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A number of significant scientific events occurred in 2019.


Events


January

* 1 January The ''
New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...
''
space probe Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which th ...
flies by
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 times ...
object
486958 Arrokoth 486958 Arrokoth (Provisional designation in astronomy, provisional designation ; formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule) is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive List of minor planet ...
(nicknamed ''Ultima Thule''), the outermost close encounter of any
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization 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 "Sola ...
object. * 2 January A study finds that tons of
methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...
, a
greenhouse gas Greenhouse gases (GHGs) are the gases in the atmosphere that raise the surface temperature of planets such as the Earth. Unlike other gases, greenhouse gases absorb the radiations that a planet emits, resulting in the greenhouse effect. T ...
, are released into the atmosphere by melting ice sheets in
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
. * 3 January ** China's National Space Administration ( CNSA) achieves the first soft landing on the
far side of the Moon The far side of the Moon is the hemisphere of the Moon that is facing away from Earth, the opposite hemisphere is the near side. It always has the same surface oriented away from Earth because of synchronous rotation in the Moon's orbit. C ...
with its
Chang'e 4 Chang'e 4 (; ) is a robotic spacecraft mission in the Chinese Lunar Exploration Program of the CNSA. It made a soft landing on the far side of the Moon, the first spacecraft to do so, on 3 January 2019. A communication relay satellite, , w ...
mission. ** Scientists report the engineering of crops with a photorespiratory "shortcut" to boost plant growth by 40% in real-world agronomic conditions. * 4 January ** Researchers at Ecole polytechnique fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) report a way to control properties of excitons and change the polarisation of light they generate, which could lead to
transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
that undergo less energy loss and heat dissipation. ** Researchers design an inhalable form of
messenger RNA In molecular biology, messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) is a single-stranded molecule of RNA that corresponds to the genetic sequence of a gene, and is read by a ribosome in the process of synthesizing a protein. mRNA is created during the ...
aerosol An aerosol is a suspension (chemistry), suspension of fine solid particles or liquid Drop (liquid), droplets in air or another gas. Aerosols can be generated from natural or Human impact on the environment, human causes. The term ''aerosol'' co ...
that could be administered directly to the lungs to help treat diseases such as
cystic fibrosis Cystic fibrosis (CF) is a genetic disorder inherited in an autosomal recessive manner that impairs the normal clearance of Sputum, mucus from the lungs, which facilitates the colonization and infection of the lungs by bacteria, notably ''Staphy ...
. * 6 January ** A partial solar eclipse occurred. * 8 January ** Researchers from the U.S. Department of Energy's
Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory (PPPL) is a United States Department of Energy national laboratory for plasma physics and nuclear fusion science. Its primary mission is research into and development of fusion as an energy source. It is know ...
(PPPL) report a new way to stabilise the "tearing modes" in fusion reactors, using radio waves to create small changes in the temperature of the plasma, allowing it to be controlled more easily. **IBM unveils IBM Q System One, its first integrated
quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...
system for commercial use. * 9 January ** Astronomers announce the discovery of a second repeating fast radio burst (FRB) source, named FRB 180814. ** The first
SD card Secure Digital (SD) is a proprietary, non-volatile, flash memory card format developed by the SD Association (SDA). Owing to their compact size, SD cards have been widely adopted in a variety of portable consumer electronics, including dig ...
with a storage capacity of 1
terabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
(TB) is announced by Lexar. ** Astronomers at the University of Warwick present the first direct evidence of white dwarf stars solidifying into crystals. * 10 January Astronomers propose that AT2018cow, a very powerful astronomical explosion, 10–100 times brighter than a normal
supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...
, may have been a
white dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...
being pulled apart by a
black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
; or, a supernova leaving behind a black hole or a
neutron star A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed Stellar core, core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a stellar evolution#Massive star, massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses ...
, the creation of a compact body being observed for the first time. * 11 January Researchers at the University of Michigan demonstrate a new approach to
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 ...
, based on the lifting of shapes from a vat of liquid, which is up to 100 times faster than conventional processes. * 14 January A study in the journal ''
PNAS ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America'' (often abbreviated ''PNAS'' or ''PNAS USA'') is a peer-reviewed multidisciplinary scientific journal. It is the official journal of the National Academy of S ...
'' finds that
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
experienced a sixfold increase in yearly ice mass loss between 1979 and 2017. * 16 January A study i
Ecological Monographs
suggests there may be sustained foraging specialization, fasting and omnivory in the
whale shark The whale shark (''Rhincodon typus'') is a slow-moving, filter feeder, filter-feeding carpet shark and the largest known Extant taxon, extant fish species. The largest confirmed individual had a length of . The whale shark holds many records for ...
(''Rhincodon typus''), the world's largest fish. * 17 January ** Scientists report that ''
Australopithecus sediba ''Australopithecus sediba'' is an extinct species of australopithecine recovered from Malapa Fossil Site, Cradle of Humankind, Malapa Cave, Cradle of Humankind, South Africa. It is known from a partial juvenile skeleton, the holotype MH1, and a ...
'' is distinct from, but shares anatomical similarities to, both the older ''
Australopithecus africanus ''Australopithecus africanus'' is an extinct species of australopithecine which lived between about 3.3 and 2.1 million years ago in the Late Pliocene to Early Pleistocene of South Africa. The species has been recovered from Taung, Sterkfontei ...
'', and the younger ''
Homo habilis ''Homo habilis'' ( 'handy man') is an extinct species of archaic human from the Early Pleistocene of East and South Africa about 2.4 million years ago to 1.65 million years ago ( mya). Upon species description in 1964, ''H. habilis'' was highly ...
''. **Astronomers report that a
day A day is the time rotation period, period of a full Earth's rotation, rotation of the Earth with respect to the Sun. On average, this is 24 hours (86,400 seconds). As a day passes at a given location it experiences morning, afternoon, evening, ...
on 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 9 times that of Earth. It has an eighth the average density of Earth, but is over 95 tim ...
has been determined to be , based on studies of the planet's C Ring. * 21 January ** Scientists report that the
Greenland ice sheet The Greenland ice sheet is an ice sheet which forms the second largest body of ice in the world. It is an average of thick and over thick at its maximum. It is almost long in a north–south direction, with a maximum width of at a latitude ...
is melting four times faster than in 2003, with its largest sustained ice loss coming from the southwest region. **
Lunar eclipse A lunar eclipse is an astronomical event that occurs when the Moon moves into the Earth's shadow, causing the Moon to be darkened. Such an alignment occurs during an eclipse season, approximately every six months, during the full moon phase, ...
* 22 January
Alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...
's
Waymo Waymo LLC, formerly known as the Google Self-Driving Car Project, is an American autonomous driving technology company headquartered in Mountain View, California. It is a subsidiary of Google's parent company (Alphabet Inc., Alphabet Inc). T ...
subsidiary announces that it will later in 2019 begin construction in the US State of Michigan on the World's first factory for mass-producing autonomous vehicles. * 23 January ** Scientists in China report the creation of five identical cloned gene-edited
monkeys Monkey is a common name that may refer to most mammals of the infraorder Simiiformes, also known as simians. Traditionally, all animals in the group now known as simians are counted as monkeys except the apes. Thus monkeys, in that sense, co ...
, using the same cloning technique that was used with Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua the first ever cloned monkeys and Dolly the sheep, and the same gene-editing
CRISPR CRISPR (; acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is d ...
-
Cas9 Cas9 (CRISPR associated protein 9, formerly called Cas5, Csn1, or Csx12) is a 160 dalton (unit), kilodalton protein which plays a vital role in the immunological defense of certain bacteria against DNA viruses and plasmids, and is heavily utili ...
technique allegedly used by He Jiankui in creating the first ever gene-modified human babies Lulu and Nana. The genetically modified monkey clones were made in order to study several medical diseases. ** Astronomers report the first-ever detection of
glycolonitrile Glycolonitrile, also called hydroxyacetonitrile or formaldehyde cyanohydrin, is the organic compound with the formula HOCH2CN. It is the simplest cyanohydrin and it is derived from formaldehyde. It is a colourless liquid that dissolves in water an ...
, another possible building block of life among other such molecules, in outer space. * 24 January **
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
announces that the '' Opportunity'' rover has been on the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
for 15 years. ** NASA scientists report the discovery of the oldest known Earth rock on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
.
Apollo 14 Apollo 14 (January 31February 9, 1971) was the eighth crewed mission in the United States Apollo program, the third to Moon landing, land on the Moon, and the first to land in the Geology of the Moon#Highlands, lunar highlands. It was the las ...
astronauts returned several rocks from the Moon and later, scientists determined that a fragment from one of the rocks contained "a bit of Earth from about 4 billion years ago." The rock fragment contained
quartz Quartz is a hard, crystalline mineral composed of silica (silicon dioxide). The Atom, atoms are linked in a continuous framework of SiO4 silicon–oxygen Tetrahedral molecular geometry, tetrahedra, with each oxygen being shared between two tet ...
,
feldspar Feldspar ( ; sometimes spelled felspar) is a group of rock-forming aluminium tectosilicate minerals, also containing other cations such as sodium, calcium, potassium, or barium. The most common members of the feldspar group are the ''plagiocl ...
, and
zircon Zircon () is a mineral belonging to the group of nesosilicates and is a source of the metal zirconium. Its chemical name is zirconium(IV) silicate, and its corresponding chemical formula is Zr SiO4. An empirical formula showing some of th ...
, all common on the Earth, but highly uncommon on the Moon. ** The complete
axolotl The axolotl (; from ) (''Ambystoma mexicanum'') is a neoteny, paedomorphic salamander, one that Sexual maturity, matures without undergoing metamorphosis into the terrestrial adult form; adults remain Aquatic animal, fully aquatic with obvio ...
genome is reported to have been sequenced by the University of Kentucky. * 25 January AlphaStar, a new artificial intelligence algorithm by
Alphabet An alphabet is a standard set of letter (alphabet), letters written to represent particular sounds in a spoken language. Specifically, letters largely correspond to phonemes as the smallest sound segments that can distinguish one word from a ...
's
DeepMind DeepMind Technologies Limited, trading as Google DeepMind or simply DeepMind, is a British–American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Go ...
subsidiary, defeats professional players of the real-time strategy game
StarCraft II ''StarCraft II'' is a real-time strategy video game created by Blizzard Entertainment, first released in 2010. A sequel to the successful '' StarCraft'', released in 1998, it is set in a militaristic far future. The narrative centers on a galacti ...
in ten rounds out of eleven. * 29 January Researchers at
Purdue University Purdue University is a Public university#United States, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in West Lafayette, Indiana, United States, and the flagship campus of the Purdue University system. The university was founded ...
's College of Engineering release a paper in the journal '' ACS Sustainable Chemistry & Engineering'' detailing a new process to turn
plastic waste Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are cate ...
in hydrocarbon fuels. * 30 January Scientists report that several types of humans, including
Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. D ...
s,
Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
s and related hybrids, may have habitated the
Denisova Cave Denisova Cave () is a cave in the Altai Mountains, Bashelaksky Range of the Altai Mountains in Siberia, Russia. It is widely known for having provided items of great archaeology, paleoarchaeological and paleontology, paleontological interest. ...
in
Siberia Siberia ( ; , ) is an extensive geographical region comprising all of North Asia, from the Ural Mountains in the west to the Pacific Ocean in the east. It has formed a part of the sovereign territory of Russia and its predecessor states ...
over thousands of years, but it is unclear whether they ever shared the cave. * 31 January ** Researchers at the University of California, Berkeley, demonstrate a new form of
3D printer 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 ...
, which uses light exposure to transform a viscous liquid into complex solid objects. **A new AI developed by RMIT University in Melbourne and trained to play the 1980s video game '' Montezuma's Revenge'' is reported to be 10 times faster than
Google DeepMind DeepMind Technologies Limited, trading as Google DeepMind or simply DeepMind, is a British–American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Goo ...
and able to finish the game.


