SC 207 BREAKTHROUGHS IN SCIENCE

2013

DECEMBER 8, 2014

JOHN BUSH

GROUPING “BREAKTHROUGHS”

• Origin of cosmic rays • Solar cell materials

WHAT ARE COSMIC RAYS?

• Mainly high energy protons and other atomic nuclei originating outside our solar system

• Energy distribution peaks at about 0.3 Gev • UHECRs have a trillion times the peak energy • What produces them?

ORIGIN OF COSMIC RAYS?

• High Energy Cosmic Rays – Supernovas – Magnetic variable stars – Crab Nebula – Active galactic nuclei, quasars (black holes) – Gamma ray bursts

• UHECRs near Centaurus A

CONFIRMING AN ORIGIN FOR COSMIC RAYS

• Breakthrough: confirming an 80 year-old hypothesis that cosmic rays originate in supernovas

• An indirect method was used to obtain confirmation—photons from neutral pion decay—Fermi detected characteristic γ rays

• So What?: By eliminating several other hypotheses enables narrowing of the focus of cosmic ray research—but is it complete?

PHOTOVOLTAIC CELLS

• Convert the energy of photons into electrical energy—26 kinds in Wikipedia

• Light causes separation of electrical charges in certain solid materials

• Most commonly used material is crystalline silicon

• Research into alternate materials is very active

PEROVSKITES: THE RACE TO HARNESS SUNLIGHT

• The “breakthrough”: Materials that are cheaper and easier to fabricate and rival silicon photovoltaics in efficiency

• Achieved by creating variations on the structure of perovskite

• So What? Easy fabrication, potential for low cost and reasonable efficiency make this a real contender

WHAT IS A PEROVSKITE? • Any material with the same type of crystal

structure as the mineral perovskite CaTiO3

• General formula for a perovskite is ABX3 • In solar cells A is an alkyl ammonium ion B is a

lead ion and the Xs may be chloride ions • CH3 NH3

+ PbCl3-

PEROVSKITE SOLAR CELLS

• Pluses: cheap materials, easy fabrication, improving efficiency (over 20%).

• Minuses: toxicity of lead, instability in presence of water

• On market in 2017? • Other applications?

– Increase efficiency of solar cells – Produce hydrogen from water

“AREAS TO WATCH IN 2014”

• Space Ghosts • Cosmic history, with a twist • Clinical genomes • Bye-bye, chimps?

SCIENTIFIC MISCELLANY OF THE YEAR

• Fossil of the year • Vertebrate of the year • Invertebrate of the year • Breakout of the year • Politico of the year • Breakup of the year • Ruling of the year • Breakdowns of the year • Genomes of the year

A TOPICAL ARRANGEMENT

• Animals • Humans • Space • Breakdowns of 2013 • Notable genome sequences of 2013

VERTEBRATE: THE NAKED MOLE RAT

NAKED MOLE RAT

• Live in burrow systems in parts of East Africa • Life is totally underground • One of only two known eusocial mammals—

like ants and bees • Only constantly cold blooded mammal • Unusually long lifespan—over 30 years • Never develop malignant tumors

INVERTEBRATE 0F THE YEAR: PLANTHOPPER

IMMATURE ISSUS COLEOPTRATUS

WHAT IS A PLANTHOPPER?

• A “true bug” • Lives by sucking sap out of plant stems • Can jump accurately at 400 Gs in 2

milliseconds • Another human “first” was anticipated by the

planthopper

GEARS

THE FOSSIL OF THE YEAR

THE DMANISI SKULL

DMANISI FINDS • Excavations started in 1981 • Fossils dated at about 1.8 Myra • Have now found 5 skulls plus several

fragments of skeletons and primitive tools • Skull 5 defied expectations: too little brain,

too much jaw

RESULT: A MAJOR CONTROVERSY

• Are they all a single species? (Homo erectus) • Are they different species? • How many species of pre-human hominids

were there?

HOMO ERECTUS?

POLITICO OF THE YEAR

LAMAR SMITH

SOME HISTORY

• Since 1987 Representative for the 21st Texas Congressional District

• Since January 2013 Chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology

• Skeptic of human-caused climate change • [U]ntil we find a way to reform entitlement

programs and address the elephant in the room — mandatory spending — science agencies could continue to see shrinking budgets, and America’s status as the world leader in science and innovation will be in danger.

