Rapid pace of change in science and technology, we almost forget what we didn't know just few years ago. Here are our picks for the decade's biggest scientific advances and surprising discoveries.
HIV Preventative Treatment
Today, many people at high risk for contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, pop a daily pill to reduce their risk. In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a medication, called Truvada, for this purpose. But it was a large study released in 2011 that set the stage for this sea change in HIV prevention.
The First Synthetic 'Life'
After almost 15 years of work and $40 million, a team of scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute says they have succeeded in creating the first living organism with a completely synthetic genome.This advance could be proof that genomes designed in a computer and assembled in a lab can function in a donor cell, eventually reproducing fully functional living creatures, that is, artificial life.
Higgs Boson
The Higgs boson is, if nothing else, the most expensive particle of all time. It’s a bit of an unfair comparison; discovering the electron, for instance, required little more than a vacuum tube and some genuine genius, while finding the Higgs boson required the creation of experimental energies rarely seen before on planet Earth. The Large Hadron Collider hardly needs any introduction, being one of the most famous and successful scientific experiments of all time, but the identity of its primary target particle is still shrouded in mystery for much of the public. It’s been called the God Particle, but thanks to the efforts of literally thousands of scientists, we no longer have to take its existence on faith.
Lucas Taylor/CMS
After nearly 35 years of zinging past planets and moons, NASA's Voyager 1 probe made history in 2013, when scientists announced that the spacecraft had officially left the solar system in August 2012.
The probe was launched from Earth in 1977 and spent the next decade exploring Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and their moons. In 2013, data sent back from the probe suggested changes in electron density around Voyager 1 — a major clue that the spacecraft had left the bounds of the solar system. Voyager 1 will continue to send information back to Earth about interstellar space until about 2025. After that, it's set for a long, quiet retirement in deep space, with the possibility that maybe, someday, some alien life-form will notice the little probe and its golden record, a time capsule that holds images of people, maps of our solar system and other clues to the existence of civilization on Earth.
Gravitational Waves
On October 16, scientists announced the first observation of its kind: the detection of gravitational waves, wrinkles in spacetime predicted by Einstein more than a century ago, thrown off by two colliding neutron stars.
The stellar crash, which took place 130 million years ago in the constellation Hydra, marks the first time that astronomers have matched gravitational waves with a visible source—showcasing this new era in astronomy.
The discovery is the latest success for one of the most ambitious (and expensive) physics experiments in decades: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO for short.
First CRISPR editing of human embryos
In 2015, an unknown Chinese scientist edited the DNA of human embryos. It was a step on an inexorable path to designer babies.In 2015, Huang, a stem-cell researcher at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, first reported using the gene-editing tool CRISPR on human embryos. His paper was rejected by top Western journals on the grounds that it didn’t follow ethics rules and presented scant science, but that April it found its way into print in an obscure English-language publication in Beijing.
Exoplanet Discovered in a Habitable Zone
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star’s habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water on the surface. Scientists confirmed the find, called TOI 700 d, using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and have modeled the planet’s potential environments to help inform future observations.
TOI 700 d is one of only a few Earth-size planets discovered in a star's habitable zone so far. Others include several planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system and other worlds discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.
Quantum supremacy
Efforts to develop quantum computers gradually ramped up this decade, culminating with Google’s announcement of quantum supremacy in 2019. The firm developed the first quantum computer capable of performing a calculation that no classical supercomputer on Earth can match.
Oldest Homo sapiens fossils push species back 100,000 years
A team of European and Moroccan scientists has found the fossil remains of five individuals who they believe are the most ancient modern humans (Homo sapiens) ever found.
In a remote area of Morocco called Jebel Irhoud, in what was once a cave, the team found a skull, bones and teeth of five individuals who lived about 315,000 years ago. The scientists also found fairly sophisticated stone tools and charcoal, indicating the use of fire by this group.
The researchers' claim is controversial, however, because anthropologists are still debating exactly what physical features distinguish modern humans from our more primitive ancestors.
First Black Hole Image
First-ever picture of a black hole unveiled. The Event Horizon Telescope—a planet-scale array of ground-based radio telescopes—has obtained the first image of a supermassive black hole and its shadow. The image reveals the central black hole of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the Virgo cluster.
That's it !
