, together with Francois Englert, received the 2013 Nobel Prize).
People were divided into three enterotypes
In 2011, scientists from Germany, France and several other research centers proved that, according to the genetics of the bacteria that inhabit us, people are divided into three categories, or enterotypes. A person’s enterotype manifests itself in different reactions to food, medications and diets, and therefore it has become clear that no universal recipes can exist in these areas.
First synthetic bacterial cell created
In 2010, scientists from the Craig Venter Institute (one of the leaders in the race to decipher the human genome) created the first completely synthetic chromosome with a genome. When it was inserted into a bacterial cell devoid of genetic material, it began to function and divide according to the laws prescribed by the new genome. In the future, the synthetic genome will make it possible to create vaccines against new viral strains in hours, not weeks, to produce effective biofuel, new food products, etc.
Successfully recorded and re-recorded memories
Since 2010, several research groups (USA, France, Germany) have learned to record false memories in the brains of mice, erase real ones, and also turn pleasant memories into unpleasant ones. It hasn't reached the human brain yet, but it won't be long now.
“Ethical” (not from embryos) pluripotent stem cells obtained
In 2012, Shinya Yamanaka and John Gurdon won the Nobel Prize for their 2006 discovery of producing mouse pluripotent stem cells through epigenetic reprogramming. Over the next decade, at least a dozen scientific groups have made impressive progress in this area, including with human cells. This heralds imminent breakthroughs in cancer therapy, regenerative medicine, and human (or human organ) cloning.
Dinosaur soft tissue discovered for the first time
Mary Schweitzer led the scientific team that described collagen isolated from the femur of Tyrannosaurus rex
In 2005, University of North Carolina molecular paleontologist Mary Schweitzer discovered soft tissue in the fossilized limb of a juvenile tyrannosaurus from Montana (65 million years old). Previously, it was believed that any proteins would decompose within a few thousand years at most, so no one looked for them in fossils. After this, soft tissue (collagen) was found in other ancient samples.
Neanderthal and Denisovan genes have been discovered in humans
Participants of the international symposium “Transition to the Upper Paleolithic in Eurasia: cultural dynamics and development of the clan” Homo» inspecting the excavation site in the central hall of the Denisova Cave
From the work of two scientific groups, it became clear that from 1 to 3% of the genome of the average European or Asian goes back to Neanderthals. But every modern individual has dissimilar Neanderthal alleles (different forms of the same gene), so the total amount of “Neanderthal” genes is much higher, up to 30%. The “heirs” of the Neanderthals (crossing occurred about 45 thousand years ago) are mainly Europeans; Asians in their genome contain traces of interbreeding with another hominid - “Denisovan man”. The cleanest Homo sapiens- natives of the African continent.
Breathing reveals early stage of lung cancer
A year ago, a group of Israeli, American and British scientists developed a device that can accurately identify lung cancer and determine what stage it is in. The device is based on a breath analyzer with a built-in nanochip. NaNose, capable of “sniffing out” a cancerous tumor with 90% accuracy, even when the cancerous nodule is practically invisible. We should soon expect analyzers that will be able to detect other types of cancer by “smell.”
The first fully autonomous artificial heart was developed
American company specialists Abiomed developed the world's first fully autonomous permanent artificial heart for implantation ( AbioCor). Artificial heart intended for patients who cannot treat their own heart or implant a donor heart.
Biomechanical devices and prostheses controlled by thought have been created
American Zach Water tested a bionic leg prosthesis by climbing the stairs to the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower skyscraper in Chicago.
In 2013, the first prototypes of “smart” prostheses with feedback (emulation of tactile sensations) appeared, which allow a person to feel what the prosthesis “feels”. In the 2010s, devices separate from humans were created, controlled only through a mental interface (sometimes with invasive contacts, but more often it looks like a head hoop with a dry electrode) - computer games and simulators, manipulators, transport, etc.
