Most incredible scientific discovery. Six incredible discoveries that puzzled scientists

Over the past 10 years, many amazing discoveries and achievements have occurred in the world of science. Surely many of you who read our site have heard about most of the points presented in today's list. However, their significance is so high that it would be a crime to fail to recall them even briefly. They need to be remembered at least for the next decade, until new, even more amazing scientific achievements are made on the basis of these discoveries.

Stem cell reprogramming

Stem cells are amazing. They perform the same cellular functions as the rest of the cells in your body, but, unlike the latter, they have one amazing property- if necessary, they are able to change and acquire the function of absolutely any cells. This means that stem cells can be converted, for example, into erythrocytes (red blood cells) if your body lacks the latter. Or white blood cells (leukocytes). Or muscle cells. Or neurocytes. Or ... in general, you get the idea - in almost all types of cells.

Despite the fact that the general public has known about stem cells since 1981 (although they were discovered much earlier, at the beginning of the 20th century), until 2006 science had no idea that any cells of a living organism could be reprogrammed and transformed into stem cells. Moreover, the method of such transformation turned out to be relatively simple. The first person to figure out this possibility was the Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who turned skin cells into stem cells by adding four specific genes to them. Within two to three weeks from the moment when skin cells turned into stem cells, they could be further transformed into any other type of cells in our body. For regenerative medicine, as you understand, this discovery is one of the most important in recent history as this sphere now has an almost limitless source of cells needed to heal the damage your body has suffered.

Largest discovered black hole

"Blot" in the center - our solar system

In 2009, a group of astronomers decided to find out the mass of the black hole S5 0014 + 81, which at that time was just discovered. Imagine their surprise when scientists learned that its mass is 10,000 times the mass of the supermassive black hole located in the center of our Milky way, which actually made it the largest currently known black hole in the known universe.

This ultramassive black hole has a mass of 40 billion suns (that is, if you take the mass of the sun and multiply it by 40 billion, you get the mass of a black hole). No less interesting is the fact that this black hole, according to scientists, was formed at the time of the very early period history of the universe - just 1.6 billion years after the Big Bang. The discovery of this black hole contributed to the understanding that holes of this size and mass can increase these rates incredibly quickly.

Memory manipulation

It already sounds like a seed to some kind of Nolan's "Beginning", but in 2014 scientists Steve Ramirez and Xu Liu manipulated the memory of a laboratory mouse, replacing negative memories with positive ones and vice versa. The researchers implanted special light-sensitive proteins into the mouse's brain and, as you might have guessed, simply shone it into the eyes.

As a result of the experiment, positive memories were completely replaced with negative ones, which were firmly entrenched in her brain. This discovery opens the door to new treatments for those who suffer from PTSD or cannot cope with the emotions of the loss of loved ones. In the near future, this discovery promises to lead to even more surprising results.

A computer chip that mimics the work of the human brain

A few years ago, this was considered as something fantastic, but in 2014, IBM introduced the world to a computer chip that works on the principle of the human brain. With 5.4 billion transistors and 10,000 times less electricity to operate than conventional computer chips, SyNAPSE is able to simulate your brain's synapse. 256 synapses, to be precise. They can be programmed to perform any computational task, which can make them extremely useful for use in supercomputers and different types distributed sensors.

Thanks to its unique architecture, the SyNAPSE chip is not limited to the performance we are used to evaluating in conventional computers. It only comes into operation when necessary, which allows significant energy savings and maintains operating temperatures. This revolutionary technology has the potential to truly change the entire computer industry over time.

One Step Closer to Robot Dominance

In the same 2014, 1,024 tiny robots "kilobots" were tasked with uniting in the shape of a star. Without any additional instructions, the robots independently and together began to complete the task. Slowly, hesitantly, colliding with each other several times, but they still completed their task. If one of the robots got stuck or "lost", not knowing how to become, neighboring robots came to the rescue, which helped the "lost" to navigate.

