A number of significant scientific events occurred in 2015. Gene editing based on
CRISPR
CRISPR () (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments of bact ...
got significantly improved. A new human-like species,
Homo naledi
'' Homo naledi'' is an extinct species of archaic human discovered in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimens ...
, was first described.
Gravitational waves
Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliver Heaviside i ...
were observed for the first time (announced publicly in 2016), and dwarf planets
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
and
Ceres were visited by spacecraft for the first time. The United Nations declared 2015 the
International Year of Soils and Light-based Technologies.
Events
January
*2 January – A study published in ''
Science
Science is a systematic endeavor that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe.
Science may be as old as the human species, and some of the earliest archeological evidence ...
'' shows evidence that a protein partially assembles another protein without genetic instructions. Defying textbook science, amino acids (the building blocks of a protein) can be assembled by another protein and without genetic instructions.
![X-RayFlare-BlackHole-MilkyWay-20140105](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/85/X-RayFlare-BlackHole-MilkyWay-20140105.jpg)
*3 January – Iranian chemists from
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad
Ferdowsi University of Mashhad (FUM, fa, دانشگاه فردوسی مشهد, ''Danushgah-e Ferdusi-ye Mashhad'') is a public university in Mashhad, the capital city of the Iranian province of Razavi Khorasan. FUM is named after Abul-Qâsem F ...
created biodiesel fuel from
soya oil to decrease pollutions caused by
fossil fuels
A fossil fuel is a hydrocarbon-containing material formed naturally in the Earth's crust from the remains of dead plants and animals that is extracted and burned as a fuel. The main fossil fuels are coal, oil, and natural gas. Fossil fuels ma ...
.
*5 January
**Scientists from the US and UK have mapped the genome of the
bowhead whale
The bowhead whale (''Balaena mysticetus'') is a species of baleen whale belonging to the family Balaenidae and the only living representative of the genus '' Balaena''. They are the only baleen whale endemic to the Arctic and subarctic waters, a ...
and identified genes responsible for its 200-year lifespan,
the longest of any mammal.
**The
Japan Meteorological Agency
The , abbreviated JMA, is an agency of the Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism. It is charged with gathering and providing results for the public in Japan that are obtained from data based on daily scientific observation an ...
(JMA) declares 2014 as the hottest year on record globally, surpassing the previous record of 1998.
**Researchers have developed a compound that causes the
metabolism
Metabolism (, from el, μεταβολή ''metabolē'', "change") is the set of life-sustaining chemical reactions in organisms. The three main functions of metabolism are: the conversion of the energy in food to energy available to run ...
of mice to respond as if a meal has been eaten, so they burn fat to make room for new
calories
The calorie is a unit of energy. For historical reasons, two main definitions of "calorie" are in wide use. The large calorie, food calorie, or kilogram calorie was originally defined as the amount of heat needed to raise the temperature of ...
. Human trials could follow within two years.
**An
earthquake
An earthquake (also known as a quake, tremor or temblor) is the shaking of the surface of the Earth resulting from a sudden release of energy in the Earth's lithosphere that creates seismic waves. Earthquakes can range in intensity, fr ...
felt by Ohio residents in March 2014 was caused by
fracking
Fracking (also known as hydraulic fracturing, hydrofracturing, or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique involving the fracturing of bedrock formations by a pressurized liquid. The process involves the high-pressure injection of "frac ...
, a study has found.
**NASA reports observing an
X-ray
An X-ray, or, much less commonly, X-radiation, is a penetrating form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation. Most X-rays have a wavelength ranging from 10 picometers to 10 nanometers, corresponding to frequencies in the range 30&nb ...
flare 400 times brighter than usual, a record-breaker, from the
supermassive black hole
A supermassive black hole (SMBH or sometimes SBH) is the largest type of black hole, with its mass being on the order of hundreds of thousands, or millions to billions of times the mass of the Sun (). Black holes are a class of astronomical ob ...
, named
Sagittarius A*
Sagittarius A* ( ), abbreviated Sgr A* ( ), is the supermassive black hole at the Galactic Center of the Milky Way. It is located near the border of the constellations Sagittarius and Scorpius, about 5.6° south of the ecliptic, ...
, in the center of the
Milky Way galaxy
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...
. The unusual event may have been caused by the breaking apart of an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
falling into the
black hole
A black hole is a region of spacetime where gravity is so strong that nothing, including light or other electromagnetic waves, has enough energy to escape it. The theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass can def ...
or by the entanglement of
magnetic field lines
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
within gas flowing into Sagittarius A*.
*6 January
**Astronomers have developed a method of accurately telling a
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
's age from how fast it spins.
**NASA announces the 1000th confirmed
exoplanet
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
discovered by the
Kepler Space Telescope
The Kepler space telescope is a disused space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric o ...
. Three of the newly confirmed exoplanets were found to orbit within
habitable zone
In astronomy and astrobiology, the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), or simply the habitable zone, is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressure.J. F. Kast ...
s of their related
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
s: two of the three,
Kepler-438b
Kepler-438b (also known by its Kepler Object of Interest designation ''KOI-3284.01'') is a confirmed near-Earth-sized exoplanet. It is likely rocky. It orbits on the inner edge of the habitable zone of a red dwarf, Kepler-438, about 472.9 light ...
and
Kepler-442b
Kepler-442b (also known by its Kepler object of interest designation ''KOI-4742.01'') is a confirmed near-Earth-sized exoplanet, likely rocky, orbiting within the habitable zone of the K-type main-sequence star Kepler-442, about from Earth in ...
, are near-Earth-size and likely rocky; the third,
Kepler-440b
Kepler-440b (also known by its Kepler Object of Interest designation KOI-4087.01) is a confirmed super-Earth exoplanet orbiting within the habitable zone of Kepler-440, about from Earth. The planet was discovered by NASA's Kepler spacecraft u ...
, is a
super-Earth
A super-Earth is an extrasolar planet with a mass higher than Earth's, but substantially below those of the Solar System's ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, which are 14.5 and 17 times Earth's, respectively.
The term "super-Earth" refers only to ...
.
*7 January
**Humans are eroding soil a hundred times faster than natural processes, according to a new study.
**If
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
is to be kept below 2 °C this century, then over 80% of coal, 50% of gas and 30% of oil reserves are "unburnable" a new study concludes.
**A review article published in the journal ''Neuron'' describes a number of recent studies showing that
brain imaging
Neuroimaging is the use of quantitative (computational) techniques to study the structure and function of the central nervous system, developed as an objective way of scientifically studying the healthy human brain in a non-invasive manner. Incre ...
can help predict a person's future learning, criminality, health-related behaviors, and response to drug or behavioral treatments.
**In a world first, researchers from New Zealand have observed
mitochondrial DNA
Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA or mDNA) is the DNA located in mitochondria, cellular organelles within eukaryotic cells that convert chemical energy from food into a form that cells can use, such as adenosine triphosphate (ATP). Mitochondrial D ...
moving between cells in mice and triggering
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
growth.
**
Tarbiat Modarres University researchers produce
ceramic
A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porcelain, ...
nonporous membrane
A membrane is a selective barrier; it allows some things to pass through but stops others. Such things may be molecules, ions, or other small particles. Membranes can be generally classified into synthetic membranes and biological membranes. ...
with high thermal firmness.
*8 January
**NASA reports determining, with a high degree of accuracy, the precise center of the planet
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
and its
family of moons – to within .
**Astronomers have observed and measured a
neutron star
A neutron star is the collapsed core of a massive supergiant star, which had a total mass of between 10 and 25 solar masses, possibly more if the star was especially metal-rich. Except for black holes and some hypothetical objects (e.g. w ...
slipping out of view because of the warp in
space-time
In physics, spacetime is a mathematical model that combines the three dimensions of space and one dimension of time into a single four-dimensional manifold. Spacetime diagrams can be used to visualize relativistic effects, such as why differen ...
its orbit creates. The star is expected to reappear in about 160 years.
*9 January
**A new species of
ichthyosaur
Ichthyosaurs (Ancient Greek for "fish lizard" – and ) are large extinct marine reptiles. Ichthyosaurs belong to the order known as Ichthyosauria or Ichthyopterygia ('fish flippers' – a designation introduced by Sir Richard Owen in 1842, alt ...
resembling a dolphin merged with a crocodile has been discovered in Scotland. ''
Dearcmhara shawcrossi'' lived in the early to mid-
Jurassic
The Jurassic ( ) is a geologic period and stratigraphic system that spanned from the end of the Triassic Period million years ago (Mya) to the beginning of the Cretaceous Period, approximately Mya. The Jurassic constitutes the middle period of ...
about 170 million years ago.
**Iranian and Argentinean researchers made a
biosensor
A biosensor is an analytical device, used for the detection of a chemical substance, that combines a biological component with a physicochemical detector.
The ''sensitive biological element'', e.g. tissue, microorganisms, organelles, cell rece ...
by using
graphene
Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure. sheets.
**Iranian researchers from
University of Tehran
The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
applied
nanocomposite
Nanocomposite is a multiphase solid material where one of the phases has one, two or three dimensions of less than 100 nanometers (nm) or structures having nano-scale repeat distances between the different phases that make up the material.
The id ...
covering to enhance the strength and lifetime of
concrete
Concrete is a composite material composed of fine and coarse aggregate bonded together with a fluid cement (cement paste) that hardens (cures) over time. Concrete is the second-most-used substance in the world after water, and is the most wid ...
compositions.
*13 January – The first lab-grown, contracting human muscle is announced by
Duke University
Duke University is a private research university in Durham, North Carolina. Founded by Methodists and Quakers in the present-day city of Trinity in 1838, the school moved to Durham in 1892. In 1924, tobacco and electric power industrialist Jam ...
.
*14 January
**NASA and ESA celebrate 10 years since the
Cassini-Huygens probe landed on
Titan
Titan most often refers to:
* Titan (moon), the largest moon of Saturn
* Titans, a race of deities in Greek mythology
Titan or Titans may also refer to:
Arts and entertainment
Fictional entities
Fictional locations
* Titan in fiction, fictiona ...
, largest moon of the planet
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
.
(
related image).
**By the year
2050, almost nobody under the age of 80 will die of cancer, according to a study by
University College London
, mottoeng = Let all come who by merit deserve the most reward
, established =
, type = Public research university
, endowment = £143 million (2020)
, budget = ...
.
**The acceleration in
global sea level rise during recent decades has been significantly underestimated, according to a new Harvard study.
![Ceres RC2 Bright Spot](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b3/Ceres_RC2_Bright_Spot.jpg)
*15 January
**Researchers have extended the lifespan of fruit flies by 60 percent, using a method that could one day lead to anti-aging treatments for humans.
**A series of 24 global indicators, published in the journal ''Anthropocene Review'', show how the impact of humans is now the primary driver of the Earth system.
**Iranian scientists from
University of Tehran
The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
produced a sensor that calculates the amount of
blood sugar
Glycaemia, also known as blood sugar level, blood sugar concentration, or blood glucose level is the measure of glucose concentrated in the blood of humans or other animals. Approximately 4 grams of glucose, a simple sugar, is present in the b ...
of
Diabetics
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level (hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased a ...
by measuring
acetone
Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone), is an organic compound with the formula . It is the simplest and smallest ketone (). It is a colorless, highly volatile and flammable liquid with a characteristic pungent odour.
Acetone is miscibl ...
concentration in their expiration.
*16 January
**NASA reports the
Beagle 2
The ''Beagle 2'' is an inoperative British Mars lander that was transported by the European Space Agency's 2003 ''Mars Express'' mission. It was intended to conduct an astrobiology mission that would have looked for evidence of past life on Mar ...
, built by the United Kingdom, thought to be lost on the planet
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
since 2003, has been found on the surface in
Isidis Planitia
Isidis Planitia is a plain located within a giant impact basin on Mars, located partly in the Syrtis Major quadrangle and partly in the Amenthes quadrangle. At approximately in diameter, it is the third-largest obvious impact structure on the ...
(location is about ) High-resolution images captured by the
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, an ...
identify the lost probe, which appears to be intact. (
see discovery images here)
**NASA and NOAA confirm that 2014 was the hottest year on record globally.
*19 January
**NASA presents an
animated view of the
dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
Ceres by the approaching
''Dawn'' spacecraft.
(animated images:
20150113 &
20150204)
**By observing the gravitational effects on extreme
trans-Neptunian object
A trans-Neptunian object (TNO), also written transneptunian object, is any minor planet in the Solar System that orbits the Sun at a greater average distance than Neptune, which has a semi-major axis of 30.1 astronomical units (au).
Typically ...
s (ETNOs), astronomers have theorised that a pair of Earth-sized objects may be hidden at the edge of the
Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
.
*20 January – Long-term
carbon sequestration
Carbon sequestration is the process of storing carbon in a carbon pool. Carbon dioxide () is naturally captured from the atmosphere through biological, chemical, and physical processes. These changes can be accelerated through changes in lan ...
as a way of
mitigating climate change may be harder to achieve than previously thought, due to difficulties in converting the gas to a solid state, MIT reports.
*22 January
**By recreating the conditions on Earth during the
Chicxulub impact
The Chicxulub crater () is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore near the community of Chicxulub, after which it is named. It was formed slightly over 66 million years ago when a large a ...
, researchers have concluded that the heat pulse nearer the crater was too short-lived (less than a minute) to ignite significant amounts of plant matter. By contrast, regions much further away would have experienced less intense, but longer-lived heat levels (up to seven minutes), long enough to ignite plant matter. This challenges previous theories about global firestorms in the aftermath of the event.
![Tea leaves steeping in a zhong čaj 05](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/cb/Tea_leaves_steeping_in_a_zhong_%C4%8Daj_05.jpg)
**As part of th
Open Worm Project scientists have mapped the brain of a roundworm (
''C. elegans''), created software to mimic its nervous system and uploaded it to a
lego
Lego ( , ; stylized as LEGO) is a line of plastic construction toys that are manufactured by The Lego Group, a privately held company based in Billund, Denmark. The company's flagship product, Lego, consists of variously colored interlocki ...
robot, which seeks food and avoids obstacles.
*23 January
**Scientists have slowed
the speed of light by using a special mask to change the shape of
photons
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are Massless particle, massless ...
.
**With a successful new method, Iranian scientists managed to create a
graphene
Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure. -based gas sensor, which has uses in many industries to detect
oxygen
Oxygen is the chemical element with the symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group in the periodic table, a highly reactive nonmetal, and an oxidizing agent that readily forms oxides with most elements ...
.
*25 January – A new
owl
Owls are birds from the order Strigiformes (), which includes over 200 species of mostly solitary and nocturnal birds of prey typified by an upright stance, a large, broad head, binocular vision, binaural hearing, sharp talons, and feathers a ...
species in the Middle East, the
desert tawny owl (''Strix hadorami''), is described.
*26 January
**Chemists determine that
alkali metal
The alkali metals consist of the chemical elements lithium (Li), sodium (Na), potassium (K),The symbols Na and K for sodium and potassium are derived from their Latin names, ''natrium'' and ''kalium''; these are still the origins of the names ...
s explode on contact with water due to a
Coulomb explosion at the water-metal interface driving the reaction, instead of merely due to Hydrogen gas formation and its subsequent ignition. This overturns what was previously considered to be a well understood phenomenon, and has the potential to increase safety when handling reactive metals.
**Iranian
nanotechnologists drafted and constructed
solar cells
A solar cell, or photovoltaic cell, is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by the photovoltaic effect, which is a physical and chemical phenomenon. for transforming
solar energy
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essen ...
into
electricity
Electricity is the set of physical phenomena associated with the presence and motion of matter that has a property of electric charge. Electricity is related to magnetism, both being part of the phenomenon of electromagnetism, as describe ...
.
*27 January
**Astronomers have discovered
an exoplanet with a gigantic
ring system
A ring system is a disc or ring, orbiting an astronomical object, that is composed of solid material such as dust and moonlets, and is a common component of satellite systems around giant planets. A ring system around a planet is also known as ...
that is 200 times larger than that around
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
.
**NASA reports that the
''Kepler'' spacecraft confirmed five sub-earth-sized
rocky
''Rocky'' is a 1976 American sports drama film directed by John G. Avildsen and written by and starring Sylvester Stallone. It is the first installment in the ''Rocky'' franchise and stars Talia Shire, Burt Young, Carl Weathers, and Burges ...
exoplanets
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
, all smaller than the planet
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
(but bigger than the planet
Mercury), in orbit around the 11.2 billion year old star
Kepler-444, making this planetary system, at more than 80% of the age of the
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...
, the oldest yet discovered. According to NASA, no life as we know it could exist on these hot exoplanets, due to their close
orbital distances to the host star.
*28 January – An ingredient found in
green tea
Green tea is a type of tea that is made from '' Camellia sinensis'' leaves and buds that have not undergone the same withering and oxidation process which is used to make oolong teas and black teas. Green tea originated in China, and since th ...
may protect against
oral cancer
Oral cancer, also known as mouth cancer, is cancer of the lining of the lips, mouth, or upper throat. In the mouth, it most commonly starts as a painless white patch, that thickens, develops red patches, an ulcer, and continues to grow. When on ...
, according to Penn State University researchers.
*29 January – Global warming will result in large storms becoming larger, rather than an increase in the number of storms, concludes a study by the University of Toronto.
*30 January – A joint study of data from the
Planck space mission and the ground-based experiment
BICEP2
BICEP (Background Imaging of Cosmic Extragalactic Polarization) and the Keck Array are a series of cosmic microwave background (CMB) experiments. They aim to measure the polarization of the CMB; in particular, measuring the ''B''-mode of the CMB ...
casts doubt on
earlier findings of
gravitational waves
Gravitational waves are waves of the intensity of gravity generated by the accelerated masses of an orbital binary system that propagate as waves outward from their source at the speed of light. They were first proposed by Oliver Heaviside i ...
from the
Big Bang
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
.
*31 January – NASA launches the
Soil Moisture Active Passive
Soil Moisture Active Passive (SMAP) is a NASA environmental monitoring satellite that measures soil moisture across the planet. It is designed to collect a global 'snapshot' of soil moister every 2 to 3 days. With this frequency, changes from sp ...
(SMAP) observatory. It will provide the most accurate, highest-resolution global measurements of soil moisture ever obtained from space.
February
![HST-Smiling-GalaxyClusterSDSS-J1038+4849-20150210](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/HST-Smiling-GalaxyClusterSDSS-J1038%2B4849-20150210.jpg)
*2 February – A study about
penta-graphene, a proposed
carbon allotrope, is published.
*3 February
**The British government votes to allow a controversial new technique involving
babies created from three people. If passed by the
House of Lords
The House of Lords, also known as the House of Peers, is the upper house of the Parliament of the United Kingdom. Membership is by appointment, heredity or official function. Like the House of Commons, it meets in the Palace of Westminst ...
, the UK will become the first country in the world to offer this medical procedure, which can be used to treat mitochondrial diseases.
**For the first time, researchers have used biodegradable
nanoparticles
A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is usually defined as a particle of matter that is between 1 and 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 10 ...
to kill
brain cancer
A brain tumor occurs when abnormal cells form within the brain. There are two main types of tumors: malignant tumors and benign (non-cancerous) tumors. These can be further classified as primary tumors, which start within the brain, and second ...
cells in animals and lengthen their survival.
**The FDA approves a new drug,
Ibrance (palbociclib), for treating advanced
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...
.
**The first
transistors
upright=1.4, gate (G), body (B), source (S) and drain (D) terminals. The gate is separated from the body by an insulating layer (pink).
A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch ...
made from
silicene, a one atom-thick version of silicon, are reported.
*4 February
**Scientists have genetically reprogrammed plants to be
drought tolerant
Drought tolerance is the ability to which a plant maintains its biomass production during arid or drought conditions. Some plants are naturally adapted to dry conditions'','' surviving with protection mechanisms such as desiccation tolerance, deto ...
in response to an already existing agrochemical, circumventing the need for a new chemical that would otherwise have required many years of testing.
**
E-cigarettes cause many of the same harmful effects as normal cigarettes, according to a new study on mice.
*5 February – The first generation of
stars
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma held together by its gravity. The nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night, but their immense distances from Earth ma ...
is now thought to have emerged 560 million years after the Big Bang, according to scientists working on the European Planck satellite. This is 140 million years later than the previous estimate of 420 million years.
*6 February – Iranian
nanotechnologists discovered key to measure species in liquids. In this study, the aim was to withdraw and measure
vitamin B12
Vitamin B12, also known as cobalamin, is a water-soluble vitamin involved in metabolism. It is one of eight B vitamins. It is required by animals, which use it as a cofactor in DNA synthesis, in both fatty acid and amino acid metabolism. ...
from liquid models.
*9 February – Researchers have extracted
isopropanol
Isopropyl alcohol (IUPAC name propan-2-ol and also called isopropanol or 2-propanol) is a colorless, flammable organic compound with a pungent alcoholic odor. As an isopropyl group linked to a hydroxyl group (chemical formula ) it is the sim ...
fuel from genetically engineered bacteria and solar-powered catalysts, achieving the same efficiency as
photosynthesis
Photosynthesis is a process used by plants and other organisms to convert light energy into chemical energy that, through cellular respiration, can later be released to fuel the organism's activities. Some of this chemical energy is stored in ...
.
*10 February
**NASA releases a "
smiley
A smiley, sometimes referred to as a smiley face, is a basic ideogram that represents a smiling face. Since the 1950s it has become part of popular culture worldwide, used either as a standalone ideogram, or as a form of communication, such a ...
" image of
galaxy cluster
A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. They are the second-lar ...
