QUANTUM LEAP

Scientific knowledge doubles every nine years. As much as 90 per cent of all data has been generated in the last two years. Both factors influenced developments across science and technology in 2016. Artificial intelligence and information technology made great strides.

The IBM Watson for Oncology program crunched big data to deliver accurate, early cancer diagnoses. Big data submitted to 23andme helped identify genes associated with depression. The AlphaGo program, by Deepmind, a Google subsidiary, beat a top human player in Go for the first time. On the flip side, Tesla’s self-driving car scored an unfortunate first in that it had a fatal accident.

Breakthroughs in quantum computing included the development of a quantum logic gate that worked with 99.9 precision at Oxford University. The University of New South Wales created a quantum bit that remained in stable superposition for 10 times longer than before. Princeton University revealed an open source 25-core chip that could be scaled to create a 200,000core computer.

Carbon nanotube transistors outperformed silicon for the first time. A team from Nokia Bell Labs, Deutsche Telekom T-Labs and the Technical University of Munich demonstrated 1 terabit-per-second transmission rates over optical fibre. The Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory (US) demonstrated a working 1 nanometre (nm) transistor.

Medical research saw many potential breakthroughs. The antibody Nivolumab more than doubled the oneyear survival rate of cancer patients. Researchers also created the first living cells to form silicon-carbon bonds. Large-scale testing of a HIV vaccine, HVTN 702 began in South Africa. Scientists at Rockefeller University synthesised two promising new antibiotics. Researchers at the Salk Institute use a new gene-editing technology to partially restore vision in blind animals. Labgrown lungs, developed from stem cells, were successfully transplanted into mice and “light sculpting” showed how mouse neurons fired, in real-time 3-D.

Researchers also identified brain regions associated with depression and published promising early human test results of a potential antiAlzheimer's drug. The synthetic human genome project got off the ground as well — this aims to create a human genome with high resistance to diabetes, cancer, etc. Genetic research also created a “super-wheat” with yields up by 20 to 40 per cent.

The biggest breakthrough in pure science was the confirmation of the existence of gravitational waves that vindicated the General Theory of Relativity. The study of gravity is likely to yield many more insights. In the meantime, CERN’s ALPHA experiment observed the light spectrum of antimatter.

There was a lot of activity in astronomy and aerospace. While the PhilaeRosetta space mission ended and Juno continued, Nasa is now planning Osiris Rex, to gather asteroid samples. The galaxy, Dragonfly 44, is now suspected to be overwhelmingly composed of dark matter. Thousands of exoplanets were discovered and studied as well.

In the solar system, volcanic activity was observed on Mercury. Undergrounds seas of water were located on Mars. Space X founder Elon Musk revealed plans to send humans to Mars, as did NASA. ISRO tested a Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV) , while SpaceX tested Falcon9. TeamIndus booked a seat on ISRO’s next moon mission (in December 2017) to send a robotic lander vehicle to the surface.

The bad news is that, while exploring other planets, we are edging closer to rendering this one uninhabitable. The World Meteorological Organization data shows that 2011-2015 were the warmest years on record, and 2016 has been even hotter. A quarter of giraffe populations were wiped out. Larger losses are expected in polar bear populations. Warm water caused the worst-ever coral destruction on Australia’s Great Barrier Reef. Rising sea levels could exceed the scariest projections by 2100 and typhoons are getting worse. Particulate atmospheric matter cause 6 million deaths per annum by 2050.

Desperate measures include research into renewables. Solar panels are getting cheaper by the day and storage is improving. Adding a dried seaweed to cattle diets reduces methane production a lot. Chinese researchers have demonstrated how solar panels coated with graphene can produce electricity from rain. Harvard is trying to develop aerosols, which could be injected into the stratosphere to cool off the Earth and repair ozone layer damage. Let’s hope some of this works and works quickly at the scales required to halt the slide into death by greenhouse effect.