The lost city found by chance, mapping the brain of a fly or the world’s first IVF rhino pregnancy are among the scientific breakthroughs of 2024.
SpaceX rocket, caught in its claws PHOTO: video capture
A total solar eclipse seen by millions, a lost jungle city accidentally discovered, and hope for the near-extinct northern white rhino – science gave us plenty to be excited about this year.
One of the most important news stories was about making space travel cheaper and easier, with Elon Musk’s Starship taking a giant step for humanity to have a reusable rocket, writes bbc.com.
Of course, not everything was positive. For example, in terms of bad news for the planet, 2024 is almost certain to be the hottest year on record.
But there were also many reasons for celebration. Here are seven of our favorite uplifting science stories of the year.
Catching the racket with “sticks”
In October, Elon Musk’s Starship rocket completed a world premiere after part of it was captured on its return to the launch pad.
The SpaceX vehicle’s lower booster rocket flew back to its launch tower instead of falling into the sea. This was grabbed by a huge pair of mechanical arms or “sticks” during the fifth test flight.
It brought SpaceX’s ambition to develop a fully reusable and rapidly launchable rocket to go to the Moon and maybe even Mars one big step closer.
“A day for the history books”, said SpaceX engineers as the rocket landed safely.
Mapping the fly brain
MRC/Nature Electrical diagram of a fly’s brain showing a complex network of connections and tiny nerves of different colors against a black background.MRC/Nature
As beautiful as it is complex, the fly brain has more than 130,000 wires with 50 million intricate connections
Flies can walk, hover, and males can even sing love songs to woo their mates – all with a brain smaller than a pinhead. But it wasn’t until October that scientists studying the brain of a fruit fly mapped the position, shape and connections of each of its 130,000 cells and 50 million connections.
It was the most detailed analysis of an adult animal’s brain ever, and a leading brain specialist described the discovery as a “giant leap” in understanding the brain itself.
One of the leaders of the research stated that it will shed new light on “the mechanism of thought“.
Lost Mayan city found ‘by accident
Imagine you’ve searched for something on Google, you get to page 16 of the results, and: “Wait a minute, is that a lost Mayan city?” Well, that’s what happened to Luke Auld-Thomas, a PhD student at Tulane University in the US, who came across a laser study by a Mexican environmental monitoring organization.
When he processed the data using the methods used by archaeologists, he saw what others had not seen – a huge ancient city that could have housed 30-50,000 people at its peak between 750 and 850 AD.
Archaeologists have found pyramids, sports fields and amphitheatres in the vanished city under the canopy of the jungle in Mexico.
The complex – which the researchers named Valeriana – was discovered using Lidar, a type of laser survey that maps structures buried under vegetation.
World’s first IVF rhino pregnancy
Embryo transfer was performed with the help of a southern white rhinoceros surrogate mother. There are only two northern white rhinos left in the world, but we reported on a fertility breakthrough that offers hope for saving the species. Scientists have achieved the world’s first IVF rhino pregnancy, successfully transferring a lab-created rhino embryo into a surrogate mother.
The procedure was performed on southern white rhinos, a closely related subspecies of northern white rhinos that still number in the thousands, and required 13 attempts.
The mother eventually died of an infection, but an autopsy showed the 6.5cm male fetus was developing well and had a 95% chance of being born alive, proving that a viable pregnancy is possible through rhino IVF. There are 30 precious northern white rhino embryos and the next step is to try IVF with them.
Trouble in the arctic town as polar bears and humans grapple with global warming
Conservation has slowed the loss of nature
Given that human activity causes what the conservation organization World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) calls a loss
“catastrophic” of species, we can sometimes feel like we don’t hear much good news about nature.
But a ten-year study has shown that conservation actions are effective in reducing biodiversity loss worldwide. Scientists from dozens of research institutes analyzed 665 tests of conservation measures in different countries and oceans and found that they had a positive effect in two out of three cases.
The measures ranged from hatching Chinook salmon to eradicating invasive algae, and the study’s authors said their findings provide a “ray of light” for those working to protect threatened animals and plants.
The solar eclipse that amazed millions of people
Tens of millions of people in Mexico, the US and Canada were literally turned away from a total solar eclipse. This occurs when the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, blotting out its light. A total solar eclipse occurs somewhere on Earth about every 18 months, but it often occurs in fairly unpopulated areas, while this one had major cities in its path, including Dallas.
The path of totality – the area where people could see the Moon completely blocking the Sun – was also much wider this year than it was during the spectacular total solar eclipse of 2017.
Diagram showing the two types of shadows cast by the Moon during an eclipse, a shadow or total eclipse and a penumbra or partial eclipse.
New life for the Sycamore Gap tree
Millions of people once visited Sycamore Gap, the famous plane tree nestled in a gap in Hadrian’s Wall. So when it was cut in 2023, a national outpouring of shock and dismay naturally followed. In March, however, new life sprouted from the saved tree’s seeds and twigs, giving hope that the iconic tree has a future. BBC News saw the new shoots on a rare visit to the National Trust’s secretive center which protects the saplings.
The young branches and seeds thrown to the ground when the tree fell were saved by the National Trust, which looks after the site with the Northumberland National Park Authority. Saplings are now given to charities, groups and individuals as “trees of hope”.
