These discoveries in 2024 could be groundbreaking — if they’re true

Did microbes ever live on Mars? Did an "elevator" help build Egypt’s first pyramid? Some signs pointed to yes this year, but confirmation is still needed.

Dec 15, 2024 - 00:30

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These discoveries in 2024 could be groundbreaking — if they’re true

These 7 findings may perhaps be game-changing but need more learn about

on rugged, reddish-brown terrain under a pinkish sky, a shiny metal rover stands beside a smaller drone-sized helicopter

NASA’s robotic explorer, the Perseverance rover, took this selfie on Mars in April 2021. Within the background stands its robotic helicopter sidekick, Ingenuity.

NASA/JPL-Caltech/MSSS

In 2024, researchers turned up conceivable evidence of ancient life on Mars, hints that Alzheimer’s disease can spread from person-to-person and a slew of different scientific findings that would maybe maybe be a giant deal — in the event that they’re the actual deal.

Martian microbes, maybe

Alien microbes can have once made their home on Mars (SN: eight/24/24, p. 6). In July, NASA’s Perseverance rover uncovered a rock on the Red Planet that sports white spots with black rings laced with iron phosphate (see Page 28). On Earth, such specks have been linked to ancient microbial life. But they’re now now not surefire signs of microbes. The appropriate technique to clutch for certain is to bring the rock back to Earth for closer inspection.

An image of a rock on Mars taken by the NASA rover Perseverance. Rocky white stripes flank a clay-colored area or not it is speckled with dark spots. — NASA’s Perseverance rover revealed leopard spot–like features in this Martian rock (closeup image shown). On Earth, similar structures are associated with microbial life.MSSS/JPL-Caltech/NASA

Sparking superconductivity

Light would maybe maybe be the secret ingredient for making superconductors that don’t require frigid conditions. In an experiment, blasting a copper and oxygen compound with a laser ended in the subject material to throw off magnetic fields. That magnetism, the scientists say, is a smoking gun for superconductivity — the flexibleness to ferry electricity and not using a resistance (SN: eight/10/24, p. 6). But skeptics contend that those magnetic fields would maybe have arisen from some other, unknown physics.

An illustration shows a grid of atoms being hit with a red beam of laser light. Blue lines indicating a magnetic field emanate from the lit-up region. — In experiments, a compound fabricated from copper and oxygen atoms (blue and red spheres in this illustration) blasted with laser light (red) threw off magnetic fields (blue). This effect signals that the compound transformed right into a superconductor, some physicists say.Sebastian Fava, Jörg M. Harms

Ancient engineering

Builders used a water-powered elevator to construct Egypt’s first pyramid nearly four,seven-hundred years ago, researchers propose (SN: 9/7/24 & 9/21/24, p. eleven). That controversial idea relies on a computer model of structures in and around the Step Pyramid of Djoser. Controlling the waft of floodwater in and out of a shaft within the pyramid will have lifted and lowered a block-hoisting platform, the model shows. But critics argue that occasional rains wouldn’t have supplied enough water to sustain this kind of system.

Egyptian King Djoser's pyramid rises above a sandy landscape, while sun-tinged clouds cast a golden glow on the scene. — Ancient workers will have built Egyptian King Djoser’s pyramid (shown) the usage of a water-powered elevator to hoist the heavy stone blocks, a computer simulation suggests. But now now not all archaeologists are on board with the root.Anton Petrus/Moment/Getty Images

Tectonic shake-up

Plate tectonics got off to an early start in Earth’s history, a rock in South Africa suggests. Layers in the rock bear scars of 3-billion-year-old landslides with a view to have been brought on by an earthquake (SN: four/6/24, p. 6). That quake, scientists say, will have been triggered by slabs of crust colliding. The finding lends support to the contested idea that plate tectonics dates back greater than 2.eight billion years. But other geologists don't appear to be convinced that this quake marks the origin of global plate tectonics.

Layers of rock at the Barberton Greenstone Belt in South Africa contain hints of an unlimited earthquake triggered by plate tectonics greater than 3 billion years ago.Simon Lamb

Medium size, maximum hype

For the first time, astronomers can have spotted a midsize black hole in our galaxy (SN: eight/10/24, p. 7). Telescope data suggest that a black hole as a minimum eight,200 times as massive as the sun lurks in the big name cluster Omega Centauri. But another learn about disputes the claim. As a substitute, the big name cluster may maybe harbor a horde of smaller black holes (SN: eight/20/24).

Thousands of multicolored points of sunshine fill an image of a celeb cluster — If a rare midsize black hole truly does lurk in the heart of the Omega Centauri big name cluster, it should maybe maybe maybe be the first black hole of its size present in the Milky Way. During this Hubble Space Telescope image, the supposed black hole’s location is marked by the white box.Hubble/ESA, NASA, M. Häberle/MPIA

Transmissible Alzheimer’s?

Alzheimer’s disease is now not from now on contagious in day to day life, but under extremely rare conditions, this may spread from one person to another (SN: 2/24/24, p. 6). Five those that in childhood received contaminated growth hormone injections later developed early-onset Alzheimer’s — most definitely since the hormones were tainted with amyloid-beta, a protein whose buildup is linked to the disease, researchers say. But it’s now now not yet clear whether the expansion hormones are guilty, other experts note. Perchance the health conditions that those hormones were meant to treat or other medical procedures ended in the development of Alzheimer’s in these patients.

An image of a brain scan with glowing purple and orange spots that mark amyloid-beta. — High levels of the protein amyloid-beta — a trademark of Alzheimer’s disease — appear orange and purple in this brain scan of someone with the disease. Childhood exposure to the protein via contaminated growth hormone injections can have led the person to develop Alzheimer’s later in life.G. Banerjee *et al*/*Nature Medicine* 2024

Shedding light on dark energy

Dark energy can have gotten much more mysterious. The enigmatic stuff, which makes up the vast majority of the cosmos, is mostly thought to do something about a relentless density. But new observations of 6.four million galaxies and quasars from the Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument, or DESI, paired with data on exploding stars, cast doubt on that concept. These data more closely fit a model of the universe wherein the relationship between dark energy’s density and its pressure changes over time (SN: 5/four/24 & 5/18/24, p. 6). If confirmed, this finding would rewrite the history of the universe. Experts are withholding judgment until DESI completes its survey of over 30 million other galaxies (SN: 12/14/24 & 12/28/24, p. 7).