The outgoing year 2016 will be remembered for historical scientific events. Physicists and astronomers rule the show: they have made the most discussed and exciting discoveries related to black holes, the theory of relativity and other worlds. Biologists have also achieved a lot by modifying genomes and experimenting on people. Lenta.ru recalls the most important scientific results of the year.
On February 11, 2016, the whole world learned about the existence of gravitational waves - their experimental discovery was announced. Predicted by Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, they eluded scientists' instruments for decades. And on September 14, 2015, at 05:51 a.m. Eastern Daylight Time (13:51 Moscow time), gravitational waves were detected for the first time at the LIGO (Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory) observatory. They were created by the merger of two black holes into one massive black hole. This happened 1.3 billion years ago, but the gravitational disturbance of space-time has only now reached Earth.
LIGO is a system of two identical detectors, carefully tuned to detect incredibly small displacements from the passage of gravitational waves. The detectors are located three thousand kilometers apart in Livingston, Louisiana, and Hanford, Washington. The project was proposed in 1992 by a group of American scientists, which included Kip Thorne, known for his participation in the creation of the film Interstellar. LIGO, which cost $370 million, began operating in 2002, but was able to catch a gravitational wave only after modernization carried out in 2010-2015.
In August, the journal Nature published an article by astronomers at the European Southern Observatory about the discovery of an Earth-like exoplanet near the closest star to the solar system, Proxima Centauri. The celestial body, named Proxima b, is 1.3 times heavier than Earth, orbits Proxima Centauri in a nearly circular orbit with a period of 11.2 days and is located at a distance of 0.05 astronomical units (7.5 million kilometers) from it. What makes this planet similar to Earth is that it is located in the habitable zone of its sun. That is, conditions on Proxima b may resemble those on Earth. If it turns out that the planet has a magnetic field, a dense atmosphere and oceans of liquid water, then the likelihood of life existing there is very high.
Image: ESO/M. Kornmesser
The board game Go is considered one of the most difficult for artificial intelligence to master. However, the AlphaGo program, developed by DeepMind, managed to beat the world champion in Go, Korean Lee Sedol, in four out of five games.
AlphaGo uses so-called value networks to estimate the position of pieces on the board and networks of rules to select moves. These neural networks learn to play by analyzing known games, as well as through trial and error while playing alone. Before taking on Lee Sedol, the artificial intelligence beat other programs in 99.8 percent of games and then surpassed the European champion.
In April 2016, a child was born in Mexico, conceived using the mitochondrial DNA of a third person. The “three-parent” method involves transplanting mitochondrial DNA from a female donor into the mother’s egg. Scientists believe this avoids the influence of mutations on the mother's side that can cause diseases such as diabetes or deafness.
The operation was performed by American surgeon John Zhang. He chose Mexico because the use of this technique is prohibited in the United States. The child was born healthy, no negative consequences he has not noted it at the moment.
On January 20, astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin from the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena reported the discovery of a Neptune-sized object beyond the orbit of Pluto that is 10 times heavier than Earth. The minimum distance between the Sun and this celestial body is 200 astronomical units (seven times more than between Neptune and the Sun). The maximum distance of Planet X is estimated at 600-1200 astronomical units.
Scientists discovered the planet by analyzing data on the gravitational effect it exerts on other celestial bodies. Brown and Batygin estimate the probability of error at 0.007 percent, but the solar system will officially acquire a ninth planet only when it is seen through a telescope. For this purpose, astronomers have reserved time at the Japanese Subaru Observatory in Hawaii. Confirming the existence of a celestial body will take approximately five years.
Image: capnhack.com
In the past year, astronomers discovered another star with an irregularly changing brightness - EPIC 204278916. In 2015, a single star in the constellation Cygnus KIC 8462852 with very unusual behavior was discovered. Its luminosity dropped by 20 percent and remained at this low level for various periods of time (from 5 to 80 days). This indicates that there is a swarm of densely packed large objects around the star, and some researchers have suggested that KIC 8462852 is surrounded by astronomical structures, such as a Dyson sphere.
EPIC 204278916 also surprised scientists. The star's brightness, according to data from the Kepler space telescope, decreased to 65 percent of its maximum within 25 days of observations. Strong dips in the light curve mean that the star was obscured by an object comparable in size to it. As in the case of KIC 8462852, a dense cloud of comets is unlikely to be the cause: several hundred thousand comets with giant nuclei would be required.
