2011: science odyssey

ON July 20, 1969, thousands of people across Ireland sat watching grainy black and white images of men taking their first steps on the moon.

It proved to be a watershed moment, not only in science, but also in television, culture, technology and society. Key moments like that rarely play out in public.

However, another similar moment occurred earlier this month and focused on a seminar held in Geneva. This time millions of people followed the key moment in the history of science via webcast, blogs and Twitter feeds. It was in a room packed with particle physicists and journalists that key personnel at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) announced that they had detected “strong hints” of the Higgs boson. Just as the Large Hadron Collider entered our vocabulary in 2010, the elusive Higgs boson — or ‘God particle’ — became the latest esoteric phrase for the man on the street.

But why were ‘hints’ of Higgs such a big deal and why was it so baffling? Well, when you’re dealing with the very essence of what makes the universe behave the way it does then you realise why Higgs is important. That humans had to build a mind-bogglingly powerful machine costing €7.5billion to even catch a trail of a hint of Higgs tells you why it’s all very complicated.

The bottom line is that we are on the brink of a confirmed discovery that is on a par with Newton’s revelation about gravity and Einstein’s theories of relativity. We have peeled back nature’s façade and glimpsed the glue keeping everything together. We should be happy that it has happened in our lifetime and excited that 2012 promises even more scientific breakthroughs.

Here are the biggest scientific stories of 2011:

JANUARY

In the same year that the world’s population reached the six billion milestone, it was announced that two billion of us are users of the internet. The World Meteorological Organisation reports that 2010 joins 2005 as the hottest year on record. Nasa confirms the discovery of the very first planet outside the solar system with a composition similar to that of Earth.

FEBRUARY

The quest to create artificial intelligence takes another step forward when the Watson IBM supercomputer challenges two Jeopardy! champions in the quiz show and defeats both of them. In the world of medicine, researchers announce the development of a pacemaker that is the size of a pea, meaning it can be placed/ injected into the body without invasive surgery.

MARCH

Breakthroughs in medicine continue as separate teams announce progress in Alzheimer’s research. One team uses stem cells to create the type of brain neurons that are killed by the disease and lead to memory loss; another team uses mice to track key chemicals to the liver and not the brain as had been thought. Elsewhere, the first artificial sperm cells are created. Nasa’s Messenger probe enters orbit around Mercury, while here on Earth archaeologists claim they have discovered the tsunami-ravaged remains of Atlantis in Spain.

APRIL

The science of Star Trek boldly goes where no one has gone before with advances in teleportation. However, we are still light years from beaming a human between two distant places as the breakthrough involves breaking apart ‘wave packets’ of light and putting them back together at a different location.

MAY

The race to develop a vaccine for HIV receives a boost after researchers find certain antibodies that cause the virus to mutate in their presence. It is hoped that if a healthy person had these antibodies they would block HIV from taking over their body. A planet lying 20 light years away is announced as the first to potentially harbour life systems similar to Earth.

JUNE

Researchers announce good results in a bid to reverse type-2 diabetes through a diet regime. A Japanese super-computer takes the title of the most powerful calculating machine. It is capable of carrying out 8.16 million billion calculations per second.

JULY

Every polar bear is descended from Irish brown bears. An Oxford university team discovers that during the last ice age the two species interbred and now the Arctic giants carry the DNA of our extinct carnivores. An African student living in Iceland becomes the first person to be implanted with an organ that was entirely grown in a lab. The cancer sufferer’s own stem cells were used to create a second windpipe. In space, the Hubble Space Telescope discovers another moon around the dwarf planet Pluto, while the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter finds evidence of liquid water on the Red Planet.

AUGUST

The most accurate survey of the world’s living organisms concludes that there are about 8.7 million species. However, it is estimated that 86% of life on land and 91% of life in the oceans remains to be identified. Scientists discover that if our ancestors had not crossbred with Neanderthals then we would not be able to fight off as many diseases as we do. Up to 4% of our DNA comes from our extinct close relatives.

SEPTEMBER

One of the biggest stories in 100 years reports that neutrinos have apparently broken the known laws of physics and travelled faster than light. Scientists at CERN publish their amazing results and ask the world’s physicists help find their error. Faster than light speeds are disallowed by Einstein’s special relativity, one of the most confirmed theories in science. Elsewhere, German climatologists report record levels of melting in Arctic sea ice. The world’s media focuses on the imminent re-entry of a dead Nasa satellite. The remains of the six-tonne hulk of metal splash-lands in the Pacific but it raises awareness of the threat of falling space junk.

OCTOBER

Apple co-founder, chairman and computer designer Steve Jobs dies at the age of 56. He is widely revered as the pioneer of the personal computer age and leaves behind a legacy that includes the iPod, iPhone and the iPad. Three physicists share the Nobel prize for their discoveries into the mysterious dark energy — the largest constituent of the universe. Richard Branson opens the world’s first commercial spaceport in New Mexico. Research claims there is no direct link between mobile phone use and brain cancer. The European Court of Justice rules that stem cells made from human embryos cannot be patented. The United Nations announces that the world’s population has reached seven billion.

NOVEMBER

The Earth experiences a close shave when asteroid YU55 zips past inside the orbit of the moon. Six virtual Mars astronauts emerge from a sealed laboratory on a scientific institute car park in Moscow. The 520-day experiment researched the effects of a manned mission to Mars on the crew’s minds and bodies. The US government releases a report on extraterrestrial life which announces no evidence of alien life on other planets and no ‘credible information’ that ET has already visited us. A study claims that 95% of the world’s adult population owns a mobile phone. A three-year project begins pumping one million tonnes of carbon dioxide underground in a bid to solve the greenhouse gas crisis.

DECEMBER

Nasa announces the discovery of the first ‘Super-Earth’, a planet 600 light years away that lies in the so-called Goldilocks zone surrounding its sun. The average temperature on the distant world — Kepler 22b — is 22C, just right to allow liquid water and the possibility of life. However, all other science stories are dwarfed by the scoop of the year on December 13 at CERN where scientists announce they have found “strong hints” of the so-called ‘God particle’. Researchers are confident that the biggest trophy in particle physics will be declared discovered early in 2012, heralding yet another big year in science.