2016 was rich in high-profile scientific discoveries and spectacular technical achievements. The discoveries are widely covered in the media, and the most interesting new gadgets were demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). For 50 years now, it has been a launching pad for innovation and hi-end technologies.

December has come and it's time to let down the most interesting results of 2016 in science and technology.

Top 10 most high-profile achievements of science in 2016

10 Multicellular Life Is The Result Of Genetic Mutation

The GK-PID molecule allows cells to divide, avoiding malignant tumors. At the same time, the ancient gene, an analogue of GK-PID, was a builder enzyme necessary to create DNA. Scientists suggested that in some of the ancient unicellular organisms 800 million years ago, the GK gene was duplicated, one of the copies of which then mutated. This gave rise to the GK-PID molecule, which allowed the cells to divide properly. This is how multicellular organisms appeared

9. New prime number

They became 2 ^ 74,207,281 - 1. The discovery is useful for cryptography problems, where both very complex and prime numbers Mersenne (a total of 49 were found).

8. The ninth planet

Scientists from the California Institute of Technology have provided evidence that there is a ninth planet in the solar system. Its orbital period is 15,000 years. However, due to its colossal orbit, no astronomer has been able to see this planet.

7. Eternal data storage

This invention of 2016 was made possible thanks to nanostructured glass, on which information is recorded using ultra-high-speed short and laser pulses. The glass disk holds up to 360 TB of data and can withstand temperatures up to a thousand degrees.

6. Relationship of the blind eye and four-toed vertebrates

A wall-crawling fish called the Taiwanese blind eye has been found to have anatomical abilities similar to those of amphibians or reptiles. This discovery will allow biologists to better understand how the process of transformation of prehistoric fish into terrestrial tetrapods took place.

5. Vertical landing of a space rocket

Usually spent rocket stages either fall into the ocean or burn up in the atmosphere. Now they can be used for subsequent projects. The launch process will be significantly faster and cheaper, and the time between launches will decrease.

4 Cybernetic Implant

A special chip implanted in the brain of a completely paralyzed man restored his ability to move his fingers. It sends signals to a glove worn on the subject's hand, which contains electrical wires that stimulate certain muscles and cause the fingers to move.

3. Stem cells will help people after a stroke

Scientists at the Stanford University School of Medicine injected human stem cells into the brains of 18 stroke survivors. All subjects showed an improvement in mobility and general well-being.

2. Carbon dioxide rocks

Icelandic scientists pumped carbon dioxide into volcanic rock. Thanks to this, the process of turning basalt into carbonate minerals (later becoming limestone) took only 2 years, instead of hundreds and thousands of years. This discovery will allow carbon dioxide to be stored underground or used for construction purposes without releasing it into the atmosphere.

1. Another Moon

NASA has discovered an asteroid that was captured by Earth's gravity. Now it is in its orbit, in fact, being the second natural satellite of the planet.

List of Unusual New Gadgets of 2016 (CES)

10. Casio WSD-F10 smart watch

This waterproof and very durable gadget works at a depth of up to 50 meters. The "brain" of the watch is the Android Wear OS. can sync with Android and iOS devices.

9. Spherical drone

Drone blades can injure the owner or bystanders. To deal with this problem, FLEYE created a drone with a spherical design. Its blades are hidden, which means they are completely safe.

8. Arke 3D printer

Mcor has introduced a desktop device that allows you to print color models in 3D using regular office paper. The print resolution is 4800x2400DPI.

7 Garmin Augmented Reality Device

Varia Vision is a special display for cyclists placed on sunglasses. It not only informs about the heart rate and pressure, but also helps to make the best route.

6. Origami Drone

Paper novelty from POWERUP is controlled via Wi-Fi and can be equipped with an augmented reality helmet.

5. HTC virtual reality helmet

The HTC Vive Pre helmet allows you to physically move around objects in virtual space. The device claims: improved display brightness with greater detail and a built-in camera that allows the gadget to work in augmented reality mode.

4. LG SIGNATURE G6V Super Slim OLED TV

LG engineers have integrated the OLED screen of the 65-inch TV model into 2.57 mm thick glass. Thanks to the declared color depth of 10 bits, the TV can show a fantastically colorful image.