In 2017, scientists will try to find regularity in changes in the star’s brightness and establish their true nature. If this does not happen, we will have to admit that astronomers have encountered something completely incredible.
On November 16, the journal Nature reported that Chinese scientists had modified the genome of a living person for the first time. Of course, not all of it, but a small part of it. A patient with metastatic lung cancer had his T cells modified using CRISPR technology to knock out the gene encoding the PD-1 protein, which reduces the activity of immune cells and promotes cancer development.
According to the researchers, everything went well, and the patient will soon receive a second injection. In addition, 10 more people will take part in the trial, each of whom will receive two to four injections. All volunteers will be followed for six months to see if the treatment may cause serious side effects.
In March, in the journal Science, scientists reported that they were able to create a bacterium with a synthetic genome, removing from it all the genes that the body could do without. To do this, they used the mycoplasma M. mycoides, whose original genome consisted of approximately 900 genes that were classified as essential or nonessential. Based on all available information and with the help of constant experimental tests, scientists were able to determine the minimum genome - necessary set genes vital for the existence of bacteria.
As a result, a new strain of bacteria was obtained - JCVI-syn3.0 with a genome halved compared to the previous version - 531 thousand paired bases. It encodes 438 proteins and 35 types of regulatory RNA - a total of 437 genes.
Another advance in biotechnology involves stem cells obtained from mice. Japanese scientists from Kyushu University in Fukuoka were the first to achieve their transformation into eggs (oocytes). In fact, they obtained a multicellular living organism from stem cells.
An oocyte refers to cells that have totipotency - the ability to divide and turn into cells of all other types. The scientists subjected the resulting oocytes to in vitro fertilization. The cells were then transferred into the body of surrogate females, where they developed into healthy young.
The mice created in laboratory conditions were fertile and could give birth to healthy rodents. In addition, embryonic stem cells could be regenerated from eggs obtained in culture and fertilized in vitro.
NASA engineers sensationally confirmed the functionality of the EmDrive engine, which “violates” the laws of physics. The article was peer-reviewed and published in the scientific journal Journal of Propulsion and Power.
The article reports that EmDrive in a vacuum is capable of developing a thrust of 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt. The reviewers could not find fault with the design of the test bench and the unit, and the authors of the work could not find a reverse force that responded to the jet thrust developed by EmDrive. That is, the engine moves, but does not emit anything. Retroactive force is required by the law of conservation of momentum.
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Chinese scientists announced successful tests of EmDrive on board the Tiangong-2 space laboratory and are now going to use it on orbital satellites. However, many experts remain skeptical and believe that the authors of the article may have overlooked the influence of some additional factors
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 on 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 does not have sufficient " technical characteristics" to play a sound at that 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 one 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.
As another year ends, it feels like it's time once again to sit down, fold our hands, take a deep breath, and look at some of the scientific headlines that we may not have previously paid attention to. Scientists are constantly creating new developments in various areas, such as nanotechnology, gene therapy or quantum physics, and this always opens up new horizons.
The titles of scientific articles are beginning to increasingly resemble the titles of stories from science fiction magazines. Considering what 2017 brought us, we can only look forward to what 2018 will bring us...
10. Scientists have created temporal crystals for which the laws of time symmetry do not apply.
According to the first law of thermodynamics, the creation of a perpetual motion machine that will work without an additional source of energy is impossible. However, earlier this year, physicists managed to create structures called temporal crystals, which certainly call this thesis into question.
Temporal crystals act as the first real examples a new state of matter called "non-equilibrium", in which the atoms have a variable temperature and are never in thermal equilibrium with each other. Temporal crystals have an atomic structure that repeats not only in space but also in time, which allows them to maintain constant oscillations without gaining energy. This happens even in a stationary state, which is the lowest energy state where movement is theoretically impossible since it requires energy costs.
So do time crystals break the laws of physics? Strictly speaking, no. The law of conservation of energy only works in systems with time symmetry, which implies that the laws of physics are the same everywhere and always. However, temporal crystals violate the laws of symmetry of time and space. And not only them. Magnets are also sometimes considered natural asymmetrical objects because they have a north and south pole.
