Social Machinery

 Here’s my list of what I think influenced or impacted the drive of science in the last ten years. Most of these discoveries will change our life completely in the next decade in ways we couldn’t imagine ten years ago.

Gene therapy

Many diseases are caused by genetic abnormalities. During the last decade gene therapy is becoming a real solution for eliminating genes or inserting a functional copy to eliminate the symptoms of such disease. Even do genetic engineering started during the 90´s important advancements for medicine were achieved during this decade. For instance in 2008 three patients received a gene therapy for retinal blindness caused by a genetic mutation in the RPE65 gene. One year after this trio of young adults received gene therapy for the inherited form of blindness, researchers have documented that the patients are still experiencing the same level of remarkable vision improvements. In the future we can expect several diseases to be cure via gene therapy

We know how old the universe is

On June 30, 2001 took off from Cape Canaveral a rocket with a space probe on board: the Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy.Their goal was to measure the cosmic background radiation, a form of energy that permeates all space and is a remnant of the early universe. The space probe helped to build a highly accurate map of the early universe. Hence, now we know that the universe is 13,700 million years old. Also, we know that the universe is composed of 5% ordinary matter,  23% dark matter (not composed of atoms) and 72% dark energy, a force that accelerates the expansion of the universe.

Water in Mars

 The ultimate proof that water exists on Mars was found in June 2008. Phoenix Mars Lander located ice under a thin layer of dust. According to experts, in the past, Mars surface contained large amounts of liquid water and it is possible that there still is a small amount below the polar caps. This discovery increases the chances of finding extraterrestrial microscopic life as water is the key element for life.

Human’s Life map decoded

In 2003 a group of researchers completed the Human Genome Project, one of the largest research projects in history, obtaining the genetic map code that makes life possible for humans. The genome sequencing of other species is ongoing and will be key to develop drugs and other health-related improvements. Its currently costs roughly $60,000 to sequence a human genome, and a handful of research groups are hoping to achieve a $1,000 genome within the next three years. But two companies, Complete Genomics and BioNanomatrix, are collaborating to create a new approach that would sequence your genome for less than $100 USD and read the complete genome in a single workday.

The Large Hadron Collider: Our understanding of the Universe is about to change

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), located in the French-Swiss border, is already the most powerful particle accelerator in the world. But that is not its only record: it is also the largest experiment in history. For the time being  LHC is only a promise. Its implementation has been quite complex and until now has not achieved remarkable results yet.  But most physicists around the world have their attention focused on it because it is expected that it will address the most fundamental questions of physics, hopefully allowing progress in understanding the deepest laws of nature. For example, the origin of mass or giving clues to understand the origin of the universe, dark matter or antimatter

Is this the year that we create life?

A team of scientists led by geneticist Craig Venter has taken the first steps for creating life in the laboratory beginning a biological revolution without precedent. In 2007, Venter succeeded on assembling the 582,000 base pairs needed to invent a new bacterium called Mycoplasma laboratorium. The next step is to install the synthetic DNA into living bacteria to see if it can work with the new synthetic code. Last January the team built a bacterium’s entire genetic code from scratch. The next step was to transfer this synthetic genome into a host cell, using the 2007 transplant technique, to “reboot” it with genetic instructions written by humans.

‘Ardi’ our great-grandmother

Ardi are the fossilized skeletal remains of a female Ardipithecus ramidus, an early human-like species 4.4 million years old. It is the most complete early hominid specimen, with most of the skull, teeth, pelvis, hands and feet. While there is no evidence that A. ramidus evolved into modern humans, it shares important characteristics of the early humans who did. The fossils were discovered in Ethiopia in 1994, but publication of research on its origin was made earlier this year.  Today, Ardi is the oldest hominid fossil evidence we have.

Social networking

The Web has existed since the early nineties, but it was not until this last decade with the advent of Web 2.0 where the real power of information communication and democratization of the Internet has shown with all their force.  The rise of user generated content like blogs, social networks or YouTube services, where the content is generated by the public, has reduced the importance of traditional media shifting the power to anonymous citizens. We are moving from consumers to prodsumers connected on real time to our communities.