2010: The Best in Science
Written by Abhilash // December 29, 2010 // Science & Technology // 4 Comments
(With inputs from Akshat Rathi and Ashutosh Jogalekar)
Defining important accomplishments in Science can be tricky. If history is anything to go by, seemingly innocuous discoveries have a habit of altering the course of Science in significant, even profound ways. With this important caveat, here’s what we think were the most significant scientific milestones in the last year.
1. The synthetic genome: In what is widely regarded as amongst the greatest achievements of modern science, Craig Venter and collaborators created the first synthetic genome and inserted it in “genetically emptied” bacterial cells. The cells produced proteins as encoded in the synthetic genome and behaved like otherwise normal bacterial cells. This opens up a host of possibilities in synthetic biology- from producing cheap biofuels to creating “designer organisms”.
2. Atoms of antimatter: A beam of anti-hydrogen (i.e. an antielectron orbiting an antiproton) was produced by the ASACUSA group at CERN while another team (ALPHA) reported they had “trapped” about 40 anti-hydrogen atoms (although for only 170 ms). This will enable the teams to look at spectra from anti-hydrogen which could shed light on new physics and possibly explain why the universe has so much more matter than antimatter. And no, we don’t need to fret about an Angels and Demons scenario just yet.
3. Nerve cells from skin cells: In January a group of biologists at Stanford reported they had transformed adult mouse skin cells into functional nerve cells, skipping the stem-cell phase. This is a huge step in regenerative medicine and could help in the treatment diseases such as Alzheimer’s.
4. An arsenic-bug: While astrobiologists (and science fiction writers) have always speculated the possibility of life-forms dramatically different from ours, there has been scant evidence to support the claim. Specifically, it seemed until recently that the biochemistry responsible for life rested on specific building blocks (carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, oxygen, phosphorus and sulfur). In December, a group of NASA astrobiologists reported a newly discovered microbe strain that “grew on” arsenic. The arsenic became a part of the vital biochemical machinery of the microbe including the DNA and cell membranes. This opens up new avenues of research in microbiology as well supporting the view that life could exist in environments very different than the earth.
5. The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) achieves maximum collision energies ever: In March the LHC achieved the first proton-proton collisions at 7 TeV (half the total energy of collisions LHC will finally be capable of). These were the most energetic events ever produced in a particle accelerator and it means we can start doing Physics with the data. When fully operational the LHC will help us test the Standard Model of particle physics (our most successful theory of matter and interactions so far) and possibly shed light on exotic new physics.
(The Science and Technology team at CriticalTwenties wishes you a very happy new year)
4 Comments on "2010: The Best in Science"
Well that was a very crisp and informative piece regarding the scientific milestones of this year(considering that we still have 2 days left!!!)
Being a student of biology, at times I really ponder over some of the “achievements” that scientists(in this case; Biologists) are banking upon ! The idea of a synthetic genome is indeed awe-inspiring but somewhere we are missing a very crucial point….we are behaving like a small kid who solves a small part of a larger puzzle and is happy. What the child fails to understand whether that solved part would ever fit into the bigger picture!!!
What I’m trying to say is that we should always think that how our work would help us in the better understanding of the system, rather than creating something new and trying to fit it in the existing one; unsure of whether that would be fruitful!
Past failures in many of such biotechnological endeavors only keep us reminding of one basic thing…..that picking up one/few gene(s), modifying it and expecting that the new function would be advantageous, is a foolish mistake!
As a very renowned cytogeneticist from our country Prof. S.C Lakhotia puts this idea in words…..”genes don’t work in isolation, to think of that would be no longer genetics but BEANBAG genetics….its like picking up a single bean from a bag, crushing it and putting it back in…doesn’t make any difference, but in case of organisms this doesn’t hold true. Altering the function of one single gene might end up disturbing the entire network….as genes don’t work in isolation!!!
Wishing the whole team of critical twenties a very happy new year.
Exciting and informative
crisp!
this is a milestone in the history of biology,the need of biofuels is going to be incresed by the near future,certainly the synthetic genome is the answer!!