15 Really Good Things Happening in Science Right Now

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Enough bad news, here's the good stuff.

There's no shortage of bad news in the media, but sometimes we spend so much time focussing on nuclear weapons and disappearing seas that we forget there are some incredible things happening in the world of science and technology.

To provide you with some much-needed hope for the future, we've put together a list of some of the best science news of 2017 so far.

1. African wild dogs communicate with each other in the most adorable way ever: sneezes

Scientists have observed African wild dogs in Botswana sneezing at each other in order to cast their vote on whether it's time to get up and go hunting. And, yes, we have video footage:

2. Vaccines have saved the lives of almost 20 million children in poor countries since 2001

Enough said. 

3. We're about to cross the 'quantum supremacy' limit in computing

At the 4th International Conference on Quantum Technologies held in Moscow in July, a team of American and Russian researchers announced they'd successfully tested a record-breaking 51-qubit device, taking us closer than ever before to a functioning quantum computer.

4. Scientists might have finally discovered the trigger that kicks off autoimmune diseases

Autoimmune diseases occur when the body's immune system starts to attack itself, but despite being incredibly widespread, researchers haven't been able to nail down what triggers this strange reaction in the first place.

Now, scientists have identified a chain reaction that could potentially explain why our own bodies can turn against healthy cells, potentially transforming the way we look at autoimmune diseases and the way we treat them.

5. We're finally getting close to achieving sustainable nuclear fusion

Nuclear fusion could be the key to producing almost-unlimited energy with few byproducts other than saltwater, but researchers have long struggled to create a machine that could sustainably control such a powerful reaction.

But that's changing. At the end of 2015, Germany switched on a massive nuclear fusion reactor that's since successfully been able to contain a scorching hot blob of hydrogen plasma.

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They're not the only ones, either, with South Korea and China both achieving record-breaking reactions in their own fusion machines. The UK has also switched on a revolutionary type of reactor that is now sustainably generating plasma within its core.

In fact, one MIT scientist has enthusiastically predicted that thanks to all these new advances, we should be able to get fusion energy on the grid by 2030.

6. Researchers are closer than ever before to having a drug that can treat autism symptoms

A small, but promising clinical trial in the US showed this year that a 100-year-old drug called suramin can measurably improve the symptoms of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) in children.

There's a lot more work to be done, but it's the first time we've been so close to having a drug that can potentially treat ASD symptoms. 

7. Scientists have discovered that crystals can be bent

Researchers have shown that crystals - which are traditionally brittle and inflexible - can be so flexible they can be bent repeatedly and even tied up in knots, overhauling our current understanding of the structures and challenging the very definition of a crystal.

The research opens up a whole new class of materials that could revolutionise electronics and technology.

QUT

8. You no longer need to pay ridiculous amounts to access peer-reviewed science research

The scientific community is fighting back against crazy paywalls, with a new study showing that more than a quarter of all scientific papers are now available free online thanks to the Unpaywall app.

9. We're getting really close to eradicating the second disease from the planet

First, humans got rid of smallpox. Now we're on the verge of wiping out the Guinea Worm parasite, which is a living nightmare that painfully erupts from people's skin.

At the start of 2015 there were just 126 cases of Guinea Worm left on Earth, mostly thanks to an ingenious and cheap drinking straw filter that stops people from being contaminated via water. As of May this year, there were only nine recorded cases.

L. Grubb/The Carter Centre

10. Finally, schools around the US are pushing back their start times

After numerous studies showing US schools start so early that they're putting a health strain on students, schools around the country are finally beginning to take note and shift their start time from 8.00 am to 8.30 am. And it's working surprisingly well.

11. Scientists think they might be able to reverse Alzheimer's memory loss

Lost memories might not be gone forever. An enzyme that interferes with key memory-forming processes in people with Alzheimer's can now be specifically targeted thanks to the discovery of a protein that helps it do its dirty work, according to new research out of MIT.

12. You could win US$1 million by solving this chess puzzle

Generous scientists are offering a US$1 million prize to anybody who can solve a fiendishly complicated twist on a classic chess problem called the Queen's Puzzle.

The beauty of the challenge is you don't even really need to understand the rules of chess to take part, but the catch is that it's so complicated the researchers predict it could take thousands of years... still, no risk, no reward, right? 

CMI

13. We've discovered a vitamin that could reduce the incidence of birth defects and miscarriages worldwide 

In what scientists are calling "the most important discovery for pregnant women since folate", a 12-year study has revealed that women could avoid miscarriages and birth defects by simply taking vitamin B3 during pregnancy.

