As another year comes around, and our solstice plans come to a head I want to review this year's great progress in science to follow on from last year's great review.
The general criteria is: World changing science, not politics. That means a lot of space discoveries, a lot of technology, some groundbreaking biology, and sometimes new chemical materials. There really are too many to list briefly.
The world's first 13 TB solid state drive (SSD) is announced, doubling the previous record for a commercially available SSD. link
A successful head transplant on a monkey by scientists in China is reported.
The University of New South Wales announces that it will begin human trials of the Phoenix99, a fully implantable bionic eye. Link
Scientists in the United Kingdom are given the go-ahead by regulators to genetically modify human embryos by using CRISPR-Cas9 and related techniques. Link
Scientists announce Breakthrough Starshot, a Breakthrough Initiatives program, to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of small centimeter-sized light sail spacecraft, named StarChip, capable of making the journey to Alpha Centauri, the nearest extrasolar star system, at speeds of 20% and 15% of the speed of light, taking between 20 and 30 years to reach the star system, respectively, and about 4 years to notify Earth of a successful arrival. Link
A new paper in Astrobiology suggests there could be a way to simplify the Drake equation, based on observations of exoplanets discovered in the last two decades. link
A detailed report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds no risk to human health from genetic modifications of food. Link
Researchers from Queensland's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, and the University of Queensland jointly report that the Bramble Cay melomys is likely extinct, adding: "Significantly, this probably represents the first recorded mammalian extinction due to anthropogenic climate change." Link
Scientists announce detecting a second gravitational wave event (GW151226) resulting from the collision of black holes. Link
The first known death caused by a self-driving car is disclosed by Tesla Motors. Link
A team at the University of Oxford achieves a quantum logic gate with record-breaking 99.9% precision, reaching the benchmark required to build a quantum computer. Link
The world's first baby born through a controversial new "three parent" technique is reported. Link
A team at Australia's University of New South Wales create a new quantum bit that remains in a stable superposition for 10 times longer than previously achieved. Link
Scientists at the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry officially recognizes names for four new chemical elements: Nihonium, Nh, 113; Moscovium, Mc, 115; Tennessine, Ts, 117 and Oganesson, Og, 118. Link
Global CO2 levels exceed 400ppm at the time of year normally associated with minimum levels [34] A 400 ppm level is believed to be higher than anything experienced in human history.
The Nobel Prize in Chemistry 2016 was awarded jointly to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Bernard L. Feringa "for the design and synthesis of molecular machines"
The Nobel Prize in Physics 2016 was divided, one half awarded to David J. Thouless, the other half jointly to F. Duncan M. Haldane and J. Michael Kosterlitz "for theoretical discoveries of topological phase transitions and topological phases of matter".
The Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine 2016 was awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi "for his discoveries of mechanisms for autophagy".
The Nobel Prize in Literature 2016 was awarded to Bob Dylan "for having created new poetic expressions within the great American song tradition".
The Nobel Peace Prize 2016 was awarded to Juan Manuel Santos "for his resolute efforts to bring the country's more than 50-year-long civil war to an end".
The Sveriges Riksbank Prize in Economic Sciences in Memory of Alfred Nobel 2016 was awarded jointly to Oliver Hart and Bengt Holmström "for their contributions to contract theory"
As another year comes around, and our solstice plans come to a head I want to review this year's great progress in science to follow on from last year's great review.
The general criteria is: World changing science, not politics. That means a lot of space discoveries, a lot of technology, some groundbreaking biology, and sometimes new chemical materials. There really are too many to list briefly.
With that in mind, below is the list:
Things that spring to mind when you ask people:
From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016_in_science
Note: the whole thing is worth reading - I cherry picked a few really cool ones.
from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2016:
Notable deaths:
Nobel prizes:
100 years ago (1916):
Nobel Prizes in 1916:
Other:
Meta: this took in the order of 3+ hours to write over several weeks.
Cross posted to Lesswrong here.