Modern achievements of science and technology. New prime number

Achievements that are certainly useful - victory over fever, harmless - pentaquarks have been found, interesting - psychology is still not exactly a science, and those that make you think hard

Another year is coming to an end on our journey into a future that is frightening and alluring. The main engine of this movement is science, but where exactly is it leading civilization? The answer becomes clearer if we sum up the results, highlight the most important scientific breakthroughs of the outgoing year, the prospects for their development and their authors - “progressors” in our terminology .

1. Defeated Ebola

Breakthrough: The Ebola vaccine turned out to work, and the vaccination campaign was effective.

Progressors: Public Health Agency of Canada and pharmaceutical company Merck.

Details: Where did Ebola go? Russian (and perhaps not only Russian) TV viewers began asking this question around mid-2015, when the main “horror story” of the last few months stopped appearing in news stories. Some even spoke out in the spirit of conspiracy theories: they say that they frightened us with information about the epidemic in order to distract us from something more important and terrible, and when they distracted us, they stopped frightening us. In fact, everything is simpler: it was by mid-summer that the disease outbreaks began to decline - the vaccine developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada and improved by the pharmaceutical company Merck began to work.

The epidemic, which began in March 2014 in Guinea and became the largest since the discovery of the Ebola virus, spurred researchers and work that could otherwise have taken a decade was done in 10 months. The vaccine has been created. In April 2015, doctors administered the first vaccinations to people. Over the course of three months, 100 people infected with Ebola were selected for the experiment, and more than 2 thousand relatives and fellow tribesmen of the infected were vaccinated. It later turned out that of the people who received the vaccine, only 16 people got sick. Vaccination began to be carried out on a systematic basis: as soon as a person who has contracted Ebola is identified, everyone in his immediate circle is immediately sent “for an injection.”

Before the start of the vaccination campaign, doctors constantly recorded new cases of the disease. After the advent of the vaccine, the Ebola epidemic began to gradually subside.

Prospects: The World Health Organization estimates that the new vaccine will be between 75 and 100 percent effective. If the drug had been developed at least a year and a half earlier, thousands of people would have been saved: the 2014–2015 epidemic killed 11,315 people, and more than 28 thousand more were ill but were able to survive. In the first two weeks of December 2015, Ebola did not manifest itself even once. It is impossible to count how many lives the vaccine will help save in the future, but WHO representatives are already saying that for the first time in 40 years, the rules of the game are changing: now the advantage is on the side of the person, not the virus.

2. We flew to Pluto

Breakthrough: The New Horizons probe reached Pluto and collected a wealth of data about the dwarf planet and its moon Charon.

Progressors: NASA, although we owe just as much to Percival Lowell, who predicted the existence of Pluto, and Cloud Tombaugh, who discovered it.

Details: The New Horizons mission launched back in 2006, when Pluto was still considered a full-fledged planet, and no one had heard of Facebook, for example. For nine long years, the spacecraft steadily approached Pluto, mostly staying in hibernation mode and only waking up from time to time to adjust course and photograph space objects that came to hand. The objects, I must say, came across just right: the clouds of Jupiter alone are worth it. And while flying past Io, New Horizons took a series of pictures that revealed volcanic bursts on its surface, which were then even stitched together into a full-fledged video (the first video of a volcano erupting outside the Earth!). But all this was just preparation for the great success that awaited the probe in 2015. Color photographs of Pluto and its faithful satellite Charon were obtained. Even people far from astronomy started talking about photographs with the “heart of Pluto” (the nitrogen sea).

Prospects: In general, the device observed Pluto for 9 days, during which it collected about 50 gigabits of information. Now he is slowly transmitting the collected data to Earth. As NASA says, the transmission will continue until the end of 2016, because its speed does not exceed 2000 bits per second. The information obtained will allow us to test some hypotheses, for example, about the presence of water under the ocean ice, or about the composition of the atmosphere of a dwarf planet. But the mission will not end there: on January 1, 2019, a flyby of asteroid 2014 MU69, a typical representative of the Kuiper belt, is planned. Perhaps it will be possible to find some other worthy targets to which the probe will be sent. But New Horizons has already achieved a lot. The last time humanity received images of an unknown planet was in 1989 - then it was Neptune. And there are no more unexplored planets left in the solar system.

3. Human genes edited

Breakthrough: The CRISPR/Cas9 genome editing method was tested on human genes and improved.

Progressors : Genetic engineers from China and the USA.