Another reason why time crystals do not violate the laws of thermodynamics is that they are not completely isolated. Sometimes they need to be “nudged” - that is, given an external impulse, after receiving which they will begin to change their states again and again. It is possible that in the future these crystals will be found wide application in the field of transmission and storage of information in quantum systems. They could play a crucial role in quantum computing.
9. “Live” dragonfly wings 
The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia states that a wing is a movable appendage of feathers or membrane used by birds, insects and bats for flight. It shouldn't be alive, but entomologists at the University of Kiel in Germany have made some startling discoveries that suggest otherwise - at least for some dragonflies.
Insects breathe using the tracheal system. Air enters the body through openings called spiracles. It then passes through a complex network of tracheae, which deliver air to all the cells of the body. However, the wings themselves are composed almost entirely of dead tissue, which dries and either becomes translucent or becomes covered in colored patterns. The areas of dead tissue are veined and these are the only components of the wing that are part of the respiratory system.
However, when entomologist Rainer Guillermo Ferreira looked at the wing of a male Zenithoptera dragonfly through an electron microscope, he saw tiny, branched tracheal tubes. This was the first time something like this had been seen in an insect's wing. Determining whether this physiological feature is unique to this species or perhaps occurs in other dragonflies, or even other insects, will require much research. It is even possible that this is a single mutation. The presence of abundant oxygen supplies may explain the bright, complex blue patterns found on the wings of the Zenithoptera dragonfly, which contain no blue pigment.
Of course, this made people immediately think of the Jurassic Park scenario and the possibility of using blood to recreate dinosaurs. Unfortunately, this will not happen in the near future, because it is impossible to extract DNA samples from the found pieces of amber. The debate about how long a DNA molecule can last is still ongoing, but even according to the most optimistic estimates and the most optimal conditions their lifespan is no more than several million years.
But while the mite, named Deinocrotondraculi (“Terrible Dracula”), did not help restore the dinosaurs, it is still a highly unusual find that has provided us with new knowledge. We now know not only that feathered dinosaurs had ancient mites, but also that they even infested dinosaur nests.
7. Modification of adult genes 
Today, the pinnacle of gene therapy is “clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats,” or CRISPR. The family of DNA sequences that currently form the basis of CRISPR-Cas9 technology could theoretically change a person's DNA forever.
In 2017 Genetic Engineering took a decisive leap forward after a team from the Proteomics Research Center in Beijing announced that it had successfully used CRISPR-Cas9 to eliminate disease-causing mutations in viable human embryos. Another team, from the Francis Crick Institute in London, took the opposite route and for the first time used this technology to deliberately create mutations in human embryos. (Specifically, they turned off a gene that helps embryos develop into blastocysts.)
Research has shown that CRISPR-Cas9 technology works – and quite successfully. However, this has sparked intense ethical debate about how far to go with this technology. In theory, this could lead to "designer children" who could have intellectual, athletic and physical characteristics consistent with those specified by their parents.
Ethics aside, research went even further this November when CRISPR-Cas9 was tested in an adult for the first time. Brad Maddoo, 44, from California, suffers from Hunter syndrome, an incurable disease that could eventually leave him in a wheelchair. He was injected with billions of copies of the corrective gene. It will be several months before we can determine whether the procedure was successful.
6. What came first - a sponge or ctenophores? 
A new scientific report published this year should put to rest once and for all the long-running debate about the origins of animals. According to the study, sponges are the “sisters” of all animals in the world. This is due to the fact that sponges were the first group to separate during evolution from the primitive common ancestor of all animals. This happened approximately 750 million years ago.
Previously, there had been heated debate that centered on two main candidates: the aforementioned sponges and marine invertebrates called ctenophores. While sponges are simple creatures that sit on the ocean floor and feed by passing and filtering water through their bodies, ctenophores are more complex. They resemble a jellyfish, are able to move in water, can create light patterns and have the simplest nervous system. The question of which of them was the first means the question of what our common ancestor looked like. This is considered a crucial point in tracing our evolutionary history.
While the study's findings boldly declared the matter settled, just months earlier another study had been published suggesting that our evolutionary "sisters" were ctenophores. Therefore, it is too early to say whether the latest results can be considered reliable enough to quell any doubts.