February

* 1 February NASA scientists
report A report is a document or a statement that presents information in an organized format for a specific audience and purpose. Although summaries of reports may be delivered orally, complete reports are usually given in the form of written documen ...
that the Mars ''Curiosity'' rover determined, for the first time, the
density Density (volumetric mass density or specific mass) is the ratio of a substance's mass to its volume. The symbol most often used for density is ''ρ'' (the lower case Greek letter rho), although the Latin letter ''D'' (or ''d'') can also be u ...
of Mount Sharp 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 a ...
, thereby establishing a clearer understanding of how the mountain was formed. * 3 February Medical scientists announce that
iridium Iridium is a chemical element; it has the symbol Ir and atomic number 77. This very hard, brittle, silvery-white transition metal of the platinum group, is considered the second-densest naturally occurring metal (after osmium) with a density ...
attached to
albumin Albumin is a family of globular proteins, the most common of which are the serum albumins. All of the proteins of the albumin family are water- soluble, moderately soluble in concentrated salt solutions, and experience heat denaturation. Alb ...
, creating a photosensitized molecule, can penetrate cancer cells and, after being irradiated with light (a process called
photodynamic therapy Photodynamic therapy (PDT) is a form of phototherapy involving light and a photosensitizing chemical substance used in conjunction with molecular oxygen to elicit cell death ( phototoxicity). PDT is used in treating acne, wet age-related macula ...
), destroy the cancer cells. * 4 February A study by the
International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development The International Centre for Integrated Mountain Development (ICIMOD) is a regional intergovernmental organization, intergovernmental learning and knowledge sharing centre founded in 1981, serving the eight regional member countries of the Hindu ...
concludes that 36% of glaciers along the
Hindu Kush The Hindu Kush is an mountain range in Central Asia, Central and South Asia to the west of the Himalayas. It stretches from central and eastern Afghanistan into northwestern Pakistan and far southeastern Tajikistan. The range forms the wester ...
and
Himalaya 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 Earth's highest peaks, including the highest, Mount Everest. More than 100 pea ...
range will disappear by 2100, even if carbon emissions are cut rapidly. Without emission reductions, the loss could reach two-thirds. * 5 February
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
reports that the two small communication
CubeSats A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...
, that accompanied the
InSight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, 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 se ...
lander to the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
, went silent, and are unlikely to be heard from again. * 6 February ** NASA and NOAA confirm that 2018 was the fourth hottest year on record globally, at 0.83 degrees Celsius (1.5 degrees Fahrenheit) above the 1951 to 1980 mean. ** Scientists from the Instituto de Astrofísica de Canarias publish the first evidence of a collision between
exoplanets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detec ...
, which is believed to have occurred in the Kepler-107 system, approximately 1,670 light years from Earth. * 7 February ** Medical scientists working with Sangamo Therapeutics, headquartered in
Richmond, California Richmond is a city in western Contra Costa County, California, United States. The city was municipal corporation, incorporated on August 3, 1905, and has a Richmond, California, City Council, city council.
, announce the first ever "in body" human gene editing therapy to permanently alter
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
in a patient with
Hunter syndrome Hunter syndrome, or mucopolysaccharidosis type II (MPS II), is a rare genetic disorder, inherited lysosomal storage disease in which large sugar molecules called glycosaminoglycans (or GAGs or mucopolysaccharides) build up in body tissues. Hunte ...
. Clinical trials by Sangamo involving gene editing using Zinc Finger Nuclease (ZFN) are ongoing. ** The ExoMars rover, scheduled to launch in July 2020 and search for the existence of past life on the planet Mars, has been officially named the ''Rosalind Franklin'' rover after DNA pioneer
Rosalind Franklin Rosalind Elsie Franklin (25 July 192016 April 1958) was a British chemist and X-ray crystallographer. Her work was central to the understanding of the molecular structures of DNA (deoxyribonucleic acid), RNA (ribonucleic acid), viruses, coal ...
. ** Scientists announce the discovery of a new type of
magnet A magnet is a material or object that produces a magnetic field. This magnetic field is invisible but is responsible for the most notable property of a magnet: a force that pulls on other ferromagnetic materials, such as iron, steel, nickel, ...
that might benefit the performance of data storage technologies. * 8 February NASA scientists, studying the latest returned images and data, report that
486958 Arrokoth 486958 Arrokoth (Provisional designation in astronomy, provisional designation ; formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule) is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive List of minor planet ...
, the remote Kuiper Belt Object visited by the
New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...
spacecraft, was determined to be more flattened than thought earlier; and has been described to be more like a large "pancake" (larger lobe) and a "walnut" (smaller lobe), rather than two
ellipsoid An ellipsoid is a surface that can be obtained from a sphere by deforming it by means of directional Scaling (geometry), scalings, or more generally, of an affine transformation. An ellipsoid is a quadric surface;  that is, a Surface (mathemat ...
s. * 11 February Scientists find evidence, based on genetics studies using
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
(AI), that suggest the existence of an unknown human ancestor species, not
Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
,
Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. D ...
or human hybrid (like ''Denny'' (hybrid hominin)), in the
genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...
of
modern humans Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are great apes characterized by their hairlessness, bipedalism, and high intelligen ...
. * 13 February NASA officials declare that the Mars rover '' Opportunity'' has ended its mission, after failing to respond to repeated transmitted wake-up signals. Its last contact was on 10 June 2018 ( Click here for the last panorama image.) * 18 February ** A British woman becomes the first person in the world to have gene therapy for
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. Some people experien ...
(AMD). ** Scientists use gene therapy to restore hearing in an adult mouse model of DFNB9 deafness. * 19 February ** Researchers at Oxford Martin School publish evidence that, in the longer term, some forms of
cultured meat Cultured meat, also known as cultivated meat among other names, is a form of cellular agriculture wherein meat is produced by culturing animal cells ''in vitro''; thus growing animal flesh, molecularly identical to that of conventional meat, ou ...
could be worse for the environment than traditional farmed meat. ** Scientists report evidence, based on
isotope Isotopes are distinct nuclear species (or ''nuclides'') of the same chemical element. They have the same atomic number (number of protons in their Atomic nucleus, nuclei) and position in the periodic table (and hence belong to the same chemica ...
studies, that at least some
Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
s may have eaten
meat Meat is animal Tissue (biology), tissue, often muscle, that is eaten as food. Humans have hunted and farmed other animals for meat since prehistory. The Neolithic Revolution allowed the domestication of vertebrates, including chickens, sheep, ...
. * 21 February ** Scientists announce a new form of
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
, named Hachimoji DNA, composed of four natural, and four unnatural
nucleobase Nucleotide bases (also nucleobases, nitrogenous bases) are nitrogen-containing biological compounds that form nucleosides, which, in turn, are components of nucleotides, with all of these monomers constituting the basic building blocks of nuc ...
s. Benefits of such an eight-base DNA system may include an enhanced ability to store digital data, as well as insights into what may be possible in the search for
extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...
. ** Scientists report that the purportedly first-ever
germline In biology and genetics, the germline is the population of a multicellular organism's cells that develop into germ cells. In other words, they are the cells that form gametes ( eggs and sperm), which can come together to form a zygote. They dif ...
genetically edited humans, the twin babies Lulu and Nana, by Chinese researcher He Jiankui, may have inadvertently (or perhaps, intentionally) had their
brain The brain is an organ (biology), organ that serves as the center of the nervous system in all vertebrate and most invertebrate animals. It consists of nervous tissue and is typically located in the head (cephalization), usually near organs for ...
s enhanced. **
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...
launches SpaceIL's ''Beresheet'' probe, the world's first privately financed mission to the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
. ** Astronomers led by Scott S. Sheppard announce the discovery of FarFarOut, the most distant object yet found in the Solar System, at an estimated distance of 140 AU (21 billion km) from the Sun. * 25 February ** Scientists report evidence that
Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
s walked upright much like modern humans. ** The first microSD card with a storage capacity of 1
terabyte The byte is a unit of digital information that most commonly consists of eight bits. Historically, the byte was the number of bits used to encode a single character of text in a computer and for this reason it is the smallest addressable un ...
(TB) is announced by
Micron The micrometre (English in the Commonwealth of Nations, Commonwealth English as used by the International Bureau of Weights and Measures; SI symbol: μm) or micrometer (American English), also commonly known by the non-SI term micron, is a uni ...
. * 26 February Researchers at
RMIT University The Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology (abbreviated as RMIT University) is a public research university located in the city of Melbourne in Victoria, Australia., section 4(b) Established in 1887 by Francis Ormond, it is the seventh-o ...
demonstrate a method of using a liquid metal catalyst to turn
carbon dioxide Carbon dioxide is a chemical compound with the chemical formula . It is made up of molecules that each have one carbon atom covalent bond, covalently double bonded to two oxygen atoms. It is found in a gas state at room temperature and at norma ...
gas back into
coal Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock, formed as rock strata called coal seams. Coal is mostly carbon with variable amounts of other Chemical element, elements, chiefly hydrogen, sulfur, oxygen, and nitrogen. Coal i ...
, potentially offering a new way to store carbon in solid form. * 28 February ** Scientists report the first ever evidence of a former planet-wide groundwater system on the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
. ** Scientists report the creation of mice with
infrared Infrared (IR; sometimes called infrared light) is electromagnetic radiation (EMR) with wavelengths longer than that of visible light but shorter than microwaves. The infrared spectral band begins with the waves that are just longer than those ...
vision, using nanoparticles injected into their eyes.


March

* 3 March An uncrewed demonstration flight of the new crew capable version of the
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...
Dragon A dragon is a Magic (supernatural), magical legendary creature that appears in the folklore of multiple cultures worldwide. Beliefs about dragons vary considerably through regions, but European dragon, dragons in Western cultures since the Hi ...
spacecraft, intended to carry American astronauts into space, achieves successful autonomous docking with the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
. It returned to Earth a few days later. * 4 March Scientists report that
asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
s may be much more difficult to destroy than thought earlier. In addition, an asteroid may reassemble itself due to gravity after being disrupted. * 5 March ** A second case of sustained remission from
HIV-1 The subtypes of HIV include two main subtypes, known as HIV type 1 (HIV-1) and HIV type 2 (HIV-2). These subtypes have distinct genetic differences and are associated with different epidemiological patterns and clinical characteristics. HIV-1 e ...
is reported, ten years after the '
Berlin Patient The Berlin patient is an anonymous person from Berlin, Germany, who was described in 1998 as exhibiting prolonged "post-treatment control" of HIV viral load after HIV treatments were interrupted. The phrase "Berlin patient" was later used to p ...
.' ** Astronomers report the discovery of unusual dimming in EPIC 204376071, a star that has been observed to dim in brightness by up to 80%, much more deeply than the 22% dimming of Tabby's star. * 7 March Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) demonstrate a new optical imaging system that could enable the discovery of tiny tumours, as small as 200 cells, deep within the body. * 8 March Astronomers report that the
mass Mass is an Intrinsic and extrinsic properties, intrinsic property of a physical body, body. It was traditionally believed to be related to the physical quantity, quantity of matter in a body, until the discovery of the atom and particle physi ...
of the
Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...
galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...
is 1.5 trillion
solar mass The solar mass () is a frequently used unit of mass in astronomy, equal to approximately . It is approximately equal to the mass of the Sun. It is often used to indicate the masses of other stars, as well as stellar clusters, nebulae, galaxie ...
es within a
radius In classical geometry, a radius (: radii or radiuses) of a circle or sphere is any of the line segments from its Centre (geometry), center to its perimeter, and in more modern usage, it is also their length. The radius of a regular polygon is th ...
of about 129,000
light-year A light-year, alternatively spelled light year (ly or lyr), is a unit of length used to express astronomical distances and is equal to exactly , which is approximately 9.46 trillion km or 5.88 trillion mi. As defined by the International Astr ...
s, over twice as much as was determined in earlier studies, and suggesting that about 90% of the mass of the galaxy is
dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
. * 11 March A team of Japanese and Russian scientists report that cell nuclei from
woolly mammoth The woolly mammoth (''Mammuthus primigenius'') is an extinct species of mammoth that lived from the Middle Pleistocene until its extinction in the Holocene epoch. It was one of the last in a line of mammoth species, beginning with the African ...
remains showed biological activity when transplanted into mouse cells. * 13 March The laser of ELI-NP in Măgurele, part of the European ELI Project, becomes the most powerful laser system ever made, reaching a peak power of 10 Petawatts. * 15 March NASA reports that latent
virus A virus is a submicroscopic infectious agent that replicates only inside the living Cell (biology), cells of an organism. Viruses infect all life forms, from animals and plants to microorganisms, including bacteria and archaea. Viruses are ...
es in humans may be activated during space missions, adding possibly more risk to astronauts in future deep-space missions. * 16 March NASA announces that a 173-
kiloton TNT equivalent is a convention for expressing energy, typically used to describe the energy released in an explosion. A ton of TNT equivalent is a unit of energy defined by convention to be (). It is the approximate energy released in the det ...
fireball (the Kamchatka meteor) fell over the
Bering Sea The Bering Sea ( , ; rus, Бе́рингово мо́ре, r=Béringovo móre, p=ˈbʲerʲɪnɡəvə ˈmorʲe) is a marginal sea of the Northern Pacific Ocean. It forms, along with the Bering Strait, the divide between the two largest landmasse ...
near the
Kamchatka Peninsula The Kamchatka Peninsula (, ) is a peninsula in the Russian Far East, with an area of about . The Pacific Ocean and the Sea of Okhotsk make up the peninsula's eastern and western coastlines, respectively. Immediately offshore along the Pacific ...
on 18 December 2018, the second largest asteroid to hit Earth in 30 years, after the Chelyabinsk meteor. (see
image An image or picture is a visual representation. An image can be Two-dimensional space, two-dimensional, such as a drawing, painting, or photograph, or Three-dimensional space, three-dimensional, such as a carving or sculpture. Images may be di ...
) * 18 March ** Researchers provide supporting evidence, based on genetic studies, that modern ''
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
'', arose first in
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
more than 300,000 years ago, traveled to
East Africa East Africa, also known as Eastern Africa or the East of Africa, is a region at the eastern edge of the Africa, African continent, distinguished by its unique geographical, historical, and cultural landscape. Defined in varying scopes, the regi ...
, and from there, about 60,000 years ago, traveled
out of Africa ''Out of Africa'' is a memoir by the Danish people, Danish author Karen Blixen. The book, first published in 1937, recounts events of the eighteen years when Blixen made her home in Kenya, then called East Africa Protectorate, British East Africa ...
to the rest of the world. **
Physicist A physicist is a scientist who specializes in the field of physics, which encompasses the interactions of matter and energy at all length and time scales in the physical universe. Physicists generally are interested in the root or ultimate cau ...
Adrian Bejan presents an explanation of why
time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
seems shorter as we get older, which can be attributed to "the ever-slowing speed at which images are obtained and processed by the human brain as the body ages." * 19 March ** Karen Uhlenbeck is reported to be the first woman to receive the prestigious Abel Prize in Mathematics. ** Astronomers describe scenarios where
carbon monoxide Carbon monoxide (chemical formula CO) is a poisonous, flammable gas that is colorless, odorless, tasteless, and slightly less dense than air. Carbon monoxide consists of one carbon atom and one oxygen atom connected by a triple bond. It is the si ...
may be a
biosignature A biosignature (sometimes called chemical fossil or molecular fossil) is any substance – such as an element, isotope, molecule, or phenomenon – that provides scientific evidence of past or present life on a planet. Measurable ...
for a thriving community of
extraterrestrial life Extraterrestrial life, or alien life (colloquially, aliens), is life that originates from another world rather than on Earth. No extraterrestrial life has yet been scientifically conclusively detected. Such life might range from simple forms ...
on other worlds. * 20 March Paleontologists report the discovery of '' Avimaia schweitzerae'', the first fossil bird found with an unlaid egg, that lived about 115 million years ago in
Northwest China Northwestern China () is a region in the People's Republic of China. It consists of five provincial administrative regions, namely Shaanxi, Gansu, Qinghai, Ningxia, and Xinjiang. The region is characterized by a (semi-)arid continental climate. ...
. * 27 March ** Scientists report that life-forms from Earth survived 18 months living in outer space outside the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
(ISS), as part of the BIOMEX studies related to the EXPOSE-R2 mission, suggesting that life could survive, theoretically, on the planet Mars. ** ESO astronomers, employing the GRAVITY instrument on their Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI), announce the first direct detection of an
exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...
, HR 8799 e, using optical interferometry. ** Chinese scientists report inserting the human brain-related MCPH1 gene into laboratory
rhesus monkey The rhesus macaque (''Macaca mulatta''), colloquially rhesus monkey, is a species of Old World monkey. There are between six and nine recognised subspecies split between two groups, the Chinese-derived and the Indian-derived. Generally brown or g ...
s, resulting in the transgenic monkeys performing better and answering faster on "short-term memory tests involving matching colors and shapes", compared to control non-transgenic monkeys, according to the researchers. * 28 March ** Researchers report the possibility of ancient life on the planet Mars based on microscopic studies of the Allan Hills 77005 (ALH-77005) Martian meteorite found on Earth. ** Scientists report evidence that suggests the planet Mars, in some near-equatorial regions, currently contains a deep groundwater system. ** A
Pew Research Center The Pew Research Center (also simply known as Pew) is a nonpartisan American think tank based in Washington, D.C. It provides information on social issues, public opinion, and demographic trends shaping the United States and the world. It ...
study (4464 adults; mid-January 2019) on
scientific knowledge Science is a systematic discipline that builds and organises knowledge in the form of testable hypotheses and predictions about the universe. Modern science is typically divided into twoor threemajor branches: the natural sciences, which stu ...
among
Americans Americans are the Citizenship of the United States, citizens and United States nationality law, nationals of the United States, United States of America.; ; Law of the United States, U.S. federal law does not equate nationality with Race (hu ...
finds substantial differences based on
formal education Education is the transmission of knowledge and skills and the development of character traits. Formal education occurs within a structured institutional framework, such as public schools, following a curriculum. Non-formal education also fol ...
level (higher is better), race and
ethnicity An ethnicity or ethnic group is a group of people with shared attributes, which they Collective consciousness, collectively believe to have, and long-term endogamy. Ethnicities share attributes like language, culture, common sets of ancestry, ...
(whites higher) and
gender Gender is the range of social, psychological, cultural, and behavioral aspects of being a man (or boy), woman (or girl), or third gender. Although gender often corresponds to sex, a transgender person may identify with a gender other tha ...
(males higher). No substantial differences were found based on
political affiliation Political identity is a form of social Identity (social science), identity marking membership of certain groups that share a common struggle for a certain form of power. This can include identification with a political party, but also positions o ...
. * 29 March Paleontologists describe a site called Tanis, in North Dakota's
Hell Creek Formation The Hell Creek Formation is an intensively studied division of mostly Upper Cretaceous and some lower Paleocene rocks in North America, named for exposures studied along Hell Creek, near Jordan, Montana. The Formation (stratigraphy), formation s ...
, containing animal and plant fossils dated to 65.76 million years BCE. These remains are embedded with tiny rock and glass fragments that fell from the sky in the minutes and hours following the
Chicxulub impact The Chicxulub crater is an impact crater buried underneath the Yucatán Peninsula in Mexico. Its center is offshore, but the crater is named after the onshore community of Chicxulub Pueblo (not the larger coastal town of Chicxulub Puerto). I ...
. The deposits also show evidence of having been swamped with water, caused by the subsequent
megatsunami A megatsunami is an incredibly large wave created by a substantial and sudden displacement of material into a body of water. Megatsunamis have different features from ordinary tsunamis. Ordinary tsunamis are caused by underwater tectonic activi ...
s.


