Top Ten Science Stories of 2011
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December 23, 2011
What were the top science stories in 2011? The Museum's Current Science & Technology staff have compiled their list of the ten best, based on the relevance of the story to the intersection of science and society.
1. Japan's Triple Tragedy
On March 11, Japan was rocked by its largest recorded earthquake. The offshore, magnitude 9.0 quake moved parts of the island of Honshu up to 13 feet east and spawned a massive and deadly tsunami with 40-foot waves that hit Japan minutes after the earthquake and reached all the way to the west coast of the United States and South America. The tsunami broached many safeguards and crippled the nuclear reactors at Fukushima Daiichi power plant, which led to hydrogen explosions and partial meltdowns of three of the reactors. The remaining cleanup and contamination will take decades to contend with.
2. From Shuttles to Rovers
NASA officially ended its Space Shuttle program this past August. First launched in 1981, the space shuttle is the only winged manned spacecraft to have achieved orbit and land, and the only reusable space vehicle that has ever made multiple flights into orbit. However, the US space program continues its exploration with an eye towards Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory, a rover nicknamed Curiosity, launched on November 26 and is scheduled to land in Gale Crater in August 2012. Curiosity's primary mission is to search the surface of Mars for evidence of biological building blocks such as amino acids and proteins.
3. Devastating Tornadoes
When it comes to tornadoes, 2011 is certainly a year that will go down in the record books. Including the largest tornado outbreak on record occurring late in the month, April also set a new record for the most tornadoes occurring in any month, with 748. The costliest and deadliest tornado in modern US history struck Joplin, Missouri in May. In June, a rare, large, long-track tornado struck Massachusetts, carving a path 39 miles long and up to one half-mile wide. Tragically, more than 550 people lost their lives in tornadoes this year, making 2011 the second deadliest year in US history.
4. Steve Jobs
Apple cofounder Steve Jobs passed away in October, after spending more than 30 years designing high-tech consumer products that had a significant impact on the personal computer as an integral part of our everyday lives. Today, Apple is a brand that empowers the everyday consumer with easy-to-use, aesthetically pleasing technology. Thanks to products like the iPhone, we now take it for granted that we can comfortably carry communication devices with massive computing abilities in our pockets. We now consider it commonplace to have one device that can make phone calls, send emails, surf the Web, take pictures, and play music.
5. The Fuss About Fracking
Fracking, short for hydraulic fracturing, is a method for extracting natural gas by forcing fluid at high pressure into long horizontal wells drilled through deep layers of rock. The fossil fuel industry claims that fracking is safe and will provide abundant, cheap, and relatively "clean" natural gas to meet our energy demands. But fracking requires huge amounts of resources (millions of gallons of fresh water per well), creates permanent networks of underground fractures that are not fully understood, produces large amounts of waste fluid containing dissolved toxins, and may be responsible for contamination of private water wells in some areas.
6. Tiny Tattoo Technology
Researchers are finding new ways to use tiny nanoparticles in the field of medicine. One unique technology could help diabetics track blood glucose, athletes track sodium levels, or anemic patients track blood oxygen levels. It uses an injection of nanoparticles to form an invisible "tattoo" just under the skin. These nanoparticles fluoresce (emit light) when exposed to the target molecule (for example glucose or sodium). A modified iPhone may be all you need to detect and track the fluorescence indicating how much glucose or sodium is present.
7. Puzzle of the Bones
Australopithecus sediba is a possible human ancestor found in southern Africa. The bones from these two-million-year-old fossils offer some insight into what these animals were like and how they may be related to modern humans. Did they walk on two legs? The hip, knee, ankle, and foot bones suggest contradictory possibilities. How intelligent were they? The brain was probably the size of a modern chimpanzee's, yet it may have been more complex. Many bones continue to be unearthed, which may help to answer more of these questions.
8. Smaller, Faster Computers On the Way
Transistors are the tiny switches that allow computers to do calculations; a typical microprocessor contains about a billion transistors. This year Intel started manufacturing a new 3-D transistor that improves on previous planar designs in both efficiency and size. This will allow even more transistors to be packed onto microchips, yielding the next generation of smaller, faster electronic devices.
9. The Race for Rare Earth Elements
The seventeen rare earth elements are critical components of many technologies, from cell phones to hybrid car batteries and more. However, more than 95% of the world's supply of rare earths comes from China. With supply diminishing and prices rising, the race is on to find new sources. A new deposit of these minerals was found at a California mine this year, along with large deposits in Pacific Ocean mud.
10. Artificial Trachea
In July, a man from Iceland with untreatable tracheal cancer received a first-of-its-kind treatment. Doctors and researchers worked together to create an artificial trachea scaffold made of a porous, nanocomposite material, then seeded this scaffold with stem cells from the patient. The cells grew on the artificial trachea, which was then transplanted into the patient. The surgery was a success with no major complications. The artificial trachea continues to function and has been accepted as normal human tissue in the man's body.
Image © nasa.gov