Details: Last year, breakthrough experiments continued with the revolutionary and simple gene editing method CRISPR/Cas9, which gives us the ability to use special enzymes to find the desired section of DNA and change it by cutting out or adding lines of genetic program code. The most scandalous was the experiment of Chinese bioengineers who tested the method on initially non-viable human embryos. The result disappointed even the scientists themselves: out of 86 embryos, only in 28 the replacement complex managed to contact the desired section of DNA. The experiment was criticized, including by the journal Nature. In a critical article, scientists were urged not to use the method on humans due to the large number of unwanted mutations and unpredictable consequences, and drew attention to the fact that failures in experiments cast a shadow on successful attempts to treat individual organs using this system. However, very soon American scientists managed to increase the efficiency of the CRISPR/Cas9 method by an order of magnitude, reducing the number of errors to almost zero. We are very close to the technical possibility of editing the human genome.

Prospects: At a summit dedicated to editing the human genome, scientists decided that the time had not yet come to edit the genes that are inherited before the birth of a child. This temporary ban does not apply to treatment, the results of which will not be inherited. They did not completely ban “correcting” the human genome, reasoning that there will always be those who decide to break the ban. Genetic engineering will need to perfect its techniques to provide the key to editing inherited genes. At the first stage, this will make it possible to cure some diseases that are caused by changes in individual genes, and in the long term, perhaps, to the emergence of different variants of “posthumans” experimenting with their genome.

4. They dug up a “transition link”

Breakthrough: the remains of the most ancient people, called Homo naledi, were analyzed - judging by the anatomical structure, these are the earliest representatives of the human race, who lived 2-3 million years ago and claim to be a “transitional link” between australopithecine monkeys and humans.

Progressors: Lee Berger and the paleoanthropologists working with him.

Details: In 2013, two speleologists discovered a passage into a small chamber in a narrow tunnel of the Rising Star cave system, at the bottom of which rested sensational bones. Paleontologist Lee Berger organized a large-scale expedition to the cave, which is now called Dinaledi. Only the most slender researchers had a chance to see a wealth unprecedented for a paleontologist: in the cave they found one almost complete skeleton, a perfectly preserved hand and foot, and in total more than one and a half thousand fragments of skeletons of 15 people of different sexes and ages. A touch of mystery added to the sensational nature of this discovery. Only one tunnel led into the cave, long and extremely narrow, and geologists claimed that there had never been another way. Scientists have not found any traces of human activity: the transfer of water, the manufacture of tools, fire, which could allow ancient people to navigate the cave. But how and, most importantly, why did they get through the “skinner” into this cell? Did they grope their way through in search of shelter or a place to die in peace, or did their fellow tribesmen organize something like a primitive cemetery in the cave, dragging bodies there? Dating fossils could help answer this question. To do this, scientists needed to examine the sediment on the bones, the composition of flora and fauna, volcanic tuff or sand. But there was nothing of this in the closed cave, except for stone dust from the walls and ceiling, which covered the discovered bones with a layer 15 centimeters thick. And the main news was that the researchers discovered ancestors not already known to science, such as australopithecines, whose remains were often found in this area.

As a result of the research, a group of anthropologists described a new species of our ancestors - Homo naledi, or “star man” (“naledi” is translated as “star” from the South African Sesotho language). Two articles published so far describe in detail the features of the hands and feet of ancient humans. The structure of the hand indicates that Homo naledi made tools, were skilled tree climbers and, for an as yet unknown reason, had very developed thumbs. The “star man”’s legs turned out to be long, and his feet were not much different from modern ones, so he was adapted to long runs.

Prospects: The exact place on the family tree for Homo naledi has not yet been found, nor has the age of the fossils been determined. To do this, scientists will need to radiocarbon date the bones and further study the Rising Star cave system.

5. Caught a pentaquark

Breakthrough: In July, physicists announced the discovery of a new class of particles whose existence scientists predicted half a century ago but could not prove - pentaquarks.

Progressors: The article telling about the discovery of the pentaquark has about 700 authors, and in general, the honor of discoveries made at the Large Hadron Collider is shared among thousands of people who created it and are working there now.

Details: Quarks are fundamental particles from which two classes of composite particles are formed: baryons (these are the protons and neutrons that make up the nucleus of an atom) and mesons. Baryons consist of three quarks, and mesons consist of two: a quark and an antiquark. Typically, quarks do not form complex structures - if you put several quarks together, they do not combine, but immediately decay into mesons and baryons. Modern physics is not yet able to explain why this happens, since theoretically nothing prevents quarks from combining into groups of 4 or 5 particles: into tetra- or pentaquarks.

