Physics of the XXI century: main discoveries. Important discoveries of the first decade of the 21st century

The beginning of the 21st century was marked by a large number of scientific discoveries. But behind them there is simply a string of questions that make the scientific world think: but in fact, everything is not as simple as it seems even to the luminaries of science.

BIONICS

Biomechanical devices and prostheses controlled by thought have been created

American Zach Water tested a bionic leg prosthesis by climbing the stairs to the 103rd floor of the Willis Tower skyscraper in Chicago.

In 2013, the first prototypes of “smart” prostheses with feedback(emulation of tactile sensations), which allow a person to feel what the prosthesis “feels”. In the 2010s, devices separate from humans were created, controlled only through a mental interface (sometimes with invasive contacts, but more often it looks like a headband with a dry electrode) - computer games and simulators, manipulators, transport, etc.

ELECTRONICS

The petaflop barrier has been crossed

In 2008, a new supercomputer in Los Alamos (USA) began operating at a speed of more than a quadrillion (one thousand trillion) operations per second. The next barrier, exascale (quintillion operations per second), will be reached in the coming years. Systems with such incredible speed are needed primarily for high-performance computing - processing data from scientific experiments, climate modeling, financial transactions, etc.

The decade of the 2000s: how is it remembered? So many events have happened over the past 10 years that it seems that history has compressed an entire era into these years. It all didn’t start with the grandiose millennium, when they were waiting for Bug 2000, but never got it. And then how the children rejoiced at these three zeros, which began to count down a new century. It all started on September 11, 2001

In July 2003, at an air show in the Ukrainian Sknilov, a Su-27 crashed into the crowd. According to various reports, there were up to 85 victims. The incident became the bloodiest in the world history of air shows. On October 12 of the same year, the “tourist paradise” on the Indonesian island of Bali was rocked by a series of explosions. 202 people died. The tragedy in Bali was one of the first in a long series of similar attacks by Islamists in Southeast Asia.

On February 1, 2003, the American space shuttle Columbia burned up while landing in the atmosphere. All 7 astronauts on board were killed. And on March 20, one of the largest and most controversial wars of the decade began: international coalition troops entered Iraq and bombed Baghdad. Soon the regime of Saddam Hussein fell. The former dictator himself was executed in December 2006

2004 was a year of several tragedies. September 1-3 - school siege in Beslan, North Ossetia. As a result of the attack and subsequent assault, more than 330 hostages were killed, including 186 children. Six months earlier, in March, several explosions occurred in Madrid. In particular, a train was blown up near the large Atocha train station. 191 people died. And by the end of the year, an “orange” revolution and a change of power took place in Ukraine.

On July 7, 2005, four suicide bombers blew themselves up on three London Underground trains and a double-decker bus. Together with them, the number of victims was 56 people. And soon, in August, for many days the world glued itself to television screens: Hurricane Katrina hit the southern United States, as a result of which entire cities were under water, including the famous New Orleans.

In August 2006, the Israeli army entered southern Lebanon in order to respond to the provocations of the radical Shiite group Hezbollah. The fighting, which lasted about a month, turned out to be extremely bloody. The south of Lebanon was reduced to ruins, and the Israeli north was depopulated. Soon, in August, an event occurred on a completely universal scale: Pluto lost its status as a planet...

The European Union celebrated its 50th anniversary and at the same time the 6th expansion of its borders. Bulgaria and Romania joined the United States of Europe. Thus, the era of Soviet colonies in Europe finally ended. And at the very end of 2007, on December 27, the country's former prime minister and most popular politician, Benazir Bhutto, was killed in a suicide attack in Pakistan.

In August 2008, simultaneously with the opening of the Beijing Olympics, a war began between Russia and Georgia. The parties still continue to blame each other. And almost at the same time, the world's largest particle accelerator, the Large Hadron Collider, was launched on the border of France and Switzerland. Many awaited this event with horror, believing that it would bring the end of the world closer.

On January 20, 2009, an epoch-making event occurred, if not for the whole world, then for the United States. For the first time in its history, a black man assumed the presidency of this country. This aroused such enthusiasm that the Nobel Committee soon announced that it was awarding Barack Obama the Peace Prize, which attracted a fair amount of criticism. And in April there was a swine flu pandemic, from which different countries Almost 12 thousand people died. All this came on top of a severe economic crisis that destroyed the economies of a dozen countries and plunged hundreds of millions of people into despondency.

And of course it was a decade high technology. The Internet continued to set the pace for their development. At this time, digital music and video game consoles were rapidly developing, and e-books and fundamentally new Cell phones; became truly massive based on the American GPS system satellite navigators, and a completely new phenomenon appeared - social networks.