April

* 1 April ** Scientists report confirming the presence of
methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...
on the planet Mars, and determining that the source of the methane likely came from an ice sheet about 300 miles east of
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 a ...
. The ''Curiosity'' rover is currently exploring Gale Crater. ** Scientists at
ETH Zurich ETH Zurich (; ) is a public university in Zurich, Switzerland. Founded in 1854 with the stated mission to educate engineers and scientists, the university focuses primarily on science, technology, engineering, and mathematics. ETH Zurich ran ...
report the creation of the world's first bacterial genome, named '' Caulobacter ethensis-2.0'', made entirely by a computer, although a related viable form of ''C. ethensis-2.0'' does not yet exist. * 4 April
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
releases animated images of
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 Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...
s by the two moons of the planet Mars, Deimos ( animation1/17 March 2019) and Phobos ( animation2/27 March 2019), as viewed by the ''Curiosity'' rover on the planet Mars in March 2019. * 7 April
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
reports that a comprehensive study of
microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...
s and
fungi A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
present on the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
has been conducted. The results can be useful in improving health and safety conditions for
astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...
s. * 10 April Scientists from the
Event Horizon Telescope The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a Astronomical interferometer, telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes. The EHT project combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, wh ...
project announce the first-ever image of a
black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
, located 54 million light years away in the centre of the M87 galaxy. * 10 April ** Scientists find a way to view reactions in "dark states" of molecules, i.e. those states that are normally inaccessible. * 11 April **
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
announces that the ''Curiosity'' rover on the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
drilled into, and closely studied, a " clay-bearing unit" which, according to the rover Project Manager, is a "major milestone" in ''Curiosity'' journey up Mount Sharp. ( related image) ** The Israeli '' Beresheet'' probe crashes on the Moon after a technical glitch causes its main engine to switch off. * 12 April
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
reports medical results, from an Astronaut Twin Study, where one
astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...
twin Twins are two offspring produced by the same pregnancy.MedicineNet > Definition of Twin Last Editorial Review: 19 June 2000 Twins can be either ''monozygotic'' ('identical'), meaning that they develop from one zygote, which splits and forms two ...
spent a year in space on the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
, while the other twin spent the year on
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
, which demonstrated several long-lasting changes, including those related to alterations in
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
and
cognition Cognition is the "mental action or process of acquiring knowledge and understanding through thought, experience, and the senses". It encompasses all aspects of intellectual functions and processes such as: perception, attention, thought, ...
, when one twin was compared with the other. * 16 April Scientists report, for the first time, the use of the CRISPR technology to edit human genes to treat
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
patients with whom standard treatments were not successful. * 17 April After a long search, astronomers report the detection of helium hydride, a primordial molecule thought to have been formed about 100,000 years after the
Big Bang The Big Bang is a physical theory that describes how the universe expanded from an initial state of high density and temperature. Various cosmological models based on the Big Bang concept explain a broad range of phenomena, including th ...
, for the first time in outer space in NGC 7027. * 23 April NASA reports that the Mars ''InSight'' lander detected its first
Marsquake A marsquake is a Quake (natural phenomenon), quake which, much like an earthquake, is a shaking of the surface or interior of the planet Mars. Such quakes may occur with a shift in the planet's interior, such as the result of plate tectonics, from ...
on the planet Mars. ( related AudioVideo file) * 24 April The
XENON Xenon is a chemical element; it has symbol Xe and atomic number 54. It is a dense, colorless, odorless noble gas found in Earth's atmosphere in trace amounts. Although generally unreactive, it can undergo a few chemical reactions such as the ...
dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
project announces that it has observed the radioactive decay of xenon-124, which has a half-life of 1.8 sextillion years. * 25 April Astronomers report further substantial discrepancies, depending on the measurement method used, in determining the
Hubble constant Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther a galaxy is from the Earth, the faste ...
, suggesting a realm of physics currently not well understood in explaining the workings of the
universe The universe is all of space and time and their contents. It comprises all of existence, any fundamental interaction, physical process and physical constant, and therefore all forms of matter and energy, and the structures they form, from s ...
. * 29 April Scientists, working with the
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...
, confirmed the detection of the large and complex ionized molecules of
buckminsterfullerene Buckminsterfullerene is a type of fullerene with the formula . It has a cage-like fused-ring structure ( truncated icosahedron) made of twenty hexagons and twelve pentagons, and resembles a football. Each of its 60 carbon atoms is bonded to i ...
(C60) (also known as "buckyballs") in the interstellar medium spaces between the
star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
s. * 30 April Biologists report that the very large medusavirus, or a relative, may have been responsible, at least in part, for the evolutionary emergence of complex eukaryotic cells from simpler prokaryotic cells.


