New Delhi: Scientific discoveries have been the wheel of progress of human civilisation. Without the discoveries, we would still be in the medieval age when technological advancement has not given us the kind of luxury and security that we enjoy today. In the last decade only, the world witnessed a host of scientific discoveries. In this article, we will take a look at the major scientific discoveries which took place in the last decade.
Major scientific discoveries which took place in the last decade e
The synthetic genome
In 2010, the line between natural and man-made got blurred. In that year, the scientists created the first-ever organism with a synthetic genome. It was done by scientists at the J. Craig Venter Institute and the discovery has proven to be a game changer in the field of scientific studies.
First gravitational waves
It was in the last wave that the first gravitational waves were detected. In 1916, the great physicist Albert Einstein proposed that objects with enough mass to accelerate can sometimes create waves that move through the fabric of space and time. In 2015, the U.S.-based observatory LIGO felt the aftershock of a distant collision between two black holes and in 2017, LIGO and the European observatory Virgo felt another set of tremors,
Change in the human family tree
In the last decade, the human family tree expanded considerably. Fossils of new hominin species were discovered in Africa and the Philippines. Also, the discovery and identification of Australopithecus sediba, a hominin species that lived nearly two million years ago in present-day South Africa took place in the last decade.
HIV Transmission Prevention Therapy
In 2011, researchers came up with antiretroviral therapy (ART) which greatly reduced transmission rates of HIV. Transmission to sexual partners dropped by 93 per cent when HIV-positive patients began the treatment early in the disease. When the ART essentially eliminated the disease, there was no transmission.
Higgs Boson
In July 2012, scientists working at the world’s largest particle accelerator made a revolutionary discovery. Those who were working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) uncovered evidence of the last undiscovered particle predicted by the Standard Model of physics. They found the Higgs Boson, the particle associated with the Higgs field, an energy field at the root of why particles have mass.
Water on Mars
Researchers at NASA used an imager aboard the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter and confirmed that there is water on Mars. While it did not prove that the planet had life on it, the discovery made in September 2015 supports the theory on Mars, life forms could survive.
Genome editing
In January 2013, two research teams used the natural defence system of bacteria and created a new method for editing snippets of genetic code. The technology eas named CRISPR-Cas9 genome editing technology and it can target specific stretches of genetic code and edit DNA at precise locations. It is a massive discovery which could enable treatments for genetic diseases.
Scientific discoveries are the pillars of the progress of human civilisation. In the last decade only, the world witnessed a host of scientific discoveries including finding water on Mars, the discovery of Higgs Boson and genome editing. knowledge Knowledge News, Photos and Videos on General Knowledge
