From unraveling the mysteries of the cosmos to revolutionizing medicine, the 21st century has been a golden age of scientific discovery. Join us as we explore the groundbreaking advancements that have shaped our understanding of the universe and ourselves. From the depths of space to the building blocks of life, these discoveries are changing our world.
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00:00This is about taking the technology and applying it to solve problems people really care about.
00:05Welcome to WatchMojo, and today we're counting down our picks for the 21st
00:09Century's Biggest Scientific Leaps Forward.
00:12This is a very special moment and a historical moment for malaria,
00:19for vaccines, for public health.
00:22Number 30. COVID-19 and the Rise of Genetic Vaccines
00:27There's a part of me that is almost overwhelmed
00:30at how effective and powerful these vaccines have been.
00:36Messenger RNA was originally discovered in the 1960s.
00:39Scientists were immediately intrigued by its ability to instruct cells to produce specific
00:44proteins. Challenges like mRNA's instability and difficulty delivering it into cells slowed
00:50progress. Over time, breakthroughs in nanoparticle delivery and stabilization paved the way for
00:55practical applications. The COVID-19 pandemic hit the gas pedal in this field of research.
01:00Within a year of the pandemic, scientists rapidly developed mRNA vaccines.
01:05It gives the body a set of genetic instructions to make specific proteins.
01:10In the case of a COVID vaccine, it's teaching the body to make spike proteins,
01:14identical to the ones the coronavirus uses to break into our cells.
01:18The vaccines instructed cells to produce a harmless piece of the virus,
01:22sparking an immune response.
01:23The unprecedented success of these vaccines highlighted mRNA's versatility and potential.
01:29In the future, mRNA technology could be applied to combat a range of diseases,
01:33including influenza, HIV, and cancer.
01:37With all that focus and attention and energy, we're able to do something
01:43far more quickly than we've ever seen it done before.
01:46Number 29. Water and Calcium Batteries
01:49The key difference between this battery and probably all the others you visited is that
01:53we use water as an electrolyte.
01:55Breakthroughs in water-based and calcium-ion batteries could reshape global energy storage.
02:00Unlike conventional lithium-ion options, these technologies prioritize safety and
02:04environmental sustainability. They are made of non-flammable materials that are less
02:09toxic than standard lithium-ion batteries. Aqueous batteries rely on water as an
02:13electrolyte. Water-based batteries reduce both overheating risk and ecological impact.
02:18Many experts are betting on hydrogen as the key to sustainable power for many uses,
02:24but it offers just few opportunities for intralogistics.
02:28Calcium-ion batteries, too, present an attractive alternative to lithium.
02:31Calcium is the fifth most common element on Earth.
02:35Mining it is cheaper and easier than with lithium, which would have significant geopolitical impact.
02:40As demand for renewable energy and electric vehicles grows,
02:43the need for safer, eco-friendly batteries intensifies.
02:47If optimized, these emerging technologies could provide scalable,
02:50reliable, and sustainable energy solutions.
03:06Climate change is here and global temperatures are on the rise.
03:10Homes and businesses are getting warmer for longer stretches of the year,
03:13and we need cheaper, more sustainable cooling options.
03:16Elastocaloric technology offers a promising solution.
03:20Conventional air conditioning relies on harmful refrigerants. Elastocalorics do not.
03:36Instead, they harness the unique properties of certain metals like nickel and titanium,
03:40which can absorb and release heat when stressed.
03:43This process requires no toxic chemicals and significantly reduces energy consumption.
03:48This technology could be transformative,
03:50especially for developing regions with limited access to electricity.
03:54With growing commercial interest,
03:56elastocaloric heat pumps may soon become the global standard.
04:0027. Expanding Carbon Capture Technology
04:03For us to do direct air capture effectively and efficiently,
04:08we want to make sure that we're using energy that has a low carbon footprint.
04:12Humanity has three responses to climate change. Adapt, halt, and reverse.
04:17If reversing climate change is ever going to be a possibility,
04:20carbon capture technology will be at the heart of that effort.
04:23Carbon capture began with oil recovery methods utilized by the fossil fuel industry.
04:27Today, the overwhelming majority of carbon capture is just rebranded oil recovery.
04:32Still, by the 2010s, innovations in carbon capture expanded.