The petaflop barrier has been crossed
In 2008, a new supercomputer in Los Alamos (USA) began operating at a speed of more than a quadrillion (one thousand trillion) operations per second. The next barrier, exascale (quintillion operations per second), will be reached in the coming years. Systems with such incredible speed are needed primarily for high-performance computing - processing data from scientific experiments, climate modeling, financial transactions, etc.
Photo: Alamy, SPL, Newscom / Legion Media, SPL / Legion Media (X2), Photo courtesy of North Carolina State University, Reuters / Pix-Stream, Alexander Kryazhev / RIA Novosti, Reuters / Pix-Stream, Michael Hoch, Maximilien Brice / © 2008 CERN, for the benefit of the CMS Collaboration, AP / East News
Compared to our ancestors, we live much better. May has comfortable houses, a television, a telephone, trains and planes. However, in some ways the ancient people surpassed us: they left riddles for humanity that scientists still cannot solve.
Antikythera Mechanism
It was discovered in 1902 on an ancient shipwreck near the Greek island of Antikythera. The date of its creation is considered to be approximately 100 BC. The mechanism contains bronze gears and parts not found in any other device of the time.
The purpose of the Antikythera mechanism is still not clear. Why? Firstly, it is unclear where it was made and who designed it. It has now been established that it consists of 82 fragments - X-ray equipment made it possible to look inside and reveal hidden details. The most likely version is that the Antikythera mechanism is a “cross between” a calculator and an astrolabe, but no one can yet say exactly what it is.
Ancient pipes of China
In one of the regions of China, so remote that it is unlikely that people have ever lived there, there is a mountain with three mysterious triangular holes at the top. They contain hundreds of ancient pipes (now rusty) of unknown origin. Some of them lead deep into the mountain, some lead to a nearby salt lake.
The pipes were laid, judging by the findings of archaeologists, at a time when people did not yet know how to cook on fire, and they had not even dreamed of cast-iron pots. In addition, despite the fact that the pipes are thousands of years old, there is no debris in them, which indicates that they were used. But who? It is impossible to live in those places!
Stones Costa Rica
Perfectly spherical stones are scattered across Costa Rica. Some of them are small, a few centimeters in diameter, but there are some that reach 2.5 meters in diameter and weigh several tons. It is not clear what the stones turned by unknown craftsmen were used for. All that the researchers managed to find out boils down to the fact that the balls were cut out of volcanic rock.
Baghdad batteries
They were found on the territory Ancient Mesopotamia. Their age is estimated at more than two thousand years. When archaeologists came across them, they initially thought that they were just clay vessels for storing food. However, this theory was rejected after a copper rod was discovered in the vessels. It can be assumed that the vessels obviously contained some kind of liquid, which, interacting with copper, produced electric charge. If this is true, then the find is the first known battery.
But what were these batteries for?! Perhaps they were used by priests for the effect of their rituals, or experiments with gold were carried out with the help of these batteries.
Mysterious sound in the ocean
Employees of the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration recorded a strange sound in the ocean. It was so loud that it was picked up by two microphones located three thousand miles apart.
The wave characteristics of the sound, according to scientists, indicate that it is produced by something living. However, to date, none of the known to science animals do not have sufficient “technical characteristics” to reproduce a sound of such volume.
Indian planes
These figures, made in the shape of airplanes, were created about 1.5 thousand years ago. No one has been able to solve their mystery - what served as models for such works of art.
In the catalogs the figurines were listed as “zoomorphic”, that is, in the form of animals. And it was precisely how numerous visitors looked at them as strange animals. And only in the 20th century, during the development of the aviation industry, it became clear that these strange figures were made in the shape of airplanes! It’s just that while there were no airplanes, people had nothing to compare them with.
Incredible fossils
There are a number of fossils that neither geology nor history can explain. Take, for example, the imprint of a human palm in limestone, dating back 110 million years. Something similar to a fossilized human finger was found in the Canadian Arctic, and also dates back to the same period, and in Utah, a sandaled foot print was found, made from 300 to 600 million years ago.
