The sun’s warming of the atmosphere accelerates weathering, moving carbon dioxide (CO2) from the atmosphere into the oceans. CO2 concentrations drop so low that photosynthesis becomes impossible and most plants on Earth become extinct.
First fossil chromosomes discovered in mammoth skin in Siberia. Skin samples from the 52,000-year-old animal revealed chromosomes preserved in their original 3D configuration—something never before seen with ancient DNA.
Google and DeepMind release AlphaFold, a massive database of approximately 200 million 3D proteins: this demonstrates that Artificial Intelligence is also very good at predicting and imagining protein structures that can fit together, function, and be efficient.
Israel declares itself out of the Covid-19 pandemic, with 99% of the population vaccinated with the first dose and nearly 50% with the second.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approves the use of Johnson & Johnson’s single-dose COVID-19 vaccine.
Israel, the country with the highest rate of mass vaccination progress, has reached two-thirds of its population vaccinated with the first dose, and half of them have already received the second dose. But more importantly, there has been a marked decline in Covid-19 cases, a
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approves the use of Moderna’s COVID-19 vaccine.
The U.S. Food & Drug Administration (FDA) approves the use of Pfizer’s COVID-19 vaccine. A few days earlier, Great Britain, Canada, Bahrain, and Saudi Arabia had also approved it.
Singapore is the first country in the world to approve the sale of lab-grown meat. It has approved lab-grown chicken from the American company Eat Just, created without slaughtering any animals, but by cultivating animal muscle stem cells in the lab. According to theoretical studies,
The British company DeepMind has revealed a large part of the solution to the problem of predicting how proteins fold in 3D to take shape, a shape that is crucial for determining their properties, including those for developing new drugs. This is all done with
The Russian COVID-19 vaccine Sputnik-V, developed by the Gamaleya Research Institute, is 95% effective, according to studies conducted in Russia, Venezuela, and Belarus on 22,000 people in the first phase and 19,000 in the second.
The Anglo-Swedish company AstraZeneca announces that its COVID-19 vaccine, developed with Oxford University, is completing the final stages of clinical trials with an efficacy of 70% (based on an average of two different administration methods, one with a 90% efficacy in 2,741 people and the
The American company Moderna announces that the COVID-19 vaccine it is testing has completed the final stages of clinical trials and has proven at least 94% effective.
The American company Pfizer announces that the COVID-19 vaccine it is testing has completed the final stages of clinical trials and has proven at least 90% effective.
American scientists have been able to restore some brain function in pig brains 4 to 10 hours after the animal’s head has been severed.
In northern Myanmar (formerly Burma), Lida Xing (of the China University of Geosciences, Beijing) documents the discovery of the skull of a tiny bird-like dinosaur (Oculidentavis khaungraae), weighing just 2 grams. The skull is well-preserved in amber, with various soft tissues. It is very rare
Researchers at Manchester University believe they have identified the smell of Parkinson’s, and in particular the molecules on the skin linked to its early development, potentially allowing it to be identified even years before its full-blown onset.
Studies by Cortexyme and several universities have concluded that the bacteria found in the brain of ASD patients are not the result of the disease, but its cause. They are Porphyromonas gingivalis, which initially originates in the gums and then gradually proliferates in the brain
Douma, Syria. Over 100 dead and a thousand wounded undergoing treatment in a chemical weapons attack by the Assad regime.
Data from NASA’s Dwarf probe reveal that Ceres likely had a liquid water ocean covering its entire surface 4 billion years ago, now preserved in fossil form as solid ice, with perhaps a layer of liquid water still present underneath.
Syria. Al Thawrah, a city on the Euphrates River dam, is captured from ISIS by allied SDF forces.
Kirkuk, Iraq. Al Saduun, one of Saddam Hussein’s last remaining leaders still at large, is captured by the Iraqi army. He was the 5 of diamonds in the deck of most wanted men by the Americans since 2003.
ChemChina acquires control of Pirelli with a USD 7.1 billion offer.
Sana’a, Yemen. Two coordinated suicide attacks against two mosques crowded with Houthi worshippers have killed 137 people. The Houthis, Shiites, had seized power in Yemen in a coup a few weeks earlier and control nine of the country’s 21 provinces. The attack was claimed by
The spread between Italian BTPs and German Bunds fell to 98.6 points, below 100 points for the first time since mid-May 2010, having also touched peaks above 500 points (5%) at the end of 2011 and in 2012.
Duke University, Durham, North Carolina. The insertion of the single human Frizzled-8 gene into a mouse fetus causes disproportionate brain growth, similar to that seen in Homo sapiens.
ISIS released a 22-minute video documenting the killing of Jordanian pilot Muadh al-Kasasibah, 27, who was burned alive by ISIS inside a cage. The fate was chosen based on an online poll.
Mario Draghi, head of the European Central Bank, announced the decision to implement Quantitative Easing (QE), purchasing government bonds worth as much as €60 billion per month until September 2016, for a total of €1.1 trillion. The EU is experiencing deflation in various parts of
Belgium. Law enforcement raids a property believed to be housing three Islamic terrorists suspected of planning the beheading of a prominent political figure. A firefight ensues. Two are killed and the third is captured.
