2016 In Science
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A number of significant scientific events occurred in 2016. The United Nations declared 2016 the International Year of
Pulses Legumes are plants in the pea family Fabaceae (or Leguminosae), or the fruit or seeds of such plants. When used as a dry grain for human consumption, the seeds are also called pulses. Legumes are grown agriculturally, primarily for human consum ...
.


Events


January

*1 January **Researchers at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California, develop an entirely new way to
3D print 3D printing, or additive manufacturing, is the construction of a three-dimensional object from a CAD model or a digital 3D model. It can be done in a variety of processes in which material is deposited, joined or solidified under computer c ...
near-flawless
ceramics A ceramic is any of the various hard, brittle, heat-resistant, and corrosion-resistant materials made by shaping and then firing an inorganic, nonmetallic material, such as clay, at a high temperature. Common examples are earthenware, porce ...
, including strongly heat-resistant varieties that were previously impossible. **An article published in ''Science'' describes how human-machine
superintelligence A superintelligence is a hypothetical intelligent agent, agent that possesses intelligence surpassing that of the brightest and most intellectual giftedness, gifted human minds. "Superintelligence" may also refer to a property of advanced problem- ...
could solve the world's most dire problems. *7 January **Scientists report that, about 800 million years ago, a minor genetic change in a single
molecule A molecule is a group of two or more atoms that are held together by Force, attractive forces known as chemical bonds; depending on context, the term may or may not include ions that satisfy this criterion. In quantum physics, organic chemi ...
, called GK-PID, may have allowed
organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...
s to go from a single cell organism to one of many cells. **The discovery of the earliest known physical evidence of tea from the mausoleum of
Emperor Jing of Han Emperor Jing of Han (188 BC – 9 March 141 BC), born Liu Qi, was the sixth Emperor of China, emperor of the Han dynasty from 157 to 141 BC. His reign saw the limiting of the power of the feudal kings and princes which resulted in the Rebellion ...
in
Xi'an Xi'an is the list of capitals in China, capital of the Chinese province of Shaanxi. A sub-provincial city on the Guanzhong plain, the city is the third-most populous city in Western China after Chongqing and Chengdu, as well as the most populou ...
is reported, indicating that tea from the
genus Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family (taxonomy), family as used in the biological classification of extant taxon, living and fossil organisms as well as Virus classification#ICTV classification, viruses. In bino ...
''
Camellia ''Camellia'' (pronounced or ) is a genus of flowering plants in the family Theaceae. They are found in tropical and subtropical areas in East Asia, eastern and South Asia, southern Asia, from the Himalayas east to Japan and Indonesia. There are ...
'' was drunk by
Han Dynasty The Han dynasty was an Dynasties of China, imperial dynasty of China (202 BC9 AD, 25–220 AD) established by Liu Bang and ruled by the House of Liu. The dynasty was preceded by the short-lived Qin dynasty (221–206 BC ...
emperors as early as the 2nd century BC. **Astronomers identify IDCS 1426 as the most distant massive
galaxy cluster A galaxy cluster, or a cluster of galaxies, is a structure that consists of anywhere from hundreds to thousands of galaxies that are bound together by gravity, with typical masses ranging from 1014 to 1015 solar masses. Clusters consist of galax ...
yet discovered, at 10 billion light years from Earth. **Mathematicians, as part of the
Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search The Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search (GIMPS) is a collaborative project of volunteers who use freely available software to search for Mersenne prime numbers. GIMPS was founded in 1996 by George Woltman, who also wrote the Prime95 client and ...
, report the discovery of a new
prime number A prime number (or a prime) is a natural number greater than 1 that is not a Product (mathematics), product of two smaller natural numbers. A natural number greater than 1 that is not prime is called a composite number. For example, 5 is prime ...
: "274,207,281 − 1". *11 January – Glycerol 3-phosphate phosphatase (G3PP), an enzyme that prevents sugar being stored as fat, is identified by scientists at the
University of Montreal A university () is an institution of tertiary education and research which awards academic degrees in several academic disciplines. ''University'' is derived from the Latin phrase , which roughly means "community of teachers and scholars". Univ ...
Hospital Research Centre. *13 January **Man-made carbon emissions have delayed the next
ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...
by 50,000 years, according to researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research. **
Water ice Water ice may refer to: *Ice formed by water (as opposed to other substances) *In ice climbing, ice made from flowing water (as opposed to ice from precipitation) *The alternate term for various similar frozen fruit-flavoured desserts: ** Italian ic ...
is confirmed on the surface of
comet 67P A comet is an icy, small Solar System body that warms and begins to release gases when passing close to the Sun, a process called outgassing. This produces an extended, gravitationally unbound atmosphere or coma surrounding the nucleus, and ...
. **The world's first 13 TB
solid state drive A solid-state drive (SSD) is a type of solid-state storage device that uses Integrated circuit, integrated circuits to store data persistence (computer science), persistently. It is sometimes called semiconductor storage device, solid-stat ...
(SSD) is announced, doubling the previous record for a commercially available SSD. *14 January – Astronomers report that
ASASSN-15lh ASASSN-15lh ( supernova designation SN 2015L) is an extremely luminous astronomical transient event discovered by the All Sky Automated Survey for SuperNovae (ASAS-SN), with the appearance of a superluminous supernova event. It was first dete ...
, first observed in June 2015, is likely the brightest
supernova A supernova (: supernovae or supernovas) is a powerful and luminous explosion of a star. A supernova occurs during the last stellar evolution, evolutionary stages of a massive star, or when a white dwarf is triggered into runaway nuclear fusion ...
ever detected. Twice as luminous as the previous record holder, at peak detonation it was as bright as 570 billion Suns. *16 January – Astronaut Scott Kelly tweets a picture of the first flower ever grown in space, a
zinnia ''Zinnia'' is a genus of plants of the tribe Heliantheae within the family Asteraceae. They are native to scrub and dry grassland in an area stretching from the Southwestern United States to South America, with a centre of diversity in Mexic ...
flower. *17 January – The
Jason-3 Jason-3 is a satellite altimeter created by a partnership of the European Organisation for the Exploitation of Meteorological Satellites (EUMETSAT) and National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA), and is an international cooperative mi ...
Earth observation satellite An Earth observation satellite or Earth remote sensing satellite is a satellite used or designed for Earth observation (EO) from orbit, including spy satellites and similar ones intended for non-military uses such as environmental monitoring, me ...
is launched. *18 January **Man-made heat entering the oceans has doubled since 1997, according to a study in the journal ''Nature Climate Change''. **Light-activated
nanoparticles A nanoparticle or ultrafine particle is a particle of matter 1 to 100 nanometres (nm) in diameter. The term is sometimes used for larger particles, up to 500 nm, or fibers and tubes that are less than 100 nm in only two directions. At ...
able to kill over 90% of
antibiotic-resistant bacteria Antimicrobial resistance (AMR or AR) occurs when microbes evolve mechanisms that protect them from antimicrobials, which are drugs used to treat infections. This resistance affects all classes of microbes, including bacteria (antibiotic resist ...
are demonstrated at the
University of Colorado Boulder The University of Colorado Boulder (CU Boulder, CU, or Colorado) is a public research university in Boulder, Colorado, United States. Founded in 1876, five months before Colorado became a state, it is the flagship university of the University o ...
. **Researchers demonstrate a new class of small, thin electronic sensors that monitor temperature and pressure within the skull – crucial health parameters after a brain injury or surgery – then melt away when no longer needed. This eliminates the need for additional surgery to remove the monitors and reduces the risk of infection and hemorrhage. *19 January **A successful
head transplant A head transplant or full body transplant is an experimental surgical operation involving the grafting of one organism's head onto the body of another. In many experiments, the recipient's head has not been removed, but in others it has been. Ex ...
on a monkey by scientists in China is reported. **
DARPA The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) is a research and development agency of the United States Department of Defense responsible for the development of emerging technologies for use by the military. Originally known as the Adva ...
announces a new program, Neural Engineering System Design (NESD), which aims to greatly improve the bandwidth and quality of neural interfaces, connecting up to a million neurons at a time. *20 January **Astronomers at the
California Institute of Technology The California Institute of Technology (branded as Caltech) is a private research university in Pasadena, California, United States. The university is responsible for many modern scientific advancements and is among a small group of institutes ...
present the strongest evidence yet that a
ninth planet Following the discovery of the planet Neptune in 1846, there was considerable speculation that another planet might exist beyond its orbit. The search began in the mid-19th century and continued at the start of the 20th with Percival Lowell's ...
is present in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun every 15,000 years. **
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
and the
National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA ) is an American scientific and regulatory agency charged with Weather forecasting, forecasting weather, monitoring oceanic and atmospheric conditions, Hydrography, charting the seas, ...
(NOAA) confirm that 2015 was the hottest year (since 1880) on record globally, shattering the previous record by the largest margin ever seen. *23 January –
Lockheed Martin The Lockheed Martin Corporation is an American Arms industry, defense and aerospace manufacturer with worldwide interests. It was formed by the merger of Lockheed Corporation with Martin Marietta on March 15, 1995. It is headquartered in North ...
announces the "Segmented Planar Imaging Detector for Electro-optical Reconnaissance" (SPIDER), a new way of dramatically shrinking the size of
telescopes A telescope is a device used to observe distant objects by their emission, Absorption (electromagnetic radiation), absorption, or Reflection (physics), reflection of electromagnetic radiation. Originally, it was an optical instrument using len ...
, by using hundreds to thousands of tiny lenses. The diameter does not change, but the SPIDER system is thinner and does not need multiple mirrors. *25 January **Researchers at the
University of Washington The University of Washington (UW and informally U-Dub or U Dub) is a public research university in Seattle, Washington, United States. Founded in 1861, the University of Washington is one of the oldest universities on the West Coast of the Uni ...
announce a new handheld, pen-sized microscope that could identify cancer cells in doctors' offices and operating rooms. **Researchers at the
University of Iowa The University of Iowa (U of I, UIowa, or Iowa) is a public university, public research university in Iowa City, Iowa, United States. Founded in 1847, it is the oldest and largest university in the state. The University of Iowa is organized int ...
use real-time 3D videos of cellular movement to show how
cancer cell Cancer cells are cells that divide continually, forming solid tumors or flooding the blood or lymph with abnormal cells. Cell division is a normal process used by the body for growth and repair. A parent cell divides to form two daughter cells, an ...
s extend "cables" and grab other cells, leading to tumour growth. As little as five percent of cancerous cells are needed for tumour formation, they suggest. **The first ever global
nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...
footprint, encompassing 188 countries, is released by the
University of Sydney The University of Sydney (USYD) is a public university, public research university in Sydney, Australia. Founded in 1850, it is the oldest university in both Australia and Oceania. One of Australia's six sandstone universities, it was one of the ...
. **The
University of New South Wales The University of New South Wales (UNSW) is a public research university based in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia. It was established in 1949. The university comprises seven faculties, through which it offers bachelor's, master's and docto ...
announces that it will begin human trials of the Phoenix99, a fully implantable bionic eye. *27 January – Google announces a breakthrough in artificial intelligence with a program able to beat the European champion of the board game '' Go''. *28 January **Research into the nature of
time Time is the continuous progression of existence that occurs in an apparently irreversible process, irreversible succession from the past, through the present, and into the future. It is a component quantity of various measurements used to sequ ...
by
Griffith University Griffith University is a public university, public research university in South East Queensland on the Eastern states of Australia, east coast of Australia. The university was founded in 1971, but was not officially opened until 1975. Griffith ...
's Centre for Quantum Dynamics shows how an asymmetry for time reversal might be responsible for making the universe move forward in time. **Observations by the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore, Maryland, suggest that Smith's Cloud did not originate from intergalactic space, but was actually launched out of our own galaxy around 70 million years ago. *29 January **Researchers demonstrate that
graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...
can be successfully interfaced with
neurons A neuron (American English), neurone (British English), or nerve cell, is an membrane potential#Cell excitability, excitable cell (biology), cell that fires electric signals called action potentials across a neural network (biology), neural net ...
, while maintaining the integrity of these vital nerve cells. It is believed this could lead to much improved
brain implants Brain implants, often referred to as neural implants, are technological devices that connect directly to a biological subject's brain – usually placed on the surface of the brain, or attached to the brain's cortex. A common purpose of modern bra ...
for restoring sensory functions. **
Proton beam therapy In medicine, proton therapy, or proton radiotherapy, is a type of particle therapy that uses a beam of protons to irradiate diseased tissue, most often to treat cancer. The chief advantage of proton therapy over other types of external beam ra ...
for cancer is as effective as other treatments and causes fewer side effects in children than conventional radiotherapy, according to research published by ''The Lancet''. **Research by
UCLA The University of California, Los Angeles (UCLA) is a public land-grant research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Its academic roots were established in 1881 as a normal school then known as the southern branch of the C ...
provides further evidence that
the Moon The Moon is Earth's only natural satellite. It orbits around Earth at an average distance of (; about 30 times Earth's diameter). The Moon rotates, with a rotation period ( lunar day) that is synchronized to its orbital period ( lunar ...
was formed by a violent, head-on
collision In physics, a collision is any event in which two or more bodies exert forces on each other in a relatively short time. Although the most common use of the word ''collision'' refers to incidents in which two or more objects collide with great for ...
between the early Earth and a “planetary embryo” called
Theia Theia (; , also rendered Thea or Thia), also called Euryphaessa (, "wide-shining"), is one of the twelve Titans, the children of the earth goddess Gaia and the sky god Uranus in Greek mythology. She is the Greek goddess of sight and vision, an ...
, roughly 100 million years after the Earth formed.