May

* 1 May A study by U.S. researchers finds that deleting the ATDC gene can prevent the growth of
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
in mice. * 2 May ** Astronomers, from the
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...
, release the Hubble Legacy Field Zoom Out (video; 00:50), a 16-year effort, which provides a zoom out view from the Ultra Deep Field of galaxies to the Legacy Field of galaxies. ** A study of nearly 1,000 gay male couples who took
antiretroviral therapy The management of HIV/AIDS normally includes the use of multiple antiretroviral drugs as a strategy to control HIV infection. There are several classes of antiretroviral agents that act on different stages of the HIV life-cycle. The use of mul ...
, published in ''The Lancet'', finds no cases of HIV transmission over eight years. * 3 May The UK's
National Nuclear Laboratory The United Kingdom National Nuclear Laboratory (UKNNL, formerly National Nuclear Laboratory and earlier Nexia Solutions) is a UK government owned and operated nuclear services technology provider covering the whole of the nuclear fuel cycle. It ...
(NNL) and
University of Leicester The University of Leicester ( ) is a public university, public research university based in Leicester, England. The main campus is south of the city centre, adjacent to Victoria Park, Leicester, Victoria Park. The university's predecessor, Univ ...
report the first generation of usable electricity from
americium Americium is a synthetic element, synthetic chemical element; it has Chemical symbol, symbol Am and atomic number 95. It is radioactive and a transuranic member of the actinide series in the periodic table, located under the lanthanide element e ...
, which could lead to the development of "space batteries" that power missions for up to 400 years. * 6 May ** In its first report since 2005, the
Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services The Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) is an intergovernmental organization established to improve communication between science and policy on issues of biodiversity and ecosystem services. It ...
(IPBES) warns that
biodiversity loss Biodiversity loss happens when plant or animal species disappear completely from Earth (extinction) or when there is a decrease or disappearance of species in a specific area. Biodiversity loss means that there is a reduction in Biodiversity, b ...
is "accelerating", with over a million species now threatened with
extinction Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its Endling, last member. A taxon may become Functional extinction, functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to Reproduction, reproduce and ...
; the decline of the natural living world is "unprecedented" and largely a result of human actions. ** Researchers at
Columbia University Columbia University in the City of New York, commonly referred to as Columbia University, is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in New York City. Established in 1754 as King's College on the grounds of Trinity Churc ...
report a new
desalination Desalination is a process that removes mineral components from saline water. More generally, desalination is the removal of salts and minerals from a substance. One example is Soil salinity control, soil desalination. This is important for agric ...
method for hypersaline brines, known as "temperature swing solvent extraction (TSSE)", which is low-cost and efficient. * 8 May A British teenager, Isabelle Holdaway, 17, is reported to be the first patient to receive a genetically modified phage therapy to treat a drug-resistant infection. * 11 May Atmospheric CO2, as measured by the Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, reaches 415 parts per million (ppm), the highest level for 2.5 million years. During the late Pliocene, sea levels were up to 20 m higher, and the global climate was 3 °C hotter. * 14 May ** Computer security researchers at Graz University of Technology and
Catholic University of Leuven University of Leuven or University of Louvain (; ) may refer to: * Old University of Leuven (1425–1797) * State University of Leuven (1817–1835) * Catholic University of Leuven (1834–1968) * Katholieke Universiteit Leuven or KU Leuven (1968 ...
, in a coordinated disclosure with
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
, announce the discovery of a group of
Microarchitectural Data Sampling The Microarchitectural Data Sampling (MDS) vulnerabilities are a set of weaknesses in Intel x86 microprocessors that use hyper-threading, and leak data across protection boundaries that are architecturally supposed to be secure. The attacks e ...
vulnerabilities, affecting millions of
Intel microprocessors This generational list of Intel processors attempts to present all of Intel's processors from the 4-bit 4004 (1971) to the present high-end offerings. Concise technical data is given for each product. Latest 15th generation Core Deskto ...
, which they named Fallout, RIDL (Rogue In-Flight Data Load) and ZombieLoad. ** Researchers at
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
reported the BlueKeep
security vulnerability Vulnerabilities are flaws or weaknesses in a system's design, implementation, or management that can be exploited by a malicious actor to compromise its security. Despite a system administrator's best efforts to achieve complete correctness, vir ...
() (noted as "critical" by Microsoft) that may affect nearly one million computers using ''older'' versions (
Windows 8 Windows 8 is a major release of the Windows NT operating system developed by Microsoft. It was Software release life cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on August 1, 2012, made available for download via Microsoft ...
and
Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...
are not affected) of the
Windows Windows is a Product lining, product line of Proprietary software, proprietary graphical user interface, graphical operating systems developed and marketed by Microsoft. It is grouped into families and subfamilies that cater to particular sec ...
operating system An operating system (OS) is system software that manages computer hardware and software resources, and provides common daemon (computing), services for computer programs. Time-sharing operating systems scheduler (computing), schedule tasks for ...
s with a " wormable"
Remote Desktop Services Remote Desktop Services (RDS), known as Terminal Services in Windows Server 2008 and earlier, is one of the components of Microsoft Windows that allow a user to initiate and control an interactive session on a remote computer or virtual machine ...
(RDS) Remote Code Execution (RCE)
Remote Desktop Protocol Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft Corporation which provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection. The user employs RDP client software for this pu ...
(RDP) vulnerability. Microsoft recommends installing available update patches as soon as possible, and also recommends turning off Remote Desktop Services if they are not required. ** Researchers at
Macquarie University Macquarie University ( ) is a Public university, public research university in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. Founded in 1964 by the New South Wales Government, it was the third university to be established in the Sydney metropolitan area. ...
report that
plastic pollution Plastic pollution is the accumulation of plastic objects and particles (e.g. plastic bottles, bags and microbeads) in the Earth's environment that adversely affects humans, wildlife and their habitat. Plastics that act as pollutants are catego ...
is harming the growth, photosynthesis and oxygen production of ''
Prochlorococcus ''Prochlorococcus'' is a genus of very small (0.6  μm) marine cyanobacteria with an unusual pigmentation ( chlorophyll ''a2'' and ''b2''). These bacteria belong to the photosynthetic picoplankton and are probably the most abundant photosyn ...
'', the ocean's most abundant photosynthetic bacteria, responsible for 10% of oxygen breathed by humans. * 15 May ** Researchers, in a milestone effort, report the creation of a new
synthetic Synthetic may refer to: Science * Synthetic biology * Synthetic chemical or compound, produced by the process of chemical synthesis * Synthetic elements, chemical elements that are not naturally found on Earth and therefore have to be created in ...
(possibly
artificial Artificiality (the state of being artificial, anthropogenic, or man-made) is the state of being the product of intentional human manufacture, rather than occurring naturally through processes not involving or requiring human activity. Connotati ...
) form of
viable Viability or viable may refer to: Biology, medicine or ecology * Viability selection, the selection of individual organisms who can survive until they are able to reproduce * Fetal viability, the ability of a fetus to survive outside of the uter ...
life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
, a variant of the
bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
''
Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...
'', by reducing the natural number of 64
codon Genetic code is a set of rules used by living cells to translate information encoded within genetic material (DNA or RNA sequences of nucleotide triplets or codons) into proteins. Translation is accomplished by the ribosome, which links prote ...
s in the bacterial
genome A genome is all the genetic information of an organism. It consists of nucleotide sequences of DNA (or RNA in RNA viruses). The nuclear genome includes protein-coding genes and non-coding genes, other functional regions of the genome such as ...
to 59 codons instead, in order to encode 20
amino acid Amino acids are organic compounds that contain both amino and carboxylic acid functional groups. Although over 500 amino acids exist in nature, by far the most important are the 22 α-amino acids incorporated into proteins. Only these 22 a ...
s. ** Researchers at
University of Nebraska Medical Center The University of Nebraska Medical Center (UNMC) is a Public university, public Academic health science centre, academic health science center in Omaha, Nebraska. Founded in 1869 and chartered as a private medical college in 1881, UNMC became p ...
describe the role of TGF-beta type II signaling receptor (TGFBR2) in
osteoarthritis Osteoarthritis is a type of degenerative joint disease that results from breakdown of articular cartilage, joint cartilage and underlying bone. A form of arthritis, it is believed to be the fourth leading cause of disability in the world, affect ...
, which plays a key role in the progression of the disease by regulating joint development. They also identify a potential new drug that could treat it. * 16 May ** Astronomers report their first results about
486958 Arrokoth 486958 Arrokoth (Provisional designation in astronomy, provisional designation ; formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule) is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive List of minor planet ...
, 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 times ...
object in the outer Solar System that the
New Horizons ''New Horizons'' is an Interplanetary spaceflight, interplanetary space probe launched as a part of NASA's New Frontiers program. Engineered by the Johns Hopkins University Applied Physics Laboratory (APL) and the Southwest Research Institut ...
space probe Uncrewed spacecraft or robotic spacecraft are spacecraft without people on board. Uncrewed spacecraft may have varying levels of autonomy from human input, such as remote control, or remote guidance. They may also be autonomous, in which th ...
flew by in January 2019. ** Researchers from the University of Leeds report that nearly a quarter of the
West Antarctic Ice Sheet The West Antarctic Ice Sheet (WAIS) is the segment of the Antarctic ice sheet, continental ice sheet that covers West Antarctica, the portion of Antarctica on the side of the Transantarctic Mountains that lies in the Western Hemisphere. It is cla ...
is now unstable, with melting of the Pine Island and Thwaites glaciers now five times faster than 25 years previously. * 19 May ** Researchers at the University of Melbourne report an unusual slowdown in the growth of life expectancy in Australia, following 20 years of rapid increases. ** Physicists report that decay processes of
quasiparticle In condensed matter physics, a quasiparticle is a concept used to describe a collective behavior of a group of particles that can be treated as if they were a single particle. Formally, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely relate ...
s in certain strongly interacting medium systems may be stopped entirely, which may help make such particles basically immortal. * 20 May ** Lawyers in
China China, officially the People's Republic of China (PRC), is a country in East Asia. With population of China, a population exceeding 1.4 billion, it is the list of countries by population (United Nations), second-most populous country after ...
report, in light of the purported creation by Chinese scientist He Jiankui of the first gene-edited humans (see Lulu and Nana controversy), the drafting of regulations that anyone manipulating the
human genome The human genome is a complete set of nucleic acid sequences for humans, encoded as the DNA within each of the 23 distinct chromosomes in the cell nucleus. A small DNA molecule is found within individual Mitochondrial DNA, mitochondria. These ar ...
by gene-editing techniques, like
CRISPR CRISPR (; acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is d ...
, would be held responsible for any related adverse consequences. ** The revision of the
SI system The International System of Units, internationally known by the abbreviation SI (from French ), is the modern form of the metric system and the world's most widely used system of units of measurement, system of measurement. It is the only system ...
of measurement adopted by the majority of countries in the world takes effect. * 21 May Researchers at
McMaster University McMaster University (McMaster or Mac) is a public research university in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. The main McMaster campus is on of land near the residential neighbourhoods of Ainslie Wood, Ontario, Ainslie Wood and Westdale, Ontario, Westd ...
report the discovery of a new and more efficient method of storing vaccines in temperatures of up to 40 °C for weeks at a time. * 22 May ** Scientists report the discovery of a
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 preserve ...
ized
fungus A fungus (: fungi , , , or ; or funguses) is any member of the group of eukaryotic organisms that includes microorganisms such as yeasts and mold (fungus), molds, as well as the more familiar mushrooms. These organisms are classified as one ...
, named '' Ourasphaira giraldae'', in the
Canadian Arctic Northern Canada (), colloquially the North or the Territories, is the vast northernmost region of Canada, variously defined by geography and politics. Politically, the term refers to the three territories of Canada: Yukon, Northwest Territories a ...
, that may have grown on land a billion years ago, well before
plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...
s were living on land. **
Superconductivity Superconductivity is a set of physical properties observed in superconductors: materials where Electrical resistance and conductance, electrical resistance vanishes and Magnetic field, magnetic fields are expelled from the material. Unlike an ord ...
at very high pressure is observed at a temperature of -23 °C (-9 °F), a jump of about 50 degrees compared to the previous confirmed record, by researchers at the
University of Chicago The University of Chicago (UChicago, Chicago, or UChi) is a Private university, private research university in Chicago, Illinois, United States. Its main campus is in the Hyde Park, Chicago, Hyde Park neighborhood on Chicago's South Side, Chic ...
. * 23 May ** Researchers at the University of Southampton predict that the average (median) body mass of
mammals A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...
will collectively reduce by 25 per cent over the next century, due to the impact of human activity. ** Astronomers report the discovery of a very large amount of water in the northern polar region of the planet Mars. * 27 May The last male
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 ...
in
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
is reported to have died, leaving only one female in the country. * 28 May A team from the
University of Minnesota The University of Minnesota Twin Cities (historically known as University of Minnesota) is a public university, public Land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Minneapolis–Saint Paul, Twin Cities of Minneapolis and Saint ...
and
University of Massachusetts The University of Massachusetts is the Public university, public university system of the Massachusetts, Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The university system includes six campuses (Amherst, Boston, Dartmouth, University of Massachusetts Lowell ...
exceed the Sabatier maximum, with a 10,000-fold increase in the rate of chemical reactions, using waves to create an oscillating catalyst.


June

* June Heuglin's gazelle rediscovered in
Eritrea Eritrea, officially the State of Eritrea, is a country in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa, with its capital and largest city being Asmara. It is bordered by Ethiopia in the Eritrea–Ethiopia border, south, Sudan in the west, and Dj ...
. * 4 June Astronomers report the discovery of a star, named ASASSN-V J213939.3-702817.4, non-variable earlier, observed to be associated with a very unusual, deep dimming event. The star, in the
Indus The Indus ( ) is a transboundary river of Asia and a trans- Himalayan river of South and Central Asia. The river rises in mountain springs northeast of Mount Kailash in the Western Tibet region of China, flows northwest through the dis ...
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 first constellati ...
, is about away. * 6 June The
International Astronomical Union The International Astronomical Union (IAU; , UAI) is an international non-governmental organization (INGO) with the objective of advancing astronomy in all aspects, including promoting astronomical research, outreach, education, and developmen ...
(I.A.U), in celebration of its hundredth anniversary, in a project called '' IAU100 NameExoWorlds'', is reported to welcome countries of the world, to submit names for
astronomical object An astronomical object, celestial object, stellar object or heavenly body is a naturally occurring physical entity, association, or structure that exists within the observable universe. In astronomy, the terms ''object'' and ''body'' are of ...
s, particularly
exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...
s and its host star, which would later be considered for official adoption by the organization. * 10 June ** Scientists report that Ahuna Mons, a very high dome-shaped mountain on the
dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be hydrostatic equilibrium, gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve clearing the neighbourhood, orbital dominance like the ...
Ceres, may have been formed by a plume of mud ejected from deep within the planet. ** A study by researchers from the
Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew is a non-departmental public body in the United Kingdom sponsored by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs. An internationally important botanical research and education institution, it employs 1,10 ...
, identifies nearly 600
plants Plants are the eukaryotes that form the kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with cyanobacteria to produce sugars f ...
that have disappeared since the Industrial Revolution more than twice the number of birds, mammals and amphibians combined with extinctions now occurring 500 times faster than the natural background rate. * 11 June ** Astronomers report that the usual Hubble classification, particularly concerning
spiral galaxies Spiral galaxies form a class of galaxy originally described by Edwin Hubble in his 1936 work ''The Realm of the Nebulae''
, may not be supported, and may need updating. ** Researchers at the University of Colorado Boulder demonstrate "nanobio-hybrid" organisms capable of using airborne carbon dioxide and nitrogen to produce a variety of eco-friendly plastics and fuels. * 12 June ** The discovery of cold quasars is announced at the 234th meeting of the
American Astronomical Society The American Astronomical Society (AAS, sometimes spoken as "double-A-S") is an American society of professional astronomers and other interested individuals, headquartered in Washington, DC. The primary objective of the AAS is to promote the adv ...
. ** Astronomers report the discovery of two Earth-mass exoplanets orbiting
Teegarden's Star Teegarden's Star (''SO J025300.5+165258'', ''2MASS J02530084+1652532'', ''LSPM J0253+1652'') is an stellar classification, M-type red dwarf star in the constellation Aries (constellation), Aries, from the Solar System. Although it is L ...
within its
habitable zone In astronomy and astrobiology, the habitable zone (HZ), or more precisely the circumstellar habitable zone (CHZ), is the range of orbits around a star within which a planetary surface can support liquid water given sufficient atmospheric pressu ...
. * 19 June Researchers at
Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
demonstrate the first noninvasive mind-controlled robotic arm. * 20 June Researchers at
Lancaster University Lancaster University (officially The University of Lancaster) is a collegiate public university, public research university in Lancaster, Lancashire, England. The university was established in 1964 by royal charter, as one of several new univer ...
describe a new electronic memory device that combines the properties of both
DRAM Dram, DRAM, or drams may refer to: Technology and engineering * Dram (unit), a unit of mass and volume, and an informal name for a small amount of liquor, especially whisky or whiskey * Dynamic random-access memory, a type of electronic semicondu ...
and flash, while recording or deleting data using hundreds of times less energy. * 21 June Scientists release the video appearance, for the second time, and for the very first time in waters of the United States, of a giant squid in its deepwater habitat. * 22 June Scientists working with the ''
Curiosity Curiosity (from Latin , from "careful, diligent, curious", akin to "care") is a quality related to inquisitive thinking, such as exploration, investigation, and learning, evident in humans and other animals. Curiosity helps Developmental psyc ...
'' rover on the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
report the detection of a significant amount of
methane Methane ( , ) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula (one carbon atom bonded to four hydrogen atoms). It is a group-14 hydride, the simplest alkane, and the main constituent of natural gas. The abundance of methane on Earth makes ...
, the largest amount ever detected by the rover 21 parts per billion units by volume (ppbv) (i.e., one ppbv means that if you take a volume of air on Mars, one billionth of the volume of air is methane). Methane is a possible indicator of
life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
, but may also be produced geologically. * 23 June Researchers in Greece report for the first time, a single-step
Laser A laser is a device that emits light through a process of optical amplification based on the stimulated emission of electromagnetic radiation. The word ''laser'' originated as an acronym for light amplification by stimulated emission of radi ...
texturing process for the fabrication of
anti-reflective An antireflective, antiglare or anti-reflection (AR) coating is a type of optical coating applied to the surface of lenses, other optical elements, and photovoltaic cells to reduce reflection. In typical imaging systems, this improves the effi ...
transparent surfaces based on
biomimicry Biomimetics or biomimicry is the emulation of the models, systems, and elements of nature for the purpose of solving complex human problems. The terms "biomimetics" and "biomimicry" are derived from (''bios''), life, and μίμησις ('' mīm ...
. * 24 June
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...
successfully launches the
Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core ...
for the 3rd time with the STP-2 mission. This is also the first Falcon Heavy mission contracted by the
United States Government The Federal Government of the United States of America (U.S. federal government or U.S. government) is the Federation#Federal governments, national government of the United States. The U.S. federal government is composed of three distinct ...
. * 27 June NASA's ''
Dragonfly A dragonfly is a flying insect belonging to the infraorder Anisoptera below the order Odonata. About 3,000 extant species of dragonflies are known. Most are tropical, with fewer species in temperate regions. Loss of wetland habitat threat ...
'' spacecraft is selected to become the fourth mission in the New Frontiers program. It will launch in 2026, arriving on the surface of Saturn's moon
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 ...
in 2034. * 28 June ** Russian astronomers report the discovery of nine Fast Radio Burst (FRB) events (FRB 121029, FRB 131030, FRB 140212, FRB 141216, FRB 151125.1, FRB 151125.2, FRB 160206, FRB 161202, FRB 180321), which include one repeating FRB (FRB 151125, third one ever detected), from the direction of the M 31 (
Andromeda Galaxy The Andromeda Galaxy is a barred spiral galaxy and is the nearest major galaxy to the Milky Way. It was originally named the Andromeda Nebula and is cataloged as Messier 31, M31, and NGC 224. Andromeda has a Galaxy#Isophotal diameter, D25 isop ...
) and M 33 ( Triangulum Galaxy)
galaxies A galaxy is a system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar gas, dust, and 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 Sys ...
during the analysis of archive data (July 2012 to December 2018) from the BSA/LPI large phased array
radio telescope A radio telescope is a specialized antenna (radio), antenna and radio receiver used to detect radio waves from astronomical radio sources in the sky. Radio telescopes are the main observing instrument used in radio astronomy, which studies the r ...
at the Pushchino Radio Astronomy Observatory. ** Astronomers report the detection of a
star A star is a luminous spheroid of plasma (physics), plasma held together by Self-gravitation, self-gravity. The List of nearest stars and brown dwarfs, nearest star to Earth is the Sun. Many other stars are visible to the naked eye at night sk ...
, named HD 139139 (EPIC 249706694), that dims in brightness in an apparent
random In common usage, randomness is the apparent or actual lack of definite pattern or predictability in information. A random sequence of events, symbols or steps often has no order and does not follow an intelligible pattern or combination. ...
, and currently unexplainable, way. * 29 June Scientists report that all 16 GB of
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...
have been encoded into synthetic DNA.