5. Raccoons passed an ancient intelligence test
In the sixth century BC, the ancient Greek writer Aesop wrote or collected many fables that are now known as Aesop's Fables. Among them was a fable called “The Crow and the Jug,” which describes how a thirsty crow threw pebbles into a jug in order to raise the water level so that it could drink.
Several thousand years later, scientists realized that this fable described a good way to test the intelligence of animals. Experiments showed that experimental animals understood cause and effect. Crows, like their relatives, rooks and jays, confirmed the truth of the fable. Monkeys also passed the test, and raccoons were added to the list this year.
During the Aesop's fable test, eight raccoons were given containers of water with marshmallows floating on the surface. The water level was too low to reach him. Two of the subjects successfully threw stones into the container to raise the water level and get what they wanted.
Other test subjects found their own creative solutions, which the researchers never expected. One of the raccoons, instead of throwing stones into the container, climbed onto the container and began to swing from side to side on it until it overturned. In another test, using floating and sinking marbles instead of stones, experts hoped that raccoons would use the sinking marbles and discard the floating ones. Instead, some animals began repeatedly dipping the floating ball into the water until a rising wave washed the marshmallow pieces against the side, making them easier to remove.
4. Physicists created the first topological laser 
Physicists from the University of California at San Diego claim to have created new type laser – “topological”, the beam of which can take on any complex shape without scattering light. The device works based on the concept of topological insulators (materials that are dielectrics inside their volume, but conduct current along the surface), which received Nobel Prize in physics in 2016.
Typically, lasers use ring resonators to amplify light. They are more efficient than resonators with sharp corners. This time, however, the research team created a topological cavity using a photonic crystal as a mirror. In particular, two photonic crystals with different topologies were used, one of which was a star-shaped cell in a square lattice, and the other was a triangular lattice with cylindrical air holes. Team member Boubacar Kante compared them to a bagel and a pretzel: although they are both breads with holes, the different number of holes makes them different.
Once the crystals fall into Right place, the beam takes the desired shape. This system is controlled using a magnetic field. It allows you to change the direction in which the light is emitted, thereby creating a luminous flux. Direct practical use This can increase the speed of optical communication. However, in the future this is seen as a step forward in the creation of optical computers.
3. Scientists discovered excitonium 
Physicists around the world reacted with great enthusiasm to the discovery new form matter called excitonium. This form is a condensate of quasiparticles, excitons, which are the bound state of a free electron and an electron hole, which is formed as a result of the molecule losing an electron. Moreover, Harvard theoretical physicist Burt Halperin predicted the existence of excitonium back in the 1960s, and scientists have been trying to prove him right (or wrong) ever since.
Like many major scientific discoveries, there was a fair amount of chance in this discovery. The University of Illinois research team that discovered excitonium was actually mastering new technology, called electron beam energy loss spectroscopy (M-EELS), designed specifically for exciton identification. However, the discovery took place when the researchers were only conducting calibration tests. One team member walked into the room while everyone else was watching their screens. They said they had detected a “light plasmon,” a precursor to excitonic condensation.
Study leader Professor Peter Abbamont compared this discovery to the Higgs boson - it will not have direct use in real life, but it shows that our current understanding quantum mechanics is on the right track.
2. Scientists have created nanorobots that kill cancer 
Researchers at Durham University claim to have created nanorobots that can identify cancer cells and kill them in just 60 seconds. In a successful test conducted at the university, it took the tiny robots one to three minutes to penetrate the outer membrane into cancer cell prostate and destroy it immediately.
Nanorobots are 50,000 times smaller than the diameter of a human hair. They are activated by light and rotate at two to three million revolutions per second to be able to penetrate the cell membrane. When they reach their target, they can either destroy it or introduce a useful therapeutic agent into it.
Until now, nanorobots have been tested only on individual cells, but encouraging results have prompted scientists to move on to experiments on microorganisms and small fish. The next goal is to move on to rodents and then to humans.
1. An interstellar asteroid could be an alien spacecraft 
It's only been a couple of months since astronomers happily announced the discovery of the first interstellar object flying through solar system, an asteroid called 'Oumuamua. Since then, they have observed many strange things happening to this celestial body. Sometimes it behaved so unusually that scientists believe that the object may turn out to be an alien spaceship.