The possibility of such associations was substantiated in 1964, and since then physicists have conducted dozens of experiments in attempts to find particles consisting of two quarks and two antiquarks (tetraquarks) and four quarks and one antiquark (pentaquarks). By the end of the first decade of the 2000s, more than 10 teams of scientists from different countries announced positive results in the search for pentaquarks. But none of these results were confirmed in larger experiments. The search for a pentaquark began to be considered a thankless task and doomed to failure.

The discovery at the Large Hadron Collider was made almost by accident: physicists were studying the decay of a lambda baryon and unexpectedly saw a pentaquark. Considering the bad reputation of the pentaquark, physicists approached the study of the discovered particle very seriously, measuring the mass, parameters and quantum numbers for a long time, and rechecking the results. In the end, data of very high statistical significance were obtained - the existence of a new class of particles was officially proven.

Prospects: A pentaquark is not just a new particle, but a way of combining quarks into a multicomponent ordered structure, about the properties of which we still know little. The Large Hadron Collider detected two pentaquarks at once, similar in mass, and now physicists will try to explain how this is possible. It will probably be possible to discover different types of pentaquarks.

6. Most psychological research has been shown to be unreliable.

Breakthrough: It turned out that out of 100 psychological experiments, only 39 can be reproduced. The results obtained should lead to a change in the process of obtaining scientific knowledge.

Progressors: Collaboration for Open Science, led by Brian Nozek.

Details: Reproducibility of results is one of the main properties of science. What's the point of saying that you managed to carry out a controlled thermonuclear reaction in which the energy produced exceeded the energy expended if no one can then repeat your success? After all, this will actually mean that humanity has not received anything new, even if you are right. The results of psychological research often promise quite a lot and sound quite loud. Everyone wonders whether, for example, the fear reaction is different in children and adults. However, it turned out that confirming the results of such experiments is not so easy. Psychologists from the Collaboration for Open Science spent four years reproducing experiments published in leading psychology journals, and the results of the study were disappointing. According to scientists, they were able to reproduce only 39 out of 100 papers, and this despite the fact that 97% of the original publications declared the statistical significance of their result. Well... It could be worse, couldn't it?

Prospects: Of course, at first glance, this result does not at all look like a breakthrough in science. After all, it means that psychological experiments are most often carried out incorrectly, or the reliability of their results is incorrectly assessed. But it’s much better if the problem is recognized and corrected than when everyone diligently pretends that it doesn’t exist. This is where the research from the Collaboration for Open Science comes in handy. Scientists, realizing that the statistical significance of results does not always allow us to judge the importance of a discovery, will try to make the research process more transparent and the results more reliable. Perhaps we will soon experience a whole scientific revolution that will radically change the way we obtain knowledge in psychology. And at the same time, you see, they will trust psychological experiments more.

7. A new type of antibiotic was isolated

Breakthrough: In July, the journal Nature published an article about the discovery, for the first time in 30 years, of a new class of antibiotics - teixobactin.

Progressors: The antibiotic was “grown” by a team of biologists from the USA, Germany and Great Britain.

Details: Most of the antibiotics used today were created in the 60s of the 20th century, and since then many bacteria have developed resistance to them. Some dangerous diseases, such as tuberculosis, were once suppressed by ordinary penicillin. But now tuberculosis and other half-forgotten infections may once again become mass killers.

The paradox is that it is partly because of the rapidity with which any new antibiotics lose their effectiveness that pharmaceutical companies have stopped investing in modifying existing drugs and finding new forms. They gave up, one might say. The problem of bacterial resistance to antibiotics is called one of the main threats to humanity in the near future.

Researchers at NovoBiotics Pharmaceuticals have used a completely new method for producing antibiotics. They did not turn to known strains that can be grown in the laboratory, but decided to look for a new antibiotic in the main source of bacteria - in the soil. Scientists have developed a device that can be lowered into the ground and allow bacteria to grow in their natural environment. The substances that these bacteria released during their life processes were then tested on mice infected with dangerous diseases. One of these substances had pronounced antibiotic properties and turned out to be very effective against most gram-positive bacteria that are resistant to all other antibiotics. This is a new type of antibiotic.

Typically, antibiotics “spoil” the proteins of bacteria, and they respond by adapting to its attacks by changing the structure of the protein so that it becomes insensitive to the antibiotic. But the substance found damages such important enzymes responsible for the construction of the bacterial cell wall that any change in them is fatal to the bacterium. Provided that the new antibiotic is used with great caution - only in cases where other drugs are powerless, bacteria will be able to develop resistance to it no sooner than in 30-40 years.

Prospects: The company plans to bring the new drug to market within five years, and it will be a salvation for those who currently cannot be cured. However, this is not the main achievement of scientists: the method of searching for new antibiotics that they discovered may open a new era in the creation of antibiotics and we will have something to counter the threat of global epidemics caused by mutated bacteria.