04:36Direct air capture pulls CO2 directly from the atmosphere.
04:40So what's unique about what we've developed at Brilliant Planet is we're working with nature
04:44to remove carbon from the atmosphere in a way that can be demonstrated as permanent,
04:49is hugely scalable, and is uniquely affordable.
04:52Solid absorption, mineralization, and ocean-based methods also emerged,
04:56offering diverse ways to sequester CO2.
04:59Scientists also began engineering bacteria and algae to eat CO2,
05:03using it for growth and producing biofuels or other useful byproducts.
05:08Today, carbon capture research is advancing rapidly.
05:11Scalable solutions could help us reach net zero.
05:14And if you look at the words and break it down, you've got bioreactor,
05:17which means you're using a living organism to do a job for you.
05:20You've got photo, meaning light.
05:2226. Two Steps Forward, One Step Back – Nuclear Fusion
05:26The Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory may have achieved something extraordinary,
05:31something they've spent decades trying to do,
05:34a nuclear fusion reaction that could create more energy than it uses.
05:39Fusion energy research has made exciting strides,
05:42bringing us a step closer to replicating the power of a star.
05:45Fusion releases energy when atomic nuclei combine at aggressively high temperatures.
05:50If humans can create it artificially, the technology could offer clean,
05:54limitless power without greenhouse gases or radioactive waste.
05:57In a major milestone, scientists at the National Ignition Facility
06:01achieved net energy gain in 2022.
06:04The laser shot fired from this control room put two units of energy into the experiment,
06:11atoms began fusing, and about three units of energy came out.
06:16In other words, the reaction generated more power than was needed to create it.
06:20This breakthrough demonstrated the potential viability of artificial fusion.
06:24Unfortunately, we aren't as close to large-scale fusion
06:28as we had hoped at the start of the decade.
06:30Maintaining sustainable reactions and dealing with the high temperatures involved
06:34is technologically beyond us at the moment.
06:36Whether fusion power is 10 or 50 years away is now mainly an engineering problem.
06:46For unknown reasons, a huge conglomeration of sea ice
06:49floated in the Amazon Sea between them and Thwaites.
06:53Scientists have known about the greenhouse effect of gases since the 1800s.
06:57The 20th century was one of rapidly spreading industry,
07:00with climate fears becoming the proverbial can kicked down the road.
07:04At the start of the 21st century,
07:06scientists believed Greenland and Antarctica's ice caps would melt gradually.
07:10The last 20 years have taught us differently.
07:13Melting ice sheets contribute to rising sea levels.
07:17As ice sheets in Antarctica and Greenland melt,
07:20they raise sea levels, adding fresh water to the ocean every day.
07:24Each year is warmer than the one before it.
07:26Glacial melt has rapidly accelerated, defying earlier models.
07:30Ice loss isn't confined to the poles.
07:32Europe's glaciers are retreating faster than anticipated,
07:35with some projected to vanish in coming decades.
07:38The alarm of climate scientists is now a clarion call around the world,
07:42as nations must grapple with the effects of a changing climate.
07:56According to the World Health Organization,
07:58malaria kills more than half a million people every year.
08:02Ninety-five percent of the deaths occur in Africa.
08:05Malaria has been a plague on the continent of Africa for centuries.
08:09In recent years, it is still a leading cause of death.
08:12Efforts to create a vaccine date back to the mid-20th century.
08:16Unfortunately, malaria's complex life cycle and the
08:18parasite's ability to evade immune responses made development difficult.
08:22After years of clinical trials,
08:24the World Health Organization approved the RTSS vaccine Moskvarex in 2021.
08:29It was found to be about 30% effective at preventing
08:32severe cases of the disease which is transmitted through mosquitoes,
08:36but that figure rose to around 70% when the vaccine was combined with other treatments.
08:41Two years later, R21 Matrix M, a more effective vaccine, emerged, promising better results.
08:47These vaccines can utterly reshape life in Africa by reducing the disease burden.
08:52Young children are particularly at risk,
08:54meaning these vaccines could mean everything to Africa's future.
08:58Since it was introduced, it has been an opportunity to help us
09:02to follow clients and also improve the uptake of other vaccines.
09:07Number 23. The Creation of Synthetic DNA
09:10Is this, what's in this vial, the same thing that is in our DNA?