Not only 2010, but also the entire decade of the 2000s goes down in history. There were a lot of events in it, and selecting the most significant ones is not an easy task. Have we dealt with it? You be the judge. If you have anything to add, feel free to leave a comment. I will be grateful.

Having radically changed our world, however, even now humanity, in terms of technology development and progress, sees only the tip of the iceberg. However, this in no way cools the ardor of scientists and researchers of various stripes, but, on the contrary, only fuels their interest.

Today we will talk about our time, which we all remember and know. We will talk about discoveries that one way or another became a real breakthrough in the field of science and will start, perhaps, with the most significant. It is worth mentioning here that the most significant discovery is not always significant for the average person, but is primarily important for scientific world.

First position takes up quite a bit recent discovery However, its significance for modern physics is colossal; this is the discovery by scientists of the “god particle” or, as it is usually called, the Higgs boson. In fact, the discovery of this particle explains the reason for the appearance of mass in other elementary particles.

It is worth noting that they have been trying to prove the existence of the Higgs boson for 45 years, but it was only recently possible to do this. Back in 1964 Peter Higgs, after whom the particle is named, predicted its existence, but it was not possible to practically prove it.

But on April 26, 2011, the news spread across the Internet that with the help of the Large Hadron Collider, located near Geneva, scientists had finally managed to discover the sought-after particle, which had become almost legendary. However, scientists did not immediately confirm this, and only in June 2012 did experts announce their discovery. However, the final conclusion was reached only in March 2013, when CERN scientists made a statement that the discovered particle was indeed a Higgs boson.

Despite the fact that the discovery of this particle has become a landmark for the scientific world, its practical use at this stage of development remains questionable. Peter Higgs himself, commenting on the possibility of using the boson, said the following: “The existence of a boson lasts only something like one quintillionth of a second, and it is difficult for me to imagine how a short-lived particle could be used for so long. Particles that live for a millionth of a second, however, are now being used in medicine.” So, at one time, a famous English experimental physicist, when asked about the benefits and practical application Magnetic induction, discovered by him, said, “What benefit can a newborn child have?” and with this, perhaps, I closed this topic.

Second position Among the most interesting, promising and ambitious projects of humanity in the 21st century is the deciphering of the human genome. It is not for nothing that the Human Genome Project has the reputation of being the most important project in the field of biological research, and work on it began in 1990, although it is worth mentioning that this issue was also considered in the 80s of the 20th century.

The goal of the project was clear - it was initially planned to determine the sequence of more than three billion nucleotides (nucleotides make up DNA), as well as to determine more than 20 thousand genes in the human genome. However, later, several research groups expanded the task. It is also worth noting that the study, completed in 2006, spent $3 billion.

The stages of the project can be divided into several parts:

1990. The US Congress allocates funds for studying the human genome.
1995. The first complete DNA sequence of a living organism is published. The bacterium Haemophilus influenzae was considered
1998. The first DNA sequence of a multicellular organism is published. The flatworm Caenorhabditis elegans was considered.
1999. At this stage, more than two dozen genomes have been deciphered.
2000. The "first human genome assembly" was announced - the first reconstruction of the human genome.
2001. First draft of the human genome.
2003. Complete decoding of DNA, it remains to decipher the first human chromosome.
2006. The last stage of work to decipher the complete human genome.

Despite the fact that scientists around the world made grandiose plans for the end of the project, their expectations were not met. On this moment The scientific community recognized the project as a failure in its essence, but it is by no means impossible to say that it was absolutely useless. New data has made it possible to accelerate the pace of development of both medicine and biotechnology.

And the third, occupies the last position in today's list... Actually, the third position will remain free. This does not mean that there are no more important and interesting discoveries did not happen - on the contrary, there are more than enough discoveries and achievements in the field of science, but we will leave it to you to decide which one is worthy of standing in this position. You can consider this, if not homework, then our desire to communicate and find out the opinions of many people.

So, for example, someone may think that the discovery of water on Mars is an excellent reason to declare this achievement a candidate for the role of bronze medalist, while others will disagree and say that the production of a new material - graphene - is a much more significant event. One way or another, everyone has the right to their opinion and we are sure that by sharing your thoughts, you can interest others and learn a lot of new things.

There is still so much unknown and unexplored left in the world that scientists simply have no time to sit idly by. They are trying to unravel the mysteries of space and find a cure for cancer, discover an elixir of longevity and invent a self-improving artificial intelligence. Which ones are new? scientific discoveries and inventions have been made in recent years, we will tell in our article.

Incredible scientific discoveries of our time

It is difficult to immediately assess the findings of 21st century researchers. Their weight and necessity will probably be appreciated not even by us, but by our descendants. But we have chosen the most significant, in our opinion, new scientific opening XXI centuries that can become significant for humanity.

