New Scientist ranks the top 10 discoveries of the decade
Jan 6, 2020
NewScientist listed the 10 most important scientific discoveries of the 2010's, many of which I didn't even remember or knew. I am to list them taking part of their explanations, but I'd advise to read them directly from source:
- Higgs boson, a fundamental physical particle that helps explain why all other particles in the universe have mass;
- CRISPR, a cheap system to edit DNA than unfortunately lead to the first gene-edited babies in China1 in 2018;
- Gravitational waves, one of the proof Einstein was right about the space-time, the fabric of the universe;
- AlphaGo, the pinnacle of AI;
- Layla’s gene therapy, i.e. how genetic editing done right could save lives;
- Denisovans, one more step in human evolution;
- Quantum supremacy, calculations done on a totally new type of computers that can perform calculations no classical computer could;
- Proxima Centauri b, the closest known exoplanet, at a distance of 4.2 light years from Earth;
- Face transplants, precisely what it sounds like2;
- Remains of Richard III, former king of England, found excavating under a parking lot.
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the scientists behind the gene-editing has recently been sentenced to prison ↩
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forgive me to if I say that it actually made me think of these famous Mission Impossible scenes ↩
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