HIV Preventative Treatment
Today, many people at high risk for contracting the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), which causes AIDS, pop a daily pill to reduce their risk. In 2012, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration approved a medication, called Truvada, for this purpose. But it was a large study released in 2011 that set the stage for this sea change in HIV prevention.
The First Synthetic 'Life'
After almost 15 years of work and $40 million, a team of scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute says they have succeeded in creating the first living organism with a completely synthetic genome.This advance could be proof that genomes designed in a computer and assembled in a lab can function in a donor cell, eventually reproducing fully functional living creatures, that is, artificial life.
Higgs Boson
The Higgs boson is, if nothing else, the most expensive particle of all time. It’s a bit of an unfair comparison; discovering the electron, for instance, required little more than a vacuum tube and some genuine genius, while finding the Higgs boson required the creation of experimental energies rarely seen before on planet Earth. The Large Hadron Collider hardly needs any introduction, being one of the most famous and successful scientific experiments of all time, but the identity of its primary target particle is still shrouded in mystery for much of the public. It’s been called the God Particle, but thanks to the efforts of literally thousands of scientists, we no longer have to take its existence on faith.
Lucas Taylor/CMS
After nearly 35 years of zinging past planets and moons, NASA's Voyager 1 probe made history in 2013, when scientists announced that the spacecraft had officially left the solar system in August 2012.
The probe was launched from Earth in 1977 and spent the next decade exploring Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus, Neptune and their moons. In 2013, data sent back from the probe suggested changes in electron density around Voyager 1 — a major clue that the spacecraft had left the bounds of the solar system. Voyager 1 will continue to send information back to Earth about interstellar space until about 2025. After that, it's set for a long, quiet retirement in deep space, with the possibility that maybe, someday, some alien life-form will notice the little probe and its golden record, a time capsule that holds images of people, maps of our solar system and other clues to the existence of civilization on Earth.
Gravitational Waves
On October 16, scientists announced the first observation of its kind: the detection of gravitational waves, wrinkles in spacetime predicted by Einstein more than a century ago, thrown off by two colliding neutron stars.
The stellar crash, which took place 130 million years ago in the constellation Hydra, marks the first time that astronomers have matched gravitational waves with a visible source—showcasing this new era in astronomy.
The discovery is the latest success for one of the most ambitious (and expensive) physics experiments in decades: The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory, or LIGO for short.
First CRISPR editing of human embryos
In 2015, an unknown Chinese scientist edited the DNA of human embryos. It was a step on an inexorable path to designer babies.In 2015, Huang, a stem-cell researcher at Sun Yat-Sen University in Guangzhou, first reported using the gene-editing tool CRISPR on human embryos. His paper was rejected by top Western journals on the grounds that it didn’t follow ethics rules and presented scant science, but that April it found its way into print in an obscure English-language publication in Beijing.
Exoplanet Discovered in a Habitable Zone
NASA’s Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) has discovered its first Earth-size planet in its star’s habitable zone, the range of distances where conditions may be just right to allow the presence of liquid water on the surface. Scientists confirmed the find, called TOI 700 d, using NASA’s Spitzer Space Telescope and have modeled the planet’s potential environments to help inform future observations.
TOI 700 d is one of only a few Earth-size planets discovered in a star's habitable zone so far. Others include several planets in the TRAPPIST-1 system and other worlds discovered by NASA’s Kepler Space Telescope.
Quantum supremacy
Efforts to develop quantum computers gradually ramped up this decade, culminating with Google’s announcement of quantum supremacy in 2019. The firm developed the first quantum computer capable of performing a calculation that no classical supercomputer on Earth can match.
Oldest Homo sapiens fossils push species back 100,000 years
A team of European and Moroccan scientists has found the fossil remains of five individuals who they believe are the most ancient modern humans (Homo sapiens) ever found.
In a remote area of Morocco called Jebel Irhoud, in what was once a cave, the team found a skull, bones and teeth of five individuals who lived about 315,000 years ago. The scientists also found fairly sophisticated stone tools and charcoal, indicating the use of fire by this group.
The researchers' claim is controversial, however, because anthropologists are still debating exactly what physical features distinguish modern humans from our more primitive ancestors.
First Black Hole Image
First-ever picture of a black hole unveiled. The Event Horizon Telescope—a planet-scale array of ground-based radio telescopes—has obtained the first image of a supermassive black hole and its shadow. The image reveals the central black hole of Messier 87, a massive galaxy in the Virgo cluster.
That's it !
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