During the year 2011, many exciting events in science. The combination of astronomy, physics, natural events also color the dynamics of science this year.
A professor of Applied Physics at the City University of New York, Michio Kaku, and then make a list of important science event in 2011. As quoted from the pages of ABC News, the following is a list created Michio Kaku:
Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
In March 2011 9.0 Richter scale earthquake and tsunami that damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan. Core melt uranium in Unit 1 for the first time. This new stable condition later in the month of December, nine months later. But the temperature in it to boil.
As a result of this disaster, Germany and Switzerland mengumuman cessation of nuclear power plants. This, too, forcing President Barack Obama is still pro-nuclear, so that the U.S. halt nuclear proliferation.
Weather Extremes
Year 2011 was haunted by a 100-year hurricane cycle, which included a cycle of 100-year flood, 100 year drought, forest fires and 100 years. Weather prediction becomes a difficult thing to do. At least two theories that led to this.
First, because of weather fluctuations that occur naturally, random changes which then can create a disaster. For example, the weather in the U.S. that is cooler because it comes from the Canadian Arctic air and expel hot air humidity due to the Gulf of Mexico.
The second theory, the possibility of extreme weather changes, such as an increase humidity around the Gulf of Mexico, due to global warming.
Higgs Boson Particle Discovered
Physicist at CERN, Geneva, Switzerland, announced it has succeeded in understanding the Higgs particle. By using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), machinery worth U.S. $ 10 billion with a 17-mile circumference can throw the protons at 14 trillion electron volts to recreate conditions like the Big Bang, in which particles of the Standard Model particles can be found.
Standard Model Higgs is the last, which has been the missing link. But this is not the end of physics. The Standard Model describes only 4 percent of the universal energy, the rest is dark energy and dark matter.
So now we are still far from the "theory of everything". The next stage is to produce dark matter with LHC, and may verify the new theory of interest, such as rigging theory (string theory).
The discovery of Giant Black Holes
During this black hole is considered only in science fiction stories. But astronomers have recently identified the biggest black hole in history, one of which is the heaviest, exceeding 20 billion solar masses.
Our Milky Way galaxy has a black hole three billion times the mass of the sun. Creepy black hole was discovered in deep space, the swallowing billions of stars.
Found the Earth's twin
In this year, astronomers discovered a number of planet Earth's twin. So far identified as many as 500 planets orbiting outside the planet centered on the sun (extra solar planets). But only some of which exist in the zone habitual.
Twin earth, among others, marked by the discovery of planets Kepler-22b.
If the planet is adjacent to the parent star, then the sea will be boiling inside. But if the planet is farther away, then the oceans would freeze. But if the planet is right in the Goldilocks zone, the ocean is in it will be more like the ocean on earth.
Water is a universal element, which is a protein-producing substances and led to DNA. So there is hope Kepler 22b has a sea water, as well as microbial life.
DNA Alien on Earth?
All the DNA in the earth is basically the same, although the gene arrangement is different for each different plants and animals.
Because it's very surprising when researchers announced that Mono Lake in California found that DNA has never been seen before. DNA that contains arsenic as one of building materials.
A number of scientists there who claim that DNA is DNA contaminated. But there is also a saying that the DNA came from outer space, which may be an alien DNA.
Aircraft Space Last Angksa
President Obama to change a number of NASA missions in the Bush administration. Obama canceled a mission to the moon, cancel the Constellation project, also canceled a human landing on Mars. NASA mission with a crew of human beings is considered the victims of the Great Recession is happening in the U.S..
Because of that some people really feel moved when the shuttle was launched in July last. U.S. astronauts will ride to the Russian space mission to the International Space Station for several years.
Not only that, the termination of the launch of NASA's shuttle launch also makes people expect commercial space shuttles will run immediately.
Mission to Mars
Godzilla shuttle rides, which was launched in November last led the mission trip to Mars. With the Mars Science Laboratory will be a vehicle (rover) that skimmed the surface of Mars explorers. Form this laboratory five times greater than the rover has gone before.
This mission is carried out to find evidence of water called ever existed on Mars. In addition, the rover is also trying to find evidence of microbial life creatures that might have been living and breeding on Mars billions of years ago.
So far, scientists have not found evidence of life on Mars. But since the discovery of large oceans on Mars (the measuring area of the U.S.), the scientists hope to find evidence for life on Mars.
Recording MemoryIn the movie "The Matrix" and "Total Recall", the memory can be plugged directly into the brain. So you can instantly become a master of karate or helicopter pilot, with memory skills and abilities that can be installed it.
Although the new inventions in science fiction, but science tries to make it happen.
Scientists at USC and Wake Forest University made great strides to realize it. As is known, human memory, the mice also be used as an experiment, is processed first in the hippocampus (part of the brain).
Therefore scientists then record the signal in the hippocampus, by requiring rats to learn a task. Then they gave the mice a liquid chemical that makes rats forget a task that has been given. Afterward, scientists injected back recorded messages into the hippocampus, and mice given the task they are doing first.
From this research, some scientists even believe in fictional science fiction like "The Matrix" that can be done in the future.
Dark Energy
Nobel Prize in Physics 2011 awarded to three astronomers who discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, not slowing down. The existence of "dark energy" mysterious, is considered to be the cause.
It is a shame, because a few decades ago it was widely believed that the universe is made of atoms. Today, in fact as much as 73 percent of the energy / substance coming from the dark energy (invisible energy of the vacuum chamber), 23 percent comes from dark matter (invisible substance that surrounds the Milky Way Galaxy), 4 percent of the star, and only 0:03 percent of which consist of high element of our body and planet.
We are currently starting a new stage of understanding of whether the universe is made. A question that has been filed since the time of Ancient Greece about two thousand years ago.