(SDSS J1038+4849) and
gravitational lensing (an
Einstein ring
An Einstein ring, also known as an Einstein–Chwolson ring or Chwolson ring (named for Orest Chwolson), is created when light from a galaxy or star passes by a massive object en route to the Earth. Due to gravitational lensing, the light is dive ...
) taken by the
Hubble Space Telescope
The Hubble Space Telescope (often referred to as HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most vers ...
.
**NASA scientists present the notion that
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
s are like "deep fried ice cream", since research studies suggest comet surfaces are formed of a mixture of
organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. Th ...
s and dense crystlline ice, while comet interiors contain colder and less dense ice.
**Iranian and Finnish researchers made a magnetic nanosorbent that adsorbs 60-100% of
nitrate
Nitrate is a polyatomic ion with the chemical formula . Salts containing this ion are called nitrates. Nitrates are common components of fertilizers and explosives. Almost all inorganic nitrates are soluble in water. An example of an insolu ...
and
nitrite
The nitrite ion has the chemical formula . Nitrite (mostly sodium nitrite) is widely used throughout chemical and pharmaceutical industries. The nitrite anion is a pervasive intermediate in the nitrogen cycle in nature. The name nitrite also ...
in the sample of soil and water.
*11 February
**NASA's
Deep Space Climate Observatory
Deep Space Climate Observatory (DSCOVR; formerly known as Triana, unofficially known as GoreSat) is a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) space weather, space climate, and Earth observation satellite. It was launched by S ...
(DSCOVR) is launched by a
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal o ...
Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX.
The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...
rocket. It will measure
solar winds and provide crucial early warnings during
solar flares
A solar flare is an intense localized eruption of electromagnetic radiation in the Sun's atmosphere. Flares occur in active regions and are often, but not always, accompanied by coronal mass ejections, solar particle events, and other sola ...
.
**ESA's
Intermediate eXperimental Vehicle (IXV) demonstrates a new
atmospheric reentry
Atmospheric entry is the movement of an object from outer space into and through the gases of an atmosphere of a planet, dwarf planet, or natural satellite. There are two main types of atmospheric entry: ''uncontrolled entry'', such as the ...
technology, returning from space to Earth similar to the
Space Shuttle
The Space Shuttle is a retired, partially reusable low Earth orbital spacecraft system operated from 1981 to 2011 by the U.S. National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) as part of the Space Shuttle program. Its official program n ...
but without wings.
**A study in
The New England Journal of Medicine
''The New England Journal of Medicine'' (''NEJM'') is a weekly medical journal published by the Massachusetts Medical Society. It is among the most prestigious peer-reviewed medical journals as well as the oldest continuously published one.
H ...
reports that
mortality due to cigarette smoking in the United States is substantially greater than previously thought.
**Iranian experimenters from
Sahand University of Technology
Sahand University of Technology (SUT) ( fa, دانشگاه صنعتی سهند, ''Danushgah-e Sân'ti-ye Sihend'') Sahand University of Technology (SUT) as the first technical university in Iran after Islamic revolution was established in 1989 ...
and
Islamic Azad University
The Islamic Azad University (IAU; fa, دانشگاه آزاد اسلامی, ''Dāneshgāh-e Āzād-e Eslāmi'') is a private university system headquartered in Tehran, Iran. It is one of the largest comprehensive systems of universities, colleg ...
examined the effect of applying nanoparticles on rise oil extraction from supplies.
*12 February – Researchers have calculated that between 4.8 and 12.7 million metric tons of
plastic
Plastics are a wide range of synthetic or semi-synthetic materials that use polymers as a main ingredient. Their plasticity makes it possible for plastics to be moulded, extruded or pressed into solid objects of various shapes. This adapta ...
entered the
ocean
The ocean (also the sea or the world ocean) is the body of salt water that covers approximately 70.8% of the surface of Earth and contains 97% of Earth's water. An ocean can also refer to any of the large bodies of water into which the wor ...
in 2010 from people living within 50 km of the coastline.
*13 February – Scientists (including
Geoffrey Marcy
Geoffrey William Marcy (born September 29, 1954) is an American astronomer. He was an early influence in the field of exoplanet detection, discovery, and characterization. Marcy was a professor of astronomy at the University of California, Berke ...
,
Seth Shostak,
Frank Drake
Frank Donald Drake (May 28, 1930 – September 2, 2022) was an American astrophysicist and astrobiologist.
He began his career as a radio astronomer, studying the planets of the Solar System and later pulsars. Drake expanded his interests ...
,
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The B ...
and
David Brin
Glen David Brin (born October 6, 1950) is an American scientist and author of science fiction. He has won the Hugo,[American Association for the Advancement of Science
The American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) is an American international non-profit organization with the stated goals of promoting cooperation among scientists, defending scientific freedom, encouraging scientific respons ...]
, discuss
Active SETI and whether transmitting a message to possible intelligent
extraterrestrials
Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...
in the
Cosmos
The cosmos (, ) is another name for the Universe. Using the word ''cosmos'' implies viewing the universe as a complex and orderly system or entity.
The cosmos, and understandings of the reasons for its existence and significance, are studied in ...
is a good idea;
one result was a statement, signed by many, that a "worldwide scientific, political and humanitarian discussion must occur before any message is sent".
![Anopheles stephensi](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Anopheles_stephensi.jpeg)
*16 February
**New research by King's College London suggests the risk of
psychosis
Psychosis is a condition of the mind that results in difficulties determining what is real and what is not real. Symptoms may include delusions and hallucinations, among other features. Additional symptoms are incoherent speech and behavi ...
is three times higher for users of potent "
skunk
Skunks are mammals in the family Mephitidae. They are known for their ability to spray a liquid with a strong, unpleasant scent from their anal glands. Different species of skunk vary in appearance from black-and-white to brown, cream or gin ...
-like"
cannabis
''Cannabis'' () is a genus of flowering plants in the family Cannabaceae. The number of species within the genus is disputed. Three species may be recognized: '' Cannabis sativa'', '' C. indica'', and '' C. ruderalis''. Alternative ...
than for non-users.
**
Mars One
Mars One was a small private Dutch organization that received money from investors by claiming it would use it to land the first humans on Mars and leave them there to establish a permanent human colony. From its announcement in 2012 to its ...
selects its final 100 astronaut candidates.
**Iranian scientists planned a new technique to cure of
Wilson's disease
Wilson's disease is a genetic disorder in which excess copper builds up in the body. Symptoms are typically related to the brain and liver. Liver-related symptoms include vomiting, weakness, fluid build up in the abdomen, swelling of the legs, ...
. The study gave a modern nano-arrangement with more healing skill in cell culture form. The nanostructure consists of a bio well-matched
polymeric nanocarrier that facilitates the penetration into the cell without making of
toxicity
Toxicity is the degree to which a chemical substance or a particular mixture of substances can damage an organism. Toxicity can refer to the effect on a whole organism, such as an animal, bacterium, or plant, as well as the effect on a subs ...
with high effectiveness.
**Iranian
nanotechnologists synthesized the latest-scheme nano-pill of bio-adaptable and
bio-degradable chain-molecular which is able to ebb toxicity of anti-cancer drugs. This modern medicine is considered for treating
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...
.
*18 February –
Limpet
Limpets are a group of aquatic snails that exhibit a conical gastropod shell, shell shape (patelliform) and a strong, muscular foot. Limpets are members of the class Gastropoda, but are polyphyletic, meaning the various groups called "limpets" ...
teeth might be the strongest known natural material, a new study has found.
*19 February
**A regulator of gene activity known as HARE5 (human-accelerated regulatory enhancer) is found to make human brains bigger.
** Iranian scientists achieved in devising of a biosensor to determine
dopamine
Dopamine (DA, a contraction of 3,4-dihydroxyphenethylamine) is a neuromodulatory molecule that plays several important roles in cells. It is an organic chemical of the catecholamine and phenethylamine families. Dopamine constitutes about 80% o ...
level, which has high detection border and go down clinical
diagnosis
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems engin ...
expenses due to its high correctness and rate.
*20 February – Drug-resistant
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...
has been detected at the Myanmar-India border and now poses an "enormous threat" to global health, scientists have said.
*26 February
**The
U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) rules in favor of
net neutrality
Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...
by adopting
Title II (common carrier) of the
Communications Act of 1934
The Communications Act of 1934 is a United States federal law signed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt on June 19, 1934 and codified as Chapter 5 of Title 47 of the United States Code, et seq. The Act replaced the Federal Radio Commission wit ...
and
Section 706 of the
Telecommunications act of 1996
The Telecommunications Act of 1996 is a United States federal law enacted by the 104th United States Congress on January 3, 1996, and signed into law on February 8, 1996, by President Bill Clinton. It primarily amended Chapter 5 of Title 47 of ...
to the
Internet
The Internet (or internet) is the global system of interconnected computer networks that uses the Internet protocol suite (TCP/IP) to communicate between networks and devices. It is a '' network of networks'' that consists of private, p ...
. The FCC Chairman,
Tom Wheeler
Thomas Edgar Wheeler (born April 5, 1946) is an American businessman and former government official. A member of the Democratic Party, he served as the 31st Chairman of the Federal Communications Commission.
He was appointed by President Bar ...
, commented, "This is no more a plan to regulate the Internet than the
First Amendment
First or 1st is the ordinal form of the number one (#1).
First or 1st may also refer to:
*World record, specifically the first instance of a particular achievement
Arts and media Music
* 1$T, American rapper, singer-songwriter, DJ, and reco ...
is a plan to regulate free speech. They both stand for the same concept."
**Physicists present an alternative
cosmological
Cosmology () is a branch of physics and metaphysics dealing with the nature of the universe. The term ''cosmology'' was first used in English in 1656 in Thomas Blount's ''Glossographia'', and in 1731 taken up in Latin by German philosopher ...
view to extend the
Big Bang
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
model, suggesting the
Universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...
had no beginning or
singularity and the
age of the Universe
In physical cosmology, the age of the universe is the time elapsed since the Big Bang. Astronomers have derived two different measurements of the age of the universe:
a measurement based on direct observations of an early state of the universe, ...
is
infinite
Infinite may refer to:
Mathematics
* Infinite set, a set that is not a finite set
*Infinity, an abstract concept describing something without any limit
Music
*Infinite (group), a South Korean boy band
*''Infinite'' (EP), debut EP of American m ...
.
*27 February
**A new study examining the role of oceanic cycles in heat transfer concludes that the global warming "
pause" is only temporary and that temperatures will accelerate in the near future.
**The number of wild
giant pandas has increased by nearly 17% over the last decade, according to a new survey conducted by the Chinese government.
March
![Light imaged as both a particle and wave](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a8/Light_imaged_as_both_a_particle_and_wave.jpg)
*1 March – SanDisk announces the first 200GB capacity
microSD
Secure Digital, officially abbreviated as SD, is a proprietary non-volatile flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA) for use in portable devices.
The standard was introduced in August 1999 by joint efforts between SanDi ...
card, a 56% increase on its previous record of 128GB just a year earlier.
*2 March – Scientists have captured the first ever image of
light
Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that can be perceived by the human eye. Visible light is usually defined as having wavelengths in the range of 400–700 nanometres (nm), corresponding to frequencies of 750–420 t ...
as both a particle and a wave.
*3 March
**The
Food and Drug Administration
The United States Food and Drug Administration (FDA or US FDA) is a federal agency of the Department of Health and Human Services. The FDA is responsible for protecting and promoting public health through the control and supervision of food ...
(FDA) states that neither the benefits nor the safety of
testosterone
Testosterone is the primary sex hormone and anabolic steroid in males. In humans, testosterone plays a key role in the development of male reproductive tissues such as testes and prostate, as well as promoting secondary sexual characteristi ...
have been established for
low testosterone levels due to aging and has required that testosterone pharmaceutical labels include warning information about the possibility of an
increased risk of heart attacks and stroke.
**NASA reports that, for the first time, complex
DNA and
RNA organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. Th ...
s of
life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
, including
uracil
Uracil () (symbol U or Ura) is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid RNA. The others are adenine (A), cytosine (C), and guanine (G). In RNA, uracil binds to adenine via two hydrogen bonds. In DNA, the uracil nucleobase is replaced b ...
,
cytosine
Cytosine () ( symbol C or Cyt) is one of the four nucleobases found in DNA and RNA, along with adenine, guanine, and thymine ( uracil in RNA). It is a pyrimidine derivative, with a heterocyclic aromatic ring and two substituents attached ( ...
and
thymine
Thymine () ( symbol T or Thy) is one of the four nucleobases in the nucleic acid of DNA that are represented by the letters G–C–A–T. The others are adenine, guanine, and cytosine. Thymine is also known as 5-methyluracil, a pyrimidin ...
, have been formed in the laboratory under
outer space
Outer space, commonly shortened to space, is the expanse that exists beyond Earth and its atmosphere and between celestial bodies. Outer space is not completely empty—it is a near-perfect vacuum containing a low density of particles, pred ...
conditions, using starting chemicals, such as
pyrimidine
Pyrimidine (; ) is an aromatic, heterocyclic, organic compound similar to pyridine (). One of the three diazines (six-membered heterocyclics with two nitrogen atoms in the ring), it has nitrogen atoms at positions 1 and 3 in the ring. The othe ...
, found in
meteorites
A meteorite is a solid piece of debris from an object, such as a comet, asteroid, or meteoroid, that originates in outer space and survives its passage through the atmosphere to reach the surface of a planet or moon. When the original object ...
. Pyrimidine, like
polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons
A polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) is a class of organic compounds that is composed of multiple aromatic rings. The simplest representative is naphthalene, having two aromatic rings and the three-ring compounds anthracene and phenanthrene. ...
(PAHs), the most carbon-rich chemical found in the
Universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...
, may have been formed in
red giant
A red giant is a luminous giant star of low or intermediate mass (roughly 0.3–8 solar masses ()) in a late phase of stellar evolution. The outer atmosphere is inflated and tenuous, making the radius large and the surface temperature around o ...
s or in
interstellar dust
Cosmic dust, also called extraterrestrial dust, star dust or space dust, is dust which exists in outer space, or has fallen on Earth. Most cosmic dust particles measure between a few molecules and 0.1 mm (100 micrometers). Larger particles are c ...
and gas clouds, according to the scientists.
*4 March – A 2.8 million-year-old jawbone may be the oldest human fossil in existence, according to two papers published simultaneously in ''Science''. Researchers now suspect that ''
Homo
''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus '' Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' ( modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely rela ...
'' (the genus that includes
modern humans
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
) dates back at least 400,000 years earlier than previously thought.
*5 March
**Evidence for a vast, ancient ocean that once covered most of the northern hemisphere on
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
is reported by NASA.
**Astronomers have discovered the fastest known star, which is being ejected from the galaxy by a supernova explosion. Its
hypervelocity
Hypervelocity is very high velocity, approximately over 3,000 meters per second (6,700 mph, 11,000 km/h, 10,000 ft/s, or Mach 8.8). In particular, hypervelocity is velocity so high that the strength of materials upon impact is v ...
of 1,200 km/s (2.7 million mph) is high enough to escape the gravitational pull of the Milky Way.
**The number of people affected by river flooding could nearly triple by
2030
The 2030s (pronounced "twenty-thirties"; shortened to the '30s) is the next decade in the Gregorian calendar that will begin on 1 January 2030, and will end on 31 December 2039.
Plans and goals
* NASA plans to execute a crewed mission to Mars ...
, according to a new analysis.
![15-33i2-JupiterMoon-Ganymede-Aurora-20150312](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f4/15-33i2-JupiterMoon-Ganymede-Aurora-20150312.png)
*6 March
**A pioneering therapy using
bone marrow
Bone marrow is a semi-solid biological tissue, tissue found within the Spongy bone, spongy (also known as cancellous) portions of bones. In birds and mammals, bone marrow is the primary site of new blood cell production (or haematopoiesis). It i ...
stem cells
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of ...
to treat
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...
patients is announced in the UK.
**Archaeologists report finding two lost cities deep in the
Honduras
Honduras, officially the Republic of Honduras, is a country in Central America. The republic of Honduras is bordered to the west by Guatemala, to the southwest by El Salvador, to the southeast by Nicaragua, to the south by the Pacific Oce ...
jungle, thought to be untouched by humans for at least 600 years.
**The ''
Dawn
Dawn is the time that marks the beginning of twilight before sunrise. It is recognized by the appearance of indirect sunlight being scattered in Earth's atmosphere, when the centre of the Sun's disc has reached 18° below the observer's ...
'' spacecraft begins to orbit
Ceres, becoming the first spacecraft to visit a
dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
.
*7 March – Iranian
nanotechnologists created a modern sort of
electrical insulator
An electrical insulator is a material in which electric current does not flow freely. The atoms of the insulator have tightly bound electrons which cannot readily move. Other materials—semiconductors and conductors—conduct electric current ...
with elevated
dielectric constant
The relative permittivity (in older texts, dielectric constant) is the permittivity of a material expressed as a ratio with the electric permittivity of a vacuum. A dielectric is an insulating material, and the dielectric constant of an insula ...
, this achievement is used in electronics, optoelectronics and electrochemical factories.
*9 March
**
Solar Impulse begins its round-the-world flight, aiming to become the first plane to circumnavigate the globe using only energy from the Sun.
**A new class of drugs known as "
senolytics
A senolytic (from the words ''senescence'' and ''-lytic'', "destroying") is among a class of small molecules under basic research to determine if they can selectively induce death of senescent cells and improve health in humans. A goal of this re ...
" has been shown to improve multiple aspects of aging in mice.
*11 March
**The rocket engine of NASA's
Space Launch System
The Space Launch System (SLS) is an American super heavy-lift expendable launch vehicle developed by NASA. As of 2022, SLS has the highest payload capacity of any rocket in operational service, as well as the greatest liftoff thrust of any ...
, the most powerful booster ever built, has its first ground test, with officials claiming a "perfect" result.
**NASA's
Cassini spacecraft provides the first clear evidence of
hydrothermal activity on Saturn's moon
Enceladus
Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th largest in the Solar System). It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most refle ...
, which may resemble that seen in the deep oceans on Earth and is likely the most habitable off-world environment ever found.
**Photos emerge of a newly formed island near
Tonga
Tonga (, ; ), officially the Kingdom of Tonga ( to, Puleʻanga Fakatuʻi ʻo Tonga), is a Polynesian country and archipelago. The country has 171 islands – of which 45 are inhabited. Its total surface area is about , scattered over in ...
in the Pacific, created as a result of
volcanic activity
Volcanism, vulcanism or volcanicity is the phenomenon of eruption of molten rock (magma) onto the surface of the Earth or a solid-surface planet or moon, where lava, pyroclastics, and volcanic gases erupt through a break in the surface called a ...
.
**A breakthrough in
carbon capture technology allows the process to be undertaken with half as much energy as previous methods.
*12 March
**A new method for treating
Alzheimers with
ultrasound
Ultrasound is sound waves with frequencies higher than the upper audible limit of human hearing. Ultrasound is not different from "normal" (audible) sound in its physical properties, except that humans cannot hear it. This limit varies ...
has been demonstrated in mice, completely clearing the
amyloid plaques
Amyloid plaques (also known as neuritic plaques, amyloid beta plaques or senile plaques) are extracellular deposits of the amyloid beta (Aβ) protein mainly in the grey matter of the brain. Degenerative neuronal elements and an abundance of mic ...
in 75% of the animals.
**
Hubble views of
Ganymede's
aurora
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
e suggest the moon,
Jupiter's largest, may contain a vast
subsurface saline ocean.
**The
U.S. Federal Communications Commission releases the specific details of the
net neutrality
Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...
rules.
*17 March –
Lava tube
A lava tube, or pyroduct, is a natural conduit formed by flowing lava from a volcanic vent that moves beneath the hardened surface of a lava flow. If lava in the tube empties, it will leave a cave.
Formation
A lava tube is a type of lava ...
s big enough to house entire cities could be structurally stable on the moon, according to a theoretical study presented at the Lunar and Planetary Science Conference.
*18 March
**NASA reports the detection of an
aurora
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
that is not fully understood and an unexplained dust cloud in the
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A ...
of the planet
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
.
**A 30-year land-based study of the
Amazon
Amazon most often refers to:
* Amazons, a tribe of female warriors in Greek mythology
* Amazon rainforest, a rainforest covering most of the Amazon basin
* Amazon River, in South America
* Amazon (company), an American multinational technolog ...
, the most extensive ever conducted, shows the rainforest is gradually losing its ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere, as trees die at faster and faster rates.
*19 March
** The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that
Arctic sea ice
The Arctic ice pack is the sea ice cover of the Arctic Ocean and its vicinity. The Arctic ice pack undergoes a regular seasonal cycle in which ice melts in spring and summer, reaches a minimum around mid-September, then increases during fall a ...
reached its lowest ever maximum extent.
** Using data from
SOFIA
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
, it is discovered that
planets
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a youn ...
may be formed from
supernova remnant
A supernova remnant (SNR) is the structure resulting from the explosion of a star in a supernova. The supernova remnant is bounded by an expanding shock wave, and consists of ejected material expanding from the explosion, and the interstellar mat ...
ejecta.
** Scientists report on a genetic modification that can spread much quicker than conventional
genetics
Genetics is the study of genes, genetic variation, and heredity in organisms.Hartl D, Jones E (2005) It is an important branch in biology because heredity is vital to organisms' evolution. Gregor Mendel, a Moravian Augustinian friar work ...
would allow, copying itself to other chromosomes with
CRISPR
CRISPR () (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments of bact ...
s. Possible applications include
malaria
Malaria is a mosquito-borne infectious disease that affects humans and other animals. Malaria causes symptoms that typically include fever, tiredness, vomiting, and headaches. In severe cases, it can cause jaundice, seizures, coma, or death. ...
