It is rumored that 2016 would have been, if not the worst year in history, clearly at the forefront of this point of view. However, look on the bright side: 2016 was a good year for cinema and science.
The most significant scientific breakthroughs - The origin of multicellular life
Scientists have discovered that a ancient molecule GK-PID is why single-celled organisms have evolved in multicellular organisms ago 800 million years. The molecule is similar to a rifle capable of bringing together the chromosomes to "shoot", then to a side of a membrane of the cell at the time when the division starts. Thus, cells can be copied properly, avoiding becoming cancerous.
The discovery indicates that ancient version of GK-PID did not initially behaved just as it does today. The only reason he was able to work so it was a mutation that allowed to NCR. This suggests that the origin of multicellular life is a single mutation.
A new prime number
Mathematicians discovered in January, a new prime number: 2 ^ 74,207,281 - 1 requires the use in modern cryptography of Mersenne primes and other complex numbers to encode data. The New Number is the longest prime number discovered so far is five million digits larger than its predecessor. The form that you see above is the only practice of writing this number.
The most significant scientific breakthroughs 2016 - A new planet in the Solar System
Scientists agreed that Pluto is too small to be considered a planet itself. Even before its discovery, there were rumors about the existence of a so-called Planet X. In January 2016, researchers at the California Institute of Technology had finally evidence of this planet.
Similar in size to our planet or a little higher, the new discovery currently does not has a name until will be seen directly.
“We restrictive pretty good in its orbit. What we do not know is his exact position in orbit, which is quite sad. “
Dr. Michael E. Brown, one of those responsible for discovery is convinced that the same planet exists and that we can ease to perceive as being the same solar system with us, even if it is at an approximate distance of 20-100 billion miles away and would take between 10,000 and 20,000 years to complete a transition move around the Sun in its orbit.
A new method of storing data
In February 2016, British researchers presented a disk of quartz the size of a coin, which can store 360 terabytes of information for a period of up to 13.8 billion years. Storage environment created by specialists of the University of Southampton was named "memory crystals Superman".
The researchers used a femtosecond laser pulses of a few to write binary information in the 3D structure of quartz at a nanoscale. The disc reading is to turn all with such a laser. The storage system is also durable and can withstand temperatures of 157 degrees Celsius. Currently, this is the most efficient method of storing and could encompass all of human history.
A river of molten iron is hiding in the depths of our planet
A river of molten iron was recently discovered in the outer core of the Earth, surprising and researchers.
The American Geophysical Union annual conference, held in San Francisco, was announced the discovery of a single river in the depths of the Earth. This "flow" at a speed of about 50 kilometers per year. Currently, the river is positioned between Alaska and Siberia and moving west.
Researchers claim that "this is a very dense liquid metal and it takes a tremendous amount of energy to put such an amount of matter in motion." From first observations, this river of molten metal has the highest rate ever observed in the planet's interior.
It has been observed by three satellites of the Swarm program, in an initiative of the European Space Agency to create a detailed map of the planetary magnetic field. Not that this trend has a considerable speed, but it looks like accelerating.
Currently, it has a width of 420 kilometers and surrounds about half of the circumference of the planet. Currently, this trend has become so powerful in terms of magnetic that affects how the planet's inner core is rotating.
The most significant scientific breakthroughs - The Earth's Second Moon
Earlier this year, NASA has detected a small asteroid orbiting our planet. This is not a satellite like the moon, scientists refer to it as quasi-satellite. The body that orbits around the Earth today, while our planet rotates around the sun, and will be present in the following centuries.
Called 2016 HO3 by researchers, it is actually an orbit around the sun. But while performing its annual movement, and encircling our planet satellite. Apparently, the distance between him and the world is much too big to be called natural satellite him, but it is an interesting example of quasi-satellite. You can read more about it here.
Accidental discovery utility of carbon dioxide
Scientists at Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee were able to convert carbon dioxide directly into ethanol by mistake, as did many important scientific discoveries. The team working on a method to transform CO2 into ethanol, but scientists were convinced that this process will require several steps and catalysts, but apparently they were wrong, and the system is surprisingly simple discovered.
Scientists have created a number of spiked copper and carbon nano-sized mounted on a silicon surface and a drop of nitrogen is placed on each bristle. When the structure is exposed to carbon dioxide and a low electric charge, a chain reaction occurs and the combustion process is reversed, so that the gas is converted into liquid ethanol, shown engadget.com. If such a discovery-based technology is widely introduced, could provide a viable solution for utility batteries, such as those sold by Tesla.