This year , humanity landed on its first comet , a kid was born to a womanhood with a transplanted uterus , and a fossilized sea shell forced us to reconsider our conceptions of human culture . Those are just a penchant of the 20 achievements , innovations , and advances we ’ve selected for our roundup of 2014 ’s biggest scientific breakthroughs .
The Oldest Artwork In The World Predates Modern Humans
In 2007 , archaeologists examining fossilize seashells in a museum collection slip up upon a detail other scientists had somehow missed : measured engravings of nonfigurative design . These casing were dated to over 500,000 years ago , and were find amongst other shells that had been cautiously craft into specialized tools , at the same land site where the first fossils of Homo erectus , our hominin ancestor , had been bring out , in 1890 . convey together , these discoveries intimate that Homo erectus was far more sophisticated than antecedently believed and able of symbolic thought . This year , these scientists published the yield of seven age of check thatthese carapace indeed represent the earliest examples of art and tools in the human race . While scientist disagree middling on the original use of these artefact , the discovery “ raises the possibleness that the growing of human cognition — human culture — was a very long process . It was not a sudden development , ” says Alison Brooks , a paleoanthropologist from George Washington University .
Evidence For The Big Bang Is Refuted By Interstellar dust
In March , Harvard ’s servers were brought to their knees deal out with the internationaldemand to watch a press group discussion about … gravitative waves . It ’s no surprise ; as physicist Marc Kamionkowski shine , “ It ’s not everyday you waken up and check something completely unexampled about the early existence . ”Scientists hadfinally take note a special pattern in the cosmic microwave backgroundradiation , roll in the hay as B vitamin - mode gravitative waves , which cosmological theorists had predict would top out during the first 10 - 34 seconds of the primordial cosmos follow the Big Bang . Or so they thought .
Soon after the proclamation , evidence get along to light thatthe bailiwick ’s findings were potential an experimental artefact . In the ensuing month , scientist sustain that interstellar dust was the probable source of the keep atomic number 5 - modegravitational waves . As with all science , it contain some metre for the dust of a giving find to settle , and in this pillow slip , junk was all that was depart . Hopefully scientists will presently use their massive Antarctic scope , BICEP2 , to observe material B - mode gravitational undulation through dust - less region of the Earth ’s surroundings .
The World’s First Birth With A Donated Womb
In tardy September , for the first time ever , a char give giving birth to a sister after receiving a uterus transplant . The mother and child offer Leslie Townes Hope to fair sex the public over with missing or non - functional uteruses , who desire to carry their own child to term .
The nameless 36 - year - honest-to-god cleaning woman was contain without a uterus ( a congenital disorder know as Mayer - Rokitansky - Küster - Hauser – or MRKH – syndrome ) , and is one of nine Swedish women who received a uterine transplant from resilient conferrer between 2012 and 2013 . Some of those women received womb from syndicate members ( including their own mothers ) , but this special uterus was reportedly donate by a 61 - class - old “ family champion ” who had undergo menopause 7 - years prior to the 2013 surgery .
Young Blood Rejuvenates Old Brains
A few eld ago , scientists from Stanford get a line that it ’s potential to overthrow cognitive decline in old mice by injecting them with the blood of the youthful . At the fourth dimension , investigator Saul Villeda was n’t entirely surehow young blood reversed the core of cognitive decline . This year , several study help elucidatethe mechanism responsible for for this rejuvenation .
The Orion Spacecraft Proves Doubters Wrong
When NASA announced program for sending humans on deep space geographic expedition , their dream was met with a mix of wistfulness and scorn , as few believed it would ever become a reality . Asthe Orion spacecraftworked its fashion through design , development , andsystems examination , that same disbelief continued to haunt it . Even those bright that it would take shape as a vessel to carry humans beyond the Earth - Moon organization were convinced it would be the archetype of a government project : over - budget , behind schedule , and in the end unfulfilling .
This December , NASA test the doubters incorrect . For thefirst and only uncrewed run flight , Orion hold out through its paces absolutely perfectly , blast out of Florida , hang glide through the Van Allen radiation belts , and splosh down into the Pacific Ocean . On one script , it was just a trial flight . On the other , this was real , undeniable advance in moving from a dream to a world . The next time Orion heads to blank it will be with spaceman on board , and the clock time after that will be to run homo to an asteroid . NASA is essay to do something atrociously challenging on a starvation budget and this could all hang apart , but if it keeps working , Orion ’s trial run flight wasthe first real stair on an incredible journey .
The Largest Robotic Swarm In History Takes Shape
In August , researcher Mark Rubenstein and his workfellow reported the most telling demonstration of robotic swarm activity to date : A group of 1,024 humiliated - monetary value , inch - spacious robots call “ Kilobots ” that can self assemble into a variety of two - dimensional shapes ( two - dimensional in the sentiency that the form are never more than one - Kilobot tall ) . Speedy they ’re not , but Kilobots can twitch , scuttle , and shove around one another to achieve complex global deportment – and they can do it autonomously . Together , they constitute the largest , most technically telling automatonlike swarm ever created .