3. Solar Grill

The GoSun grill has a unique design that guides sunlight towards a cylinder capable of heating up to 290 degrees in 10 or 20 minutes (depending on the model).

2. Passenger drone EHang 184

The stylish novelty of 2016 technology will be able to carry one passenger for 23 minutes at a speed of 100 km/h. The destination is indicated on the tablet.

1. Flexible Smartphone Screen by LG Display

In the first position of the top 10 is a prototype of an 18-inch screen that can fold like a sheet of paper. This type of futuristic display is promising for use in smartphones, TVs and tablets.

New heart and miracle bracelet

Serious discoveries that are designed to improve the quality of life are expected in the field of nanobiological technologies. Scientists are working on the creation of wrist bracelets for invasive diagnostics of various diseases. Cell sized sensors nervous system, are placed in various human organs, "eavesdrop" on the work of cells and transmit information to a mini-computer built into the bracelet. “It is very important that models for connecting these sensors with a computer have already been created, because it is one thing to introduce them into the body, and another to collect information,” says Alexander Kaplan, Doctor of Biology, head of the laboratory of neurocomputer interfaces at Moscow State University. The creation of such a device will lead to a sharp increase in diagnostics, which means it will prolong a person's life. What was previously invisible (especially the early signs of diseases, including the brain), will be immediately diagnosed and prevent the development of the disease.

Another major breakthrough that will affect our life expectancy is in the field of transplantation. Recently, British scientists at the Papworth Clinic for the first time in the world successfully performed a heart transplant operation that had already stopped beating. A man with already dead heart and lungs became a donor for a successful transplant. “Doctors using the latest device - a kind of bioreactor, were able to save and deliver a non-beating heart to the patient in a condition suitable for transplantation,” comments Elena Kokurina, Vice President of the Science for Life Extension Foundation.

Doctors are confident that this success will greatly simplify the procedure for transporting organs for transplantation, and consequently, the number of such operations will increase and many more patients will be able to get a new life. Now the preparation of organs for transplantation goes like this: the donor is declared brain dead, but his heart continues to beat. Doctors support the organ on a heart-lung system until the arrival of a team of transplantologists who place the beating heart in a special freezer. You need to bring it to the patient in a very short time. “The new method is suitable for long-term transportation of the heart, so the time between organ retrieval and delivery is significantly increased, which is extremely important,” said Elena Kokurina.

While this is only the first operation, and the transplanted heart still has to prove its performance, you need to make sure that it is not really damaged. “This can only be verified over time, by monitoring the work of the organ “in place” - in the human body,” the expert explains. But the main thing is that the first step has already been taken, and soon this method of transporting organs can be put on stream.

turn off the rain

The quality of our life is influenced not only by discoveries in medicine, but also environment. For example, the weather. Managing it is an old dream of mankind, and science has finally managed to come close to its implementation. “The efforts of scientists around the world today are focused on creating an extended plasma channel in the atmosphere,” said the senior Researcher International Educational and Scientific Laser Center of Moscow State University Nikolai Panov.

Special femtosecond laser systems are capable of generating high power pulses, which, in turn, can form a conducting plasma channel. Water vapor begins to condense on it, from which, with repeated exposure to laser pulses, rain or snow appears. “In fact, we are talking about the fact that in the future we will be able to turn precipitation on and off. For example, in the summer, “letting” rain in arid regions, and in a snowy winter, simply removing snow over the city, causing it in deserted places,” the specialist explains.

While we are talking about experiments in special chambers. Several have already been carried out in natural conditions, but, unfortunately, they cannot yet be called successful. “But I think that in the near future these technologies will develop, and it is possible that 2015 will be a turning point,” says Nikolai Panov. - The specialists of our educational and scientific center are also engaged in developments in this area. So far, mainly preliminary calculations are being carried out, but experimental studies have already begun. We have state-of-the-art laser systems with sufficient power levels for this kind of work.”

robot car

Another expected innovation will radically change the life of motorists - the emergence of cars that will be completely controlled by an autopilot, without human intervention. "In the future, cars will become robots - this is an inevitable process, because the need for this on the part of humanity is colossal," Andrey Ionin, chief analyst at NP GLONASS, believes.

