In the 11th year of the third millenium, scientists brought innovations in medicine that may annihilate killers like malaria and HIV. They announced milestones in alternative energy, and landmarks in space exploration. The implications of some of these discoveries are uplifting, while others (e.g., cloning) are fodder for philosophical debate. Others are downright amusing--there are few things more entertaining than a levitating, frozen hockey puck.
The top science discoveries of 2011 have impacts that are bound to span far beyond this single year. Most of these developments were years in the making, and all are likely to affect the future of scientific research.
In October of 2011, scientists at the New York Stem Cell Foundation Laboratory announced that they had successfully created human embryos using cloning techniques like the ones used to make Dolly the cloned sheep back in 1996. Until this breakthrough, scientists had tried unsuccessfully to replicate Dolly's results among humans. Now that the task has finally been achieved, it appears that human cloning may not be far off.
Human stem-cell cloning can mean better treatments for serious illnesses like diabetes. However, scientists must grapple with one problem--the cloned cells have an extra set of chromosomes, which will need to be removed before the cells can be used.
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Dark Energy Compels the Universe to Expand at an Accelerated Rate
Three American scientists--Saul Perlmutter, Brian Schmidt and Adam Riess --won the 2011 Nobel Prize in physics for discovering that the universe is expanding at an accelerated rate. While the knowledge that the universe is expanding has been around for a while, the scientific community was stunned to find that a substance called dark energy is speeding up the rate of expansion. What this means is that the universe is cooling down and will ultimately turn to ice.
While the news may sound grim, this chilly fate is billions of years away. This discovery will help us better understand the world that we live in as science continues to explore the unknown universe.
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Quantum Levitation Discovered at Tel Aviv University
Researchers at Tel Aviv University found a way to suspend an object in midair using a technique called quantum levitation. This works via the Meissner effect, which allows a superconductor set atop a magnetic field to emit an equal magnetic field as a counter. While the researchers demonstrated their discovery using a frozen hockey puck, the technique may be used to levitate other items as well.
The superconductor, which is made of yttrium barium copper oxide that has been exposed to liquid nitrogen, can either hover in place or move in a track like a Maglev levitating train.
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Fuel Cell Cleans Water While Producing Energy
Scientists in China have created a type of photocatalytic fuel cell that uses organic materials to sanitize water while it makes energy. The system takes organic compounds and uses light energy to make electrons that are converted to electricity via a platinum-based cathode. In experiments, the cell removed such pollutants as perfumes, dyes and medications. At this stage, the system is just a prototype and further research will need to be conducted before it can be put into practical use.
Once refined, this invention may prove useful in an era with high demand for alternative energy sources as well as a need for water purification.
Video games proved their usefulness in September of 2011 when gamers cracked the code of a molecule that the HIV virus uses to replicate itself. By figuring out the structure of the molecule, classified as a protease, the gamers accomplished in three weeks what the scientific community had been attempting for more than 10 years.
The code-breaking video game, called Foldit, was developed in Biochemistry Professor David Baker's lab at the University of Washington, and then handed over to non-scientist gaming enthusiasts. Players came up with over a million possibilities before finally nailing the structure.
This new information offers scientists insight into battling the HIV virus, leading us towards better treatment options in the f*ture.
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Japanese Scientists Find Way to Remove Radiation from Water and Soil
After the explosion that followed Japan's March 2011 earthquake, the area around F*kushima power plant became polluted with radiation from the metallic element cesium (Cs). Radiation levels were deemed high enough to potentially cause health damage, and Japanese researchers scrambled for a fix.
A team of scientists from Hiroshima Kokusai Gakuin University, headed by Professor Ken Sasaki, helped come to the rescue with radioactive material-eating microbes. When added to water or soil containing cesium, the microbes were shown to reduce levels of the radioactive substance to 1/12 after a day, and completely remove the element after three.
The F*kushima disaster gave researchers the opportunity to test out these microbes in a practical setting. The findings could lead to improved clean-up of nuclear accidents in the f*ture, sparing lives and protecting people from illness.