Underwater pyramids at the bottom Bermuda Triangle
In early 1977, the echo sounders of a fishing vessel registered an irregularity resembling a pyramid on the ocean floor, somewhat away from Bermuda. This was the reason for the American Charles Berlitz to organize a special expedition. This expedition discovered a pyramid at a depth of 400 meters. Charles Berlitz claims that its height is almost 150 meters, the length of the side of the base is 200 meters, and the slope of the side faces is the same as the Cheops pyramid. One of the sides of this pyramid is longer than the other.
The discovered pyramid is three times higher than the largest Egyptian pyramid (Cheops), has glass (or glass-crystal-like appearance) edges, immaculately smooth and even, like mirrors. According to the characteristics of the echo signals reflected from its surface, the faces of the pyramid are made of some mysterious material, similar to polished ceramics or glass.
The ship's sonars and high-resolution computerized analyzers showed three-dimensional images of very smooth, clean, algae-free edges of the pyramid. The pyramid does not consist of blocks; no seams, no connectors, no cracks are visible. It seems that it is carved from a single monolith. But in subsequent years, the US authorities classified information about the glass pyramid, and this topic became closed in the media.
However, not so long ago, a message came again that two mysterious giant pyramid-shaped structures were found in the Bermuda Triangle area. Oceanographer Verlag Mayer, using special equipment, managed to find out that they consist of a substance resembling glass. The dimensions of the underwater pyramids, located in the very center of the mysterious triangle, significantly exceed the dimensions of similar structures on land, including the famous Pyramid of Cheops. However, preliminary data suggests that the age of these pyramids does not exceed 500 years. Who built them and why remains a sealed mystery. The technology used to make the pyramids is unknown to earthlings.
Every year brings the world new technologies and new discoveries that take humanity to a qualitatively different, more high level development. We have collected in one review latest discoveries from various fields, and each of these discoveries for humanity is a step towards new opportunities.
Scientists have made a breakthrough in finding a cure for cancer by attaching malaria proteins to cancer cells. Human trials should begin within four years.
Last September, paleontologists reported that a new anthropoid species had been found - Homo naledi. This conclusion is based on the discovery of fifteen partially preserved skeletons. It is believed that Homo naledi may have lived in Africa about three million years ago.
According to a study published in The Lancet, people who work more than 55 hours a week are 33% more likely to have a stroke than those who work 35-40 hours a week. They also have a 13% higher risk of coronary heart disease.
At the same time, a number of reasons were discovered that allowed these animals to survive in the Arctic.
Last May, NASA announced that the brightest galaxy in the Universe, WISE J224607.57-052635.0, had been discovered. It is smaller than the Milky Way, but emits ten thousand times more energy (mostly in the form of infrared radiation).
Two major steps in creating a quantum computer were taken by IBM scientists. They were able to find a way to detect and measure both types of quantum errors. It also created a square lattice of four superconducting qubits on a chip just over 6mm in size.
Astronomers from Chile have for the first time directly observed the spectrum of visible light reflected from an exoplanet. We are talking about the exoplanet 51 Pegasi b.
Physicists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the University of Belgrade have developed a new technique with which they were able to capture three thousand atoms using just one photon.
The results of a long-term 30-year study of the South American rainforest, which involved an international team of almost 100 researchers, published rather disappointing data. Rainforests are gradually losing their ability to absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere as trees die at an ever faster rate.
According to NASA scientists, huge ancient ocean once covered almost half of Mars' northern hemisphere, making the planet a more promising place to search for alien life than previously thought. The huge ocean, according to scientists, was up to one and a half kilometers deep and contained a total of twenty million cubic kilometers of water (more than in the Arctic Ocean).
Iranian nanotechnologists have managed to synthesize a substance with a bioadaptive and biodegradable molecular chain. This medicine can reduce the toxicity of anti-cancer drugs.
Scientists have genetically reprogrammed plants to be more drought-resistant.
The fight against HIV and AIDS took a huge step forward in 2015 when scientists at The Scripps Research Institute developed a vaccine that was incredibly effective against HIV-1, HIV-2 and simian immunodeficiency virus. The main difference with the new drug is that it actually changes DNA to fight the virus. Previously, injections of a weakened form of the virus were injected into the patient’s body so that the immune system “learned” to fight it. The research is currently in its early stages, but preliminary results are very promising.