09:15It's synthetic DNA, so it's not from a human or anything, but it is identical.
09:20Scientists and schoolchildren have understood the fundamentals of DNA structure for decades.
09:25In traditional DNA, there are four chemical bases
09:28that pair up to form the letters of the genetic code A, T, C, and G.
09:32So you can simply translate the binary into the language of the four DNA letters.
09:37A could equal 00, T is 01, C is 10, and G is 11.
09:43In 2017, researchers were able to create two additional synthetic bases to E. coli bacteria
09:49named X and Y. They effectively added two new letters to DNA.
09:53This expansion of the genetic alphabet can allow cells to use
09:56the synthetic bases alongside the natural ones.
09:59Essentially, scientists are learning how to create the building blocks of life,
10:03new types of proteins that don't exist in nature.
10:06This breakthrough could lead to the development of specialized medicines and new materials,
10:10and catapult humanity into a new future of bioengineering.
10:14Scientists will surely debate whether this is truly creating new life,
10:18but no one can deny the potential impact of this achievement.
10:22Number 22, Artificial Brains.
10:24TrueNorth is a new approach to computing architecture that will allow us to innovate
10:28in how we solve algorithms and also how we develop high-performance computing architecture.
10:33The IBM TrueNorth chip is a transformative leap in computer processing.
10:38Unlike traditional chips, which process information sequentially,
10:41TrueNorth is inspired by the structure and function of the human brain.
10:45It uses a neuromorphic design with over a million artificial neurons and 256 million synapses.
10:51This architecture makes it exceptionally efficient,
10:54consuming far less power than conventional chips.
10:57That energy efficiency could revolutionize artificial intelligence.
11:07AI requires so much power that Google plans to purchase nuclear reactors to power its data
11:12centers. With neuromorphic chips, complex AI tasks can run on small devices without draining power.
11:18TrueNorth's design also allows for real-time processing of sensory data.
11:22This could help advance robotics, autonomous vehicles, and smart devices.
11:40Number 21, The James Webb Space Telescope.
11:49This is, quite simply, the greatest astronomical advancement in the history of the world.
11:54It has utterly revolutionized our understanding of the universe in just a few short years.
11:59Designed to see farther and with greater detail than any previous telescope,
12:03the James Webb Space Telescope captures light from the distant past.
12:06We can now study galaxies, stars, and cosmic events as they were billions of years ago.
12:18Which is all that remains of the light reaching us from the dawn of time.
12:23Trouble is, infrared is invisible to the human eye.
12:28One major discovery includes a, quote,
12:30pristine configuration of potential exoplanets just 100 light years away.
12:35Astronomers also discovered the Big Ring, a tremendous galactic cluster that has
12:40unraveled our previous understanding of the structure of the universe.
12:43Perhaps most notably, the James Webb Space Telescope also detected the oldest known
12:47black hole, formed only 570 million years after the Big Bang.
13:02Number 20, The Human Genome Project.
13:05The average human cell is made up of 23 chromosomes, each containing hundreds to
13:10thousands of genes. In combination, these 23 DNA molecules serve as the instruction
13:15booklet for building a human being. In the year 2000, through the combined efforts of a
13:19global community of researchers, we successfully mapped out a rough draft of the human genome,
13:23before completing a final draft in 2003. This took a colossal effort spanning over 10 years,
13:30and remains to this day, the single largest collaboration in the history of biology.
13:35Thanks to this groundbreaking work, we now have a fundamental understanding of our genetic makeup
13:40and DNA. Essentially, The Human Genome Project has given future generations of
13:44scientists the keys to unlock many mysteries of the human body.
13:49Number 19, The First Image of a Black Hole.
13:52Of the many strange and wondrous things that make up our universe, black holes are without a doubt
13:57among the most captivating. But until recently, we had only ever observed their effects,
14:02rather than the black holes themselves. In 2019, we finally got to gaze into the abyss.
14:08That year, the Event Horizon Telescope, actually a collaboration of radio telescopes around the
14:13world, brought us the first ever image of a black hole. Larger than our own solar system,
14:19it's located at the heart of the Messier 87 galaxy, 53 million light years away. The image
14:25is an accomplishment that many once believed to be impossible, even within the scientific community.