So far, this effect has only been demonstrated in animal studies, but the results are extremely encouraging and human trials are imminent.

14. Graphene's superconductive abilities have finally been unlocked... 

At the start of this year, researchers finally unlocked the long-rumoured superconductive power of graphene, without having to dope the material.

Since then scientists have found even better ways of turning the wonder material into a superconductor, capable of shuttling electrons with zero resistance.

15. ...And researchers have shown electrons can flow through the material like liquid

Potentially even more impressive: researchers have shown that, through a new technique, electrons can actually flow through graphene like liquid, reaching limits physicists previously thought were impossible. This 'superballistic flow' could prove to be even more effective than superconductivity.

3D-CNC/GrabCad

ORIGINAL IFLSCIENCE

FIONA MACDONALD

6 SEP 2017

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Scientists have discovered a new state of matter, called 'Jahn-Teller metals'

Image: High temperature superconductor levitating above a ring magnet. Credit: Julian Litzel/Wikimedia

And it could be the key to understanding one of the biggest mysteries in physics today - high-temperature superconductors.

An international team of scientists has announced the discovery of a new state of matter in a material that appears to be an 

• insulator, 
• superconductor, 
• metal and 
• magnet 

all rolled into one, saying that it could lead to the development of more effective high-temperature superconductors.

Why is this so exciting?
Well, if these properties are confirmed, this new state of matter will allow scientists to better understand why some materials have the potential to achieve superconductivity at a relativity high critical temperature (Tc) - "high" as in −135 °C as opposed to −243.2 °C. Because superconductivity allows a material to conduct electricity without resistance, which means no heat, sound, or any other form of energy release, achieving this would revolutionise how we use and produce energy, but it’s only feasible if we can achieve it at so-called high temperatures.

As Michael Byrne explains at Motherboard, when we talk about states of matter, it’s not just 

• liquids
• plasmas 

that we have to think about. We also have to consider the more obscure states that don’t occur in nature, but are rather created in the lab -

• Bose–Einstein condensate
• degenerate matter
• supersolids and
• superfluids
• quark-gluon plasma

for example. 

By introducing rubidium into carbon-60 molecules - more commonly known as 'buckyballs' - a team led by chemist Kosmas Prassides from Tokohu University in Japan was able to change the distance between them, which forced them into a new, crystalline structure. When put through an array of tests, this structure displayed a combination of insulating, superconducting, metallic, and magnetic phases, including a brand new one, which the researchers have named 'Jahn-Teller metals'. 

Named after the Jahn-Teller effect, which is used in chemistry to describe how at low pressures, the geometric arrangement of molecules and ions in an electronic state can become distorted, this new state of matter allows scientists to transform an insulator - which can’t conduct electricity - into a conductor by simply applying pressure. Byrne explains at Motherboard: 

"This is what the rubidium atoms do: apply pressure. Usually when we think about adding pressure, we think in terms of squeezing something, forcing its molecules closer together by brute force. But it's possible to do the same thing chemically, tweaking the distances between molecules by adding or subtracting some sort of barrier between them - sneaking in some extra atoms, perhaps.

What happens in a Jahn-Teller metal is that as pressure is applied, and as what was previously an insulator - thanks to the electrically-distorting Jahn-Teller effect - becomes a metal, the effect persists for a while. The molecules hang on to their old shapes. So, there is an overlap of sorts, where the material still looks an awful lot like an insulator, but the electrons also manage to hop around as freely as if the material were a conductor."

And it’s this transition phase between insulator and conductor that, until now, scientists have never seen before, and hints at the possibility of transforming insulating materials into super-valuable superconducting materials. And this buckyball crystalline structure appears to be able to do it at a relatively high TC. "The relationship between the parent insulator, the normal metallic state above Tc, and the superconducting pairing mechanism is a key question in understanding all unconventional superconductors," the team writes in Science Advances.

There’s a whole lot of lab-work to be done before this discovery will mean anything for practical energy production in the real world, but that’s science for you. And it’s got people excited already, as chemist Elisabeth Nicol from the University of Guelph in Canada told Hamish Johnston at PhysicsWorld: "Understanding the mechanisms at play and how they can be manipulated to change the Tc surely will inspire the development of new [superconducting] materials".

ORIGINAL: Science Alert

BEC CREW

12 MAY 2015