Therefore, companies in the global automotive industry are investing huge investments in the development of unmanned vehicle projects. After all, those who fail to adapt will simply have to leave the market. IT giants are also interested in such an evolution. According to Andrey Ionin, the industry is now considering several technological approaches to solve this problem. Some companies take the path of equipping the car with a special laser that reads information around it and, after processing the data, provides a three-dimensional picture of what is happening around the car. But it is very expensive (now estimated at tens of thousands of dollars) and therefore unacceptable for the consumer market. In addition, such systems cannot operate under certain weather conditions- for example, in the rain. Other companies are already using existing systems- video cameras, various radars and more. Such experiments, in particular, are carried out by Mercedes.

But all this sounds good so far only in theory, but in practice there are many unresolved problems, the most important of which is security. A lot of effort will be needed to build new roads, which will be fundamentally different from the existing ones. And, of course, there are issues with legislative regulation, which only the state can solve. How to understand who is to blame for the accident in the case of two unmanned vehicles? Do drivers need a license if they do not drive a car?.. But sooner or later all these problems will be resolved and a new era will come in the automotive industry. “I am sure that all this will happen, and most importantly, the infrastructure and legislation should be ready by this time so as not to slow down the introduction of these innovations,” Andrey Ionin emphasized.

Genes will determine the treatment

One of the new trends in pharmacology, which is now rapidly developing, is pharmacogenomics, which will soon be able to radically change the approach to the treatment of various diseases. It investigates the influence of human genes on the efficacy and safety of a drug.

Predictive genomic medicine, as experts call it, answers a number of questions: will the drug be effective in treatment, can an adverse reaction occur, what dose is needed? “Methods that predict the effectiveness of a particular drug will soon be widely used in oncology, psychiatry, cardiology, and in the treatment of hepatitis,” says Dmitry Sychev, clinical pharmacologist, therapist, head of the Department of Clinical Pharmacology and Therapy of the Russian Medical Academy of Postgraduate Education.

The scientific community has high hopes for computer systems, interpreting the results of genetic testing. “There is a serious task - to tie genetic medicine with IT. Gradually, computerized clinical decision support systems are being created that predict the effect of treatment, taking into account the genetic characteristics of a person, gender, age, concomitant diseases,” says Dmitry Sychev. - Such systems will allow predicting the toxic effect of the drug before it is taken by the patient. This also happens with the use of genetic chips. With just one chip, you can examine thousands of genes, predict the effect of drugs, and protect the patient from side effects.”

Now scientists from all over the world are developing such systems - in the United States, and in Europe, and in Russia. “So far, they are used only fragmentarily, but they show excellent results - they reduce the risk of serious adverse reactions, speed up the selection of dosages. I think that in the near future there will be a serious breakthrough in this area, and in 10 years they will already be widely used in medical practice, which is especially important for patients with a high risk of adverse reactions,” Dmitry Sychev is convinced.

Image copyright Reuters

Has begun New Year, in connection with which the BBC Russian Service has chosen the 10 most striking scientific and technical achievements of the past 12 months.

1. Pathway open for rapid genome editing

Image copyright SPL Image caption Human DNA can now be quickly edited, although no one knows yet what this can lead to

A group of Chinese geneticists reported at the beginning of the year in scientific publication about the first successful episode of DNA editing of a human embryo using the CRISPR method.

The method of site-selective editing of the genome using an enzyme that recognizes the necessary sequence of a DNA chain by suggestion of a guide RNA complementary to it promises revolutionary change in the research and treatment of a range of diseases, from cancer and incurable viral diseases to hereditary genetic disorders like sickle cell anemia and Down syndrome.

However, many biologists call for extreme caution in the application of this genetic engineering method - for ethical reasons.

2. Autonomous power systems Powerwall

Image copyright Reuters Image caption The Powerwall battery system is already on sale starting at $3,000

The head of the American company Tesla Motors, Elon Musk, announced at a press conference that he is starting mass production of powerful lithium-ion Powerwall batteries that can accumulate a large charge and gradually release it to the network as needed.

