INTERESTING SCIENTIFIC DISCOVERIES OF LAST YEAR

KEY BLOOD PRESSURE DRUG SEEN IN

STARTLING NEW DETAIL

A study from Arizona State University reveals the

action of an experimental blood pressure drug in

unprecedented detail, potentially aiding the

development of new and better drugs.

FIRST EXOPLANET VISIBLE-LIGHT SPECTRUM

Astronomers have made the first-ever direct detection of the

spectrum of visible light reflected off an exoplanet. These

observations also revealed new properties about this object,

the first exoplanet ever discovered around a normal star:

51 Pegasi b. The result promises an exciting future for this

technique, particularly with the advent of next generation

instruments and future telescopes, such as the E-ELT.

THREE THOUSAND ATOMS ENTANGLED

USING A SINGLE PHOTON

Physicists from MIT and the University of Belgrade have

developed a new technique that can successfully

entangle three thousand atoms using only a single photon.

The results, published in the journal Nature, represent

the largest number of particles that have ever been

mutually entangled experimentally.

THE AMAZON’S CARBON UPTAKE DECLINES

AS TREES DIE FASTER

The results of a monumental 30 year survey of the South

American rain forest which involved an international team

of almost 100 researchers and was led by the University

of Leeds, has some bad news for earth. The most extensive

study ever conducted shows that the rain forest is gradually

losing its ability to absorb carbon from the atmosphere

as trees die at faster and faster rates.

NASA FOUND EVIDENCE OF A VAST

ANCIENT OCEAN ON MARS

According to NASA’s scientists a massive ancient ocean once

covered nearly half the northern hemisphere of Mars,

making the planet a more promising place for alien life to

have gained a foothold. The huge body of water spread

over a fifth of the planet’s surface, as great a portion as

the Atlantic, and was a mile deep in some places. In total,

the ocean held twenty million cubic kilometres of water,

or more than is found in the Arctic Ocean, the

researchers discovered.

NASA AMES RESEARCH CENTRE REPRODUCED

THE BUILDING BLOCKS OF LIFE IN A LABORATORY

NASA reported that, for the first time, complex DNA and RNA

organic compounds of life, including uracil, cytosine and

thymine, have been formed in a laboratory under outer space

conditions, using starting chemicals, such as pyrimidine,

found in meteorites. Pyrimidine, like polycyclic aromatic

hydrocarbons (PAHs), the most carbon-rich chemical

found in the universe, may have been formed in red

giants or in interstellar dust and gas clouds,

according to the scientists.

BIG BANG, DEFLATED? THE UNIVERSE

MAY HAVE HAD NO BEGINNING

According to this theory (if it turns out to be true), the universe

may not have started with a bang. A team of theoretical

physicists at the University of Lethbridge in Alberta, Canada,

presented an alternative cosmological view to extend the

Big Bang model, suggesting the universe had no beginning

or singularity and the age of the universe is infinite.

The new theory was explained in a paper published on

February 4, 2015, in the journal Physical Letters B and

another paper that is currently under peer review, which

was published in the preprint journal arXiv.