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Antibiotics Found in Cockroach Brains
A group of researchers at University of Nottingham discovered that the brains of cockroaches and locusts contain potent antibiotics. In fact, the substances found in the heads of these insects are capable of obliterating 90% of the types of bacteria that cause human disease, including Staphlococcus aureus and E. coli. These bug antibiotics are harmless to human cells.
These findings could lead to f*ture medicines that are capable of curing people with drug-resistant strains of diseases. It will be five to 10 years before any preparations of roach brains will be offered to the general public.
Scientists Have Found a Way to Reverse Aging in Mice
It seems that science has found the fountain of youth. Maybe.
Researchers have found that by controlling a piece of DNA called telomeres found at the end of chromosomes, they could reverse the signs of again in cells. Each time a cell divides the telomere shortens. This shortening is what causes the cells to age. However, by controlling an enzyme called telomerase, the researchers were able to stop the telomere from shortening in the cellular division process, making it possible to reverse the again of the cell.
They have been able to test this theory by genetically creating mice that start out with low teomerase levels so the telomere shortens faster, making the rats age faster. When they increased the levels of telomerase in these mice there is a noticed de-aging process. The fur went from grey to colored and there was marked improvement in memory and fertility functions.
While this did not increase the lifespan of the mice, it is one step closer in scientists discovering the fabled anti-aging potion.
In a related discovery, French scientists have been able to not only de-age cells as old as 101 years back to an embryotic stem cell state, but also have been able to start the cells again process again. Meaning that it might be possible to take an organ that is aged to death and remake it new. Possibly.
Over the past years, scientists have been working on a treatment for Parkinson's disease that uses dopamine-producing stem cells. However, this treatment has proven dangerous because the stem cells can cause cancer. The University of Melbourne's Lachlan Thompson announced in 2011 that Australian researchers have found a way to distinguish between the stem cells that are helping the patients and those that have potential for harm. This allows scientists to remove the dangerous cells.
These findings will allow researchers to move forward with groundbreaking Parkinson's treatment research. According to Thompson, the new knowledge may lead to better treatment within the next five to 10 years.
Scientists Discover More Effective Malaria Vaccine
Mosquitos are notorious for spreading malaria, a disease that is contracted by 250 million people annually and costs about $12 billion each year to treat. However, in 2011 scientists found a way to use malaria-infected mosquitos to create a vaccine to ward off the illness.
The vaccine invented prior to this breakthrough is about 50% effective. This new vaccine, created using sporozoites (early malaria forms) from the salivary glands of infected mosquitos, has an effectiveness of 90-100%. This means that up to twice as many people as previously thought possible may be spared from this deadly disease once the vaccine is fully developed.
Dr. Amir Amedi and his crew at The Hebrew University of Jerusalem developed a virtual cane that can help the blind navigate more effectively. The handheld device can "feel" for shorter and longer distances that the traditional meter-long cane, and can also distinguish happy and sad facial expressions. The invention operates by sending out a focused beam, and vibrates to alert the user to obstacles. The battery lasts for 12 hours, and can then be recharged.
This means that blind people in the f*ture may not only be spared from lugging around a full-sized cane, but can also gain an enhanced perception of the world around them. In addition, the expression-recognizing feature may be used to conduct research on brain function.
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Planetary System Kepler-11 Discovered
Kepler, an orbiting NASA space telescope, discovered a new system of planets in early 2011. The Kepler-11 system consists of six large planets, made of rocks and gases, all orbiting one star. Kepler-11 sits about 2,000 light years away from planet earth, and is more similar to our own solar system than any others discovered thus far. Kepler team member Jack Lissauer has stated that "far fewer than one percent of stars have systems like Kepler-11," and claimed that up until now science was not certain that six planets of such sizes could orbit so closely to a star. All of the Kepler-11 planets are more massive than earth.
Kepler is scheduled to continue exploration in search of planets that may contain water and are otherwise inhabitable. Experts predict that it will take a minimum of three years to find a planet the size of earth with current technology.
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MIT Researchers Develop Drug to Cure Viruses
In August of 2011, researchers at MIT announced that they had found a new drug capable of curing almost any virus. The drug works by picking out the cells that are infected by the virus and destroying them while leaving healthy cells intact. The new medication successfully cured all 15 virus types that it was exposed to in laboratory tests conducted on human and animal cell cultures, and on live mice. The list includes swine flu, colds and polio.
