You probably think that all significant scientific discoveries happened quite a long time ago, but in fact it is not. Every year, many scientific discoveries are made in the world, which once again proves how little we know about our world.

10. Item 117

If you are not a doctor of science, then most likely you do not remember even half of all chemical elements that were studied in school. As a reminder, elements are distinguished by the number of protons, so an atom with 8 protons will always be an oxygen atom. The heaviest element ever found in nature is number 92, uranium. All the elements that are after it are the work of human hands. In 2010, a team of researchers successfully created element number 117 by filling in the empty space between elements 116 and 118. Temporarily named ununseptium, this element was quite a challenge for researchers. It took not only a huge amount of energy to create it, but it also took for a long time to find the necessary combination of elements from which an atom with 117 protons would be obtained. In addition, heavy elements usually have extremely short half-lives, often only a few milliseconds, which complicates things.

9. Mass of an electron


Electrons are negatively charged particles that revolve around the nucleus of an atom. They are so small that an accurate measurement of their mass is quite difficult task. Long years scientists used the agreement on the technological recommended value of its mass, adopted in 2006. More recently, scientists still managed to measure its mass, which amounted to +0.000548579909067 atomic mass unit, which is equal to 9.1 x 10-31 kilograms. And although the difference between the actual mass of the electron and the one that was accepted in the agreement is minimal, nevertheless, it has great value in areas of science such as physics elementary particles.

8. From skin to liver


For years, scientists have experimented with transforming skin cells into cells from other organs. Until now, these studies have not borne fruit, until recently, scientists were able to discover that adult liver cells can be restored from skin cells. The experiment ended in success when liver cells grown from skin cells took root after being transplanted into laboratory rats. And although the cells were not 100% mature, the success of this experiment showed that the study has a future.

7. Nuclear fusion


After many decades of waiting, we are finally closer to achieving an unlimited source of energy that would not pollute environment exhaust gases and radioactive waste. Such a source of energy lies in the nuclear fusion that occurs in stars. The process of obtaining energy occurs when atoms combine with each other. The more atoms fuse, the more energy is released. Scientists believe that it will be many more years before nuclear fusion can be applied on an industrial scale. Nevertheless, success in this industry serves as a guarantor of the future energy supply of mankind.

6. Breast Cancer Research


Breast cancer is one of the most common types of cancer in the world, affecting hundreds of thousands of people in the United States alone. Recently, researchers have discovered a link between blood cholesterol levels and breast cancer. The study found that women with more high level cholesterol have a higher risk of contracting breast cancer. This study helped advance the search for a drug that could save people not only from high cholesterol but also cancer. Such a drug has been successfully tested on mice, and may soon be available to humans.

5. Weak spots antibiotic resistant bacteria


Humanity is facing an ever-increasing problem of the emergence of more and more antibiotic-resistant bacteria, which poses a huge threat to human health. On their own, antibiotics have been the key to allowing us to live longer and not suffer from painful diseases. Unfortunately, some bacteria have adapted to create their own barriers that are resistant to antibiotics. More recently, scientists have been able to detect vulnerabilities in such bacteria. To defeat them, it is enough to destroy this very barrier, and then the bacterium will again be defenseless.

4. New forms of life


Previously, all living organisms were divided into prokaryotes (single-celled) and eukaryotes (multicellular). Prokaryotes were divided into bacteria and archaebacteria. For many years, scientists believed that all living organisms on our planet can be classified based on these three categories. That all changed when scientists discovered two viruses in Chile and Australia that were larger than any others discovered up to that point. Pandoraviruses are so alien to us that only 7% of their genes match all hitherto known genes. Fortunately, these viruses are harmless to humans, but their discovery showed how little we still know about the world around us.

3. New state of matter


First, scientists divided substances based on their state into solid, liquid and gaseous, then plasma was added, then Bose-Einstein condensate. Over time, this list has grown more and more. More recently, another state of matter has been discovered, and this was done in the study of our favorite food - chicken. No matter how stupid and strange it may sound, but it was chicken eyes that allowed scientists to discover a state of disordered hyperhomogeneity. The cells found in the chick retina are randomly distributed, yet their distribution remains uniform. Substances in this state exhibit the properties of water and crystals. This discovery can have a strong impact on the development of technologies in the field of light-transmitting devices.