MR SMITH ON CHELYABINSK

• “Maybe it’s the scientific skeptic in me, but this ‘meteor’ may just have been a bunch of fireworks that some Siberian fellow set off after drinking a little too much Stoli. It is winter, after all, and that’s how those folks keep warm.”

MR SMITH ATTACKS NSF MERIT REVIEW

• Merit review (peer review) has been the basis for awarding NSF grants for 60 years--a confidential process

• Mr Smith wants to replace it with review that incorporates “the nation’s priorities”

• “there are many grants that no taxpayer would consider in the national interest or worthy of how their hard earned dollars should be spent”

RESOLUTION ?

• None in sight • NSF has acknowledged Mr Smith’s

committee’s right to reduce funding for an area such as social science but not to intervene in the awarding of grants for specific proposals

• The politics have become very involved

RULING OF THE YEAR

UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT

ASSOCIATION FOR MOLECULAR PATHOLOGY v. MYRIAD GENETICS

• Human genes can no longer be patented in the United States -- June 2013

• Myriad had patented the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes giving them control of tests for these genes

• The court ruling – Naturally occurring human genes cannot be

patented – Patents can be claimed on modified DNA

CONFUSION REIGNS • When is a modification significant enough to

merit a patent? • Will this ruling provide a precedent to

invalidate patents for non-human genes such as plant genes?

• Patent examiners and the courts will have to resolve these issues!

BREAKOUT OF THE YEAR

VOYAGER 1

VOYAGER I ENTERS INTERSTELLAR SPACE! OR DOES IT?

• Launched September 1977 • Completed surveys of Jupiter and Saturn

systems in 1980 • Crossed the heliopause in August 2012 • Confirmed by NASA in September 2013 • But has it left the solar system?

WHERE DOES THE SOLAR SYSTEM END AND INTERSTELLAR SPACE BEGIN?

VIDEO

GO VOYAGER!

BREAKUP OF THE YEAR 2013

BREAKUP OF THE YEAR

Chelyabinsk Meteor

VIDEO

WHAT WAS IT?

• A superbolide caused by entry of a near earth asteroid into the atmosphere at about 41,000 mph

• Diameter ~70 feet • Weight ~ 13,000 tons

CONSEQUENCES • Air burst estimated to be equivalent to a

500kt nuclear weapon at ~20 miles altitude • Injuries:

– 1491 people sought medical attention – 112 people hospitalized – Mainly due to flying glass – Some flash blindness and uv skin burns

• Damage – More than7200 buildings damaged – Broken windows and collapsed roofs

BREAKDOWNS OF 2013

BREAKDOWNS OF THE YEAR

• Limiting greenhouse gas emissions • Kepler space telescope • US Government partial shutdown • Publication of a bogus paper • Scientific chutzpah

UNITED NATIONS CLIMATE CHANGE CONFERENCES

1 1995: COP 1, The Berlin Mandate 2 1996: COP 2, Geneva, Switzerland 3 1997: COP 3, The Kyoto Protocol on Climate Change 4 1998: COP 4, Buenos Aires, Argentina 5 1999: COP 5, Bonn, Germany 6 2000: COP 6, The Hague, Netherlands 7 2001: COP 6, Bonn, Germany 8 2001: COP 7, Marrakech, Morocco 9 2002: COP 8, New Delhi, India 10 2003: COP 9, Milan, Italy 11 2004: COP 10, Buenos Aires, Argentina 12 2005: COP 11/CMP 1, Montreal, Canada 13 2006: COP 12/CMP 2, Nairobi, Kenya 14 2007: COP 13/CMP 3, Bali, Indonesia 15 2008: COP 14/CMP 4, Poznań, Poland 16 2009: COP 15/CMP 5, Copenhagen, Denmark 17 2010: COP 16/CMP 6, Cancún, Mexico 18 2011: COP 17/CMP 7, Durban, South Africa 19 2012: COP 18/CMP 8, Doha, Qatar 20 2013: COP 19/CMP 9, Warsaw, Poland 21 2014: COP 20/CMP 10, Lima, Peru 22 2015: COP 21/CMP 11, Paris, France

CANCUN 2010

All parties "Recognizing that climate change represents an urgent and potentially irreversible threat to human societies and the planet, and thus requires to be urgently addressed by all Parties,". “It recognizes the IPCC Fourth Assessment Report goal of a maximum 2 °C global warming and all parties should take urgent action to meet this goal. It also agreed upon greenhouse gas emissions should peak as soon as possible, but recognizing that the time frame for peaking will be longer in developing countries, since social and economic development and poverty eradication are the first and overriding priorities of developing countries.”

