No crises and political squabbles can stop the movement of progress. Modern science makes amazing discoveries almost daily, revealing the secrets of the Universe, prolonging life, and giving a new impetus to the fields of electronics, technology, and pharmacology.
Today we present 2014 major scientific discoveries. Ten compiled from the materials of the publication Science.
10. Big genetic alphabet
Everything that exists on Earth is encoded using genetic information. Earlier, 4 letters of DNA — A, T, G, and C — were used to designate the code. In 2014, scientists added another 2 — X and Y. The researchers plan to encode new proteins that do not exist in nature but help in the treatment of many serious diseases.
9. Launch of CubeSat mini satellites
The area of one side of such a satellite is only 10 square meters. see. Earlier they were used as aids for students. But over the past year, more than 75 "babies" were launched into orbit.
8. Manipulation of memories
Fantastic films become reality - scientists have learned to change fragments of memory. True, while experiments were carried out only on mice. But it was possible to fundamentally change the emotional perception by rodents of their memories, turning good into bad, and vice versa.
7. Cells that can treat diabetes
Embryonic stem cells have been transformed by scientists into the so-called beta cells of the immune mechanism. This discovery is very important in the fight against previously incurable type 1 diabetes.
6. The oldest cave painting on Earth
In caves on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi, scientists found drawings whose age is at least 40 thousand years. Primitive geometric figures, whose age is about 78 thousand years, were previously found in Africa. But these graphic drawings previously had an age of not more than 30,000 years. The discovery can make significant adjustments to the history of mankind.
5. Artificial brain
IBM used 5.4 billion transistors to create an artificial brain, creating 256 million synapses that mimic the connections between neurons in the brain. This is many times less than in the head of a real person, but scientists do not intend to stop.
4. Humanoid robots
Samples created in 2014 can be trained and work completely autonomously, which allows us to talk about a breakthrough in the field of creating artificial intelligence.
3. The discovery of "young blood"
Mouse experiments have confirmed that the serum of young rodents can rejuvenate the blood and muscles of older relatives. If this pattern is also true for a person, a revolution in the fight against aging can begin in the coming years.
2. Origin of birds
The appearance of birds at the end of the dinosaur era for many years remained a mystery to scientists. However, gradually, data were collected on hundreds of individuals of fossil reptiles. Researchers tracked how the bodies of ancient dinosaurs became smaller, the bones thinner, and the flight skills more perfect. As a result, large dinosaurs became extinct due to lack of food, and small birds triumphantly continued their resettlement around the planet.
1. Landing on the comet Churyumov-Gerasimenko
The Rosetta spacecraft covered almost 6.5 billion kilometers and delivered the Phila robot to the surface of the comet. The ten-year journey was successful, now scientists dream of exploring the relict substance of the solar system, checking for the presence of water and micromolecules of organic matter on the comet.
