Science Advancing

The most intriguing – and potentially the most significant – was the fact that, out there beyond our Solar System, there are hundreds of other planets (‘extrasolar’ or ‘exoplanets’) in addition to the eight known to orbit the Sun (Pluto having been officially downgraded in status to a ‘dwarf planet’).
In fact, there are at least 400 of them, and it seems reasonable to expect that more and more will be discovered. The vast majority are massive ‘gas giants’ with no surface, akin to Jupiter or Saturn – but the possibility that there may be other potentially habitable ones isn’t completely outlandish. Having done a brilliant job of destroying this particular planet, it may well be that humanity needs to consider the feasibility of finding new ones.
 The most dramatic scientific development was the Large Hadron Collider, the largest atom smasher ever seen, which sends twin particle beams racing around a 27km circuit, then smashes them together, and continues to set world records for beam energy. The entire point of the Collider is to study atomic matter, in an attempt to learn more about how and why the Big Bang (which created the universe) happened in the first place. It is based in a nuclear research facility on the French/Swiss border, and will continue to push the boundaries of nuclear energy.
 In the never-ending fight against disease, a landmark breakthrough was achieved in 2000 with the human genome, which provides a complete map of our genetic blueprint, and has given scientists a massive advantage in studying human health and the causes of disease.
Another major breakthrough may have been achieved by Japanese scientist Shinya Yamanaka, who announced in 2007 that he had successfully ‘re-programmed’ adult skin cells to become similar to embryonic stem cells, which hold the potential to eventually serve as a cure for currently untreatable diseases. (The only previous source of stem-cell research was by destroying living human embryos, which opened up a moral can of worms and was strongly resisted by the Bush US administration). The implications for medical science are potentially momentous. Another useful advance was the discovery of microRNA’s, pieces of genetic coding which control how our genes work and maintain the body’s biochemical balance – when they fail, we contract diseases. The pharmaceutical industry must be wondering how to play its hand!
 The science of cloning also continues to advance, after the breakthrough of Dolly the Sheep (who died in 2003 after a seven-year lifespan). This decade witnessed the cloning of monkeys, horses, cattle, mules, cats, a camel and the Indian water buffalo. It’s thought that extinct species such as the dinosaur could also be cloned – as, in time, could humans. Watch this space...