This system up to 10 kWh is designed for use in private homes and small businesses.

Batteries can be charged from solar panels and other power sources.

The mass application of this device is capable of completely transforming the mechanisms of electricity distribution in the future. Batteries are already being produced and used in the well-known electric vehicles of the Volta series.

3 Mars Has Liquid Water

Image copyright SPL Image caption More and more compelling evidence is accumulating that oceans existed on Mars 3.5 billion years ago. This water remains in the form of ice in the surface layers of the soil.

Scientists exploring Mars have said that the dark streaks that appear on the surface of the planet during the warm season may be formed at the site of periodic flows of liquid water.

NASA satellite images show characteristic stripes on the slopes of the mountains, similar to salt deposits.

According to a study conducted by scientists from the Georgia Institute of Technology under the leadership of astronomer Lujendra Oji and published in the journal Nature Geoscience, these data may mean that there may still be life on Mars in some forms, since the presence of water increases the likelihood of the existence of primitive its forms - say, microbes.

4. Bionic lenses will do away with cataracts and myopia

Image copyright getty Image caption New lenses allow you to quickly change the focal length in the eye and achieve unprecedented visual acuity

Canadian optometrist Dr. Gareth Webb invented new system bionic lenses that allow a person to achieve visual acuity three times greater than normal.

The Ocumetics Bionioc Lens system is implanted into the eye in a simple and painless surgical procedure that takes eight minutes.

A tiny biomechanical camera built into the lens allows you to change the focal length faster than a healthy eye.

5. Polymer neurons

Image caption Polymer neurons easily take root in the brain and are not rejected by the body

Swedish researchers have created the world's first artificial neuron that can fully mimic the functions of a cell. human brain, including its ability to transform chemical signals into electrical impulses and transmit them to other types of cells.

So far, the physical dimensions of such devices are dozens of times larger than the parameters of real neurons in the human brain. However, according to team leader Agnetha Richter-Dalfors from the Karolinska Institute in Stockholm, a reduction to the desired size is quite possible in the near future.

The transplantation of such devices into the brain will radically change the treatment of neurological diseases such as Parkinson's syndrome and damage to the spinal cord fibers.

6. Step towards a working thermonuclear reactor

Image copyright AP Image caption The reactor of Tri Alpha Energy company differs from the usual design of "Tokamaks" by the presence of proton accelerators

The California company Tri Alpha Energy, which until now few people heard of, has achieved a major success in confining plasma with a temperature of 10 million degrees Celsius.

The company's experimental thermonuclear facility uses not external magnets to confine plasma, as in Tokamaks, but beams of charged particles that are fired into the plasma and create a confining "cage" around it. The researchers have achieved a plasma confinement time of 5 milliseconds, the biggest breakthrough in fusion research.

7. Fake Memories Can Be Transplanted

Image copyright SPL Image caption For the first time, it was possible to actively intervene in the work of the brain at the level of formation of associative memory

Neuroscientists in France have succeeded in implanting false memories into the brains of mice for the first time.

Using implanted electrodes to directly stimulate and record the activity of neurons, they created associative connections in the minds of sleeping animals that did not disappear upon awakening and influenced their behavior.

Karim Benshenan and his colleagues from the National Center scientific research in Paris, conducted experiments on 40 mice by implanting electrodes in the medial forebrain bundle, which controls emotions associated with food and rewards, as well as in the CA1 region of the hippocampus, which contains at least three various types cells that encode the information needed for spatial orientation.

8. Found a way to make morphine from yeast

Image copyright getty Image caption Morphine can now be produced industrially

Scientists have developed a way to turn sugar into morphine and other similar painkillers using yeast.

Now painkillers are made from opium poppies.

Since heroin is also made from morphine, scientists warn that the discovery could make it easier to make the drug at home.

9. The surface of Pluto is dotted with deep furrows.

Image copyright NASA Image caption The surface of Pluto was unlike the planets solar system

In July of this year, the American space probe The New Horizons reached the vicinity of the dwarf planet Pluto and its satellite system, the largest of which is Charon. The photographs sent became a sensation in planetology and revealed completely unexpected features of the planet's topography and the mechanism of its formation.

