2012 – a fascinating scientific year!

New particles, achievements in space, moving objects with the power of thought, breakthroughs in sleep research, progress in the fight against cancer and the development of innovative fuels - the small light summarizes the great achievements of science in the past year

Exactly one year ago I wrote here that I don't like year summaries, but 2011 was too scientifically fascinating to ignore the date. Well, I still don't like year summaries, but at least I'm consistent. 2012 was also a scientific year that cannot be ignored, so here is a short summary.

The Higgs boson

Almost fifty years after its existence was theoretically predicted; And after investing billions of dollars in the European particle accelerator mainly to achieve this goal, this year scientists announced the discovery of the Higgs boson... almost. On July 4.7.12, 126, two groups of experiments in the accelerator announced that they had succeeded in discovering a new particle, with a very high probability that it is the Higgs boson. The discovered particle has a mass of about 140 GeV (that is, already about 17 times that of a proton), that is, within the range in which they expected to find the Higgs particle. The tests to make sure that it is indeed the long-awaited particle are still ongoing, and in March the final announcement is expected that it is indeed the particle that scientists have been looking for for so long. The discovery completes the puzzle known as the "standard model" of the structure of matter - a model according to which all matter consists of XNUMX basic parts: six heavy quarks, which make up the protons and neutrons; Six leptons (electrons and their relatives) and five force-carrying bosons. The importance of the Higgs particle lies in its central role. According to the model, it is he who allows other particles to gain mass, meaning he is responsible for the formation of matter in the universe immediately after the big bang. The completion of the model is only the beginning of a fascinating scientific path: after the discovery of the "Higgs" is proven, the scientists will continue the journey to deciphering the secrets of the universe - they will try to wonder with the help of the particle accelerator about the jar of dark matter and crack the antimatter puzzle (that is, why the world looks like the symmetry between matter and antimatter has been broken). In the more distant future, the researchers hope that the accelerator will help discover more unknown particles and possibly new dimensions, on the way to the "holy grail" of physics - a unified theory that will explain all the phenomena in the universe.

space Research

While the scientists of the particle accelerator are celebrating the completion of a long journey in the accelerator tunnels, about 100 m below the surface of the earth, about 250 million kilometers above them, the American space vehicle "Curiosity" enters the final line for landing on Mars. On August 6.8.12, XNUMX, in a complex engineering operation, the most sophisticated space vehicle ever landed there was parachuted onto the surface of the Red Planet. "Curiosity", which is the size of a family car, is actually a mobile laboratory that includes dozens of scientific instruments, including a robotic arm capable of drilling into rocks and transferring samples from them to the laboratory instruments that can analyze their composition. The main tasks of "Curiosity" are to search for signs that in the past there were conditions on Mars for the existence of life, and perhaps even evidence that such life did exist (if there was, it is likely to be bacteria or similar creatures); searching for frozen water beneath the planet's surface; and a search for the minerals and natural resources that may one day enable the existence of humans on Mars.

While "Curiosity" made its way to Mars, a historic moment in human history occurred in space, much closer to Earth. On May 25.5.12, 55, the first private spacecraft docked at the International Space Station, marking the end of the era of absolute control by government agencies in space, after XNUMX years. The "Dragon" spacecraft of the American company SpaceX was launched four days earlier from Florida, and after successfully completing all space maneuvers under the supervision of NASA personnel, received permission to dock at the station on the test flight. Less than five months later, "Dragon" was already launched for its first official mission, successfully flying hundreds of kilograms of equipment and supplies to the space station. The push for private flights into space was given by the space shuttle's Krakuen, which was completed last year. The SpaceX company hopes that within a few years the "Dragon" spacecraft will be able to complete their full mission, and also fly humans into orbit around the Earth.

At the same time as the search for signs of life in our immediate neighborhood, the search for life far out in space, or at least for planets that might be suitable for life as we know it, continues even more intensively. In recent years it has become clear that the number of planets around other suns is much greater than previously thought. The discovery of a planet similar in size to CHD in the closest solar system to us, Alpha Centauri (published on 17.10.12), only illustrates how little we know about what is happening in our galaxy, or in a more optimistic way - how many fascinating discoveries await us in the next few years .

brain-machine interface

One of the most important scientific achievements of the past year was published in May. A woman who was left paralyzed in her four limbs due to a stroke, managed to activate a special bionic arm with the help of electrodes implanted in her brain. With the power of thought alone, she made the arm pick up a glass from the table and bring it to her lips for the first independent sip after 15 years of paralysis. The successful experiment was not only a technological breakthrough, but also provided the first proof that the movement areas in the cerebral cortex remain active, even many years after the body loses most of its activity capacity. Last month, scientists from the University of Pittsburgh succeeded in replicating the successful experiment carried out at Brown University, and published exciting photographs of a paraplegic man successfully operating his own bionic arm in a similar way. These breakthroughs give hope that within a few years paraplegics will be able to be much less dependent on their surroundings. It is likely that as technology develops further, we will also be able to see non-paralyzed humans controlling their environment with the power of thought, with the help of chips that will be implanted in their brains.

sleep study

The discoveries in brain research only illustrate how little we know about this mysterious organ, but our knowledge of the waking brain is still vast and abundant compared to our scant knowledge of what goes on in our heads while we perform one of the most pleasant actions - sleep. Two Israeli studies revealed this year a small part of this hidden world. Scientists from the Weizmann Institute, led by Prof. Noam Sobel, discovered that the brain is able to absorb and process new information while sleeping - and remember it. Another study, by Prof. Asia Rolls from the Technion, revealed that a unique treatment during sleep may erase traumatic memories. Both experiments, meanwhile, were done in mice, but since we are much more like mice than most of us would like to think, these studies not only provide a glimpse into brain activity, but may also provide proof of feasibility for similar activity in humans.

Cancer research

Hardly a year goes by in which promising breakthroughs in the fight against cancer are not published, only a few of them make the transition from success in an experiment to the development of an actual treatment. Still - it's worth paying attention to some advances made this year in the field, one of which was made in actual patients, not in animals or cultures. Researchers in the US have implanted genes in AIDS viruses that make cells of the immune system more aggressive and violent towards cancerous tumors. The engineered viruses were injected into three terminal patients with severe leukemia, and saved their lives. A similar principle was used by researchers from the English University of Sheffield in harnessing other cells of the immune system to fight cancer cells, and in an article published this month, real success was presented in the treatment of prostate cancer - in mice. In this context, it is also worth mentioning an Israeli study, in which researchers at the Faculty of Agriculture of the Hebrew University discovered a sugary component in an edible mushroom that greatly reduces the development of tumors, this too in the meantime in mice.

Renewable energies

The depletion of oil, coal and gas reserves along with climate change and air pollution damage are constantly increasing the need to develop alternative, clean and renewable energy sources. One of the breakthroughs in the field was achieved this year in an American study (with the participation of an Israeli researcher), in which the researchers combined two processes. The first - a biological method developed by Dr. Haim Weizmann more than 100 years ago for the production of acetone and alcohol using bacteria. The other - a chemical reaction that accelerates the production of fuel materials from the products of the first reaction. The new method still cannot compete with traditional fuels in terms of economic viability, but this is expected to change with the increase in the price of these fuels, and with the refinement of its production processes, which are currently being worked on by engineers of the energy giant BP.