8. Decided to cool the planet

Breakthrough: Strictly speaking, this is not a scientific achievement, but a diplomatic and public one, but on a scientific basis and very important. In December, UN countries adopted a new climate agreement - the Paris Agreement. According to him, by the end of the century the planet should not warm by more than two degrees Celsius. Countries are committed to doing everything possible to reduce this threshold to even one and a half degrees.

Progressors: Representatives of all humanity - the Paris Agreement was accepted by 195 countries of the world.

Prospects: Over the past 5,000 years, the Earth has warmed by only 4-5°C, but from 1980 to 2020, the temperature on the planet's surface has increased by 0.25°C every decade. In the UN's pessimistic scenario, the planet will warm by 2.6–4.8°C in the 21st century, affecting the lives of billions of people. Melting glaciers, which will lead to rising sea levels and flooding of islands and coasts of continents, droughts and global disasters, are only part of the predicted consequences.

Industry and energy in most countries of the world depend on the combustion of fossil fuels. It is this process that is most responsible for the emissions of greenhouse gases, which, according to most scientists, provoke global warming. Giving up fossil fuels is now impossible, but as part of the agreement, UN countries agreed to work towards a gradual transition to a carbon-free economy. Energy will be spent more efficiently, countries will introduce new, environmentally friendly technologies, use renewable energy sources and diversify economies where they are too dependent on the production and consumption of hydrocarbon fuels. Each country independently determines how much it will be able to reduce emissions.

The conference participants in Paris were aware that such serious transformations could cause difficulties in the economies of many countries, both suppliers and active consumers of hydrocarbon fuels. The most vulnerable countries will receive financial support annually from other states, various international organizations and the commercial sector. States will create an emissions market, introduce a new tax and stimulate investment in new energy and industry.

Prospects: The Paris Agreement is legally binding, but has not yet been signed. For it to come into force, it must be ratified by at least 55 countries. This process will begin in April 2016 and will continue throughout the year. If the agreement is signed and countries adhere to the commitments it sets out, humanity will have a better chance of keeping the planet as it has been for the last 5,000 years.

9. Connected animal brains into a working network

Breakthrough: Neuroscientists at Duke University connected the brains of several rats into a network and forced the network to solve problems.

Progressors: Miguel Nicolesis and his laboratory staff.

Details: Scientists have approached the problem of mutual understanding radically. Neuroscientists from Duke University combined the brains of four adult rats, and the resulting “brainet” solved vital tasks such as image processing, storing and retrieving information, and even predicting the weather. In a way, a kind of organic computer was obtained, the productivity of which exceeded the productivity of a separate brain. What the test rats thought about this, unfortunately, is not reported. But it would be interesting to know what it’s like to have a common brain for four...

Prospects: Nicolesis’s research contributes to the development of brain-computer interfaces and methods of rehabilitation of people with impaired motor functions, but the main thing here is rather that a precedent has been created for the practical implementation of “Brainet”. Moreover, four unfortunate rats tied with electrodes are transferred from the category of science fiction to the category of promising technological projects “neuronet” - a future analogue of the Internet, in which the interaction of people, animals and machines is carried out using neurocommunications. It's hard to even imagine what kind of life this will bring to people. Perhaps a person connected by a nervous network with the world will not have a separate “I” at all, only “We” will remain, much like in the famous dystopia of Yevgeny Zamyatin.

10. Reversed the aging process

Breakthrough: A method has been developed that makes it possible to lengthen human telomeres, the end sections of chromosomes, by as much as a thousand nucleotides, the length of which largely determines the aging process of our body.

Progressors: A team of researchers from Stanford University led by Helen Blau.

Details: The reproduction of healthy cells in the body occurs through their division. During each division, the ends of the telomeres become smaller. In young people, telomeres are equivalent to 8-10 thousand nucleotides in length. As we grow and age, these “caps” decrease and at some point reach the point of “no return” - the cell stops dividing and finally dies. And the gradual death of cells, which carries with it the “littering” of the body, is, as many scientists believe, the main cause of aging.

The dependence of the body’s aging processes on the state of telomeres was known before, as was the fact that a healthy lifestyle slows down their shortening, but Stanford researchers proposed a fundamentally different method: they proved that it is possible to use external medical intervention to directly increase the end sections of chromosomes.

The main tool of the new technology was modified RNA carrying the telomerase reverse transcriptase gene. After the introduction of such RNA, the cells begin to behave like young ones and actively divide. True, the elongated ends of telomeres begin to shorten again with each new division.