While bacterial infections are relatively easy to cure with antibiotics, there are few drugs that successfully treat viruses. The MIT findings could translate into cures for HIV and treatments for people with common air-borne illnesses.
In August of 2011, scientists at University of Pennsylvania's Abramson Cancer Center and Perelman School of Medicine helped patients reach a full year of cancer remission by using an innovative leukemia-fighting technique. The researchers used genetically-engineered versions of the patients' own T cells; they first removed the cells from the patients' bodies, and then used a lentivirus vector to install a protein (CAR) that works similarly to an antibody. This protein stayed on the T-cells' surfaces and attracted them to CD19 proteins, present on leukemia cells. Every patient who received these modified T-cells lost a minimum of two pounds of tumor.
This breakthrough may not only lead to more effective treatment of leukemia and other cancers, but also produces fewer side effects than traditional treatments like chemotherapy.
TabForaCause.org Gamers Crack HIV Molecule Code at 12/25/2011 12:54 AM
announced just a few days ago, First HIV vaccine approved for human testing http://forums.gametrailers.com/thread/hiv-aids--one-of-the-world-s-d/1268161
TheHungerSite.com Scientists Discover More Effective Malaria Vaccine at 12/25/2011 12:51 AM
possibly even better discovery, excerpt: You wait for years for a breakthrough in the battle against malaria, and then two come along in two weeks. But the advance announced yesterday by scientists at the Wellcome Trust Sanger Institute in Cambridge is potentially far more significant than last month's news of an experimental vaccine made by GlaxoSmithKline (and part-funded by Bill Gates), which showed partial success in early clinical trials. Scientists involved in those trials emphasised that the vaccine would only be able to contribute to the control of malaria. The Cambridge scientists' discovery offers hope of something far more thrilling: the complete global eradication of the disease. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/science/malaria-the-beginning-of-the-end-6259691.html
RetroTranspositions Fuel Cell Cleans Water While Producing Energy at 11/22/2011 10:10 AM
I'm sorry, but you don't "create" electrons, you might harvest them from an electron source, but no creation is taking place. Clearly a non-science person created this list/wrote these descriptions.
somegermandude Scientists Have Found a Way to Reverse Aging in Mice at 11/22/2011 6:31 AM
At 3 places in the article about scientific breakthrough #8, the author - or the spellcheck s/he used - has written "again" instead of "aging". 2nd par.: "...they could reverse the signs of AGAIN in cells." 2nd par.: "...making it possible to reverse the AGAIN of the cell." 5th par.:"...but also have been able to start the cells AGAIN process again." In the case of the 5th paragraph typo, it's especially annoying since the word "again", thanks to the phrasing, appears 2 times within 3 words. Apart from the first "again" being a typo, the author could have easily avoided this by writing "but also have been able to re-start the aging process." instead of the original word choice.
A Covert The 14 Greatest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2011 at 11/22/2011 1:22 AM
Quantum levitation was demonstrated before I was even in high school, and I graduated in 2002. My AP chemistry teacher even did it in class. Also, microbes have been used to clean up radioactive isotopes for a while now. Most commonly they are used for uranium and plutonium.
Scientists in China have created a type of photocatalytic fuel cell that uses organic materials to sanitize water while it makes energy. The system takes organic compounds and uses light energy to make electrons that are converted to electricity via a platinum-based cathode. In experiments, the cell removed such pollutants as perfumes, dyes and medications. At this stage, the system is just a prototype and further research will need to be conducted before it can be put into practical use.
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The 14 Greatest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2011 at 1/24/2012 3:09 PM
Gamers Crack HIV Molecule Code at 12/25/2011 12:54 AM
Scientists Discover More Effective Malaria Vaccine at 12/25/2011 12:51 AM
Fuel Cell Cleans Water While Producing Energy at 11/23/2011 8:20 PM
Fuel Cell Cleans Water While Producing Energy at 11/22/2011 10:10 AM
Scientists Have Found a Way to Reverse Aging in Mice at 11/22/2011 6:31 AM
The 14 Greatest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2011 at 11/22/2011 1:22 AM