2. Quantum teleportation


The cherished dream of mankind - teleportation, is available so far only on movie screens. And although instant teleportation from the US to Japan is still impossible, scientists have made a number of advances in this area. Physicists from the Netherlands were able to teleport quantum particles that carry information about the spin moment of an electron to a distance of three meters. This breakthrough could prove the existence of "quantum entanglement," meaning that our entire current understanding of quantum mechanics is wrong. This phenomenon will allow the quanta to move at speeds much faster than the speed of light. Quantum teleportation could be the key to quantum computing, holding incredible power.

1. Depths of the ocean


Our planet is overflowing with water, covering 71% of its entire surface. the globe, but the ocean is probably deeper and larger than we imagined. Much of the evidence indicates that much of the water was absorbed by a porous, sponge-like mineral located deep under the mantle. This discovery could help us answer the age-old question: where did the water in our oceans come from? There is a whole theory according to which the movement of tectonic plates earth's crust causes water to circulate from the depths of the earth to the surface and vice versa.

The outgoing 2016 will be remembered for historical scientific events. The ball is ruled by physicists and astronomers: they have made the most discussed and exciting discoveries related to black holes, relativity and other worlds. Biologists, modifying genomes and experimenting on humans, have also achieved a lot. Lenta.ru recalls the most important scientific results of the year.

Caught a wave

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 for decades. And on September 14, 2015 at 05:51 am Eastern Summer Time (13:51 Moscow time), gravitational waves were recorded for the first time at the LIGO observatory (laser-interferometric gravitational-wave observatory). They were born from the merger of two black holes into one massive black hole. This happened 1.3 billion years ago, but the gravitational perturbation of space-time has only just 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, started work back in 2002, but it was only possible to catch the gravitational wave after the modernization carried out in 2010-2015.

Second Earth

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, called Proxima b, is 1.3 times heavier than the Earth, revolves around Proxima Centauri in an almost circular orbit with a period of 11.2 days and is 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 in the habitable zone of its sun. That is, the 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 liquid water, then the probability of existence of life there is very high.

Image: ESO / M. Kornmesser

go play go

The Go board game is considered one of the most difficult to master by artificial intelligence. However, AlphaGo, developed by DeepMind, managed to beat Korean world go champion Lee Sedol in four out of five games.

AlphaGo uses so-called networks of values ​​to evaluate the positions of pieces on the board and networks of rules to choose moves. These neural networks learn how to play by analyzing known games, as well as through trial and error when playing alone. Before taking on Lee Sedol, the AI ​​had beaten other programs 99.8 percent of the time and then surpassed the European champion.

The third is not superfluous

In April 2016, a child was born in Mexico, conceived with the mitochondrial DNA of a third person. The "three parents" method involves the transplantation of mitochondrial DNA from a donor woman into the mother's egg. Scientists believe that this avoids the influence of mutations on the part of the mother, which can cause diseases such as diabetes or deafness.

The operation was performed by American surgeon John Zhang. He chose Mexico because in the United States the use of this technique is prohibited. The child was born healthy, no negative consequences he has on this moment not marked.

Ninth planet

On January 20, astronomers Michael Brown and Konstantin Batygin of the California Institute of Technology in Pasadena reported the discovery of an object the size of Neptune, which is 10 times heavier than the Earth, outside the orbit of Pluto. The minimum distance between the Sun and this celestial body is 200 astronomical units (seven times greater than between Neptune and the Sun). The maximum removal of Planet X is estimated at 600-1200 astronomical units.

Scientists discovered the planet by analyzing data on its gravitational effect on other celestial bodies. Brown and Batygin estimate the probability of error at 0.007 percent, but officially solar system will acquire the ninth planet only when it is seen through a telescope. To do this, astronomers have reserved time at the Japanese Subaru Observatory in Hawaii. Confirmation of the existence of a celestial body will take approximately five years.

Stars with a surprise

Image: capnhack.com

In the outgoing year, astronomers discovered another star with irregular brightness - EPIC 204278916. In 2015, a single star was identified in the constellation Cygnus KIC 8462852 with unusual behavior. 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 astroengineering structures, such as a Dyson sphere.

