December 14, 2012
Mythical Particles, Goldilocks Planets and More: Top 5 Surprising Scientific Milestones of 2012
A graphic data readout of the a collision of two protons, briefly producing a Higgs Boson, from the Large Hadron Collider. Image via CERN
The year 2012 was a major one for science. We saw scientists develop a new type of drug to combat HIV, figure out how to store digital data in DNA—fitting an astonishing 700 terabytes of information into a single gram of it—and even invent a coating for the inside of condiment bottles that could eliminate our stuck-ketchup-headaches once and for all (though, admittedly, this one is a little less groundbreaking than the others). Yet a few milestones in particular—discoveries, technological feats, realizations, and inventions—stand out:
1. The Higgs Boson: The landmark discovery by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) of the once-mythical particle might be the most significant scientific discovery of our lifetimes, but it’s also one of the most surprising. Stephen Hawking, the Einstein of our time, famously bet Michigan physicist Gordon Kane $100 that it would never be found.
In an interview with The Atlantic, physicist Lawrence Krauss explained why so many experts had agreed with Hawking, arguing that the existence of the Higgs—a particle (and associated field) that makes certain types of elementary particles behave as though they had mass—was just too convenient, as it was originally posited simply to explain away an apparent difficulty in an otherwise appealing theory in theoretical physics.
The theory seeks to unite all physical forces under the same set of rules. But how can electromagnetic forces–governed by massless photons–fit under the same theoretical umbrella as the weak force, which is governed by bosons with discernible mass that control radioactive decay? Efforts to answer this conundrum gave birth to the Higgs boson. Krauss noted,”It seemed too easy…It seemed to me that introducing an invisible field to explain stuff is more like religion than science…Great, I invented invisible hobgoblins to make things right.”
Incredibly, in this case, it turned out the hobgoblins were real.
An artist’s rendering of the theorized Earth-like planet, potentially capable of containing liquid water. Image via University of Hertfordshire/J. Pinfield
2. Earth-Like Planets: 2012 featured a ton of exoplanet discoveries, but the sighting of HD 40307g was without a doubt the most unexpected and exciting. The planet, bigger than earth but not so large as to be a gas giant, seems to orbit in its sun’s “goldilocks zone” (not too hot and not too cold), making it potentially capable of hosting liquid water, considered a prerequisite for life as we know it.
Even better, it’s just 42 light-years away: distant by human standards, but fairly close by compared many of the astronomical objects, making future projects to observe the planet much more feasible.
A composite image of self-portraits taken by Curiosity on Mars. Image via NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS
3. Curiosity Reaches Mars: Okay, the mission itself wasn’t too surprising—it’s been in the works since 2004—but what was so astonishing was the sudden surge of public interest in the rover and in space exploration as a whole. For decades following the manned Apollo missions of the 1960s and 70s, general enthusiasm for space science had slowly ebbed. After Curiosity’s successful landing, though, it surged. Among other things, video of NASA engineers celebrating the feat went viral and the official Curiosity twitter account garnered some 1.2 million followers.
People are so interested in Curiosity‘s exploits, in fact, that even an engineer’s throwaway line about “a discovery for the history books” pumped up expectations so much that we were bound to be disappointed by the actual finding: that early Martian soil samples seem to be representative of what we know of the planet as a whole, and that its chemistry is complex enough to have potentially once supported life. Bigger news might come over the next few years, but as project scientist John Grotzinger said, “Curiosity’s middle name is patience.”
For many Americans, Superstorm Sandy drove home the idea that climate change is real. Image via NASA
4. Climate Change Is Even Worse Than We Thought: After decades of warnings from scientists that our greenhouse gas emissions will soon wreak havoc with the climate, we’re now starting to see the consequences—and they sure aren’t pretty. As a whole, experts are saying that the even the most frightening climate scenarios have proved to be too conservative in their analysis of how rising carbon dioxide concentrations will alter precipitation patterns, drive ocean acidification, lead to more powerful storms and, in general, make most parts of the planet grow warmer.
