TOP SCIENTIFIC FACTS THAT WILL SHAPE YOUR FUTURE

Photo: Seachtain Eolaíochta / publicjobs.ie

Global Warming Is Closer Than We Thought

Humanity will be able to survive if it manages to keep the increase in the planet’s average temperature at 1.5°C. Crossing this red line will make life on Earth under conditions of global warming unbearable. A more vivid picture was once painted by Stephen Hawking: if greenhouse gas emissions are not reduced, sooner or later, the average temperature on Earth will reach 460 degrees Celsius. This is equal to the average surface temperature of Venus, a planet uninhabitable for humans. The need to limit the temperature rise to 1.5°C was the focus of a special report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, published on October 6, 2018. According to the report’s authors, achieving this goal will require unprecedented measures from policymakers. In particular, carbon dioxide emissions must be reduced to zero by 2050. Otherwise, between 2030 and 2050, a temperature increase of up to 1.5°C will become a reality.

Connected by One Network. A Neural Network

One mind is good, two are better — and three already form a neural network. So far, scientists at the University of Washington have managed to connect the brains of three people into one system. As a result of this объединение, they were able to play a game called BrainNet — literally, a «brain network». The game resembles Tetris: two participants simultaneously decided whether a falling shape needed to be rotated, and if their answers matched, the signal was transmitted directly to the brain of a third participant. Although this person could not see the playing field, they followed the received signal. Scientists now plan to connect dozens or even hundreds of people into the «BrainNet».

Edited Genomes Will Save from Congenital Diseases

Chinese biologist He Jiankui announced that he had created the first children with edited genomes. According to him, twin girls were born as a result of the experiment. Later, the scientist reported the continuation of the experiment, which involved eight couples where the father was an HIV carrier. He also stated that the goal of his research was the treatment and prevention of diseases, not the creation of children with predetermined traits. The scientific community reacted with outrage to the statement, believing that his work poses a threat to the health of future children. In addition, ethicists fear the emergence of «designer babies». After public criticism, He Jiankui disappeared, and his whereabouts remain unknown. In January 2019, Chinese authorities confirmed the birth of genetically edited children and also announced that an investigation had been launched against the scientist responsible.

An Organ-Growing Factory

Colleagues of He Jiankui from Stanford University (USA) went even further and created a human–sheep hybrid. In an experiment worthy of a science fiction thriller, scientists implanted human stem cells into sheep embryos and began growing the hybrids in a nutrient medium. At the same time, they had to fend off criticism from the vast majority of the scientific community, which was horrified by the prospect of obtaining a living chimera. However, there was no need to be alarmed for long: the researchers did not allow the human–sheep hybrid to be born, destroying the embryos four weeks after the start of the experiment. The successful start of this ethically controversial project gave scientists hope that, in the future, it will be possible to grow human organs for transplantation — using the patients’ own genetic material. Considering that today thousands of people are waiting for transplants, many of whom die without receiving a donor organ, it can be assumed that, over time, ethical boundaries will expand in the name of saving human lives.

Genealogy in the Service of the Police

Another genetic know-how. American police активно use the online service GEDmatch, which allows users to build a genealogical tree through DNA analysis. Around 2 million Americans have already uploaded their data to this system. As scientists have shown, having the genetic data of just 2% of the population is enough to identify relatives up to the fourth degree in 90% of cases. At the same time, critics are concerned about the confidentiality of the data of individuals whose DNA has been used to track down criminals. They also fear that this data could fall into the hands of malicious actors and be used for blackmail.

The Planck Kilogram

If school students once only needed to know that the kilogram standard was kept at the International Bureau of Weights and Measures near Paris, now they must also remember what the Planck constant is. This is because on November 16, 2018, at the 26th General Conference on Weights and Measures, it was decided to redefine the kilogram in terms of this constant. The decision came into force on World Metrology Day, May 20, 2019. From that day on, there has been no unit in the International System of Units defined by a man-made physical artifact. However, this change has had no impact on trade, industry, or everyday life. It was done entirely for the sake of science. For those who have forgotten what the Planck constant is, here is a reminder: it is a fundamental constant of quantum theory, a coefficient that relates the energy of a quantum of electromagnetic radiation to its frequency. Its value is 6.626070040(81) × 10⁻³⁴ J·s.

Into the Light of a Cosmic Beacon

Astrophysicists have identified a likely source of neutrinos — high-energy particles that constantly reach Earth from space. They were first detected several years ago by the IceCube Observatory in Antarctica. Their journey to Earth lasted 3.7 billion years. According to scientists, the source of these neutrinos may be a so-called cosmic beacon — a blazar. It is an active galactic nucleus in which a central supermassive black hole converts gravitational energy into powerful energy flows that break down into photons, that is, particles of light, and neutrinos. This discovery may mark the beginning of a new field of astronomy that will combine information obtained from neutrinos and light. The detection of high-energy neutrinos from distant cosmic sources gives astrophysicists a new way to observe the Universe.

A Particle of the Sun, the Evolution of Mercury, and a Lake on Mars

In August 2018, NASA launched the Parker Solar Probe. Its mission is, for the first time in history, to reach the Sun’s atmosphere, approaching it at a distance of 6 million kilometers. If successful, the mission will break the record set in 1976 by the Soviet-German Helios satellite, which came within 42.73 million kilometers of the Sun. The goal of the Parker Solar Probe mission is to obtain new data on solar activity and measure the parameters of the solar wind. The flight is expected to last seven years. Just two and a half months after launch, the spacecraft reached a record speed for a human-made object — about 70 km/s. As it continues to accelerate while approaching the Sun, its peak speed is expected to reach about 190 km/s, or approximately 680,000 km/h.

Another space breakthrough is expected during the European space mission to Mercury. It will be carried out by the BepiColombo module, which will fly past Venus twice on its way to its destination, studying it along the way. Upon approaching Mercury — which is expected to happen by the end of 2025 — the module will release two spacecraft. After separation, they will begin parallel operations in different orbits as artificial satellites. Their task is to study the composition of Mercury in detail, determine the nature of its magnetic field, and better understand the mechanisms behind the formation and evolution of planets located close to their parent star.

The preparation for the mission will take ten years, and the flight itself — nearly eight. Meanwhile, as probes travel toward the Sun and Mercury, NASA successfully landed the InSight spacecraft on Mars. It became the ninth U.S. mission to the Red Planet, some of which had failed. InSight delivered a seismometer to Mars to record waves from meteorite impacts on the planet’s surface. Studying these will help scientists understand the structure of Mars and clarify how it formed about 4.6 billion years ago. The InSight mission is рассчитана на 728 Earth days. Shortly before its arrival, a lake of liquid water was discovered on the Red Planet. It is located near the South Pole and is covered by a thick layer of ice. For now, it is believed that the planet most likely has a metallic core, a dense mantle, and a lighter crust.