An article published in the journal Neuron described a number of recent studies showing that brain scans can help predict a person's future learning, criminality, and health-related behavior. Technology can offer opportunities to personalize education and clinical practice.
In a lab at Duke University, researchers have grown human muscles that contract and respond to external stimuli (such as electrical impulses, biochemical signals and pharmaceuticals) just like real muscles. The new tissue should soon allow researchers to test new drugs and study muscle diseases outside the human body.
Especially for those who are interested in science and the beyond, we have collected.
Over the past 10 years, many amazing discoveries and achievements have occurred in the world of science. Surely many of you who read our site have heard about most of the items presented on today’s list. However, their importance is so high that once again it would be a crime not to at least briefly recall them. They need to be remembered at least for the next decade, until new, even more amazing scientific achievements are made on the basis of these discoveries.
Stem cells are amazing. They perform the same cellular functions as the rest of the cells in your body, but, unlike the latter, they have one amazing property– if necessary, they are able to change and acquire the function of absolutely any cells. This means that stem cells can be turned into, for example, erythrocytes (red blood cells) if your body lacks them. Or into white blood cells (leukocytes). Or muscle cells. Or neurocytes. Or... in general, you get the idea - in almost all types of cells.
Despite the fact that the general public has known about stem cells since 1981 (although they were discovered much earlier, at the beginning of the 20th century), until 2006 science had no idea that any cells of a living organism can be reprogrammed and transformed into stem cells. Moreover, the method of such transformation turned out to be relatively simple. The first person to figure out this possibility was Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who turned skin cells into stem cells by adding four specific genes to them. Within two to three weeks from the moment the skin cells turned into stem cells, they could be further transformed into any other type of cell in our body. For regenerative medicine, as you understand, this discovery is one of the most important in modern history, since this area now has a virtually limitless source of cells needed to heal the damage your body has sustained.
The “blob” in the center is our solar system
In 2009, a group of astronomers decided to find out the mass of the black hole S5 0014+81, which at that time had just been discovered. Imagine their surprise when scientists learned that its mass is 10,000 times greater than the mass of the supermassive black hole located at the center of our Milky Way, effectively making it the largest currently known black hole in the known Universe.
This ultramassive black hole has the mass of 40 billion suns (that is, if you take the mass of the Sun and multiply it by 40 billion, you get the mass of the black hole). No less interesting is the fact that this black hole, according to scientists, was formed during the earliest period of the history of the Universe - just 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang. The discovery of this black hole contributed to the understanding that holes of this size and mass are capable of increasing these figures incredibly quickly.
It already sounds like a seed for some Nolan’s “Inception,” but in 2014, scientists Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu manipulated the memory of a laboratory mouse, replacing negative memories with positive ones and vice versa. The researchers implanted special light-sensitive proteins into the mouse's brain and, as you might have guessed, simply shined a light into its eyes.
As a result of the experiment, positive memories were completely replaced by negative ones, which were firmly entrenched in her brain. This discovery opens the door to new treatments for those who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder or are unable to cope with the emotions of losing loved ones. This discovery promises to lead to even more surprising results in the near future.
This was considered something fantastic just a few years ago, but in 2014, IBM introduced the world to a computer chip that works on the principle of the human brain. With 5.4 billion transistors and requiring 10,000 times less power to operate than conventional computer chips, the SyNAPSE chip is capable of simulating the functioning of your brain's synapses. 256 synapses, to be exact. They can be programmed to perform any computing task, which can make them extremely useful for use in supercomputers and various types distributed sensors.
Thanks to its unique architecture The effectiveness of the SyNAPSE chip is not limited to the performance that we are used to evaluating in conventional computers. It comes into operation only when necessary, which allows you to significantly save on energy and maintain operating temperatures. This revolutionary technology could truly change the entire computer industry over time.