One silver lining might be that the public is now starting to acknowledge climate change as a present-day problem, rather than a hypothetical trend that could take effect in the future. Sadly, this has come only after record-breaking heat waves, droughts and the tragic impacts of Hurricane Sandy. Although the most recent international climate talks in Doha accomplished little, there are hopes that this shift in opinion could lead to a long-awaited change in policy sometime soon.
A digital rendering at the atomic level of a new type of water desalinization method developed at MIT, which uses a one-atom-thick sheet of graphene (blue) to filter impurities (green and purple ) from water molecules (red and white). Image via David Cohen-Tanugi
5. A New Way to Desalinate Seawater: With world populations expected to keep growing and potable water projected to grow more scarce over the coming century, a practical and cheap means of desalinating sea water is one of materials science’s holy grails. In July, MIT researchers announced the development of a new method of desalinization using one-atom-thick sheets of graphene, a pure carbon substance. Their method could be far cheaper and less energy-intensive than existing systems—potentially providing a way to solve many of the world’s water problems once and for all.
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One silver lining might be that the public is now starting to acknowledge climate change as a present-day problem, rather than a hypothetical trend that could take effect in the future. Sadly, this has come only after record-breaking heat waves, droughts and the tragic impacts of Hurricane Sandy
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10/31/2012 @ 4:00PM |13,694 views
As Hurricane Sandy prepared to strike the Northeast, climate scientists from alarmist and skeptical camps alike reported the storm had little if anything to do with global warming.
Martin Hoerling, who chairs the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA’s) climate variability research program, and who oversees NOAA’s Climate Scene Investigators, observed, “neither the frequency of tropical or extratropical cyclones over the North Atlantic are projected to appreciably change due to climate change, nor have there been indications of a change in their statistical behavior over this region in recent decades.”
Global warming models project no appreciable change in North Atlantic storm behavior, yet global warming alarmists now say global warming caused Hurricane Sandy.
Hoerling further explained, “In this case, the immediate cause is most likely little more that the coincidental alignment of a tropical storm with an extratropical storm. Both frequent the west Atlantic in October…nothing unusual with that. On rare occasions their timing is such as to result in an interaction which can lead to an extreme event along the eastern seaboard.”
So global warming models say global warming has little or no impact on North Atlantic storms and meteorologists report a convergence of natural factors that made Sandy especially powerful. To objective scientists not trying to sell global warming snake oil, this is yet another example of the very strong storms that always have – and always will – occur on our planet.
Scientists, moreover, report a striking decline in hurricane activity during recent years. National Hurricane Center data show a dramatic decline in major hurricanes striking the United States during the past half century. As the earth gradually recovers from the Little Ice Age (which lasted from approximately 1300 to 1900 A.D.), the frequency of major hurricane strikes is declining rather than increasing.
Sure, there will still be hurricanes and strong storms as the planet warms. But when the frequency of hurricanes and strong storms declines in a warming world, it defies common sense to claim that global warming is causing the increasingly rare hurricanes and strong storms that do still occur.
Far too many prominent global warming alarmists are ignoring these facts in their rush to exploit the victims of Hurricane Sandy.
You wonder why the public is skeptical.
One silver lining might be that the public is now starting to acknowledge climate change…
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This links to a poll in the New York Times where New York State voters overwhelmingly say they believe that Hurricane Sandy demonstrated the effects of climate change.
However, this directly contradicts the scientific assessment of NOAA.
The author if this article points to the public’s misunderstanding as a “silver lining”?
Seriously, am I reading Smithsonian or Boy’s Life?
In rebuttal to Hal’s two comments, here is the descriptive text from an exhibit at the Marian Koshland Science Museum in Washington, DC….
Earth Lab: Observations
Weaving photography, artifacts, data visualizations, and interactive media, this section of the Earth Lab exhibit articulates the evidence of climate change and the role human activity is playing in its escalation.
The first display states the facts of climate change, such as receding glaciers and heat waves, and then enhances these statements with an interactive featuring slideshows and NASA visualizations. In the next area, physical artifacts introduce the key evidence scientists use to reconstruct temperature data; weather logs, ice cores, and tree rings are on display as historic indicators that inform us of what the climate was like in the distant past. In contrast to the physical objects, an interactive beautifully animates the basic principles of earth science that dictate climate change.