February

*1 February – Scientists in the
United Kingdom The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, commonly known as the United Kingdom (UK) or Britain, is a country in Northwestern Europe, off the coast of European mainland, the continental mainland. It comprises England, Scotlan ...
are given the go-ahead by regulators to genetically modify
human embryos An embryo ( ) is the initial stage of development for a multicellular organism. In organisms that reproduce sexually, embryonic development is the part of the life cycle that begins just after fertilization of the female egg cell by the male sp ...
by using
CRISPR-Cas9 Cas9 (CRISPR associated protein 9, formerly called Cas5, Csn1, or Csx12) is a 160 kilodalton protein which plays a vital role in the immunological defense of certain bacteria against DNA viruses and plasmids, and is heavily utilized in genetic ...
and related techniques. *2 February – The smallest ever
lattice Lattice may refer to: Arts and design * Latticework, an ornamental criss-crossed framework, an arrangement of crossing laths or other thin strips of material * Lattice (music), an organized grid model of pitch ratios * Lattice (pastry), an or ...
structure is created by the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie (KIT), with glassy carbon struts and braces less than 200 nm in diameter. *3 February – Following a helium plasma test in December 2015, the first hydrogen test is successfully conducted at the
Wendelstein 7-X The Wendelstein 7-X (abbreviated W7-X) reactor is an experimental stellarator built in Greifswald, Germany, by the Max Planck Institute for Plasma Physics (IPP), and completed in October 2015.Germany Germany, officially the Federal Republic of Germany, is a country in Central Europe. It lies between the Baltic Sea and the North Sea to the north and the Alps to the south. Its sixteen States of Germany, constituent states have a total popu ...
. *4 February – The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that the Arctic sea ice extent for January 2016 was the lowest in the satellite record. *9 February – A breakthrough in
cryopreservation Cryopreservation or cryoconservation is a process where biological material - cells, tissues, or organs - are frozen to preserve the material for an extended period of time. At low temperatures (typically or using liquid nitrogen) any cell ...
is announced, with a rabbit's whole brain shown to have a well-preserved ultrastructure, including cell membranes, synapses, and intracellular structures such as synaptic vesicles. *11 February – Scientists at the
LIGO The Laser Interferometer Gravitational-Wave Observatory (LIGO) is a large-scale physics experiment and observatory designed to detect cosmic gravitational waves and to develop gravitational-wave observations as an astronomical tool. Prior to LIG ...
,
Virgo Virgo may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Virgo (film), a 1970 Egyptian film * Virgo (character), several Marvel Comics characters * Virgo Asmita, a character in the manga ''Saint Seiya: The Lost Canvas'' * ''Virgo'' (album), by Virgo Four, ...
and
GEO600 GEO600 is a gravitational wave detector located near Sarstedt, a town to the south of Hanover, Germany. It is designed and operated by scientists from the Max Planck Institute for Gravitational Physics, Max Planck Institute of Quantum Optics a ...
announce the first direct detection of a
gravitational wave Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that Wave propagation, travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravity, gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside i ...
predicted by the
general relativity General relativity, also known as the general theory of relativity, and as Einstein's theory of gravity, is the differential geometry, geometric theory of gravitation published by Albert Einstein in 1915 and is the current description of grav ...
theory of
Albert Einstein Albert Einstein (14 March 187918 April 1955) was a German-born theoretical physicist who is best known for developing the theory of relativity. Einstein also made important contributions to quantum mechanics. His mass–energy equivalence f ...
. *12 February – Scientists publish a list of the world's 2,500 rarest
mineral In geology and mineralogy, a mineral or mineral species is, broadly speaking, a solid substance with a fairly well-defined chemical composition and a specific crystal structure that occurs naturally in pure form.John P. Rafferty, ed. (2011): Mi ...
s in the journal ''American Mineralogist''. *15 February **The
University of Southampton The University of Southampton (abbreviated as ''Soton'' in post-nominal letters) is a public university, public research university in Southampton, England. Southampton is a founding member of the Russell Group of research-intensive universit ...
announces a major step forward in creating "5D" data storage that can survive for billions of years. **Scientists report "unprecedented" success using T-cells to treat cancer. In one trial, 94 percent of patients with acute lymphoblastic leukaemia saw their symptoms disappear entirely. *16 February **
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...
detects
hydrogen Hydrogen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol H and atomic number 1. It is the lightest and abundance of the chemical elements, most abundant chemical element in the universe, constituting about 75% of all baryon, normal matter ...
and
helium Helium (from ) is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol He and atomic number 2. It is a colorless, odorless, non-toxic, inert gas, inert, monatomic gas and the first in the noble gas group in the periodic table. Its boiling point is ...
(and suggestions of
hydrogen cyanide Hydrogen cyanide (formerly known as prussic acid) is a chemical compound with the chemical formula, formula HCN and structural formula . It is a highly toxic and flammable liquid that boiling, boils slightly above room temperature, at . HCN is ...
), but no
water vapor Water vapor, water vapour, or aqueous vapor is the gaseous phase of Properties of water, water. It is one Phase (matter), state of water within the hydrosphere. Water vapor can be produced from the evaporation or boiling of liquid water or from th ...
, in the
atmosphere An atmosphere () is a layer of gases that envelop an astronomical object, held in place by the gravity of the object. A planet retains an atmosphere when the gravity is great and the temperature of the atmosphere is low. A stellar atmosph ...
of
55 Cancri e 55 Cancri e (abbreviated 55 Cnc e), formally named Janssen , is an exoplanet orbiting a Sun-like host star, 55 Cancri A. The mass of the exoplanet is about eight Earth masses and its diameter is about twice that of the Earth. 55 Cancri e was ...
, the first time the atmosphere of a
super-Earth A super-Earth is a type of exoplanet with a mass higher than Earth, but substantially below those of the Solar System's ice giants, Uranus and Neptune, which are 14.5 and 17.1 times Earth's, respectively. The term "super-Earth" refers only to t ...
exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...
has been analyzed successfully. **A study in ''
Cryobiology Cryobiology is the branch of biology that studies the effects of low temperatures on living things within Earth's cryosphere or in science. The word cryobiology is derived from the Greek words κρῧος ryos "cold", βίος ios "life", and λ ...
'' describes how microscopic
tardigrade Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them . In 1776, th ...
s were successfully revived, and reproduced, after being frozen for over 30 years. *17 February – Launch of Hitomi, also known as Astro-H, a spacecraft to study high-energetic processes and
dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
in the universe. *19 February – Researchers report that
naked mole rat The naked mole-rat (''Heterocephalus glaber''), also known as the sand puppy, is a burrowing rodent native to the Horn of Africa and parts of Kenya, notably in Somali regions. It is closely related to the blesmols and is the only species in th ...
s, thought immune to
cancer Cancer is a group of diseases involving Cell growth#Disorders, abnormal cell growth with the potential to Invasion (cancer), invade or Metastasis, spread to other parts of the body. These contrast with benign tumors, which do not spread. Po ...
, can contract the disease after all. *23 February –
Boston Dynamics Boston Dynamics, Inc., is an American engineering and robotics design company founded in 1992 as a Research spin-off, spin-off from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Headquartered in Waltham, Massachusetts, Boston Dynamics has been owne ...
reveals the latest version of its "Atlas" humanoid robot, featuring highly dynamic movements and reactions in both indoor and outdoor environments. *24 February –
Pancreatic cancer Pancreatic cancer arises when cell (biology), cells in the pancreas, a glandular organ behind the stomach, begin to multiply out of control and form a Neoplasm, mass. These cancerous cells have the malignant, ability to invade other parts of ...
is found to have four separate sub-types, each with a different cause and requiring a different treatment. *26 February – A
solar cell A solar cell, also known as a photovoltaic cell (PV cell), is an electronic device that converts the energy of light directly into electricity by means of the photovoltaic effect.
so thin, flexible, and lightweight that it can be draped on a
soap bubble A soap bubble (commonly referred to as simply a bubble) is an extremely thin soap film, film of soap or detergent and water enclosing air that forms a hollow sphere with an iridescent surface. Soap bubbles usually last for only a few seconds b ...
is demonstrated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.