-resistant
mosquitos.
** Scientists, including an inventor of
CRISPR
CRISPR () (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments of bact ...
, urge a worldwide moratorium on using gene editing methods to
genetically engineer
Genetic engineering, also called genetic modification or genetic manipulation, is the modification and manipulation of an organism's genes using technology. It is a set of technologies used to change the genetic makeup of cells, including ...
the
human genome
The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as DNA within the 23 chromosome pairs in cell nuclei and in a small DNA molecule found within individual mitochondria. These are usually treated separately as the ...
in a way that can be inherited, writing "scientists should avoid even attempting, in lax jurisdictions,
germline
In biology and genetics, the germline is the population of a multicellular organism's cells that pass on their genetic material to the progeny (offspring). In other words, they are the cells that form the egg, sperm and the fertilised egg. They ...
genome modification for clinical application in humans" until the full implications "are discussed among scientific and governmental organizations."
*20 March –
A total solar eclipse occurs, visible over much of Europe.
*22 March – DNA from the extinct
woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...
is spliced into that of an
elephant
Elephants are the largest existing land animals. Three living species are currently recognised: the African bush elephant, the African forest elephant, and the Asian elephant. They are the only surviving members of the family Elephantida ...
and shown to be functional for the first time.
*24 March
**NASA reports the first detection of
nitrogen
Nitrogen is the chemical element with the symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a nonmetal and the lightest member of group 15 of the periodic table, often called the pnictogens. It is a common element in the universe, estimated at se ...
released after heating surface sediments on the planet
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
. The nitrogen, in the form of
nitric oxide
Nitric oxide (nitrogen oxide or nitrogen monoxide) is a colorless gas with the formula . It is one of the principal oxides of nitrogen. Nitric oxide is a free radical: it has an unpaired electron, which is sometimes denoted by a dot in its ...
, was detected by the
SAM instrument on the
''Curiosity'' rover and can be used by
living organisms
In biology, an organism () is any living system that functions as an individual entity. All organisms are composed of cells (cell theory). Organisms are classified by taxonomy into groups such as multicellular animals, plants, and fun ...
. The discovery supports the notion that ancient Mars may have been habitable for
life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
.
**The frog species ''
Pristimantis mutabilis'' is described in the ''
Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society
The ''Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society'' is a monthly peer-reviewed scientific journal covering zoology published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Linnean Society. The editor-in-chief is Maarten Christenhusz (Linnean Society). ...
''.
** A temperature of 17.5 °C (63.5 °F) is recorded in the
Antarctic Peninsula
The Antarctic Peninsula, known as O'Higgins Land in Chile and Tierra de San Martín in Argentina, and originally as Graham Land in the United Kingdom and the Palmer Peninsula in the United States, is the northernmost part of mainland Antarctic ...
, the highest ever seen on the continent. The region is "one of the fastest warming spots on Earth."
** Iranian chemists modeled and resolved non-linear dynamic treatment and vulnerability of
nanostructures
A nanostructure is a structure of intermediate size between microscopic and molecular structures. Nanostructural detail is microstructure at nanoscale.
In describing nanostructures, it is necessary to differentiate between the number of di ...
in the presence of external driving factors.
*25 March
**A new technique has successfully
entangled 3,000 atoms using only a single
photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they alwa ...
, the largest number of particles that have ever been mutually entangled experimentally.
![Titanis07DB](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/58/Life_reconstruction_of_the_terror_bird_Titanis_walleri.jpg)
**Iranian researchers reduce costly materials from
diabetes
Diabetes, also known as diabetes mellitus, is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by a high blood sugar level ( hyperglycemia) over a prolonged period of time. Symptoms often include frequent urination, increased thirst and increased ...
diagnosis
Diagnosis is the identification of the nature and cause of a certain phenomenon. Diagnosis is used in many different disciplines, with variations in the use of logic, analytics, and experience, to determine "cause and effect". In systems engin ...
sensors. They devised and created a non-enzyme
biosensor
A biosensor is an analytical device, used for the detection of a chemical substance, that combines a biological component with a physicochemical detector.
The ''sensitive biological element'', e.g. tissue, microorganisms, organelles, cell rece ...
at the laboratorial scale to notice diabetes.
*26 March
**The ice around the edge of Antarctica is melting faster than previously thought, researchers have warned.
**A nanoparticle therapy has been shown to accelerate the healing of wounds by 50 percent.
**
Autonomous sensory meridian response
Autonomous sensory meridian response (ASMR) is a tingling sensation that usually begins on the scalp and moves down the back of the neck and upper spine. A pleasant form of paresthesia, it has been compared with auditory-tactile synesthesia a ...
is described.
*30 March
**A 1,000-year-old treatment for eye infections – containing onion, garlic and part of a cow's stomach – has been shown to completely wipe out ''
Staphylococcus aureus
''Staphylococcus aureus'' is a Gram-positive spherically shaped bacterium, a member of the Bacillota, and is a usual member of the microbiota of the body, frequently found in the upper respiratory tract and on the skin. It is often posit ...
'', the antibiotic-resistant superbug known as MRSA.
**Eating
pesticide
Pesticides are substances that are meant to control pests. This includes herbicide, insecticide, nematicide, molluscicide, piscicide, avicide, rodenticide, bactericide, insect repellent, animal repellent, microbicide, fungicide, and ...
-laden foods is linked to remarkably low
sperm count
A semen analysis (plural: semen analyses), also called seminogram or spermiogram, evaluates certain characteristics of a male's semen and the sperm contained therein. It is done to help evaluate male fertility, whether for those seeking pregna ...
(49% lower), say Harvard scientists in a landmark new study connecting pesticide residues in fruits and vegetables to reproductive health.
**Scientists have developed tiny 'nanoneedles' that successfully prompted parts of mice bodies to generate new blood vessels. It is hoped this technique could ultimately help damaged organs and nerves to repair themselves and help transplanted organs to thrive.
April
*1 April – New research reveals that, as the Arctic region warms and melts,
polar bears
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...
forced ashore will be unable to gain sufficient food on land. Two-thirds of polar bears could be lost by 2050 and the species could be extinct by 2100.
*2 April – Northwestern Medicine scientists identify a small RNA molecule called miR-182 that can suppress cancer-causing genes in mice with glioblastoma mulitforme (GBM), a deadly and incurable type of brain tumor.
*4 April – A
total lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Ear ...
occurs.
*5 April – The
Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundr ...
resumes operations after a two-year technology upgrade and various maintenance delays.
*6 April –
Glaciers
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such as ...
in Western Canada will lose 70 percent of their volume by 2100, according to a study by the University of British Columbia.
*7 April – Scientists from Iran research on a new method to let users to scan 3D photos with only their
smartphone
A smartphone is a portable computer device that combines mobile telephone and computing functions into one unit. They are distinguished from feature phones by their stronger hardware capabilities and extensive mobile operating systems, whi ...
. The result was published in a media titled ''Nanophotonic coherent imager'' in the February 2015 issue of
Optics Express
''Optics Express'' is a biweekly peer-reviewed scientific journal published by Optica. It was established in 1997. The journal reports on scientific and technology innovations in all aspects of optics and photonics. The Energy Express supplement ...
.
*8 April
**
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the A ...
announces a new project that aims to create a computer program able to continuously scan its environment, evolving and adapting autonomously for the next 100 years.
**Complex organic molecules have been detected in a young star system for the first time.
**Iranian researchers make magnetic recyclable
photo-catalyst to refine dirty
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...
.
![PlutoCharon-1stColorImage-NewHorizons-Ralph-20150409](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/13/PlutoCharon-1stColorImage-NewHorizons-Ralph-20150409.png)
*9 April – Iranian researchers apply ultrasound waves to create
Fullerene
A fullerene is an allotrope of carbon whose molecule consists of carbon atoms connected by single and double bonds so as to form a closed or partially closed mesh, with fused rings of five to seven atoms. The molecule may be a hollow sphere, ...
. This approach is in agreeing with
green chemistry
Green chemistry, also called sustainable chemistry, is an area of chemistry and chemical engineering focused on the design of products and processes that minimize or eliminate the use and generation of hazardous substances. While environmental che ...
basics and it is
biocompatible.
*10 April – An almost completely intact skeleton of a
terror bird
Phorusrhacids, colloquially known as terror birds, are an extinct clade of large carnivorous flightless birds that were one of the largest species of apex predators in South America during the Cenozoic era; their conventionally accepted temporal ...
is found in Argentina. Analysis suggests these predators had good low-frequency hearing and deep voices.
*13 April – The
U.S. Federal Communications Commission publishes the final rule on its new "
Net Neutrality
Network neutrality, often referred to as net neutrality, is the principle that Internet service providers (ISPs) must treat all Internet communications equally, offering users and online content providers consistent rates irrespective of co ...
" regulations.
*14 April
**Stone tools found at
Lomekwi 3 are dated to 3.3 million years ago, which, if confirmed, would represent the oldest known stone tools.
**NASA releases the first color image of
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
, a
dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
, and its moon
Charon
In Greek mythology, Charon or Kharon (; grc, Χάρων) is a psychopomp, the ferryman of Hades, the Greek underworld. He carries the souls of those who have been given funeral rites across the rivers Acheron and Styx, which separate the ...
, taken by the ''
New Horizons
''New Horizons'' is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a ...
'' spacecraft.
(
image
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensio ...
)
**Scientists report, based on results from the
''Rosetta'' and
''Philae'' spacecraft, that the
nucleus
Nucleus ( : nuclei) is a Latin word for the seed inside a fruit. It most often refers to:
* Atomic nucleus, the very dense central region of an atom
*Cell nucleus, a central organelle of a eukaryotic cell, containing most of the cell's DNA
Nucl ...
of
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (abbreviated as 67P or 67P/C–G) is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of . Chu ...
has no
magnetic field
A magnetic field is a vector field that describes the magnetic influence on moving electric charges, electric currents, and magnetic materials. A moving charge in a magnetic field experiences a force perpendicular to its own velocity and to ...
, which suggests that magnetism may not have played a role in the early formation of
planetesimal
Planetesimals are solid objects thought to exist in protoplanetary disks and debris disks. Per the Chamberlin–Moulton planetesimal hypothesis, they are believed to form out of cosmic dust grains. Believed to have formed in the Solar System ...
s.
**A search for possible
heat signatures of advanced
extraterrestrial civilisations reveals it has found "nothing obvious" in 100,000
galaxies
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...
.
**Iranian scientists assess the dynamic effect in connecting two
carbon nanotube
A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube
Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube
A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers.
''Single-wall carbon na ...
s.
*15 April
** Following groundbreaking studies on mice, American scientists claim to have found a potential cause of
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...
in the behaviour of immune cells, which it may be possible to target with drug treatments.
** Researchers uncover evidence of a cannibalistic ritual that occurred in a British cave roughly 14,700 years ago.
*16 April
**A major advance in
artificial photosynthesis
Artificial photosynthesis is a chemical process that biomimics the natural process of photosynthesis to convert sunlight, water, and carbon dioxide into carbohydrates and oxygen. The term artificial photosynthesis is commonly used to refer ...
is achieved with a system able to capture CO
2 using solar energy and then use it to produce valuable chemical products.
**Modification of
histones
In biology, histones are highly basic proteins abundant in lysine and arginine residues that are found in eukaryotic cell nuclei. They act as spools around which DNA winds to create structural units called nucleosomes. Nucleosomes in turn are ...
in the DNA of
nematode
The nematodes ( or grc-gre, Νηματώδη; la, Nematoda) or roundworms constitute the phylum Nematoda (also called Nemathelminthes), with plant- parasitic nematodes also known as eelworms. They are a diverse animal phylum inhabiting a bro ...
s,
fruit flies
Fruit fly may refer to:
Organisms
* Drosophilidae, a family of small flies, including:
** ''Drosophila'', the genus of small fruit flies and vinegar flies
** ''Drosophila melanogaster'' or common fruit fly
** '' Drosophila suzukii'' or Asian frui ...
, and possibly humans can affect aging, researchers claim.
**Scientists say the first detailed kinematic study of
octopus
An octopus ( : octopuses or octopodes, see below for variants) is a soft-bodied, eight- limbed mollusc of the order Octopoda (, ). The order consists of some 300 species and is grouped within the class Cephalopoda with squids, cuttlefish, ...
arm coordination in crawling show that the animals have a special system control tactic to fix their odd form.
** Iranian researchers have produced a type of nanocatalyst which improves the performance of fuel cells.
*17 April –
Bouvier's red colobus
Bouvier's red colobus (''Piliocolobus bouvieri'') is a species of colobus monkey rediscovered in the Republic of the Congo in 2015, after four decades without a confirmed sighting.
Description
Bouvier's red colobus has brownish-red fur on its b ...
, a species of
monkey
Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as the simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes, which constitutes an incomple ...
last seen in the 1970s and thought to have been
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
, is rediscovered in the
Republic of Congo
The Republic of the Congo (french: République du Congo, ln, Republíki ya Kongó), also known as Congo-Brazzaville, the Congo Republic or simply either Congo or the Congo, is a country located in the western coast of Central Africa to the w ...
.
*20 April – Japan announces plans to send an uncrewed lunar rover to the Moon's surface in
2018
File:2018 Events Collage.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2018 Winter Olympics opening ceremony in PyeongChang, South Korea; Protests erupt following the Assassination of Jamal Khashoggi; March for Our Lives protests take place across the United ...
.
*21 April
**The Japanese
L0 Series maglev
Maglev (derived from '' magnetic levitation''), is a system of train transportation that uses two sets of electromagnets: one set to repel and push the train up off the track, and another set to move the elevated train ahead, taking advantage ...
becomes the first train to operate at a speed of .
**Researchers demonstrate WiFiFO (WiFi Free space Optic), a technology capable of increasing the bandwidth of
WiFi
Wi-Fi () is a family of wireless network protocols, based on the IEEE 802.11 family of standards, which are commonly used for local area networking of devices and Internet access, allowing nearby digital devices to exchange data by radio wa ...
systems tenfold, using optical data transmission via LED lights.
![8-cell stage embryo](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/34/8-cell_stage_embryo.png)
* 22 April
**Astronomers have made the first-ever direct detection of the spectrum of visible light reflected off an exoplanet.
**Researchers in
China
China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. It is the world's List of countries and dependencies by population, most populous country, with a Population of China, population exceeding 1.4 billion, slig ...
publish results of
basic research
Basic research, also called pure research or fundamental research, is a type of scientific research with the aim of improving scientific theories for better understanding and prediction of natural or other phenomena. In contrast, applied rese ...
using
CRISPR
CRISPR () (an acronym for clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. These sequences are derived from DNA fragments of bact ...
to edit
genes
In biology, the word gene (from , ; "...Wilhelm Johannsen coined the word gene to describe the Mendelian units of heredity..." meaning ''generation'' or ''birth'' or ''gender'') can have several different meanings. The Mendelian gene is a ba ...
in non-viable
human embryos
An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm c ...
.
* 23 April
**Two huge magma chambers have been imaged in 3D below
Yellowstone National Park
Yellowstone National Park is an American national park located in the western United States, largely in the northwest corner of Wyoming and extending into Montana and Idaho. It was established by the 42nd U.S. Congress with the Yellowst ...
.
**For the first time, signals relating to the constant ringing noise of
tinnitus
Tinnitus is the perception of sound when no corresponding external sound is present. Nearly everyone experiences a faint "normal tinnitus" in a completely quiet room; but it is of concern only if it is bothersome, interferes with normal hearin ...
have been mapped across the brain of a patient undergoing surgery.
**An international team of scientists has sequenced the complete genome of the
woolly mammoth
The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived during the Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with '' Mammuthus s ...
.
**Researchers at the University of Toronto in Canada have developed a new algorithm for showing protein structures in 3D, based on 2D images, which is 100,000 times faster than current methods.
** A new gene-editing technique is reported that could prevent
mitochondrial diseases, without the need for
three-parent IVF.
*27 April – Archaeologists discover fossil remnants of an ancient human species, dating from roughly 430,000 years ago, in two sites in Italy.
*28 April
**A study from
Arizona State University
Arizona State University (Arizona State or ASU) is a public research university in the Phoenix metropolitan area. Founded in 1885 by the 13th Arizona Territorial Legislature, ASU is one of the largest public universities by enrollment in the ...
reveals the action of an experimental
blood pressure
Blood pressure (BP) is the pressure of circulating blood against the walls of blood vessels. Most of this pressure results from the heart pumping blood through the circulatory system. When used without qualification, the term "blood pressure ...
drug in unprecedented detail, potentially aiding the development of new and better drugs.
**British and American psychologists claimed persecuting in schooldays result to at least mental health difficulties in adulthood.
![Rubella virus TEM B82-0203 lores](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ab/Rubella_virus_TEM_B82-0203_lores.jpg)
*29 April
**Scientists report finding a
scansoriopterygid
Scansoriopterygidae (meaning "climbing wings") is an extinct family of climbing and gliding maniraptoran dinosaurs. Scansoriopterygids are known from five well-preserved fossils, representing four species, unearthed in the Tiaojishan Formation f ...
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
, named
Yi qi ("strange wing"), that may have flown without feathers.
**The World Health Organization (WHO) declares that
rubella
Rubella, also known as German measles or three-day measles, is an infection caused by the rubella virus. This disease is often mild, with half of people not realizing that they are infected. A rash may start around two weeks after exposure and ...
has been eradicated from the
Americas
The Americas, which are sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America, North and South America. The Americas make up most of the land in Earth's Western Hemisphere and comprise the New World. ...
.
**Two critical steps towards a practical
quantum computer
Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Thoug ...
are achieved by IBM scientists, who demonstrate the ability to detect and measure both kinds of
quantum errors simultaneously, as well as building a new, square quantum bit circuit design that is the only physical architecture that could successfully scale to larger dimensions.
*30 April
**NASA's ''
MESSENGER
''MESSENGER'' was a NASA robotic space probe that orbited the planet Mercury between 2011 and 2015, studying Mercury's chemical composition, geology, and magnetic field. The name is a backronym for "Mercury Surface, Space Environment, Geochem ...
'' spacecraft concludes its four-year orbital mission over
Mercury by crashing into the planet at a velocity of approximately , impacting at 54.4° N, 149.9° W, near the crater Janáček.
**
Tesla Motors reveals a new large-scale
battery
Battery most often refers to:
* Electric battery, a device that provides electrical power
* Battery (crime), a crime involving unlawful physical contact
Battery may also refer to:
Energy source
*Automotive battery, a device to provide power t ...
technology for homes and businesses, which will provide a means of storing energy from localised renewables and a reliable backup system during
power outages
A power outage (also called a powercut, a power out, a power failure, a power blackout, a power loss, or a blackout) is the loss of the electrical power network supply to an end user.
There are many causes of power failures in an electricity ...
.
**
Progeria
Progeria is a specific type of progeroid syndrome, also known as Hutchinson–Gilford syndrome. A single gene mutation is responsible for progeria. The gene, known as lamin A (LMNA), makes a protein necessary for holding the Nucleus of the cell ...
researchers have shown how the disorganisation of DNA contributes to the cell disorder and is linked to aspects of aging.
May
* 3 May – Astronomers report detection of a most distant
galaxy
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...
,
EGS-zs8-1, with an estimated distance of 13.1 billion
light-year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distance, astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 Orders of magnitude (numbers)#1012, trillion kilometers (), or 5.88  ...
s.
* 5 May
** Researchers develop a centimetre-accurate
GPS-based positioning system that could revolutionise geolocation on VR headsets, cellphones, drones and other technologies.
**Vehicle manufacturer
Daimler announces that its Freightliner Inspiration Truck has become the world's first
autonomous truck
A self-driving truck, also known as an autonomous truck, or robo-truck is an application of self-driving car designed to transport cargo without requiring no human driver. Many companies are testing self-driving semi trucks.
In September 2022, ' ...
to be granted a license for road use in the state of
Nevada
Nevada ( ; ) is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States, Western region of the United States. It is bordered by Oregon to the northwest, Idaho to the northeast, California to the west, Arizona to the southeast, and Utah to the east. N ...
.
** ''
Archaeornithura meemannae'', a new species of prehistoric bird that represents the oldest known member of the
modern bird lineage, is discovered.
![Opah 6](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Opah_6.jpg)
* 6 May
**
Atmospheric CO2 remained above 400 parts per million (ppm) throughout March 2015, the first time it has been at this level for an entire month, according to
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
. The current concentration of greenhouse gases is the highest it has been for millions of years.
**Scientists announce a 2020
uncrewed
An uncrewed vehicle or unmanned vehicle is a vehicle without a person on board. Uncrewed vehicles can either be under telerobotic control—remote controlled or remote guided vehicles—or they can be autonomously controlled—autonomous vehicl ...
mission, named ''"
Hope
Hope is an optimistic state of mind that is based on an expectation of positive outcomes with respect to events and circumstances in one's life or the world at large.
As a verb, its definitions include: "expect with confidence" and "to cherish ...
"'', to the
planet Mars by the
United Arab Emirates
The United Arab Emirates (UAE; ar, اَلْإِمَارَات الْعَرَبِيَة الْمُتَحِدَة ), or simply the Emirates ( ar, الِْإمَارَات ), is a country in Western Asia (Middle East, The Middle East). It is ...
, to study the
Martian atmosphere and
climate
Climate is the long-term weather pattern in an area, typically averaged over 30 years. More rigorously, it is the mean and variability of meteorological variables over a time spanning from months to millions of years. Some of the meteorologi ...
.