Prospects: People have always been looking for the answer to the question “How to live happily ever after.” And if happiness is not so simple, then thanks to the results of completed research, we have a good chance of significantly extending our days. Continuing research promises success in creating drugs, the regular use of which will increase the active life of the cells that make up our body, which means that we will get a few extra years to find the answer to the second part of the question - about happiness.

Fruits of progress

10 technologies that entered people's lives in 2015

1.Hoverboard instead of hoverboard

For an entire generation, 2015 was, among other things, the year Marty McFly arrived in Back to the Future. Unlike the film, in today's reality there are no hoverboards (that is, flying skateboards) yet to be seen. But hoverboards are rapidly becoming fashionable. According to the developers, the device, consisting of a horizontal platform for the feet and two wheels controlled by two electric motors, works like the human vestibular apparatus: gyroscopic sensors signal the electric motors to rotate forward or backward when the center of gravity is shifted. forward) accordingly. While hoverboards are being used more and more by celebrities and lovers of advanced gadgets, it is possible that these devices will soon supplant scooters and roller skates. The only thing left for hoverboards to do is become safer.

2.Genetically modified animals

The past year has brought several important advances in the proliferation of lab-created animals. Genetically modified mosquitoes developed by the British company Oxitec have been released in the Brazilian city of Piracicaba as a means of fighting fever. An artificial mutation in the genes of male mosquitoes transfers to females a gene that kills their offspring before puberty. This measure should sharply reduce the population of fever-carrying mosquitoes.

Another big news was the approval for the production and consumption of the first GM animal in the United States. It was AquAdvantage salmon with embedded DNA that affects the growth of the fish. Salmon was considered equally safe for both human health and the environment.

3.Small, fast, cheap courier

We're not talking about gnomes, but about drones - small remote-controlled aircraft. The number of drones used for commercial purposes grew exponentially in 2015. Already, they deliver goods to customers, monitor the situation on the roads and are used for many other purposes, the range of which will only expand: for example, drones will soon transmit an Internet signal to the most remote corners of the Earth. The largest American online store, Amazon, promises in the near future, using a new service, to deliver goods weighing up to 2.3 kg within half an hour and for only 1 dollar. And in Japan, the police are launching drones equipped with networks into the sky: there are so many drones that there is a need to catch potentially dangerous ones.

4. Personalized reality

In 2015, Facebook gave users the ability to tag posts from people they did or didn't want to see in their news feed. Until this point, the user’s news feed was filled completely automatically: the computer analyzed the history of his likes, comments and views in order to identify preferences and fill the feed with information that might be of interest to him. Now the machine also analyzes which publications you consciously prioritize or exclude from your feed, so that you have to do this as little as possible. However, the ability to independently participate in the formation of the news feed has finally changed the function of the social network. Now this is not just a site that you go to to find out what's new in the lives of your friends, and not even to find out the news. This is an information space where you will learn exactly and only what you want to know.

5.Internet for light bulbs

In the world of artificial lighting, as elsewhere in life, the digital revolution and general “internetization” are unfolding - only instead of people, lamps are connected to the network. Lighting technology is merging with information technology thanks to light emitting diodes (LED), a semiconductor device that emits light when current is passed through it. LEDs are much more economical than other light bulbs, but their most attractive feature is that their parameters can be controlled. An exemplary example for the rapidly growing smart lighting market is Philips' Hue, which can be easily controlled from a smartphone, changing color, color temperature and brightness, or setting different program modes - for example, in the early morning the program sets a cool light that encourages people to work, and in the evening - warm, pleasant and calming. And external sensors allow, for example, to automatically adjust the lighting level depending on the weather and time of day. Changes in lighting that occur thanks to LEDs are important not only in everyday life - in the past year they began to be used in agriculture, which is becoming less and less “rural” - crops are grown in rooms with artificially controlled light, where for each type of, say, lettuce , the optimal parameters of light radiation are selected.

6.Assembling robots at home

Microcomputers and ready-made kits for creating your own electronic devices experienced a boom in 2015. The community of makers was also gaining popularity - this is what they now call “homemade people” who love to make “smart” devices at home, for themselves. Now anyone can build their own robot based on a programmable mini-computer like Galileo or Edison, several sensors and connected to a global network - the range of construction kits is expanding, the cost of components is decreasing, it is becoming easier to connect and combine them, and educational materials are available on the Internet for free. In 2015, giants such as Intel, IBM, Microsoft and Amazon offered users a “cloud” infrastructure for managing home-made devices, storing and processing the data they create. By the way, processing data coming from such crafts around the world can open a new era in the “digitization of the world” and the formation of various databases.