What is the achievement? Everything is very simple. Now imagine that the same robots, only a thousand times smaller, are introduced into your circulatory system and unite to fight some serious disease that has lodged in your body. Larger robots, also uniting, are sent on some kind of search and rescue operation, and even larger ones are used for fantastically fast construction of new buildings. Here, of course, you can recall some scenario for a summer blockbuster, but why push it?

Dark matter confirmation

According to scientists, this mysterious matter may contain answers that explain many as yet unexplained astronomical phenomena. Here's one of them as an example: let's say, before us is a galaxy with the mass of thousands of planets. If we compare the actual mass of these planets and the mass of the entire galaxy, the numbers will not converge. Why? Because the answer goes much deeper than simply calculating the mass of matter that we can see. There is also matter that we are unable to see. It is precisely called "dark matter".

In 2009, several American laboratories announced the detection of dark matter using sensors submerged in an iron mine to a depth of about 1 kilometer. Scientists were able to determine the presence of two particles, whose characteristics correspond to the previously proposed description of dark matter. There are many rechecks to be done, but all indications are that these particles are actually particles of dark matter. This may be one of the most amazing and significant discoveries in physics over the past century.

Is there life on Mars?

Perhaps. In 2015, NASA published photographs of the Martian mountains with dark stripes at their base (photo above). They appear and disappear depending on the season. The fact is that these stripes are irrefutable evidence of the presence of liquid water on Mars. Scientists cannot say with absolute certainty whether the planet had such features in the past, but the presence of water on the planet now opens up many prospects.

For example, the presence of water on the planet can be of great help when humanity finally assembles a manned mission to Mars (sometime after 2024, according to the most optimistic forecasts). Astronauts in this case will have to carry much less resources with them, since everything they need is already available on the Martian surface.

Reusable rockets

Private aerospace company SpaceX, owned by billionaire Elon Musk, was able, after several attempts, to softly land a spent rocket on a remotely controlled floating barge in the ocean.

Everything went so smoothly that the landing of spent rockets for SpaceX is now considered a routine task. In addition, this allows the company to save billions of dollars in missile production, since now they can be simply sorted out, refueled and reused (and more than once, in theory), instead of just sinking somewhere in Pacific... Thanks to these rockets, humanity has become at once several steps closer to manned flights to Mars.

Gravitational waves

Gravitational waves Is a ripple of space and time moving at the speed of light. They were predicted by Albert Einstein in his general theory relativity, according to which mass is capable of bending space and time. Gravitational waves can be created by black holes, and in 2016 they were able to detect them using high-tech equipment of the laser interferometric gravitational-wave observatory, or simply LIGO, thereby confirming Einstein's century-old theory.

This is indeed a very important discovery for astronomy, as it proves much of Einstein's general theory of relativity and allows, with the help of instruments such as LIGO, to determine and track events of enormous cosmic scales in the future.

TRAPPIST system

TRAPPIST-1 is a star system located approximately 39 light years from our Solar system... What makes it special? Little, if you do not take into account its star, which has 12 times less mass compared to our Sun, as well as at least 7 planets orbiting around it and located in the so-called Goldilocks zone, where life could potentially exist.

Around this discovery, as expected, there is now heated debate. It even comes to statements that the system may not be suitable for life at all and its planets look more like unsightly traveling space boulders than our future interplanetary resorts. Nevertheless, the system deserves absolutely all the attention that is now riveted on it. Firstly, it is not so far from us - only some 39 light years from the solar system. On the scale of space - around the corner. Secondly, it has three earth-like planets located in the habitable zone and are, perhaps, the best targets for the search for extraterrestrial life today. Thirdly, on all seven planets there may be liquid water - the key to life. But the likelihood of having it is highest on the three planets that are closer to the star. Fourth, if there really is life there, then we can confirm this without even sending a space expedition there. Telescopes like JWST, which is set to launch next year, will help address this issue.

