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Top Ten Scientific Discoveries of 2007
Josh Fink writes "Time Magazine has a piece about the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2007. '#1. Stem Cell Breakthroughs - In November, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University and molecular biologist James Thomson of the University of Wisconsin reported that they had reprogrammed regular skin cells to behave just like embryonic stem cells. The breakthrough may someday allow scientists to create stem cells without destroying embryos -- sidestepping the sticky ethical issues and opposition from the U.S. government that surround embryonic stem-cell research -- but that day is still a ways off. ' Also included in the top 10 editorial are pieces on the top 10 medical breakthroughs, the top 10 man made disasters and the top 10 green 'ideas'."
This has to be the best....
They discover a 405 year-old clam... until researchers had to kill it to determine the clam's age by studying rings on its shell.
Then they killed it.
Going through the list of disasters, I'm left wondering where the Indonesian mud volcano is.
Considering its permanently displaced 11,000 people, over 10KM squared. I'd say thats a far larger disaster then for example, a bridge collapsing in the states, or a plane killing 300.
It's killed 200 people, and was probably caused by the gas drilling company cutting corners on its drilling.
http://environment.newscientist.com/article/dn11025-indonesian-mud-volcano-caused-by-gas-drilling.html
I'd personally have that at #1 or #2, i also question having global warming as the #1 man made disaster, since i don't consider it being a disaster yet. The worst that comes to my mind is hurricane Katrina, and even then, there is no decisive link to the two.
To avoid criticism; Say nothing, Do nothing, Be nothing.
In October, researchers from Bangor University in Wales were trawling an ocean shelf off the coast of north Iceland when they stumbled on what is believed to be the world's oldest living animal: a 405 year-old clam. Or it was living, until researchers had to kill it to determine the clam's age by studying rings on its shell.
:P
Amazing. Absolutely amazing.
Gifts for Geeks - Stuff that really matters!
http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2007/10/071029-oldest-clam.html
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2007/10/28/nclam128.xml
``The "Arctica islandica" was among a haul of 3,000 empty shells and 34 live molluscs taken to the laboratory.''
``Unfortunately, by the time its true age had been established Ming was already dead. But the scientists aged the 3.4in clam from its shell which like trees has a layer or ring of growth for every year that the animal has been alive.''
Well, I'm sure about clams, and I can tell you they have no preference either way.
And they didn't kill it to prove it was the oldest living animal. They brought up a bunch of clams, started measuring ages, and found one of the dead ones had been 405 years old.
ResidntGeek
They are not babies, they are embryos.
Anyone else find it ironic that they had to frickin' kill the oldest animal in existence just to determine its age?
A simile is like a metaphor. A metaphor is a simile.
Ever heard of green algae? Those nasty little critters started releasing this toxic waste called Oxygen into the atmosphere poisoning practically the entire biosystem. The effects of their actions persist even to today.
#1. Stem Cell Breakthroughs
Scientists reprogrammed regular skin cells to behave just like embryonic stem cells.
#2. Human Mapped
J. Craig Venter published his entire "diploid" genetic sequence, or all the DNA in both sets of chromosomes inherited from each of his parents -- the first such genome ever published of a single person.
#3. Brightest Supernova Recorded
It was the first time scientists saw the death of a star as large as SN 2006gy, which was approximately 100 to 200 times the size of the sun.
#4. Hundreds of New Species
700 new species of organisms -- including carnivorous sponges and giant sea spiders -- some 2,300 ft. to 19,700 ft. (700 m to 6,000 m) down in the Weddell Sea off Antarctica.
#5. Building a Human Heart Valve
Scientists grew bone marrow stem cells into functioning human heart-valve tissue.
#6. "Hot Jupiters" Discovered
British scientists identified three new planets outside our own Solar System...The new planets, named WASP-3, WASP-4 and WASP-5, are about the size of Jupiter, and orbit so close to their suns that their surface temperature reaches some 2,000C.
#7. A Big Birdlike Dinosaur
Scientists discovered a birdlike dinosaur that lived 70 million years ago, was 3,000-lb. and was a young adult.
#8. Man's Migration Out of Africa
A skull discovered in South Africa in 1952 revealed the first fossil evidence that modern humans left Africa between 65,000 and 25,000 years ago.
#9. The World's Oldest Animal
Researchers stumbled on what is believed to be the world's oldest living animal: a 405 year-old clam.
#10. Real-Life Kryptonite
A mineralologist discovered a white, powdery mineral that has the same properties - sodium lithium boron silicate hydroxide -- as the fictional kryptonite.
My comments here are my own; I do not speak for my employer.
Oh yes. This is sometimes referred to the "Oxygen Holocaust" because, although it was a boon to life using energy and moving out of the oceans, the oxygen was toxic to many existing lifeforms and wiped them out. If Global Warming ever caused a change anywhere near as severe us humans would be royally and truly fucked. But you can be sure that life on earth would eventually thrive afterwards.
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