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In line with Newtons famous quote, standing on the shoulders of giants, this year, science has made considerable advances, building on feats of the past. Discoveries, insights and inventions in astronomy, biology, medicine,paleontology and physics marked the year...

1. Detailing the Denisovans

This year revealed some fantastic facts about our ancient ancestors, the Denisovans, who lived about 100,000 years ago. So far, we knew about them through scrap fossils from the Denisova cave in Siberia, Russia. This year, researchers found a fossilised jawbone in the Tibetian plateau, which on DNA analysis showed that it belonged to the Denisovans, who were the regions first hominin inhabitants. It was also believed earlier that Denisovans were closely related to Neanderthals than to present-day humans. On the contrary, genomic analysis of the fossils from the Denisova cave showed that they were closer to humans than to Neanderthals. But, how did our ancestors look like? Based on patterns of chemical changes in their DNA, researchers have reconstructed the anatomy of Denisovans. The findings reveal that some traits, like a sloping forehead, long face and large pelvis resemble Neanderthals, while others, like a large dental arch and wide skull, are unique. Based on these findings, they even reconstructed the face of a teenage Denisovan girl.

2. An elusive cure to Ebola

Ebola, a deadly viral disease that shook the African continent, affects humans and other primates, and a cure for this disease has eluded science so far. Although an experimental vaccine is being developed, without a therapeutic cure, those infected are doomed to die. This year, two drugs that were tested during an outbreak in the Democratic Republic of the Congo may have hopes as they dramatically increased patients chances of survival. The two drugs, named REGN-EB3 and mAb-114, contain a cocktail of antibodies that are injected into the bloodstream of those infected. These drugs have shown a success rate of about 90 per cent , bringing hopes to those battered by the disease.

3. The first image of a black hole

We did not even know how black holes, the most dense objects of our Universe, looked. This year, scientists used a combination of telescope observations around the globe to reveal the first ever photograph of a supermassive black hole present at the heart of the distant galaxy Messier 87 in the Virgo constellation. The image, which captures the shadow of the black hole, shows a black hole that is 55 million light-years from Earth and has a mass of 6.5 billion times that of the Sun. Researchers believe that this epic photograph opens a new window into the study of black holes, their event horizons,and gravity.

4. Conquering quantum computing

Physicists and engineers at Google claim to have developed the first functional quantum computer that can perform a set of computations in 200 seconds, which would have otherwise taken the worlds fastest supercomputer 10,000 years! This quantum computer has a 54-qubit processor, named Sycamore, comprised of quantum logic gates.

5. Beating malnutrition in gut

While it was long known that microbes in our gut played a vital role in our health and well-being, two studies published this year showed how they could be used to address malnutrition a condition that affects millions of children. The researchers analysed the types of microbes present in the gut of healthy and malnourished children and focused on boosting crucial gut microbes in the children using affordable, culturally acceptable foods.

6. Pushing gene-editing

After tasting success and controversies last year for genetically editing babies, researchers in China this year reported to have cloned five genetically edited macaques for research purposes for the first time. These monkeys have reduced sleep, increased movements in the night, increased anxiety and depression, and schizophrenia-like behaviours. Although it raises ethical questions, the researchers believe that cloned monkeys could replace the wild monkeys used in laboratories today. In the UK, scientists used gene therapy to arrest a form of age-related blindness and in the US, CRISPR, the gene-editing software, was used to treat cancer.

7. The rampant loss of worlds ice

With the rising global temperature, ice on the Earths surface is melting at a rapid rate. In Greenland, the ice sheets are melting seven times faster than they did in the 90s. Greenland has lost 3.8 trillion tonnes of ice since 1992, a quantity enough to push global sea levels up by 10.6 millimetres. In Antartica, studies have detected significant changes in the thickness of the floating ice shelves, which hold the land-based ice in place. As a result, there could be more ice moving from the land into the sea. Similar loss of ice has been reported in the Alps and the Himalayas. The rising sea levels are estimated to displace 300 million people all over the world, affecting coastal cities and their livelihoods.

8. Taking a closer look at the Moon

This year, Chinas National Space Administration achieved the first soft landing on the far side of the Moon with its Change 4 mission. This mission will attempt to determine the age and composition of an unexplored region of the Moon. India launched its second lunar mission, Chandrayaan-2, to map and study the variations in the lunar surface composition, and the location and abundance of water.

