In 2021, the fight against COVID-19 has been an important part of scientific discovery, but it’s not the only thing worth paying attention to. There are other achievements as well. NASA and private companies have been actively exploring space, scientists have learned more about the existence of the first people, and mankind has come close to recreating thermonuclear fusion on Earth.
Exciting discoveries, new vaccines and advances in space exploration have defined the past year:
Successes of the Perseverance rover
NASA has taken a huge step forward in its exploration of the Red Planet since the Perseverance rover landed safely on Mars in February. The scientists equipped the rover with an ultralight helicopter that successfully took off in the thin Martian atmosphere and several instruments to search for traces of microbial life. All achievements will help you better understand Mars and how to better explore and colonize it in the future.
In addition to the triumphs of the rover, the space agencies of other countries have also made great strides. The UAE’s Hope probe has successfully entered orbit around Mars and is studying the planet’s atmosphere and weather. The Chinese rover Zhurong landed on Mars in May, exploring its geology and looking for signs of water.
New species of Homo discovered
In the summer of 2021, scientists found a new human species from the late Pleistocene. Named Homo longi, or “dragon man,” this extinct species could replace Neanderthals as Homo sapiens’ closest relatives. Homo longi is anatomically similar to other Middle Pleistocene specimens. He could also potentially turn out to be a representative of the Denisovans, but so far this has not been confirmed.
It turned out that the new species of people had a low and long skull, a protruding forehead and a large nose, large square eye sockets and thick brow ridges, flat cheekbones, a wide palate and the base of the skull. Like H. sapiens, H. longi hunted mammals and birds, gathered fruit and vegetables, and may even have fished.
Development of space tourism
This year, the famous billionaires whose companies offer space tourism services have successfully completed several missions. They sent a lot of civilians into space. In early July, billionaire Richard Branson and his staff took a suborbital flight just above the edge of space as part of Virgin Galactic’s first crewed flight. A few days later, the richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos, and the founder of Blue Origin, made the first manned suborbital flight on the New Shepard rocket. He was accompanied by the youngest and oldest tourists in history.
In October, his Blue Origin company made another flight, taking Star Trek actor William Shatner on board. A month earlier, the crew of four became the first all-civilian crew to circle the Earth from space in SpaceX’s Crew Dragon Resilience capsule. Also, a Russian film crew went to the ISS, which filmed the film in zero gravity. It was attended by actress Yulia Peresild and director Klim Shipenko. Before that, not a single actor was in low Earth orbit.
WHO approves first malaria vaccine
In October, the World Health Organization approved the first malaria vaccine. This is the first vaccine not only against malaria, but also against any parasitic disease. It has been developed for more than 30 years, since 1987 research has cost more than $ 750 million. Malaria kills almost 500 thousand people a year, including 260 thousand children under the age of five. Most of the victims of the disease live in sub-Saharan Africa.
The new vaccine fights the deadliest of the five malaria pathogens and the most prevalent on the southern continent. It is administered to children under the age of five in a series of four injections. However, the vaccine only prevents about 30% of severe cases of malaria. But one modeling study found that 5.4 million cases and 23,000 deaths in children under five could be prevented each year. Experts say the vaccine is a valuable tool that should be used in conjunction with existing prevention methods.
And briefly about several scientific achievements in 2021
The Chinese fusion reactor Experimental Advanced Superconducting Tokamak (EAST) heated nuclear plasma to an unprecedented 120 million ° C and kept it there for 101 seconds.
Scientists at the University of New South Wales have developed a heat-resistant material made from scandium, aluminium, tungsten and oxygen that does not change volume at temperatures between 4 and 1,400 Kelvin (-269 to 1,126 °C). It will be useful in the development of medical devices and even hypersonic vehicles.
Florida State University researchers have found that microplastics can alter the metabolism of lung cells, slow their growth, and cause cell clustering, leaving gaps in lung tissue development. Also, microplastics can collect a huge amount of bacteria. And they increase resistance to antibiotics over time. In addition, microplastics have been found in a record number of animal species and even at an altitude of 2,877 m.
Scientists have discovered a species of Galapagos tortoise, which was considered extinct, it has not been seen for 115 years. DNA tests have confirmed that a specimen found in 2019 does indeed belong to the long-lost Giant Fernandina tortoise.
Google and Harvard engineers used 225 million images and 1.4 petabytes of data to create a 3D map of just one millionth of the cerebral cortex.
A new form of matter has been discovered at the LHCb detector at the Large Hadron Collider — the double charmed tetraquark Tcc+. This is the only particle known to science that consists of four quarks. The peculiarity of this particle is that two quarks are charmed or c-quarks. At the same time, charmed antiquarks are absent in it.
Next year we are waiting for even more discoveries and achievements. Several new missions will be launched, the Webb telescope will begin to observe the early Universe, and there may be a vaccine for COVID-19 that gives lifelong immunity.
Photo: The richest man in the world, Jeff Bezos and the founder of Blue Origin, made the first manned suborbital flight on the New Shepard rocket.