A 1024 - strong drove is still several ordination of order of magnitude shy of the swarms we see in nature ( the number of ants in a supercolony , for good example , can easily outstrip 100 - million ) , but it ’s a substantial stride for the field of swarm robotics . As Rubenstein and his colleagues note , their study advances the challenging end “ of creating artificial swarms with the capabilities of natural single .
The First Earth-Sized, Habitable Zone Planet
In April , scientist herald the discovery of Kepler-186f , a faraway planet that ’s perhaps the most Earth - like yet discover . It ’s the same size of it as our home mankind , and at the right distance from its parent star to have limpid water supply .
“ The ultimate finish of all this searching for exoplanets – the existent ground we ’re doing this – is to reply the interrogative sentence ‘ are we alone ? ' ” So said Tom Barclay , a research scientist working with NASA ’s planet - hunt Kepler deputation , and cobalt - author ofthe paper recounting Kepler-186f ’s discovery .
Barclay allege that the answer to that big , ultimate question is almost certainly contained in the answer to a host of small ones , begin with : Are there other places out there like Earth ? With the discovery of Kepler-186f , Barclay said , it ’s clearer than ever that “ the solution to that question is ‘ Yes . ' ”
An Ocean’s Worth Of Water Below Earth’s Surface?
After a serial publication of experiments , geologists have hail to a rather startling conclusion . There may be a sea - sized amount of water far beneath the Earth , pin down inside the high - air pressure mantle zone between our satellite ’s smooth metallic element core and its outer crust .
For decades , geologists have speculated about what created Earth ’s immense ocean of water . One pop hypothesis is that frigid comets crashed into the planet , eventually mellow into sea . But another theory , which now seems more plausible , was that Earth was already packed with weewee when it form . As the planet conflate out of dust and rock candy , that water became trap in various rock music below the incrustation .
Galactic Supercluster Laniakea
Our galactic supercluster is 100 clip bigger in volume and muckle than previously consider . Using an advanced map technique , uranologist have charted an tremendous neighborhood they ’re now callingLaniakea . The new study , which better defines the dividing agate line between superclusters , offers a completely new looking at our galaxy ’s surroundings .
King Richard III’s Remains Confirmed To 99.999% Accuracy
The case is officially closed on what ’s been call the old forensic investigating in history . A new genetic analysis is providing incontrovertible evidence that the skeleton in the closet find under a parking lot in Leicester belonged to the king , while reveal new truths about his show and lineage .
Enceladus Harbors A Hidden Ocean. Does That Ocean Harbor Life?
In 2005 , NASA ’s Cassini spacecraft beamed back image show up what come out to be plumes of water system vapor cast from break , address “ tiger stripes , ” near the southern pole of Enceladus , an frozen moon of Saturn . These images alone could not prove that liquid water survive beneath the moonlight ’s surface . But in April , an analysis of sombreness measurements taken by Cassini confirmed that a large reservoir of limpid piss exists underneath Enceladus ’s icy exterior . Moreover , they ’ve confirmed that the tiny moon is a differentiated supernal consistence ; it ’s constitute of two layers — an external frigid layer and an interior rocky core made up of silicates . Excitingly , this layer of silicate rock , in conjunctive with liquid water system , signify that Enceladus features a potentially habitable environment — one that could be even more hospitable to animation than Europa , a lunation of Jupiter .
Not four month later , the Cassini squad presented observations that evoke the moon ’s geyser may be flat connect to the sea beneath its open – a monumental discovery . As Carolyn Porco , leader of the Cassini imaging team , put it : “ For me , the finding of an easily sampled , inhabitable environment within Enceladus has been Cassini ’s most profound uncovering . Many of us are now involve whether a 2d stemma of life in our solar system could have occur on this small moon . ”
A Skull Discovered In An Underwater Cave Holds Clues To The History Of America’s First Settlers
Paleoamericans began exploring the westerly glide of the Americas about 15,000 years ago , but never manage to establish the longer - survive Empire ( Inca , Maya ) that would give rise to Native Americans . Because of the distinct facial feature of speech of paleoamericans and Native Americans , scientist thought the two groups had clear-cut lineage . However , a skull find underwater off the shore of Mexico proved this twelvemonth that Native Americans and paleoamericans apportion vulgar ancestry in the masses who experience in Beringia ( an enormous stretching of fertile grassland link up Eurasia and the Americas during the last shabu age ) and that difference in their facial structure must have come about from differences in lifestyle , not line .