March

*March – Connection between uncarboxylated
osteocalcin Osteocalcin, also known as bone gamma-carboxyglutamic acid-containing protein (BGLAP), is a small (49-amino-acid) noncollagenous protein hormone found in bone and dentin, first identified as a calcium-binding protein. Because osteocalcin has ...
and human metabolism identified by
Gérard Karsenty Gérard Karsenty is a professor and chair of the Genetics and Development Department at the Columbia University Medical Center where he studies the endocrinology of bone. Professor Karsenty made the key discovery that bones produce endocrine hormon ...
. *1 March – Astronauts Scott Kelly and
Mikhail Korniyenko Mikhail Borisovich Kornienko (Михаил Борисович Корниенко; born 15 April 1960) is a Russian cosmonaut who has undertaken multiple missions to the International Space Station (ISS). He first served as a flight engineer duri ...
return to Earth from spaceflight
Soyuz TMA-18M Soyuz TMA-18M was a 2015 Soyuz spaceflight to the International Space Station. It provided the two twelve-months occupants ( Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko) at the International Space Station with a fresh Soyuz capsule. TMA-18M was the 127th ...
, after spending 340 days in space, setting an
ISS The International Space Station (ISS) is a large space station that was assembled and is maintained in low Earth orbit by a collaboration of five space agencies and their contractors: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), ESA (Europe), ...
record. *2 March – Climate change could kill more than 500,000 people a year globally by 2050 by making their diets less healthy, according to research published in the ''Lancet''. *3 March **The most remote galaxy ever detected –
GN-z11 GN-z11 is a high-redshift galaxy found in the constellation Ursa Major. It is among the farthest known galaxies from Earth ever discovered. The 2015 discovery was published in a 2016 paper headed by Pascal Oesch and Gabriel Brammer (Cosmic Dawn ...
– is confirmed by the Hubble Space Telescope at a distance of 13.4 billion light years. **The global average temperature briefly spikes 2 degrees C above the pre-industrial average, considered by most countries to be the "dangerous" limit for climate change. *4 March –
University of Cambridge The University of Cambridge is a Public university, public collegiate university, collegiate research university in Cambridge, England. Founded in 1209, the University of Cambridge is the List of oldest universities in continuous operation, wo ...
scientists demonstrate that 'naïve' pluripotent stem cells can be derived from a human embryo. One of the most flexible types of stem cell, these can develop into all human tissue other than the placenta. *7 March – German researchers identify a specific gene mutation in humans that provides a 50 percent lower risk of suffering a
heart attack A myocardial infarction (MI), commonly known as a heart attack, occurs when Ischemia, blood flow decreases or stops in one of the coronary arteries of the heart, causing infarction (tissue death) to the heart muscle. The most common symptom ...
. *9 March **NASA announces that the robotic Mars
InSight Insight is the understanding of a specific causality, cause and effect within a particular context. The term insight can have several related meanings: *a piece of information *the act or result of understanding the inner nature of things or of se ...
lander, equipped with a seismometer and a heat transfer probe, has been approved for a 5 May 2018 launch date. The original launch date in this month was cancelled in December 2015 due to a technical failure. **
Google Google LLC (, ) is an American multinational corporation and technology company focusing on online advertising, search engine technology, cloud computing, computer software, quantum computing, e-commerce, consumer electronics, and artificial ...
's
DeepMind DeepMind Technologies Limited, trading as Google DeepMind or simply DeepMind, is a British–American artificial intelligence research laboratory which serves as a subsidiary of Alphabet Inc. Founded in the UK in 2010, it was acquired by Go ...
AlphaGo AlphaGo is a computer program that plays the board game Go. It was developed by the London-based DeepMind Technologies, an acquired subsidiary of Google. Subsequent versions of AlphaGo became increasingly powerful, including a version that c ...
artificial intelligence Artificial intelligence (AI) is the capability of computer, computational systems to perform tasks typically associated with human intelligence, such as learning, reasoning, problem-solving, perception, and decision-making. It is a field of re ...
defeats South Korea's Lee Se-dol in the first of a series of '' Go'' games in Seoul. ** A
total solar eclipse A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth and the Sun, thereby obscuring the view of the Sun from a small part of Earth, totally or partially. Such an alignment occurs approximately every six months, during the eclipse season i ...
occurred. *10 March – Data from
Mauna Loa Observatory Mauna Loa Observatory (MLO) is an atmospheric baseline station on Mauna Loa on the island of Hawaiʻi, located in the US state of Hawaii. History MLO was founded on June 28, 1956, as part of the US Weather Bureau. It was established on th ...
in Hawaii shows that
carbon emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...
in 2015 grew at their fastest rate on record. *11 March – ''
Ideonella sakaiensis ''Ideonella sakaiensis'' is a bacterium from the genus'' Ideonella'' and family Comamonadaceae capable of breaking down and consuming the plastic polyethylene terephthalate (PET) using it as both a carbon and energy source. The bacterium was o ...
'', the first species of bacteria able to degrade
polyethylene terephthalate Polyethylene terephthalate (or poly(ethylene terephthalate), PET, PETE, or the obsolete PETP or PET-P), is the most common thermoplastic polymer resin of the polyester family and is used in synthetic fibre, fibres for clothing, packaging, conta ...
, (PET) is described by Japanese researchers. *14 March –
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO or ExoMars Orbiter) is a collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos agency that sent an atmospheric research orbiter and the ''Schiaparelli'' demonstration lande ...
is launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 09:31 GMT. *15 March –
Fairy circle (arid grass formation) Fairy circles are circular patches of land barren of plants, varying between in diameter, often encircled by a ring of stimulated growth of grass. They occur in the arid grasslands of the Namib desert in western parts of Southern Africa, and i ...
patterns in spinifex are discovered in remote
Western Australia Western Australia (WA) is the westernmost state of Australia. It is bounded by the Indian Ocean to the north and west, the Southern Ocean to the south, the Northern Territory to the north-east, and South Australia to the south-east. Western Aust ...
; their first discovery outside of Namibia. *17 March **Paleontologists report the discovery of a pregnant ''
Tyrannosaurus rex ''Tyrannosaurus'' () is a genus of large theropoda, theropod dinosaur. The type species ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' ( meaning 'king' in Latin), often shortened to ''T. rex'' or colloquially t-rex, is one of the best represented theropods. It live ...
'', shedding light on the evolution of egg-laying as well as gender differences in the dinosaur. **Researchers at
Rutgers Rutgers University ( ), officially Rutgers, The State University of New Jersey, is a public land-grant research university consisting of three campuses in New Jersey. Chartered in 1766, Rutgers was originally called Queen's College and was aff ...
and
Stanford Leland Stanford Junior University, commonly referred to as Stanford University, is a private research university in Stanford, California, United States. It was founded in 1885 by railroad magnate Leland Stanford (the eighth governor of and th ...
universities develop a novel way to inject healthy human nerve cells into mouse brains, with potential for treating Parkinson's disease and other brain-related conditions, though human trials are likely 10–20 years away. **Studies suggest that
modern human Humans (''Homo sapiens'') or modern humans are the most common and widespread species of primate, and the last surviving species of the genus ''Homo''. They are Hominidae, great apes characterized by their Prehistory of nakedness and clothing ...
s bred with
hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...
s, including
Denisovan The Denisovans or Denisova hominins ( ) are an extinct species or subspecies of archaic human that ranged across Asia during the Lower and Middle Paleolithic, and lived, based on current evidence, from 285 thousand to 25 thousand years ago. D ...
s and
Neanderthal Neanderthals ( ; ''Homo neanderthalensis'' or sometimes ''H. sapiens neanderthalensis'') are an extinction, extinct group of archaic humans who inhabited Europe and Western and Central Asia during the Middle Pleistocene, Middle to Late Plei ...
s, on multiple occasions. **Researchers at the
University of Toronto The University of Toronto (UToronto or U of T) is a public university, public research university whose main campus is located on the grounds that surround Queen's Park (Toronto), Queen's Park in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. It was founded by ...
use stem cell therapy to reverse age-related
osteoporosis Osteoporosis is a systemic skeletal disorder characterized by low bone mass, micro-architectural deterioration of bone tissue leading to more porous bone, and consequent increase in Bone fracture, fracture risk. It is the most common reason f ...
in mice. *21 March – Man-made
carbon emissions Greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from human activities intensify the greenhouse effect. This contributes to climate change. Carbon dioxide (), from burning fossil fuels such as coal, petroleum, oil, and natural gas, is the main cause of climate chan ...
lead to total carbon emissions 10 times higher than at any point since the
extinction of the dinosaurs Extinction is the termination of an organism by the death of its last member. A taxon may become functionally extinct before the death of its last member if it loses the capacity to reproduce and recover. As a species' potential range may be ...
, according to new calculations by researchers. *24 March **Scientists at
Florida Atlantic University Florida Atlantic University (Florida Atlantic or FAU) is a Public university, public research university with its main campus in Boca Raton, Florida, United States. The university is a member of the State University System of Florida and has s ...
identify translin as a gene responsible for
sleep deprivation Sleep deprivation, also known as sleep insufficiency or sleeplessness, is the condition of not having adequate duration and/or quality of sleep to support decent alertness, performance, and health. It can be either Chronic (medicine), chronic ...
and
metabolic disorders A metabolic disorder is a disorder that negatively alters the body's processing and distribution of macronutrients, such as proteins, fats, and carbohydrates. Metabolic disorders can happen when abnormal chemical reactions in the body alter the ...
. **The cavefish '' Cryptotora thamicola'', able to walk and climb waterfalls, is reported to show anatomical features previously known only in four-limbed vertebrates. Researchers call the finding "huge" in evolutionary terms. **
Craig Venter John Craig Venter (born October 14, 1946) is an American scientist. He is known for leading one of the first draft sequences of the human genome and led the first team to transfect a cell with a synthetic chromosome. Venter founded Celera Geno ...
's team announce they have synthesised a minimal bacterial genome, containing only the genes necessary for life, and consisting of just 473 genes. This builds upon their earlier research that synthesised ''
Mycoplasma laboratorium ''Mycoplasma laboratorium'' or Synthia refers to a plan to produce a synthetic biology, synthetic strain of bacterium. The project to build the new bacterium has evolved since its inception. Initially the goal was to identify a minimal set of ge ...
'' in 2010. *29 March –
Case Western Reserve University Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) is a Private university, private research university in Cleveland, Ohio, United States. It was established in 1967 by a merger between Western Reserve University and the Case Institute of Technology. Case ...
announces an optical sensor a million times more sensitive than the current best available, with potential for improving early cancer detection. *30 March **A study by climate scientists concludes that sea level increases by 2100 could be twice as high as the
IPCC The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) is an intergovernmental body of the United Nations. Its job is to "provide governments at all levels with scientific information that they can use to develop climate policies". The World M ...
's most recent estimates. **Scientists report that ''
Homo floresiensis ''Homo floresiensis'' , also known as "Flores Man" or "Hobbit" (after Hobbit, the fictional species), is an Extinction, extinct species of small archaic humans that inhabited the island of Flores, Indonesia, until the arrival of Homo sapiens, ...
'', an extinct
hominin The Hominini (hominins) form a taxonomic tribe of the subfamily Homininae (hominines). They comprise two extant genera: ''Homo'' (humans) and '' Pan'' (chimpanzees and bonobos), and in standard usage exclude the genus '' Gorilla'' ( gorillas) ...
nicknamed the "
hobbit Hobbits are a fictional race of people in the novels of J. R. R. Tolkien. About half average human height, Tolkien presented hobbits as a variety of humanity, or close relatives thereof. Occasionally known as halflings in Tolkien's writings, ...
", disappeared about 50,000 years ago, much earlier than the 12,000 years ago estimated initially. **A study by MIT predicts that much of
Asia Asia ( , ) is the largest continent in the world by both land area and population. It covers an area of more than 44 million square kilometres, about 30% of Earth's total land area and 8% of Earth's total surface area. The continent, which ...
will be at high risk of severe
water stress Water is an inorganic compound with the chemical formula . It is a transparent, tasteless, odorless, and nearly colorless chemical substance. It is the main constituent of Earth's hydrosphere and the fluids of all known living organisms ( ...
by 2050, with an extra billion more people becoming water stressed compared to today. *31 March – Astronomers report the discovery of a unique
white dwarf star A white dwarf is a stellar core remnant composed mostly of electron-degenerate matter. A white dwarf is very dense: in an Earth sized volume, it packs a mass that is comparable to the Sun. No nuclear fusion takes place in a white dwarf; wh ...
– designated
SDSS J1240+6710 SDSS may refer to: * Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a major multi-filter imaging and spectroscopic redshift survey * Social Democratic Party of Slovakia * Spatial Decision Support System, a GIS based decision aiding system * Independent Democratic Serb ...
– which has a 99.9 percent oxygen atmosphere.