7.Breaking language barriers

Interaction between people speaking different languages ​​has always been a huge problem. It is difficult to even imagine the global world order and culture without language barriers, but it seems that the people of the planet will begin to understand each other without a translator very soon. In 2015, Skype launched a service for simultaneous speech translation of interlocutors speaking English, German and French (and translation of SMS messages from 50 languages ​​of the world). This is clearly just the beginning of a revolution in the world of automated simultaneous translation - it seems that the time has finally come to complete the Tower of Babel.

8.Supercomputer as a doctor

IBM, the creator of the Watson supercomputer, launched the IBM Watson Health cloud platform in the spring. Simply put, Watson AI now lives in the cloud and is used to analyze medical data. In particular, it helps doctors more accurately diagnose and select treatment. IBM has already entered into several agreements with major global brands operating in the field of healthcare services. Watson was trained to work with large amounts of medical data so that this artificial intelligence could draw on the expertise of researchers from around the world. Watson is constantly improving, receiving new data, helping to individualize recommendations for the patient and making mistakes less often than two-legged doctors.

9.Children from three parents

The UK government in February approved changes to the law allowing mitochondrial donation - making the UK the first country in which children can have the genes of not two, but three parents. Mitochondria are tiny, but have their own genome “accumulators” of a living cell. Approximately 6,500 children a year worldwide are born with mitochondrial DNA defects that are fatal or lead to severe brain damage. Mitochondrial DNA in humans is transmitted only through the maternal line, and scientists have figured out how to get rid of damage by transplanting mitochondria from a healthy woman at the “in vitro conception” stage. Before the vote, there was debate in the House of Commons for more than two hours, and the position of the supporters of the amendment, led by the Minister of Health, turned out to be more convincing for the majority of parliamentarians than the position of the church and other opponents of the amendment.

10. Computers have gained vision

Capturing an image in a photograph or video is not the same as “seeing”, that is, “understanding” what exactly is depicted there. Teaching machines to see means teaching them to name objects, recognize people, understand relationships, emotions, actions and intentions. In the past year, a major step was taken in this direction - thanks to neural network methods of the so-called “deep learning”, programs began to appear that can recognize objects, sometimes even better than people, and even describe in sentences what they saw in a photograph. Of course, this is not yet a full-fledged vision - for example, a computer cannot appreciate the beauty of a painting. But gradually machines gain vision. In the very near future, there will be a mechanism for searching information using keywords in countless photographs and videos on the Internet. Step by step, and we will not notice how we will perceive the world through not only our own, but also computer eyes.

Illustration copyright Reuters

The new year has begun, and therefore the BBC Russian Service has chosen the 10 most striking scientific and technical achievements of the past 12 months.

1. The path to rapid genome editing has been opened

A group of Chinese geneticists reported in a scientific publication earlier this year the first successful episode of editing the DNA of a human embryo using the CRISPR method.

The method of site-selective genome editing using an enzyme that recognizes the required sequence of a DNA strand based on the guidance of a complementary RNA guide promises revolutionary changes in the research and treatment of a number of diseases: from cancer and incurable viral diseases to hereditary genetic disorders such as sickle cell anemia and Down syndrome.

However, many biologists are calling for extreme caution in using this method of genetic engineering - for ethical reasons.

2. Autonomous power systems Powerwall

The head of the American company Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, said at a press conference that he is starting mass production of powerful lithium-ion Powerwall batteries that will be able to accumulate a large charge and gradually release it into the network as needed.

This system with a power of up to 10 kW/h is intended for use in private homes and small businesses.

The batteries can be charged from solar panels and other power sources.

The widespread use of this device has the potential to completely transform power distribution mechanisms in the future. The batteries are already being produced and are used in the famous Volta series electric vehicles.

3. There is liquid water on Mars

Scientists exploring Mars have said that the dark streaks that appear on the planet's surface during the warmer months may be formed by periodic flows of liquid water.

NASA satellite images show characteristic streaks on the mountain slopes, similar to salt deposits.

As stated in a study conducted by scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology led by astronomer Lujendra Oji and published in the journal Nature Geoscience, these data may mean that life may still exist on Mars in some form, since the presence of water increases the likelihood of the existence of primitive its forms - say, microbes.

4. Bionic lenses will end cataracts and myopia

Canadian optometrist Dr. Gareth Webb has invented a new system of bionic lenses that allows a person to achieve visual acuity three times greater than normal.

The Ocumetics Bionioc Lens system is implanted into the eye in a simple, painless surgical procedure that takes eight minutes.

A tiny biomechanical camera built into the lens allows you to change focal length faster than a healthy eye.

5. Neurons made of polymers

Swedish researchers have created the world's first artificial neuron that can completely imitate the functions of a human brain cell, including its ability to transform chemical signals into electrical impulses and transmit them to other types of cells.

