Biggest Scientific Breakthroughs of 2011

From law-violating subatomic particles to entirely new, earth-like worlds, 2011 was an incredible year for scientific discovery. In the past 12 months, scientific breakthroughs in fields ranging from archaeology to structural biochemistry have allowed humanity to rewrite history, and enabled us to open to brand new chapters in our development as a species.

Here are some of our favorites.

 

 

The world’s lowest density material

With a density of less than one milligram per cubic centimeter (that’s about 1000 times less dense than water), this surprisingly squishy material is so light-weight, it can rest on the seed heads of a dandelion, and is lighter than even the lowest-density aerogels. The secret — to both its negligible weight and its resiliency — is the material’s lattice-like structural organization, one that the researchers who created it liken to that of the Eiffel Tower.

 

“Feeling” objects with a brain implant

It could be the first step towards truly immersive virtual reality, one where you can actually feel the computer-generated world around you. An international team of neuroengineers has developed a brain-machine interface that’s bi-directional — that means you could soon use a brain implant not only to control a virtual hand, but to receive feedback that tricks your brain into “feeling” the texture of a virtual object.

Already demonstrated successfully in primates, the interface could soon allow humans to use next-generation prosthetic limbs (or even robotic exoskeletons) to actually feel objects in the real world.

 

Astronomers get their first good look at giant asteroid Vesta

In July of 2011, NASA’s Dawn spacecraft entered the orbit of Vesta — the second largest body in our solar system’s main asteroid belt. Just a few days later, Dawn spiraled down into orbit. Upon reaching an altitude of approximately 1700 miles, the spacecraft began snapping pictures of the protoplanet’s surface, revealing geophysical oddities like the triplet of craters on Vesta’s northern hemisphere — nicknamed “Snowman” — featured here. Dawn recently maneuvered into its closest orbit (at an altitude averaging just 130 miles). It will continue orbiting Vesta until July of 2012, when it will set a course for Ceres, the largest of the main belt asteroids.

NASA’s Kepler Mission changes how we see ourselves in the Universe

2011 was a fantastic year for NASA’s Kepler Mission, which is charged with discovering Earth-like planets in the so-called “habitable zone” of stars in the Milky Way. Kepler scientists announced the discovery of the first circumbinary planet (i.e. a planet with two suns, just like Tatooine); located the first two known Earth-sized exoplanets; quadrupled the number of worlds known to exist beyond our solar system; and spied Kepler-22b — the most Earth-like planet we’ve encountered yet. And here’s the really exciting bit: Kepler is just getting warmed up.

 

Heartbeat-powered nanogenerators could soon replace batteries

In a few years, you may never have to recharge your phone again — provided part of you keeps moving. Back in March, scientists announced the world’s first viable “nanogenerator” — a tiny computer chip that gets its power from body movements like snapping fingers or – eventually – your heartbeat.

The researchers can already use the technology to power a liquid crystal display and an LED, and claim that their technology could replace batteries for small devices like MP3 players and mobile phones within a few years.

 

Discover More Top Scientific Discoveries of 2011 on io9.com

A Year of Discovery – Top Science Stories of 2011

This year was another remarkable year in science, with space shuttles retiring and new particles being detected (perhaps). Some of these top discoveries could very well have an immediate effect on our lives. The impact of others may not be felt for years. Some discoveries may vanish altogether. But no matter what, 2011 was a huge year in science & revealed major surprises all across the world! So, go back through the past 12 months with us as we present our list of the most interesting science stories of 2011. 

1. Fukushima Nuclear Accident/Tsunami

 

On March 11, following astounding video footage of ships passing over farmers’ fields, as the tsunami washed over the Japanese landscape, came news that the nearby nuclear reactor had been compromised. Immediately, news stories recalled Chernobyl and Three Mile Island. Fear washed over North America and Europe, as explosions ripped through the reactor buildings. But in fact, no one died from the reactors themselves, and what could have been a major disaster was averted.

Thanks to heroic efforts on the part of the workers at the plant, sea water was poured on the overheated reactor cores and the melting nuclear fuel was prevented from escaping. Radiation that did get out was carried by steam into the atmosphere and water running into the sea, but while it was detectable around the globe, the levels were so low they were less that what we are exposed to naturally.