EPIC 204278916 also surprised scientists. The brightness of the star, according to the Kepler space telescope, decreased to 65 percent of the 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, this is unlikely to be caused by a dense cloud of comets: it would take several hundred thousand comets with giant nuclei.

In 2017, scientists will try to find a regularity in the changes in the star's brightness and establish their true nature. If this does not happen, we will have to admit that astronomers are faced with something quite incredible.

Gene revolution

On November 16, the journal Nature reported that Chinese scientists have modified the genome of a living person for the first time. Of course, not all, but a small part of it. In a patient with metastatic lung cancer, T-lymphocytes were modified using CRISPR technology, turning off the gene encoding the PD-1 protein, which reduces activity immune cells and contributes to the development of cancer.

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 trials, each of whom will receive two to four injections. All volunteers will be observed for six months to see if the treatment can cause serious side effects.

Minimum

In March, in the journal Science, scientists reported that they had succeeded in creating a bacterium with a synthetic genome, removing from it all the genes that the body could do without. For this, the mycoplasma M. mycoides was used, whose original genome consisted of approximately 900 genes that were classified as essential or non-essential. Based on all available information and through constant experimental testing, scientists were able to determine the minimum genome - the necessary set of genes vital for the existence of a bacterium.

As a result, a new strain of bacteria was obtained - JCVI-syn3.0 with a genome halved compared to the previous version - 531 kbp. It encodes 438 proteins and 35 types of regulatory RNA - a total of 437 genes.

Turn into an egg

Another achievement of biotechnology is associated with stem cells obtained from mice. Japanese scientists from the University of Kyushu in Fukuoka have for the first time achieved their transformation into eggs (oocytes). In fact, they received a multicellular living organism from stem cells.

The oocyte refers to cells with totipotency - the ability to divide and turn into cells of all other species. The scientists subjected the resulting oocytes to in vitro fertilization. The cells were then transferred into the bodies of surrogate females, where they developed into healthy babies.

The mice created in the laboratory were fertile and could give birth to healthy rodents. In addition, embryonic stem cells could be reproduced from eggs obtained in culture and fertilized in vitro.

tricky bucket

NASA engineers sensationally confirmed the operability of the EmDrive engine, which "violates" the laws of physics. The article was peer-reviewed and published in scientific journal Journal of Propulsion and Power.

The article reports that the EmDrive in a vacuum is capable of developing 1.2 millinewtons per kilowatt of thrust. 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 the reverse force that responds to the jet thrust developed by EmDrive. That is, the engine moves, but does not emit anything. The retroactive force is required by the law of conservation of momentum.

Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that Chinese scientists have announced successful tests of EmDrive aboard the Tiangong-2 space laboratory and are now going to use it on orbiting satellites. Nevertheless, many experts are still skeptical and believe that the authors of the article may have missed the influence of some additional factors in the calculation.

An international group of physicists has found out why beta decays in atomic nuclei proceed more slowly than in free neutrons. Scientists have been struggling to solve this riddle for 50 years, according to a press release on Phys.org. The researchers studied the transformation of the tin-100 isotope into indium-100. These two elements have the same...

2019-03-12 521 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists from the US and China have for the first time calculated the contributions to the proton mass associated with various effects. For calculations performed within the framework of lattice QCD, scientists used the Titan supercomputer with a performance of about 27 petaflops. As a result, the researchers found that the quark condensate provides about ..

2019-02-26 574 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists from Germany suggested using electromagnetic waves with azimuth polarization to overcome the diffraction limit and accurately measure the position of the nanoparticle on the glass substrate. By observing the scattering of such waves on a spherical particle, scientists were able to fix a displacement of just ..

2019-02-26 426 0 Scientific discoveries

The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator proved its performance in a series of experiments conducted in 2016-2017 - the destabilizing plasma boostrap current was reduced by almost four times, and the plasma retention time was brought up to 160 milliseconds. At the moment this best result among the stellarators. ..

2018-06-04 22440 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists at the University of Maryland have discovered an exotic YPtBi superconductor, inside which electrons interact with each other to form high-spin quasiparticles. This was reported in the journal Science Advances. Scientists analyzed the electronic structure of a material made from yttrium, platinum..

2018-04-10 7361 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists from Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have figured out how an anomalous superconductor, strontium titanate, is able to conduct electricity without resistance despite not being a metal. This is reported by Science Alert. Strontium titanate is an oxide, however..