So far, the physical dimensions of such devices are tens of times greater than the parameters of real neurons in the human brain. However, as the leader of the research team, Agneta Richter-Dahlfors from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, said, reduction to the desired size is quite possible in the near future.

Transplanting such devices into the brain will radically change the treatment of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's syndrome and spinal cord injuries.

6. A step towards a working fusion reactor

Californian company Tri Alpha Energy, which few have heard of until now, has achieved major success in confining plasma with a temperature of 10 million degrees Celsius.

The company's experimental fusion facility uses not external magnets to confine plasma, as in Tokamaks, but beams of charged particles that are shot into the plasma and create a confining "cage" around it. The researchers managed to achieve a plasma confinement duration of 5 milliseconds, which is the largest breakthrough in the field of fusion research.

7. Fake memories can be transplanted

Neuroscientists in France were the first to implant fake memories into the brains of mice.

Using implanted electrodes to directly stimulate and record the activity of neurons, they created associative connections in the minds of sleeping animals that did not disappear upon awakening and influenced their behavior.

Karim Benchenan and his colleagues at the National Center for Scientific Research in Paris conducted experiments on 40 mice, implanting electrodes in the medial forebrain bundle, which controls emotions associated with food and reward, as well as in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, which contains at least three different types of cells , which encode information necessary for spatial orientation.

8. Found a way to make morphine from yeast

Scientists have developed a way to convert sugar into morphine and other similar painkillers using yeast.

Nowadays, painkillers are made from opium poppies.

Because heroin is also made from morphine, scientists warn the discovery will make it easier to make the drug at home.

9. Pluto's surface is riddled with deep grooves

In July of this year, the American space probe New Horizons reached the vicinity of the dwarf planet Pluto and its system of satellites, the largest of which is Charon. The photographs sent became a sensation in planetary science and revealed completely unexpected features of the planet’s topography and the mechanism of its formation.

Pluto has a rarefied atmosphere and even a change of seasons.

10. Three-parent fertilization is now a reality.

The British Parliament has approved a bill legalizing artificial insemination using genetic material from three parents.

Some women have defective mitochondrial genes, which can lead to the birth of children with serious genetic diseases - muscular dystrophy, heart defects, neurological disorders. The new method makes it possible to replace mitochondria in an egg using material obtained from a donor, and not just from natural parents.

A processor for artificial intelligence, a 3D printer for human organs, landing a probe on a comet and other important scientific events and technological innovations of the past year.

Often, real scientific achievements turn out to be more amazing than the wildest predictions of science fiction writers. iBusiness presents an overview of the most impressive scientific achievements of 2014 and new technologies that can change the world as we know it.

IBM Neurosynaptic Processor

It differs from traditional processors built on the von Neumann architecture in that one chip core contains both computing and communication modules, as well as its own memory. As a result, all processor cores can work in parallel, processing very large amounts of data per unit of time, and the power of the entire computing system can be very easily increased by simply connecting several chips.

IBM TrueNorth chip emulates one million neurons and 256 million programmable synapses

The postage stamp-sized TrueNorth chip is built on a 28nm process, contains 4,096 cores, 5.4 billion transistors and requires just 70 milliwatts to operate, which is significantly less than the power consumption of today's traditional processors. At the same time, it simulates the work of one million neurons, 256 million programmable synapses and is capable of performing up to 46 billion operations per second per watt.

The advent of TrueNorth promises a real revolution in the field of cloud computing - systems on neurosynaptic chips can significantly speed up complex processes such as pattern recognition, machine translation and big data analysis. Computers with similar processors can become the center of smart cars, security systems and many other types of equipment. IBM plans to adapt the chip to mobile devices, which will increase the performance of smartphones and tablets, as well as significantly extend their battery life. In the future, neurosynaptic technology will even make it possible to create a computer comparable in computing power to the human brain.

Miniature radio controller

Last year, a team of engineers from Stanford University introduced the missing third component - mini-controllers capable of receiving and relaying commands transmitted via radio signals.

The dimensions of the radio controller are about 2 mm

The uniqueness of these modules, in addition to their miniature size, is that they do not require their own power source - all the energy necessary for their operation is extracted directly from the electromagnetic waves that carry the radio signal itself. In addition, the modules have a very low cost, which makes it possible to equip with them literally every thing in the environment of a modern person. The appearance of controllers with such characteristics will significantly speed up the release of new connected equipment and the spread of the “Internet of Things” in general.

