Scientific achievements of 2016

GRAVITATIONAL WAVES DETECTED
Collision and merger of two black holes, about 29 and 36 times the mass of the Sun, results in first direct observation of gravitational waves – ripples in space and time predicted by Albert Einstein’s 1915 general theory of relativity. Based on observed signals, scientists at Caltech
and MIT conclude that during final fraction of a second, the black holes collide into each other at nearly one-half the speed of light, converting
part of combined black holes’ mass to energy, according to Einstein’s formula E=mc2

SUPERMAN MEMORY CRYSTAL
Scientists at England’s University of Southampton create “5D” data storage that can survive for some 14 billion years –  about as long as
the universe has existed. Data is written on small glass disk by ultrafast laser using short, intense light pulses. File is written in
three layers of nanostructured dots that are 5 micrometers apart (0.005mm). Data is read in five dimensions: position of dots in three dimensions plus their size and orientation

RECORD PRIME NUMBER DISCOVERED
University of Central Missouri mathematician Curtis Cooper discovers new record-breaking prime number. Known as a Mersenne prime, M74207281 is calculated by multiplying together 74,207,281 twos then subtracting
one. It has 22,338,618 digits and is almost 5 million digits larger than the previous record prime number*

HUBBLE TEAM BREAK COSMIC RECORDS
Using 3D imaging techniques on 20 years of photographs by Hubble Space Telescope, astronomers find that observable universe contains at least
2 trillion galaxies – 10 times more than previously thought.

Hubble detects GN-z11 – most remote galaxy ever seen. At distance of 13.4 billion light years from Earth it appears as it was just 400 million years after Big Bang

NEW PERIODIC TABLE FOR 2017 The discovery of four new synthetic elements by teams of Japanese, Russian and American researchers complete seventh row of chemistry’s periodic table. The official names for elements 113, 115, 117 and 118 are nihonium (Nh), moscovium (Mc), tennessine (Ts)
and oganesson (Og) respectively. While first 94 elements exist naturally,
super-heavy elements with atomic numbers from 95 to 118 have only been
synthesized in laboratories or nuclear reactors

SCIENTISTS SPEND YEAR ON SIMULATED MARS
On August 28, a multinational crew of six scientists, simulating human colony on Mars, finally “re-enter” Earth after exactly one year of extreme isolation on desolate slopes of Hawaiian volcano. Since entering solar- powered habitat, crew have only been allowed outside while dressed in full spacesuits

SHARK HOLDS LONGEVITY RECORD
Greenland shark, Somniosus microcephalus,is found to be the longest-lived vertebrate on Earth, capable of living nearly 400 years

DNA CONFIRMS CAUSE OF 1665-66 PLAGUE
DNA testing of skeletal remains confirms for first time that Yersinia pestis was bacteria responsible for Great Plague of London that killed nearly a quarter of city’s population. Teeth of 20 individuals from Bedlam burial ground in east London were analysed at Max Planck Institute in Germany

Pictures: Associated Press, NASA, Southampton.ac.uk, HI-SEAS IV, National Science Foundation, Museum of London

*prime numbers can only be divided by themselves and one