Major Scientific Breakthroughs Of 2018

It’s December. Christmas bells are ringing everywhere and with Christmas comes the New Year. So lets look back at some of the never before success which our scientific community got in 2018 with goal of better tomorrow in mind. Here we are with our list of top 5 Scientific breakthroughs of 2018 :

1. Zero Carbon Natural Gas

We all know fossil fuels drive the world’s energy needs. One such important fossil fuel is natural gas which has a wide range of applications from producing electricity in natural gas power plants to running vehicles. But the problem is not scarcity of this resource ( it is available in abundance on our planet ), problem is its environmental impact. We all know global warming is not some conspiracy theory and many countries have already started feeling the ill effects of Global Warming.In such challenging times, we need every possible technology which could reduce carbon emissions on this planet.

In an effort of saving our planet, our scientists and researchers have once again proved that they are the real heroes of our world. The first progress and technological breakthrough in order to curb carbon emissions by combustion of natural gas is made by a company called NFT Power in US. The company’s plant actually burns natural gas but repurposes the CO₂ which is then used to drive a specially built turbine in a continuous and self-sustaining cycle.
The second technology is developed by MIT’s professor of chemical engineering, Paul Barton and post doctoral associate Thomas Adams, promotes a system that is distinctive because it produces power from Natural Gas without burning it. The waste products of this system are clean water and almost pure carbon dioxide. The CO₂ can then be repurposed for other uses.
With such wonderful advancements in eco-friendly power generation technology we can now dream of a pollution free earth and cheap energy for all.

2. Gene Editing of a Human Baby

CRISPAR , is a tool that allows researchers to attempt to control which genes get expressed in plants , animals and  even humans ; to delete undesirable traits and potentially add desirable traits and to do all this more quickly, and with more precision, than ever before.

He , a Stanford-trained associate professor at the southern University of Science and Technology in Shenzhen, China, has claimed to have used the gene editing technology CSISPR to tweak the DNA of human embryos during in vitro fertilization.

The objective of his experiment was to disable a gene called CCR5 so the girls might be resistant to potential infection with HIV/AIDS . And He’s justified his experiment in two ways: first, he made a human case in the talk at the Hong-Kong meeting, saying the father of the girls had HIV and wanted to ensure his children would never suffer like he has.

Second, he made a scientific case: He’s said CCR5 is a well studied genetic mutation, and there’s “real world medical value” to figuring out how CRISPR can be used to cripple it and prevent HIV/AIDS. Well, He’s already broken a scientific taboo.
 Now we have to see whether we enter into an era of gene edited babies or not ?

3. Liquid Water on MARS Detected

For decades scientists and researchers have been chasing after evidence of liquid water on Mars. While the subterranean ice and polar ice had already been discovered but researchers weren’t able to confirm liquid water’s current presence until
July,2018.

The Italian Space agency in July of 2018 announced discovery of an underground lake on Mars. Using a ground-penetrating radar, the Mars Advanced Radar for surface and lonosphere sounding instrument ( Marsis ), scientists uncovered a subglacial lake that is roughly 12.4 miles wide and three feet deep.

This discovery is very important as NASA and Space-X are trying their level best to set up human colonies on Mars as early as 2050.

4. Gene-Editing Allowed Same-Sex Mouse Parents To Give Birth

Yes! This is true and if you are thinking what we at Arth Publications are thinking then you may be thinking right. This breakthrough can help same-sex human couples to have babies with genetic-material from both the parents.
 
In October 2018, same sex mice couples gave birth to pups with the help of gene editing and stem cells. The pups born by two female mice were healthy and even had their own litters. The pups born by male mice, however, were not as fortunate- only two of the 12 survived more than 48 hours.
Researchers in China have said that this won’t be possible for humans in the immediate future, however it is a promising step forward. Many scientists and academicians all around the world have raised a lot of ethical questions, given the high risk factor for genetic disparities.

5. DNA Nanobots Kill Off Cancerous Tumours

In an article in 'Nature Biotechnology' in February of 2018 scientists were able to show tiny autonomous bots have the potential to function as intelligent delivery vehicles to cure cancer in mice.

These DNA nanobots do so by seeking out and injecting cancerous tumours with drugs that can cut off their blood supply, shrivelling them up and killing them.

DNA nanobots are a somewhat new concept for drug delivery. They work by getting programmed DNA to fold into itself like origami and then deploying it like a tiny machine, ready for action.

Scientists successfully tested these bots on mice with human breast cancer tumours. Remarkably, these bots did not cause clotting in other parts of the body, just the cancerous cells they’d been programmed to target, according to the paper.
Regardless, this is a huge breakthrough in cancer research. The current methods of either using chemotherapy to destroy every cell just to get at the cancer cell are barbaric in comparison.

If this technique gain approval for use on humans in the near future it could have impressive effects on those afflicted with the disease.
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