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Discover the five most groundbreaking scientific breakthroughs of 2024 that are reshaping how we understand the world. From quantum leaps in computing to transformative advances in medicine, climate science, and space exploration, this video distills the stories behind each discovery, the scientists driving them, and what they could mean for our future. Whether you’re a science enthusiast or just curious about the latest frontier, join us as we unpack the evidence, the significance, and the potential impacts on everyday life.
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00:00In the ever-evolving landscape of scientific research and exploration,
00:03humanity's brightest minds continue to push the boundaries at a rate faster than ever before.
00:08So far, this year, 2024, unless you're watching in the future, in which case,
00:13hello future you, has seen no exception. And while we're only a few months into this year,
00:17there have already been several fascinating discoveries from a wide variety of fields.
00:21Today, we're going to talk about five of them, so let's go!
00:34Sifting through data from the Sloan Digital Skies Survey, PhD student Alexia Lopez was
00:39studying the distant universe when she spotted something incredible.
00:429.2 billion light years away from us is a massive circle of galactic clusters so large that it
00:48defies all possible reasoning. It's been nicknamed the Big Ring. With a diameter of 1.3 billion
00:54light years and a circumference of 4 billion light years, it might just be the largest structure in
00:59the observable universe. But there's a problem with the Big Ring, and that's the fact that its
01:03mere existence casts doubt on some well-established cosmological principles. To understand how the
01:09ring is forming cracks in the foundation of astrophysics, we need to rewind time a little
01:14bit. All the way back to the Big Bang. So I guess more than a little bit. During the first few
01:19hundred thousand years after the Big Bang, the universe was filled with an ocean of dense plasma.
01:24As waves rippled through this plasma, it created peaks and valleys. This is known as Baryonic Acoustic
01:31Oscillation, or BAO. And it's believed that the places where matter bunched up on these primordial waves
01:37is what led to the distribution of matter that we see throughout the universe today, as well as the
01:41patterns of the cosmic microwave background radiation. The problem here is that analysis
01:45of the Big Bang and current models of BAO indicate that the upper limit for cosmic structures should
01:50be somewhere in the ballpark of 1.2 billion light years in length, which sounded great until we
01:56started discovering things larger than this upper limit, such as the Big Ring. But the oddities
02:01don't end there. What makes the Big Ring even stranger is that it's adjacent to another limit breaker
02:06that was discovered in 2021. And that's the giant arc in the sky, which, by the way, was also
02:11discovered by that same PhD student, Alexia Lopez. The giant arc is considered by some to be larger
02:17than the Big Ring, as it spans 3.3 billion light years. Only it doesn't form a complete circle like
02:23its recently discovered neighbor. To put into perspective just how immensely large these structures
02:29are, the cluster of galaxies that our Milky Way resides in, the Lanica supercluster,
02:34is only about 520 million light years in diameter, meaning that despite containing an estimated 100,000
02:42galaxies, it is absolutely dwarfed by the Big Ring. And the giant arc is so large that if it were visible
02:49to human eyes in the night sky, it would take up the space of 20 full moons lined up side by side.
02:55And overall, it takes up about one fifth of the radius of the entire visible universe.
03:01So, with the addition of 2024's Big Ring, we now have two supermassive structures whose origins
03:06defy explanation and whose surprising proximity raises further questions. As Lopez herself puts it,
03:12the Big Ring and the giant arc, both individually and together, gives us a big cosmological mystery,
03:18and their ultra-large sizes, distinctive shapes, and cosmological proximity must surely be telling us
03:23something important. But what exactly?
03:29Batteries are crucial to the functioning of our society. They're in our phones, they're in our
03:33computers, our cars, and well, nearly every other piece of critical infrastructure that makes modern
03:38life possible. But while they afford us the luxury of storing and transporting electrical energy,
03:43they have brought about their own set of problems, namely the extraction of the resources that are
03:48needed to make them. One of the most concerning of these is lithium, a crucial component for the
03:53type of battery used in electric vehicles. Lithium mining is no easy task, and it requires the use of
03:58chemicals like sulfuric acid and sodium hydroxide, which can poison the local ecosystem, lead to the
04:03diversion of huge quantities of local fresh water, deforestation, and a whole lot else. In fact, while
04:10electric cars themselves drastically reduce emissions compared to traditional combustion engines,
04:14their production is actually more polluting. On top of this, lithium sources aren't endless,
04:19and like with any other resource, eventually the cost of lithium extraction is going to climb as
04:24newer methods are needed to reach deeper or more challenging reserves. Alongside lithium-ion batteries
04:29are several other types with various uses around the world, such as alkaline, lead-acid, and nickel-cadium,
04:35all of which come with their own advantages and disadvantages. All of this is why finding a more
04:41sustainable or cheaper resource for batteries would have far-reaching benefits for the world,
04:45and also the future of things like mobile devices, transportation, and the efficiency of solar panels,
04:50which is exactly what two teams have accomplished this year, one in Australia and the other in China.