April

*1 April – A study by the
University of Southern California The University of Southern California (USC, SC, or Southern Cal) is a Private university, private research university in Los Angeles, California, United States. Founded in 1880 by Robert M. Widney, it is the oldest private research university in ...
concludes that drinking even moderate amounts of
coffee Coffee is a beverage brewed from roasted, ground coffee beans. Darkly colored, bitter, and slightly acidic, coffee has a stimulating effect on humans, primarily due to its caffeine content, but decaffeinated coffee is also commercially a ...
can significantly reduce the risk of developing
colorectal cancer Colorectal cancer (CRC), also known as bowel cancer, colon cancer, or rectal cancer, is the development of cancer from the Colon (anatomy), colon or rectum (parts of the large intestine). Signs and symptoms may include Lower gastrointestinal ...
. *4 April ** Researchers found the fossil of '' Aquilonifer spinosus'' covered in
carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, (), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word "carbonate" may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate group ...
from a formation called the
Herefordshire Lagerstätte Coalbrookdale Formation, earlier known as Wenlock Shale or Wenlock Shale Formation and also referred to as Herefordshire Lagerstätte in palaeontology, is a fossil-rich deposit (''Konservat-Lagerstätte'') in Powys and Herefordshire at the Engla ...
in UK. ** A new quantum state of matter is discovered in a
graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...
-like magnetic material RuCl3 hosting curious magnetic
quasiparticle In condensed matter physics, a quasiparticle is a concept used to describe a collective behavior of a group of particles that can be treated as if they were a single particle. Formally, quasiparticles and collective excitations are closely relate ...
s called
Majorana fermion In particle physics a Majorana fermion (, uploaded 19 April 2013, retrieved 5 October 2014; and also based on the pronunciation of physicist's name.) or Majorana particle is a fermion that is its own antiparticle. They were hypothesised by E ...
s which are their own antiparticles. It is a step forward in materials which will allow quantum computation. *7 April ** A new analysis of
clouds In meteorology, a cloud is an aerosol consisting of a visible mass of miniature liquid droplets, frozen crystals, or other particles, suspended in the atmosphere of a planetary body or similar space. Water or various other chemicals may c ...
and their role in
global warming Present-day climate change includes both global warming—the ongoing increase in global average temperature—and its wider effects on Earth's climate system. Climate change in a broader sense also includes previous long-term changes ...
reveals they contain more liquid water (as opposed to ice) than previously thought. This makes them less reflective and therefore results in more heat reaching the Earth's surface, meaning that future temperature increases may have been underestimated. ** A new method to produce transistors is presented, based on nanocrystal 'inks'. This allows them to be produced on flexible surfaces, possibly with 3D printers. *8 April –
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...
successfully lands the first stage of a
Falcon 9 Falcon 9 is a Reusable launch system#Partial reusable launch systems, partially reusable, two-stage-to-orbit, medium-lift launch vehicle designed and manufactured in the United States by SpaceX. The first Falcon 9 launch was on June 4, 2010, an ...
rocket (
SpaceX CRS-8 Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an American space technology company headquartered at the Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the company has made numerous a ...
) on a floating drone ship for the first time. *9 April – By adding a one-atom thick layer of
graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...
to solar panels, Chinese scientists report that electricity can be generated from raindrops. *11 April – Scientists announce an updated biological "
tree of life The tree of life is a fundamental archetype in many of the world's mythology, mythological, religion, religious, and philosophy, philosophical traditions. It is closely related to the concept of the sacred tree.Giovino, Mariana (2007). ''The ...
" summarizing the
evolution Evolution is the change in the heritable Phenotypic trait, characteristics of biological populations over successive generations. It occurs when evolutionary processes such as natural selection and genetic drift act on genetic variation, re ...
of all known
life forms The following outline is provided as an overview of and topical guide to life forms: A life form (also spelled life-form or lifeform) is an entity that is living, such as plants (flora), animals (fauna), and fungi ( funga). It is estimated tha ...
, and find that the branches of the new overview, based on the latest
gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
tic findings, are mainly composed of
bacteria Bacteria (; : bacterium) are ubiquitous, mostly free-living organisms often consisting of one Cell (biology), biological cell. They constitute a large domain (biology), domain of Prokaryote, prokaryotic microorganisms. Typically a few micr ...
. *12 April – Scientists announce
Breakthrough Starshot Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail interstellar probes named ''Starchip'', to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri st ...
, a
Breakthrough Initiatives Breakthrough Initiatives is a science-based program founded in 2015 and funded by Julia and Yuri Milner, also of Breakthrough Prize, to search for extraterrestrial intelligence over a span of at least 10 years. The program is divided into multip ...
program, to develop a
proof-of-concept A proof of concept (POC or PoC), also known as proof of principle, is an inchoate realization of a certain idea or method in order to demonstrate its feasibility or viability. A proof of concept is usually small and may or may not be complete ...
fleet of small centimeter-sized
light sail Solar sails (also known as lightsails, light sails, and photon sails) are a method of spacecraft propulsion using radiation pressure exerted by sunlight on large surfaces. A number of spaceflight missions to test solar propulsion and navigatio ...
spacecraft A spacecraft is a vehicle that is designed spaceflight, to fly and operate in outer space. Spacecraft are used for a variety of purposes, including Telecommunications, communications, Earth observation satellite, Earth observation, Weather s ...
, named '' StarChip'', capable of making the journey to
Alpha Centauri Alpha Centauri (, α Cen, or Alpha Cen) is a star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus (constellation), Centaurus. It consists of three stars: Rigil Kentaurus (), Toliman (), and Proxima Centauri (). Proxima Centauri ...
, the nearest
star system A star system or stellar system is a small number of stars that orbit each other, bound by gravity, gravitational attraction. It may sometimes be used to refer to a single star. A large group of stars bound by gravitation is generally calle ...
, at speeds of 20% and 15% of the
speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...
, taking between 20 and 30 years to reach the star system, respectively, and about 4 years to notify
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
of a successful arrival. *13 April **A
quadriplegic Tetraplegia, also known as quadriplegia, is defined as the dysfunction or loss of Motor control, motor and/or Sense, sensory function in the Cervical vertebrae, cervical area of the spinal cord. A loss of motor function can present as either weak ...
man, Ian Burkhart from Ohio, is able to perform complex functional movements with his fingers after a chip was implanted in his brain. **Astronomers report the discovery of Crater 2, the fourth largest satellite galaxy of the Milky Way, at a distance of 380,000 light years. **An international team reports synthesising ultra-long
carbyne In organic chemistry, a carbyne is a general term for any compound whose structure consists of an electrically neutral carbon atom connected by a single covalent bond and has three non-bonded electrons. The carbon atom has either one or three ...
inside double-walled nanotubes. This exotic form of
carbon Carbon () is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol C and atomic number 6. It is nonmetallic and tetravalence, tetravalent—meaning that its atoms are able to form up to four covalent bonds due to its valence shell exhibiting 4 ...
is even stronger than
graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...
. *14 April – The discovery of hormone asprosin is reported in ''
Cell Cell most often refers to: * Cell (biology), the functional basic unit of life * Cellphone, a phone connected to a cellular network * Clandestine cell, a penetration-resistant form of a secret or outlawed organization * Electrochemical cell, a de ...
''. *21 April – BioViva USA reports the first successful use of
gene therapy Gene therapy is Health technology, medical technology that aims to produce a therapeutic effect through the manipulation of gene expression or through altering the biological properties of living cells. The first attempt at modifying human DNA ...
to extend the length of
telomeres A telomere (; ) is a region of repetitive nucleotide sequences associated with specialized proteins at the ends of linear chromosomes (see Sequences). Telomeres are a widespread genetic feature most commonly found in eukaryotes. In most, if not ...
in a human patient. *22 April **The discovery of quantum tunneling of water molecules is reported. **Scientists announce the discovery of an extensive reef system near the Amazon River, covering an estimated 3,600 square miles (9,300 km2). *26 April – Astronomers using the Hubble Space Telescope report the discovery of a moon orbiting the remote dwarf planet
Makemake Makemake ( minor-planet designation: 136472 Makemake) is a dwarf planet and the largest of what is known as the classical population of Kuiper belt objects, with a diameter approximately that of Saturn's moon Iapetus, or 60% that of Pluto. It ...
. *28 April **Scientists identify a pair of molecular signals controlling skin and hair colour, which could be targeted by new drugs to treat skin pigment disorders like
vitiligo Vitiligo (, ) is a chronic autoimmune disorder that causes patches of skin to lose pigment or color. The cause of vitiligo is unknown, but it may be related to immune system changes, genetic factors, stress, or sun exposure, and susceptibili ...
. **A new paper in ''Astrobiology'' suggests there could be a way to simplify the
Drake equation The Drake equation is a probability theory, probabilistic argument used to estimate the number of active, communicative extraterrestrial life, extraterrestrial civilizations in the Milky Way Galaxy.Physics Today 14 (4), 40–46 (1961). The e ...
, based on observations of exoplanets discovered in the last two decades. *29 April – A team at Stanford University reveals "OceanOne", a humanoid robot capable of moving around the seabed using thrusters.


