illuminating science

Science, one of the top journals in the world, has published a list of (in their opinion) the most important scientific achievements of 2004. Now, I know that just a couple of days ago I quoted Hawking saying that you just couldn’t tell this early, which I still agree with, but it’s still interesting to see what achievements have had the greatest impact so far.

Heading the list is the discovery by the Mars Rovers that Mars used to have abundant water, and so potentially could have supported life. (Of course, we haven’t proven that life did exist - just that it could have. But this is still very exciting - it justifies looking harder for real evidence of life!)

Second on the list was the discovery of a new human species, “hobbits” (or, more precisely, homo floresiensis) which were only a metre high. The debate as to the species’ place in the human evolutionary tree is ongoing, with even the editor of the journal Nature suggesting that some of the species might conceivably still be alive somewhere today.

Other notable achievements include the first successful cloning of human embryos by South Korean researchers (though the embryos were not allowed to develop), the discovery of two neutron stars in orbit of each other which will allow precise measurements of Einstein’s theory of relativity, and work by Australian scientist John Mattick on the role of so-called junk DNA. Once thought to have been useless genes left over from the evolutionary process, Mattick has demonstrated convincing evidence that they play an important role in “regulating” DNA - perhaps ensuring that your finger grows to exactly the right length. More details here.

Another big year for science!