04:56The team from Australia, led by researchers from the Royal Melbourne Institute of Technology,
05:00have developed what they call recyclable water batteries. In every battery, you need a positive
05:05event called the cathode, and a negative event called the anode, and an electrolyte that connects
05:10the two and turns chemical energy into electrical energy. Usually, the electrolyte is a hazardous
05:15material, such as sulfuric acid, in the case of lead-acid batteries. And this is why you're not
05:20supposed to throw most types of batteries in the trash with the rest of your household waste,
05:24as it can pose problems to its disposal location down the line. The Australian team's breakthrough
05:29is that their prototype battery's electrolyte is none other than water, with a little bit of salt
05:35in it. They're calling their invention an aqueous metal-ion battery, and the advantage here is
05:40that once the water-based electrolyte has run out of charge, it can easily be removed and replaced,
05:45potentially prolonging the battery's lifespan indefinitely. Water-based electrolytes don't
05:50pose the risk of chemical pollution that lead-acid batteries do, and they don't carry the risk of
05:54intense fires that lithium-ion batteries do. Not only that, but they're also much cheaper. So far,
06:00the team has created prototypes of several small-scale batteries, such as AA and the small cell
06:05type batteries found in watches. Each battery contains the potential to be recharged at least
06:09500 times and have shown to retain 80% of their capacity after more than 700 charging cycles.
06:15One of the keys to maintaining its capacity is the team's innovative use of rust.
06:20Normally, over the lifespan of a battery, tiny metal spurs called dendrites will form on the anode,
06:24which can eventually reduce the battery's effectiveness and its ability to hold a charge.
06:29The team stopped their formation by coating their anode in a thin layer of bismuth,
06:34after which they allowed it to oxidize or rust, preventing these spurs from forming in the first
06:38place. Meanwhile, a team in China has come up with a different solution — calcium.
06:43Scientists from Fudan University announced in February 2024 that they'd created a calcium-based
06:48battery that could handle 700 recharging cycles. Calcium is far more abundant than lithium. It's about
06:542,500 times more abundant, on its own making up about 4% of the Earth's crust, and it's the third most
07:00common metal. If the number of recharging cycles can be improved, as well as their size and overall
07:05power, this on its own promises a much cheaper alternative to lithium-ion batteries. But there's
07:10another aspect of calcium that makes it even more attractive. It turns out the calcium batteries are
07:15highly flexible, and its creators demonstrated that small-scale models could be built into thin
07:20fabrics, potentially giving us a glimpse of next-generation wearable devices disguised as
07:25everyday clothing. On top of this, there is some hope for one specific variant — the calcium-oxygen
07:31battery, which theoretically would have the highest total capacity and energy density.
07:35These batteries would take oxygen out of the air to use as power, which would be an incredible
07:40technological leap. But unfortunately, these systems aren't stable at room temperature,
07:43so they require far more energy to maintain than they can currently deliver.
07:47Regardless, with 2024's announcement of water and calcium batteries,
07:51the future of energy is looking pretty optimistic.
07:58In 2016, data from the Hubble Space Telescope was examined by a team working on candles, one of
08:03Hubble's most ambitious data projects peering at the far reaches of the cosmos. The team announced that
08:09further analysis of the galaxy GNZ11 has revealed that it existed an estimated 13.4 billion years ago,
08:15just 400 million years after the Big Bang. At the time, this was the oldest known galaxy in the
08:20universe as well as one of the most distant. Since then, teams working with the James Webb Space
08:24Telescope have identified a few candidates that are likely further away, causing some of the hype
08:31from GNZ11 to die down over the years. However, the JWST isn't just remarkable because it can see
08:37further and find things that Hubble couldn't. It's also useful for re-examining the findings of Hubble
08:42to give us a clearer picture and sharper data. And that is exactly what a team of astronomers did in
08:48January 2024. The James Webb Space Telescope took a better look at GNZ11, but this time what caught
08:53the researchers' attention was the black hole at the center of the galaxy, which is now believed to
08:58be the oldest in the observable universe. But as the researchers noted, it isn't just the age of the
09:03black hole that's surprising. After all, much of this had already been covered a few years earlier.
09:08What was shocking was its newly realized immense size, which doesn't seem to line up with its age
09:14whatsoever. The size of the black hole was noticed due to the galaxy's higher-than-expected brightness.
09:20Originally, it was assumed that the galaxy's luminosity arose from the sheer quantity of stars,
09:24but further investigation revealed that much of the light is actually coming from hot gases
09:29swirling around the black hole, radiating their heat before they fall past the event horizon.
09:34What's intriguing here is that this scale of stellar consumption isn't what should have
09:39been happening so relatively soon after the Big Bang. According to current models of black hole formation,
09:44if the one in GNZ 11 grew at what is believed to be the standard rate, it would have taken about
09:49a billion years to reach its current size, not the 400 million years that we see.