Also in 2014, 1,024 tiny “kilobots” were tasked with combining into the shape of a star. Without any additional instructions, the robots independently and together began to complete the task. Slowly, hesitantly, colliding with each other several times, but they still completed the task assigned to them. If one of the robots got stuck or “lost”, not knowing where to go, neighboring robots came to the rescue and helped the “lost” ones find their way.
What is the achievement? Everything is very simple. Now imagine that the same robots, only thousands of times smaller in size, are introduced into your circulatory system and united to fight any serious disease that has settled in your body. Larger robots, also teaming up, are sent on some kind of search and rescue operation, and even larger ones are used for the fantastically fast construction of new buildings. Here, of course, one can recall some script for a summer blockbuster, but why escalate it?
According to scientists, this mysterious matter may contain answers that explain many as yet unexplained astronomical phenomena. Here is one of them as an example: let’s say, in front of us is a galaxy with the mass of thousands of planets. If we compare the actual mass of these planets and the mass of the entire galaxy, the numbers do not add up. Why? Because the answer goes much deeper than simply calculating the mass of matter that we can see. There is also matter that we are not able to see. This is precisely what is called “dark matter”.
In 2009, several American laboratories announced the discovery of dark matter using sensors immersed in an iron mine to a depth of about 1 kilometer. Scientists were able to determine the presence of two particles whose characteristics correspond to the previously proposed description of dark matter. There's a lot of double-checking to be done next, but everything points to these particles actually being dark matter particles. This may be one of the most surprising and significant discoveries in physics in the last century.
Maybe. In 2015, NASA published photographs of Martian mountains with dark stripes at their base (photo above). They appear and disappear depending on the season. The fact is that these stripes are irrefutable evidence of the presence of liquid water on Mars. Scientists cannot say with absolute certainty whether the planet had such features in the past, but the presence of water on the planet now opens up many prospects.
For example, the presence of water on the planet can be of great help when humanity finally assembles a manned mission to Mars (sometime after 2024, according to the most optimistic forecasts). In this case, astronauts will have to carry much fewer resources with them, since everything they need is already available on the Martian surface.
The private aerospace company SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, was able, after several attempts, to soft-land a spent rocket onto a remotely controlled floating barge in the ocean.
Everything went so smoothly that landing spent rockets is now considered a routine task for SpaceX. In addition, this allows the company to save billions of dollars on the production of missiles, since now they can simply be sorted out, refilled and reused (and more than once, in theory), instead of just being sunk somewhere in Pacific Ocean. Thanks to these rockets, humanity has immediately become several steps closer to manned flights to Mars.
Gravitational waves are ripples in space and time that travel at the speed of light. They were predicted by Albert Einstein in his general theory of relativity, according to which mass can bend space and time. Gravitational waves can be created by black holes, and they were detected in 2016 using the high-tech equipment of the Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or simply LIGO, thereby confirming Einstein's century-old theory.
This is indeed a very important discovery for astronomy, since it proves much of Einstein's general theory of relativity and allows instruments such as LIGO to potentially detect and monitor events of enormous cosmic proportions.
TRAPPIST-1 is a star system located approximately 39 light years from our Solar System. What makes her special? Not much unless you take into account its star, which has 12 times less mass than our Sun, and at least 7 planets orbiting it and located in the so-called Goldilocks zone, where life could potentially exist.
As expected, there is now heated debate around this discovery. It even goes so far as to claim that the system may not be at all suitable for life and its planets look more like unsightly, worn-out cosmic boulders than our future interplanetary resorts. Nevertheless, the system deserves absolutely all the attention that is now focused on it. Firstly, it is not so far from us - only some 39 light years from the Solar System. On a cosmic scale - around the corner. Secondly, it has three Earth-like planets located in the habitable zone and are perhaps the best targets today for the search for extraterrestrial life. Third, all seven planets may have liquid water, the key to life. But the probability of its presence is highest on the three planets that are closer to the star. Fourthly, if there really is life there, then we can confirm it without even sending a space expedition there. Telescopes like JWST, which is set to launch next year, will help answer this question.
