So I’m a bit behind the ball, but I say review articles about the Aughts/Naughts/Double-ohs/Whatever-you’re-calling-the-previous-10-years are still acceptable any time in January. We might not be living in the imagined 21st century of the 1950s with jetpacks and space stations, but a lot happened over the last 10 years in science and technology. Ask 10 people to name the single biggest science event of the last decade and you’ll probably get 10 different answers (unless your sample is one research lab), but I think the following events will make it onto any list of the biggest breakthroughs from the Aughts.
- Human Genome Project Completed (2000 – working draft published, 2003 – completed sequence published)
- Technically a carry-over from the 1990s, the Human Genome Project represents one of the largest scientific collaborations ever. The goal: analyze the complete genetic code of a human. The data could have unlimited applications. On a practical side, biologists and doctors can start looking at genetic causes for diseases and how DNA controls biological functions. But the genome can help scientists answer other intriguing questions about human biology. Anthropologists and evolutionary biologists are already starting to look for genetic variations between ethnic groups to trace the history of human migration. Going further back, we can look at evolutionary similarities between our genome and other creatures.
- Mars Exploration Rovers (2004 – present)
- Remember six years ago when Spirit and Opportunity landed on Mars? Well they’re still working and are probably some of the greatest examples of what NASA can do. Originally meant to perform a 90-day mission on the Red Planet, the rovers have greatly exceeded their expected lifespan and all scientific expectations. Acting as robotic geologists, the rovers have analyzed the chemical composition of many different martian rock formations, enabling planetary scientists to figure out what drives geology on Mars. The most exciting data suggests that much of Mars was once covered in water. This coupled with observations from probes in orbit raise the possibility that water might still exist on Mars underground. Armed with the evidence of water, NASA has said it will plan missions to look for evidence of life developing on Mars when it used to be significantly less red.
- Poincare Conjecture proven (2003 – proof published, 2006 – proof independently verified)
- A somewhat antisocial person spending years on a ridiculously hard question? No we’re not talking about how you and your friends worked on that last chemistry problem set. We’re talking about eccentric mathematicians and a conjecture that hadn’t been proven for decades. What is the Poincare conjecture? Good question, and for those of without an understanding of topology and mathematical formalisms, we will let Wikipedia sum it up for us: “ Poincaré wondered whether a 3-manifold [a four-dimensional equivalent of a solid] with the homology of a 3-sphere [the analog of a sphere in four-dimensions] and also trivial fundamental group had to be a 3-sphere. Poincaré’s new condition – i.e., ‘trivial fundamental group’ – can be re-phrased as ‘every loop can be shrunk to a point.’” To get a feel for how epic proving the conjecture is, realize that it was proposed in 1904 and has turned out to be so hard to prove that it was included on the list of seven MilleniumPrize Problems (the prize being one million dollars per problem solved) and it took three years for anyone else to go through and verify that the proof was correct. Almost as interesting as the actual proof was the drama surrounding it. Grigori Perelman, the man who developed the proof, turned down the Fields Medal (the math equivalent of the Nobel pPrize) when he was awarded it. After a bit of a dispute with one of the verifiers, Perelman has actually stopped working in mathematics. He has also not taken any steps to obtain the reward for solving a Millenium Prize Problem, as Perelman has not published his proof in any peer-reviewed mathematics journal.
- Large Hadron Collider complete (2008)
- For a few weeks in the fall of 2008, everyone was a particle physicist as the world waited for the Large Hadron Collider to turn on. And obviously, the world did not end with the test proton beam. Unfortunately, the LHC had to stop after technical problems caused some of the focusing magnets to no longer work effectively. It wasn’t until November of last year that a test beam was run again, and experiments are scheduled to finally start in February. One of the first questions physicists hope to answer is whether or not the Higgs boson exists, and if so, what is it mass. In the current Standard Model of Particle Physics, the Higgs boson and Higgs field is responsible for giving all matter mass. As the beam energy ramps up, CERN hopes to test other theories beyond the scope of the standard model and look at conditions not seen since the Big Bang. If that’s a bit much to wrap your head around, might I recommend it in musical form?
These are just the first things that come to my mind. There are certainly other equally important discoveries from the last decade that I forgot or neglected when writing this up. Add your own favorite breakthroughs in the comments!
