Released on December 6, 2023
A total of 12 minutes checked out
It has been another outstanding year for science, with astronomers revealing brand-new discoveries about the universe, biologists carving out a clearer map of our world’s animals, and paleontologists painting a richer picture of the dinosaurs that roamed the Earth millions of years ago. Human achievement in scientific research continues to captivate and reveal new mysteries to solve.
Here are a few of National Geographic‘s top picks for 2023’s most exciting advancements.
1. Astronomers discover enormous ripples in the material of space-time
For the very first time, researchers have spotted low-frequency gravitational waves moving through the galaxy. These cosmic ripples are likely the distant echoes of supermassive black holes interacting and merging billions of light-years away. A consortium of international scientists found these cosmic waves by measuring small time variations in radio signals from pulsar stars. The findings suggest that there were even more colossal black holes in the early universe than previously believed. Continuing to study this new type of gravitational wave might help unravel information about the origins of our universe and better explain the hidden compounds and forces that power the galaxies.
2. Brain decoder translates human thoughts – providing hope for those who’ve lost speech
University of Texas at Austin researchers reported cutting-edge progress with their new AI-based system – translating an individual’s brain activity into a continuous stream of text in the lab. This semantic decoder does not require a surgical implant, instead, it relies on functional MRI scans to capture brain activity in response to stimuli like podcasts or images. The brain decoding system essentially produces a dictionary of brain activity patterns based on how a person reacts to specific words or images and then uses that dictionary to cross-reference brain activity to other things the person is thinking about. Although this technology, which depends on AI language generation algorithms, is still in its early days, it has already raised challenging questions about emotional privacy and ethics in non-voluntary situations. However, for the families of individuals with communication difficulties, the work offers new hope.
3. Ancient whale may be the biggest animal ever
Move over blue whale – an ancient cetacean appropriately named the Perucetus colossus may have been the largest animal ever. A new analysis of fossil bones from the ancient whale that roamed the waters along the coast of Peru more than 37 million years ago suggests that the creature could have weighed more than 300 tons and measured around 60 feet. If this assumption is true, then it would have been the largest known animal to have ever lived. Despite the blue whale’s longer length of about 100 feet, it only weighs around 200 tons.
4. T. rex had lips, changing our image of this dinosaur
Tyrannosaurus rex and other carnivorous dinosaurs likely had a different “look” than previously thought.