Pluto has a rarefied atmosphere and even a change of seasons.

10. Fertilization from three parents became a reality.

Image copyright SPL Image caption Mitochondrial genetic defects are relatively rare, but now there is an opportunity to do away with them

The British Parliament approved a bill legalizing artificial insemination using the genetic material of three parents.

Some women have defective mitochondrial genes that can lead to the birth of children with serious genetic diseases - muscular dystrophy, heart defects, neurological disorders. The new method makes it possible to replace mitochondria in the egg with material obtained from a donor, and not just from natural parents.

Section "Mechanics"

What helps alligators move almost silently in the water and do maneuvers without being noticed? It turned out they were easy. Zoologists have long believed that the musculature around the lungs allows alligators to breathe and move on land at the same time ......... read

Section "Optics"

In New York and London, a unique optical device was opened - a telescope that connected these two cities. Now, for the first time in history, you can easily wave to each other across the ocean or admire the sights of the British capital, standing at the Brooklyn Bridge......... read

inquisitive

Urgent ascent

Let's say you're scuba diving in deep water (say, around 30m) and you need to get back to the surface urgently. The air tank is only for one breath, but it should be enough for the whole rise, otherwise you will die. How will you float?

By the way, submarine crews work out such an ascent in training. Should you exhale as you ascend, or should you try to hold it in? It may seem strange at first glance, but nevertheless, the air must be exhaled, otherwise you are lost.

Inexperienced scuba divers happen to die during training in the pool precisely because they do not exhale air in time during a quick ascent to the surface. Why?

It has been established that our need to take another breath is not determined by the number carbon dioxide in the lungs, but by its partial pressure. Therefore, it is believed that during ascent, the most dangerous, critical moment occurs not at the surface, but at a certain depth. When you pass the critical point, your need to inhale decreases.

Why?
What is this critical depth?
How fast should you surface?
What happens if you ascend too fast?

Turns out...
If the air is not continuously released during the ascent, then the lungs can be torn, since the volume of air in them increases with a decrease in external pressure. Upon ascent partial pressure The amount of carbon dioxide in your lungs is non-linear with time because you are exhaling some of the gas all the time.

The depth at which the partial pressure of carbon dioxide is maximum is determined as follows: from the maximum depth of the dive (at which the last breath was taken in a submarine or from a cylinder), expressed in feet, 33 feet should be subtracted and the result divided by 2.

It often happens that we come to the doctors and the news that we need an operation takes us by surprise. We are very afraid and begin to delay this moment, thereby making it even worse. And let's ask ourselves the question: -What are we afraid of? ..

2019-07-18 726 0 Scientific discoveries

An international team of physicists has found out why beta decays in atomic nuclei proceed more slowly than in free neutrons. Scientists have been struggling to solve this riddle for 50 years, according to a press release on Phys.org. The researchers studied the transformation of the tin-100 isotope into indium-100. These two elements have the same...

2019-03-12 958 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists from the United States and China have calculated for the first time the contributions to the proton mass associated with various effects. For calculations performed within the framework of lattice QCD, scientists used the Titan supercomputer with a performance of about 27 petaflops. As a result, the researchers found that the quark condensate provides about ..

2019-02-26 860 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists from Germany suggested using electromagnetic waves with azimuth polarization to overcome the diffraction limit and accurately measure the position of the nanoparticle on the glass substrate. By observing the scattering of such waves on a spherical particle, scientists were able to fix a displacement of just ..

2019-02-26 676 0 Scientific discoveries

The Wendelstein 7-X stellarator proved its performance in a series of experiments conducted in 2016-2017 - the destabilizing plasma boostrap current was reduced by almost four times, and the plasma retention time was brought up to 160 milliseconds. At the moment, this is the best result among stellarators. ..

2018-06-04 22858 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists at the University of Maryland have discovered an exotic YPtBi superconductor, inside which electrons interact with each other to form high-spin quasiparticles. This was reported in the journal Science Advances. The scientists analyzed the electronic structure of a material made from yttrium, platinum..