**A 3-D technology known as
tomosynthesis
Tomosynthesis, also digital tomosynthesis (DTS), is a method for performing high-resolution limited-angle tomography at radiation dose levels comparable with projectional radiography. It has been studied for a variety of clinical applications, incl ...
is shown to detect 40 percent more
breast cancer
Breast cancer is cancer that develops from breast tissue. Signs of breast cancer may include a lump in the breast, a change in breast shape, dimpling of the skin, milk rejection, fluid coming from the nipple, a newly inverted nipple, or ...
s than
mammography
Mammography (also called mastography) is the process of using low-energy X-rays (usually around 30 kVp) to examine the human breast for diagnosis and screening. The goal of mammography is the early detection of breast cancer, typically through ...
, while lowering the radiation dose.
** Scientists announce discovery of
Lokiarchaeota, which is a transitional form between
Archaea
Archaea ( ; singular archaeon ) is a domain of single-celled organisms. These microorganisms lack cell nuclei and are therefore prokaryotes. Archaea were initially classified as bacteria, receiving the name archaebacteria (in the Archaeba ...
and
Eukaryotes
Eukaryotes () are organisms whose cells have a nucleus. All animals, plants, fungi, and many unicellular organisms, are Eukaryotes. They belong to the group of organisms Eukaryota or Eukarya, which is one of the three domains of life. Bacter ...
.
*12 May
**The Australian Government's
Bureau of Meteorology
The Bureau of Meteorology (BOM or BoM) is an executive agency of the Australian Government responsible for providing weather services to Australia and surrounding areas. It was established in 1906 under the Meteorology Act, and brought together ...
confirms that the tropical
Pacific
The Pacific Ocean is the largest and deepest of Earth's five oceanic divisions. It extends from the Arctic Ocean in the north to the Southern Ocean (or, depending on definition, to Antarctica) in the south, and is bounded by the contine ...
is in the early stages of an
El Niño
El Niño (; ; ) is the warm phase of the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) and is associated with a band of warm ocean water that develops in the central and east-central equatorial Pacific (approximately between the International Date ...
that is "likely to persist in the coming months."
**New evidence has been uncovered that global warming will damage
wheat yields, resulting in a 15 percent loss when average temperatures increase by 2 degrees Celsius and a 40 percent decline when average temperatures rise by 4 degrees.
*13 May – For the first time, the phase brightness variations in exoplanets have been measured to see the day-night cycle of exoplanetary weather dynamics.
*14 May – Researchers confirm that strong warming is taking place in the upper
troposphere
The troposphere is the first and lowest layer of the atmosphere of the Earth, and contains 75% of the total mass of the planetary atmosphere, 99% of the total mass of water vapour and aerosols, and is where most weather phenomena occur. Fro ...
, a phenomenon long predicted in global warming theory and climate models.
*15 May
**Larsen B and C, a pair of
ice shelves in the Antarctic, are reportedly at risk of collapse in the near future, potentially adding several centimetres to global sea levels.
**Researchers have taken a step towards large-scale fabrication of
graphene
Graphene () is an allotrope of carbon consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice nanostructure. , using chemical vapor deposition to produce composites containing 2-inch-by-2-inch sheets of the material.
**The
opah
Opahs, also commonly known as moonfish, sunfish (not to be confused with Molidae), kingfish, redfin ocean pan are large, colorful, deep-bodied pelagic lampriform fishes comprising the small family Lampridae (also spelled Lamprididae).
The f ...
is confirmed as the first known "warm-blooded" fish, able to regulate the temperature of its entire body.
![PIA19339-MostLuminousGalaxy-WISE-J224607](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/75/PIA19339-MostLuminousGalaxy-WISE-J224607.57-052635.0-20150521.jpg)
*18 May – Scientists have reactivated
neuroplasticity
Neuroplasticity, also known as neural plasticity, or brain plasticity, is the ability of neural networks in the brain to change through growth and reorganization. It is when the brain is rewired to function in some way that differs from how it p ...
in older mice, restoring their brains to a more youthful state.
*19 May – Playing natural sounds such as flowing water in offices can boost worker moods and improve cognitive abilities, in addition to providing speech privacy, according to a new study.
*20 May – NASA reports the
''Kepler'' space observatory observed KSN 2011b, a
Type Ia supernova
A Type Ia supernova (read: "type one-A") is a type of supernova that occurs in binary systems (two stars orbiting one another) in which one of the stars is a white dwarf. The other star can be anything from a giant star to an even smaller white ...
in the process of exploding: before, during and after. Details of the pre-nova moments may help scientists better understand
dark energy
In physical cosmology and astronomy, dark energy is an unknown form of energy that affects the universe on the largest scales. The first observational evidence for its existence came from measurements of supernovas, which showed that the univ ...
.
*21 May
**NASA reports the most
luminous galaxy
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...
yet discovered is galaxy
WISE J224607.57-052635.0. Smaller than the
Milky Way
The Milky Way is the galaxy that includes our Solar System, with the name describing the galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars that cannot be individually distinguished by the naked eye. ...
galaxy, this dusty galaxy releases 10,000 times more energy. Nearly 100 percent of the light emitted from galaxy WISE J224607.57-052635.0 is
infrared radiation
Infrared (IR), sometimes called infrared light, is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than those of visible light. It is therefore invisible to the human eye. IR is generally understood to encompass wavelengths from around ...
.
(
image
An image is a visual representation of something. It can be two-dimensional, three-dimensional, or somehow otherwise feed into the visual system to convey information. An image can be an artifact, such as a photograph or other two-dimensio ...
)
**Scientists have observed a sudden increase of ice loss in a previously stable region of Antarctica. The ice loss is so large that it causes small changes in the gravity field of the Earth.
*22 May – Researchers have developed algorithms that enable robots to learn motor tasks through trial and error using a process that more closely approximates the way humans learn, marking a major milestone in the field of artificial intelligence.
![Large Hadron Collider dipole magnets IMG 0955](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ea/Large_Hadron_Collider_dipole_magnets_IMG_0955.jpg)
*25 May – A new technique to create a single-molecule diode has been developed by scientists, and, in doing so, they have developed molecular diodes that perform 50 times better than all prior designs.
*27 May – Glacier volume in the
Everest
Mount Everest (; Tibetic languages, Tibetan: ''Chomolungma'' ; ) is List of highest mountains on Earth, Earth's highest mountain above sea level, located in the Mahalangur Himal sub-range of the Himalayas. The China–Nepal border ru ...
region of the
Himalayas
The Himalayas, or Himalaya (; ; ), is a mountain range in Asia, separating the plains of the Indian subcontinent from the Tibetan Plateau. The range has some of the planet's highest peaks, including the very highest, Mount Everest. Over 10 ...
could be reduced between 70% and 99% by 2100, unless greenhouse gas emissions are curbed, according to a new study by the European Geosciences Union.
*28 May – A new species of ancient hominid – ''
Australopithecus deyiremeda
''Australopithecus deyiremeda'' is an extinct species of australopithecine from Woranso–Mille, Afar Region, Ethiopia, about 3.5 to 3.3 million years ago during the Pliocene. Because it is known only from three partial jawbones, it is unclear ...
'' – is uncovered in Ethiopia, with jaw bones and teeth dating to between 3.3m and 3.5m years old.
*29 May
**Researchers have developed a new shape-memory material that stays strong even after tens of millions of transformations.
**A new version of the
Cheetah robot has been demonstrated with the ability to jump over obstacles while running.
*30 May – A new treatment for
lung cancer
Lung cancer, also known as lung carcinoma (since about 98–99% of all lung cancers are carcinomas), is a malignant lung tumor characterized by uncontrolled cell growth in tissues of the lung. Lung carcinomas derive from transformed, mali ...
using a drug called
nivolumab
Nivolumab, sold under the brand name Opdivo, is a medication used to treat a number of types of cancer. This includes melanoma, lung cancer, malignant pleural mesothelioma, renal cell carcinoma, Hodgkin lymphoma, head and neck cancer, urotheli ...
has been shown to more than double
life expectancy
Life expectancy is a statistical measure of the average time an organism is expected to live, based on the year of its birth, current age, and other demographic factors like sex. The most commonly used measure is life expectancy at birth ...
in some patients.
June
*1 June – A new study has linked rapid Arctic ice loss to extreme weather changes in Europe and the US.
![No-slow-down-in-global-warming-NOAA](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/57/No-slow-down-in-global-warming-NOAA.jpg)
*2 June
**NASA reports that the
ALICE spectrograph on the
''Rosetta'' space probe studying
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (abbreviated as 67P or 67P/C–G) is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of . Chu ...
(67P) determined that
electron
The electron ( or ) is a subatomic particle with a negative one elementary electric charge. Electrons belong to the first generation of the lepton particle family,
and are generally thought to be elementary particles because they have n ...
s (within above the
comet nucleus
The nucleus is the solid, central part of a comet, once termed a ''dirty snowball'' or an ''icy dirtball''. A cometary nucleus is composed of rock, dust, and frozen gases. When heated by the Sun, the gases sublime and produce an atmosphere ...
) produced from
photoionization
Photoionization is the physical process in which an ion is formed from the interaction of a photon with an atom or molecule.
Cross section
Not every interaction between a photon and an atom, or molecule, will result in photoionization. The prob ...
of
water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as ...
molecule
A molecule is a group of two or more atoms held together by attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions which satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemistry, and b ...
s by
solar radiation
Solar irradiance is the power per unit area ( surface power density) received from the Sun in the form of electromagnetic radiation in the wavelength range of the measuring instrument.
Solar irradiance is measured in watts per square metre ...
, and not
photon
A photon () is an elementary particle that is a quantum of the electromagnetic field, including electromagnetic radiation such as light and radio waves, and the force carrier for the electromagnetic force. Photons are massless, so they alwa ...
s from the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
as thought earlier, are responsible for the degradation of water and
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...
molecules released from the comet nucleus into its
coma
A coma is a deep state of prolonged unconsciousness in which a person cannot be awakened, fails to respond normally to painful stimuli, light, or sound, lacks a normal wake-sleep cycle and does not initiate voluntary actions. Coma patients exhi ...
.
**Researchers have discovered a key protein required to maintain muscle mass and muscle strength during aging.
**For the first time, researchers have created a lab-grown
limb
Limb may refer to:
Science and technology
* Limb (anatomy), an appendage of a human or animal
*Limb, a large or main branch of a tree
*Limb, in astronomy, the curved edge of the apparent disk of a celestial body, e.g. lunar limb
*Limb, in botany, ...
of a rat.
**California-based
Tri Alpha Energy has shown a 10-fold improvement in its ability to contain the hot particles needed for fusion.
*3 June
**The
Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundr ...
is reactivated after a two-year pause, during which upgrades and repairs were taking place. The machine is now able to experiment with higher energies, increasing from 8 to 13 trillion electron volts (TeV).
*4 June
**Using new global surface temperature data, scientists at
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
have shown that the rate of
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
in the last 15 years has not slowed, eliminating the "
hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:
* Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure
* Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy
*''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes''
* G ...
".
**For the first time, a computer intelligence without direct human help has produced a model of regeneration.
**Warming ocean temperatures and decreasing oxygen levels will significantly shift marine habitats in the future, according to a study by the University of Washington.
**Researchers have achieved a significant breakthrough in combating
antibiotic resistance
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from the effects of antimicrobials. All classes of microbes can evolve resistance. Fungi evolve antifungal resistance. Viruses evolve antiviral resistance. ...
using
phages
A bacteriophage (), also known informally as a ''phage'' (), is a duplodnaviria virus that infects and replicates within bacteria and archaea. The term was derived from "bacteria" and the Greek φαγεῖν ('), meaning "to devour". Bacterio ...
.
![PIA19673-Mars-AlgaCrater-ImpactGlassDetected-MRO-20150608](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/PIA19673-Mars-AlgaCrater-ImpactGlassDetected-MRO-20150608.jpg)
*8 June
**NASA reports that
impact glass has been detected on the planet
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
- such material may contain preserved signs of
ancient life.
(
related image)
**May 2015 was the wettest month on record for the contiguous U.S. according to NOAA.
**Engineers at Stanford University have developed a state-by-state plan to convert the U.S. to 100% clean, renewable energy by 2050.
*9 June – Researchers have discovered what appear to be the remnants of red blood cells and connective tissue in 75 million-year-old dinosaur fossils.
*10 June – A woman in Belgium is the first in the world to give birth to a baby using transplanted
ovarian tissue frozen when she was still a child, doctors say.
*14 June – News reports announce that the ''
Philae
; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ
, alternate_name =
, image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg
, alt =
, caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
'' lander, part of the
Rosetta space mission, on the
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (abbreviated as 67P or 67P/C–G) is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of . Chu ...
, has woken up from hibernation and is communicating with
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
.
*15 June
**Researchers have sequenced and assembled the first
full genome
Whole genome sequencing (WGS), also known as full genome sequencing, complete genome sequencing, or entire genome sequencing, is the process of determining the entirety, or nearly the entirety, of the DNA sequence of an organism's genome at a ...
of a living organism using technology the size of smartphone.
**A study published in the ''British Medical Journal'' finds that consuming up to 100g of
chocolate
Chocolate is a food made from roasted and ground cacao seed kernels that is available as a liquid, solid, or paste, either on its own or as a flavoring agent in other foods. Cacao has been consumed in some form since at least the Olmec ci ...
every day is linked to lowered heart disease and stroke risk.
![EasternCougar](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/ef/EasternCougar.jpg)
*16 June – The
eastern cougar is declared extinct by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service.
*17 June
**Astronomers report evidence, for the first time, of the existence of the very early
star
A star is an astronomical object comprising a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by its gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked ...
s that may have provided the
chemical element
A chemical element is a species of atoms that have a given number of protons in their atomic nucleus, nuclei, including the pure Chemical substance, substance consisting only of that species. Unlike chemical compounds, chemical elements canno ...
s needed for the later formation of
planets
A planet is a large, rounded astronomical body that is neither a star nor its remnant. The best available theory of planet formation is the nebular hypothesis, which posits that an interstellar cloud collapses out of a nebula to create a youn ...
and
life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
as we know it. These very old
population III stars are postulated to have been formed after the
Big Bang
The Big Bang event is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models of the Big Bang explain the evolution of the observable universe from the ...
, when the
Universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...
was about 800 million years old, and may have been detected in
galaxy
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...
Cosmos Redshift 7 (CR7), about 12.9 billion
light-year
A light-year, alternatively spelled light year, is a large unit of length used to express astronomical distance, astronomical distances and is equivalent to about 9.46 Orders of magnitude (numbers)#1012, trillion kilometers (), or 5.88  ...
s from
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
.
**The world's thinnest light source is created using graphene.
*18 June – By reactivating a single gene,
colorectal cancer
Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include blood in the stool, a change in bowel ...
cells in mice stop growing and re-establish normal intestinal function within four days, according to a study published in the journal ''Cell''.
*19 June – A major study confirms that Earth is currently witnessing the start of a
mass extinction
An extinction event (also known as a mass extinction or biotic crisis) is a widespread and rapid decrease in the biodiversity on Earth. Such an event is identified by a sharp change in the diversity and abundance of multicellular organisms. I ...
event the likes of which have not been seen for at least
65 million years. It is being precipitated by human actions over the past 500 years.
*20 June – A titanium 3D-printed prosthetic jaw is successfully implanted in a male patient by surgeons in Melbourne, Australia.
*23 June – The
Sentinel-2A Earth observation satellite is launched.
*24 June
**Astronomers report the discovery of a brand new type of planet, resembling a giant
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
.
GJ 436b is a "warm Neptune" located 33 light years from Earth and features a huge cloud of gas trailing away from its parent red dwarf star.
**Researchers identify a protein on tiny particles, GPC1+ crExos, released by
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of pancr ...
cells, which may help in detecting the illness at its earliest stage.
![Meteor Crater - Arizona](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/fd/Meteor_Crater_-_Arizona.jpg)
*25 June
**A new compound, MM41, is shown to reduce
pancreatic cancer
Pancreatic cancer arises when cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a mass. These cancerous cells have the ability to invade other parts of the body. A number of types of pancr ...
tumours by 80 percent in mice.
**Google demonstrates a new
AI chatbot
A chatbot or chatterbot is a software application used to conduct an on-line chat conversation via text or text-to-speech, in lieu of providing direct contact with a live human agent. Designed to convincingly simulate the way a human would behav ...
that is able to "remember facts, understand contexts and perform common sense reasoning, all with fewer hand-crafted rules."
*26 June – All of the biggest
impact craters
An impact crater is a circular depression in the surface of a solid astronomical object formed by the hypervelocity impact of a smaller object. In contrast to volcanic craters, which result from explosion or internal collapse, impact craters ...
on Earth have now been
identified
''Identified'' is the second studio album by Vanessa Hudgens, released on July 1, 2008 in the U.S. June 24, 2008 in Japan, February 13, 2009 in most European countries and February 16, 2009 in the United Kingdom. The album re ...
, with none left to be found at or greater width, according to a study by geophysicists.
*27 June –
SpaceX CRS-7, a cargo resupply mission to the
International Space Station
The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest Modular design, modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos ( ...
, explodes shortly after launch.
*29 June – The
dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
passes between a distant star and the
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
producing a shadow on the Earth near
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
that allows
SOFIA
Sofia ( ; bg, София, Sofiya, ) is the capital and largest city of Bulgaria. It is situated in the Sofia Valley at the foot of the Vitosha mountain in the western parts of the country. The city is built west of the Iskar river, and h ...
, an
airborne observatory
An airborne observatory is an airplane, airship, or balloon with an astronomical telescope. By carrying the telescope to a sufficiently high altitude, the telescope can avoid cloud cover, pollution, and carry out observations in the infrared spec ...
, to study the
atmosphere of Pluto
The atmosphere of Pluto is the tenuous layer of gases surrounding Pluto. It consists mainly of nitrogen (N2), with minor amounts of methane (CH4) and carbon monoxide (CO), all of which are vaporized from their ices on Pluto's surface. It contain ...
.
*30 June – A new model created by mathematicians and physicists suggests a "
Big Rip
In physical cosmology, the Big Rip is a hypothetical cosmological model concerning the ultimate fate of the universe, in which the matter of the universe, from stars and galaxies to atoms and subatomic particles, and even spacetime itself, is ...
" end to the universe.
July
![Ibm-7nm-chip](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/6/65/Ibm-7nm-chip.jpg)
*2 July
**Scientists report that active pits, related to
sinkhole
A sinkhole is a depression or hole in the ground caused by some form of collapse of the surface layer. The term is sometimes used to refer to doline, enclosed depressions that are locally also known as ''vrtače'' and shakeholes, and to openi ...
collapses and possibly associated with outbursts, have been found on the
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko
67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko (abbreviated as 67P or 67P/C–G) is a Jupiter-family comet, originally from the Kuiper belt, with a current orbital period of 6.45 years, a rotation period of approximately 12.4 hours and a maximum velocity of . Chu ...
by the ''
Rosetta
Rosetta or Rashid (; ar, رشيد ' ; french: Rosette ; cop, ϯⲣⲁϣⲓⲧ ''ti-Rashit'', Ancient Greek: Βολβιτίνη ''Bolbitinē'') is a port city of the Nile Delta, east of Alexandria, in Egypt's Beheira governorate. The R ...
''
space probe
A space probe is an artificial satellite that travels through space to collect scientific data. A space probe may orbit Earth; approach the Moon; travel through interplanetary space; flyby, orbit, or land or fly on other planetary bodies; o ...
.
**The first comprehensive analysis of the
mammoth
A mammoth is any species of the extinct elephantid genus ''Mammuthus'', one of the many genera that make up the order of trunked mammals called proboscideans. The various species of mammoth were commonly equipped with long, curved tusks an ...
genome is completed, revealing a number of traits that enabled the animals to survive in the Arctic cold.
*8 July
**Astronomers report the discovery of an extremely rare five-star system.
**Scientists announce a project, as part of the Global Genome Initiative, to sample and freeze DNA from half of the world's plant species within two years.
*9 July
**The
FDA toughens warnings of increased
heart attack
A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when blood flow decreases or stops to the coronary artery of the heart, causing damage to the heart muscle. The most common symptom is chest pain or discomfort which ma ...
and
stroke
A stroke is a disease, medical condition in which poor cerebral circulation, blood flow to the brain causes cell death. There are two main types of stroke: brain ischemia, ischemic, due to lack of blood flow, and intracranial hemorrhage, hemorr ...
risk associated with
pain reliever
Pain is a distressing feeling often caused by intense or damaging stimuli. The International Association for the Study of Pain defines pain as "an unpleasant sensory and emotional experience associated with, or resembling that associated with, ...
s containing
ibuprofen
Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is used for treating pain, fever, and inflammation. This includes painful menstrual periods, migraines, and rheumatoid arthritis. It may also be used to close a patent ductus ar ...
, like
Advil
Ibuprofen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) that is used for treating pain, fever, and inflammation. This includes painful menstrual periods, migraines, and rheumatoid arthritis. It may also be used to close a patent ductu ...
,
Aleve
Naproxen is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to treat pain, menstrual cramps, inflammatory diseases such as rheumatoid arthritis, gout and fever. It is taken orally. It is available in immediate and delayed release formulat ...
,
Motrin and related
nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug
Non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAID) are members of a therapeutic drug class which reduces pain, decreases inflammation, decreases fever, and prevents blood clots. Side effects depend on the specific drug, its dose and duration o ...
s (NSAID).
Tylenol Tylenol may refer to:
* Paracetamol
Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, is a medication used to treat fever and mild to moderate pain. Common brand names include Tylenol and Panadol.
