Sunday, September 10, 2017

An interesting "Time Line".

I discovered this list of “Definitive moments in Science” in a book called “Why Us” by the science author James Le Fanu.

I have amended it with a couple of very important events – not recorded in the original list (amended 11/09/17).

1940 – I was born!
1945 - The atomic bomb used in anger, for the first and only time, dropped on Japan.
1946 – The electron microscope reveals the internal structure of the cell.
1947 – The invention of the transistor launches the Electronic Age.
1953 – Theory of the formation of the chemical elements of life by nuclear fusion
within stars.
1953 – The laboratory simulation of the “origin of life”.
1953 – James Watson and Francis Crick discover the “Double Helix” of DNA.
1955 – The first polio vaccine.
1957 – The (then) Soviet Union launches Sputnik and the epoch of planetary exploration.
1960 – The oral contraceptive first marketed.
1961 – The genetic code deciphered.
1965 – The theory of the “Big Bang” creation of the Universe confirmed by the discovery of cosmic microwave background radiation.
1967 – The first heart transplant.
1969 – US astronaut Neil Armstrong becomes first man on the moon.
1969 – James Lovelock proposes theory of a life-sustaining atmosphere.
1973 – The advent of genetic engineering.
1973 – First ever call on a mobile (cell) phone.
1973 - The invention of Magnetic Resonance Imaging (MRI) of the brain.
1974 – The discovery of “Lucy”, Australopithecus afarensis, dated 4 million years ago, our earliest known humanoid ancestor.
1974 – The first Grand Unified Theory of particle physics.
1977 - The first personal computer designed for the mass market.
1977 – The first complete genetic sequence of an organism.
1979 – Voyagers I and II relay data from Jupiter, Saturn, Uranus and Neptune (and they are still going – now in deep interstellar space).
1979 – The first “test tube baby”.
1980 – The asteroid impact hypothesis for the mass extinction of dinosaurs.
1984 – The discovery of  “Turkana Boy”, the first complete skeleton of Homo erectus, dated 1.5 million years ago – the precursor of us, Homo sapiens.
1984 – Confirmation of the theory of “plate tectonics” – moving “plates” forming the continents.
1987 – Formulation of the “out of Africa” hypothesis of human evolution.
1989 – Launch of the World Wide Web (the internet).
1990 – The Decade of the Brain (the “plasticity” of the brain discovered – for example).
1999 – The Hubble space telescope observes the birth of stars, for the first time, in the constellation Taurus.
2000 – The first self-balancing, transport machine – the Segway Human Transporter.
2001 – Publication of the Human Genome.
2001 – Apple’s iPod invented.
2001 – Invention of the first “bio-artificial” liver – functioning in place of a liver.
2002 – The first birth control “patch” produced.
2003 – The world’s first battery/petrol “hybrid” car produced by Toyota.
2005 – YouTube invented.
2007 – Apple’s iPhone invented.
2007 – The first “fast radio burst” from interstellar space identified.
2010 – The Neanderthal Genome project completed showing interbreeding with ancient humans.
2015 – Traces of liquid water discovered on Mars.
2016 – Gravitational waves discovered for the first time from a “black hole “ merger”.
2017 – The first Earth-like planet which may have liquid water on its surface, located “just” 21 light                                                                                                                                                                          years away.

Pretty impressive, Huh! All since I was born!! Mmmm.

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