Artificial muscles of the human body

American scientists from Duke University managed for the first time in laboratory conditions to grow muscles of the human skeleton, which are practically no different from ordinary ones. They are able to respond to external stimuli, including exposure to electric current, administration of medications, etc. The muscle tissue obtained in the laboratory will be used to study muscle diseases and during testing of medicinal substances.

MRI can predict human behavior

New possibilities of magnetic resonance imaging became known after the publication of the journal Neuron, which published the results in one of its articles latest research in this area of ​​diagnostics. It turns out that an MRI image can be used to create a behavioral model of a person. In other words, magnetic resonance imaging can predict a person’s behavior in the future, assess the degree of his learning ability, detect a tendency towards antisocial behavior, including crimes, and also predict the response to drug therapy.

HIV vaccine

The immunodeficiency virus was called the plague of the 20th century; in the 21st century there was hope of finding a cure for it. Scripps Institute researchers have developed an effective vaccine that can combat certain types of HIV. This medicine causes DNA to transform and the immune system to activate. The research has not yet been completed, but if scientists' promises come true, the fight against AIDS will become much easier.

Cancer treatment based on nanotechnology

Iranian scientists have made their contribution to the fight against cancer by developing a nanotablet capable of reducing the toxic effects of anti-cancer drugs on the body. Doctors say this medicine will help significantly increase the effectiveness of breast cancer treatment. But the opening is barely a year old, and it’s too early to draw final conclusions.

Ocean on Mars

New scientific discoveries by NASA confirm the version of the existence of life on Mars in the past. Scientists who analyzed the available data came to the conclusion that part of the northern hemisphere of the Red Planet was once occupied by the ocean. Its area was approximately equal to the area of ​​our Atlantic, and the depth in some places reached 1.6 km. And where there is water, there is life...

Another human ancestor found

Paleontologists have discovered bone fragments of Homo naledi in South Africa - creatures that, according to scientists, were the ancestors of modern man. The remains of 15 skeletons were found in Dinaledi Cave. Researchers have already suggested that Homo naledi lived in what is now Africa about 3 million years ago. It should be noted that there are skeptics in the scientific community who believe that the discovered fragments are clearly not enough to make a conclusion about their belonging to a human ancestor.

Working longer hours increases the risk of stroke

The medical journal The Lancet published studies that show: 55-hour work week increases the risk of stroke by 33%. While people working 35-45 hours are less susceptible to this disease. Excessive work also increases the likelihood of ischemia by 13%.

You will learn other new scientific discoveries by watching the video:

Exciting inventions of our time

Practice does not lag behind theory: the 21st century has brought us not only new scientific discoveries, but also incredible inventions that no one could even dream of half a century ago.

Retinal implant

With the advent of this invention, people who had lost their vision due to degenerative changes received hope for its partial restoration. The implant appeared on the American market in 2013, and on the European market a year later. With him, millions of blind people got the chance to see this world again.

Genius is 1 percent inspiration and 99 percent perspiration. Thomas Edison

ReWalk

A device that allows people who have lost the ability to walk due to spinal cord injury to walk again. Having appeared on the market quite recently, it has already proven itself well.

Camera in a tablet

This invention has become an excellent replacement for the invasive probe used in gastroscopy. Equipped with a micro-camera, the 25mm capsule is easy to swallow without causing any discomfort and transmits the image to the monitor. It leaves the body naturally.

Teleportation

Movement in space has become more real with an invention made by scientists at the California Institute. Using a special device, they managed to teleport a proton. This, of course, is not a person, or even a pencil, but, most importantly, the first step has been taken.

We tried to list the main new scientific discoveries and inventions of the 21st century, and time will tell which of them will be called brilliant.

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On first place The publication, of course, credited the discovery of a particle similar to the Higgs boson to the ATLAS and CMS collaborations at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC). As we remember, the discovery of a particle predicted almost half a century ago was supposed to complete the experimental confirmation of the Standard Model. That's why many scientists considered the discovery of the elusive boson to be the most important breakthrough in 21st century physics.

The Higgs boson was so important to scientists because its field helps explain how, immediately after the Big Bang, electroweak symmetry was broken, after which elementary particles suddenly acquired mass. Paradoxically, one of the most important mysteries for experimenters for a long time remained nothing more than the mass of this boson, since the Standard Model cannot predict it. It was necessary to proceed by trial and error, but in the end, two experiments at the LHC independently discovered a particle with a mass of about 125 GeV/s². Moreover, the reliability of this event is quite high.

It should be noted that a small fly in the ointment has nevertheless crept into the ointment - not everyone is still sure that the boson found by physicists is the Higgs boson. Thus, it remains unclear what the spin of this new particle is. According to the Standard Model, it should be zero, but there is a possibility that it could be equal to 2 (the option with one has already been ruled out). Both collaborations believe that this problem can be solved by analyzing existing data.

