2016 in science

Events

January

• 1 January
• *Researchers at HRL Laboratories in Malibu, California, develop an entirely new way to 3D print near-flawless ceramics, including strongly heat-resistant varieties that were previously impossible.
• *An article published in Science describes how human-machine superintelligence 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, called GK-PID, may have allowed organisms 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 in Xi'an is reported, indicating that tea from the genus Camellia was drunk by Han Dynasty emperors as early as the 2nd century BC.
• *Astronomers identify IDCS 1426 as the most distant massive galaxy cluster yet discovered, at 10 billion light years from Earth.
• *Mathematicians, as part of the Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search, report the discovery of a new prime number: "2^74,207,281 − 1".
• 11 January - Glycerol 3-phosphate phosphatase, an enzyme that prevents sugar being stored as fat, is identified by scientists at the University of Montreal Hospital Research Centre.
• 13 January
• *Man-made carbon emissions have delayed the next ice age by 50,000 years, according to researchers at the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research.
• *Water ice is confirmed on the surface of comet 67P.
• *The world's first 13 TB solid state drive is announced, doubling the previous record for a commercially available SSD.
• 14 January - Astronomers report that ASASSN-15lh, first observed in June 2015, is likely the brightest supernova 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 flower.
• 17 January - The Jason-3 Earth observation satellite 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 able to kill over 90% of antibiotic-resistant bacteria are demonstrated at the University of Colorado Boulder.
• *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 on a monkey by scientists in China is reported.
• *DARPA announces a new program, Neural Engineering System Design, 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 present the strongest evidence yet that a ninth planet is present in the Solar System, orbiting the Sun every 15,000 years.
• *NASA and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration confirm that 2015 was the hottest year on record globally, shattering the previous record by the largest margin ever seen.
• 23 January - Lockheed Martin announces the "Segmented Planar Imaging Detector for Electro-optical Reconnaissance", a new way of dramatically shrinking the size of telescopes, 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 announce a new handheld, pen-sized microscope that could identify cancer cells in doctors' offices and operating rooms.
• *Researchers at the University of Iowa use real-time 3D videos of cellular movement to show how cancer cells 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 footprint, encompassing 188 countries, is released by the University of Sydney.
• *The University of New South Wales 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 by Griffith University'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 can be successfully interfaced with neurons, while maintaining the integrity of these vital nerve cells. It is believed this could lead to much improved brain implants for restoring sensory functions.
• *Proton beam therapy 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 provides further evidence that the Moon was formed by a violent, head-on collision between the early Earth and a "planetary embryo" called Theia, roughly 100 million years after the Earth formed.

  February

• 1 February - Scientists in the United Kingdom are given the go-ahead by regulators to genetically modify human embryos by using CRISPR-Cas9 and related techniques.
• 2 February - The smallest ever lattice structure is created by the Karlsruher Institut für Technologie, 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 fusion device in Germany.

• 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 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, Virgo and GEO600 announce the first direct detection of a gravitational wave predicted by the general relativity theory of Albert Einstein.
• 12 February - Scientists publish a list of the world's 2,500 rarest minerals in the journal American Mineralogist.
• 15 February
• *The University of Southampton 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 Hubble Space Telescope detects hydrogen and helium, but no water vapor, in the atmosphere of 55 Cancri e, the first time the atmosphere of a super-Earth exoplanet has been analyzed successfully.
• *A study in Cryobiology describes how microscopic tardigrades 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 the universe.
• 19 February - Researchers report that naked mole rats, thought immune to cancer, can contract the disease after all.
• 23 February - Boston Dynamics 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 is found to have four separate sub-types, each with a different cause and requiring a different treatment.
• 26 February - A solar cell so thin, flexible, and lightweight that it can be draped on a soap bubble is demonstrated by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

  March

• March - Connection between uncarboxylated osteocalcin and human metabolism identified by Gérard Karsenty.
• 1 March - Astronauts Scott Kelly and Mikhail Korniyenko return to Earth from spaceflight Soyuz TMA-18M, after spending 340 days in space, setting an ISS 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 - 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 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.
• 9 March
• *NASA announces that the robotic Mars InSight 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's DeepMind AlphaGo artificial intelligence defeats South Korea's Lee Se-dol in the first of a series of Go games in Seoul.
• * A total solar eclipse occurred.
• 10 March - Data from Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii shows that carbon emissions in 2015 grew at their fastest rate on record.
• 11 March - Ideonella sakaiensis, the first species of bacteria able to degrade polyethylene terephthalate, is described by Japanese researchers.
• 14 March - ExoMars Trace Gas Orbiter is launched from Baikonur in Kazakhstan at 09:31 GMT.
• 15 March - Fairy circle patterns in spinifex are discovered in remote Western Australia; their first discovery outside of Namibia.
• 17 March
• *Paleontologists report the discovery of a pregnant Tyrannosaurus rex, shedding light on the evolution of egg-laying as well as gender differences in the dinosaur.
• *Researchers at Rutgers and Stanford 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 humans bred with hominins, including Denisovans and Neanderthals, on multiple occasions.
• *Researchers at the University of Toronto use stem cell therapy to reverse age-related osteoporosis in mice.
• 21 March - Man-made carbon emissions lead to total carbon emissions 10 times higher than at any point since the extinction of the dinosaurs, according to new calculations by researchers.
• 24 March
• *Scientists at Florida Atlantic University identify translin as a gene responsible for sleep deprivation and metabolic disorders.
• *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'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 in 2010.
• 29 March - Case Western Reserve University 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's most recent estimates.
• *Scientists report that Homo floresiensis, an extinct hominin nicknamed the "hobbit", 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 will be at high risk of severe water stress 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 – designated SDSS J1240+6710 – which has a 99.9 percent oxygen atmosphere.