Science news review

Luka Lavrnic

Mr. Youell

TOP SCIENTIFIC STORIES OF 2015

    It seems unbelievable that human can find everything they need on one place, planet Earth. But, human population is getting too demanding for Earth, and if something doesn’t change, people will have to look for another place to live. That’s why scientists are looking for planets similar to Earth, and trying to discover new ones that could save human species one day.

      Mars is in the same solar system as Earth, called Milky way. What makes Mars so interesting is the fact that it is the closest planet to the Earth so it’s logical that if any planet in Milky Way, Mars is the one where we could live on. As ''Universe today" and "Phoenix Mars mission" say, Mars has similar, if not the same, features as Earth: Mars has 4 seasons, on Mars one day lasts for 24h37min, also, atmosphere is made out of same components on both Mars and Earth.

But, there is another thing that humans need to live- water. Last year MRO(Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter, spacecraft designed to explore Mars from orbit) provided the strong evidence that water periodically flows on Mars(See picture 1).

                                                                                                                                                                                                        

Picture 1.MRO- MARS RECONNAISSANCE ORBITER

“Our quest on Mars has been to ‘follow the water,’ in our search for life in the universe, and now we have convincing science that validates what we’ve long suspected,” said John Grunsfeld, astronaut and associate administrator of NASA’s Science Mission Directorate in Washington. “This is a significant development, as it appears to confirm that water is flowing today on the surface of Mars.”

As "NASA" and "Science News" say, sing an imaging spectrometer on MRO, researchers detected signatures of hydrated minerals on slopes where mysterious streaks are seen on Red Planet. These dark streaks appear to ebb and flow over time. They appear to flow down steep slopes during warm seasons and then fade in during cooler seasons. Appearing happens at several locations on Mars(gullies and craters)(See picture 2).

First, when NASA decided to explore Mars and it’s features they were hoping to find water, because it’s a first sign of life, but now when they found it, the question is: What next?     
  My opinion is that this discovery will be meaningless if we don’t find life on Mars or at least predispositions for creating a new one. This discovery maybe looks like it can change the history, but we are far away of something like that. Also, scientists confirmed that there might be problems in further exploration because NASA needs to be sure that they won't transfer some bugs from Earth that may still be alive because it could ruin the whole exploration.

I don’t know what future is going to bring, but I am sure that this discovery can lead human specie to something great that can help us in upcoming years.

   Picture 2. One of several places where water flows periodically on Mars

Another big scientific story during 2015 was "Biological age. According to "Science news" and "Tech Times", scientists from Duke university proved something that many people already suspected- all people don't grow old at same rate. This “appearance” is called Biological age- actual condition of a person’s organism compared to condition of other people their age. To prove Biological age, scientists analyzed the health of about one thousand men 38 years old by doing "BAG test" and they found out that some appeared a decade younger while others appeared older. Researchers determined people’s Biological age by different health indicators.

    Maybe all these information are not spectacular but they could change your opinion if “Biological age” really helps at solving one of the biggest questions during human history and that it is: “Why people die”? During this research, scientists noticed that long-living proteins become damaged during life. They hope that in closer future they will be able to find a way to make this protein more resistant.

        According to "Wired" and "Telegraph" scientists hope “Biological age” will help them in is curing diseases like Alzheimer’s. Scientists believe that a blood test which shows how well people are ageing can predict the Alzheimer's disease, they have identified a set of genes which must be functioning properly for healthy ageing. How well these genes are working can be presented by HAG(Healthy Ageing Gene) score. The lower the score is the more likely Alzheimer is present or will develop. Although there aren’t any drugs which can stop Alzheimer, new treatments which can slow(even to the stage where it won’t affect people’s lives) development of Alzheimer’s disease are showing early promise in trials.

           Biological age test could help scientists design anti aging drugs, says geroscientist Felipe Sierra of the National Institute on Aging in Bethesda, Md. “How we age is something we can control,” he says. “Trying to convince people to exercise or eat better has not worked, so we need an alternative.”

  I think that this “discovery” is really important because it can lead us to curing one of most dangerous diseases- Alzheimer's and even more important “Biological age” maybe will show us why our life must come to an end. Maybe at this point Biological age (test) doesn’t mean much to all of us, but it in the future “BAG test” may save people’s lives and there isn’t anything more important.

Picture 3.Biological age, metaphor

  Third great scientific news of 2015 is about global warming, gradual increase in the average temperature of the Earth’s atmosphere and its oceans, is a change that is believed to be permanently changing the Earth’s climate, defines "Live science'. It’s already having many effects on our life, health and climate. As UCSA says, sea level rise is accelerating, number of wildfires per year is getting bigger and dangerous heat waves are becoming more common. There are more droughts and extreme storm events are increasing in different areas.

       "Stanford news" and "Nature" wrote about Climate hiatus, Global Warming pause or slowdown, that scientists thought it was happening during 21st century, but after a research made last year, group of scientists at National Oceanic and Atmospheric administration did a research that helped them conclude that there wasn’t and isn’t “climate hiatus” in 21st century.

      "Science news" wrote about research where scientists found out several comparisons to the past that helped them make a final conclusion about climate hiatus. Scientists discovered that Earth’s average surface temperature is getting about 0.2 Celsius warmer every decade including the last two that were thought to be part of “climate hiatus”. Second, last years carbon dioxide levels were the highest in the history. As reflective ice melts into heat-absorbing dark open ocean, warming increases further.There is one stat that made me completely scared about global warming: Using climate simulations and ocean sediment data, scientists calculated that the period during which carbon dioxide levels increased lasted at least 4000 years, and the carbon release rate during that time had been at most 1.1 billion tons a year. That rate is just about 1/10 of the approximately 10 billion tons of carbon released because of fossil fuel burning in 2015.

         The worst thing is that it’s happening right now and if we don’t react on time, World can turn into one big “fireball”(See picture 4). Even worse is, as Richard Zeebe(climatologist at the university of Hawaii) says  “What we’re doing right now to the climate is unprecedented.” that we, humans, are doing it to ourselves.         

Picture 4. Metaphor: World is a fireball

        I can not really decide which one of these three stories is the most important one, but as i already sad, all of them can affect humans in future on many different ways, Biological age test could open the door to the endless life, if we find the way to live on Mars it can save the humans one day and the news about Global warming could make people act on different way that could make planet Earth be our home for many more years.