- The pace of technological change is accelerating and each year brings ever more scientific breakthroughs.
- 2017’s biggest discoveries included developments in quantum communication, a star system full of potentially earth-like alien worlds, and progress in gene editing.
The pace of technological change is accelerating – and every new year seems to bring a more incredible list of scientific breakthroughs than the last.
This time 2017 is no exception, and the year was filled with game-changing innovations that are on the cutting edge of science. These breakthroughs will surely alter how we think of the world, and they will likely also translate into future unknown technologies that will affect how our society operates.
Scientific breakthroughs in 2017
Today’s infographic comes to us from Futurism, and it highlights the big scientific advancements that happened over the course of the year.
Key discoveries happened in the fields of gene editing, space travel, quantum communications, astronomy, and quantum physics.
Let’s take a deeper dive into these incredible scientific breakthroughs.
The subatomic level
At the subatomic particle level, there were a couple of noteworthy advances that will help us better understand the complex inner-workings of quantum mechanics.
New particles: Using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), a team of scientists discovered five new particles – all from a single analysis. These particles may give us a better understanding of the correlation between quarks and multi-quark states, as well as some clues about the earliest moments of the universe.
Quantum communications: The first unhackable video call happened between China and Vienna in September. Rather than using traditional cryptography, it relied on quantum key distribution (QKD) to protect the call. Using single photons in quantum superposition states is a way to raise the level of security so high, that it’s not even hackable by quantum computers.
The final frontier
Important progress was also made in space travel and astronomy:
Reusable rockets: Elon Musk and his SpaceX team launched a previously used Falcon 7 rocket booster. For humans to be able to do anything significant off the planet, cutting down the cost of commercial space travel is a crucial step in the right direction.
New Earth-like planets: In a remote star system called TRAPPIST-1, scientists discovered seven Earth-like exoplanets in the “goldilocks zone” – where life (as we know it) can exist.
Life sciences
Lastly, the other three major discoveries fall under the category of life sciences:
Embryo gene editing: Researchers successfully edited a one-cell human embryo in Portland, Oregon. This could make it easier to cure heritable diseases or defective genes in the future.
Gene editing in body: A 44-year-old patient suffering from a rare disease, Hunter syndrome, had his genome successfully edited using CRISPR.
Artificial womb: An artificial womb successfully imitated the environment inside a uterus, housing a 23-week old lamb. Premature births are a leading cause of death for newborns.
With the speed of science and technological change continuing to accelerate, it should not be surprising to see an even more exciting list of breakthroughs in 2018.
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