First of all, its shape is alarming. 'Oumuamua is cigar-shaped with a length-to-diameter ratio of ten to one, which has never been seen in any observed asteroid. At first, scientists thought it was a comet, but then realized it was not because the object did not leave a tail behind it as it approached the Sun. Moreover, some experts argue that the speed of the object's rotation should have destroyed any normal asteroid. One gets the impression that it was specially created for interstellar travel.
But if it is created artificially, then what could it be? Some say it's an alien probe, others think it could be spaceship, whose engines have malfunctioned and are now floating through space. In any case, participants in programs such as SETI and BreakthroughListen believe that 'Oumuamua requires further study, so they aim their telescopes at it and listen for any radio signals.
While the alien hypothesis has not been confirmed in any way, the initial SETI observations led nowhere. Many researchers remain pessimistic about the chances that the object could be created by aliens, but in any case, research will continue.
The curse of an ancient sorcerer brought dozens of scientists to the grave
In Podolsk, near Moscow, a pensioner kept mummified bodies in her apartment for a long time: a 12-year-old brother and a nine-year-old sister. The woman admitted: she did not have money to see her relatives off on their last journey. Nevertheless, the unfortunate woman was sent to a mental hospital. The police are establishing the circumstances of this wild story: why for so many years no one has missed the missing people or helped the old woman with the funeral. It is also surprising how the bodies lay unburied for so many years. Scientists have long been trying to solve the mystery of mummies. Read about incredible and scary discoveries.
The Capuchin catacombs in the Sicilian capital Palermo contain the remains of more than eight thousand people - mostly the local elite. The most known part Cemetery - Chapel of St. Rosalia. In its center, on a marble pedestal in a glass coffin, lies a two-year-old Rosalia Lombardo. The girl died of pneumonia in 1920. The baby's grief-stricken parents asked a famous embalmer Alfredo Salafia save my daughter's body.
Baby Rosalia from Palermo: neither alive nor dead
Salafiya replaced the child's blood liquid composition from formaldehyde, alcohol, glycerin, antifungal salicylic acid and zinc salts. He kept the secret of the mixture a secret, which was discovered many years after his death. Baby Rosalia looked as if she were alive for decades: a gentle blush played on her cheeks, her skin was soft, her brown hair remained silky, and her eyelashes seemed about to flutter. Even the eyes remained blue. These eyes, by the way, almost drove one of the caretakers crazy: the light reflected from the cornea created the illusion that the child was watching someone. Lombardo's mummy was called the "sleeping beauty".
Only a few years ago, signs of decomposition appeared on Rosalia's body. The coffin was moved to a drier place and enclosed in a glass container filled with nitrogen.
The oldest mummy found in Europe is the Tyrolean Iceman, or Ötzi. Its age is 5300 years. On September 19, 1991, the remains of an ancient man were discovered by German climbers when the ice melted at an altitude of more than three thousand meters. They extracted the artifact without using archaeological tools, and inadvertently injured their hip.
Most researchers agreed: during his lifetime, Ötzi was a priest or sorcerer. His skin is covered with tattoos, there is an amulet on his body, and not far from the place where he was found ice man, prehistoric sanctuaries were discovered.
Tyrolean Iceman Ötzi - the oldest embalmed human body discovered in Europe Scientists believe that Ötzi died during a clash between two communities: he was shot from behind with an arrow.
In 1998, the mummy was exhibited at the South Tyrol Museum of Archeology in Bolzano, Italy. But not everyone dared to look at Ötzi - they said that those who approached him died a bad death.
Forensic expert Rainer Henn, who spoke about the study of the Iceman at a press conference, died in a car accident. The climber who discovered Ötzi Kurt Fritz died in an avalanche. Journalist Rainer Holtz, who made a film about the Tyrolean find, died of brain cancer. Helmut Simon, looking for traces of other ancient people in the mountains, fell into a crevasse - the icy corpse was found after a two-week search in the same position as Ötzi. Dieter Wernicke, a member of the expedition to evacuate the Iceman, died of a heart attack. Passed away and Tom Loy, who examined Ötzi's belongings and recovered his DNA. Scientist from the University of Innsbruck Conrad Spindler suffered a stroke.
