Gravitational waves detected: 5 path-breaking scientific discoveries

Scientists discovered gravitational waves the ripples in the fabric of spacetime that Albert Einstein predicted a century ago The discovery of these waves created by violent collisions in the universe excites astronomers because it opens the door to a new way of observing the cosmos For them its like turning a silent movie into a talkie because these waves are the soundtrack of the cosmos Read moreAlbert Einstein PicAFPA look at other pathbreaking discoveries in scienceRepresentational pictureThe God particle In 2012 Scientists at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research or CERN announced finding the Higgs Boson particle popularly termed the God particle which was predicted in 1964 to help fill in our understanding of the creation of the universe which many theorise occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang The researchers at CERN announced finding a particle they described as Higgslike and after going through the entire set of date obtain during the research concluded that it lsquostrongly indicates that it is a Higgs Bosonrsquo Named after Peter Higgs one of the physicists who proposed its existence the Higgs Bosons name also has an Indian connection Late Indian physicist Satyendra Nath Bose sent a paper to Albert Einsten in 1924 describing a statistical model that eventually led to the discovery of what became known as the BoseEinstein condensate phenomenon The paper laid the basis for describing the two fundamental classes of subatomic particles mdash bosons and fermionsRepresentational pictureStem cell programming Japanese Nobel Prizewinning stem cell researcher Dr Shinya Yamanaka conducted a pathbreaking experiment in 2006 with his team where they generated induced pluripotent stem cells iPS cells from adult mouse fibroblasts They could show that his iPS cells were pluripotent ie capable of generating all cell lineages of the body since they closely resemble embryonic stem cells the in vitro equivalent of the part of the blastocyst the embryo a few days after fertilization which grows to become the embryo proper These cells could be used to treat injuries diseases from growing new skin for burn victims to replacing malfunctioning tissue in anything from heart disease to diabetes patientsRepresentational pictureLet there be life In 2010 a team of researchers at the J Craig Venter Institute synthesized a modified version of the 1000000 base pair M mycoides genome and implanted it into a DNAfree bacterial shell of Mycoplasma capricolum The resulting organism was shown to be selfreplicating It is considered the first of its kind with an artificial genome The researchers at the insitute hope this discovery w ould help them revive extinct genomes and even colonize Mars M mycoides also known as Mycoplasma mycoides are parasitic bacteria which infect cattle and small ruminants such as goatsRepresentational pictureHarry Potters invisibility cloak now a reality Working with bricklike blocks of gold nanoantennas the researchers from the US Department of Energy DOEs Berkeley Lab and University of California UCBerkeley ldquofashioned a ldquoskinrdquo cloak barely 80 nanometers in thickness It was wrapped around a 3D object about the size of a few biological cells and arbitrarily shaped with multiple bumps and dents and conformed to the shape of the object and concealed it from detection with visible lightRepresentational pictureComing soon 3Dprinted microbots to help deliver drugs Using an innovative 3D printing technology nanoengineers at the University of CaliforniaSan Diego have developed fishshaped microrobots that can soon help deliver drugs efficiently to the targeted areas in the human body Called microfish these can swim around efficiently in liquids are chemically powered by hydrogen peroxide and magnetically controlled According to researchers these custombuild synthetic microfish will inspire a new generation of ldquosmartrdquo microrobots with diverse capabilities