9. Biodiversity on the brink of extinction

This year, an extensive report from the United Nations Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services found that of the estimated eight million species of animals and plants on the planet, about a million face the threat of extinction, many within decades. About 40 per cent of amphibians, a third of marine life and about 10 per cent of the insects are at the brink of extinction. The report mentions that changes in land and sea use, exploitation of organisms; climate change, pollution and invasive alien species as primary reasons behind this situation.

10. Reading dinosaurs end game

Dinosaurs went extinct about 66 million years ago when an asteroid crashed into Earth at the Chicxulub crater in Mexico. This year, scientists detailed fallouts of the impact that resulted in a mass extinction by examining the topography of the centre of the crater. When the asteroid struck, the melt rocks and breccia sat at the bottom of the crater within minutes and over a few hours, another 90 metres were deposited. There was also a tsunami and a wildfire that followed, which emitted sulphur aerosols that cooled the earth and blocked much of the sunlight.

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2019: The Year in Science - Deccan Herald

The world's favorite Lego toys have a hidden superpower. They can survive temperatures that are 200,000 times colder than room temperature and 2,000 times colder than deep space, researchers have found.

This resilience implies that Lego toys can be used to help build more efficient quantum computers, say experts. What is more, according to the research team from Lancaster University, these toys can pull this off at lower costs.

Quantum computers have the potential to solve complex problems in seconds. Modern computers, on the other hand, could take years. But building practical quantum computers is a challenge. These devices are way too sensitive to their surroundings too much heat, for instance, can prevent quantum computers from operating efficiently. To make these devices immune to their surroundings, scientists are on the lookout for suitable materials that can cool the system down.

While suitable materials do exist, they have limitations. "The best materials for these applications are very expensive and are difficult to machine to a needed shape, so it would be desirable to come up with a better solution," Dr Dmitry Zmeev, who led the research team, told MEA WorldWide (MEAWW).

This led Zmeev and his colleagues to hunt for an alternative material. They specifically looked for strong materials that could prevent heat from moving around at very low temperatures.

And Lego toys fit the bill. The Lego blocks looked like good candidates: the contact area between two Lego blocks that are clamped together is very small, which could prevent the transfer of heat. This means if these materials find use in quantum computers, they could prevent heat from moving around, and thereby preventing heat from interfering with the functioning of quantum computers, say experts.

When the team tested blocks at very low temperatures, they survived unscathed. "The resulting structure is very robust. And indeed, our measurements confirmed this," Zmeev told MEAWW.

In the future, Zmeev and the team will perform this experiment again, albeit by tweaking it a little. "While its unlikely that Lego blocks will be used as a part of a quantum computer, we have found the right direction for creating these cheap materials: 3D printing," says Zmeev. "Lego is made from ABS plastic and one can also create ABS structures simply by 3D printing them," says Zmeev,

The study has been published in Scientific Reports.

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Lego toys can be used to build quantum computers as they can survive temperatures 2,000 times colder than deep - MEAWW

Back in September, IBM Q announced a host of new tools catered to making quantum computing more accessible. Amongst the new additions were a bunch of 5-qubit quantum computers, which extended the IBM's fleet of quantum computers.

Today, IBM has taken yet another step in the same direction. The tech giant IBM has partnered with the University of Tokyo forming the Japan IBM Quantum Partnership to advance quantum computing and use it to benefit science, industry, and society. Essentially, the partnership will have three 'tracks of engagement':

...one focused on the development of quantum applications with industry; another on quantum computing system technology development; and the third focused on advancing the state of quantum science and education.

But one of the most marked developments under the agreement is that the IBM Q System One will be installed in an IBM facility in Japan. This feat will make Japan the third country to house such an installation after the United States and Germany, and the only one in the region to do so. Once in Japan, the System One will delve into research on quantum algorithms and the development of practical applications leveraging the power of the quantum realm.

Besides directly collaborating on research topics, IBM and the University of Tokyo will also establish a novel quantum system technology center under the same agreement. This center will be primarily focused on developing and testing hardware for quantum computers and in particular, will focus on cryogenic and microwave test capabilities for the same.