Usually in new year holidays all scientific and popular science media, including Nature and Science, make up the charts of the most-most scientific events, discoveries or publications of the year. But science is attractive not only for its large-scale events, but also for its quirks. the site decided to compile its own list of discoveries, which, perhaps, do not have global significance, but are dear to those who write about them, because of their uniqueness.

"Ghost" at a depth of five kilometers

Several interesting discoveries scientists have done in the field of living and long-dead nature. So, in February, American scientists discovered a completely charming white translucent deep-sea octopus, which has no mantle fins, and the suckers on the tentacles are arranged in one row. This animal lives at a depth of almost five kilometers - it was there that it was filmed by the camera of the Okeanos Explorer research apparatus. Without saying a word, everyone began to call this animal Casper: the octopus turned out to be very much like a cartoon character. Alas, in December, scientists already announced that the baby was extinct.

"White and fluffy"

Surprising discoveries are not only made in the laboratory. One of the most important discoveries for scientific journalists not only for a year, but also for a decade, perhaps, was made ... in a jewelry store. In Myanmar (Burma) they bought a piece of amber, into which 99 million years ago the tail of a dinosaur cub. Fluffy tail. Micro-CT has already revealed a surprisingly fine feather structure. Well, imagine a white and fluffy Tyrannosaurus! An outstanding discovery was published in the journal Current Biology.

Royal Saskatchewan Museum (RSM / R.C. McKellar)

The tip of a preserved fragment of a dinosaur's tail in amber

Our sharp-toothed ancestors

And in pursuit of the discovery that "softens" the appearance of the "terrible lizards", it is necessary to add, of course, the opposite discovery. Paleontologists from several US universities marsupial, Didelphodon vorax, which lived along with the dinosaurs and had the strongest jaws among mammals. By the way, these animals, which lived about 70 million years ago, enjoyed eating small dinosaurs with pleasure.

The most extravagant death

The event itself, which will be discussed, we saw on Earth already in the year before last. The automatic sky survey recorded a very bright flash, ASASSN-15lh, which, as it turned out, was coming to us for four million years. And it's good that it happened so far away: at the moment of its greatest brilliance, ASASSN-15lh was 20 times brighter than our entire galaxy! In 2015, scientists considered that this outburst was a more or less ordinary supernova, the death of a star with the formation of a black hole, it was just that the star was very massive. However, after new observations in 2016, the situation was more unusual.

Indeed, it was not without a black hole, but a small star could still live and live, but only flew too close to the supermassive black hole in the center of its galaxy. The fall of a star into a black hole and the ejection of excess matter gave rise to this unusually bright flash.

Between neuron and neutron star

If we talk about particles composed only of neutral baryons - neutrons, then until now we know only the neutron itself, living in free form for only 15 minutes and neutron stars living much longer. Recent experiments at Japan's RIKEN Institute and work international group scientists with Russian participation that a tetraneutron can exist for a very short time (about 10-22 seconds) - four neutrons combined into one neutron "atom".

Antimatter becomes clearer

And more beautiful news from the world of exotic matter. Antiparticles - positron, antiproton and others - have been known since the 1930s. They learned not only to obtain them, but also to use them in practice: the formation of positrons and their annihilation underlie such a powerful diagnostic method as positron emission tomography. In 1995, from an antiproton and a positron, CERN managed to "collect" an antihydrogen atom. And now, more than two decades later, scientists measure the spectrum of antihydrogen and compare it with the spectrum of ordinary hydrogen.

Finding "Terror"

Everything about this archaeological news is unusual. Firstly, another major discovery was made by underwater archaeologists, secondly, the unusual name of the found object, and thirdly, the well-known name of the person associated with the find.

