From intergalactic neutrinos and invisible psyche , to the conception of miniature human “ organoids , ” 2013 was a singular yr for scientific discovery . Here are 17 of the biggest scientific breakthroughs , founding and advances of 2013 .
Voyager I Leaves the Solar System
escape the solar system is no mean effort . For 36 years , NASA ’s Voyager 1 spacecraft has putting distance between itself and the Sun at speeds draw close 11 miles per second gear . At a stride like that , scientist experience Voyager was approaching the fringes of the heliosphere that surrounds and defines our solar neighbourhood – but when would it break that roadblock ? When would it make the bounce to interstellar place ? Aftermonths ofuncertainty , NASA finally made the news official this September . “ Voyager 1 is the first human - made object to make it into interstellar space , ” suppose Don Gurnett , lead author of the newspaper announcing Voyager ’s going away ; “ we ’re in reality out there . ”
The CRISPR Craze Takes Off
bacterium have their own version of an adaptative immune organisation ; but “ CRISPR , ” as the organisation is know , does not point protein antigens they way your resistant system does . Instead , CRISPR works by target and eliminating specific deoxyribonucleic acid chronological succession with matching Strand of RNA . What ’s more , the arrangement is easily manipulated – since investigator first cover draw rein the system of rules in January , write Elizabeth Pennisi in a view piece for Science , “ various group have used it to delete , add , touch off or suppress targeted genes in human cells , mouse , rat , zebrafish , bacterium , yield flies , yeast , nematodes and crop , show wide utility for the proficiency . ” For scientists in hunt of Modern tools , few qualities are more important than versatility and relief of use . CRISPR has both – and , some say , the potential to revolutionise the field of molecular biota .
The Milky Way is Brimming with Habitable Worlds
Planet - hunting scientist announced in November that 22 % of sunlike mavin in the milklike Way are orbit by potentially habitable , ground - size worlds . This remarkable finding suggests there could be as many as two - billion planets in our galaxy suitable for life — and that the penny-pinching such satellite may be only 12 short - years aside . Is Earth 2.0 out there ? With design like that , it ’s hard to imagine otherwise . Who love – with all the Kepler information we ’ve got to sieve through , there ’s a chance we ’ve already found it.[Image Credit M. Kornmesser / ESO ]
Brain-to-Brain Interfaces Have Arrived
Back in February , investigator announced that they had successfully set up an electronic link between the brains of two rat , and demo that signals from the head of one could help the second lick basic puzzles in actual time — even when those animals were separated by G of miles . A few months afterward , a alike connection was established between the wit of a human being and a scum bag . Just one calendar month later , researchers write the effect of the first successful human - to - human nous user interface . The age of the mind - meld , it seems , is dear at hired man .
There is Life at the End of the World
There is life in Lake Whillans . For millions of years , the small body of liquid water has ambush hundred of meters below Antarctica ’s Ross Ice Shelf , seal off from the outside man and the scientists who would search its subglacial depths . Earlier this twelvemonth , a squad of researchers lead by Montana State University glaciologist John Priscu successfully bored a tunnel to Whillans and encounter life , making Priscu and his colleagues the first people in story to discover living organisms in the alien lake at the bottom of the world.[Photo by Alberto Behar , JPL / ASUM ]
Doctors Cure HIV in a Baby Born With the Disease
In a massive first for medication , doctors announced in March that a babe had been cured of an HIV contagion . Dr. Deborah Persaud , who presented the child ’s casing at the 20th yearly group discussion on Retroviruses and Opportunistic Infection , called it “ in spades a plot - changer . ”
Newly Discovered Skulls Could Prune Humans’ Evolutionary Tree
An fabulously well - preserve , 1.8 - million - yr - one-time skull from Dmanisi , Georgia suggest the evolutionary tree of the genus Homo may have few branches than previously believed . In a report published in October , a squad led by Georgian anthropologist David Lordkipanidze compose that it is “ the world ’s first whole keep hominid skull . ” And what a skull it is . When considered alongside four other skull discovered nearby , it suggests that the earliest known members of the Homo genus ( H. habilis , H.rudolfensis and H. erectus ) may not have been distinct , coexistent species , at all . Instead , they may have been part of a single , develop lineage that finally gave rise to modern human being .