July

* 1 July ** Astronomers report that 'Oumuamua, an
interstellar object An interstellar object is an astronomical object in interstellar space that is not gravitationally bound to a star. Applicable objects include asteroids, comets, and rogue planets, but not a star or stellar remnant. This term can also be appli ...
that passed through the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization 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 "Sola ...
in October 2017, was an object of a "purely natural origin", and not otherwise. **
MRI Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is a medical imaging technique used in radiology to generate pictures of the anatomy and the physiological processes inside the body. MRI scanners use strong magnetic fields, magnetic field gradients, and rad ...
scans were performed on individual atoms. * 2 July ** The European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts reports that the global average temperature for June 2019 was the highest on record for the month, at 0.1 °C higher than that of the previous warmest June, in 2016. ** A total solar eclipse occurs, with totality visible in the South Pacific and
South America South America is a continent entirely in the Western Hemisphere and mostly in the Southern Hemisphere, with a considerably smaller portion in the Northern Hemisphere. It can also be described as the southern Subregion#Americas, subregion o ...
. ** Astronomers report that FRB 190523, a non-repeating Fast Radio Burst (FRB), has been discovered and, notably, localized to a few-arcsecond region containing a single massive
galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...
at a
redshift In physics, a redshift is an increase in the wavelength, and corresponding decrease in the frequency and photon energy, of electromagnetic radiation (such as light). The opposite change, a decrease in wavelength and increase in frequency and e ...
of 0.66, nearly 8 billion light-years away from Earth. * 3 July ** Scientists from the
University of Bristol The University of Bristol is a public university, public research university in Bristol, England. It received its royal charter in 1909, although it can trace its roots to a Merchant Venturers' school founded in 1595 and University College, Br ...
describe a new way to direct
stem cell In multicellular organisms, stem cells are undifferentiated or partially differentiated cells that can change into various types of cells and proliferate indefinitely to produce more of the same stem cell. They are the earliest type of cell ...
s to heart tissue, using a designer
adhesive Adhesive, also known as glue, cement, mucilage, or paste, is any non-metallic substance applied to one or both surfaces of two separate items that binds them together and resists their separation. The use of adhesives offers certain advantage ...
protein Proteins are large biomolecules and macromolecules that comprise one or more long chains of amino acid residue (biochemistry), residues. Proteins perform a vast array of functions within organisms, including Enzyme catalysis, catalysing metab ...
. **Researchers identify more than a of lost tropical
rainforest Rainforests are forests characterized by a closed and continuous tree Canopy (biology), canopy, moisture-dependent vegetation, the presence of epiphytes and lianas and the absence of wildfire. Rainforests can be generally classified as tropi ...
across the
Americas The Americas, sometimes collectively called America, are a landmass comprising the totality of North America and South America.''Webster's New World College Dictionary'', 2010 by Wiley Publishing, Inc., Cleveland, Ohio. When viewed as a sing ...
,
Africa Africa is the world's second-largest and second-most populous continent after Asia. At about 30.3 million km2 (11.7 million square miles) including adjacent islands, it covers 20% of Earth's land area and 6% of its total surfac ...
and
Southeast Asia Southeast Asia is the geographical United Nations geoscheme for Asia#South-eastern Asia, southeastern region of Asia, consisting of the regions that are situated south of China, east of the Indian subcontinent, and northwest of the Mainland Au ...
, with a high potential for restoration. * 7 July Researchers report receiving the first pictures from LightSail 2, a
CubeSat A CubeSat is a class of small satellite with a form factor of cubes. CubeSats have a mass of no more than per unit,, url=https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5418c831e4b0fa4ecac1bacd/t/5f24997b6deea10cc52bb016/1596234122437/CDS+REV14+2020-07-3 ...
developed by
The Planetary Society The Planetary Society is an American internationally-active non-governmental nonprofit organization. It is involved in research, public outreach, and political space advocacy for engineering projects related to astronomy, planetary science, a ...
, and launched into Earth orbit on 25 June 2019 by a
Falcon Heavy Falcon Heavy is a super heavy-lift launch vehicle with partial reusability that can carry cargo into Earth orbit and beyond. It is designed, manufactured and launched by American aerospace company SpaceX. The rocket consists of a center core ...
rocket. *8 July Astronomers report that a new method to determine the
Hubble constant Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther a galaxy is from the Earth, the faste ...
, and resolve the discrepancy of earlier methods, has been proposed based on the mergers of pairs of
neutron star A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed Stellar core, core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a stellar evolution#Massive star, massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses ...
s, following the detection of the neutron star merger of
GW170817 GW170817 was a gravitational wave (GW) observed by the LIGO and Virgo detectors on 17 August 2017, originating within the shell elliptical galaxy NGC 4993, about 144 million light years away. The wave was produced by the last moments of the in ...
. Their measurement of the Hubble constant is (km/s)/Mpc. * 10 July Anthropologists report the discovery of 210,000 year old remains of a
Homo sapiens Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
and 170,000 year old remains of a
Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
in Apidima Cave in southern
Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...
, over 150,000 years older than previous H. sapiens finds in Europe. * 11 July **Astronomers report, for the first time, detection of a
moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
-forming circumplanetary disk around a distant
planet A planet is a large, Hydrostatic equilibrium, rounded Astronomical object, astronomical body that is generally required to be in orbit around a star, stellar remnant, or brown dwarf, and is not one itself. The Solar System has eight planets b ...
, particularly PDS 70c. **Carnegie Mellon University reports an
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
program, developed in collaboration with Facebook AI, which is able to defeat leading professionals in six-player no-limit Texas hold'em poker. * 12 July Physicists report, for the first time, capturing an image of
quantum entanglement Quantum entanglement is the phenomenon where the quantum state of each Subatomic particle, particle in a group cannot be described independently of the state of the others, even when the particles are separated by a large distance. The topic o ...
. * 13 July The Russian/German
Spektr-RG Spektr-RG ( Russian: Спектр-РГ, ''Spectrum'' + '' Röntgen'' + ''Gamma''; also called Spectrum-X-Gamma, SRG, SXG) is a Russian–German high-energy astrophysics space observatory which was launched on 13 July 2019. It follows on from t ...
observatory is successfully launched into space, on a seven-year mission to study
X-ray An X-ray (also known in many languages as Röntgen radiation) is a form of high-energy electromagnetic radiation with a wavelength shorter than those of ultraviolet rays and longer than those of gamma rays. Roughly, X-rays have a wavelength ran ...
sources. * 15 July ** Astronomers report that ''non-repeating'' Fast Radio Bursts (FRB)s may not be one-off events, but actually FRB repeaters with repeat events that have gone undetected and, further, that FRBs may be formed by events that have not yet been seen or considered. ** A paper is released in the journal '' Nature Astronomy'' in which researchers from
Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...
, the
University of Edinburgh The University of Edinburgh (, ; abbreviated as ''Edin.'' in Post-nominal letters, post-nominals) is a Public university, public research university based in Edinburgh, Scotland. Founded by the City of Edinburgh Council, town council under th ...
and
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
's
Jet Propulsion Laboratory The Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) is a Federally funded research and development centers, federally funded research and development center (FFRDC) in La Cañada Flintridge, California, Crescenta Valley, United States. Founded in 1936 by Cali ...
(JPL) detail how silica
aerogel Aerogels are a class of manufacturing, synthetic porous ultralight material derived from a gel, in which the liquid component for the gel has been replaced with a gas, without significant collapse of the gel structure. The result is a solid wit ...
could be used to block radiation, obtain water and permit photosynthesis to occur to make Mars more hospitable for human survival. *16 July Astronomers report the determination, based on a new method ( Red Giant Stars method), of the
Hubble Constant Hubble's law, also known as the Hubble–Lemaître law, is the observation in physical cosmology that galaxies are moving away from Earth at speeds proportional to their distance. In other words, the farther a galaxy is from the Earth, the faste ...
as 69.8 km s−1 Mpc−1, a value in the middle of two earlier values determined by two other methods: 67.4 ( CMB Radiation method) and 74.0 (
Cepheids A Cepheid variable () is a type of variable star that pulsates radially, varying in both diameter and temperature. It changes in brightness, with a well-defined stable period (typically 1–100 days) and amplitude. Cepheids are important cosmi ...
method). *17 July Astronomers rule out the chances of ~ asteroid 's hitting Earth in September 2019 by eliminating the possibility of its passing through an area where it would have to be if it were on an impacting orbit. Prior to this, the asteroid had been given a one-in-7,000 chance of hitting Earth. *22 July **The
Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...
(ISRO) launches Chandrayaan-2, its second lunar exploration mission, which includes an
orbiter A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including communications, Earth observation, meteorology, navigation, space colonization, planetary exploration, ...
, lander and rover. **Biochemists and geochemist from Earth-Life Science Institute (ELSI), Tokyo and the
National University of Malaysia The National University of Malaysia (, abbreviated as UKM) is a public research university located in Bandar Baru Bangi, Hulu Langat District, Selangor, Malaysia. Its teaching hospital, Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Medical Centre (UKMMC), ...
, Bangi report the discovery of simple organic molecules (hydroxy acids) that can assemble themselves into possible protocells under conditions similar to those of the early Earth. *25 July Astronomers report that 2019 OK, a previously undetected asteroid up to across, passed within of Earth on 25 July 2019 at 01:22 GMT. *30 July Astronomers report evidence to support the hypothesis of an ancient ocean on the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
that may have been formed by a possible mega-tsunami source resulting from a
meteorite impact An impact event is a collision between astronomical objects causing measurable effects. Impact events have been found to regularly occur in planetary systems, though the most frequent involve asteroids, comets or meteoroids and have minimal eff ...
creating Lomonosov crater. *31 July **Astronomers report that GJ 357 d, a " Super-Earth" discovered by NASA's
Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite Transiting Exoplanet Survey Satellite (TESS) is a space telescope for NASA's Explorer program, designed to search for exoplanets using the transit method in an area 400 times larger than that covered by the Kepler mission. It was launched on ...
(TESS), lies within the habitable zone of its parent star, 31 light years from Earth. **Astronomers report finding an A-type main-sequence star, S5-HVS1, traveling , faster that any other star detected so far. The star is in the Grus (constellation), Grus (or Crane)
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 first constellati ...
in the southern sky, and about 29,000 light-years from Earth, and may have been ejected out of the
Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...
galaxy A galaxy is a Physical system, system of stars, stellar remnants, interstellar medium, interstellar gas, cosmic dust, dust, and dark matter bound together by gravity. The word is derived from the Ancient Greek, Greek ' (), literally 'milky', ...
after interacting with Sagittarius A*, the supermassive black hole at the center of the galaxy.