14:31Number 18, Graphene.
14:33The history of this substance can be traced all the way back to 1859, when English chemist
14:38Benjamin Collins Brody first made observations suggesting its existence. But it would take almost
14:43150 years before graphene was properly isolated. The honor of having made this breakthrough goes
14:48to physicists Andrei Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, who cracked the graphene mystery in 2004.
14:55A monolayer of carbon atoms, graphene is a nanomaterial that's at once harder than a
15:00diamond, but somehow also more flexible than rubber. It's at once incredibly strong,
15:05incredibly light, and conductive. In short, it's something of a miracle substance,
15:10and while its potential has yet to be fully realized, the theoretical applications could
15:15revolutionize many fields, from space travel to home electronics.
15:19Number 17, Mapping the Neanderthal genome.
15:22After sequencing human DNA, scientists have been able to do similar things for other species,
15:27and every genome we sequence gives us a better understanding of the world we live in today.
15:31But what about the distant past? Using bones from Neanderthals, a team based out of the Max
15:36Planck Institute for Evolutionary Anthropology in Germany mapped out the genome of our distant
15:40cousins. They published an initial draft in 2010, followed by a detailed full-coverage
15:54genome map in 2013. With this information, we've gained invaluable insights into our own
15:59evolutionary history, even learning that there was interbreeding between Neanderthals
16:03and our own species. Theoretically, this could also be used one day to bring Neanderthals
16:08back from the dead.
16:09Number 16, Eris, a new planet.
16:12As you may have heard, since 2006, Pluto has been downgraded to the status of a dwarf planet.
16:18Upsetting, right? Thankfully, Pluto doesn't need to feel lonely. The year before it got
16:22demoted in 2005, a team of scientists working at California's Palomar Observatory discovered
16:28a previously undocumented object in our solar system. Initial estimates of its size were
16:32so big that there was talk of it being considered a tenth planet. Ultimately, it was categorized
16:38as a dwarf planet like Pluto due to its size, but that label disguises its significance.
16:43Eris represents something much larger, the endless discoveries to be made in space,
16:47even relatively close to home.
16:50Number 15, discovering the building blocks of life beyond Earth.
16:54Much to the disappointment of alien enthusiasts, another decade has come and gone without the
16:58discovery of intelligent extraterrestrial life. Be that as it may, various off-planet findings
17:04did provide ample cause to hope. A European Space Agency mission to Comet 67P Shurimov-Gerasimenko
17:11found that it carried ingredients essential for the origin of life, including an amino acid.
17:16This has caused much speculation about the origins of life on Earth, and that crucial
17:21initial material may have originated elsewhere. Furthermore, NASA confirmed the presence of
17:26organic compounds in the water vapors of Saturn's moon Enceladus, further bolstering the hope that
17:31life could exist in the moon's subsurface ocean.
17:34Number 14, artificial intelligence for the win.
17:37Once not so long ago, we spoke of artificial intelligence as if it were a concept limited
17:42to the distant future and works of science fiction. But in reality, we're already living
17:47in the age of AI. In 2016, the Google AI program AlphaGo, which is part of DeepMind,
17:54bested the world champion of Go in four out of five matches. It's a testament to the very real
17:59potential of computer learning, not to mention the superior processing power of artificial
18:03intelligence compared to the human brain. And this is by no means a one-off.
18:11Over the past decade, various AI programs have been beating some of the world's top players in
18:15a variety of games, including Poker, Jeopardy, and even StarCraft 2.
18:21Number 13, combating major diseases.
18:24Ebola outbreaks are deadly and devastating, especially when affected communities have
18:29inadequate access to medical treatment. In 2015, however, field trials of a vaccine
18:34developed in Canada and licensed to Merck proved hugely successful. In 2019, the vaccine was
18:40officially approved in Europe, with the American Food and Drug Administration soon following suit
18:45in mid-December of the same year. The Ebola vaccine wasn't the only breakthrough of its kind,
18:49however. We also saw the rollout of a malaria vaccine that performed well in trial applications,
18:55as well as major improvements in HIV prevention and treatment both in America and around the world.
19:00Number 12, T-Rex soft tissue from a femur.
