Hi everyone, welcome back to 90 Second STEM, I’m Michael Tung, I will be your host for the last episode of 2020. This year has been a tough year for all of us, one way or another our lives have been affected in one way or another, and today I thought that I would go over www.laboratoryequipment.com’s top 10 scientific discoveries of 2020, and rank them based off of how important I think they are. The first one is that scientists have pushed back the initial colonization of the Americas by 15,000 years. They were able to get this data based on new DNA and better technology. This is ranked last because in my opinion it’s simply just a fun fact, it doesn’t have as much of an implication on our lives as some of the other ones. Number 9 is the discovery of a four-quark particle. Scientists believe that they have stumbled upon a new group of particles that have yet to be discovered. I’m sure that is exciting to hear for the high school and college students who will soon have to learn additional content. Number 8 is that the Great Barrier Reef is in great danger. While important, I do believe with pressure from the UN, many countries that are not taking environmental issues seriously enough, will be forced to pay attention. It may come at a cost with most, or if not all reefs permanently destroyed from planet Earth. Number 7 is that Microplastic Pollution has gotten worse. This goes along with the last point, that people who aren’t taking climate change seriously, will have to because eventually, it will start affecting their daily lives. Number 6 is that immunotherapy that has been successful for dogs, is now being tested for humans. This is a huge step forward for cancer research, and something that has gone under appreciated this year. Cancer research this year has yielded more discoveries than ever before, despite the pandemic. Number 5 is where we start getting into people’s daily lives: Australia and California burn for months and months on end. That was actually the first podcast of this year, episode 5, so go check that out for more information. The amount of damage that fires did across the Western part of the United States, and Australia was shocking, and scientists do believe that it is the showing of early effects of climate change. I personally don’t remember a time when the entire city of San Francisco was bright orange, it looked like we were on Mars or an apocalypse was happening. Number 4 is CRISPR-Cas9, which is a gene that has now been used in the human body for the first time ever, which hopefully will provide the protein that we have in our eyes that we need for sight. In many trials, vision was restored in humans as well as monkeys. Number 3 is a Google AI that was able to detect breast and prostate cancer to near perfection. This is very significant because early detection of these cancers gives the patient the best chance for survival. Moreover, breast and prostate are some of the most common cancers that occur, so it’s good to see more development on them. Number 2 is that the age of commercial spaceflight begins. SpaceX launched successfully for the first time ever, and made it to the ISS. This is an incredible step forward for space exploration, and the Aerospace community as a whole. Number 1 is, yes you guessed it: the COVID-19 vaccine. This vaccine is the one hope that eventually we can return to some sort of normalcy by summer or fall of 2021. I think everyone is tired of this pandemic, I sure am. Just hang in there for a little bit longer, and we’ll get through this and try to have a better 2021. So that concludes the top 10 scientific discoveries of 2020, I hope to see you next year.
Thursday, December 10. “10 Scientific Discoveries in 2020.” Lab Equipment, www.laboratoryequipment.com/571050-10-Scientific-Discoveries-in-2020/.
Photo by Hans Reniers on Unsplash