We are talking about the discovery of the second ship of the missing 168 years ago expedition of the famous British traveler and polar explorer John Franklin (for some reason in our country he is still sometimes confused with another Franklin with a hundred dollar bill). In 2014, underwater archaeologists have already discovered the ship "Erebus" of the missing expedition. The Terror has now been found. The most amazing thing is that the ship has been preserved so well that, according to researchers, it is worth lifting it from a 24-meter depth, pumping out the water, and it will be able to swim again.

It often happens that a scientist finds a rare artifact, and then for decades has been trying to understand what it is. It seems that some things seem to be specially created in order to modern man smashed his head over them. Pravda.Ru offers the reader a list of six of the most mysterious discoveries from those that have been made over the past one hundred and fifty years.

Compared to our ancestors, we live much better. Instead of small smoky houses without a sewage system, we have comfortable apartments, and for diseases we are treated not with bloodletting or crushed frogs, but with pills. However, in some ways the ancient people surpassed us: they left riddles to mankind that scientists still cannot solve.

Some things seem to be specially created for the modern man to break his head over them. For example, Voynich manuscript is an ancient book written about 500 years ago. Neither the author nor the language of this manuscript has yet been established. And this is not a madman's notes - no! It is a clear-cut book with a definite organization and detailed illustrations.

It seems that the language in which the Voynich manuscript is written is real, but no one has ever encountered it before. There is no conjecture about the history of the creation of the manuscript. Military experts, cryptographers, mathematicians, linguists - no one could even come a millimeter closer to the solution. Someone says that this is a cipher, to which it is enough to find a key - and everything will become clear, someone - that this is a fake, written specifically to mock the descendants, and someone - that this is a message of extraterrestrial intelligence, recorded by a person - contactee. However, there is another version, according to which the Voynich manuscript was written in Old English by a person who had very distant ideas about the rules of grammar.

Antikythera mechanism was discovered in 1902 on a sunken ancient ship near the Greek island of Antikythera. The date of its creation is considered to be approximately 100 BC. The mechanism contains bronze gears and parts not found in any other device of that time.

The purpose of the Antikythera mechanism has not yet been solved. Why? First, it is unclear where it was made and who designed it. The first thing that comes to mind is that the mechanism was created by the Greeks, as it was found near a Greek island. However, researchers are inclined to believe that the device was made in Sicily.

At the moment, it has been established that it consists of 82 fragments - X-ray equipment made it possible to look inside and reveal hidden details. The most likely version is that the Antikythera mechanism is a "cross between" a calculator and an astrolabe, but no one can say exactly what it is.

In one of the regions of China, so remote that people hardly ever lived there, there is a mountain with three mysterious triangular holes at the top. They are laid hundreds of ancient pipes(today rusty) of unknown origin. Some of them lead into the depths of the mountain, some - into the nearby salt lake. What's so special about it? And the fact that the pipes were laid, judging by the conclusions of archaeologists, at a time when people still did not know how to cook on fire, and they had not even dreamed of cast-iron pots. In addition, despite the fact that the pipes are more than one thousand years old, there is no debris in them, which suggests that they were used. But who? It is impossible to live in those places!

Scattered across Costa Rica perfectly spherical stones... Some of them are small, several centimeters in diameter, but there are those that reach 2.5 meters in diameter and weigh several tons. Why the stones turned by unknown craftsmen were used is not clear.

Local residents have already made attempts to solve this mystery on their own: stones were blown up, thinking to find gold, coffee beans or even babies there. Alas and ah! The balls did not conceal anything like that. All that the researchers managed to find out boils down to the fact that the balls are carved from volcanic rock.

Baghdad batteries were found on the territory Ancient Mesopotamia... Their age is estimated at more than two thousand years. They are the same age as our calendar. When archaeologists stumbled upon them, they first thought they were just clay vessels for storing food. However, this theory was rejected after a copper rod was found in the vessels. Remembering physics lessons at school, we can assume that the vessels obviously contained some kind of liquid, which, interacting with copper, gave out an electric charge at the output. If so, then the find is the first known battery.