09:54It's like seeing a young boy that you're certain was only born 10 years ago,
09:58but already looks like a grown man with a full beard. It just doesn't make sense.
10:03Something we think we know has to be wrong. This can mean a few things. Perhaps black holes in the
10:09early universe grew at a faster rate than those today. Or maybe they simply started out larger,
10:14as it's been suggested that some of them may have formed from the collapse of giant gas clouds.
10:18It also could mean that our estimates of time overall are incorrect, either for the age of the
10:23galaxy in question or for the universe as a whole. Whatever the answer may be, these new findings only add
10:30to the puzzling existence of black holes, a mystery that continues to deepen.
10:38In 1996, the first ever animal was successfully cloned. This was Dolly the sheep, and her existence
10:43was a sign that genetic engineering had the potential to go beyond anybody's wildest dreams.
10:49In the three decades since then, more than 20 other species have successfully been cloned, including dogs,
10:54cats, and even cows. What all of these clones had in common was that they were created using the same
10:59technique, somatic cell nuclear transfer, or SCNT. This process involves removing the nucleus of an
11:07egg cell and replacing it with a nucleus taken from a somatic cell, which can be taken from any other
11:11part of the body. Under the right conditions, and after stimulating the newly forged cell with a shock,
11:16it will start to divide. If taken care of properly, these cells can eventually grow into a fully functioning
11:21living creature, an exact clone of its parent, because it only contains one set of genetic material.
11:28Like we said, this technique has been used on many animals, but it always proved to be difficult
11:33with primates. It wasn't until 2018 that the first monkeys were finally cloned using this method,
11:38a pair of macaques named Zong Zong and Hua Hua. However, while the cloning of macaques was certainly
11:43considered progress, the real goal was a rhesus monkey due to their genetic similarities to humans.
11:49It wasn't until 2024 that the first rhesus monkey was cloned using a CNT named Retro. The
11:54researchers at the University of Chinese Academy of Sciences finally made the breakthrough when
11:59they realized that the reason so many previous attempts had failed was due to defective placentas.
12:04For some reason, rhesus monkeys created from SCNT couldn't properly use their placenta and
12:08umbilical cord to intake enough nutrients, a problem which was solved by taking healthy cells
12:13from a non-cloned monkey and growing the placenta from those which ultimately resulted in the clone
12:18Retro, the first of its kind. According to the researchers, genetically identical monkeys are a
12:23necessity for the future of the medical field, as the similarities to each other means more
12:27certainty in testing results. Overall, they claim that this would result in fewer monkeys being used
12:32for testing, but this all still comes off to many as quite concerning. First of all, this only stokes
12:37fears that one day human cloning will be possible, because despite the fact that every ethics board and
12:42most geneticists are against this, progress in the field of genetics continues to take steps towards
12:47that outcome. The other concerns are from animal rights activists who don't believe monkeys should be
12:52experimented on in the first place, much less have a special genetic line of them created specifically
12:57for disease and drug testing. Either way, despite the recent success, we're still a long way off from
13:02being able to consistently clone rhesus monkeys. After all, Retro was just one viable baby from 113
13:09total embryo attempts, a success rate of less than one percent. Still, what the researchers have done
13:14have shown that it's possible, opening up many doors for geneticists around the world.
13:22With all these other advances in science and technology, it should come as no surprise that
13:25the field of robotics moves just as quickly. In January 2024, Washington State University announced
13:31that their school of mechanical and materials engineering had created two insect-like robots,
13:35the smallest of their kind in the world. The smaller of the two, called Minibug, weighs in at just
13:40eight milligrams, while the other, modeled after a water strider, weighs in at 55 milligrams.
13:45What's most impressive is their movement speed, with each of them able to move about six millimeters
13:50per second, definitely a lot slower than biological insects, but much faster than any of their
13:55micro-robotic peers. The secret to their speed is tiny actuators, which, using a new technique,
14:00were shrunk down until they weighed less than a single milligram. The way that these operate is by using
14:05shape-memory alloys, a metal that can change shape when heated but return to its original shape after
14:10cooling back down. Each actuator contains two wires made from this shape-memory alloy, and the wires
14:15are able to be heated up and cooled down rapidly using a small electric current, allowing the mechanical
14:20parts of the robot to move incredibly quickly. In the case of the water strider, it can flap its fins
14:25more than 40 times per second. And the researchers aren't done there. They've spent time studying the
14:30insects they've used as models, and identified things that make them quicker, which they hope to
14:34implement in future iterations. Also on the to-do list is to create a super-tiny battery to allow
14:39these mini-machines to function without being tethered to a power source. The uses of robots of
14:43this size are endless, such as robot-assisted surgery, environmental monitoring, and materials
14:48manufacturing. There's also hope that one-day swarms of mini-robots like these could be used for
14:52artificial pollination in places with plants that are naturally hard to pollinate.
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