Paris. After a long day of manhunt, 88,000 police officers mobilized, and an eight-hour siege at the printing plant in Dammartin-en-Goel, northeast of the capital, the escape of the Kouachi brothers, perpetrators of the Charlie Hebdo satirical weekly, has come to an end. Ten minutes
Montrouge, a southern suburb of Paris. A shooting occurred in which a young traffic policewoman was killed by an automatic weapon. Police are searching for Hayat Boumeddiene, a 26-year-old woman, and Amedy Coulibaly, a 32-year-old man. They were found inside a Jewish grocery store with
Syria. The US-led coalition in Syria launches its first bombings against ISIS targets. Fighters, bombers, drones, and tomahawks are used. Initially, the United States, Jordan, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, Qatar, and Bahrain participate. More or less direct support comes from other countries,
Iran launches its second monkey into space, aboard the Pajohesh rocket (which means “Research” in Farsi). The mission lasts 15 minutes and reaches an altitude of 120 kilometers. The monkey returns alive.
Somalia. U.S. Navy SEALs raid a Shebaab base, the group behind the mall attack in Kenya.
Lampedusa. Approximately three hundred migrants drown off the island’s coast, sinking along with the vessel they were on.
Microsoft buys Nokia’s mobile phone business for $5.4 billion.
Fukushima, Japan: It is decided to drop water from Chinook helicopters onto reactors 2 and 4 to cool them and prevent a core meltdown. Firefighters then approach with a powerful water cannon, but both attempts fail repeatedly due to the high levels of radioactivity. It
Global Financial Crisis. European Union finance ministers are launching a massive plan of up to €750 billion, with the participation of the IMF, to shield the Eurozone from speculative attacks and prevent the risk of default by other countries, following the Greek default. Further sacrifices
Passage of comet Maccholz with a period of 60,000 years
In Baghdad, two car bombs exploded amidst a crowd celebrating the inauguration of a new water pump, killing 19 children and leaving 35 dead in total; the attack was claimed by Al Zarqawi and is only the latest in a series aimed mostly at civilians,
Rodolphe Kasser, an expert Coptic translator, reports on the Codex Tchacos, containing the Gospel of Judas, purchased by the Maecenas Foundation for Ancient Art, at the VIII Congress of the International Association for Coptic Studies in Paris.
Ayaan Hirsi Ali’ in the Netherlands proposes closing existing Muslim schools, blocking funding for new ones, abolishing Article 23 of the Constitution which allows any parent to establish religious schools, drastically reducing unemployment benefits, and abolishing the minimum wage.
In Cambridge, Massachusetts, Russian mathematician Grigori “Grisha” Perelman presented the proof of the Poincaré Conjecture, formulated in 1904: every compact and simply connected three-manifold (i.e., on which every closed path can be reduced to a point) is homeomorphic (i.e., topologically identical) to the three-sphere; he
Dozens of Chechen terrorists kidnapped 700 people in a Moscow theater, the Dubrovka. The intervention of Russian special forces resulted in the deaths of 39 terrorists, the capture of two, and the deaths of more than 100 hostages due to the sleeping gas used. The
Chandra observes the first stars made of strange quarks: RX J1856.5-3754 and the pulsar 3C58.
United States: After hundreds of cases of pedophilia by Catholic priests, a reform has been passed imposing zero tolerance on the American Catholic Church for priests who abuse children, and mandatory reporting to the authorities. This reform, unfortunately, will remain limited to the United States.
Canadian student Michael Cameron discovers a prime number with over 4 million digits. It is 2^13466917 – 1.
Apple launches the iPod. Steve Jobs’s new idea is initially met with skepticism, especially because of its price ($399), but it quickly gains popularity, transforming the market itself.
With a spectacular night launch, STS-98 carries into orbit the Destiny Lab (15 tons with 415,000 parts, 42 kilometers of cables, 1.4 billion USD in value)
NASA’s NEAR probe arrives at the asteroid Eros. Due to a software problem, the probe enters safe mode, and it must wait until the next opportunity, February 14, 2000, for actual insertion into orbit around Eros. After insertion into orbit (a challenge on an asteroid
Russia. Nearly two-thirds of eligible voters went to the polls. As expected, the Communists won an excellent result with 113 out of 450 seats, while Edisntvo had 73, and Luzhkov-Primakov had 77. In the end, Putin managed to secure a majority thanks to the support
21:54 UTC: The Galileo probe passes just 214,570 km from the top of Jupiter’s clouds and is hit by an enormous dose (50,000 rad) of radiation.
The first Space Shuttle (STS-71 Atlantis) rendezvoused and docked with the Russian space station Mir, composed of five modules. By the end of 1996, two more Soyuz and two Space Shuttles would dock with Mir, the last Shuttle leaving astronaut Shannon Lucid aboard for six
An attack in the underground parking lot of one of the World Trade Center towers in Manhattan; the attackers and the mastermind (whose aim was to bring down the tower) were all captured in the following years.
Galileo’s second flyby of Earth, passing just 303km from the planet
Swedish-speaking Finn, Linus Torvalds introduces the Linux operating system. It is based on Richard Stallman’s GNU, which in turn is based on UNIX. Linux contains 10,000 lines of code and is offered publicly as freeware and open source. It will soon lead to a tsunami
Hermann Julius Oberth, Werner Von Braun’s tutor in Germany and later one of the fathers of the American space program, dies at the age of 95.
Chile returns to democracy with the appointment of new president Patricio Aylwin; 16 years of dictatorship end.
Galileo spacecraft launch: 5.3m tall, 2223kg, a true giant; the launch date was originally set for 1982 and was postponed several times for various reasons
Earthquake measuring 7.1 on the Richter scale in San Francisco (40 dead)