Scientific breakthroughs abound! Scientists and researchers all over the globe are constantly making new and exciting discoveries that will continue to change the course of human life on Earth, and 2016 is rich with scientific achievement. The greatest scientific discoveries inspire us to learn more about the world around us and to not just sit back and accept the way things are. Why? Because someone made a glove that stabilizes Parkinson's tremors! And someone else tracked down the mutation that led to multi-cellular life! Scientific breakthroughs from 2016 are crazy cool, and the scientific discoveries made in 2017 are even cooler!
This list of 2016 scientific discoveries features interesting stories of researchers making breakthroughs in all kinds of different fields, with many important implications for human life. The scientific breakthroughs of 2016 will amaze and inspire a new generation of curious scientists, who will push the boundaries of what we know even further.
When it comes to recent scientific breakthroughs, 2016 is full of them. Whether here on earth (like dinosaur fossils from the actual extinction event) to light years away record-breaking explosions scientific discoveries made in 2016 will boggle your mind and change your view of the world.
As National Geographic reports, researchers at China University of Geosciences announced, on December 8, 2016, the discovery of a feathered dinosaur tale preserved in amber. While scientists have previously discovered individual feathers assumed to be from dinosaurs, the find is a first in that the feathers are still attached to a bit of dino corpse.
The team, led by Lida Xing, hopes the discovery will radically improve human understanding of the evolutionary relationship between birds and dinosaurs, including the point at which the two definitively diverged. Preliminary study of the feathered tail piece indicates it was unlikely the dinosaur that had these feathers could fly.
The sample was found in an amber mine in Myanmar, and was already being turned into jewelry when researchers got their hands on it. According to National Geographic, the area "most likely contains the world's largest variety of animal and plant life from the Cretaceous period." It's possible similar such discoveries were ruined or are dangling from a necklace somewhere in the world.
Researchers Maybe Have Found Dinosaur Brain Tissue
In 2004, a man in Brexhill, England, found a strange fossil while walking on the beach. In 2016, it was announced this fossil may contain pieces of dinosaur brain tissue. The fossil is about 130 million years old, and belonged to a relative of the Iguanodon. Such a find would be monumental if only for the existence of fossilized dinosaur brains. Outside this, it remains unclear whether any breakthroughs in our knowledge of dinosaurs will result from the fossil.
May experts remain skeptical. Amy Balanoff of Johns Hopkins University is cautious in her approach - she calls the find intriguing, but says more details are needed to draw any meaningful conclusions. Mark Norell of the American Museum of Natural History is more emphatic in his skepticism, stating "I'm not convinced." Norell insists the fossil be put in a public institution such as a museum, so it can be studied and examined by scientists the world over before conclusions are drawn.
Still, it's pretty darn cool. Dinosaur brains.
Possibly Game-Changing Alzheimer's Antibody Announced
A paper by an international team of researchers based in Cambridge, MA, published in the September 1, 2016 issue of Natureannounced the development of an antibody potentially capable of indefinitely staving off the effects of Alzheimer's. In early trials, the antibody, developed from an immune cell found in elderly people not affected with the disease, proved capable of clearing all toxic proteins from the brains of patients.
The ramifications of this development are unknown as of September 2016, as the drug only recently began extensive global testing. However, according to Professor Roger Nitsch of Zurich University, one of the authors of the paper, “Compared to other studies published in the past, the effect size of this drug is unprecedented.”
In a paper published in the August 25, 2016, edition of Nature, a team of scientists led by Harvard researchers announced the creation of the world's first soft robot. Called the Octobot (because it was modeled after an octopus), the squishy mechanical creature is only two centimeters tall (about 0.8 inches) and operates autonomous of any outside control, using a chemical reaction to power internal logic to operates its eight limbs.
So what is a soft robot? Exactly what it sounds like - the Octobot has no hard parts. It's created using a combination of embedded 3D printing, molding, and soft lithography, and runs on hydrogen peroxide. The team that created the Octobot believe its existence heralds a new era in the field of robots.
Lou Gehrig's Disease Gene Identified Thanks to the Ice Bucket Challenge
On July 25, 2016, the ALS Association announced that researchers were able to identify a gene responsible for Lou Gehrig's disease, also known as ALS, thanks to money raised from the Ice Bucket Challenge. Awareness raised for the ALS Association as a result of the challenge resulted in donations of $115 million, of which 67% went to research. The discovery was made by researchers for Project MinE at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, a project funded by the ALS Association. The discovery of the gene should lead to breakthroughs in therapy programs for those with ALS.
Researchers Reveal Nearly 100 New Regions of the Human Brain
Photo: Washington University St. Louis
In July 2016, researches unveiled an extensive new map of the human brain, which contains 97 previously unknown regions. According to a paper detailing the findings, most of these newly discovered regions deal with high cognitive functions. The map, and the machine used to make it, herald many important advances, from new tools for training neurosurgeons to, in the near-future, mapping devices capable of quickly and definitively diagnosing addiction, autism, and more.
Speaking on the breakthrough, Dr. Greg Farber, director of technology development at the National Institute of Mental Health, said, "You know what maps of the world looked like in 1500 and you know what they look like in 1950? I think in terms of resolution and quality, we moved from 1500 to 1950."