Micro 3D printing

3D printers developed at Harvard University are capable of printing living cells

Using similar installations, the laboratory has already printed such things as lithium-ion batteries, bionic ear prostheses that combine living tissue and electronic components, retinal tissue, and even tissue samples with a system of blood vessels.

In the future, such devices can be used for high-precision printing of electronic components according to an individual design, and in medicine - for the production of artificial organs for drug testing or even transplantation into patients.

Connecting robotic prostheses to the human nervous system

Robotic prosthetics connect directly to the human nervous system and have learning capabilities

Interestingly, the system connected to the nerves has “learning” properties. As you use the prostheses, it becomes easier to perform various actions with their help, since the control adapts to incoming nerve impulses.

Although implanting robotic limbs requires extensive training and surgery, the successful completion of the experiment showed that it is possible to combine electronic components with the human nervous system. Such prostheses may find application in medicine in the near future.

Landing of the Philae probe on comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko

The landing of the Philae probe on a comet was the result of 10 years of flight

The landing of the probe on the comet did not go entirely smoothly: the device most likely ended up lying “on its side” and in the shadow of a rock, which did not allow the module’s solar batteries to provide it with the energy necessary for long-term operation. Despite this, as a result of the mission, scientists were able to obtain a lot of data, much of which has yet to be processed. It was possible to analyze the internal structure of the comet and find water and organic substances on it.

At the moment, the Philae probe is in sleep mode due to insufficient energy generated by solar panels. Scientists hope that the comet's approach to the Sun will improve the situation and the device can be activated this spring to collect additional data.

In the world of high technology, more and more attention is being paid to robots and their ability to significantly improve human life. In addition to robot assistants, transport plays an important role in our lives. This fall, automotive giants presented concepts that could once and for all solve the issue of urban road congestion and reduce the risk of accidents. We have selected five high-tech new products worthy of your attention.

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Although it seems that scientists around the world are focused solely on creating the latest mobile phones, technology development in other areas is also in full swing. Our top 5 again includes the innovation of Elon Musk, whose name appears every now and then in the news about the achievements of researchers. In addition to his plans to build an advanced metro, we will also tell you about other amazing inventions. And we will start with the most important thing - with a device that can save lives.

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Although February was not marked by such a variety of events in the world of innovation as January, scientists have prepared many interesting innovations for us this month. We will tell you about 5 original inventions: from a space rocket to translator headphones!

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The progressive future has already arrived, corporations are releasing the most powerful computers and smartphones, Elon Musk is once again surprising everyone around him, and new technologies can literally save the lives of millions of people. Read more in our selection of hot technology news for October 2017.

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Many people remember the statement that necessity is the mother of invention, but what then can be called its father? The ability to notice things and phenomena around oneself is precisely the characteristic that allows attentive people to turn an important invention out of a trifle that is inconspicuous to others. 10 of the most amazing inventions, born partly by chance, but also not without the manifestation of commendable ingenuity of the inventors.

Section "Mechanics"

What helps alligators move in water almost silently and maneuver without being noticed? It turned out that they were lungs. Zoologists have long believed that the muscles around the lungs allow alligators to simultaneously breathe and move on land......... read

Section "Optics"

In New York and London, a unique optical device was opened - a telectroscope, which connected these two metropolises. Now, for the first time in history, you can easily wave to each other across the ocean or admire the sights of the British capital, standing at the Brooklyn Bridge...... read

For the curious

Urgent ascent

Let's say you are scuba diving at great depths (say, about 30 m) and you urgently need to rise to the surface. There is only enough air in the tank for one breath, but it must be enough for the entire ascent, otherwise you will die. How will you emerge?

By the way, submarine crews practice this ascent during training. Should you exhale as you ascend, or should you try to hold it in? It may seem strange at first glance, but nevertheless you need to exhale the air, otherwise you are lost.

Inexperienced scuba divers sometimes die during training in the pool precisely because they do not exhale air in time when quickly ascending to the surface. Why?

It has been established that our need to take another breath is determined not by the amount of carbon dioxide in the lungs, but by its partial pressure. Therefore, it is believed that during ascent the most dangerous, critical moment occurs not at the surface, but at some depth. When you pass the critical point, your need to inhale decreases.

Why?
What is this critical depth?
How quickly should you float to the surface?
What happens if you ascend too quickly?

Turns out...
If you do not continuously release air during ascent, you can rupture your lungs, since the volume of air in them increases with a decrease in external pressure. When you ascend, the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in your lungs depends nonlinearly on time, since you are constantly exhaling some of the gas.

The depth at which the partial pressure of carbon dioxide is greatest is determined by subtracting 33 feet from the maximum diving depth (at which the last breath was taken in a submarine or from a tank), expressed in feet, and dividing the result by 2.