19:03Admit it, based on all the hubbub about DNA when we were kids, a lot of us expected
19:08cloned dinosaurs by now. Well, although a baby dino petting zoo seems unlikely to open soon,
19:13we have gotten closer in the last few decades. In 2005, a team from North Carolina State
19:19University found a 68-million-year-old dinosaur femur, complete with blood vessels and cells.
19:24While the fossil is informative in its own right, it represents an even bigger discovery.
19:29Soft tissue and proteins can survive within bones for millions of years. This flies in the face of
19:34everything we previously thought we knew on the subject, and encourages us to seek out more soft
19:39tissue. Number 11, measuring cosmic microwave background radiation. Dinosaurs, larger than life
19:55though they might be, are easy to wrap your mind around as a concept. This next breakthrough,
20:00not so much. But that doesn't make it any less groundbreaking. During the Big Bang,
20:04the universe expanded from a hot and dense initial state, cooling over time. This process left a
20:09residual sign in the form of cosmic microwave background radiation, first discovered in the
20:141960s. In the early 2000s, a U.S. team led by astrophysicist John Carlstrom managed to obtain
20:21incredibly detailed measurements of this radiation. Their data added support to the idea that the
20:26universe underwent a period of exponential expansion, and for the existence of dark
20:30matter and dark energy. Number 10, reusable rocket. NASA gets a lot of flack for not doing
20:36more manned missions to space. But the simple reality is, the cost of sending people into space
20:42and getting them home safely is astronomical. SpaceX, however, has developed reusable rockets
20:47that will hopefully make space travel far more affordable heading into the next decade.
20:52In December of 2015, after a few failed attempts, SpaceX achieved its goal by successfully landing
20:58the craft in an upright position. In 2017, they achieved another milestone by reusing a recovered
21:05orbital-class rocket booster. And with the launch of the Crew Dragon ship in 2019, commercial space
21:10travel looks set to become a reality sooner rather than later. Number 9, discovering some of the
21:16world's oldest art. These cave drawings might not set new standards for realism, but when you
21:21consider their age, they are certainly mind-blowing. Discovered in the Maris Caves on the Indonesian
21:26island of Sulawesi decades ago, these works of ancient art have finally been properly dated,
21:31as having been produced nearly 40,000 years ago, and can now be counted among the oldest known
21:37works of art found anywhere on Earth. Much of the images have been worn away by the passage of time,
21:43but rough outlines of hands and animal illustrations remain. In terms of age,
21:47they're rivaled only by the Chauvet cave paintings of southern France discovered in 1994,
21:52and their identification forces us to re-evaluate the history of human development
21:56in relation to representational art around the world. Number 8, synthetic bacteria. Why,
22:03you might be thinking, would scientists choose to make synthetic bacteria? Though bacteria gets a
22:08bad rap and is associated with everything from food going bad to illness, bacteria is also
22:13essential to digestive health, gives us fermented foods like cheese, and plays a key role in the
22:18world ecosystem. From a scientific perspective, bacteria is also about as simple an organism as
22:23you can find, or make. In 2010, pioneering geneticist Craig Venter and his team wrote
22:29an original bacterium genome and brought it to life in a cell. Though such a breakthrough could
22:34lead to biological weaponry, it also paves the way for designer bacteria that helps us do everything
22:39from generating biofuels and recycling plastics to creating new vaccines. Number 7, rewriting the
22:46human family tree. Already, the 21st century has welcomed many new members to our family tree.
22:522003 brought us Homo floresiensis, nicknamed the Hobbit. The 2010s kicked off with another new
22:58species, Australopithecus sediba, which lived 2 million years ago. That same year, DNA was
23:04extracted from a tiny pinky bone that revealed a genome of an entirely new branch of ancient
23:08relatives, the Denisovans. Like Neanderthals, they're thought to have been an offshoot of Homo
23:13heidelbergensis, a species that might also be our own direct ancestor. Other new species include
23:18Homo naledi and Homo luzonensis, adding even more distinct faces to an already complex family tree.