2018-03-27 5487 0 Scientific discoveries

Mathematicians from the University of California at Berkeley have found a condition for the existence of bare singularities in black holes, in which the laws of physics are violated. This conclusion calls into question the strong principle of cosmic censorship, when a naked singularity should be unattainable for any..

2018-03-06 6277 0 Scientific discoveries

Neurologists from the Charite University Hospital in Berlin have uncovered the processes that occur in the human brain during the process of dying. It turned out that the “brain tsunami” is a wave of depolarization nerve cells, uncontrollably spreading through the cortex hemispheres and causing the death of neurons - can be blocked. ..

2018-03-06 6302 0 Scientific discoveries

American physicists have for the first time experimentally registered bound states of three photons. The formation of trimers unusual for photons occurs when a laser beam passes through a cloud of cooled rubidium atoms due to the formation of intermediate polariton states, scientists write in Science. Unlike..

2018-02-18 4630 0 Scientific discoveries

Scientists at Northwestern University in the US found that terminally ill people suffering from Huntington's chorea have an 80 percent reduced risk of cancer. It turned out that tumor cells are sensitive to a defective form of the huntingtin protein, which also causes the death of nerve cells. It is reported..

2018-02-14 5483 0 Scientific discoveries

Biologists at Moscow State University have discovered a "molecular timer" - a special mechanism for regulating protein synthesis, which prevents the formation of abnormal molecules by sticking ribosomes. Scientists say the discovery will help create therapeutic methods to fight cancerous tumors. This was announced in a press release..

2018-02-05 4953 0 Scientific discoveries

Scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg have deciphered the genome of one of the simplest multicellular life forms, the green algae Tetrabaena socialis, which consists of four cells. This made it possible to determine the genetic mechanisms that contributed to the emergence of multicellularity. An article by biologists was published in the journal ..

2018-02-05 4297 0 Scientific discoveries

Hypothetical magnetic monopoles can be created in collisions of heavy ions or in strong magnetic fields neutron stars. Physicists at Imperial College London have theoretically considered these processes and calculated lower bound for the possible mass of monopoles - it turned out to be slightly less than the mass ..

2017-12-14 3833 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists have developed a shell that, due to magnetohydrodynamic effects, allows you to completely suppress all disturbances in the flow of water around moving objects. In a paper published in Physical Review E, the scientists also proposed a way to create such a device, which could be...

2017-12-12 3698 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists for the first time experimentally measured the force of attraction that acts on individual cesium atoms from a black body. This force turned out to be several times greater than the gravitational force and the pressure force. electromagnetic radiation, write the authors of a paper published in Nature Physics. Effect..

2017-12-11 3412 0 Scientific discoveries

An international team of researchers has proven the existence new form matter - excitony. It is a condensate of excitons - electrons and "holes" connected to each other. This state of matter was first predicted almost 50 years ago. The scientists' article was published in the journal Science. About it..

2017-12-11 4204 0 Scientific discoveries

An international team of physicists has succeeded in reversing the passage of time for a pair of interconnected particles. Researchers have proven that for quantum interconnected qubits (quantum bits), the second law of thermodynamics is spontaneously violated, according to which in isolated systems all processes go only in the direction of increase.

2017-12-05 3125 0 Scientific discoveries

An extended version of the main physical theory - the Standard Model - predicts that charged particles can polarize vacuum and emit photons. A Brazilian theoretical physicist investigated this effect, known as vacuum Cherenkov radiation, and used it to set limits on certain parameters.

2017-11-30 2942 0 Scientific discoveries

Professor of Nizhny Novgorod state university named after Nikolai Lobachevsky, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Yaroslav Sergeev, in an interview with TASS, announced the solution of two Hilbert problems. Research published in the journal of the European Mathematical Society EMS Surveys in Mathematical Sciences. The first problem, about solving..

2017-11-28 3623 0 Scientific discoveries

Spanish scientists have for the first time transmitted quantum states between a cloud of cold rubidium-87 atoms and a Pr3+:Y2SiO5 crystal using photons. The article was published in Nature.To build a quantum network, it is necessary not only to store quantum states for a long time, but also to transmit..

