2018 in science

Events

January

• 1 January – Researchers at Harvard, writing in Nature Nanotechnology, report the first single lens that can focus all colours of the rainbow in the same spot and in high resolution, previously only achievable with multiple lenses.
• 2 January – Physicists at Cornell University report the creation of "muscle" for shape-changing, cell-sized robots.
• 3 January
• *Computer researchers report discovering two major security vulnerabilities, named "Meltdown" and "Spectre," in the microprocessors inside almost all computers in the world.
• *Scientists in Rome unveil the first bionic hand with a sense of touch that can be worn outside a laboratory.
• 4 January – MIT researchers devise a new method to create stronger and more resilient nanofibers.
• 5 January – Researchers report images taken by the Curiosity rover on Mars showing curious rock shapes that may require further study in order to help better determine whether the shapes are biological or geological. Later, an astrobiologist made a similar claim based on a different image taken by the Curiosity rover.
• 8 January – The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reports that 2017 was the costliest year on record for climate and weather-related disasters in the United States.
• 9 January
• * A pattern in exoplanets is discovered by a team of multinational researchers led by the Université de Montréal: Planets orbiting the same star tend to have similar sizes and regular spacings. This could imply that most planetary systems form differently from the Solar System.
• * Analysis of the stone Hypatia shows it has a different origin than the planets and known asteroids. Parts of it could be older than the solar system.
• * A new study by researchers at Stanford University indicates the genetic engineering method known as CRISPR may trigger an immune response in humans, thus rendering it potentially ineffective in them.
• 10 January – Researchers at Imperial College London and King's College London publish a paper in the journal Scientific Reports about the development of a new 3D bioprinting technique, which allows the more accurate printing of soft tissue organs, such as lungs.
• 11 January
• *In a study published in the journal Cell, University of Pennsylvania researchers show a method through which the human innate immune system may possibly be trained to more efficiently respond to diseases and infections.
• *A NASA experiment, Station Explorer for X-ray Timing and Navigation Technology, shows how spacecraft may possibly determine their location by focusing on millisecond pulsars in space.
• 15 January
• *Artificial intelligence programs developed by Microsoft and Alibaba achieve better average performance on a Stanford University reading and comprehension test than human beings.
• *University of Washington scientists publish a report in the journal Nature Chemistry of the development of a new form of biomaterial based delivery system for therapeutic drugs, which only release their cargo under certain physiological conditions, thereby potentially reducing drug side-effects in patients.
• *University of Pennsylvania announces in the United States National Library of Medicine human clinical trials, that will encompass the use of CRISPR technology to modify the T cells of patients with multiple myeloma, sarcoma and melanoma cancers, to allow the cells to more effectively combat the cancers, the first of their kind trials in the US.
• 17 January – Engineers at the University of Texas at Austin, in collaboration with Peking University scientists, announce the creation of a memory storage device only one atomic layer thick; a so-called 'atomristor'.

• 18 January
• *NASA and NOAA report that 2017 was the hottest year on record globally without an El Niño, and among the top three hottest years overall.
• *Researchers report developing a blood test that can detect eight common cancer tumors early. The new test, based on cancer-related DNA and proteins found in the blood, produced 70% positive results in the tumor-types studied in 1005 patients.
• *Sharks are shown to move and feed across the world's oceans in characteristic ways as demonstrated by a global-scale study of stable isotopes in shark tissues led by the University of Southampton and published in the journal Nature Ecology & Evolution.
• *According to a new report published by the US National Science Foundation, the US is facing increasing competition in scientific endeavours from China, with the latter now publishing more annual scientific papers, but the US still leads in research and development and venture capital.
• *Medical researchers at the Gladstone Institutes discover a method of turning skin cells into stem cells, with the use of CRISPR.
• 19 January – Researchers at the Technical University of Munich report a new propulsion method for molecular machines, which enables them to move 100,000 times faster than biochemical processes used to date.
• 22 January
• *Amazon opens the first Amazon Go store, the first completely cashier-less grocery store.
• *Engineers at MIT develop a new computer chip, with "artificial synapses," which process information more like neurons in a brain.
• 24 January – Scientists in China report in the journal Cell the creation of two monkey clones, named Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, using the complex DNA transfer method that produced Dolly the sheep, for the first time.
• 25 January
• * Researchers report evidence that modern humans migrated from Africa at least as early as 194,000 years ago, somewhat consistent with recent genetic studies, and much earlier than previously thought.
• *Scientists working for Calico, a company owned by Alphabet, publish a paper in the journal eLife which presents possible evidence that Heterocephalus glaber do not face increased mortality risk due to aging.
• 29 January – Scientists report, for the first time, that 800 million viruses, mainly of marine origin, are deposited daily from the Earth atmosphere onto every square meter of the planet's surface, as the result of a global atmospheric stream of viruses, circulating above the weather system, but below the altitude of usual air travel, distributing viruses around the planet.

