From the rapid development of vaccines for Covid-19 to the stunning collection of an asteroid sample, these were the biggest science moments of the year.
A simple compound called diamidophosphate (DAP), which was plausibly present on Earth before life arose, could have chemically knitted together tiny DNA building blocks called deoxynucleosides into strands of primordial DNA.
Astronomers are studying black holes that could have formed in the early universe, before stars and galaxies were born. Such primordial black holes (PBHs) could account for all or part of dark matter.
Three to four billion years ago, Mars did in fact have running rivers of water. Now, scientists have mapped out an entire ancient river system.
Antarctic iceberg A-68A has drifted menacingly close to a remote island in the southern Atlantic Ocean. The giant iceberg could strike land this month. It has now split into 2 pieces.
The KSTAR, a superconducting fusion device also known as the Korean artificial sun, set the new world record as it succeeded in maintaining the high temperature plasma for 20 seconds with an ion t over 100 mil degrees.
International scientists have discovered a new class of compounds that uniquely combine direct antibiotic killing of pan drug-resistant bacterial pathogens with a simultaneous rapid immune response.
Astronomers using NASA's Hubble Space Telescope watched a mysterious dark vortex on Neptune (a storm, which is wider than the Atlantic Ocean) abruptly steer away from a likely death on the giant blue planet.
NASA has announced the names of the 18 astronauts that make up the Artemis Team. A select few, and some international partners, will be going back to the Moon. The next man and first woman on the Moon are among the names.
The researchers say the melanin-containing fungus that thrives in Chernobyl could be used to create protective shields for future astronauts, it decreases radiation by at least 1.82 % and potentially up to 5.04 %.
Thanks to China’s Chang’e-1 and Chang’e-2 lunar orbiters, the number of known craters on the moon’s surface is now more than a dozen times larger than the 9,137 craters that are officially recognized.
The signal appears to emanate from the direction of our neighboring star and cannot yet be dismissed as Earth-based interference, raising the very faint prospect that it is a transmission from extraterrestrial intelligence.
A joint team of researchers was able to use quantum teleportation to send information over a distance of 44km. If successfully implemented, quantum internet would usher a new era of communication.
Trillions upon trillions of microbes have remained locked away in the Arctic’s permafrost in a “deep sleep” for thousands of years. But the Arctic is warming twice as fast as the rest of the world in the wake of climate change.
The threshold for dangerous global warming will likely be crossed between 2027 and 2042 - a much narrower window than the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's estimate of between now and 2052.