May

*2 May **Researchers of the
Max Planck Institute for Chemistry The Max Planck Institute for Chemistry (Otto Hahn Institute; ) is a non-university research institute under the auspices of the Max Planck Society (German: Max-Planck-Gesellschaft) in Mainz, Germany. It was created as the Kaiser Wilhelm Instit ...
and the Cyprus Institute in Nicosia calculate that in future decades, the Middle East and North Africa could become so hot that human habitability is compromised. **Researchers at the
University of Illinois The University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign (UIUC, U of I, Illinois, or University of Illinois) is a public university, public land-grant university, land-grant research university in the Champaign–Urbana metropolitan area, Illinois, United ...
and
University of Puerto Rico The University of Puerto Rico (Spanish language, Spanish: ''Universidad de Puerto Rico;'' often shortened to UPR) is the main List of state and territorial universities in the United States, public university system in the Commonwealth (U.S. i ...
announce they have sequenced the mitochondrial genome for the
Hispaniolan solenodon The Hispaniolan solenodon (''Solenodon paradoxus''), also known as the agouta, is a small, furry, shrew-like mammal endemic to the Caribbean island of Hispaniola (in the Dominican Republic and Haiti). Like other solenodons, it is a venomous, in ...
, a venomous mammal found only on
Hispaniola Hispaniola (, also ) is an island between Geography of Cuba, Cuba and Geography of Puerto Rico, Puerto Rico in the Greater Antilles of the Caribbean. Hispaniola is the most populous island in the West Indies, and the second-largest by List of C ...
. Their findings confirm that the species diverged from all other living
mammals A mammal () is a vertebrate animal of the class Mammalia (). Mammals are characterised by the presence of milk-producing mammary glands for feeding their young, a broad neocortex region of the brain, fur or hair, and three middle e ...
about 78 million years ago, before dinosaurs went extinct. **Astronomers discover three potentially Earth-like planets in the habitable zone of an ultracool brown dwarf star (
TRAPPIST-1 , - ! style="background-color: #FFFFC0; text-align: center;" colspan="2", Characteristics , - style="vertical-align:top" ! style="text-align:left" , Evolutionary stage , Main sequence , - style="vertical-align:top" ! style="text-ali ...
) just 40 light years away from Earth. **A study in ''PNAS'' concludes that Earth may be home to 1 trillion
species A species () is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate sexes or mating types can produce fertile offspring, typically by sexual reproduction. It is the basic unit of Taxonomy (biology), ...
, with 99.999 percent remaining undiscovered. *4 May – The most detailed ever study of
leopard The leopard (''Panthera pardus'') is one of the five extant cat species in the genus ''Panthera''. It has a pale yellowish to dark golden fur with dark spots grouped in rosettes. Its body is slender and muscular reaching a length of with a ...
populations reveals that the animals have lost 75% of their historical habitat range since 1750. *9 May **A
transit of Mercury file:Mercury transit symbol.svg, frameless, upright=0.5 A transit of Mercury across the Sun takes place when the planet Mercury (planet), Mercury passes directly between the Sun and a superior planet. During a Astronomical transit, transit, Merc ...
occurs. **
Oxygen Oxygen is a chemical element; it has chemical symbol, symbol O and atomic number 8. It is a member of the chalcogen group (periodic table), group in the periodic table, a highly reactivity (chemistry), reactive nonmetal (chemistry), non ...
is detected in the
Martian atmosphere The atmosphere of Mars is the layer of gases surrounding Mars. It is primarily composed of carbon dioxide (95%), molecular nitrogen (2.85%), and argon (2%). It also contains trace levels of water vapor, oxygen, carbon monoxide, hydrogen, and nob ...
for the first time in 40 years. *10 May **NASA's
Kepler mission The Kepler space telescope is a defunct space telescope launched by NASA in 2009 to discover Earth-sized planets orbiting other stars. Named after astronomer Johannes Kepler, the spacecraft was launched into an Earth-trailing heliocentric orb ...
verifies 1,284 new
exoplanets An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first detec ...
– the single largest finding of planets to date. **Samsung announces a 256 gigabyte Secure Digital#Micro, microSD card. *13 May – Scientists consider extending the ''Human Genome Project'' to include creating a Human Genome Project - Write, synthetic human genome. *16 May – NASA confirms that April 2016 was the hottest April ever recorded, beating the previous record set in 2010 by 0.24 °C, the largest margin ever. *17 May **Scientists at IBM Research announce a storage memory breakthrough by reliably storing three bits of data per cell using a new memory technology known as phase-change memory (PCM). The results could provide fast and easy storage to capture the exponential growth of data in the future. **A detailed report by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine finds no risk to human health from Genetically modified food, genetic modifications of food. **Researchers at the University of Virginia Health System find that the Oct4 gene, once thought to be inactive in adults, actually plays a vital role in preventing heart attacks and strokes. The gene could delay at least some of the effects of aging. *18 May **At the Google I/O, I/O developer conference, Google reveals it has been working on a new chip, known as the Tensor Processing Unit (TPU), which delivers "an order of magnitude higher performance per watt than all commercially available GPUs and FPGA." **A study of Totten Glacier, East Antarctica's largest outlet of ice, reveals that its melting could pass a critical threshold within the next century, entering a period of irreversible retreat and ultimately adding nearly three metres to global sea levels. *19 May – Scientists in the US report evidence that tsunamis up to 120m high swept across Mars in the ancient past. *23 May **India conducts the first successful launch of a new space plane, called the RLV-TD, Reusable Launch Vehicle (RLV), which is delivered to a height of 65 kilometres (40 mi). **Significant asteroid data arising from the Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer and Wide-field Infrared Survey Explorer#NEOWISE, NEOWISE missions is questioned, but the criticism did not undergo peer review yet. On 22 May 2018, a more recent peer-reviewed follow-up study is subsequently published. *24 May – A survey of 216,000 adolescents from all 50 US states finds the number of teens with marijuana-related problems is declining and marijuana use is falling, despite the fact that more US states are legalising or decriminalising the drug. *25 May – Researchers discover new evidence that Amyloid beta, amyloid-beta protein acts as a natural antibiotic in the brain: Alzheimer's-associated amyloid plaques may be a normal part of the immune system, and removing amyloid could actually be harmful. *26 May – Evidence of a recent, extreme
ice age An ice age is a long period of reduction in the temperature of Earth's surface and atmosphere, resulting in the presence or expansion of continental and polar ice sheets and alpine glaciers. Earth's climate alternates between ice ages, and g ...
on Mars is published in the journal ''Science''. Just 370,000 years ago, the planet would have appeared more white than red, the authors say. *27 May – Strimvelis, an ex-vivo stem cell gene therapy for adenosine deaminase deficiency, and the first
gene therapy Gene therapy is Health technology, medical technology that aims to produce a therapeutic effect through the manipulation of gene expression or through altering the biological properties of living cells. The first attempt at modifying human DNA ...
for children, is granted regulatory approval by the European Commission.