  February

• 2 February – A study published in the journal Science by researchers from the United States Geological Survey and the University of California, Santa Cruz reports the severe degradation of the health of polar bears in the Arctic, due to the effects of climate change.
• 5 February
• *Researchers find additional evidence for an exotic form of water, called superionic water, which is not found naturally on Earth, but could be common on the planets Uranus and Neptune.
• *Astronomers report evidence, for the first time, that extragalactic exoplanets, much more distant than the exoplanets found within the local Milky Way galaxy, may exist.
• 6 February
• *SpaceX successfully conducts its maiden flight of its most powerful rocket to date, and the most powerful rocket since the Space Shuttle program, the Falcon Heavy, from LC-39A at Kennedy Space Center.
• *The National Snow and Ice Data Center reports that global sea ice extent has fallen to a new record low.
• 8 February – Astronomers report the first confirmed findings from the Zwicky Transient Facility project, with the discovery of 2018 CL, a small near-Earth asteroid.
• 9 February – Human eggs are grown in the laboratory for the first time, by researchers at the University of Edinburgh.
• 13 February – Scientists at Rockefeller University, writing in the journal Nature Microbiology, describe how compounds in soil known as malacidins can overcome antibiotic resistance in mice with MRSA.

• 14 February
• *By studying the orbits of high-speed stars, researchers in Australia calculate that the Andromeda Galaxy has only one-third as much dark matter as previously thought, making it similar in mass to the Milky Way.
• *A study published by the Journal of Experimental Medicine shows that blocking the enzyme beta-secretase in mice can substantially reduce the formation of plaques responsible for Alzheimer's disease.
• 16 February – Scientists report, for the first time, the discovery of a new form of light, which may involve polaritons, that could be useful in the development of quantum computers.
• 19 February – Scientists identify traces of the genes of the indigenous Taíno people in modern-day Puerto Ricans, indicating that the ethnic group was not extinct as previously believed.
• 21 February – Medical researchers report that e-cigarettes contain chemicals known to cause cancer and brain damage; as well as, contain potentially dangerous levels of metals, including arsenic, chromium, lead, manganese and nickel.
• 28 February – Astronomers report, for the first time, a signal of the reionization epoch, an indirect detection of light from the earliest stars formed – about 180 million years after the Big Bang.

  March

• 5 March
• * Researchers at MIT and Harvard report in the journal Nature of discovering the phenomenon of graphene acting as a superconductor, when its atoms are re-arranged in a specific manner.
• * Google announces the creation of "Bristlecone", the world's most advanced quantum computer chip, featuring 72 qubits.
• 8 March – Scientists report the first detection of natural ice VII on Earth, previously it was only produced artificially. It may be common on the moons Enceladus, Europa and Titan.
• 9 March – NASA medical researchers report that human spaceflight may alter gene expression in astronauts, based on twin studies where one astronaut twin, Scott Kelly, spent nearly one year in space while the other, Mark Kelly, remained on Earth.
• 13 March – Scientists report that Archaeopteryx, a prehistoric feathered dinosaur, was likely capable of flight, but in a manner substantially different from that of modern birds.
• 15 March
• *Intel reports that it will redesign its CPUs to help protect against the Meltdown and Spectre security vulnerabilities, and expects to release the newly redesigned processors later in 2018.
• *Researchers at the Gladstone Institutes report a new cellular therapy in the journal Neuron which shows promise in combating the effects of Alzheimer's disease.
• 19 March – Uber suspends all of its self-driving cars worldwide after a woman is killed by one of the vehicles in Arizona. This is the first recorded fatality using a fully automated version of the technology.
• 22 March – Scientists at Harvard Medical School identify a key mechanism behind vascular aging and muscle decline in mice. Their study shows that treating the animals with a chemical compound called NMN enhances blood vessel growth and reduces cell death, boosting their stamina and endurance.
• 26 March
• *A study in Geophysical Research Letters concludes that West Greenland's ice sheet is melting at its fastest rate in centuries.
• *The world's first total transplant of a penis and scrotum is performed by surgeons at Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, Maryland, operating on a soldier who was wounded in Afghanistan.