At a standard dose, paracetamol only slightly decr ...
, containing
acetaminophen
Paracetamol, also known as acetaminophen, is a medication used to treat fever and mild to moderate pain. Common brand names include Tylenol and Panadol.
At a standard dose, paracetamol only slightly decreases body temperature; it is inferior ...
, is not an NSAID and is not affected by the new warnings. However,
Aspirin
Aspirin, also known as acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), is a nonsteroidal anti-inflammatory drug (NSAID) used to reduce pain, fever, and/or inflammation, and as an antithrombotic. Specific inflammatory conditions which aspirin is used to treat inc ...
is an NSAID but is not affected by the new warnings.
**
IBM announces a breakthrough in the manufacture of
7 nm computer chips that will enable the trend of
Moore's Law
Moore's law is the observation that the number of transistors in a dense integrated circuit (IC) doubles about every two years. Moore's law is an observation and projection of a historical trend. Rather than a law of physics, it is an empi ...
to continue for the next few years.
![Nh-pluto-in-true-color 2x JPEG](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/7e/Nh-pluto-in-true-color_2x.jpg)
*13 July – Researchers at the
Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundr ...
report observing two exotic particles belonging to a new class,
pentaquark
A pentaquark is a human-made subatomic particle, consisting of four quarks and one antiquark bound together; they are not known to occur naturally, or exist outside of experiments specifically carried out to create them.
As quarks have a baryo ...
s.
*14 July
**NASA's ''
New Horizons
''New Horizons'' is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a ...
'' spacecraft performs a close flyby of
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
, becoming the first spacecraft in history to visit the distant world.
It will explore the area for five months, before entering the
Kuiper belt
The Kuiper belt () is a circumstellar disc in the outer Solar System, extending from the orbit of Neptune at 30 astronomical units (AU) to approximately 50 AU from the Sun. It is similar to the asteroid belt, but is far larger—20 tim ...
and eventually leaving the
Solar System
The Solar System Capitalization of the name varies. The International Astronomical Union, the authoritative body regarding astronomical nomenclature, specifies capitalizing the names of all individual astronomical objects but uses mixed "Solar ...
.
**The latest ''
State of the Climate'' report confirms that 2014 was the hottest year on record globally.
*16 July
**Scientists report the discovery of the
Weyl fermion
Hermann Klaus Hugo Weyl, (; 9 November 1885 – 8 December 1955) was a German mathematician, theoretical physicist and philosopher. Although much of his working life was spent in Zürich, Switzerland, and then Princeton, New Jersey, he is ...
after an 85-year search. This
massless quasiparticle
In physics, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely related emergent phenomena arising when a microscopically complicated system such as a solid behaves as if it contained different weakly interacting particles in vacuum.
For exa ...
could help in the development of future electronics such as
quantum computing
Quantum computing is a type of computation whose operations can harness the phenomena of quantum mechanics, such as superposition, interference, and entanglement. Devices that perform quantum computations are known as quantum computers. Though ...
.
**A new study adds to the growing evidence that
polar bears
The polar bear (''Ursus maritimus'') is a hypercarnivorous bear whose native range lies largely within the Arctic Circle, encompassing the Arctic Ocean, its surrounding seas and surrounding land masses. It is the largest extant bear specie ...
are unable to adapt to a
warming Arctic.
*17 July – Nanowires are used by Dutch researchers to boost solar fuel cell efficiency tenfold, while using 10,000 times less precious material.
*20 July
**
Stephen Hawking, British physicist, helps launch a well-funded effort, called
Breakthrough Initiatives, to search for
extraterrestrial life
Extraterrestrial life, colloquially referred to as alien life, is life that may occur outside Earth and which did not originate on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been conclusively detected, although efforts are underway. Such life might ...
and attempt to answer the question: Are we alone?
**Through private and international partnerships, the cost of
colonising the Moon could be reduced by 90 percent, according to a joint study released by the
National Space Society and the
Space Frontier Foundation and reviewed by an independent team of experts.
*21 July
**The latest global analysis of temperature data from
NOAA
The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (abbreviated as NOAA ) is an United States scientific and regulatory agency within the United States Department of Commerce that forecasts weather, monitors oceanic and atmospheric conditio ...
shows that the first half of 2015 was the hottest such period on record, at 0.85 °C (1.53 °F) above the 20th century average, surpassing the previous record set in 2010 by 0.09 °C (0.16 °F). The Earth also experienced its hottest ever June.
**Men who become fathers experience weight gain and an increase in
body mass index
Body mass index (BMI) is a value derived from the mass ( weight) and height of a person. The BMI is defined as the body mass divided by the square of the body height, and is expressed in units of kg/m2, resulting from mass in kilograms and ...
according to a new, large-scale study that tracked more than 10,000 men over a 20-year period. Men who didn't become dads actually lost weight over the same time period.
**A new computer program is the first to recognise
sketches more accurately than a human.
**A potential new class of
antibiotics
An antibiotic is a type of antimicrobial substance active against bacteria. It is the most important type of antibacterial agent for fighting bacterial infections, and antibiotic medications are widely used in the treatment and preventio ...
based on modified
sugar
Sugar is the generic name for sweet-tasting, soluble carbohydrates, many of which are used in food. Simple sugars, also called monosaccharides, include glucose, fructose, and galactose. Compound sugars, also called disaccharides or do ...
molecules is reported.
*22 July
**The results of a trial involving 1,322 patients shows further evidence that
solanezumab can slow
Alzheimer's disease
Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative disease that usually starts slowly and progressively worsens. It is the cause of 60–70% of cases of dementia. The most common early symptom is difficulty in remembering recent events. As ...
.
**US fir
Second Sightannounces the first age-related
macular degeneration
Macular degeneration, also known as age-related macular degeneration (AMD or ARMD), is a medical condition which may result in blurred or no vision in the center of the visual field. Early on there are often no symptoms. Over time, however, so ...
patient has received its Argus II
bionic eye, at
Manchester Royal Eye Hospital
Manchester Royal Eye Hospital is an ophthalmic hospital in Oxford Road, Manchester, England, managed by the Manchester University NHS Foundation Trust. It is on the same site as Manchester Royal Infirmary and St Mary's Hospital for Women and C ...
in the UK, as part of a groundbreaking study.
**A promising new treatment using
eye drops
Eye drops or eyedrops are liquid drops applied directly to the surface of the eye usually in small amounts such as a single drop or a few drops. Eye drops usually contain saline to match the salinity of the eye. Drops containing only saline ...
to treat
cataracts
A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...
is reported by the University of California, San Diego.
*23 July
**NASA announces the discovery of
Kepler-452b, a confirmed
exoplanet
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
that is near-Earth-size and found orbiting the
habitable zone
In astronomy and astrobiology, the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), or simply the habitable zone, is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressure.J. F. Kast ...
of a Sun-like star.
**A provocative new paper by climate scientists including
James Hansen
James Edward Hansen (born March 29, 1942) is an American adjunct professor directing the Program on Climate Science, Awareness and Solutions of the Earth Institute at Columbia University. He is best known for his research in climatology, his ...
warns that future
sea level rise
Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cr ...
s may have been dramatically underestimated, and that even 2 °C of global warming is "highly dangerous".
**Intel and Micron unveil 3D XPoint, a new
memory technology that is 1,000 times faster than NAND and 10 times denser than conventional DRAM.
*24 July – The 133-million-year-old fossil of ''Tetrapodophis amplectus'', the first four-legged
snake
Snakes are elongated, limbless, carnivorous reptiles of the suborder Serpentes . Like all other squamates, snakes are ectothermic, amniote vertebrates covered in overlapping scales. Many species of snakes have skulls with several more ...
to be found, is reported by paleontologists in Brazil.
*29 July
**The current
world population
In demographics, the world population is the total number of humans currently living. It was estimated by the United Nations to have exceeded 8 billion in November 2022. It took over 200,000 years of human prehistory and history for th ...
of 7.3 billion is predicted to reach 8.5 billion by
2030
The 2030s (pronounced "twenty-thirties"; shortened to the '30s) is the next decade in the Gregorian calendar that will begin on 1 January 2030, and will end on 31 December 2039.
Plans and goals
* NASA plans to execute a crewed mission to Mars ...
, 9.7 billion in
2050 and 11.2 billion in
2100, according to a new analysis of data by the UN.
**The first artificial
ribosome
Ribosomes ( ) are macromolecular machines, found within all cells, that perform biological protein synthesis (mRNA translation). Ribosomes link amino acids together in the order specified by the codons of messenger RNA (mRNA) molecules to fo ...
is created, by researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago and Northwestern University.
![Ebola virus virion](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e6/Ebola_virus_virion.jpg)
*30 July
**Scientists report that the ''
Philae
; ar, فيلة; cop, ⲡⲓⲗⲁⲕ
, alternate_name =
, image = File:File, Asuán, Egipto, 2022-04-01, DD 93.jpg
, alt =
, caption = The temple of Isis from Philae at its current location on Agilkia Island in Lake Nasse ...
''
spacecraft
A spacecraft is a vehicle or machine designed to fly in outer space. A type of artificial satellite, spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, ...
, that landed on
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko in November 2014, detected at least 16
organic compound
In chemistry, organic compounds are generally any chemical compounds that contain carbon-hydrogen or carbon-carbon bonds. Due to carbon's ability to catenate (form chains with other carbon atoms), millions of organic compounds are known. Th ...
s, of which four (including
acetamide
Acetamide (systematic name: ethanamide) is an organic compound with the formula CH3CONH2. It is the simplest amide derived from acetic acid. It finds some use as a plasticizer and as an industrial solvent. The related compound ''N'',''N''-dime ...
,
acetone
Acetone (2-propanone or dimethyl ketone), is an organic compound with the formula . It is the simplest and smallest ketone (). It is a colorless, highly volatile and flammable liquid with a characteristic pungent odour.
Acetone is miscibl ...
,
methyl isocyanate
Methyl isocyanate (MIC) is an organic compound with the molecular formula CH3NCO. Synonyms are isocyanatomethane and methyl carbylamine. Methyl isocyanate is an intermediate chemical in the production of carbamate pesticides (such as carbaryl, ...
and
propionaldehyde
Propionaldehyde or propanal is the organic compound with the formula CH3CH2CHO. It is the 3-carbon aldehyde. It is a colourless, flammable liquid with a slightly fruity odour. It is produced on a large scale industrially.
Production
Propionalde ...
) were detected for the first time on a comet.
**The first
aurora
An aurora (plural: auroras or aurorae), also commonly known as the polar lights, is a natural light display in Earth's sky, predominantly seen in high-latitude regions (around the Arctic and Antarctic). Auroras display dynamic patterns of bri ...
beyond the Solar System is reported, on a
brown dwarf
Brown dwarfs (also called failed stars) are substellar objects that are not massive enough to sustain nuclear fusion of ordinary hydrogen ( 1H) into helium in their cores, unlike a main-sequence star. Instead, they have a mass between the most ...
18 light years from Earth.
**Astronomers report the discovery of
HD 219134 b, a rocky
exoplanet
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
, due to its size of 1.6 Earth and density of 6 g/cm
3, that is the closest such exoplanet to Earth, at 21.25 light-years away.
**A new technique for obtaining
nanoscale
The nanoscopic scale (or nanoscale) usually refers to structures with a length scale applicable to nanotechnology, usually cited as 1–100 nanometers (nm). A nanometer is a billionth of a meter. The nanoscopic scale is (roughly speaking) a lo ...
images of the brain at higher resolution than ever before is announced by Boston scientists.
*31 July
**An
ebola vaccine
Ebola vaccines are vaccines either approved or in development to prevent Ebola. As of 2022, there are only vaccines against the Zaire ebolavirus. The first vaccine to be approved in the United States was rVSV-ZEBOV in December 2019. It had be ...
developed by the Public Health Agency of Canada is found to be 100% successful in an initial trial.
**By studying the structure and temperature of
butterfly
Butterflies are insects in the macrolepidopteran clade Rhopalocera from the order Lepidoptera, which also includes moths. Adult butterflies have large, often brightly coloured wings, and conspicuous, fluttering flight. The group compris ...
wings, researchers have observed physical properties that could hugely improve the efficiency of
solar energy
Solar energy is radiant light and heat from the Sun that is harnessed using a range of technologies such as solar power to generate electricity, solar thermal energy (including solar water heating), and solar architecture. It is an essen ...
.
August
![Baltoro glacier from air](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/91/Baltoro_glacier_from_air.jpg)
*3 August
**Researchers have demonstrated that even if a
geoengineering solution to CO
2 emissions could be found, it would not be enough to save the oceans.
**A new comprehensive analysis of global
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...
changes in the ''Journal of Glaciology'' concludes that melting rates are "unprecedented" and faster than ever.
*4 August
**The FDA approves
Spritam, the first
3D-printed
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
pill.
**Spicy foods are linked to increased
longevity
The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for " life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always ...
in a study published by the ''British Medical Journal''.
**Plans are unveiled by
Plymouth University
The University of Plymouth is a public research university based predominantly in Plymouth, England, where the main campus is located, but the university has campuses and affiliated colleges across South West England. With students, it is th ...
for "Mayflower Autonomous Research Ship" (MARS), the world's first full-sized, fully autonomous uncrewed ship to cross the Atlantic Ocean.
**The first ever genetic analysis of people with extremely high
intelligence
Intelligence has been defined in many ways: the capacity for abstraction, logic, understanding, self-awareness, learning, emotional knowledge, reasoning, planning, creativity, critical thinking, and problem-solving. More generally, it can ...
reveals small but important genetic differences between some of the brightest people in the United States and the general population.
*5 August – Astronomers at the
Keck Observatory
The W. M. Keck Observatory is an astronomical observatory with two telescopes at an elevation of 4,145 meters (13,600 ft) near the summit of Mauna Kea in the U.S. state of Hawaii. Both telescopes have aperture primary mirrors, and when ...
announce a new record for the most distant
galaxy
A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, dark matter, bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Greek ' (), literally 'milky', a reference to the Milky Way galaxy that contains the Solar System ...
ever observed. Known as
EGSY8p7
__NOTOC__
EGSY8p7 (EGSY-2008532660) is a distant galaxy in the constellation of Boötes, with a spectroscopic redshift of ''z'' = 8.68 (photometric redshift 8.57), a light travel distance of 13.2 billion light-years from Earth. Therefore ...
, its light needed 13.2 billion years to reach Earth.
*6 August – The first known
venomous
Venom or zootoxin is a type of toxin produced by an animal that is actively delivered through a wound by means of a bite, sting, or similar action. The toxin is delivered through a specially evolved ''venom apparatus'', such as fangs or a sti ...
frog
A frog is any member of a diverse and largely Carnivore, carnivorous group of short-bodied, tailless amphibians composing the order (biology), order Anura (ανοὐρά, literally ''without tail'' in Ancient Greek). The oldest fossil "proto-f ...
species, ''
Corythomantis greeningi
''Corythomantis greeningi'', occasionally called Greening's frog, is a venomous frog species in the family Hylidae endemic to eastern Brazil, where it lives in Caatinga habitat. It is usually situated on vegetation, including in bromeliads, and o ...
'' and ''
Aparasphenodon brunoi'', are identified by researchers in Brazil.
*10 August – By measuring the energy output from a large portion of the Universe with greater precision than ever before, astronomers have determined that the Universe is gradually fading across all wavelengths. In effect, the Universe is
slowly dying.
![PIA19809-MarsCuriosityRover-HydrogenRichAreaFound-20150721](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/2c/PIA19809-MarsCuriosityRover-HydrogenRichAreaFound-20150721.jpg)
*13 August
**An endangered species, the
black-footed ferret
The black-footed ferret (''Mustela nigripes''), also known as the American polecatHeptner, V. G. (Vladimir Georgievich); Nasimovich, A. A; Bannikov, Andrei Grigorovich; Hoffmann, Robert S. (2001)''Mammals of the Soviet Union''Volume: v. 2, pt. 1 ...
, is successfully reproduced using frozen sperm from a
ferret
The ferret (''Mustela furo'') is a small, domesticated species belonging to the family Mustelidae. The ferret is most likely a domesticated form of the wild European polecat (''Mustela putorius''), evidenced by their interfertility. Other mus ...
that had been dead for 20 years.
**By altering a single gene,
phosphodiesterase-4B (PDE4B), researchers have increased the intelligence of mice, while decreasing their fear and anxiety. This raises hopes of better treatments for human cognitive disorders in the future.
*17 August – Based on studies with the
Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer
The Lunar Atmosphere and Dust Environment Explorer (LADEE; ) was a NASA lunar exploration and technology demonstration mission. It was launched on a Minotaur V rocket from the Mid-Atlantic Regional Spaceport on September 7, 2013. During its se ...
(LADEE) spacecraft, NASA scientists report the detection of
neon
Neon is a chemical element with the symbol Ne and atomic number 10. It is a noble gas. Neon is a colorless, odorless, inert monatomic gas under standard conditions, with about two-thirds the density of air. It was discovered (along with krypt ...
in the
exosphere
The exosphere ( grc, ἔξω "outside, external, beyond", grc, σφαῖρα "sphere") is a thin, atmosphere-like volume surrounding a planet or natural satellite where molecules are gravitationally bound to that body, but where the densi ...
of the
moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
.
*19 August
**NASA reports that there is "no scientific basis" that the world will end due to a rumored
impact
Impact may refer to:
* Impact (mechanics), a high force or shock (mechanics) over a short time period
* Impact, Texas, a town in Taylor County, Texas, US
Science and technology
* Impact crater, a meteor crater caused by an impact event
* Imp ...
of an
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
near
Puerto Rico
Puerto Rico (; abbreviated PR; tnq, Boriken, ''Borinquen''), officially the Commonwealth of Puerto Rico ( es, link=yes, Estado Libre Asociado de Puerto Rico, lit=Free Associated State of Puerto Rico), is a Caribbean island and unincorporated ...
between 15 and 28 September 2015.
**NASA scientists report that the
Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons
The Dynamic Albedo of Neutrons (DAN) instrument is an experiment mounted on the Mars Science Laboratory ''Curiosity'' rover. It is a pulsed sealed-tube neutron source and detector used to measure hydrogen or ice and water at or near the Marti ...
(DAN) instrument on the
''Curiosity'' rover detected an unusual hydrogen-rich area, at "Marias Pass," on
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
. The
hydrogen
Hydrogen is the chemical element with the symbol H and atomic number 1. Hydrogen is the lightest element. At standard conditions hydrogen is a gas of diatomic molecules having the formula . It is colorless, odorless, tasteless, non-to ...
found seems related to water or hydroxyl ions in rocks within three feet beneath the rover, according to the scientists.
**People working a 55-hour week have a 33% increased risk of stroke than those working a 35- to 40-hour week, along with a 13% increased risk of coronary heart disease, according to a study published in ''The Lancet''.
**Researchers at
George Washington University
, mottoeng = "God is Our Trust"
, established =
, type = Private federally chartered research university
, academic_affiliations =
, endowment = $2.8 billion (2022)
, presi ...
demonstrate a process that turns atmospheric carbon dioxide into
carbon nanofiber
Carbon nanofibers (CNFs), vapor grown carbon fibers (VGCFs), or vapor grown carbon nanofibers (VGCNFs) are cylindrical nanostructures with graphene layers arranged as stacked cone (geometry), cones, cups or plates. Carbon nanofibers with graphene ...
s.
**The
Sumatran rhinoceros
The Sumatran rhinoceros (''Dicerorhinus sumatrensis''), also known as the Sumatran rhino, hairy rhinoceros or Asian two-horned rhinoceros, is a rare member of the family Rhinocerotidae and one of five extant species of rhinoceros. It is the o ...
is declared
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
in the wild in
Malaysia
Malaysia ( ; ) is a country in Southeast Asia. The federal constitutional monarchy consists of thirteen states and three federal territories, separated by the South China Sea into two regions: Peninsular Malaysia and Borneo's East Mal ...
.
**Using
stem cells
In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can differentiate into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of ...
, researchers have developed a miniature
human brain
The human brain is the central organ of the human nervous system, and with the spinal cord makes up the central nervous system. The brain consists of the cerebrum, the brainstem and the cerebellum. It controls most of the activities of ...
in a dish with the equivalent maturity of a five-week-old fetus. It is believed this model – the most advanced of its kind ever created – could be used for better and more accurate testing of drugs.
![SEM Lymphocyte](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/89/SEM_Lymphocyte.jpg)
*20 August
**July 2015 was the hottest month on Earth since records began in 1880, according to data from NOAA.
**A new report in the journal ''Science'' underscores the need for improved management and protection of
boreal forests
Taiga (; rus, тайга́, p=tɐjˈɡa; relates to Mongolic and Turkic languages), generally referred to in North America as a boreal forest or snow forest, is a biome characterized by coniferous forests consisting mostly of pines, spruces, ...
in response to global changes this century.
*21 August
**A new study published in ''Nature'' "removes any doubt" that rising levels of
greenhouse gases
A greenhouse gas (GHG or GhG) is a gas that absorbs and emits radiant energy within the thermal infrared range, causing the greenhouse effect. The primary greenhouse gases in Earth's atmosphere are water vapor (), carbon dioxide (), methane ...
were the primary driver of
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...
retreat during the end of the last
Ice Age
An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages and gre ...
.
**Giant galaxies with an absence of young stars are more suitable for habitable planets, researchers say.
*24 August
**A new way of "switching off" cancer cell growth, using the
PLEKHA7
PLEKHA7 (Pleckstrin homology domain-containing family A member 7) is an adherens junction (AJ) protein, involved in the junction's integrity and stability.