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Every year, scientists make important sensational discoveries that contradict everything that is written in history books and radically change the idea of ​​the Earth.

website collected 9 most incredible finds that will force us to reconsider everything that we knew before.

1. Prehistoric people lived with dinosaurs

In 2012, in Dawson County, Montana, paleontologist Otis Kline Jr. discovered the frontal horn of a Triceratops from the genus of herbivores during regular excavations. During the study of the horn, scientists made an amazing discovery: the age of the dinosaur is about 33.5 thousand years. Such a statement disputes the notion that reptiles became extinct more than 65 million years ago, and therefore it is quite possible that prehistoric people lived on Earth with dinosaurs.

2 Antarctica Was A Tropical Continent

Today, 98% of the territory of Antarctica is covered with a layer of ice, but millions of years ago this the continent was considered tropical.

Exploring the territory of Antarctica, scientists found the fossilized remains of heat-loving plants: African baobabs and ferns, as well as ichthyosaurs - ancient reptiles that previously lived in a warm area.
An amazing discovery led researchers to conclude that more than 50 million years ago, palm trees grew on the coast of the coldest point on Earth, and the water in the ocean was warm.

3. The Romans discovered North and South America

There are suggestions that Romans were in mainland America long before Columbus. Evidence of this is a ceramic head figure discovered in 1933 under the floor of an ancient building in Mexico, which differs from samples of local art, but resembles Roman sculptures that were created back in the 2nd century. Moreover, in the waters of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro, researchers found artifacts belonging to Roman culture and dating back to the 3rd century. Therefore, one of the theories of scientists states that Romans were the discoverers of the continent.

4. Stone balls of Costa Rica

Another mystery that researchers are puzzling over is. They are perfectly correct round shape and created from different breeds A: limestone, sandstone and igneous rock. Their weight reaches 16 tons.

It is known that many stones formed various shapes: triangles, lines and even astronomical configurations. But the direct purpose of the balls that ancient civilizations left us is still unknown.

5. Pyramids were built not only in Egypt?

We all know that the Egyptian pyramids are the most grandiose and unique structures on Earth. However, in 2005, amateur archaeologist Semir Osmanagich made a sensational statement: in Bosnia, the pyramids are much older and larger than the Egyptian ones. World scientists took this news extremely skeptically and even provided information that Mount Visochica, which the researcher mistook for a pyramid, is a natural formation, and not a man-made structure.

6. Precious ingots from Atlantis

Historians are still actively arguing about the real existence of Atlantis. But recently a discovery was made that forced a reconsideration of the point of view of all skeptical scientists.

During another dive into the waters of the Sicilian Gela, amateur diver Franco Cassarino discovered an amazing find - 39 ingots of unknown origin, which lay under the wreckage of a sunken ship for 2.5 thousand years. The examination showed that the metal from which the ingots were made is orichalcum - an alloy of several rocks. Archaeologists claim that the results of the analysis prove the existence once prosperous state, because even Plato in his texts mentions orichalcum as a metal popular in Atlantis.

7. The Chinese were the first to visit what is now the United States.

in several states North America scientists have found thousands of rock paintings, some of which have been identified as ancient Chinese writing.

The researchers concluded that Asians entered the northern part of the current US around 1300 BC - much earlier than both Columbus and the Romans.

8. Life on Mars

Around the question "Is there life on Mars?" there were always heated discussions. But not so long ago, a discovery was made that will help scientists come to a single answer.

The researchers found that in the past The red planet was covered by a huge ocean. The data that they have obtained thanks to artificial satellites and rovers indicate that Mars was once much warmer than it is today, and part of its surface was covered with liquid water. This finding makes it possible to safely assume that once Mars was really inhabited planet.

9. Coca Cola

In 1886, pharmacist John Pemberton, in an attempt to find a cure for drug addiction, invented wine coca- the strongest tonic for stimulating the brain, which contained alcohol and cocaine. But prohibition was soon introduced, and the pharmacist replaced the alcohol with an extract of kola nuts imported from Africa. The resulting liquid was indeed a powerful tonic.

Then Coke was still non-carbonated and was sold in pharmacies as a hangover cure that had to be diluted with water. Once one visitor diluted the product not with water, but with soda, after which he exclaimed: “This is amazing!” Soda water was immediately added to the recipe, and cocaine was soon eliminated.