In 2006, after the death of her husband, a resident of Essentuki Lyudmila Lysenko became seriously ill. 60-year-old son Vladimir came from St. Petersburg to care for his mother. The neighbors knew about Lyudmila Alexandrovna’s serious condition, but they heard from Vladimir that she had gone to work as a nurse in Sochi. “I’ll bring it back in the fall,” he added. However, in the fall, the granny did not appear, and vigilant neighbors reported this to the local police officer. He looked at Lysenko and looked around the apartment. One of the rooms was locked and, despite Vladimir’s protests, it had to be opened. What they saw plunged everyone into a stupor: a mummy was lying on Lyudmila Alexandrovna’s bed.
Vladimir LYSENKO set bad experience over the parent. Frame: Youtube.com
To the police, Lysenko admitted that his mother died three months ago, but he did not want to bury the body where it would be “eaten by worms.” Vladimir placed an oilcloth under the corpse and covered the body with salt. He placed a heater nearby - under the influence of hot air, the salt evaporated the moisture, and the body mummified.
When the secret became clear, Vladimir escaped punishment - he was only obliged to return the pension to his mother, which he had received for two years instead of the deceased.
1719 Near the city of Falun in Sweden, miners stumbled upon the body of a young man. None of the miners could identify the guy. Due to the fact that the vitriol soaked the skin and clothes of the young man, the corpse turned to stone.
The terrible discovery was put on public display. Seeing him, an elderly lady named Lucille gasped: it was her lover Mats Israelsson, who disappeared 42 years ago. Once he asked Lucille out on a date, but he didn’t show up. No one ever saw him again - he disappeared. Lucille married Mats' friend Roy. There were rumors that it was Roy who was involved in the disappearance of the miner: a guy in love with Lucille could simply eliminate his rival. He may have thrown Israelsson down the shaft.
Swedish miner Mats Israelsson was petrified by unhappy love In 1749, Mats’s mummy was buried, but 100 years later it was dug up and exhibited again in the museum: traces of decay barely touched the dead body. Only in 1930 did the unfortunate miner find his final rest in the cemetery in Falun.
In the 17th century, a knight lived in Brandenburg, Germany Christian Friedrich von Kalbutz. Brave, but he is also a reveler and a libertine: he made 30 children on his side and did not hesitate to use the “right of the first night,” depriving poor girls of their innocence.
Maria Leppin von Kalbutz called, as usual, to himself and was ready to get down to business, when the beauty gave in. Enraged, Christian killed Mary's fiancé. But at the trial he did not confess and even assured: if he lied, after death his body would not be touched by rot.
Knight Christian Friedrich von KALBUZ lied and remained incorrupt The Rake Knight breathed his last at the age of 52. He was buried in a tomb near the church. And a hundred years later, during the renovation of the cathedral, they decided to rebury it. The coffin was opened - von Kalbutz's body did not undergo decomposition.
Scientists gave the following explanation for this case: most likely, the man withered away during his lifetime - he suffered from cancer, muscular dystrophy or tuberculosis. The exhausted body was buried in an oak coffin, which ensured hermeticity and protected it from external influences.
Zara Abutalib from a village located in the vicinity of Casablanca in Morocco, at the age of 26 she already had three children. When the time came for the fourth to be born, the woman was sent to the maternity hospital, where her roommate died during a caesarean section. Zara was also prepared for surgery, but the frightened woman ran home. However, her contractions never started - the fetus seemed to freeze inside.
Zara ABUTALIB saw her unborn child 49 years after conception
The Moroccan woman lived to be 75 when she began to suffer from hellish stomach pains. An ultrasound showed that the long-term pregnancy was ectopic and the fetus still remains in Zara’s body. After an eight-hour operation, the woman was shown the two-kilogram mummy of the baby she had carried in her womb for almost half a century.
The phenomenon in which a fetus that has died in the uterus or abdominal cavity becomes fossilized is called “lithopedion.” Calcification occurs if the unborn baby is too large to be absorbed into the body.
During the restoration of one of the churches in Basel, Switzerland, scientists came across the mummy of a woman. The analysis showed a high content of mercury in her tissues, which was used to treat syphilis until the 19th century. It was because of the mercury that the corpse was preserved in excellent condition.