History
The protein was discovered in Masatoshi Takeichi’s lab while looking for pote ...
protein, is reported by the
Mayo Clinic
The Mayo Clinic () is a nonprofit American academic medical center focused on integrated health care, education, and research. It employs over 4,500 physicians and scientists, along with another 58,400 administrative and allied health staf ...
.
**Physicists achieve a breakthrough in
fusion power
Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, while releasing energy. Devices de ...
, by containing superheated hydrogen plasma for five milliseconds, longer than any other effort before.
*26 August – In a press briefing, NASA scientists warn that future
sea level rise
Globally, sea levels are rising due to human-caused climate change. Between 1901 and 2018, the globally averaged sea level rose by , or 1–2 mm per year on average.IPCC, 2019Summary for Policymakers InIPCC Special Report on the Ocean and Cr ...
has been underestimated.
*28 August – In a landmark study of scientific
reproducibility
Reproducibility, also known as replicability and repeatability, is a major principle underpinning the scientific method. For the findings of a study to be reproducible means that results obtained by an experiment or an observational study or in ...
published in ''Science'', a group of 270 psychologists attempted to directly replicate 100 psychology studies from three top-tier psychological journals and found that about one-third to one-half of the original findings could be successfully reproduced.
*31 August – Scientists claim to have discovered the first new human
prion
Prions are misfolded proteins that have the ability to transmit their misfolded shape onto normal variants of the same protein. They characterize several fatal and transmissible neurodegenerative diseases in humans and many other animals. It i ...
in almost 50 years.
September
*1 September – Scientists report the discovery of ''
Pentecopterus decorahens'', the oldest described
eurypterida (sea scorpions), an extinct
arthropod
Arthropods (, (gen. ποδός)) are invertebrate animals with an exoskeleton, a segmented body, and paired jointed appendages. Arthropods form the phylum Arthropoda. They are distinguished by their jointed limbs and cuticle made of chiti ...
group that lived as early as 467.3 million years ago. With an estimated length of up to ,
it has been described as "the first real big predator".
*2 September
**A report b
Climate Action Trackerwarns that pledges by governments for the upcoming
UN climate change conference in Paris, are grossly inadequate if the rise in global temperatures is to be kept below 2 °C.
**There are just over three trillion
trees
In botany, a tree is a perennial plant with an elongated stem, or trunk, usually supporting branches and leaves. In some usages, the definition of a tree may be narrower, including only woody plants with secondary growth, plants that are u ...
on Earth, according to a new assessment.
*3 September
**Researchers at MIT demonstrate the first
3D printing
3D printing or additive manufacturing is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer co ...
technique able to make
transparent glass objects.
**
Philips
Koninklijke Philips N.V. (), commonly shortened to Philips, is a Dutch multinational conglomerate corporation that was founded in Eindhoven in 1891. Since 1997, it has been mostly headquartered in Amsterdam, though the Benelux headquarters is ...
introduces the world's first
quantum dot
Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size, having optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles as a result of quantum mechanics. They are a central topic in nanotechnology. When the ...
monitor
Monitor or monitor may refer to:
Places
* Monitor, Alberta
* Monitor, Indiana, town in the United States
* Monitor, Kentucky
* Monitor, Oregon, unincorporated community in the United States
* Monitor, Washington
* Monitor, Logan County, West ...
.
**Scientists working on the
Large Hadron Collider
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle collider. It was built by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) between 1998 and 2008 in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and hundr ...
report that the production of
quark–gluon plasma
Quark–gluon plasma (QGP) or quark soup is an interacting localized assembly of quarks and gluons at thermal (local kinetic) and (close to) chemical (abundance) equilibrium. The word ''plasma'' signals that free color charges are allowed. In a ...
, a state of matter present in the
early Universe
The chronology of the universe describes the history and future of the universe according to Big Bang cosmology.
Research published in 2015 estimates the earliest stages of the universe's existence as taking place 13.8 billion years ago, wit ...
, is possible with fewer particles than previously thought.
*7 September – A bright
fireball over Thailand, believed to be a
bolide
A bolide is normally taken to mean an exceptionally bright meteor, but the term is subject to more than one definition, according to context. It may refer to any large crater-forming body, or to one that explodes in the atmosphere. It can be a ...
, is seen in
Bangkok
Bangkok, officially known in Thai language, Thai as Krung Thep Maha Nakhon and colloquially as Krung Thep, is the capital and most populous city of Thailand. The city occupies in the Chao Phraya River delta in central Thailand and has an estima ...
and some other locations.
*10 September
**
Paleontologist
Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...
s report a new human-like
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
, ''
Homo naledi
'' Homo naledi'' is an extinct species of archaic human discovered in 2013 in the Rising Star Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa dating to the Middle Pleistocene 335,000–236,000 years ago. The initial discovery comprises 1,550 specimens ...
'', based on the discovery of 15 partial skeletons, the largest single find of its type in Africa. It is believed that ''H. naledi'' could have lived in Africa up to
three million years ago and were capable of
ritual
A ritual is a sequence of activities involving gestures, words, actions, or objects, performed according to a set sequence. Rituals may be prescribed by the traditions of a community, including a religious community. Rituals are characterized, b ...
istic behaviour. Although the discoverers claim the bones represent a new species of
early humans
''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus ''Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' (modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely related ...
, other experts contend that more evidence is needed before such a claim can be justified.
**A report by scientists, ethicists and policy experts from the Hinxton Group states that research into genetically modified
human embryos
An embryo is an initial stage of development of a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sperm c ...
is "essential" and that GM babies could be "morally acceptable" in the future.
*11 September
**NASA releases the first clear images of Pluto's small moon
Nix
Nix or NIX may refer to:
Places
* Nix, Alabama, an unincorporated community, United States
* Nix, Texas, a ghost town in southwestern Lampasas County, Texas, United States
* Nix (moon), a moon of Pluto
People
* Nix (surname), listing people with ...
, showing rough edges and a prominent crater.
**A study by the British Psychological Society warns that constant pressure on teenagers to use social media technology causes lower sleep quality, lower self-esteem, higher anxiety and increased depression levels.
**Through
DARPA
The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military.
Originally known as the A ...
, a 28-year-old paralysed man becomes the first person to feel physical sensations through a prosthetic hand directly connected to his brain.
*13 September – A
partial solar eclipse
A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of the Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six mon ...
occurs.
![PIA19656-SaturnMoon-Enceladus-Ocean-ArtConcept-20150915](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/70/PIA19656-SaturnMoon-Enceladus-Ocean-ArtConcept-20150915.jpg)
*14 September
**
First observation of gravitational waves
The first direct observation of gravitational waves was made on 14 September 2015 and was announced by the LIGO and Virgo collaborations on 11 February 2016. Previously, gravitational waves had been inferred only indirectly, via their effect on ...
, announced 11 February 2016.
**The next two years could be the hottest on record globally, according to research by the UK's
Met Office
The Meteorological Office, abbreviated as the Met Office, is the United Kingdom's national weather service. It is an executive agency and trading fund of the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy and is led by CEO Penelope E ...
.
**Astronomers report unusual light fluctuations of
KIC 8462852
Tabby's Star (also known as Boyajian's Star and WTF Star, and designated KIC 8462852 in the Kepler Input Catalog) is an F-type main-sequence star in the constellation Cygnus (constellation), Cygnus approximately from Earth. Unusual ligh ...
, an
F-type main-sequence star
An F-type main-sequence star (F V) is a main-sequence, hydrogen-fusing star of spectral type F and luminosity class V. These stars have from 1.0 to 1.4 times the mass of the Sun and surface temperatures between 6,000 and 7,600 K.Tables VII ...
in the
constellation
A constellation is an area on the celestial sphere in which a group of visible stars forms Asterism (astronomy), a perceived pattern or outline, typically representing an animal, mythological subject, or inanimate object.
The origins of the e ...
Cygnus, as detected by the
''Kepler'' space telescope, while searching for
exoplanet
An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first possible evidence of an exoplanet was noted in 1917 but was not recognized as such. The first confirmation of detection occurred in 1992. A different planet, init ...
s. Various explanations have been presented, including those based on
comet
A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that, when passing close to the Sun, warms and begins to release gases, a process that is called outgassing. This produces a visible atmosphere or coma, and sometimes also a tail. These phenomena ...
s,
asteroid
An asteroid is a minor planet of the inner Solar System. Sizes and shapes of asteroids vary significantly, ranging from 1-meter rocks to a dwarf planet almost 1000 km in diameter; they are rocky, metallic or icy bodies with no atmosphere. ...
s, as well as, an
alien civilization.
*15 September – NASA's
Cassini probe Cassini may refer to:
People
* Cassini (surname)
* Oleg Cassini (1913-2006), American fashion designer
:Cassini family:
* Giovanni Domenico Cassini (1625–1712), Italian mathematician, astronomer, engineer, and astrologer
* Jacques Cassini (16 ...
finds a global ocean lying beneath the icy crust of Saturn's geologically active moon
Enceladus
Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th largest in the Solar System). It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most refle ...
.
*16 September
**It is reported that
oil companies
The following is a list of notable companies in the petroleum industry that are engaged in petroleum exploration and production. The list is in alphabetical order by continent and then by country. This list does not include companies only involved ...
knew that
burning oil and gas could cause
global warming
In common usage, climate change describes global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes to ...
since the 1970s but, nonetheless,
funded deniers for years.
**A study by WWF and the Zoological Society of London finds that populations of marine mammals, birds, fish and reptiles have declined by 49% since 1970. The report highlights
tuna
A tuna is a saltwater fish that belongs to the tribe Thunnini, a subgrouping of the Scombridae (mackerel) family. The Thunnini comprise 15 species across five genera, the sizes of which vary greatly, ranging from the bullet tuna (max length: ...
and
mackerel
Mackerel is a common name applied to a number of different species of pelagic fish, mostly from the family Scombridae. They are found in both temperate and tropical seas, mostly living along the coast or offshore in the oceanic environment.
...
as in a particularly dire state, having declined 74%.
*22 September
**Researchers announce discovery of the second known human
pegivirus
''Pegivirus'' is the approved name for a genus of single positive-stranded RNA viruses in the family ''Flaviviridae''. The name is a derived one: "Pe" stands for "persistent" and "g" is a reference to Hepatitis G, a former name of the ''C'' s ...
,
HPgV-2.
**Researchers teleport quantum information carried in light particles over 100 kilometres of optical fibre, four times farther than the previous record.
**Scientists announce the discovery of a new
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
, ''
Ugrunaaluk kuukpikensis'', a 30 foot long plant eater, that lived 69 million years ago above the
Arctic Circle
The Arctic Circle is one of the two polar circles, and the most northerly of the five major circles of latitude as shown on maps of Earth. Its southern equivalent is the Antarctic Circle.
The Arctic Circle marks the southernmost latitude at w ...
, the farthest north of any known dinosaur.
*23 September
**A NASA study indicates that
oceanic phytoplankton are declining significantly in the
northern hemisphere
The Northern Hemisphere is the half of Earth that is north of the Equator. For other planets in the Solar System, north is defined as being in the same celestial hemisphere relative to the invariable plane of the solar system as Earth's Nort ...
.
**Tiny carbon-capturing motors are developed at the University of California, potentially offering a way to absorb carbon dioxide from the oceans.
*24 September
**A paraplegic American man walks again using a computer system that reroutes signals from his brain to electrodes on his knees.
**Scientists build a
wrench
A wrench or spanner is a tool used to provide grip and mechanical advantage in applying torque to turn objects—usually rotary fasteners, such as nuts and bolts—or keep them from turning.
In the UK, Ireland, Australia, and New Zealan ...
just 1.7 nanometers wide, providing a fundamentally new way to control the shape of molecules.
![Liquid water on mars](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/0/0e/Liquid_water_on_mars.jpg)
*27 September – A total
lunar eclipse
A lunar eclipse occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow. Such alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, when the Moon's orbital plane is closest to the plane of the Earth ...
, dubbed a "supermoon" because of its apparent larger size in the sky, takes place over Europe, the Middle East, Africa, and the Americas. The next supermoon eclipse will not occur until
October 2033.
*28 September
**NASA scientists, including Lujendra Ojha et al.,
report evidence, for the first time, supporting the presence of
liquid water
Water (chemical formula ) is an inorganic, transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance, which is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms (in which it acts as a s ...
(in the form of liquid
brine
Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for br ...
) currently flowing on the planet
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
(conference videos
).
**''
Angustopila dominikae
''Angustopila dominikae'' is a species of light grey, round, land snails, a terrestrial pulmonate gastropod mollusc in the family Hypselostomatidae. ''Angustopila dominikae'' have been found in southern China, and are considered to be one of the ...
'', the smallest
snail
A snail is, in loose terms, a shelled gastropod. The name is most often applied to land snails, terrestrial pulmonate gastropod molluscs. However, the common name ''snail'' is also used for most of the members of the molluscan class Gastro ...
ever found, is reported in Southern China. The species measures just 0.86mm in height.
**Researchers at
Queen Mary University of London
, mottoeng = With united powers
, established = 1785 – The London Hospital Medical College1843 – St Bartholomew's Hospital Medical College1882 – Westfield College1887 – East London College/Queen Mary College
, type = Public researc ...
demonstrate a self-assembling organic material that grows and changes shape, which could lead to artificial
arteries
An artery (plural arteries) () is a blood vessel in humans and most animals that takes blood away from the heart to one or more parts of the body (tissues, lungs, brain etc.). Most arteries carry oxygenated blood; the two exceptions are the pul ...
.
**Because of warming oceans,
king crab
King crabs are a taxon of decapod crustaceans chiefly found in cold seas. Because of their large size and the taste of their meat, many species are widely caught and sold as food, the most common being the red king crab (''Paralithodes camtscha ...
s threaten to overrun Antarctic marine ecosystems within a few decades, according to research by the Florida Institute of Technology.
*29 September – Researchers develop a new test,
ViroCap, that can detect nearly any
virus
A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea.
Since Dmitri Ivanovsky's 1 ...
known to infect humans and animals. The researchers are making the technology publicly available worldwide, for the benefit of patients and research.
October
*1 October – IBM announces a breakthrough that could accelerate the replacement of silicon transistors with
carbon nanotubes
A scanning tunneling microscopy image of a single-walled carbon nanotube
Rotating single-walled zigzag carbon nanotube
A carbon nanotube (CNT) is a tube made of carbon with diameters typically measured in nanometers.
''Single-wall carbon nan ...
and work down to 1.8 nm node sizes.
![Keppelbleaching](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/90/Keppelbleaching.jpg)
*2 October
**A new study adds to previous findings that
dinosaurs
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
were driven to extinction by a combination of increased volcanism at the
Deccan Traps
The Deccan Traps is a large igneous province of west-central India (17–24°N, 73–74°E). It is one of the largest volcanic features on Earth, taking the form of a large shield volcano. It consists of numerous layers of solidified flood ...
and the
Chicxulub asteroid impact.
**
Fusion reactors
Fusion power is a proposed form of power generation that would generate electricity by using heat from nuclear fusion, nuclear fusion reactions. In a fusion process, two lighter atomic nucleus, atomic nuclei combine to form a heavier nucleus, whi ...
could be economically viable within a few decades, and policy makers should start planning to build them as a replacement for conventional nuclear power stations, according to research by Durham University.
*5 October
**Nearly one-third of
cacti
A cactus (, or less commonly, cactus) is a member of the plant family Cactaceae, a family comprising about 127 genera with some 1750 known species of the order Caryophyllales. The word ''cactus'' derives, through Latin, from the Ancient Greek ...
species face extinction, according to the first comprehensive global assessment, largely due to illegal trade and other human activity.
**NASA reports
recurrent slope lineae
Seasonal flows on warm Martian slopes (also called recurring slope lineae, recurrent slope lineae and RSL) are thought to be salty water on mars, water flows occurring during the warmest months on Mars, or alternatively, dry grains that "flow" dow ...
, wet
brine
Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for br ...
flows, may have been detected on
Mount Sharp
Mount Sharp, officially Aeolis Mons (), is a mountain on Mars. It forms the central peak within Gale (crater), Gale crater and is located around , rising high from the valley floor. Its ID in the United States Geological Survey's Gazetteer of ...
near the
''Curiosity'' rover.
In addition, an estimated 20,000 to 40,000 heat-resistant
bacterial spores
An endospore is a dormant, tough, and non-reproductive structure produced by some bacteria in the phylum Bacillota. The name "endospore" is suggestive of a spore or seed-like form (''endo'' means 'within'), but it is not a true spore (i.e., ...
were on the ''Curiosity'' rover at launch. As many as 1,000 times more than that may not have been counted.
*6 October
**
Takaaki Kajita
is a Japanese physicist, known for neutrino experiments at the Kamioka Observatory – Kamiokande and its successor, Super-Kamiokande. In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics jointly with Canadian physicist Arthur B. McDonald. On 1 ...
and
Arthur B. McDonald
Arthur Bruce McDonald, P.Eng (born August 29, 1943) is a Canadian astrophysicist. McDonald is the director of the Sudbury Neutrino Observatory Collaboration and held the Gordon and Patricia Gray Chair in Particle Astrophysics at Queen's Univer ...
win the 2015
Nobel Prize in Physics
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then " ...
"for the discovery of
neutrino oscillations, which shows that neutrinos have mass."
**Researchers build a quantum logic gate in silicon for the first time, making calculations between two
qubits
In quantum computing, a qubit () or quantum bit is a basic unit of quantum information—the quantum version of the classic binary bit physically realized with a two-state device. A qubit is a two-state (or two-level) quantum-mechanical system, ...
of information possible – and thereby clearing the final hurdle to making silicon quantum computers a reality.
*7 October –
Tomas Lindahl
Tomas Robert Lindahl FRS FMedSci (born 28 January 1938) is a Swedish-British scientist specialising in cancer research. In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry jointly with American chemist Paul L. Modrich and Turkish chemist Aziz ...
,
Paul L. Modrich
Paul Lawrence Modrich (born June 13, 1946) is an American biochemist, James B. Duke Professor of Biochemistry at Duke University and Investigator at the Howard Hughes Medical Institute. He is known for his research on DNA mismatch repair. Modric ...
and
Aziz Sancar
Aziz Sancar (born 8September 1946) is a Turkish molecular biologist specializing in DNA repair, cell cycle checkpoints, and circadian clock. In 2015, he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry along with Tomas Lindahl and Paul L. Modrich for t ...
win the 2015
Nobel Prize in Chemistry
)
, image = Nobel Prize.png
, alt = A golden medallion with an embossed image of a bearded man facing left in profile. To the left of the man is the text "ALFR•" then "NOBEL", and on the right, the text (smaller) "NAT•" then "M ...
, for explaining "the basic mechanisms that help to guard the integrity of our genomes."
![PIA19808-MarsCuriosityRover-AeolisMons-BuckskinRock-20150805](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/ce/PIA19808-MarsCuriosityRover-AeolisMons-BuckskinRock-20150805.jpg)
*8 October
**NASA releases details of its long-term plan for
human exploration of Mars
The idea of sending humans to Mars has been the subject of aerospace engineering and scientific studies since the late 1940s as part of the broader exploration of Mars. Some have also considered exploring the Martian moons of Phobos and Deim ...
.
**NASA confirms, based on results from the
''Curiosity'' rover (and
Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter
''Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter'' (MRO) is a spacecraft designed to study the geology and climate of Mars, provide reconnaissance of future landing sites, and relay data from surface missions back to Earth. It was launched on August 12, 2005, an ...
), that lakes and streams existed in
Gale crater
Gale is a crater, and probable dry lake, at in the northwestern part of the Aeolis quadrangle on Mars. It is in diameter and estimated to be about 3.5–3.8 billion years old. The crater was named after Walter Frederick Gale, an amateur astr ...
on
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
3.3 – 3.8 billion years ago delivering sediments to build up the lower layers of
Mount Sharp
Mount Sharp, officially Aeolis Mons (), is a mountain on Mars. It forms the central peak within Gale (crater), Gale crater and is located around , rising high from the valley floor. Its ID in the United States Geological Survey's Gazetteer of ...
.
**NASA announces that the
''New Horizons'' spacecraft has detected
blue skies and
water ice Water ice could refer to:
* Ice formed by water (as opposed to other substances)
*The alternate term for various similar frozen fruit-flavoured desserts:
** Italian ice primarily in Philadelphia and the Delaware Valley
**Sorbet
Sorbet (), also ...
on
Pluto
Pluto (minor-planet designation: 134340 Pluto) is a dwarf planet in the Kuiper belt, a ring of trans-Neptunian object, bodies beyond the orbit of Neptune. It is the ninth-largest and tenth-most-massive known object to directly orbit the S ...
.
**Scientists confirm that a third global
coral bleaching
Coral bleaching is the process when corals become white due to various stressors, such as changes in temperature, light, or nutrients. Bleaching occurs when coral polyps expel the zooxanthellae (dinoflagellates that are commonly referred to as alg ...
event is underway that is likely to be the most intense ever recorded.
**Up to 1 billion people are at risk of
blindness
Visual impairment, also known as vision impairment, is a medical definition primarily measured based on an individual's better eye visual acuity; in the absence of treatment such as correctable eyewear, assistive devices, and medical treatment ...
by 2050, according to researchers at the Brien Holden Vision Institute.
**Following a comprehensive, 10-year effort, researchers identify 238 genes that affect
aging
Ageing ( BE) or aging ( AE) is the process of becoming older. The term refers mainly to humans, many other animals, and fungi, whereas for example, bacteria, perennial plants and some simple animals are potentially biologically immortal. In ...
in yeast cells.