August

* 1 August **Astronomers publish the most detailed ever measurements of the "warping" effect on the
Milky Way The Milky Way or Milky Way Galaxy is the galaxy that includes the Solar System, with the name describing the #Appearance, galaxy's appearance from Earth: a hazy band of light seen in the night sky formed from stars in other arms of the galax ...
's 3D structure, based on the distribution of more than 2,400 Cepheids, using the Optical Gravitational Lensing Experiment (OGLE). **Researchers at
Carnegie Mellon University Carnegie Mellon University (CMU) is a private research university in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, United States. The institution was established in 1900 by Andrew Carnegie as the Carnegie Technical Schools. In 1912, it became the Carnegie Institu ...
publish details of a new technique for 3D bioprinting of Tissue engineering#Scaffolds, tissue scaffolds made from collagen, the major structural protein in the human body. **Danish polar research institution, Polar Portal, reports a spike in
Greenland Greenland is an autonomous territory in the Danish Realm, Kingdom of Denmark. It is by far the largest geographically of three constituent parts of the kingdom; the other two are metropolitan Denmark and the Faroe Islands. Citizens of Greenlan ...
ice loss, with 11 billion tons melted in one day and 197 Gigatonnes during the month of July. * 5 August **Scientists report that a capsule containing tardigrades in cryptobiotic state (as well as a laser-etched copy of
Wikipedia Wikipedia is a free content, free Online content, online encyclopedia that is written and maintained by a community of volunteers, known as Wikipedians, through open collaboration and the wiki software MediaWiki. Founded by Jimmy Wales and La ...
in glass) may have survived the April 2019 crash landing on the
Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It Orbit of the Moon, orbits around Earth at Lunar distance, an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth diameter, Earth's diameter). The Moon rotation, rotates, with a rotation period (lunar ...
of Beresheet, a failed Israeli lunar lander. **Engineers at the University of Buffalo reveal a new device able to cool parts of buildings by up to 11 °C (20 °F), without consuming electricity. The system uses an inexpensive polymer/aluminum film at the bottom of a solar "shelter", which absorbs heat from the air inside the box and transmits that energy back into outer space. * 6 August Scientists at the University of Leeds create a new form of gold just two atoms thick, measured at 0.47 nanometres. In addition to being the thinnest unsupported gold ever produced, it functions 10 times more efficiently as a catalytic substrate than larger gold nanoparticles. *7 August Biologists report the discovery of the fossil remains of a first-of-its-kind extinct giant parrot named ''The Hercules parrot'' (or ''Heracles inexpectatus'') in New Zealand. The parrot is thought to have stood up to tall and weighed approximately . *8 August **Astronomers report that the Magnetospheric Multiscale Mission (MMS) made the first high-resolution measurements of an interplanetary shock wave from the sun. **Researchers at Harvard John A. Paulson School of Engineering and Applied Sciences, Harvard report the creation of "cyborg organoids", which consist of 3D organoids grown from stem cells, with embedded sensors to measure activity in the developmental process. *9 August **Astronomers report the detection of eight very unusual ''repeating'' Fast Radio Burst (FRB) signals in outer space. **Scientists report the isolation and culture of Lokiarchaea, a
microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...
that may help explain the emergence of complex eukaryote, eukarotic (nucleated) cells from simpler
bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
-like cells. *11 August **Researchers report that
Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...
users may be at risk for "critical" system compromise due to design flaws of hardware device drivers from multiple providers. **Astronomers using the Keck Observatory report a sudden brightening of Sagittarius A*, which became 75 times brighter than usual, suggesting that the supermassive black hole may have encountered another object. *13 August Computer experts report that the BlueKeep
security vulnerability Vulnerabilities are flaws or weaknesses in a system's design, implementation, or management that can be exploited by a malicious actor to compromise its security. Despite a system administrator's best efforts to achieve complete correctness, vir ...
that potentially affects older unpatched Microsoft Windows versions via the program's
Remote Desktop Protocol Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) is a proprietary protocol developed by Microsoft Corporation which provides a user with a graphical interface to connect to another computer over a network connection. The user employs RDP client software for this pu ...
, allowing for the possibility of remote code execution, may now include related flaws, collectively named ''DejaBlue'', affecting ''newer'' Windows versions (i.e., Windows 7 and all recent versions) as well. *14 August **Computer experts report a
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
security vulnerability, , based on legacy code involving Text Services Framework#ctfmon, Microsoft CTF and ctfmon (ctfmon.exe), that affects all Windows versions from the older Windows XP version to the most recent
Windows 10 Windows 10 is a major release of Microsoft's Windows NT operating system. The successor to Windows 8.1, it was Software release cycle#Release to manufacturing (RTM), released to manufacturing on July 15, 2015, and later to retail on July 2 ...
versions; a patch to correct the flaw is currently available. **Astronomers report the best candidate yet for the List of gravitational wave observations, collision, named S190814bv, of a
black hole A black hole is a massive, compact astronomical object so dense that its gravity prevents anything from escaping, even light. Albert Einstein's theory of general relativity predicts that a sufficiently compact mass will form a black hole. Th ...
with a
neutron star A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed Stellar core, core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a stellar evolution#Massive star, massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses ...
, based on the detection of gravitational wave signals. **The most accurate study of
exoplanets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detec ...
to date, published by Penn State, estimates that one in six Sun-like stars contain planets of similar size and orbital period to Earth. *15 August **Chemists report the formation, for the first time, of an 18-atom cyclocarbon of pure carbon; such chemical structures may be useful as molecular-sized electronic components. **The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) reports that July 2019 was the hottest month on record globally, at 0.95 °C (1.71 °F) above the 20th century average. *19 August **NASA reports that the ''Europa Clipper'' mission to Europa (moon), Europa, a moon of the planet Jupiter, has been confirmed. **The first computer chip to exceed one trillion
transistors A transistor is a semiconductor device used to Electronic amplifier, amplify or electronic switch, switch electrical signals and electric power, power. It is one of the basic building blocks of modern electronics. It is composed of semicondu ...
, known as the Wafer Scale Engine, is announced by Cerebras Systems in collaboration with Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company (TSMC). *22 August Research by Norwegian scientists adds to a growing body of evidence that too much Sedentary lifestyle, sitting is related to a higher risk of early death, and that even a small amount of regular activity can Longevity, lengthen lifespan. *23 August **Austrian and Chinese scientists report the first teleportation of three-dimensional quantum states, or "qutrits", which are more complex than two-dimensional qubits. **
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
reports that the Deep Space Atomic Clock (DSAC), to be used for precise radio navigation in Outer space, deep space, has been activated. *26 August Astronomers report that newly discovered long-term pattern of absorbance and albedo changes in the Atmosphere of Venus, atmosphere of the planet Venus are caused by "unknown absorbers", which may be
microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...
s high up in the Atmosphere of Venus, atmosphere of the planet. *28 August **Scientists report the discovery of a nearly intact skull, for the first time, and dated at 3.8 million years ago, of ''Australopithecus anamensis'' in Ethiopia. **Astronomers report the discovery, based on deep, irregularly shaped transits, of a second disrupted planet, disrupted planetary object being ripped apart by its host star; in this instance, the host star is a
white dwarf A white dwarf is a Compact star, stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very density, dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place i ...
named ZTF J0139+5245; the first such similar host star discovered was WD 1145+017 in 2015. **Scientists report the discovery of a new distinctive light wave, named a Dyakonov–Voigt wave, that results from a particular manipulation of crystals, that was first suggested in equations developed by physicist James Clerk Maxwell in the middle 1800s. *29 August Astronomers report that the exoplanet in the WASP-49 system might have a Volcano, volcanically active exomoon. *30 August **In a study published in the journal ''PLOS Pathogens'', researchers at Spain's Carlos III Health Institute note the discovery of the genetic mutuation Transportin-3, TNPO3, known for causing muscular dystrophy, may also give protection against HIV. **Scientists in China report a way of regrowing the complex structure of tooth enamel, using calcium phosphate ion clusters as a precursor layer.


September

*2 September Insilico Medicine reports the creation, via artificial intelligence, of six novel inhibitors of the DDR1 gene, a kinase target implicated in fibrosis and other diseases. The system, known as Generative Tensorial Reinforcement Learning (GENTRL), designed the new compounds in 21 days, with a lead candidate tested and showing positive results in mice. *5 September – Astronomers report that the observed dimmings of Tabby's Star may have been produced by fragments resulting from the Disrupted planet, disruption of an orphaned exomoon. *6 September **Computer experts announce that an exploit of the wormable BlueKeep security vulnerability, affecting all unpatched Windows NT-based versions of Microsoft Windows from Windows 2000 through Windows Server 2008 R2 and Windows 7, has now been released into the public realm. **Mathematicians report, after a 65-year search (since 1954), the ''solution'' to the last integer left below 100 (i.e., "42 (number), 42") expressed as the sum of three cubes. **A team of physicists report that the supposed discrepancy in the proton radius between electronic and muonic hydrogen does not exist, settling the proton radius puzzle. *7 September The
Indian Space Research Organisation The Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO ) is India's national List of government space agencies, space agency, headquartered in Bengaluru, Karnataka. It serves as the principal research and development arm of the Department of Space (DoS), ...
(ISRO) loses contact with Chandrayaan-2, its second lunar probe, just moments before it was expected to land on the Moon's surface. *10 September Scientists report the computerized determination, based on 260 CT scans, of a virtual Human skull, skull shape of the Human evolution, last common human ancestor to modern humans, and suggests that the human ancestor arose through a merging of populations in East Africa, East and
South Africa South Africa, officially the Republic of South Africa (RSA), is the Southern Africa, southernmost country in Africa. Its Provinces of South Africa, nine provinces are bounded to the south by of coastline that stretches along the Atlantic O ...
, between 260,000 and 350,000 years ago.+ *11 September **Astronomers report the detection of water vapour in the atmosphere of the circumstellar habitable zone exoplanet K2-18b, which may be between 0 and 40 °C. **Researchers at the École Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Swiss Federal Institute of Technology demonstrate the first artificial hand for amputees that merges user and robotic control, a concept in neuroprosthetics known as ''shared control''. **Astronomers at the Minor Planet Center confirm the detection of comet C/2019 Q4 (Borisov), likely a second
interstellar object An interstellar object is an astronomical object in interstellar space that is not gravitationally bound to a star. Applicable objects include asteroids, comets, and rogue planets, but not a star or stellar remnant. This term can also be appli ...
, following the earlier discovery of ʻOumuamua. **Google reports the creation of a deep learning system, trained on 50,000 different diagnoses, able to detect 26 Dermatology, skin conditions as accurately as dermatologists. *16 September **Biochemists report that "RNA-DNA chimeras" (complex mixtures of RNA, RNA molecules and DNA, DNA molecules) may be a more effective way of producing Abiogenesis, precursor life biochemicals, than the more linear approaches (with pure RNA and pure DNA molecules) used earlier. **Using
CRISPR CRISPR (; acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is d ...
, researchers in the U.S. engineer a plasmid to remove an antibiotic resistance gene from the ''Enterococcus faecalis'' bacterium. **Astronomers using the Green Bank Telescope identify a rapidly rotating millisecond pulsar, called J0740+6620, as the most massive
neutron star A neutron star is the gravitationally collapsed Stellar core, core of a massive supergiant star. It results from the supernova explosion of a stellar evolution#Massive star, massive star—combined with gravitational collapse—that compresses ...
ever observed, with 2.17 solar masses in a sphere only 30 kilometers across. **Scientists at the Mayo Clinic report the first successful use of senolytics, a new class of drug with potential anti-aging benefits, to remove Cellular senescence, senescent cells from human patients with a kidney disease. ** In a study published in ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, PNAS'', researchers at MIT detail a new emission free method of cement production, a major contributor to climate change. *17 September – A small clinical trial, announced by U.S. company NeuroEM Therapeutics, shows reversal of cognitive impairment in Alzheimer's disease patients after just two months of treatment using a wearable head device. Electromagnetic radiation, Electromagnetic waves emitted by the device appear to penetrate the brain to break up amyloid-beta and tau deposits. *19 September – Researchers report on the Face, facial appearance of
Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. D ...
s, an Extinction, extinct group of archaic humans in the genus ''Homo'', based on Nucleic acid sequence, genetic information. *20 September – Scientists report that the ''
InSight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, 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 se ...
'' lander on the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
uncovered unexplained Magnetic anomaly, magnetic pulses, and Mirnov oscillations, magnetic oscillations may be consistent with a planet-wide reservoir of liquid water deep underground. *25 September **The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases its ''Special Report on the Ocean and Cryosphere in a Changing Climate''. This includes a revised projection for sea level rise, upwards by 10 cm to 1.1 metres by 2100. **Canadian company Deep Genomics announces that its Artificial intelligence, AI-based drug discovery platform has identified a target and drug candidate for Wilson's disease. The candidate, DG12P1, is designed to correct the exon-skipping effect of Met645Arg, a genetic mutation affecting the ATP7B copper-binding protein. **Engineers at Duke University report the use of machine learning to rapidly design dielectric (non-metal) metamaterials that absorb and emit specific frequencies of terahertz radiation. **The Amery Ice Shelf in
Antarctica Antarctica () is Earth's southernmost and least-populated continent. Situated almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle and surrounded by the Southern Ocean (also known as the Antarctic Ocean), it contains the geographic South Pole. ...
produces its largest iceberg in more than 50 years, with a chunk called D28 being calved off that is 1,636 km2 in area and weighs an estimated 315 billion tonnes. *27 September – Astronomers report, for the first time, the release of Cyanide, cyanide gas and Interstellar dust, dust from an
interstellar object An interstellar object is an astronomical object in interstellar space that is not gravitationally bound to a star. Applicable objects include asteroids, comets, and rogue planets, but not a star or stellar remnant. This term can also be appli ...
, particularly from the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov. *30 September – By combining doses of lithium, trametinib and rapamycin into a single treatment, researchers extend the lifespan of Drosophila melanogaster, fruit flies (''Drosophila'') by 48%.