June

*1 June **Worldwide, renewable energy grew at its fastest ever rate in 2015, according to a report by the Renewable Energy Policy Network for the 21st Century (REN21). **Scientists at Rice University characterise how single-molecule "nanocars" move in open air, which they claim will help the kinetics of molecular machines in ambient conditions over time. *2 June **Scientists formally announce Human Genome Project–Write, HGP-Write, a plan to synthesize the human genome. **A Stanford clinical trial finds that stem cells injected directly into the brain of chronic stroke sufferers revived dead brain circuits and restored patients' ability to walk. *3 June **
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
and ESA jointly announce that the Universe is Metric expansion of space, expanding 5% to 9% Accelerating expansion of the universe, faster than previously thought, after using the
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...
to measure the distance to stars in 19 galaxies beyond the Milky Way. **A new combination of chemotherapy drugs for pancreatic cancer, presented at the world's biggest cancer conference, shows long-term survival could be increased from 16% to 29%. *7 June – The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that the Arctic ice pack, Arctic sea ice extent was the lowest on record for May by an unusually wide margin. *8 June – The International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry, IUPAC proposes the final names of four new chemical elements on the periodic table: nihonium, moscovium, tennessine, and oganesson. *9 June – A way of pumping underground and turning it from a gas into solid
carbonate A carbonate is a salt of carbonic acid, (), characterized by the presence of the carbonate ion, a polyatomic ion with the formula . The word "carbonate" may also refer to a carbonate ester, an organic compound containing the carbonate group ...
minerals is demonstrated in Iceland, offering a potentially better method of carbon capture and storage. *13 June – Researchers at the University of Cambridge demonstrate a hybrid of excited molecules and molecules plus emitted light, created at room temperature. *14 June – Researchers from Government of Queensland#Departments, Queensland's Department of Environment and Heritage Protection, and the University of Queensland jointly report that the Bramble Cay melomys is likely extinct, adding: "Significantly, this probably represents the first recorded mammalian extinction due to Anthropocene, anthropogenic climate change." *15 June **Scientists announce detecting a second
gravitational wave Gravitational waves are oscillations of the gravitational field that Wave propagation, travel through space at the speed of light; they are generated by the relative motion of gravity, gravitating masses. They were proposed by Oliver Heaviside i ...
event (GW151226) resulting from the collision of black holes. **NASA astronomers announce the discovery of 469219 Kamoʻoalewa (then known as ), an asteroid first observed on 27 April 2016, that is considered the best and most stable example to date of a constant near-Earth companion, or "quasi-satellite" of
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
. *16 June – Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital announce a new method for long-term culturing of adult stem cells. *20 June **China introduces the Sunway TaihuLight, the world's fastest supercomputer, capable of 93 petaflops and a peak performance of 125 petaflops. **Astronomers discover that the galaxy Dragonfly 44 consists of 99.99%
dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
, much more than in all other known galaxies. *23 June – Dutch scientists announce that crops of four vegetables and cereals grown in soil similar to that on Mars are safe to eat. *29 June – NASA, NASA scientists report that the Bright spots on Ceres#Spot 5, bright spot in Occator (crater), Occator crater on the dwarf planet Ceres (dwarf planet), Ceres may be mostly sodium carbonate (). *30 June – The first known death caused by a self-driving car is disclosed by Tesla Motors.


July

*1 July – A new family of tetraquark particles – named X(4140), X(4274), X(4500), and X(4700) – is announced by researchers at the Large Hadron Collider. *4 July – NASA scientists announce the arrival of the ''Juno (spacecraft), Juno'' spacecraft at the planet Jupiter. *5 July – China completes construction on the world's largest radio telescope. *11 July – Astronomers announce the discovery of 2015 RR245, a dwarf planet candidate in the Kuiper Belt with a highly elliptical 700-year orbit. *13 July – U.S. and Indian scientists report that
graphene Graphene () is a carbon allotrope consisting of a Single-layer materials, single layer of atoms arranged in a hexagonal lattice, honeycomb planar nanostructure. The name "graphene" is derived from "graphite" and the suffix -ene, indicating ...
-infused packaging is a million times better at blocking moisture than typical plastic. *20 July **Using the Hubble telescope, scientists perform the first spectroscopy of the atmospheres of Earth-sized exoplanets (orbiting
TRAPPIST-1 , - ! style="background-color: #FFFFC0; text-align: center;" colspan="2", Characteristics , - style="vertical-align:top" ! style="text-align:left" , Evolutionary stage , Main sequence , - style="vertical-align:top" ! style="text-ali ...
). **Scientists at Rice University announce a new titanium-gold alloy that is four times harder than most steels. *21 July – The List of weather records#Highest temperatures ever recorded, hottest ever temperature in the Eastern Hemisphere is reported, with Mitribah, Kuwait reaching 54 °C (129.2 °F). This is second only to Death Valley in California, which saw 56.7 °C (134.1 °F) in 1913. *25 July **Scientists report identifying a set of 355
gene In biology, the word gene has two meanings. The Mendelian gene is a basic unit of heredity. The molecular gene is a sequence of nucleotides in DNA that is transcribed to produce a functional RNA. There are two types of molecular genes: protei ...
s from the Last Universal Common Ancestor (LUCA) of all
organism An organism is any life, living thing that functions as an individual. Such a definition raises more problems than it solves, not least because the concept of an individual is also difficult. Many criteria, few of them widely accepted, have be ...
s Life, living on Earth. **Sex hormones can stimulate production of telomerase, an enzyme naturally found in the human organism, new research shows. *26 July – Solar Impulse, Solar Impulse 2 becomes the first solar-powered aircraft to circumnavigate the Earth. *27 July **Neonicotinoids, the world's most widely used insecticide, are found to reduce bee sperm counts by almost 40%, as well as cutting the lifespan of bee drones by a third. **Researchers in Germany discover that bacteria from the human nose produces a novel antibiotic which is effective against multiresistant pathogens. **Current levels of atmospheric greenhouse gases already commit the planet to air temperatures over many land regions being eventually warmed by greater than 1.5 degrees Celsius, according to new research. *28 July – A new "vortex" laser that travels in a corkscrew pattern is shown to carry 10 times or more the information of conventional lasers, potentially offering a way to extend Moore's Law. *29 July – The seafloor in the Clarion–Clipperton zone – an area in the Pacific Ocean being targeted for deep-sea mining – is found to contain an abundance and diversity of life, with more than half of the species collected being new to science.


August

*1 August – Using the DNA from over 450,000 customers of gene-testing company 23andMe, researchers identify for the first time 15 regions of the genome associated with Depression (mood), depression. *3 August – Researchers pinpoint which of the more than 4,000 exoplanet candidates discovered by NASA's Kepler mission are most likely to be similar to Earth. Their research outlines 216 Kepler planets located within the 'habitable zone', of which 20 are the best candidates to be habitable rocky planets like Earth. * 4 August – A team at the University of Oxford achieves a quantum logic gate with record-breaking 99.9% precision, reaching the benchmark required to build a quantum computer. * 5 August **Analysis of an increased dataset at the Large Hadron Collider suggests that the 750 GeV diphoton excess observed in 2015 was probably just a statistical fluctuation. **Research by Imperial College London suggests that a new form of light can be created by binding it to a single electron, combining the properties of both. * 6 August – Engineers at the University of California, Berkeley, create the first dust-sized wireless sensors that may be implanted within the body. * 8 August – New research by Stanford University suggests that phase-change memory can be engineered to be 1,000 times faster, while using less energy and requiring less space. * 11 August **Venus may have been habitable in the ancient past, with a shallow liquid-water ocean and much lower temperatures than today, according to NASA climate models. **The Greenland shark (''Somniosus microcephalus'') is found to be the longest-lived vertebrate, able to reach a lifespan of nearly 400 years. * 12 August – Researchers at University College London devise a software algorithm able to scan and replicate almost anyone's handwriting. * 15 August **NASA reports that July 2016 was the hottest single month in recorded history (going back to 1880), at 1.51 degrees Fahrenheit (0.84 degrees Celsius) above the 1950-1980 global average. **NASA confirms that fracking is responsible for a huge methane hot spot in the United States. **A possible new subatomic particle could provide evidence of a fifth Fundamental interaction, fundamental force of nature, according to research published in ''Physical Review Letters'' by scientists at the University of California, Irvine. **Replacing tropical lowland forests with Palm oil, palm oil plantations can damage 11 out of 14 functions of a healthy ecosystem, some of which will be irreparable, concludes a study by the Helmholtz Centre For Environmental Research. * 16 August – MIT announces a breakthrough which can double lithium-ion battery capacity. * 22 August – Researchers at Princeton demonstrate an open source 25-core chip that can easily be scaled to create a 200,000-core computer. * 24 August – Astronomers announce the detection of ''Proxima b'', an Terrestrial planet, Earth-sized
exoplanet An exoplanet or extrasolar planet is a planet outside the Solar System. The first confirmed detection of an exoplanet was in 1992 around a pulsar, and the first detection around a main-sequence star was in 1995. A different planet, first det ...
that is in the habitable zone of the red dwarf star Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. Due to its closeness to
Earth Earth is the third planet from the Sun and the only astronomical object known to Planetary habitability, harbor life. This is enabled by Earth being an ocean world, the only one in the Solar System sustaining liquid surface water. Almost all ...
, ''Proxima b'' may be a flyby destination for a fleet of interstellar '' StarChip'' spacecraft currently being developed by the
Breakthrough Starshot Breakthrough Starshot is a research and engineering project by the Breakthrough Initiatives to develop a proof-of-concept fleet of light sail interstellar probes named ''Starchip'', to be capable of making the journey to the Alpha Centauri st ...
project. * 25 August – Astronomers report that Dragonfly 44, an ultra diffuse galaxy (UDG) with the mass of the Milky Way galaxy, but with nearly no discernable stars or galactic structure, might be made almost entirely of
dark matter In astronomy, dark matter is an invisible and hypothetical form of matter that does not interact with light or other electromagnetic radiation. Dark matter is implied by gravity, gravitational effects that cannot be explained by general relat ...
. * 26 August – The University of Washington and The Nature Conservancy publish an animated map showing where mammals, birds and amphibians are projected to move in the Western Hemisphere in response to climate change. * 27 August – NASA's ''Juno'' probe makes a close pass of Jupiter, coming within of the cloud tops – the closest any spacecraft has ever approached the gas giant without entering its atmosphere. * 28 August **HI-SEAS IV, the latest HI-SEAS, Hawaii Space Exploration Analog and Simulation, an experiment to simulate a human colony on Mars, concludes after exactly one year. **DNA is sequenced in outer space for the first time, with NASA astronaut Kate Rubins using a MinION device aboard the International Space Station. *31 August **The world's oldest known fossils, which may be stromatolites, are claimed to have been found on a wavy rock feature in southwestern Greenland, possibly Abiogenesis, dating back 3.7 billion years. **Aducanumab, a new antibody, is shown to significantly reduce harmful beta-amyloid plaques in patients with early-stage Alzheimer's disease.