*13 October
**Astronomers discover
V774104
V774104 is the internal designation for the trans-Neptunian object designated , but in November 2015 press releases confused it with 541132 Leleākūhonua, which was Provisional designation in astronomy, provisionally designated and internally ...
, an object which initially appeared to have a 103 AU distance from the
Sun
The Sun is the star at the center of the Solar System. It is a nearly perfect ball of hot plasma, heated to incandescence by nuclear fusion reactions in its core. The Sun radiates this energy mainly as light, ultraviolet, and infrared radi ...
, which would have made it the furthest known object from the sun. Upon public release of the object in March 2018, it was only 90 AU from the Sun, making it only the third furthest known object.
**Scientists achieve a breakthrough in finding a general cure for cancer by attaching malaria proteins to cancer cells, which appears effective on 90% of cancer types. Human trials are expected to begin within four years.
**
Forensic scientists
Forensic science, also known as criminalistics, is the application of science to criminal and civil laws, mainly—on the criminal side—during criminal investigation, as governed by the legal standards of admissible evidence and criminal ...
report a
chemical procedure that can identify
gender
Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
from a
fingerprint
A fingerprint is an impression left by the friction ridges of a human finger. The recovery of partial fingerprints from a crime scene is an important method of forensic science. Moisture and grease on a finger result in fingerprints on surfac ...
. The fingerprint test is based on the much higher levels of certain
amino acid
Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although hundreds of amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the alpha-amino acids, which comprise proteins. Only 22 alpha am ...
s in the
perspiration
Perspiration, also known as sweating, is the production of fluids secreted by the sweat glands in the skin of mammals.
Two types of sweat glands can be found in humans: eccrine glands and apocrine glands. The eccrine sweat glands are distrib ...
of women than in men.
*14 October – Scientists report finding
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
evidence of
life
Life is a quality that distinguishes matter that has biological processes, such as signaling and self-sustaining processes, from that which does not, and is defined by the capacity for growth, reaction to stimuli, metabolism, energy ...
on the very
young Earth
Young Earth creationism (YEC) is a form of creationism which holds as a central tenet that the Earth and its lifeforms were created by supernatural acts of the Abrahamic God between approximately 6,000 and 10,000 years ago. In its most widespr ...
4.1 billion years ago,
300 million years older than known earlier. According to one of the researchers, "If life arose relatively quickly on
Earth
Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to harbor life. While large volumes of water can be found throughout the Solar System, only Earth sustains liquid surface water. About 71% of Earth's sur ...
... then it could be common in the
universe
The universe is all of space and time and their contents, including planets, stars, galaxies, and all other forms of matter and energy. The Big Bang theory is the prevailing cosmological description of the development of the univers ...
.
[ Early edition, published online before print.]
*15 October
**Researchers at Stockholm University develop a material for capturing CO
2 in the presence of water.
**
Chattanooga
Chattanooga ( ) is a city in and the county seat of Hamilton County, Tennessee, United States. Located along the Tennessee River bordering Georgia, it also extends into Marion County on its western end. With a population of 181,099 in 2020, ...
announces that a public utility will offer the world's first 10 gigabit
broadband
In telecommunications, broadband is wide bandwidth data transmission which transports multiple signals at a wide range of frequencies and Internet traffic types, that enables messages to be sent simultaneously, used in fast internet connections. ...
service across a large community-wide territory.
*20 October
**Sulfur-limonene polysulphide is used to synthesise a new material able to cheaply and efficiently absorb
mercury pollution
Mercury is a chemical element with the symbol Hg and atomic number 80. It is also known as quicksilver and was formerly named hydrargyrum ( ) from the Greek words, ''hydor'' (water) and ''argyros'' (silver). A heavy, silvery d-block element, m ...
from soils and water.
**Researchers in California use
big data
Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
to identify over 100 novel cancer driver genes.
**Sunscreen chemicals such as
oxybenzone
Oxybenzone or benzophenone-3 or BP-3 (trade names Milestab 9, Eusolex 4360, Escalol 567, KAHSCREEN BZ-3) is an organic compound. It is a pale-yellow solid that is readily soluble in most organic solvents. Oxybenzone belongs to the class of aroma ...
may be contributing to the decline of
coral reefs
A coral reef is an underwater ecosystem characterized by reef-building corals. Reefs are formed of Colony (biology), colonies of coral polyp (zoology), polyps held together by calcium carbonate. Most coral reefs are built from stony corals, wh ...
popular with tourists, according to a study by the University of Central Florida.
![Patricia 2015-10-23 1730Z Worldview](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Patricia_2015-10-23_1730Z.jpg)
*21 October
**The first direct observation of a solar system being torn apart by a
white dwarf
A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: its mass is comparable to the Sun's, while its volume is comparable to the Earth's. A white dwarf's faint luminosity comes fro ...
is described in the journal ''Nature''. The star, known as
WD 1145+017
WD may refer to:
Arts and entertainment
* ''The Walking Dead'' (TV series)
* ''White Dwarf'' (magazine)
Businesses and organizations Government agencies
* Royal Canadian Air Force Women's Division
* War Department (United Kingdom)
Oth ...
, is transited by at least one, and probably several, disintegrating planetesimals, with periods ranging from 4.5 hours to 4.9 hours.
**Astronomers using the ESO
Very Large Telescope
The Very Large Telescope (VLT) is a telescope facility operated by the European Southern Observatory on Cerro Paranal in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile. It consists of four individual telescopes, each with a primary mirror 8.2 m across, ...
identify the hottest and most massive
contact binary
In astronomy, a contact binary is a binary star system whose component stars are so close that they touch each other or have merged to share their gaseous envelopes. A binary system whose stars share an envelope may also be called an overconta ...
. The double star system,
VFTS 352
VFTS 352 is a contact binary star system away in the Tarantula Nebula, which is part of the Large Magellanic Cloud. It is the most massive and earliest spectral type overcontact system known.
The discovery of this O-type binary st ...
, is located 160,000 light-years away in the
Tarantula Nebula
The Tarantula Nebula (also known as 30 Doradus) is a large H II region in the Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), forming its south-east corner (from Earth's perspective).
Discovery
The Tarantula Nebula was observed by Nicolas-Louis de Lacaille durin ...
, which is part of the
Large Magellanic Cloud
The Large Magellanic Cloud (LMC), or Nubecula Major, is a satellite galaxy of the Milky Way. At a distance of around 50 kiloparsecs (≈160,000 light-years), the LMC is the second- or third-closest galaxy to the Milky Way, after the ...
.
**Scientists report that the
quantum entanglement
Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon that occurs when a group of particles are generated, interact, or share spatial proximity in a way such that the quantum state of each particle of the group cannot be described independently of the state of ...
phenomenon is strongly supported based on a "
loophole-free Bell test" study.
**The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that September's global average temperature was the largest departure from normal for any month on record.
**The
Eastern Santa Cruz Tortoise (''Chelonoidis donfaustoi''), a newly discovered species of
giant tortoise
Giant tortoises are any of several species of various large land tortoises, which include a number of extinct species, as well as two extant species with multiple subspecies formerly common on the islands of the western Indian Ocean and on the ...
on the
Galápagos Islands
The Galápagos Islands (Spanish: , , ) are an archipelago of volcanic islands. They are distributed on each side of the equator in the Pacific Ocean, surrounding the centre of the Western Hemisphere, and are part of the Republic of Ecuador ...
, is described in the journal ''PLOS ONE''.
**The
European Space Agency
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
reports that
Oxia Planum
Oxia Planum is a 200 km-wide clay-bearing plain located on the planet of Mars inside the Oxia Palus quadrangle on the eastern border of Chryse Planitia. The plain lies between the Mawrth Vallis outflow channel to the north-east and the Ares Valli ...
on the planet
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
is the preferred landing site for the
ExoMars rover
''Rosalind Franklin'', previously known as the ExoMars rover, is a planned robotic Mars rover, part of the international ExoMars programme led by the European Space Agency and the Russian Roscosmos State Corporation. The mission was schedule ...
.
*22 October – A new gene therapy cures
muscular dystrophy
Muscular dystrophies (MD) are a genetically and clinically heterogeneous group of rare neuromuscular diseases that cause progressive weakness and breakdown of skeletal muscles over time. The disorders differ as to which muscles are primarily affe ...
in dogs, with human trials expected to follow in the next few years, according to researchers at the University of Missouri.
*23 October
**
Hurricane Patricia
Hurricane Patricia was the strongest tropical cyclone on record worldwide in terms of wind speed and the second-most intense on record worldwide in terms of pressure, behind Typhoon Tip in 1979, with a minimum atmospheric pressure of 872 mbar ( ...
becomes the most intense tropical cyclone ever observed in the Western Hemisphere in terms of barometric pressure and the strongest globally in terms of maximum sustained winds.
**U.S. physicists use lasers to create
positron
The positron or antielectron is the antiparticle or the antimatter counterpart of the electron. It has an electric charge of +1 '' e'', a spin of 1/2 (the same as the electron), and the same mass as an electron. When a positron collides ...
s – the antiparticle of electrons – in record numbers and density.
![FoodMeat](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/ae/FoodMeat.jpg)
*26 October
**The
International Agency for Research on Cancer
The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC; french: Centre International de Recherche sur le Cancer, CIRC) is an intergovernmental agency forming part of the World Health Organization of the United Nations.
Its role is to conduct and ...
of the
World Health Organization
The World Health Organization (WHO) is a specialized agency of the United Nations responsible for international public health. The WHO Constitution states its main objective as "the attainment by all peoples of the highest possible level of h ...
reports that eating
processed meat
Processed meat is considered to be any meat which has been modified in order to either improve its taste or to extend its shelf life. Methods of meat processing include salting, curing, fermentation, smoking, and/or the addition of chemical pre ...
(e.g., bacon, ham, hot dogs, sausages) or
red meat
In gastronomy, red meat is commonly red when raw and a dark color after it is cooked, in contrast to white meat, which is pale in color before and after cooking. In culinary terms, only flesh from mammals or fowl (not fish) is classified as ...
is linked to some
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
s.
**A new study by MIT predicts that extreme
heatwaves
A heat wave, or heatwave, is a period of excessively hot weather, which may be accompanied by high humidity, especially in oceanic climate countries. While definitions vary, a heat wave is usually measured relative to the usual climate in the ...
will make large parts of the
Gulf region
The Persian Gulf ( fa, خلیج فارس, translit=xalij-e fârs, lit=Gulf of Fars, ), sometimes called the ( ar, اَلْخَلِيْجُ ٱلْعَرَبِيُّ, Al-Khalīj al-ˁArabī), is a mediterranean sea in Western Asia. The body ...
intolerable for humans in the late 21st century.
*27 October
**Researchers at the University of Bristol create a
tractor beam
A tractor-beam is a device with the ability to attract one object to another from a distance. The concept originates in fiction: The term was coined by E. E. Smith (an update of his earlier "attractor-beam") in his novel ''Spacehounds of IPC'' (19 ...
using "holograms" made of sound waves, able to move small objects from up to 40 cm away.
**Using computer models of
geoengineering, a study in ''PNAS'' shows that a halving of
Katrina
Katrina or Katrine may refer to:
People
* Katrina (given name)
* Katrine (given name)
Meteorology
* List of storms named Katrina, a list of tropical cyclones designated as Katrina
** Hurricane Katrina, an exceptionally powerful Atlantic hurrican ...
-sized hurricanes over the next half century might be possible, but only if a new and safer aerosol can be found.
*28 October –
NASA administrator
The Administrator of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is the highest-ranking official of NASA, the national space agency of the United States. The administrator is NASA's chief decision maker, responsible for providing clarity to ...
,
Charlie Bolden
Charles Frank Bolden Jr. (born August 19, 1946) is a former Administrator of NASA, a retired United States Marine Corps Major General, and a former astronaut who flew on four Space Shuttle missions.
He graduated from the United States Naval ...
, presents the next steps for a
human journey to Mars at the
Center for American Progress
The Center for American Progress (CAP) is a public policy research and advocacy organization which presents a liberal viewpoint on economic and social issues. It has its headquarters in Washington, D.C.
The president and chief executive officer ...
in
Washington, D.C.
)
, image_skyline =
, image_caption = Clockwise from top left: the Washington Monument and Lincoln Memorial on the National Mall, United States Capitol, Logan Circle, Jefferson Memorial, White House, Adams Morgan, ...
*29 October –
NASA Office of Inspector General
The NASA Office of Inspector General (NASA OIG or OIG) is the inspector general office in the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, the space agency of the United States. The OIG's stated mission is to "prevent and detect crime, fraud, wa ...
issues a
health hazards report related to
human missions to
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
.
*30 October – Researchers at the
VUMC Cancer Center Amsterdam develop a
blood test
A blood test is a laboratory analysis performed on a blood sample that is usually extracted from a vein in the arm using a hypodermic needle, or via fingerprick. Multiple tests for specific blood components, such as a glucose test or a cholester ...
that, from a single drop of blood, can diagnose
cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
with a probability of 97%, and about 6-8% probability of a false diagnosis, in healthy patients.
*31 October – Asteroid
, a
near-Earth asteroid
A near-Earth object (NEO) is any small Solar System body whose orbit brings it into proximity with Earth. By convention, a Solar System body is a NEO if its closest approach to the Sun (perihelion) is less than 1.3 astronomical units (AU). ...
roughly in diameter, passes 1.27
lunar distances from Earth.
November
![Mars-MAVEN-Orbiter-20140921](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f2/Mars-MAVEN-Orbiter-20140921.jpg)
*4 November – ''
New Horizons
''New Horizons'' is an interplanetary space probe that was launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institute (SwRI), with a ...
'' completes the last in a series of four maneuvers putting it on course for a rendezvous with
486958 Arrokoth
Arrokoth (minor-planet designation 486958 Arrokoth; provisional designation ), formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule, is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive object in the Solar System ...
in January 2019, a billion miles beyond Pluto. This propulsive maneuver is the most distant trajectory correction ever performed by any spacecraft.
*5 November
**NASA scientists report, based on results from the
MAVEN
MAVEN is an American spacecraft orbiting Mars to study the loss of its atmospheric gases to space, providing insight into the history of
the planet's climate and water. The spacecraft name is an acronym for "Mars Atmosphere and Volatile Evolu ...
orbiter circling
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
, that the
solar wind
The solar wind is a stream of charged particles released from the upper atmosphere of the Sun, called the corona. This plasma mostly consists of electrons, protons and alpha particles with kinetic energy between . The composition of the sola ...
is responsible for stripping away the
atmosphere of Mars
The atmosphere of Mars is the layer of gases surrounding Mars. It is primarily composed of carbon dioxide (95%), molecular nitrogen (2.8%), and argon (2%). It also contains trace levels of water vapor, oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and no ...
over the years.
**A chemical that could potentially be used in
eye drops
Eye drops or eyedrops are liquid drops applied directly to the surface of the eye usually in small amounts such as a single drop or a few drops. Eye drops usually contain saline to match the salinity of the eye. Drops containing only saline ...
to reverse
cataracts
A cataract is a cloudy area in the lens of the eye that leads to a decrease in vision. Cataracts often develop slowly and can affect one or both eyes. Symptoms may include faded colors, blurry or double vision, halos around light, trouble ...
, the leading cause of blindness, is identified by scientists at the University of California.
**In a world first, gene-edited immune cells are used to treat 'incurable'
leukaemia
Leukemia ( also spelled leukaemia and pronounced ) is a group of blood cancers that usually begin in the bone marrow and result in high numbers of abnormal blood cells. These blood cells are not fully developed and are called ''blasts'' or ' ...
in a one-year-old girl.
**Stem cell scientists at the
University Health Network
University Health Network (UHN) is a public research and teaching hospital network in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It is the largest health research organization in Canada and ranks first in Canada for total research funding. It was named Canada's ...
identify an entirely new "two tier" process of how
blood
Blood is a body fluid in the circulatory system of humans and other vertebrates that delivers necessary substances such as nutrients and oxygen to the cells, and transports metabolic waste products away from those same cells. Blood in the c ...
is made, overturning decades of established science. The researchers claim their finding could lead to radically improved and personalised treatments for
blood disorders
Hematologic diseases are disorders which primarily affect the blood & blood-forming organs. Hematologic diseases include rare genetic disorders, anemia, HIV, sickle cell disease & complications from chemotherapy or transfusions.
Myeloid
* Hemogl ...
.
*11 November
**Groundwork begins on the 24.5m
Giant Magellan Telescope
The Giant Magellan Telescope (GMT) is a ground-based extremely large telescope under construction, as part of the US Extremely Large Telescope Program (US-ELTP), . It will consist of seven 8.4 m (27.6 ft) diameter primary segments, that ...
. Early operations are expected to begin by 2021, with full operations by 2025.
**Scientists report finding a 110,000-years-old tooth
fossil
A fossil (from Classical Latin , ) is any preserved remains, impression, or trace of any once-living thing from a past geological age. Examples include bones, shells, exoskeletons, stone imprints of animals or microbes, objects preserved ...
containing
DNA from
Denisovan hominin, an
extinct
Extinction is the termination of a kind of organism or of a group of kinds (taxon), usually a species. The moment of extinction is generally considered to be the death of the last individual of the species, although the capacity to breed and ...
species
In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...
of
human
Humans (''Homo sapiens'') are the most abundant and widespread species of primate, characterized by bipedalism and exceptional cognitive skills due to a large and complex brain. This has enabled the development of advanced tools, culture, ...
in the genus
Homo
''Homo'' () is the genus that emerged in the (otherwise extinct) genus '' Australopithecus'' that encompasses the extant species ''Homo sapiens'' ( modern humans), plus several extinct species classified as either ancestral to or closely rela ...
.
![M15-162b-EarthAtmosphere-CarbonDioxide-FutureRoleInGlobalWarming-Simulation-20151109](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/14/M15-162b-EarthAtmosphere-CarbonDioxide-FutureRoleInGlobalWarming-Simulation-20151109.jpg)
*12 November
**
NASA scientists report that human-made
carbon dioxide
Carbon dioxide ( chemical formula ) is a chemical compound made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in the gas state at room temperature. In the air, carbon dioxide is t ...
(CO
2) continues to increase above levels not seen in hundreds of thousands of years: currently, about half of the carbon dioxide released from the
burning of fossil fuels remains in the
atmosphere
An atmosphere () is a layer of gas or layers of gases that envelop a planet, and is held in place by the gravity of the planetary body. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A s ...
and is not absorbed by vegetation and the oceans.
**MIT invents an efficient new shockwave-based process for the
desalination
Desalination is a process that takes away mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination refers to the removal of salts and minerals from a target substance, as in Soil salinity control, soil desalination, which is an issue f ...
of water.
**The huge
Zachariae Isstrom
Zachariae Isstrom ( da, Zachariae Isstrøm; Isstrøm being the Danish word for ice stream) is a large glacier located in King Frederick VIII Land, northeast Greenland.
This glacier was named by the Denmark expedition 1906–08 after Georg Hugh Rob ...
glacier
A glacier (; ) is a persistent body of dense ice that is constantly moving under its own weight. A glacier forms where the accumulation of snow exceeds its ablation over many years, often centuries. It acquires distinguishing features, such a ...
in Greenland, which holds enough water to raise global sea levels by half a metre, is reported to be melting and crumbling into the North Atlantic Ocean.
*16 November
**Scientists report that
Haramiyavia
''Haramiyavia'' ("thief grandmother" from Arabic الحرامية (al ḥarāmiyah), "thief, ''Haramiya''" + Latin avia, "grandmother") is a genus of synapsid in the clade Haramiyida that existed about 200 million years ago in the Rhaetian stage ...
, a type of
Haramiyida
Haramiyida ("thief" from Arabic الحرامية (al ḥarāmiyah), "thief, bandit") is a possibly polyphyletic order of mammaliaform cynodonts or mammals of controversial taxonomic affinites. Their teeth, which are by far the most common remains ...
living about 200 million years ago and at first thought to be the earliest known
herbivore
A herbivore is an animal anatomically and physiologically adapted to eating plant material, for example foliage or marine algae, for the main component of its diet. As a result of their plant diet, herbivorous animals typically have mouthpart ...
s among very early
mammal
Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...
s, may not have been mammals after all, but part of a more ancestral side branch instead.
**Iranian researchers at the
University of Tehran
The University of Tehran (Tehran University or UT, fa, دانشگاه تهران) is the most prominent university located in Tehran, Iran. Based on its historical, socio-cultural, and political pedigree, as well as its research and teaching pro ...
demonstrate the latest generation of their humanoid robot,
Surena III.
**Nano-scale submarines built from 244 atoms and capable of moving at 1 inch per second are demonstrated by
Rice University
William Marsh Rice University (Rice University) is a Private university, private research university in Houston, Houston, Texas. It is on a 300-acre campus near the Houston Museum District and adjacent to the Texas Medical Center. Rice is ranke ...
.
*17 November
**A point mutation in a gene of the serotonin 2B receptor is linked to
impulsive behaviour
In psychology, impulsivity (or impulsiveness) is a tendency to act on a Impulse (psychology), whim, displaying behavior characterized by little or no forethought, reflection, or consideration of the consequences. Impulsive actions are typically "p ...
in humans, particularly those who are
drunk
Alcohol intoxication, also known as alcohol poisoning, commonly described as drunkenness or inebriation, is the negative behavior and physical effects caused by a recent consumption of alcohol. In addition to the toxicity of ethanol, the main ps ...
, according to research by the
University of Helsinki
The University of Helsinki ( fi, Helsingin yliopisto, sv, Helsingfors universitet, abbreviated UH) is a public research university located in Helsinki, Finland since 1829, but founded in the city of Turku (in Swedish ''Åbo'') in 1640 as the ...
in Finland.