23:25Number 6, entering the CRISPR era. As previously discussed, this decade has been an especially
23:31exciting one for anyone interested in DNA. Not only did researchers manage to create synthetic DNA,
23:36but with the CRISPR-Cas9 system, a tool can effectively be used to edit DNA. The possible
23:42applications are endless, although they also raise serious ethical questions. In 2018, Chinese
23:48researcher He Jiankui genetically modified twins in an attempt to make them HIV-resistant. The affair
23:54led to an international outcry and new regulations on gene editing. However, disease resistance is a
24:00real possibility of the technology. Others include reverse engineering extinct species, cures to
24:05various genetic illnesses, and creating more durable crops. For those who look to works of
24:10science fiction as a roadmap to the future, CRISPR is being heralded as the key to mastering
24:15humanity's genetic destiny. Number 5, confirming the existence of dark matter via direct proof.
24:22There are few forces more shrouded in mystery than dark matter, thought to make up 85% of our entire
24:27universe. The history of this concept can be traced back all the way to theories of Lord Kelvin,
24:32first expressed in 1884. The problem is, despite dark matter making up the majority of, well,
24:38everything, it's not observable. So for decades, we've had no choice but to accept the existence
24:44of dark matter based on how it affects forces in our universe that are observable, like gravity.
24:49In 2006, however, the NASA Chandra X-ray Observatory witnessed two clusters of galaxies
24:55colliding, and the resulting display provided direct evidence to support the existence of dark
25:00matter. Number 4, Kepler-452b. Our search for life beyond planet Earth has taken on many forms,
25:07but arguably the most promising approach has been in identifying potentially habitable planets,
25:12those with Earth-like characteristics that could theoretically have given rise to intelligent life.
25:17We've found thousands of new exoplanets beyond our solar system, but arguably the most exciting
25:22is Kepler-452b, which is arguably the closest to an Earth twin discovered to date. It's been said
25:28that if we could reach it, which is unlikely with 1,400 light years separating us, life there would
25:34be possible. Though, given the extreme gravity, colonists living there would experience notable
25:39physiological changes over time, including changes in bone strength. Number 3, detecting the first
25:45gravitational waves. Like black holes, gravitational waves have been the subject of much theorization
25:51dating back over a century, but it wasn't until 2015 that their existence was finally confirmed.
25:57Gravitational waves are ripples caused by the movement of objects with sufficient mass through
26:02space, and that's exactly what the LIGO and VIRGO observatories in America and Europe were able to
26:08observe directly for the first time following what has been identified as the distant collision of
26:13two black holes. What does this mean? Well, for starters, it's the long overdue confirmation of
26:18an element of Einstein's theory of relativity that even Einstein himself doubted. More importantly,
26:24however, gravitational waves are a measurable force that allows us to explore and understand
26:29previously unfathomable depths of space. Number 2, the age of the universe. It doesn't get much
26:37more monumental than this. In 2001, astronomer Wendy Friedman earned herself a place in the
26:42history books when she helped rewrite them all. Friedman served as the co-leader of the Hubble
26:46Space Telescope Key Project, which had given itself the formidable task of measuring the rate
26:51at which the universe is expanding. Using this information, they were able to provide the most
26:56accurate estimate of the age of the universe offered up until that point in time. They estimated
27:00it at 13.7 billion years, with an uncertainty factor of 10%. In 2012, a NASA program supported
27:08this theory when data from its Wilkinson Microwave Anisotropy Probe Project suggested an age of 13.772
27:16billion years. Before we continue, be sure to subscribe to our channel and ring the bell to get
27:21notified about our latest videos. You have the option to be notified for occasional videos or
27:26all of them. If you're on your phone, make sure you go into your settings and switch on notifications.
27:33Number 1, tracking down the Higgs boson. As with our previous entry, there's something especially
27:39satisfying about a scientific discovery that's been long in the making. First theoretically
27:43predicted by Peter Higgs and François Englert in 1964, the Higgs boson, also known as the God
27:50particle, was finally scientifically proven to be fact in 2012 using the Large Hadron Collider
27:56at CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research. And with the successful identification
28:02of the subatomic particle, the scientific community got a much clearer and definite
28:06picture of reality as we know it, a confirmation of why matter has mass. In the case of the standard
28:12model of particle physics, the Higgs boson was the missing piece. Now onwards to the next decade
28:18of discoveries. Blind us with your favorite 21st century scientific advancements in the comments
28:23below. Check out these other clips from WatchMojo and be sure to subscribe and ring the bell to be
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