October

*1 October **Scientists at the Deep Carbon Observatory quantify the amount of carbon held by the Earth, finding that 1.85∗1018 tonnes is present, the vast majority below ground. **Scientists at the University of California, San Diego describe how a protein named Dsup (''Damage suppression protein'') binds to chromatin, which protects the cells of tardigrades and may explain the animals' tremendous resilience. **Physicists report a way of determining the state of Schrödinger's cat ''before'' observing it. *2 October – Scientists reveal the photo carrier dynamics in heterojunction phototransistors and show how molecular packing can impact on photoresponse. The study could lead to new schemes to engineer efficient photo carrier transport in general. *4 October – Scientists use a new parallelised technique, known as femtosecond projection TPL (FP-TPL), to 3D print nanoscale structures up to 1,000 times faster than conventional two-photon lithography (TPL). *7 October **
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
reports evidence, uncovered by the ''Curiosity'' rover on Mount Sharp, of a wide ancient basin 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 a ...
that once may have contained a Salt lake, salty lake. **20 new moons of Saturn are discovered by Scott S. Sheppard and his team at the Carnegie Institution for Science, taking the planet's total known number to 82, surpassing Moons of Jupiter, Jupiter. **Researchers genetically engineer
Escherichia coli ''Escherichia coli'' ( )Wells, J. C. (2000) Longman Pronunciation Dictionary. Harlow ngland Pearson Education Ltd. is a gram-negative, facultative anaerobic, rod-shaped, coliform bacterium of the genus '' Escherichia'' that is commonly fo ...
that can manufacture large amounts of psilocybin, which is in clinical trials for treating depression and other brain diseases. *8 October – Researchers at Duke University Health System identify a mechanism for cartilage repair in humans, which could allow joints and possibly entire limbs to regenerate. *15 October – OpenAI demonstrates a pair of neural networks trained to solve a Rubik's Cube with a highly dexterous, human-like robotic hand. *16 October – Researchers at Harvard Medical School identify a link between neural activity and human longevity. Neural excitation is linked to shorter life, while suppression of overactivity appears to extend lifespan. *17 October – Northwestern University researchers unveil a new
3D printer 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 ...
known as HARP (high-area rapid printing), which can produce an object the size of an adult human within two hours, without sacrificing quality or resolution. *18 October **Researchers at the University of California, Santa Cruz, describe the use of nanoscale optical probes to monitor neural activity, with potential to greatly increase the scale and bandwidth available compared to microelectrode arrays. **A new stable form of plutonium, which may be a transient phase in radioactive waste repositories, is discovered by scientists using the European Synchrotron Radiation Facility, European Synchrotron in Grenoble, France. *21 October **In a study, published in the journal ''Nature (journal), Nature'', researchers at the Broad Institute describe a new method of genetic engineering superior to previous methods like
CRISPR CRISPR (; acronym of clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats) is a family of DNA sequences found in the genomes of prokaryotic organisms such as bacteria and archaea. Each sequence within an individual prokaryotic CRISPR is d ...
they call "prime editing". **Researchers report that the Chicxulub impactor, Cretaceous Chicxulub asteroid impact that resulted in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, extinction of non-avian dinosaurs 66 million years ago, also rapidly Ocean acidification, acidified the oceans producing ecological collapse and long-lasting effects on the climate, and was a key reason for end-Cretaceous Extinction event, mass extinction. *22 October – Scientists publish a paper claiming support for their controversial and disputed Younger Dryas impact hypothesis that the Quaternary extinction event, extinction of ice-age animals may have been caused by a disintegrating
asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
or comet impact event, impact and/or airburst about 12,800 years ago. *23 October – Google announces that its 53-qubit Sycamore processor, 'Sycamore' processor has achieved quantum supremacy, performing a specific task in 200 seconds that would take the world's best supercomputers 10,000 years to complete. However, the claim is disputed by some IBM researchers. *25 October – A new Carbon sequestration, carbon capture system is described by MIT, which can work on the gas at almost any concentration, using electrodes combined with carbon nanotubes. *28 October **A study published in ''Nature'' identifies Botswana as the birthplace of anatomically modern humans, based on genetic studies, around 200,000 BCE. **Astronomers observe the large asteroid 10 Hygiea, Hygiea in higher resolution than ever before, revealing it to be spherical and a likely
dwarf planet A dwarf planet is a small planetary-mass object that is in direct orbit around the Sun, massive enough to be hydrostatic equilibrium, gravitationally rounded, but insufficient to achieve clearing the neighbourhood, orbital dominance like the ...
candidate; possibly the smallest in the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization 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 "Sola ...
. **Researchers report that the interstellar comet 2I/Borisov is outgassing water, and in a manner similar to the outgassing of water in a typical comet in the Solar System. **Scientists report that terrestrial lifeforms, including extreme forms of archaea
microorganism A microorganism, or microbe, is an organism of microscopic scale, microscopic size, which may exist in its unicellular organism, single-celled form or as a Colony (biology)#Microbial colonies, colony of cells. The possible existence of unseen ...
s, were not found to exist in very hot, acidic and salty conditions present in some areas of Earth, including in the Danakil Depression of Ethiopia. *29 October – A study in ''Nature'' concludes that Sea level rise, rising sea levels will threaten 300 million people by 2050, more than triple previous estimates. The upward revision is based on the use of a multilayer perceptron, a class of artificial neural network, which analysed topographical maps in greater detail than before and provided more accurate land elevations. *30 October – A large-scale study by researchers in Germany finds that insect populations declined by one-third between 2008 and 2017. *31 October – Researchers at the KTH Royal Institute of Technology, Sweden, develop a new film that is applied to solar cells, which combines nanocrystals and microlenses to capture infrared light. This can increase the solar energy conversion efficiency by 10 percent or more.


November

*1 November – Researchers at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute demonstrate a way to 3D print Human skin, living skin, complete with blood vessels, which could be used for more natural and accurate Skin grafting, grafts. *4 November – Scientists confirm that, on 5 November 2018, the ''Voyager 2'' probe had officially reached the interstellar medium (ISM), a region of outer space beyond the influence of the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization 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 "Sola ...
, and has now joined the ''Voyager 1'' probe which had reached the ISM earlier in 2012. *5 November – 11,000 scientists from around the world publish a study in the journal ''BioScience'', warning "clearly and unequivocally that planet Earth is facing a climate crisis, climate emergency." *6 November – Scientists at the University of Rochester demonstrate a new technique for creating Superhydrophobic coating, superhydrophobic metals that float on water, using femtosecond laser bursts to "etch" the surfaces and trap air. *8 November **
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
confirms a potentially wormable BlueKeep security vulnerability attack, and urges users to immediately patch their Microsoft Windows Computer, computer systems. **Computer experts at Kaspersky Lab report the detection of a very advanced and insidious Backdoor (computing), backdoor malware Advanced persistent threat, APT named Titanium (malware), Titanium, that was developed by PLATINUM (cybercrime group), PLATINUM, a cybercrime collective. *12 November –
486958 Arrokoth 486958 Arrokoth (Provisional designation in astronomy, provisional designation ; formerly nicknamed Ultima Thule) is a trans-Neptunian object located in the Kuiper belt. Arrokoth became the farthest and most primitive List of minor planet ...
, a trans-Neptunian object previously nicknamed "''Ultima Thule''" and visited by the New Horizons, New Horizons spacecraft, receives its official name during a ceremony at the NASA Headquarters. *13 November **Jim Peebles, awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics for his theoretical discoveries in physical cosmology. notes, in his award presentation, that he does not support the Big Bang, Big Bang Theory, due to the lack of concrete supporting evidence, and states, "It's very unfortunate that one thinks of the beginning whereas in fact, we have no good theory of such a thing as the beginning." **Researchers report that
astronaut An astronaut (from the Ancient Greek (), meaning 'star', and (), meaning 'sailor') is a person trained, equipped, and deployed by a List of human spaceflight programs, human spaceflight program to serve as a commander or crew member of a spa ...
s experienced serious Hemodynamics, blood flow and Thrombus, clot problems while on board the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
, based on a six-month study of 11 healthy astronauts. The results may influence long-term spaceflight, including a mission to the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
, according to the researchers. **Scientists in Japan use single-cell RNA analysis to find that supercentenarians have an excess of cytotoxic CD4 T-cells, a type of immune cell. *15 November – The discovery and interpretation of 143 new Nazca Lines, Nazca geoglyphs is announced by researchers from Yamagata University. *18 November **Internal-wave cooling of threatened coral reefs quantified across the Pacific Ocean by an international collaboration led by The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology is published in Nature Geoscience **
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 ...
, the largest moon of Saturn, is fully mapped for the first time, using data from NASA's ''Cassini–Huygens, Cassini'' mission. **Scientists report detecting, for the first time, Sugar, sugar molecules, including ribose, in meteorites, suggesting that chemical processes on
asteroid An asteroid is a minor planet—an object larger than a meteoroid that is neither a planet nor an identified comet—that orbits within the Solar System#Inner Solar System, inner Solar System or is co-orbital with Jupiter (Trojan asteroids). As ...
s can produce some fundamentally essential bio-ingredients important to
life Life, also known as biota, refers to matter that has biological processes, such as Cell signaling, signaling and self-sustaining processes. It is defined descriptively by the capacity for homeostasis, Structure#Biological, organisation, met ...
, and supporting the notion of an RNA world prior to a DNA-based Abiogenesis, origin of life on Earth, and possibly, as well, the notion of panspermia. **Researchers at the University of Notre Dame develop a new method for lifelong learning in artificial neural networks, which entails the use of a ferroelectric ternary content-addressable memory component. Their study, featured in ''Nature Electronics'', aims to replicate the human brain's ability to learn from only a few examples, adapting to new tasks based on past experiences. *20 November **Astronomers report a notable gamma ray burst explosion, named GRB 190114C, initially detected in January 2019, that, so far, has been determined to have had the highest energy, Electronvolt, 1 Tera electron volts (Tev), ever observed for such a cosmic event. **A study shows that the Scientific consensus on climate change, consensus among climate change scientists has grown to 100%, based on a review of 11,602 peer-reviewed articles published in the first seven months of 2019. *23 November – The last known
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 ...
in
Malaysia Malaysia is a country in Southeast Asia. Featuring the Tanjung Piai, southernmost point of continental Eurasia, it is a federation, federal constitutional monarchy consisting of States and federal territories of Malaysia, 13 states and thre ...
passes on. *25 November ** IPv4 address exhaustion: The RIPE NCC, which is the official regional Internet registry (RIR) for Europe, officially announces that it has run out of IPv4 Addresses. **The World Meteorological Organization reports that levels of heat-trapping greenhouse gases in the Atmosphere of Earth, atmosphere reached another new record high of 407.8 parts per million in 2018, with "no sign of a slowdown, let alone a decline." *26 November **Astronomers from Yale University report that the recently detected interstellar comet 2I/Borisov (including Comet, coma and tail), is "14 times the size of Earth", presented a
image
comparing the comet size with the size of planet Earth [...] and stated, "It's humbling to realize how small Earth is next to this visitor from another solar system." **Researchers report, based on an international study of 27 countries, that Health promotion, caring for families is the main motivator for people worldwide. *27 November **Researchers report the discovery of ''Caveasphaera''. a multicellular organism found in 609-million-year-old rocks, that is not easily defined as an animal or non-animal, which may be related to one of the earliest instances of animal evolution. **Scientists at the University of Exeter report that more than half of nine Tipping points in the climate system, climate change tipping points identified a decade ago are now "active". **Chinese astronomers report the discovery of LB-1, the name of a galactic Stellar classification#Class B, B-type star, as well as the name of a very closely associated over-massive stellar-mass black hole, at least from Earth. The black hole is, at nearly 70 solar masses, over twice the mass as the maximum predicted by most current theories of stellar evolution.