Everything would be fine, but what were these batteries for ?! There are few assumptions. Some say that they were used by ancient healers to impress their patients, others that they were used to experiment with gold with these batteries.

The world is fraught with many more mysteries and secrets. We just need to be observant and curious, keep looking for answers to questions that we think have no answers. The development of science is now extremely dynamic, and these incredible discoveries of 2016 are proof of this.

15. Largest known prime

On January 7, 2016, the largest known prime number was discovered, which is 274 207 281 - 1 and contains 22 338 618 decimal digits. The discovery was made by Curtis Cooper as part of the GIMPS project.

14. The ninth planet of the solar system

Researchers from California Institute of Technology provided evidence that the ninth planet in the solar system actually exists. Calculations showed that the planet revolves around the Sun at a distance of 20 orbits of Neptune, its mass is 10 times more mass Earth. And 1 year on this planet is equal to 17000 years on Earth!

13. Eternal Keeper of Information

In February of this year, scientists from the University of Southampton presented the world with an amazing invention. They created an eternal information keeper from nanostructured glass. The device is capable of storing 360 terabytes of data and is not affected by high temperatures (up to 1000 degrees Celsius), and its shelf life is several billion years.

12. Fish capable of walking on land and climbing trees

A fish capable of walking on land, crawling into trees and hunting birds has been discovered in Papua New Guinea. This species, despite its innocent appearance, is very aggressive and poses a serious danger to animals on the islands of Boigu and Sahibai, Australia. The fish are reported to have a respiratory organ and move along the ground using their pectoral fins.

11. A brain implant that allows a paralyzed person to control a hand

The implant sends signals directly through the wires to the muscles, bypassing the spinal cord. A man can now raise a glass of water and even play a video game. The ingenious invention belongs to scientists from the Feinstein Institute for Medical Research in New York.

10. Successful landing of the first stage of the rocket in the ocean

On April 8, 2016, SpaceX was able to land the first stage of a Falcon 9 launch vehicle on a platform in the ocean for the first time. The first stage can now be used multiple times, reducing costs.

9. Converting carbon dioxide to stone

At the Hellisheidy plant in Iceland, scientists pumped CO2 into volcanic rocks, accelerating the natural process of basalt turning into carbonates, which then become limestone. This method will help not exacerbate the problem of the greenhouse effect.

8. Scientific name for pleasant tingling sensation in the back of the head

The phenomenon of perception, characterized by a pleasant tingling sensation in the back of the head, spreading in the form of goosebumps along the skin of the neck and back to the limbs in 2016 acquired scientific name- Autonomous sensory meridional response (ASMR). ASMR sensations are caused by sound, visual, tactile, or cognitive stimuli.

7. Second Moon

2016 HO3 is an asteroid discovered by the Hawaiian Automatic Telescope on April 27, 2016, which is the best and most stable example of a permanent quasi-satellite Earth today. Became the "second moon" of the Earth about 100 years ago.

6. Eyeless miracle worm

This year, scientists discovered that Caenorhabditis elegans (a free-living nematode) has the ability to see light. Careful experiments on the excitation of individual neurons have shown that the worm can respond to photons of different wavelengths, but the greatest effect is achieved when using an ultraviolet light source. Now C. elegans can become a model object for the study of human blindness.

5. The mathematical algorithm of our intelligence

“At the heart of our complex calculations there is relatively simple mathematical logic in the brain, ”says Dr. Joe Tsien, a neuroscientist at medical college Georgia. Tsien's theory is based on the n = 2i-1 algorithm, which determines the number of groups (or "clicks" as the scientist calls them) needed to recognize and resolve situations. In other words, the more clicks, the more complex the thought. N is the number of neural groups connected in all possible ways; 2 - means that neurons in this group are receiving or not receiving input; i is the information they receive; -1 is the math part, allowing you to consider all the possibilities.