Boris JOHNSON is proud to be related to a woman who served science. Photo: © Reuters It turned out that the body belongs to Anna Katharina Bischoff. The lady was born in 1719 and died at 68 years old. But the most interesting thing: Anna Katarina turned out to be a relative of the head of the British Foreign Ministry Boris Johnson. Genetic analysis showed that on his mother's side, Johnson is the seventh-generation great-grandson of Bischoff.
So glad to hear about the late great-mum - a pioneer in the field of sexual health. “Very proud,” the British politician commented on the unexpected relationship.
There is still so much unknown and unexplored left in the world that scientists simply have no time to sit idly by. They are trying to unravel the mysteries of space and find a cure for cancer, discover the elixir of longevity and invent self-improving artificial intelligence. We will tell you in our article what new scientific discoveries and inventions have been made in recent years.
It is difficult to immediately assess the findings of 21st century researchers. Their weight and necessity will probably be appreciated not even by us, but by our descendants. But we have chosen the most significant, in our opinion, new scientific discoveries of the 21st century, which can become landmarks for humanity.
American scientists from Duke University managed for the first time in laboratory conditions to grow muscles of the human skeleton, which are practically no different from ordinary ones. They are able to respond to external stimuli, including exposure to electric current, administration of medications, etc. The muscle tissue obtained in the laboratory will be used to study muscle diseases and during testing of medicinal substances.
New possibilities of magnetic resonance imaging became known after the publication of the journal Neuron, which published the results of the latest research in this area of diagnostics in one of its articles. It turns out that an MRI image can be used to create a behavioral model of a person. In other words, magnetic resonance imaging can predict a person’s behavior in the future, assess the degree of his learning ability, detect a tendency towards antisocial behavior, including crimes, and also predict the response to drug therapy.
The immunodeficiency virus was called the plague of the 20th century; in the 21st century there was hope of finding a cure for it. Scripps Institute researchers have developed an effective vaccine that can combat certain types of HIV. This medicine causes DNA to transform and the immune system to activate. The research has not yet been completed, but if scientists' promises come true, the fight against AIDS will become much easier.
Iranian scientists have made their contribution to the fight against cancer by developing a nanotablet capable of reducing the toxic effects of anti-cancer drugs on the body. Doctors say this medicine will help significantly increase the effectiveness of breast cancer treatment. But the opening is barely a year old, and it’s too early to draw final conclusions.
New scientific discoveries by NASA confirm the version of the existence of life on Mars in the past. Scientists who analyzed the available data came to the conclusion that part of the northern hemisphere of the Red Planet was once occupied by the ocean. Its area was approximately equal to the area of our Atlantic, and the depth in some places reached 1.6 km. And where there is water, there is life...
Paleontologists have discovered fragments of bones of Homo naledi in South Africa - creatures that, according to scientists, were the ancestors of modern humans. The remains of 15 skeletons were found in Dinaledi Cave. Researchers have already suggested that Homo naledi lived in what is now Africa about 3 million years ago. It should be noted that there are skeptics in the scientific community who believe that the discovered fragments are clearly not enough to make a conclusion about their belonging to a human ancestor.
The medical journal The Lancet published studies that show: 55-hour work week increases the risk of stroke by 33%. While people working 35-45 hours are less susceptible to this disease. Excessive work also increases the likelihood of ischemia by 13%.
You will learn other new scientific discoveries by watching the video:
Practice does not lag behind theory: the 21st century has brought us not only new scientific discoveries, but also incredible inventions that no one could even dream of half a century ago.
With the advent of this invention, people who had lost their vision due to degenerative changes received hope for its partial restoration. The implant appeared on the American market in 2013, and on the European market a year later. With him, millions of blind people got the chance to see this world again.
Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Thomas Edison
A device that allows people who have lost the ability to move due to injury spinal cord, can walk again. Having appeared on the market quite recently, it has already proven itself well.
This invention has become an excellent replacement for the invasive probe used in gastroscopy. Equipped with a micro-camera, the 25mm capsule is easy to swallow without causing any discomfort and transmits the image to the monitor. It leaves the body naturally.
Movement in space has become more real with an invention made by scientists at the California Institute. Using a special device, they managed to teleport a proton. This, of course, is not a person, or even a pencil, but, most importantly, the first step has been taken.
We tried to list the main new scientific discoveries and inventions of the 21st century, and time will tell which of them will be called brilliant.
Take it for yourself and tell your friends!
Read also on our website:
show more