KEPLER SPACE TELESCOPE

PARTIAL GOVERNMENT SHUTDOWN

WHAT DID THE SHUTDOWN DO TO U.S. SCIENCE?

• Thousands of scientists lost 2 weeks of data collection

• Thousands of specially bred mice died • Asteroid watch program shut down for 16 days • Tests for the James Webb space telescope

delayed at a cost of about $1Million/day • NIH suspended all new clinical trials • 2/3rd of CDC staff furloughed

PUBLICATION OF A BOGUS PAPER

JOHN BOHANNON

OPEN ACCESS JOURNALS

• “Available to the reader without financial, legal, or technical barriers”

• Costs are subsidized or provided by the author • Examples: Public Library of Science (PLOS) and

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (delayed access)

• Are the papers adequately subject to peer review?

BOHANNON’S STING

• Bohannon is a staff writer for Science • He concocted an obviosly flawed paper

ostensibly on a plant with medicinal properties

• It was accepted by 157 open access journals and rejected by 98

• What does that say about the quality of peer review by open access journals?

DIEDERIK STAPEL

STAPEL’S CAREER

• 1997 PhD cum laude in social psychology Univ of Amsterdam

• 2000 Professor @ Univ Groningen • 2010 Professor @ Tilburg Univ, director of the

Tilburg Institute for Behavioral Economic Research, and dean of the social and behavioral psychology faculty

• 2011 Tilburg Univ suspends Stapel • 2012 Tilburg Univ pursues criminal charges

CONSEQUENCES FOR SCIENCE

• Contamination of the scientific literature – At least 30 published papers employ false data – 130 papers published by Stapel are suspect – Many have been retracted including one retracted

from Science

• Blighting of several graduate students’ careers • Distrust of research in the field of social

psychology fostered

CONSEQUENCES FOR STAPEL?

• Avoided criminal prosecution • Published a mea culpa memoir • Is now teaching again • VIDEO

GENOMES OF THE YEAR

• Oldest human mitochondrial DNA atapuerca mountains • Oldest organism genome • Revision to the Tree of Life • Deep diving mammals • Early days of flowering plants • The genomic essence of big cats • Scorpion • Conifer genomes • HeLa cell line • Evolution of extreme adaptations • Common core of echolocation genes • The gene for pigeon crests • Extinction of the Irish potato blight “fungus”

OLDEST HUMAN MITOCHRONDIAL DNA

OLDEST ORGANISM GENOME

PRZEWALSKI’S HORSE

REVISION OF THE TREE OF LIFE

COMB JELLY/CTENOPHORE GENOME

A REVISION OF THE TREE OF LIFE

BUT!

• Their genomes lack genes commonly involved in – Immune function – Development of tissues and organs – Neural function

• They have a complex nervous system of a different design than other animals

• Did they branch off before sponges? If so they are the closest living descendants to the last common ancestor of animals

GENOMES OF THE YEAR

• Oldest human mitochondrial DNA atapuerca mountains • Oldest organism genome • Revision to the Tree of Life • Deep diving mammals • Early days of flowering plants • The genomic essence of big cats • Scorpion • Conifer genomes • HeLa cell line • Evolution of extreme adaptations • Common core of echolocation genes • The gene for pigeon crests • Extinction of the Irish potato blight “fungus”

EXTINCTION OF THE IRISH POTATO BLIGHT “FUNGUS”

• The good news: the genome responsible is extinct

• The not so good news: more virulent strains now attack crops

• The fairly good news: resistant strains of potatoes have been bred and engineered

• The really bad news: opposition to GM food plants has caused BASF to stop its research

2014?