The interactive capstone to this section of the gallery, the Observations Explorer, peels back the layers behind global greenhouse emissions and those responsible. It’s a bold data visualization that brings life and clarity to otherwise dense information. A timeline allows visitors to zero in on the global contributors to greenhouse gas emissions and compare which nations have had the greatest carbon footprint over the past thirty years. An innovative circular data visualization specifically deconstructs U.S. emissions, providing a window into the gritty details behind emissions in the industrial and residential sectors…… Here is the URL for a set of photographs http://www.flickr.com/photos/second_story/5987660809/in/set-72157627309127020/
However, I also suggest that you visit the Koshland Museum on your next trip to Washington, DC and view the wall-sized interactive display that correlates increasing global temperatures from 1900 to the present with increasing atmospheric carbon dioxide levels.
What made Hurricane Sandy particularly destructive and expensive was the rise in sea levels, which is one of the consequences of global warming.
This contents of the article that unequivocally asserts the connection between man-caused global warming — without even indicating the presence of contrary opinion (as has been discussed by a previous commentator) is a pristine illustration of why I stopped subscribing to Smithsonian. I noted over several years a consistent thread in which you uncritically embrace the “politically correct” orthodoxy, often without even hinting that a serious, science-based contrary opinion even exists, let alone what it says and who’s saying it.
That the earth’s climate is slowly changing is hardly news. It’s been doing that on its own for a long time now without any help from us. The issue is, rather, is the cycle of change being significantly affected by human activity?
What we do know is that it will cost uncountable BILLIONS of dollars to reduce CO2 emissions to some mythical level that has not even been approximately defined by anyone. And all that at a time when there isn’t a lot of loose change to throw around at a problem that is not defined to achieve a result that is not validated.
I don’t pretend to know the answer to the question. Why do people have to concoct phony emails to pretend that they do?
If I didn’t think better, I’d suppose that the Smithson trust has a lot of stock in the same companies that Al Gore invested in that took him from a net worth of around $700,000 to multi-millions in a few years. Nice work if you can get it.
Ask Fred Singer, or one of the many other skeptics, to write an article with the contrary opinion.
The most egregious editorial error, though, was listing this in the top 5 scientific achievements of the year??
You’re kidding, right?
How can Smithsonian claim that a proposition (hurricane Sandy was caused by global warming) is a scientific “discovery”?, and one of the top 5 no less. This reflects very poorly on their editorial judgement.
On a positive note (and I am a forever supporter of all things Smithsonian), it is great that they are bringing attention to the most important technological innovation (not strictly a discovery) by MIT for desalinization of seawater. If this can be scaled up to a cost competitive commercial scale it will change the world in many positive ways.
Global Climate Change is a reality, what is not a Reality is the “Fact” of Humans causing this change. When the minutest change in the output from the Sun is tremendously greater than any thing we can contribute and this is is Ignored in your article you have shown us a “Politicaly Correct” article and NOT a Scientific one.
1. The Higgs Boson: The landmark discovery by the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) of the once-mythical particle might be the most significant scientific discovery of our lifetimes, but it’s also one of the most surprising.
2. Earth-Like Planets: 2012 featured a ton of exoplanet discoveries, but the sighting of HD 40307g was without a doubt the most unexpected and exciting.
As I read about these discoveries, I am in AWE of the great creator God of the Universe, and the profound and precise complexities of His creation. This inspires me in my faith.
I’m in agreement with the misrepresentation of Hurricane Sandy as the smoking gun that proves human-induced global warming is occurring. First, I believe wholeheartedly that man, since the dawn of the industrial revolution, is indeed having a significant impact on our planet and it’s normal cycles. However, the only element of global-warming is the well noted increase in sea levels. As the one poster said, these types of storm convergence on the East coast have happened throughout millenia and NOAA has stated that the number of major hurricanes is on the decline. To list Sandy as one of the great scientific discoveries of the year points to a less than scientific mindset on the part of Smithsonian Magazine editors.