The world is vast and to know about the earth and life on it many scientific discoveries and inventions are made throughout the time. Many scientific patents are being filed daily but only sometimes amazing inventions, creations, findings come out of it. Every year has its inventions on science, medical, geological, universe etc. So, 2016 has also some of the mind blogging amazing discoveries that can astonish you.
Here we have a list of 10 amazing inventions and scientific discoveries in 2016.
1. Human brain map updated and reveals 97 new regions
many experts are calling a milestone in neuroscience, researchers published a spectacular new map of the brain, detailing nearly 100 previously unknown regions — an unprecedented glimpse into the machinery of the human mind.Scientists will rely on this guide as they attempt to understand virtually every aspect of the brain, from how it develops in children and ages over decades, to how it can be corrupted by diseases like Alzheimer’s and schizophrenia.
2. Scientists found ninth planet in solar system
Before the discovery of Pluto in the 20th century, it had been theorized that a ninth planet, Planet X, existed beyond Neptune due to the gravitational clustering that could only be caused by a massive object. It was then believed that this planet was found in Pluto, but that never fully quantified the gravitational distortion until scientists at the California Institute of Technology presented evidence that a ninth planet truly does exist with an orbital period of 15,000 years.
The astronomers who published their discovery have calculated that there is “only a 0.007 percent chance, or about one in 15,000, that the clustering could be a coincidence.” Presently, Planet Nine remains hypothetical, but astronomers have calculated its orbit to be quite massive. If it does exist, the planet would likely be approximately 2–15 times the mass of Earth and orbit between 200 and 1,600 Astronomical Units (AU) from the Sun. An AU is 150,000,000 kilometers, which means that the planet could orbit as far from the Sun as 240,000,000,000 kilometers.
3. Rocket landed vertically on drone ship tested successfully
Rockets, after used, are either ditched in the ocean for later recovery (an expensive undertaking) or they are purposefully burned up in the atmosphere. The ability to successfully land a rocket vertically means that it could be cheaply and easily be reused, which would save an incredible amount of money.
The private company SpaceX successfully landed a rocket vertically on April 8, and they did so on a floating autonomous drone ship. Their success will save money and also time between launches. CEO Elon Musk made this achievement a longstanding goal for the company, and even though his is a private venture, the technology will eventually spread into government agencies like NASA to help push space exploration forward.
4. Nano glass disc which can store up to 360TB of data
Everything degrades eventually, and there is no way to store data on one device for truly extended periods of time. But that may no longer be true due to a discovery made by the University of Southampton. Scientists have successfully used nano-structured glass to create a process for recording and retrieving data. The storage device is a small glass disk about the size of an American quarter that can hold 360TB of data and remain intact up to 1,000°C. This means that its average shelf life, when held at room temperature, would be approximately 13.8 billion years (Roughly the same amount of time the universe has existed).
Data is written to the device using an ultrafast laser via short and intense light pulses. Each file is written in three layers of nanostructured dots that are only 5 micrometers apart. When read, the data is realized in five dimensions: the three-dimensional position of the nanostructured dots as well as their size and orientation.
5. A new leash on life
physicians and neuroscientists at Ohio State University have developed a new machine for the brain that controls your paralyzed parts of your body. Once implanted, it sends signals to a nearby terminal, which transmits that information to an electronic sleeve worn on the man’s arm. The sleeve then uses wires to stimulate specific muscles to cause the movement of the fingers in real-time.
6. Carbon Dioxide pumped into the ground can be made into a solid stone
Carbon capture is an important part of maintaining the balance of CO2 emissions on the planet. Whenever fuels are burned, all of the CO2 that was stored within is released into the atmosphere. Humans have been causing this problem for a long time, and we are seeing the effects of global climate change. Scientists in Iceland may have found a way to permanently capture carbon emissions so that they do not go into the atmosphere further harming the greenhouse effect.
CO2 was pumped into volcanic rock in Iceland, which sped up a natural process that turns basalt into carbonate minerals, which then become limestone. This process normally takes hundreds of thousands of years, but the scientists in Iceland were able to do it in only two years. The result is carbon capture into a rock that could be stored underground or even used as a building material so that the captured CO2 never reenters the atmosphere.
7. 2nd Moon
NASA scientists discovered an asteroid that has been captured and is in stable Earth orbit, making it a constant near-Earth companion, or a second satellite. There are a lot of objects orbiting this planet—space stations, man-made satellites, and lots and lots of junk—but only one moon that we can see. Now, NASA has confirmed the existence of 2016 HO3.
The asteroid orbits very far from Earth and is more gravitationally affected by the Sun than Earth, but it does orbit Earth as well along its orbital path of the Sun. Don’t get too excited about walking on it one day, as it is considerably smaller than our natural satellite with dimensions of 40–100 meters (130–350 ft) across.
2016 HO3 is in a fairly stable orbit around the Earth and Sun but will depart in a few centuries according to Paul Chodas, manager for NASA’s Center for Near-Earth Objects (NEO). Chodas also revealed that 2016 HO3 has been a stable quasi-satellite of Earth for more than a century.
8. 2nd Earth
New study claims ‘second Earth’ just four light years away has oceans and a thin gassy atmosphere. The planet, named Proxima b, orbits our closest star, Proxima Centauri. It is around 1.3 times the size of Earth. The new study simulated water on the planet. Concluded it ‘very well hosts liquid water on its surface, and therefore also some forms of life’. Hoped we could send a robotic explorer to the planet.
9. World’s first baby born with new “3 parents” technique
Zhang has been working on a way to avoid mitochondrial disease using a so-called “three-parent” technique. In theory, there are a few ways of doing this. The method approved in the UK is called pronuclear transfer and involves fertilizing both the mother’s egg and a donor egg with the father’s sperm. Before the fertilized eggs start dividing into early-stage embryos, each nucleus is removed. The nucleus from the donor’s fertilized egg is discarded and replaced by that from the mother’s fertilized egg.
A Jordanian couple has been trying to start a family for almost 20 years. Ten years after they married, she became pregnant, but it ended in the first of four miscarriages.In 2005, the couple gave birth to a baby girl. It was then that they discovered the probable cause of their fertility problems: a genetic mutation in the mother’s mitochondria. Their daughter was born with Leigh syndrome, which affects the brain, muscles and nerves of developing infants. Sadly, she died aged six. The couple’s second child had the same disorder and lived for 8 months. Using a controversial “three-parent baby” technique, the boy was born on 6 April 2016. He is showing no signs of disease.
10. New prime number discovered
As of January 2016, the largest known prime number is 274,207,281 − 1, a number with 22,338,618 decimal digits. It was found in 2016 by the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS). The plot of the number of digits in largest known prime by year, since the electronic computer. Note that the vertical scale is logarithmic. The red line is the exponential curve of best fit: y = exp(0.187394 t – 360.527), where t is in years. Euclid proved that there is no largest prime number, and many mathematicians and hobbyists continue to search for large prime numbers.
Many of the largest known primes are Mersenne primes. As of November 2016, the six largest known primes are Mersenne primes, while the seventh is the largest known non-Mersenne prime. The last 16 record primes were Mersenne primes. The fast Fourier transform implementation of the Lucas–Lehmer primality test for Mersenne numbers is fast compared to other known primality tests for other kinds of numbers.