**Scientists develop a self-healing, flexible sensor that mimics the self-healing properties of human skin. Incidental scratches or cuts to the sensors "heal" themselves in less than one day.
*18 November
**University of Washington engineers report the development of a novel technology that uses a Wi-Fi router to power devices.
**Astronomers at the University of Arizona capture the first image of an exoplanet being formed in a
protoplanetary disk
A protoplanetary disk is a rotating circumstellar disc of dense gas and dust surrounding a young newly formed star, a T Tauri star, or Herbig Ae/Be star. The protoplanetary disk may also be considered an accretion disk for the star itself, be ...
. The object,
LkCa 15 b, is located 450 light years away, orbiting a young star named LkCa15.
**University of Massachusetts Medical School researchers have created a greatly improved implementation of CRISPR with potentially far reaching implications.
![Salmo salar GLERL 1](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Salmo_salar_GLERL_1.jpg)
*19 November – For the first time, the
FDA approves
genetically modified salmon
AquAdvantage salmon is a genetically engineered (GE) fish, a GE Atlantic salmon developed by AquaBounty Technologies in 1989. The typical growth hormone-regulating gene in the Atlantic salmon was replaced with the growth hormone-regulating gene ...
for
human consumption.
*20 November – Doctors use
virtual reality
Virtual reality (VR) is a simulated experience that employs pose tracking and 3D near-eye displays to give the user an immersive feel of a virtual world. Applications of virtual reality include entertainment (particularly video games), educ ...
in surgery for the first time, which helps to clear the blocked
coronary artery
The coronary arteries are the arterial blood vessels of coronary circulation, which transport oxygenated blood to the heart muscle. The heart requires a continuous supply of oxygen to function and survive, much like any other tissue or organ of ...
of a male patient.
*23 November – The genome of the
tardigrade
Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them Kleiner Wasserbär ...
is published, revealing that 17.5% is foreign DNA (from other organisms). It is the only animal able to survive in the vacuum of space.
*24 November – A review of scientific literature by Bristol University finds no substantive evidence of a "pause" or "
hiatus
Hiatus may refer to:
* Hiatus (anatomy), a natural fissure in a structure
* Hiatus (stratigraphy), a discontinuity in the age of strata in stratigraphy
*''Hiatus'', a genus of picture-winged flies with sole member species '' Hiatus fulvipes''
* G ...
" in global warming.
*25 November – By switching off, one by one, almost 18,000 genes — 90 per cent of the entire human genome — scientists at the
University of Toronto
The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public research university in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park. It was founded by royal charter in 1827 as King's College, the first institution ...
identify genes that are essential for cell survival.
*30 November – The U.S. Geological Survey predicts that between 16 and 24 percent of
Alaska
Alaska ( ; russian: Аляска, Alyaska; ale, Alax̂sxax̂; ; ems, Alas'kaaq; Yup'ik: ''Alaskaq''; tli, Anáaski) is a state located in the Western United States on the northwest extremity of North America. A semi-exclave of the U.S., ...
n
permafrost
Permafrost is ground that continuously remains below 0 °C (32 °F) for two or more years, located on land or under the ocean. Most common in the Northern Hemisphere, around 15% of the Northern Hemisphere or 11% of the global surface ...
will disappear by
2100.
December
* 1–3 December – The International Summit on Human Gene Editing is held in Washington.
* 1 December
**Blood vessel-like structures found in an 80 million-year-old
hadrosaur
Hadrosaurids (), or duck-billed dinosaurs, are members of the ornithischian family Hadrosauridae. This group is known as the duck-billed dinosaurs for the flat duck-bill appearance of the bones in their snouts. The ornithopod family, which includ ...
fossil are confirmed to be original to the animal, and not biofilm or other contaminants.
**A new "Polarised 3D" system developed by MIT can increase the resolution of conventional 3-D imaging devices 1,000-fold.
**
Epson
Seiko Epson Corporation, or simply known as Epson, is a Japanese multinational electronics company and one of the world's largest manufacturers of computer printers and information- and imaging-related equipment. Headquartered in Suwa, Nagano, ...
debuts "PaperLab", the world's first office papermaking system that turns waste paper into new sheets.
*2 December – A new
mass spectral imaging device at Colorado State University allows 3-D mapping of cellular composition at a resolution of 75 nanometres wide and 20 nanometres deep — more than 100 times higher than was previously possible.
![ADN static](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c2/ADN_static.png)
*3 December
**The
LISA Pathfinder
LISA Pathfinder, formerly Small Missions for Advanced Research in Technology-2 (SMART-2), was an ESA spacecraft that was launched on 3 December 2015 on board Vega flight VV06. The mission tested technologies needed for the Laser Interferometer S ...
mission is launched by
ESA
, owners =
, headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France
, coordinates =
, spaceport = Guiana Space Centre
, seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png
, seal_size = 130px
, image = Views in the Main Control Room (1205 ...
.
**Scientists of major world academies call for a
moratorium on
inheritable human genome
The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as DNA within the 23 chromosome pairs in cell nuclei and in a small DNA molecule found within individual mitochondria. These are usually treated separately as the ...
edits
Editing is the process of selecting and preparing written, photographic, visual, audible, or cinematic material used by a person or an entity to convey a message or information. The editing process can involve correction, condensation, or ...
, including those related to
CRISPR-Cas9
Cas9 (CRISPR associated protein 9, formerly called Cas5, Csn1, or Csx12) is a 160 kilodalton protein which plays a vital role in the immunological defense of certain bacteria against DNA viruses and plasmids, and is heavily utilized in genetic ...
technologies.
*4 December
**The Earth Institute at Columbia University publishes a study that reinforces previous findings that the
Medieval warm period
The Medieval Warm Period (MWP), also known as the Medieval Climate Optimum or the Medieval Climatic Anomaly, was a time of warm climate in the North Atlantic region that lasted from to . Proxy (climate), Climate proxy records show peak warmth oc ...
was limited in extent and not global.
**
Dams
A dam is a barrier that stops or restricts the flow of surface water or underground streams. Reservoirs created by dams not only suppress floods but also provide water for activities such as irrigation, human consumption, industrial use, ...
and
irrigation
Irrigation (also referred to as watering) is the practice of applying controlled amounts of water to land to help grow Crop, crops, Landscape plant, landscape plants, and Lawn, lawns. Irrigation has been a key aspect of agriculture for over 5,00 ...
raise the global human freshwater footprint almost 20 percent higher than previously thought, according to new research by Stockholm University.
*7 December
**The Japanese
Akatsuki
may refer to:
* Akatsuki (spacecraft), an uncrewed Venus orbiter
* , any of three classes of destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy
* , any of three destroyers of the Imperial Japanese Navy
* ''Akatsuki'' (train), operated between Kyoto and Na ...
probe, which failed to orbit
Venus
Venus is the second planet from the Sun. It is sometimes called Earth's "sister" or "twin" planet as it is almost as large and has a similar composition. As an interior planet to Earth, Venus (like Mercury) appears in Earth's sky never f ...
in 2010, is reported to have succeeded following a second attempt.
**Researchers at
Eindhoven University of Technology
The Eindhoven University of Technology ( nl, Technische Universiteit Eindhoven), abbr. TU/e, is a public technical university in the Netherlands, located in the city of Eindhoven. In 2020–21, around 14,000 students were enrolled in its BSc a ...
create the world's smallest temperature sensor, powered by radio waves, which they say could be used in developing the
Internet of Things
The Internet of things (IoT) describes physical objects (or groups of such objects) with sensors, processing ability, software and other technologies that connect and exchange data with other devices and systems over the Internet or other comm ...
.
*9 December
**The world's first "test tube" puppies created through
IVF
In vitro fertilisation (IVF) is a process of fertilisation where an egg is combined with sperm in vitro ("in glass"). The process involves monitoring and stimulating an individual's ovulatory process, removing an ovum or ova (egg or eggs) f ...
are born in the US after years of attempts.
**NASA scientists report that the
bright spots on the
dwarf planet
A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit of the Sun, smaller than any of the eight classical planets but still a world in its own right. The prototypical dwarf planet is Pluto. The interest of dwarf planets to ...
Ceres, including those in Ceres' largest bright spot region located in
Occator crater
Occator is an impact crater located on Ceres, the largest object in the main asteroid belt that lies between the orbits of Mars and Jupiter, that contains "Spot 5", the brightest of the bright spots observed by the Dawn spacecraft. It was kn ...
, may be related to a type of salt, particularly a form of
brine
Brine is a high-concentration solution of salt (NaCl) in water (H2O). In diverse contexts, ''brine'' may refer to the salt solutions ranging from about 3.5% (a typical concentration of seawater, on the lower end of that of solutions used for br ...
containing
magnesium sulfate
Magnesium sulfate or magnesium sulphate (in English-speaking countries other than the US) is a chemical compound, a salt with the formula , consisting of magnesium cations (20.19% by mass) and sulfate anions . It is a white crystalline solid, ...
hexahydrite
Magnesium sulfate or magnesium sulphate (in English-speaking countries other than the US) is a chemical compound, a salt with the formula , consisting of magnesium cations (20.19% by mass) and sulfate anions . It is a white crystalline solid, s ...
(MgSO
4·6H
2O); the spots were also found to be associated with
ammonia-rich clays.
*10 December
**The first helium plasma test is conducted at the
Wendelstein 7-X
The Wendelstein 7-X (abbreviated W7-X) reactor is an experimental stellarator built in Greifswald, Germany, by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), and completed in October 2015.[Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array
The Atacama Large Millimeter/submillimeter Array (ALMA) is an astronomical interferometer of 66 radio telescopes in the Atacama Desert of northern Chile, which observe electromagnetic radiation at millimeter and submillimeter wavelengths. The ar ...]
(ALMA), astronomers report the possibility of a large "super-Earth" or
Planet X
Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's ...
lurking at the far edges of the Solar System in the direction of Alpha Centauri.
*11 December
**Paleontologists report the discovery of ''
Hualianceratops wucaiwanensis'', an herbivorous
ceratopsian
Ceratopsia or Ceratopia ( or ; Greek: "horned faces") is a group of herbivorous, beaked dinosaurs that thrived in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia, during the Cretaceous Period, although ancestral forms lived earlier, in the Jurassic. ...
dinosaur
Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the evolution of dinosaurs is t ...
that lived about 160 million years ago in western China.
**
Disney Research
Disney Research is a network of research labs supporting The Walt Disney Company. Its purpose is to pursue scientific and technological innovation to advance the company's broad media and entertainment efforts.
It has facilities in Los Angeles, Z ...
unveils "FaceDirector", a new method of synthesising an actor's facial performances in
post-production
Post-production is part of the process of filmmaking, video production, audio production, and photography. Post-production includes all stages of production occurring after principal photography or recording individual program segments.
The ...
to get just the right emotion, instead of re-shooting the scene multiple times.
**
OpenAI
OpenAI is an artificial intelligence (AI) research laboratory consisting of the for-profit corporation OpenAI LP and its parent company, the non-profit OpenAI Inc. The company conducts research in the field of AI with the stated goal of promo ...
is founded.
![DARK CLOUDS OF FACTORY SMOKE OBSCURE CLARK AVENUE BRIDGE - NARA - 550179](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/4/4f/DARK_CLOUDS_OF_FACTORY_SMOKE_OBSCURE_CLARK_AVENUE_BRIDGE_-_NARA_-_550179.jpg)
*14 December – A new
atomic force microscope
Atomic force microscopy (AFM) or scanning force microscopy (SFM) is a very-high-resolution type of scanning probe microscopy (SPM), with demonstrated resolution on the order of fractions of a nanometer, more than 1000 times better than the diffr ...
is announced by MIT, capable of scanning images 2,000 times faster than existing commercial models. This allows it to operate with near-real-time video speed to capture structures as small as a fraction of a nanometer from single strands of DNA down to individual hydrogen bonds.
*15 December
**Two teams of physicists, working independently at
CERN
The European Organization for Nuclear Research, known as CERN (; ; ), is an intergovernmental organization that operates the largest particle physics laboratory in the world. Established in 1954, it is based in a northwestern suburb of Gene ...
, report preliminary hints of a possible new
subatomic particle
In physical sciences, a subatomic particle is a particle that composes an atom. According to the Standard Model of particle physics, a subatomic particle can be either a composite particle, which is composed of other particles (for example, a pr ...
(more specifically, the
ATLAS
An atlas is a collection of maps; it is typically a bundle of maps of Earth or of a region of Earth.
Atlases have traditionally been bound into book form, but today many atlases are in multimedia formats. In addition to presenting geographic ...
and
CMS
CMS may refer to:
Computing
* Call management system
* CMS-2 (programming language), used by the United States Navy
* Code Morphing Software, a technology used by Transmeta
* Collection management system for a museum collection
* Color manag ...
experiments, using 13 TeV proton collision data, showed a moderate excess around 750 GeV, in the two-photon spectrum): if real, the particle could be either a heavier version of a
Higgs boson
The Higgs boson, sometimes called the Higgs particle, is an elementary particle in the Standard Model of particle physics produced by the quantum excitation of the Higgs field,
one of the fields in particle physics theory. In the Stand ...
or a
graviton
In theories of quantum gravity, the graviton is the hypothetical quantum of gravity, an elementary particle that mediates the force of gravitational interaction. There is no complete quantum field theory of gravitons due to an outstanding mathem ...
.
**A new world record for the smallest
inkjet
Inkjet printing is a type of computer printing that recreates a digital image by propelling droplets of ink onto paper and plastic substrates. Inkjet printers were the most commonly used type of printer in 2008, and range from small inexpensi ...
image is announced, after researchers in Switzerland used
quantum dots
Quantum dots (QDs) are semiconductor particles a few nanometres in size, having optical and electronic properties that differ from those of larger particles as a result of quantum mechanics. They are a central topic in nanotechnology. When the ...
to produce a 0.0092 mm
2 (80 μm x 115 μm) colour photo of tropical
clown fish
Clownfish or anemonefish are fishes from the subfamily Amphiprioninae in the family Pomacentridae. Thirty species of clownfish are recognized: one in the genus '' Premnas'', while the remaining are in the genus ''Amphiprion''. In the wild, t ...
at a resolution of 25,000 dpi.
*16 December –
Cancer
Cancer is a group of diseases involving abnormal cell growth with the potential to invade or spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Possible signs and symptoms include a lump, abnormal b ...
is overwhelmingly a result of
environmental factor
An environmental factor, ecological factor or eco factor is any factor, abiotic or biotic, that influences living organisms. Abiotic factors include ambient temperature, amount of sunlight, and pH of the water soil in which an organism lives. Bi ...
s, and not largely down to bad luck, a study by medical scientists suggests. Maintaining a healthy weight, eating a healthy diet, minimizing alcohol and eliminating smoking reduces the risk of developing the disease, according to researchers.
*17 December – Researchers develop a new
Big Data
Though used sometimes loosely partly because of a lack of formal definition, the interpretation that seems to best describe Big data is the one associated with large body of information that we could not comprehend when used only in smaller am ...
statistical method, known as iGWAS, which identifies five
longevity
The word " longevity" is sometimes used as a synonym for " life expectancy" in demography. However, the term ''longevity'' is sometimes meant to refer only to especially long-lived members of a population, whereas ''life expectancy'' is always ...
loci associated with healthy aging.
*19 December – A final flyby of
Enceladus
Enceladus is the sixth-largest moon of Saturn (19th largest in the Solar System). It is about in diameter, about a tenth of that of Saturn's largest moon, Titan. Enceladus is mostly covered by fresh, clean ice, making it one of the most refle ...
, moon of
Saturn
Saturn is the sixth planet from the Sun and the second-largest in the Solar System, after Jupiter. It is a gas giant with an average radius of about nine and a half times that of Earth. It has only one-eighth the average density of Earth; h ...
, by the ''
Cassini'' spacecraft, is reported by
NASA
The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agency of the US federal government responsible for the civil space program, aeronautics research, and space research.
NASA was established in 1958, succeeding t ...
.
*21 December
**U.S. company
SpaceX
Space Exploration Technologies Corp. (SpaceX) is an American spacecraft manufacturer, launcher, and a satellite communications corporation headquartered in Hawthorne, California. It was founded in 2002 by Elon Musk with the stated goal o ...
, headed by
Elon Musk
Elon Reeve Musk ( ; born June 28, 1971) is a business magnate and investor. He is the founder, CEO and chief engineer of SpaceX; angel investor, CEO and product architect of Tesla, Inc.; owner and CEO of Twitter, Inc.; founder of The B ...
, achieves a historic milestone in space flight by landing a
Falcon 9
Falcon 9 is a partially reusable medium lift launch vehicle that can carry cargo and crew into Earth orbit, produced by American aerospace company SpaceX.
The rocket has two stages. The first (booster) stage carries the second stage and pay ...
rocket vertically, demonstrating that cheaper
reusable rockets might be possible.
**In response to the dramatic decline of
lion
The lion (''Panthera leo'') is a large Felidae, cat of the genus ''Panthera'' native to Africa and India. It has a muscular, broad-chested body; short, rounded head; round ears; and a hairy tuft at the end of its tail. It is sexually dimorphi ...
populations in the wild, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service announces two lion subspecies as endangered and threatened. ''Panthera leo leo'', found in India and Africa, is listed as endangered, and ''Panthera leo melanochaita'', in eastern and southern Africa, is listed as threatened.
*22 December – NASA delays the launch of the ''
InSight
Insight is the understanding of a specific cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings:
*a piece of information
*the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of seeing intu ...
'' mission to
Mars
Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun and the second-smallest planet in the Solar System, only being larger than Mercury. In the English language, Mars is named for the Roman god of war. Mars is a terrestrial planet with a thin at ...
in March 2016, due to an air leak in one of the primary scientific instruments.
The mission was launched in May 2018.
*28 December – Scientists report the discovery of a new type of
basaltic rock
Basalt (; ) is an aphanitic (fine-grained) extrusive igneous rock formed from the rapid cooling of low-viscosity lava rich in magnesium and iron (mafic lava) exposed at or very near the surface of a rocky planet or moon. More than 90% of a ...
, rich in
ilmenite
Ilmenite is a titanium-iron oxide mineral with the idealized formula . It is a weakly magnetic black or steel-gray solid. Ilmenite is the most important ore of titanium and the main source of titanium dioxide, which is used in paints, printing ...
, a black mineral, on the
moon
The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It is the fifth largest satellite in the Solar System and the largest and most massive relative to its parent planet, with a diameter about one-quarter that of Earth (comparable to the width of ...
by ''
Chang'e-3'', a Chinese spacecraft that landed on the moon in 2013.
*30 December – The seventh row of the
periodic table
The periodic table, also known as the periodic table of the (chemical) elements, is a rows and columns arrangement of the chemical elements. It is widely used in chemistry, physics, and other sciences, and is generally seen as an icon of ch ...
is officially declared full, after the discovery of elements
113 113 may refer to:
*113 (number), a natural number
*AD 113, a year
* 113 BC, a year
*113 (band), a French hip hop group
* 113 (MBTA bus), Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority bus route
* 113 (New Jersey bus), Ironbound Garage in Newark and run ...
,
115,
117 and
118.
Awards
*
Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering
The Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering, also known as the QEPrize, is a global prize for engineering and innovation. The prize was launched in 2012 by a cross-party group consisting of David Cameron, Nick Clegg, and Ed Miliband, then Prime Mi ...
:
Robert S. Langer.
*
UNESCO
The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization is a specialized agency of the United Nations (UN) aimed at promoting world peace and security through international cooperation in education, arts, sciences and culture. It ...
Medal for the Development of Nanoscience and Nanotechnologies: Valentin Bukhtoyarov, Constance Chang-Hasnain, Soodabeh Davaran, Vladimir Fortov, Mikhail Kovalchuk, Tebello Nyokong, Mikhail Selyanin and Shem Wandiga.
Deaths
*8 January – John Duckworth (physicist), John Duckworth, British physicist (b. 1916 in science, 1916).
*20 January – Lawrence Hogben,
New Zealand
New Zealand ( mi, Aotearoa ) is an island country in the southwestern Pacific Ocean. It consists of two main landmasses—the North Island () and the South Island ()—and over 700 smaller islands. It is the sixth-largest island coun ...
meteorologist and naval officer (b.1916 in science, 1916).
*27 January – Charles H. Townes, American Nobel Prize in Physics, Nobel Prize-winning physicist and contributor to the invention of the laser (b.1915 in science, 1915).
*25 February – Raymond Smallman, British metallurgist and academic (b. 1929 in science, 1929).
*4 April – Ioan Pușcaș, Romanian gastroenterologist (b. 1932 in science, 1932).
*23 May – John Forbes Nash, Jr., American mathematician, laureate of the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences, Nobel Prize in Economics (1994), subject of ''A Beautiful Mind (book), A Beautiful Mind'' (b. 1928 in science, 1928).
*29 June – Joseph Bryan Nelson, British ornithologist and academic (b. 1932).
*30 August – Oliver Sacks, British neurologist (b. 1933 in science, 1933).
* 30 September – Guido Altarelli, Italian theoretical physicist (b. 1941 in science, 1941).
See also
*2015 in paleontology
*2015 in spaceflight
*List of emerging technologies
*List of years in science
* List of species described in 2015
References
External links
*
* {{cite journal , doi = 10.1038/528448a , volume=528 , title=365 days: The science events that shaped 2015 , year=2015 , journal=Nature , pages=448–451 , last1 = Baker , first1 = Monya, issue=7583 , pmid=26701034 , bibcode=2015Natur.528..448B , doi-access=free
2015 in science,
21st century in science
2010s in science