Here are 10 innovations or discoveries that went unnoticed (or almost) in 2020 - Inspired Traveler

There is no doubt that COVID-19 vaccines are THE biggest innovation of 2020 on a planetary scale.

Nevertheless, other discoveries and innovations in laboratories here and elsewhere are worthy of mention since they risk having an impact on our lives.

Here are 10 that may have gone unnoticed, but deserve our attention.

DeepMind detects breast cancer.

Breast cancer: the crucial role of the BRCA1 gene

In January 2020, we learned that the new artificial intelligence (AI) of DeepMind, a subsidiary of the parent company of Google Alphabet, could detect breast cancer “as well” as a doctor.

Early research suggests that the algorithm developed may even improve the accuracy of mammography screenings. This technological advance published in the journal Nature 1^is January 2020 was reported by CNBC and the magazine Wired.

Destination March

2020 was a pivotal year for space exploration.

Three missions to Mars have been launched in July, when Earth and Mars aligned in a way that made it easier to send spacecraft to the Red Planet.

The United Arab Emirates have launched their first interplanetary mission, Hope, which will orbit around Mars and study its weather.

China launched Tianwen-1, which includes a rover and is the country’s first attempt to land on Mars.

And the United States sent Perseverance, a rover that will drill and collect rock samples in the still unexplored Jezero Crater just north of the Martian equator. A Quebecer will be at the controls of the robot Perseverance, which will arrive on the red planet on February 18, 2021. The robot is to bring Martian rocks back to Earth for the first time for study.

At the beginning of the month of december 2020, NASA unveiled these unpublished images taken by Curiosity, another robot whose mission is to study the Martian environment:

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Discovery: source of a “radio burst”.

Since the first detection of this cosmic phenomenon in 2007, scientists have been wondering about the explanation of these flashes of electromagnetic waves or FRB (Fast Radio Burst). Fast radio bursts are short bursts of radio waves (lasting a few milliseconds).

In April 2020, Canadian and American astrophysicists have identified for the first time a magnetar in our galaxy as the source of a “rapid radio burst”.

The two teams attributed it to the SGR 1935 + 2154 magnetar, located in our Milky Way, according to their respective studies published in the journal Nature.

The magnetar (contraction of “magnetic star”) is a kind of neutron star with an extremely strong magnetic field.

Superconducting at room temperature

Scientists have created a mysterious material that appears to conduct electricity without any resistance at temperatures up to around 15 ° C.

This is a new record for superconductivity, a phenomenon generally associated with very cold temperatures.

The material itself is not well understood by scientists, but it holds enormous potential in creating a new class of superconductors.

3D Map of the Universe

Astrophysicists around the world have published in July 2020 the largest 3D map of the Universe ever.

This map results from the analysis of more than four million galaxies and quasars, ultraluminous objects emitting colossal energy.

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The data is based in particular on the latest observations from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey, a program dedicated to the survey of different celestial objects, via a telescope located in New Mexico.

Neuralinks et SpaceX

In August 2020, entrepreneur Elon Musk, founder of Tesla, announced the first implantation of a Neuralinks microchip in the brain of a pig.

The guinea pig, named Gertrude, will test and develop a prototype for adaptation to humans. The prototype, according to the wishes of the businessman, could eventually give speech and mobility to paralyzed people.

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And since we are talking about Musk, we cannot ignore his SpaceX rocket program, which has increased the number of launches in 2020.

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In May, the Falcon 9 of the SpaceX program launched the second demonstration mission of Crew Dragon at NASA’s Kennedy Space Center, Florida with two NASA astronauts on board. After a two-month mission to the International Space Station, the test flight returned to Earth and landed successfully. A first in aerospace history!

Two Quebec inventions

A robot that detects viruses in the sewers!

The Environex company claims to be able to identify the areas of a city that are the most contaminated by collecting samples directly from municipal sewers.

An invention to curb microbes

Inventor Raymond Boisvert and the mayor of Quebec, Régis Labeaume

And at the end of the year marked by unparalleled health measures, a Quebec invention could help reduce the spread of the virus with a new “self-cleaning and antimicrobial elevator button”.

Called LIBU (contraction of “Life Button”), the antibacterial button turns on itself after each press. It will be tested shortly in a hospital in Quebec City.