December

*2 December **Researchers at the U.S. Department of Energy demonstrate X-ray Laser-Enhanced Attosecond Pulse generation (XLEAP), a new method for observing the movements of electrons, using lasers just 280 attoseconds long. **Researchers from Tel Aviv University describe how a molecule known as PJ34 triggers the self-destruction of
pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
cells, which were reduced by up to 90% in mouse models. *3 December – Researchers from the University of Bath report the creation of artificial neurons that reproduce the electrical properties of biological neurons onto semiconductor chips. *4 December – Astronomers publish the first evidence of a giant planet orbiting a white dwarf, WDJ0914+1914, suggesting that planets in the
Solar System The Solar SystemCapitalization 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 "Sola ...
may survive the Stellar evolution, death of the Sun in the Formation and evolution of the Solar System#Future, distant future. *5 December – Researchers at the California Academy of Sciences report the discovery of 71 new
plant Plants are the eukaryotes that form the Kingdom (biology), kingdom Plantae; they are predominantly Photosynthesis, photosynthetic. This means that they obtain their energy from sunlight, using chloroplasts derived from endosymbiosis with c ...
and animal species, which includes 17 fish, 15 geckos, 8 Flowering plant, flower plants, 6 sea slugs, 5 arachnids, 4 eels, 3 ants, 3 skinks, 2 skate (fish), skates, 2 wasps, 2 mosses, 2 corals and 2 lizards. *6 December – New calculations show that hollow spherical bubbles containing positronium gas are stable in liquid helium and could therefore serve as the source of positronium Bose-Einstein condensates for gamma-ray lasers, which could be used for medical imaging, spacecraft propulsion, and cancer treatment. Work to realize such bubbles is ongoing and near term results might have applications in
quantum computing A quantum computer is a computer that exploits quantum mechanical phenomena. On small scales, physical matter exhibits properties of wave-particle duality, both particles and waves, and quantum computing takes advantage of this behavior using s ...
. *7 December – Didier Queloz, winner of the 2019 Nobel Prize in Physics, takes issue with those who are not supportive of helping to improve climate change, stating, "I think this is just irresponsible, because the stars are so far away I think we should not have any serious hope to escape the Earth [...] Also keep in mind that we are a species that has evolved and developed for this planet. We're not built to survive on any other planet than this one [...] We'd better spend our time and energy trying to fix it." *8 December – Astronomers report that the star Betelgeuse has significantly "fainted" in visibility and, possibly as a result, may suggest the star to be in the last stages of its stellar evolution, evolution, and may be expected to explode as a
supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...
within the next 100,000 years, much sooner than thought previously. *9 December **Researchers at EPFL discover that the viscosity of solutions of electrically charged polymers dissolved in water is influenced by a quantum effect. This tiny quantum effect influences the way water molecules interact with one another. **Researchers publish a study, "''Ultrafast stimulated emission microscopy of single nanocrystals''," in which they report on a technique for studying femtosecond events in non-fluorescent, nano-scale objects. **Researchers report quantum states being achieved in materials such as silicon carbide and components such as diodes used in ordinary electronics. **Scientists in China create pigs with monkey
DNA Deoxyribonucleic acid (; DNA) is a polymer composed of two polynucleotide chains that coil around each other to form a double helix. The polymer carries genetic instructions for the development, functioning, growth and reproduction of al ...
; thus creating an animal hybrid with genetic material from two different species. **
Intel Intel Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company headquartered in Santa Clara, California, and Delaware General Corporation Law, incorporated in Delaware. Intel designs, manufactures, and sells computer compo ...
reveals a first-of-its-kind cryogenic control chip – code-named "Horse Ridge (chip), Horse Ridge" – for control of multiple quantum bits (qubits) and scaling of larger quantum computer systems. **Researchers develop a Autonomous solar panel cleaning, self-cleaning mechanism for solar panels, which can remove particles on its surface more effectively than methods used previously. Due to Etching (microfabrication)#Wet etching, wet-chemically etched nanowires and a hydrophobic coating on the surface, water droplets can remove 98% of dust particles. *10 December **Astronomers report studies that question the validity of an essential assumption supporting the existence of dark energy, suggesting that dark energy may not actually exist. Lead researcher of the new studies, Young-Wook Lee of Yonsei University, said, "Quoting Carl Sagan, ECREE, extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence, but I am not sure we have such extraordinary evidence for dark energy. Our result illustrates that dark energy from Supernova Cosmology Project, SN cosmology, which led to the 2011 Nobel Prize in Physics, might be an artifact of a fragile and false assumption." **NASA scientists report that substantial amounts of "Water on Mars, water ice" may be readily available just below the surface on the planet
Mars Mars is the fourth planet from the Sun. It is also known as the "Red Planet", because of its orange-red appearance. Mars is a desert-like rocky planet with a tenuous carbon dioxide () atmosphere. At the average surface level the atmosph ...
, in some particularly well mapped areas (:File:PIA23514-Mars-WaterIce-LikeliestAreas-20191210.jpg, image). **Ford Motor Company, in a joint research project with
Microsoft Microsoft Corporation is an American multinational corporation and technology company, technology conglomerate headquartered in Redmond, Washington. Founded in 1975, the company became influential in the History of personal computers#The ear ...
, reveals a "quantum-inspired" algorithm able to cut traffic by 73% and shorten commuting times by 8% in a simulation of 5,000 cars. *11 December **Scientists report the discovery of Cave painting, cave art in central Indonesia that is estimated to be at least 43,900 years old, and noted that the finding was "the oldest pictorial record of storytelling and the earliest figurative artwork in the world". **Researchers find evidence that the carbon dioxide concentration in the oceans rose before Chicxulub crater, the asteroid impact that caused Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event, the extinction of non-avian dinosaurs. This was likely caused by long-term volcanic eruptions from the Deccan Traps and ocean acidification, acidified the oceans already before the asteroid impact. Their results might inform preparations for consequences of contemporary human-caused climate change in the Earth system and were made possible by a new method for analyzing the calcium isotope composition of fossilized sea shells. *13 December – The Japanese government approves construction of the Hyper-Kamiokande, the largest neutrino detector in history. *16 December – Scientists report that a lamella-like thin-film transistor composed of metal oxide semiconductors and organic polymer can be fabricated at low temperatures from solutions and operate under severe stress conditions. The study could provide a low-cost way for a range applications for large-area flexible electronics. *18 December **The CHEOPS space telescope, whose mission is to study the formation of extrasolar planets and determine their precise radius, likely density and internal structure, is launched. **Scientists report that ''Homo erectus'', a species of extinct archaic humans, may have survived to nearly 100,000 years ago, much longer than thought previously. *19 December – The American Association for the Advancement of Science, AAAS journal ''Science (journal), Science'' reports that the "Breakthrough of the Year, 2019 Breakthrough of the Year" is the :File:Black hole - Messier 87 crop max res.jpg, image of a supermassive black hole taken by the
Event Horizon Telescope The Event Horizon Telescope (EHT) is a Astronomical interferometer, telescope array consisting of a global network of radio telescopes. The EHT project combines data from several very-long-baseline interferometry (VLBI) stations around Earth, wh ...
. The best science findings of 2019 are also reported in other listings by Boston University, ''Business Insider'' and ''The New York Times''. *20 December – The US government authorises, for the first time, the use of federal funds to research geoengineering. *26 December – A Solar eclipse of December 26, 2019, partial solar eclipse occurs. *28 December – NASA reports that astronaut Christina Koch has now spent 289 days on the
International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was Assembly of the International Space Station, assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United ...
, more time in space than any other female astronaut, breaking the previous record of retired astronaut Peggy Whitson. *30 December – Chinese authorities announce that He Jiankui, the scientist who claimed to have created the world's Lulu and Nana controversy, first genetically edited human babies, has been sentenced to three years in prison and fined 3 million yuan (US$430,000) for his genetic research efforts.


Awards

*Queen Elizabeth Prize for Engineering Bradford Parkinson, James Spilker, Hugo Fruehauf and Richard Schwartz *Abel Prize Karen Uhlenbeck *The Nobel Prize in Medicine is awarded to William G. Kaelin Jr., Peter J. Ratcliffe and Gregg L. Semenza for their work on the regulation of oxygen at the cellular level. *The Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to Jim Peebles, James Peebles, Michel Mayor and Didier Queloz for their discoveries about the cosmos. *The Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to John B. Goodenough, M. Stanley Whittingham and Akira Yoshino for their work on lithium batteries.


Deaths

* 11 January Michael Atiyah, British-Lebanese mathematician and Fields medalist (b. 1929) * 6 February Manfred Eigen, German chemist and Nobel laureate (b. 1927) * 14 February Simon P. Norton, English mathematician, co-discoverer of 'monstrous moonshine' (b. 1952) * 18 February Wallace Smith Broecker, American geophysicist, coined the term "global warming" (b. 1931) *1 March Zhores Alferov, Soviet-Russian physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1930) *20 March **Georg Kreutzberg, German neurobiologist (b. 1934) **Noel Hush, Australian chemist (b. 1924) *21 March Roger Moore (computer scientist), Roger Moore, American computer scientist (b. 1939) *28 March Koji Nakanishi, Japanese chemist (b. 1925) *30 March John Wilson Moore, American biophysicist (b. 1920) *5 April Sydney Brenner, South African molecular biologist and Nobel laureate (b. 1927) *6 April David J. Thouless, British physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1934) *13 April Paul Greengard, American neuroscientist and Nobel laureate (b. 1925) *15 April Winston L. Shelton, American inventor (b. 1922) *2 May Li Xintian (psychologist), Li Xintian, Chinese psychologist (b. 1924) *3 May Goro Shimura, Japanese mathematician (b. 1930) *6 May George O. Zimmerman, George Zimmerman, American physicist (b. 1935) *8 May Robert McEliece, American mathematician and engineer (b. 1942) *9 May Zhan Wenshan, Chinese physicist (b. 1941) *10 May Geneviève Raugel, French mathematician (b. 1951) *13 May Lo Tung-bin, Taiwanese biochemist (b. 1927) *14 May Michael Rossmann, American physicist and microbiologist (b. 1930) *15 May Charles Kittel, American physicist (b. 1916) *18 May Mario Baudoin, Bolivian biologist (b. 1942) *24 May Murray Gell-Mann, American physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1929) *25 May Margaret-Ann Armour, Canadian chemist (b. 1939) *27 May **Laurie Hendren, Canadian computer scientist (b. 1958) **Aharon Razin, Israeli biochemist (b. 1935) *28 May **Li Hengde, Chinese material scientist (b. 1921) **Włodzimierz Ptak, Wlodzimierz Ptak, Polish immunologist and microbiologist (b. 1928) *1 June **Harry C. Triandis, Harry Triandis, American psychologist (b. 1926) **Fons van de Vijver, Dutch psychologist (b. 1952) *2 June Henry T. Lynch, Henry Lynch, American physician (b. 1928) *3 June Tang Dingyuan, Chinese physicist (b. 1920) *4 June Teruko Ishizaka, Japanese immunologist (b. 1926) *12 June Wilbert J. McKeachie, Wilbert McKeachie, American psychologist (b. 1921) *13 June Heinrich Reichert, Swiss neurobiologist (b. 1949) *14 June **George E. Felton, George Felton, British computer scientist (b. 1921) **James Wyngaarden, American physician (b. 1924) *16 June **Frederick Andermann, Canadian neurologist (b. 1930) **Feng Chuanhan, Chinese osteologist (b. 1914) **Francine Shapiro, American psychologist (b. 1948) *17 June **Kung Hsiang-fu, Chinese molecular biologist (b. 1942) **Clemens C. J. Roothaan, Clemens Roothaan, Dutch physicist and chemist (b. 1918) *20 June Jean-Marie Hullot, French computer scientist (b. 1954) *22 June Robert V. Levine, Robert Levine, American psychologist (b. 1945) *23 June George Rosenkranz, George Rozenkranz, Mexican chemist (b. 1916) *29 June Dieter Enders, German chemist (b. 1946) *30 June Mitchell Feigenbaum, American physicist (b. 1944) *2 July Suzanne Eaton, American biologist (b. 1959) *3 July Arseny Mironov, Russian aeronautical engineer (b. 1917) *6 July Calvin Quate, American engineer (b. 1923) *10 July **Karen R. Hitchcock, Karen Hitchcock, American biologist (b. 1943) **Gerald Weissmann, Gerald Weismann, American physician (b. 1930) *12 July **Fernando J. Corbató, American computer scientist (b. 1926) **Claudio Naranjo, Chilean psychiatrist (b. 1932) **Richard M. Thorne, American physicist (b. 1942) *13 July Harlan Lane, American psychologist (b. 1936) *14 July **Rahul Desikan, American neuroscientist (b. 1978) **Hoàng Tụy, Vietnamese mathematician (b. 1927) **Arvind Varma, American chemical engineer (b. 1947) *15 July **Rex Richards (chemist), Rex Richards, British chemist (b. 1922) **Thorsteinn I. Sigfusson, Thorsteinn Sigfusson, Icelandic physicist (b. 1954) *16 July Judit Bar-Ilan, Israeli computer scientist (b. 1958) *18 July Kurt Julius Isselbacher, American physician (b. 1925) *19 July **Godfried Toussaint, Canadian computer scientist (b. 1944) **Patrick Winston, American computer scientist (b. 1943) *20 July Liane Russell, American geneticist (b. 1923) *22 July Christopher C. Kraft Jr., American aerospace engineer (b. 1924) *23 July Michael Roth (cyberneticist), Michael Roth, German engineer (b. 1936) *27 July John Robert Schrieffer, American physicist and Nobel laureate (b. 1931) *28 July **Walter Fiers, Belgian molecular biologist (b. 1931) **Li Jisheng, Chinese aerospace engineer (b. 1943) *1 August **Charles Fadley, American physicist (b. 1941) **Zha Quanxing, Chinese electrochemist (b. 1925) **Anders P. Ravn, Anders P. Ravin, Danish computer scientist (b. 1947) *2 August Carl Bell (physician), Carl Bell, American psychiatrist (b. 1947) *3 August **Steven Gubser, American physicist (b. 1972) **Nikolai Kardashev, Russian astrophysicist, author of Kardashev scale (b. 1932) *4 August Ann Nelson, American particle physicist (b. 1958) *6 August **Zhuo Renxi, Chinese chemist (b. 1931) **George F. Simmons, American mathematician (b. 1925) *7 August **Donald F. Klein, American psychiatrist (b. 1928) **Kary Mullis, American biochemist and Nobel laureate (b. 1944) *8 August Stanisław Konturek, Stanislaw Konturek, Polish physiologist (b. 1931) *10 August Radoslav Katičić, Croatian linguist (b. 1930) *11 August **Michael E. Krauss, American linguist (b. 1934) **Geoff Malcolm, New Zealand physical chemist (b. 1930) *12 August Danny Cohen (computer scientist), Danny Cohen, Israeli computer scientist (b. 1937) *15 August Qin Hanzhang, Chinese food scientist (b.1908) *20 August Li Houwen, Chinese surgeon (b. 1927) *23 August Walter Thiel (chemist), Walter Thiel, German chemist (b. 1949) *26 August Chen Jiayong, Chinese metallurgist and chemical engineer (b. 1922) *27 August Zhang Zong, Chinese crystallographer (b. 1929) *31 August **Wang Buxuan, Chinese physicist (b. 1922) **Immanuel Wallerstein, American sociologist (b. 1930) * 8 September Chris Dobson, British chemist (b. 1949) * 11 October Alexei Leonov, Soviet cosmonaut (Voskhod 2), first person to Extravehicular activity, walk in space. (b. 1934) * 1 November Gilles Fontaine, Canadian astrophysicist (b. 1948) * 2 November Irwin Fridovich, American biochemist (b. 1929) * 6 November Michael Hanack, German chemist (b. 1931) * 7 November Margarita Salas, Spanish biochemist and geneticist (b. 1938) * 18 November Ching-Liang Lin, Taiwanese physicist (b. 1931) * 20 November Mary L. Good, American chemist and politician * 26 November Cyrus Chothia, English biochemist (b. 1942) * 16 December Hans Kornberg, British-American biochemist (b. 1928)


See also

*2019 in spaceflight *List of emerging technologies *List of years in science


References


External links

*{{Commons category-inline 2019 in science, 2019-related lists 21st century in science Science timelines by year 2010s in science