4. Farting fish

Scientists from the UK and Canada have concluded that herring farts! For these fish, farting is a way of communication and a way to maintain the integrity of the school at night.

3. Scientific explanation of going to the astral plane

Many people who have experienced coma talk about their astral travels. Scientists from the University of Ottawa became interested in this phenomenon and invited a girl for research, who claimed that she could initiate the separation of the soul from the body at will. During the experiment, the researchers used an MRI machine to monitor her brain during “ astral travel". It has been found that those parts of the brain that are responsible for perception of physical location and visualization of movement are activated during such experiences. But this does not mean that the soul leaves the body. This is a kind of hallucination triggered by a certain neurological mechanism.

2. Stem cells to repair damaged spinal cord

A team of scientists led by researchers from the University of California, San Diego, has been able to use human neural stem cells to successfully repair a damaged spinal cord. Studies in rats have shown that grafted stem cells stimulate neuronal regeneration and partially replace the function of lost neurons.

1. The gene mutation that made us all appear

The ACE2 gene is the possible progenitor of all who live on planet Earth. Biologists from Atlanta, Georgia, concluded that one gene was able to transform single-celled organisms into multicellular ones. And in the past, it was a gene mutation that led to the emergence of complex life forms. Small changes in the DNA sequence had a strong effect on a certain protein and, instead of its main role as an enzyme, it became necessary for the organization of multicellular structures.

The development of science is now extremely dynamic, and these incredible discoveries of 2016 are proof of this.

15. Largest known prime

14. The ninth planet of the solar system

Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have provided evidence that the ninth planet in the solar system does exist. Calculations have shown that the planet revolves around the Sun at a distance of 20 orbits of Neptune, its mass is 10 times the mass of the Earth. And 1 year on this planet is equal to 17000 years on Earth!

13. Eternal Keeper of Information

12. Fish capable of walking on land and climbing trees

11. A brain implant that allows a paralyzed person to control a hand

10. Successful landing of the first stage of the rocket in the ocean

On April 8, 2016, SpaceX was able to land the first stage of a Falcon 9 launch vehicle on a platform in the ocean for the first time. The first stage can now be used multiple times, reducing costs.

9. Converting carbon dioxide to stone

8. Scientific name for pleasant tingling sensation in the back of the head

The phenomenon of perception, characterized by a pleasant tingling sensation in the back of the head, spreading in the form of goosebumps along the skin of the neck and back to the extremities in 2016 acquired the scientific name - Autonomous sensory meridional response (ASMR). ASMR sensations are caused by sound, visual, tactile, or cognitive stimuli.

7. Second Moon

6. Eyeless miracle worm

5. The mathematical algorithm of our intelligence

“At the heart of our complex brain calculations is relatively simple mathematical logic,” says Dr. Joe Tsien, a neuroscientist at the Georgia College of Medicine. Tsien's theory is based on the n = 2i-1 algorithm, which determines the number of groups (or "clicks" as the scientist calls them) needed to recognize and resolve situations. In other words, the more clicks, the more complex the thought. N is the number of neural groups connected in all possible ways; 2 - means that neurons in this group are receiving or not receiving input; i is the information they receive; -1 is the math part, allowing you to consider all the possibilities.

4. Farting fish

Scientists from the UK and Canada have concluded that herring farts! For these fish, farting is a way of communication and a way to maintain the integrity of the school at night.

3. Scientific explanation of going to the astral plane

Many people who have experienced coma talk about their astral travels. Scientists from the University of Ottawa became interested in this phenomenon and invited a girl for research, who claimed that she could initiate the separation of the soul from the body at will. During the experiment, the researchers used an MRI machine to monitor her brain during her "astral journey." It has been found that those parts of the brain that are responsible for perception of physical location and visualization of movement are activated during such experiences. But this does not mean that the soul leaves the body. This is a kind of hallucination triggered by a certain neurological mechanism.