Dreadnoughtus, An “Astoundingly Huge” Supermassive Dinosaur
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Dreadnoughtus Schrani – the herbivorous , titanosaurian sauropod described in September by University of Drexel paleontologist Kenneth Lacovara and his team – is count on to have been 85 feet recollective . Its tail report for more or less 30 of those foot . Its neck , the individual vertebra of which quantify more than three pes across , stretched 37 feet in length . Its scapula , show here beside Lacovara ’s Word , stands more than five and a one-half base marvellous – the improbable ever reported for any titanosaurian .
mensuration shoot from one ofDreadnoughtus ’ femurs , which stands over six feet tall , have led Lacovara and his team to estimate that the dinosaur , which go around 77 million year ago , weighed about 65 tons in lifespan , induce it far and away the orotund terra firma animate being for which a body mass can be accurately calculated ( the previous record book bearer , another Patagonian titanosaurian named Elaltitan , had a calculable weight of 47 tons . ) No two ways about it – Dreadnoughtus was , to quote Lacovara , “ astoundingly huge . ”
Evidence of Active Tectonics on Jupiter’s Moon, Europa
A recent geological survey of Europa revealed a massive , 20,000 square - kilometer portion of the moon ’s airfoil had gone miss . In September , researchers published evidence that suggests a plate tectonic organisation may be be active sure-enough part of Europa ’s Earth’s surface beneath neighboring plates . If confirm , the finding would make Europa the only sleep with place in the solar organization ( asunder from Earth ) whose surface continue to be determine by alive plate tectonics .
Stem Cells Could Hold A Cure To Type 1 Diabetes
β cell are insulin - producing cells found in the pancreas that help keep blood glucose levels in balance . In patients with case 1 diabetes , β jail cell are targeted and destroyed by the immune system . A potential therapeutic ? exchange the destroyed cells with 1 grown in a research lab . In October , investigator at Harvard University published a method for converting human embryotic radical cells intoβ cellsat quantity large enough to make cell transplanting feasible ( though researchers still need to figure out how to protect synthesized cellular telephone from the autoimmune fire that do away with the body ’s instinctive β cell ) . The cell - derive β cells are currently undergo trials in creature models , including non - human primate .
A Living Organism With An Expanded Genetic Alphabet
The genetic codification of all hold up things lie of the same four building blocks : Adenine , Thymine , Guanine , and Cytosine . These edifice block , abbreviated by the letter of the alphabet A , T , G , and C , severally can be found in untold combinations . But in May of this year , researcher announce they had engineer , for the first time , liveE. coli bacteria that comprise two wholly raw missive into their genetic ABC . An achievement nearly 15 class in the making , the team’sreconstituted variation of the bacteria boast two unreal base block of DNA – DNA that can be carry and passed on to succeeding generation .
An Artificial Yeast Chromosome Was Built From Scratch
Twelve year ago , scientists created the first artificial virus . Eight year later , the mankind was introduced to the first synthetical genome for bacterium . By 2012 , scientists had created the first complete computer model of a living organism . In March of this year , an outside team of scientist reconstructed a synthetic and fully running barm chromosome . A breakthrough seven years in the fashioning , the remarkable advance could eventually moderate to custom - work up organisms ( human organism admit ) .
Scientists Discover the Gynosome, A New Kind of Sexual Organ
When Brazilian scientist Rodrigo Ferreira sent a few dirt ball specimens to a Swiss entomologist named Charles Lienhard , the latter identified the dirt ball as belong to to an only newfangled genus , henceforth known asNeotrogla . Lienhard also noticed that the females had an erectile “ member - same structure , ” which he squall a “ gynosome . ” Among this group of cave - dwelling Brazilian insects , the females use their gynosomes to penetrate the male . It ’s a first in the animal realm , and scientists say that the lives of these insects challenge everything we thought we knew about sexual selection .
At Stonehenge, A Pair of Monumental Discoveries
Though archaeologists have long suspected that the vast neolithic Oliver Stone of Stonehenge once formed a sodding rophy , evidence in support of the claim has remained elusive . In September , following a ironical summer season , archaeologists were able to notice patches of dry Gunter Grass that appear to confirm the prehistoric monument ’s circular configuration .
Not two week later , archaeologists , using powerful ground - penetrating radiolocation , announced they had detect a trove of antecedently unknown sepulture mounds , chapels , shrines , fossa — and most noteworthy of all — a massive megalithic monument made up of more than 50 giant rock sink along a 1,082 - foot - foresightful c - shaped enclosing . The new finding upend previous conceptions ofStonehenge as a desolate and lonely office .
The Philae Lander Successfully Touches Down On a Comet
Over ten years ago , scientists at the European Space Agency bid adieu to a robot lander named Philae , as it place off on a mission with the Rosetta place probe to take in data about comet 67P / Churyumov - Gerasimenko . This November , after Rosetta accomplish orbit around the comet , Philae detached from Rosetta and land on 67P. After two wild spring and no harpoon strikes to ground it , Philae settle in the shadow of a cliff . For the first time in human spacefaring story , a robotic probe had been put on the surface of a comet – andalready its findings are reshaping the way we view the universe of discourse .
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