September

*1 September – An Solar eclipse of September 1, 2016, annular solar eclipse occurs. *2 September – Carbon nanotube transistors are shown to outperform silicon for the first time. *4 September – The International Union for Conservation of Nature and Natural Resources (IUCN) changes the status of the giant panda from "endangered" to "vulnerable" after decades of conservation work. However, the Eastern Gorilla – the largest living primate – is listed as Critically Endangered. *5 September **Philae (spacecraft), Philae, the lander of ESA's Rosetta (spacecraft), Rosetta spacecraft, is located on the comet 67P/Churyumov–Gerasimenko; the exact position of the probe was not known earlier since its landing on the comet in November 2014. **Typhoons in East Asia have grown 50% stronger in the past 40 years due to warming seas, according to a new study. *7 September – One-tenth of the world's wilderness is reported to have disappeared in the last 20 years – an area twice the size of Alaska – with the Amazon and Central Africa being the hardest hit regions. *8 September **DNA testing of skeletal remains in London confirms that ''Yersinia pestis'' was the bacteria responsible for the Great Plague of London, Great Plague of 1665. **NASA launches the seven-year OSIRIS-REx mission, which aims to reach the 500m-wide asteroid 101955 Bennu, Bennu and bring a sample back to Earth. **A genetic analysis shows that the genus giraffe, previously thought to contain one extant species, actually consists of four. *10 September – The Campo del Cielo, second largest meteorite ever found is exhumed near Gancedo, Argentina. It weighs 30 tonnes and fell to Earth around 2000 BC. *13 September – The European Space Agency releases the first batch of data from the Gaia (spacecraft), Gaia space telescope, which has recorded the position and brightness of a billion stars in the Milky Way galaxy. *14 September – Astronomers announce that the reddish-brown cap of the north pole of Charon (moon), Charon, the largest of five Moons of Pluto, moons that orbit the dwarf planet Pluto, is composed of tholins, organic compound, organic macromolecules produced from methane,
nitrogen Nitrogen is a chemical element; it has Symbol (chemistry), symbol N and atomic number 7. Nitrogen is a Nonmetal (chemistry), nonmetal and the lightest member of pnictogen, group 15 of the periodic table, often called the Pnictogen, pnictogens. ...
and related gases released from the atmosphere of Pluto and transferred over about distance to the orbiting moon. *16 September – The development of 1 terabit-per-second transmission rates over optical fiber is announced by Nokia Bell Labs, Deutsche Telekom T-Labs and the Technical University of Munich. *20 September **Sandisk announces the first 1 terabyte SD card at photokina 2016. **A Japanese team accurately sequences a
tardigrade Tardigrades (), known colloquially as water bears or moss piglets, are a phylum of eight-legged segmented micro-animals. They were first described by the German zoologist Johann August Ephraim Goeze in 1773, who called them . In 1776, th ...
genome, finds minimal foreign DNA, and discovers a protein that confers resistance to radiation when transferred into human cells. *21 September – Scientists report that, based on Human genome, human DNA genetic studies, all Behavioral modernity, non-African humans in the world today can be traced to a Anatomically modern human, single population that Recent African origin of modern humans, exited Africa between 50,000 and 80,000 years ago. *22 September **Meltwater ponds are reported in East Antarctica for the first time, after temperatures rose above 0 °C. **Researchers at the University of Toronto create the first map that shows the global genetic interaction network of a cell. It begins to explain how thousands of genes coordinate with one another to orchestrate cellular life. *25 September – The Five hundred meter Aperture Spherical Telescope, Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST) becomes operational in Guizhou Province, southwest China. *26 September – Mercury (planet), Mercury is found to be tectonically active. *27 September **The world's first baby born through a controversial new "three parent" technique is reported. **
SpaceX Space Exploration Technologies Corp., commonly referred to as SpaceX, is an America, American space technology company headquartered at the SpaceX Starbase, Starbase development site in Starbase, Texas. Since its founding in 2002, the compa ...
founder and entrepreneur Elon Musk reveals his plan to send humans to Mars on a new spacecraft, with uncrewed flights beginning as early as 2022. *29 September – A study led by the University of Cambridge finds that Body worn video, body-worn cameras led to a 93% drop in complaints made against police by the UK and US public. * 30 September – The Rosetta (spacecraft), ''Rosetta'' spacecraft ends its mission by attempting a soft-landing inside a wide pit, called Deir el-Medina, on comet 67P. The walls of the pit contain wide so-called "goose bumps", considered to be building blocks of the comet.


October

*3 October **A study published by the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee shows that caffeine consumption may reduce the risk of dementia in women by 36 percent. **The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine is awarded to Yoshinori Ohsumi of Japan for discoveries about autophagy. **The ''British Journal of Sports Medicine'' reports that playing golf can increase life expectancy by five years. *4 October – The 2016 Nobel Prize in Physics is awarded to David J. Thouless, Duncan Haldane, F. Duncan M. Haldane and John M. Kosterlitz for discoveries relating to exotic quantum states of matter and topological order. *5 October **The 2016 Nobel Prize in Chemistry is awarded to Jean-Pierre Sauvage, Fraser Stoddart, Sir J. Fraser Stoddart and Ben Feringa, Bernard L. Feringa for the design and synthesis of molecular machines. **Scientists identify the maximum Ageing, human lifespan at an average age of 115, with an absolute upper limit of Old age, 125 years old. **NASA's Cassini–Huygens, Cassini mission reveals evidence of a subsurface ocean within Saturn's moon Dione (moon), Dione. *6 October **Researchers at France's CNRS research institute announce that Proxima b may have oceans. **Researchers at the Department of Energy's Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory demonstrate a working 1 nanometre (nm) transistor. *9 October – Nivolumab is shown to more than double the one-year survival rate of patients with head and neck cancer compared with chemotherapy. It also shrinks tumours in advanced kidney cancer patients. *10 October – A study by the Earth Institute at Columbia University finds that wildfires have doubled in area over the last 30 years due to climate change. *11 October **President Obama renews a vision for US government involvement in a Human mission to Mars, human mission to the Mars, planet Mars by the mid-2030s. **Astronomers announce the discovery of 2014 UZ224, a new dwarf planet 13.6 billion km (8.5 billion miles) from the Sun. *12 October **Astronomers report that the very basic chemical ingredients of life—the Carbon-hydrogen bond, carbon-hydrogen molecule (CH, or methylidyne radical), the carbon-hydrogen positive ion (CH+) and the carbon ion (C+)—are the result, in large part, of ultraviolet light from stars, rather than in other ways, such as the result of turbulent events related to supernovae and young stars, as thought earlier. **Plans are announced for 'Asgardia (nation), Asgardia' – the first nation state in outer space. *13 October – Using 3D imaging techniques on 20 years of photographs by the
Hubble Space Telescope The Hubble Space Telescope (HST or Hubble) is a space telescope that was launched into low Earth orbit in 1990 and remains in operation. It was not the Orbiting Solar Observatory, first space telescope, but it is one of the largest and most ...
, astronomers estimate there are 2 trillion galaxies in the observable universe, about 10 times more than previously thought. *17 October **A team at Australia's University of New South Wales create a new Quantum superposition, quantum bit that remains in a stable superposition for 10 times longer than previously achieved. **NASA's Goddard Institute for Space Studies (GISS) reports that September 2016 was the hottest September on record globally. *18 October **A new automated system that can achieve parity with humans in conversational speech recognition is announced by researchers at Microsoft. **Researchers at the University of Warwick discover the physical location of Major depressive disorder, depression in the human brain, which is found to affect the lateral orbitofrontal cortex, implicated in non-reward. *19 October –
ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter The ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter (TGO or ExoMars Orbiter) is a collaborative project between the European Space Agency (ESA) and the Russian Roscosmos agency that sent an atmospheric research orbiter and the ''Schiaparelli'' demonstration lande ...
arrives at Mars; the accompanying Schiaparelli EDM lander, Schiaparelli crashes on the surface after its parachute was jettisoned too early and its rockets fired for too short a time. On 21 October 2016, NASA released a Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter :File:PIA21130-SignsOfSchiaparelliTestLanderSeenFromOrbit-20161021.gif, image showing what appears to be the Schiaparelli EDM lander crash site. *20 October – Researchers at James Cook University in Australia report that adding a type of dried seaweed (''Asparagopsis taxiformis'') to the diet of cattle could reduce their emissions of methane by 50-70%. *21 October – MIT announces a new record for plasma pressure in an Alcator C-Mod tokamak nuclear fusion reactor, achieving over 2 atmospheres of pressure for the first time. *24 October – The World Meteorological Organisation reports that 2016 will likely be the first full year when Atmospheric carbon dioxide, atmospheric CO2 stayed above 400ppm. *25 October – Receiving the last bit of data (of a total of 50 billion bits of data; or 6.25 gigabytes) from the ''New Horizons'' spacecraft, from its close encounter with the dwarf planet Pluto on 14 July 2015, ends at 05:48 pm, ET on 25 October 2016. ''New Horizons'' is currently on a journey to 486958 Arrokoth, a Classical Kuiper belt object, classical Kuiper belt object (KBO), and is expected to swing closely past the object on 1 January 2019. *27 October **''The Living Planet assessment'', by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL) and WWF, reports that vertebrate wildlife populations have fallen by 58% globally since 1970, and suggests this figure may reach two-thirds among vertebrates by 2020. **Researchers use "neighbour maps" to reveal the shape of a genome in 3-D. **Researchers at UC Santa Barbara design a functional nanoscale computing element that could, in theory, be packed into a space no bigger than 50 nanometers on any side. **Researchers in England identify the first known example of fossilised brain tissue in a dinosaur. *31 October **A study by the Nature Conservancy claims an estimated 6.2 million lives will be lost to particulate matter each year by 2050, but this pollution can be reduced by 7 to 24 percent near trees, while the cooling effect is up to 2 °C (3.6 °F). **Researchers at Penn State report a 1,000-fold increase in the scanning speed for 3-D printing, using a space-charge-controlled KTN beam deflector with a large electro-optic effect.