Curiosity Confirms Mars Was Once Capable of Harboring Life
In March , NASA scientists secrete perhaps the most compelling evidence to engagement that the Red Planet was once capable of harboring lifespan . Earlier this year , Curiosity drilled some samples out of a sedimentary rock near an old river bottom in Gale Crater . This geological area used to feature a series of stream channels , leaving behind finely ingrain basics indicative of antecedently wet conditions . Using the rover ’s onboard orchestration , NASA scientists analyze these sample to notice some of the vital elements required for spirit , admit S , nitrogen , atomic number 1 , oxygen , daystar , and carbon . The rover is currently on a trek to its primary scientific target – a three - mile - high peak at the center of Gale Crater diagnose Mount Sharp – where it will attempt to further reinforce its finding .
Neuroscientists Turn Brains Invisible
Gaze upon the arresting core of CLARITY , a new technique that enable scientist to reverse brain issue and other tissues completely filmy . It ’s been hailed as one of the most important advances for neuroanatomy in decades , and it ’s not hard to see why .
The Death of Genomic Anonymity
Few things in this world are more personal than your DNA . For this intellect , databases like the Human Genome Project have always value the concealment of their player . By separating someone ’ identities from their donate DNA sampling , investigator have upheld a standard of “ genomic anonymity . ” Those days are now officially over . In January , researchers at MIT demonstrate that the identity element of volunteers who donate personal genome succession data can be let out using only publicly available information . In an interview with io9 , lead researcher Yaniv Erlich discussed how the team ’s search method acting work , the implications of the method ’s discovery , and why this could deepen the style we deal with genetic data .
Researchers Detect Neutrinos from Another Galaxy
By drilling a 1.5 nautical mile hollow deep into an Antarctic glacier , physicists work at the IceCube South Pole Observatory this year captured 28 neutrinos , those mystifying and extremely knock-down subatomic particles that can overtake straight through solid issue . And here ’s the genuine kicker : the speck probably rise from beyond our solar organisation – and possibly even our Galax urceolata . “This is a landmark discovery , ” said Alexander Kusenko , a UCLA astroparticle physicist who was not involve in the investigating , “ possibly a Nobel Prize in the qualification . ”
400,000-Year-Old DNA Muddles Humanity’s Origin Story
desoxyribonucleic acid recovered from a 400,000 - yr - old thigh os has complicated our view of human development . The oldest - roll in the hay human DNA find to date , the genetic material preserved within the bone – which anatomists first identify as Neanderthal - similar – is thought to belong to not to a forerunner to Neanderthals , but that of a little - understood limb of hominins known as Denisovans . The discordant findings are lead anthropologists to reconsider the last several hundred thousand years of human evolution . “ It is possible,”writes Carl Zimmer , in his coverage of the breakthrough for the New York Times , “ that there are many extinct human population that scientists have yet to discover . They might have hybridize , swop DNA . ” [ Image Credit : Javier Trueba , Madrid Scientific Films ]
Dawn of the Mini-Organ
research lab - grown organ - in - illumination are providing scientist with new ways to canvass therapies and diseases as they play out in human tissues . The so call “ organoids ” are generated by coax pluripotent stem cells into a change of specialized tissue paper , contribute rise to“liver buds,”“mini - kidneys,”anditty - bitty human brainslike the one render above , which uprise no grown than an apple seed .
A Long-lost Continent is Discovered Beneath the Indian Ocean
For ages , Mauritia has been hiding . The little , precambrian continent once repose between Madagascar and India , before splitting off and vanish beneath the ocean waving in a multi - million - class detachment spur by tectonic rifts and a yawning ocean - floor . But now , volcanic body process has force remnants of the long - lost continent justly through to the Earth ’s airfoil . After zillion of years , and some incredible geological detecting , it seems Mauritia has been found , as researchers cover in Nature Geoscience back in February .
Giant “Pandoravirus” Could Redefine Life as we Know it
scientist in July announced the discovery of a pair of viruses that defy assortment . Bigger and more genetically complex than any viral genus known to skill , these so - called “ pandoraviruses ” could reignite a longstanding disputation over the classification of aliveness itself .
NASA Discovers “A Previously Unknown Surprise Circling Earth”
NASA ’s latterly deployed Van Allen probes — a pair of robotic spacecraft launch in August 2012 to enquire Earth ’s eponymous span of radiation knock — turn out out some very unexpected finding in February , when they spotted an ephemeral third ring of irradiation , antecedently unknown to scientific discipline , surrounding our planet .
Human Cloning Becomes a Reality
A scientific milepost 17 years in the making , researchers announced in May that they had infer theme cells from cloned human embryos . The controversial engineering could lead to new treatments for diseases like Parkinson ’s and diabetes — while bringing us one step nigher to human generative cloning .
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