In addition, there are some doubts about a number of particle decay channels - in some cases, this boson did not decay as predicted by the same Standard Model. However, collaboration employees believe that this too can be clarified by making a more accurate analysis of the results. By the way, at a November conference in Japan, LHC staff presented analysis data of new collisions with an energy of 8 TeV, which were carried out after the July announcement. And what happened as a result spoke in favor of the fact that the Higgs boson was found in the summer, and not some other particle.

Second place credited to a team of scientists from the Delft and Eindhoven Universities of Technology (Netherlands), led by Leo Kouwenhoven, who were the first to notice signs of hitherto elusive Majorana fermions in solids. These funny particles, whose existence was predicted back in 1937 by physicist Ettore Majorana, are interesting because they can simultaneously act as their own antiparticles. It is also assumed that Majorana fermions may be part of the mysterious dark matter. It is not surprising that scientists waited no less for their experimental discovery than for the discovery of the Higgs boson.

On third place— the work of physicists from the BaBar collaboration at the PEP-II collider of the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory (USA). And what’s most interesting is that these scientists again experimentally confirmed the prediction made 50 years ago - they proved that when B-mesons decay, T-symmetry is violated (this is the name for the relationship between the direct and reverse process in reversible phenomena). As a result, the researchers found that during transitions between quantum states of the B0 meson, their speed varies.

On fourth place again checking a long-standing prediction. Even 40 years ago, Soviet physicists Rashid Sunyaev and Yakov Zeldovich calculated that the movement of clusters of distant galaxies could be observed by measuring a small shift in the temperature of the cosmic microwave background radiation. And only this year, Nick Hand from the University of California at Berkeley (USA), his colleague and the six-meter ACT telescope (Atacama Cosmology Telescope) managed to put this into practice as part of the Spectroscopic Study of Baryon Oscillations project.

Fifth place took a study by Allard Mosk's group from the MESA+ Institute of Nanotechnology and the University of Twente (Netherlands). Scientists have suggested new way research of processes occurring in the organisms of living beings, which is less harmful and more accurate than radiography, which is known to everyone. Scientists managed, using the laser speckle effect (the so-called random interference pattern formed by the mutual interference of coherent waves with random phase shifts and a random set of intensities), to discern microscopic fluorescent objects through a few millimeters of opaque material. Needless to say, similar technology was also predicted several decades earlier.

On sixth place researchers Mark Oxborrow from the National Physical Laboratory, Jonathan Brizu and Neil Alford from Imperial College London (UK) settled confidently. They managed to build what they had also dreamed of for many years - a maser (a quantum generator emitting coherent electromagnetic waves in the centimeter range), capable of operating at room temperature. Until now, these devices had to be cooled to extremely low temperatures using liquid helium, making them unprofitable. commercial use. And now masers can be used in telecommunications and systems for creating ultra-precise images.

Seventh place deservedly awarded to a group of physicists from Germany and France who were able to establish a connection between thermodynamics and information theory. Back in 1961, Rolf Landauer argued that the erasure of information is accompanied by heat dissipation. And this year, this assumption was experimentally confirmed by scientists Antoine Beru, Artak Arakelyan, Artem Petrosyan, Sergio Siliberto, Raoul Dellinschneider and Eric Lutz.

Austrian physicists Anton Zeilinger, Robert Fickler and their colleagues from the University of Vienna (Austria), who were able to entangle photons with an orbital quantum number of up to 300, which is more than ten times more than the previous record, hit the eighth place. This discovery has not only a theoretical, but also a practical outcome - such “entangled” photons can become information carriers in quantum computers and in an optical communication encoding system, as well as in remote sensing.

On ninth place came to a group of physicists led by Daniel Stancil from the University of North Carolina (USA). The scientists worked with the NuMI neutrino beam from the National Accelerator Laboratory. Fermi and the MINERvA detector. As a result, they managed to transmit information using neutrinos over a distance of more than a kilometer. Although the transmission speed was low (0.1 bps), the message was received almost without errors, which confirms the fundamental possibility of neutrino-based communication, which can be used when communicating with astronauts not only on a neighboring planet, but even in another galaxy. In addition, this opens up great prospects for neutrino scanning of the Earth - new technology search for minerals, as well as to detect earthquakes and volcanic activity in the early stages.

The top 10 is completed by a discovery made by physicists from the USA - Zhong Lin Wang and his colleagues from the Georgia Institute of Technology. They have developed a device that extracts energy from walking and other movements and, of course, stores it. And although this method was known before, but tenth place This group of researchers was recognized for being the first to learn how to convert mechanical energy directly into chemical potential energy, bypassing the electrical stage.