It will take years to clean up the site, and the accident renewed fear of nuclear power in the public mind, just at a time when many believed the industry was about to experience a renaissance as a clean alternative to fossil fuels.

2. 7 Billion and Counting

 

On Oct. 31 (an arbitrary date chosen by the UN), world population reached seven thousand million, a number that is hard to fathom. If we all joined hands with our arms outstretched, we would form a line that would circle the Earth about 175 times, or reach all the way to the moon and back about nine times. If everyone on Earth lived to the same level of consumption as Canadians, we would need several more Earths to provide all the food, water and energy. It was a time to take a serious look at our impact on the planet, as we continue to gobble up everything in sight and drive species to extinction at a rate similar to the extinction of the dinosaurs.

To ensure our survival, consumption must come down, which is not happening, and most experts say that people living in developing regions need better access to family planning. But the latter issue is more of a cultural and religious issue than a scientific one.

3. Faster than Light?

 

Scientists in Switzerland fired a beam of neutrinos to a receiving lab in Italy, more than 700 kiometres away, and the sub-atomic particles seemed to arrive a few billionths of a second early, suggesting they had traveled faster than the speed of light. If that is true, the longstanding theories of Einstein would be proven wrong, shaking the very foundations of physics.

The scientists themselves admit their measurements could be wrong, even though they have done the experiment twice. They are calling for other labs in the U.S. and Japan to try the same experiment.

If the results match, we could witness a fundamental change in the way we look at the universe, or at the very least, refine our measurements of it. It won’t likely lead to time travel. Then again, we could just be wrong. New results should come in the next year.

4. Award for The Dark Side

 

The Nobel Prize in Physics was awarded for the discovery of Dark Energy, a mysterious force that is pushing the universe apart.

This is the only force known to work against gravity and it is causing the expansion of the universe to speed up. The odd thing is that Dark Energy, along with Dark Matter, make up 95 per cent of the known universe, yet no one has a clue what either of them is.

Interesting that here in the 21st century, when we think we have so much figured out, most of the universe is still unknown to us. Further work at the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland, which glimpsed the mysterious Higgs Boson, may also discover the nature of Dark Matter.

5. Not the “god Particle”

 

After half a century of searching for the hypothetical Higgs Boson, scientists at CERN say they got the first glimpses of the particle believed to have been responsible for all the mass in the universe.

Proof of the existence of the Higgs particle validates what is called the Standard Model of the universe, describing events at the very first moments of the Big Bang. The Higgs Boson was suggested as a missing piece of the mathematical model. If it is not proven to exist, physicists would have to re-write the theories of how the universe, as we know it, came into being.

6. End of an Era

 

After 30 years and more than 100 flights, the space shuttle program ended with the landing of Atlantis last July. Coincidentally, this year marks the 50th anniversary of the first human in space, Russian cosmonaut Yuri Gagarin.

Almost to underline the point, now that the shuttles are retired, the only way for Americans to fly up to the International Space Station is to hitch rides on Russian Soyuz rockets, their former rivals.

The shuttles accomplished a lot in space, building the Space Station, launching and repairing the Hubble Space Telescope. But they were also hugely expensive and dangerous. Two shuttles were destroyed in accidents killing 14 astronauts. In the end, each launch of a shuttle was costing more than $1 billion. It was time to let them go.

NASA unveiled plans for a new heavy lift rocket, but it won’t be ready to fly for years. Now it’s up to the Private Sector to take over.

7. Back To Mars and Beyond

 

While humans are restricted to spaceflight around the Earth, unmanned robotic probes continue to go where no one has gone before. The largest rover ever sent to another planet, Curiosity, was launched to Mars with the goal of looking for signs of life on the Red Planet. It will land next August.

Sadly, an equally ambitious Russian mission to one of the moons of Mars, Phobos, failed to leave Earth orbit and is expected to fall back to Earth in mid-January.

Another probe went beyond Mars to the largest asteroid, named Vesta, revealing a strange-looking round world that is a leftover remnant of the original material that built the planets, including Earth. And in the opposite direction, a probe named Messenger arrived at Mercury, the closest planet to the sun.

 

Discover more on the amazing science of 2011 with this awesome interactive timeline