2018-04-10 7614 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists from Stanford University and the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory have figured out how an anomalous superconductor, strontium titanate, is able to conduct electricity without resistance despite being a non-metal. This is reported by Science Alert. Strontium titanate is an oxide, however..

2018-03-27 5869 0 Scientific discoveries

Mathematicians from the University of California at Berkeley have found a condition for the existence of bare singularities in black holes, in which the laws of physics are violated. This conclusion calls into question the strong principle of cosmic censorship, when a naked singularity should be unattainable for any..

2018-03-06 6709 0 Scientific discoveries

Neurologists from the Charite University Hospital in Berlin have uncovered the processes that occur in the human brain during the process of dying. It turned out that the “brain tsunami” is a wave of depolarization of nerve cells that spreads uncontrollably through the cerebral cortex and doom-causing neurons - can be blocked. ..

2018-03-06 6784 0 Scientific discoveries

American physicists have for the first time experimentally registered bound states of three photons. The formation of trimers unusual for photons occurs when a laser beam passes through a cloud of cooled rubidium atoms due to the formation of intermediate polariton states, scientists write in Science. Unlike..

2018-02-18 4967 0 Scientific discoveries

Scientists at Northwestern University in the US found that terminally ill people suffering from Huntington's chorea have an 80 percent reduced risk of cancer. It turned out that tumor cells are sensitive to a defective form of the huntingtin protein, which also causes the death of nerve cells. It is reported..

2018-02-14 5882 0 Scientific discoveries

Biologists at Moscow State University have discovered a "molecular timer" - a special mechanism for regulating protein synthesis that prevents the formation of abnormal molecules by sticking ribosomes. According to scientists, the discovery will help create therapeutic methods to combat cancer. This was announced in a press release..

2018-02-05 5322 0 Scientific discoveries

Scientists at the University of the Witwatersrand in Johannesburg have deciphered the genome of one of the simplest multicellular life forms, the four-cell green algae Tetrabaena socialis. This made it possible to determine the genetic mechanisms that contributed to the emergence of multicellularity. An article by biologists was published in the journal ..

2018-02-05 4663 0 Scientific discoveries

Hypothetical magnetic monopoles can be created in collisions of heavy ions or in strong magnetic fields neutron stars. Physicists from Imperial College London theoretically considered these processes and calculated the lower limit for the possible mass of monopoles - it turned out to be slightly less than the mass ..

2017-12-14 4165 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists have developed a shell that, due to magnetohydrodynamic effects, allows you to completely suppress all disturbances in the flow of water around moving objects. In a paper published in Physical Review E, the scientists also proposed a way to create such a device, which could be...

2017-12-12 4038 0 Scientific discoveries

Physicists for the first time experimentally measured the force of attraction that acts on individual cesium atoms from a black body. This force turned out to be several times greater than the gravitational force and the pressure force of electromagnetic radiation, write the authors of a paper published in Nature Physics. Effect..

2017-12-11 3749 0 Scientific discoveries

An international team of researchers has proven the existence of a new form of matter - excitonium. It is a condensate of excitons - electrons and "holes" connected to each other. This state of matter was first predicted almost 50 years ago. The scientists' article was published in the journal Science. About it..

2017-12-11 4564 0 Scientific discoveries

An international team of physicists has succeeded in reversing the passage of time for a pair of interconnected particles. Researchers have proven that for quantum interconnected qubits (quantum bits), the second law of thermodynamics is spontaneously violated, according to which in isolated systems all processes go only in the direction of increase.

2017-12-05 3305 0 Scientific discoveries

An extended version of the main physical theory - the Standard Model - predicts that charged particles can polarize vacuum and emit photons. A Brazilian theoretical physicist investigated this effect, known as vacuum Cherenkov radiation, and used it to set limits on certain parameters.

2017-11-30 3256 0 Scientific discoveries

Professor of Nizhny Novgorod state university named after Nikolai Lobachevsky, Doctor of Physical and Mathematical Sciences Yaroslav Sergeev, in an interview with TASS, announced the solution of two Hilbert problems. Research published in the journal of the European Mathematical Society EMS Surveys in Mathematical Sciences. The first problem, about solving..