We have come in the field of science with these 7 science news and science breakthroughs of 2021:
The Covid - 19 vaccine
The development of the Covid -19 vaccines is actually part of the science news of 2020, but it is in 2021 that they were rolled out.
The Pfizer and Moderna Covid-19 vaccines were rolled out for emergency use for adults in record time last December, followed by Johnson & Johnson’s single-shot vaccine in February 2021.
The Covid-19 vaccines are now become available for children as young as five.
Launch of the James Webb Telescope
The James Webb Space Telescope, the largest and most powerful space telescope ever developed, launched in December.
For the next decades, the Telescope will track Earth’s orbit around the sun. Unseen parts of the universe would now be observable, and it would be able to do things the Hubble Space Telescope cannot.
Humans will see possible signs of live on another planet soon, watch the birth of stars, and discover how early galaxies formed.
New findings on Mars
In February 2021, three missions arrived at Mars, taking advantage of the Earth-Mars orbit alignment, something that happens once every 26 months.
NASA’s Perseverance lander, based on the design of the Curiosity but comes with a suite of instruments to drill and store rock samples, will spend the next few years travelling across the Crater.
It will collect up to 43 rock samples which will then be sent back in caches in the Sample Return mission which is still being planned.
One of the biggest science breakthroughs on Mars is the test to see if we can fly through the Martian atmosphere.
Malaria vaccine for kids
The World Health Organization (WHO) in October approved the world’s first malaria vaccine for kids,
The new vaccine fights the deadliest of five malaria pathogens and is delivered in a series of four injections.
CRISPR gene editing injected into bloodstream
The CRISPR Cas-9 gene editor was injected directly into the bloodstream of a patient with a rare inherited disease.
Usually, cells are extracted from a patient and CRISPR works on them in a lab setting before the edited genes are returned into the body.
It is a time-consuming and expensive process and often, the patients often need to undergo chemotherapy afterwards.
This case concerning the previously untreatable condition of medicine was quick and successful, and the treatment even saw a decline in the destructive proteins that build up in the tissues and organs of someone with this disease.
New species of early humans
Ninety years ago, a skull fossil was discovered in China and then hidden by a family until a farmer gave it to a university museum in 2018.
Researchers from China analyzed the skill using uranium series dating, and X-ray fluorescence and declared it a new species of early humans.
The skull had a large cranium which can hold a big brain, a thick brow and almost square eye sockets these differentiate it from the other Homo species.
Most powerful quantum processor yet.
Quantum computers can do in seconds what the best supercomputers of today would take several days or weeks to process.
Quantum computer uses the laws of quantum physics for incredible processing capabilities which can revolutionize meteorology, cybersecurity, manufacturing, national defense, and much more.
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