November

*1 November – Scientists at Rockefeller University use a technique called "light sculpting" to view the neurons of a mouse brain firing in real-time in 3-D. *2 November – Construction of the James Webb Space Telescope primary mirror is completed, launched in late 2021. *3 November **Scanning people's brains with functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) is found to be significantly more effective at spotting lies than a traditional polygraph test. **Scientists publish early human results of a potent BACE1 inhibitor for the treatment and prevention of Alzheimer's disease. **A study published in the journal ''Tobacco Control'' finds that graphic warnings on cigarette packs could prevent 652,000 deaths in the U.S. over the next 50 years. **At a conference in San Diego, Adobe Systems, Adobe demonstrates audio software that accurately replicates any person's voice, thus potentially rewriting what an original speaker has actually said. *4 November – Researchers in the UK announce a genetically modified "superwheat" that increases the efficiency of photosynthesis to boost yields by 20 to 40 percent. Field trials are expected in 2017. *5 November – The University of Oxford AI Lab presents "LipNet", a new AI algorithm capable of lip-reading up to 40% more accurately than a real person. *6 November – The International Astronomical Union approves the name ''Rigil Kentaurus'' for
Alpha Centauri Alpha Centauri (, α Cen, or Alpha Cen) is a star system in the southern constellation of Centaurus (constellation), Centaurus. It consists of three stars: Rigil Kentaurus (), Toliman (), and Proxima Centauri (). Proxima Centauri ...
A. This follows the naming of ''Proxima Centauri'' for Alpha Centauri C on 21 August 2016. *8 November **New data released by the World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) shows that the five years from 2011 to 2015 were the warmest on record, largely due to human activities, with 2016 likely to be even hotter. **Lab-grown mini lungs, developed from stem cells, are successfully transplanted into mice by researchers at the University of Michigan Health System. *9 November **The previous upper estimate of global warming by 2100 is raised from 4.8 °C to 7.36 °C, in a study published by the University of Hawaii. *11 November – Researchers at the University of Central Florida present research into solar nanotech-powered clothing. *13 November – The University of East Anglia reports that global emissions of CO2 did not grow in 2015 and are projected to rise only slightly in 2016, marking three years of almost no growth. *14 November – A supermoon occurs, as the full Moon comes closer to the Earth than at any time since 1948. *15 November – Scientists at Rockefeller University identify which genes in a microbe's genome ought to produce antibiotic compounds and then synthesize those compounds to discover two promising new antibiotics. *16 November **The United States Geological Survey estimates there are 20 billion barrels of oil in Texas' Wolfcamp Shale Formation, the largest estimate of continuous oil that USGS has ever assessed in the United States. **Researchers at the Salk Institute use a new gene-editing technology known as HITI, which is based on CRISPR, to partially restore vision in blind animals. Their technique is the first time a new gene has been inserted into a precise DNA location in adult cells that no longer divide, such as those of the eye, brain, pancreas or heart. *18 November – Researchers from Caltech and UCLA develop a technique to remove mutated DNA from mitochondria, which could help slow or reverse an important cause of aging. *21 November – Researchers use human pluripotent stem cells to grow human intestinal tissues with functioning nerves, then use these to recreate and study a severe intestinal nerve disorder called Hirschsprung's disease. *22 November – NASA reports that its Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter has found a huge deposit of Water on Mars, water ice just under the surface of the planet Mars, in the region known as Utopia Planitia. The volume of water detected is equivalent to the volume of water in Lake Superior. (:File:PIA21136 Scalloped Terrain Led to Finding of Buried Ice on Mars.jpg, image) (:File:PIA21138-Mars-UtopiaPlanitia-Map-IceFindings-20161122.png, map) *25 November **Researchers create the first living cells that form silicon-carbon bonds. The responsible protein does it more efficiently than any synthetic catalyst. **Scientists behind a theory that the
speed of light The speed of light in vacuum, commonly denoted , is a universal physical constant exactly equal to ). It is exact because, by international agreement, a metre is defined as the length of the path travelled by light in vacuum during a time i ...
is variable – and not constant as Einstein suggested – produce a model with an exact figure on the spectral index that they say is testable. *28 November **Scientists at the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry(IUPAC) officially recognizes names for four new chemical elements: Nihonium, Nh, 113; Moscovium, Mc, 115; Tennessine, Ts, 117 and Oganesson, Og, 118. **Researchers trace the origin of a 2015 iceberg to a deep subsurface rift opening within the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, West Antarctic ice shelf, the first time this has been observed. **Large-scale testing of a potential HIV vaccine known as HVTN 702 begins in South Africa. *29 November – A study finds that higher water temperatures during 2016 caused the worst destruction of corals ever recorded on Australia's Great Barrier Reef, with 67% dying in the worst-hit northern section. *30 November **Thomas Crowther et al. report that increasing soil respiration alone will add between 0.45 and 0.71 parts per million of CO2 to the atmosphere every year until 2050. This will cause at least 55 gigatons of carbon to be lost from the soil by mid-century, equivalent to another industrialised country the size of the United States. **Researchers calculate the weight of Earth's Novel ecosystem#Technosphere, technosphere as 30 trillion tons, a mass greater than 50 kilos for every square metre of the planet's surface.


December

*5 December – Researchers at Harvard discover a causal link between RNA splicing and aging. *6 December **Researchers at UC Berkeley design a wall-jumping robot known as Salto, which is described as the most vertically agile robot ever built. **The National Snow and Ice Data Center announces record low sea ice extents for both the Arctic sea ice decline, Arctic and Antarctic sea ice, Antarctic, with "exceptionally low" sea ice cover for the Sea ice, globe as a whole. *8 December **The International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) announces that giraffe populations declined from 155,000 in 1985 to 97,000 in 2015. Their conservation status is moved from "least concern" to "vulnerable". **The tail of a tiny, feathered, sparrow-sized Feathered dinosaur, dinosaur, found perfectly preserved in amber and believed to be 99 million years old, is described in the journal ''Current Biology''. *9 December – Researchers at Tohoku University in Japan demonstrate a super flexible liquid crystal (LC) device, which could make electronic displays and devices more flexible, increasing their portability and versatility. *12 December **Harvard researchers identify an aerosol that could, in theory, be injected into the stratosphere to cool the planet from greenhouse gases, while also repairing ozone damage. **A study of 37 mountain glaciers around the world is published, concluding with 99% certainty that climate change is driving their retreat. *13 December – The world's largest wild reindeer herd is reported to have fallen in population by 40% since 2000, due to rising temperatures and human activity, causing the animals to change their annual migration patterns. A separate study reveals that reindeer on Svalbard have got smaller and lighter, by around 12%, due to diminishing food supplies. *14 December – A study published in ''Nature'' finds the seahorse genome to be the most rapidly evolving fish genome studied so far. *15 December – Scientists use a new form of
gene therapy Gene therapy is Health technology, medical technology that aims to produce a therapeutic effect through the manipulation of gene expression or through altering the biological properties of living cells. The first attempt at modifying human DNA ...
to partially reverse aging in mice. After six weeks of treatment, the animals looked younger, had straighter spines and better cardiovascular health, healed quicker when injured, and lived 30% longer. *19 December **An iron 'jet stream' is detected in Earth's outer core, moving westwards under Alaska and Siberia, inferred from measurements made by Europe's Swarm satellites. **Scientists warn that deep sea mining threatens a newly discovered species of octopod, nicknamed 'Casper'. **The ALPHA experiment at CERN observes the light spectrum of antimatter for the first time. *22 December **Ebola virus disease found to be 70–100% prevented by rVSV-ZEBOV vaccine, making it the first proven vaccine against the disease. **The UK's National Health Service (NHS) announces that 10 blind patients will receive "Visual prosthesis, bionic eyes" to help treat an inherited form of blindness. *26 December **The genome of the common ash (''Fraxinus excelsior'') is sequenced for the first time. **Cheetah populations are reported to be crashing, with just 7,100 left in the wild. The study authors warn that the animals are "much more vulnerable to extinction than was previously thought" and recommend a "paradigm shift in conservation". **Researchers at Tufts University create Programmable matter, programmable silk-based materials with embedded, pre-designed functions. *29 December **
NASA The National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA ) is an independent agencies of the United States government, independent agency of the federal government of the United States, US federal government responsible for the United States ...
astronomers report the detection of two new objects which are both expected to pass safely by the Earth in January and February 2017: a "relatively large" asteroid named and a comet named C/2016 U1 (NEOWISE). **NASA reveals a potential habitat design for colonists on Mars, which offers shielding from extreme temperatures and radiation by using inflatable domes covered in ice.


Deaths


January

* 24 January: Marvin Minsky, American cognitive scientist (b. 1927 in science, 1927).


March

* 17 March: Solomon Marcus, Romanians, Romanian mathematician (b. 1925 in science, 1925).


April

* 3 April: Stephen Jacobsen, American bioengineer and roboticist (b. 1940 in science, 1940). * 19 April: Walter Kohn, American theoretical physicist, theoretical chemist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1923 in science, 1923). * 30 April: Harry Kroto, British chemist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1939 in science, 1939)


May

* 15 May: André Brahic, French astrophysicist (discovered the rings of Neptune) (b. 1942 in science, 1942)


July

* 2 July: Rudolf E. Kálmán, Hungarian-born American electrical engineer (b. 1930 in science, 1930).


August

* 1 August: Jennifer Moyle, English research biochemist (b. 1921 in science, 1921) * 2 August: Ahmed Zewail, Egyptian chemist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1946 in science, 1946) * 19 August: Donald Henderson, American epidemiologist (led effort that eradicated smallpox worldwide) (b. 1928 in science, 1928) * 24 August: Roger Y. Tsien, Roger Tsien, American biochemist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1952 in science, 1952) * 25 August: James Cronin, American particle physicist and Nobel Prize winner (b. 1931 in science, 1931)


December

* 12 December: Esther Wilkins, American pioneer of dental hygiene (b. 1916 in science, 1916). * 25 December: Vera Rubin, American astronomer (b. 1928 in science, 1928).


See also

*2016 in spaceflight *List of emerging technologies *List of years in science *2016 in science fiction


References


External links

* {{Commons category-inline 2016 in science, 21st century in science 2016-related lists