Vis--vis the initiative, the Director of IBM Research, Dario Gil, was hopeful that it will lead to the expansion of quantum computing in Japan and have various added advantages:

"This partnership will spark Japan's quantum research capabilities by bringing together experts from industry, government and academia to build and grow a community that underpins strategically significant research and development activities to foster economic opportunities across Japan."

While the President of the University of Tokyo, Makoto Gonokami, emphasized the relevance of quantum computing and what the initiative entails for Japan:

"Quantum computing is one of the most crucial technologies in the coming decades, which is why we are setting up this broad partnership framework with IBM, who is spearheading its commercial application. We expect this effort to further strengthen Japan's quantum research and development activities and build world-class talent."

As such, in addition to all of the above, the University of Tokyo will also be giving high priority to quantum programming and technical development of its students and researchers to help push the envelope of quantum computing.

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IBM and Japan join hands in the development of quantum computers - Neowin

The worlds first uncrackable security system has been developed by researchers in Scotland, it has been claimed.

Computer scientists have long feared the arrival of quantum computing would allow encrypted data to be easily decoded by hackers.

But a global team,including scientists from the University of St Andrews, say they have achieved perfect secrecy by creating a chip which effectively generates a one-time-only key every time data is sent through it.

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Its the equivalent of standing talking to someone using two paper-cups attached by string, said Professor Andrea Di Falco of the School of Physics and Astronomy at the university. If you scrunched up the cups when speaking it would mask the sound, but each time it would be scrunched differently so it could never be hacked.

This new technique is absolutely unbreakable.

Southampton's Jack Stephens scores their second goal against Aston Villa

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The coffin arrives for the funeral of London Bridge terror attack victim Jack Merritt at Great St Mary's Church in Cambridge

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Queen Elizabeth II and her son Prince Charles walk behind the Imperial State Crown as they proccess through the Royal Gallery, before the Queen's Speech, during the State Opening of Parliament

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Luke Jerram's art installation 'Gaia', a replica of planet earth created using detailed Nasa imagery of the Earth's surface, hangs on display at the Eden Project in St Austell, Cornwall

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Oisin Carson, 5, picks a Christmas tree at Wicklow Way Christmas tree farm in Roundwood

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First Minister, Nicola Sturgeon, takes a selfie as she joins the SNPs newly elected MPs for a group photo outside the V&A Museum in Dundee, Scotland

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Leah Rossiter (left) and Ceara Carney, dressed as mermaids, join members of the Irish Wildlife Trust and Extinction Rebellion Ireland protesting outside Leinster House in Dublin, against overfishing in Irish Waters

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School children and students take part in the Youth Strike for Climate in London as part of the Fridays for Future Global Climate Strike

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Cyclists make their way up a tree lined hill near to Moor Crichel in Dorset. November's dismal weather will finally change, with drier and colder conditions coming for the start of December, forecasters have said

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The moment a swan flew over a flock of 60,000 starlings as dusk fell on Whixall Moss Nature Reserve in Shropshire

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Spanning all four spaces and the corridor of the White Cube Bermondsey gallery Anselm Kiefer's new exhibition encompasses large-scale painting and installation

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Scientists in Scotland help develop worlds first encryption system that is unbreakable by hackers - The Independent

Googles Sycamore quantum processor. Erik Lucero, Research Scientist and Lead Production Quantum Hardware

Multiply 1,048,589 by 1,048,601, and youll get 1,099,551,473,989. Does this blow your mind? It should, maybe! That 13-digit prime number is the largest-ever prime number to be factored by a quantum computer, one of a series of quantum computing-related breakthroughs (or at least claimed breakthroughs) achieved over the last few months of the decade.

An IBM computer factored this very large prime number about two months after Google announcedthat it had achieved quantum supremacya clunky term for the claim, disputed by its rivals including IBM as well as others, that Google has a quantum machine that performed some math normal computers simply cannot.

SEE ALSO: 5G Coverage May Set Back Accurate Weather Forecasts By 30 Years

An arcane field still existing mostly in the theoretical, quantum computers have done enough recently and are commanding enough very real public and private resources to be deserving of your attentionnot the least of which is because if and when the Chinese government becomes master of all your personal data, sometime in the next decade, it will be because a quantum computer cracked the encryption.

Building the quantum computer, it is said, breathlessly, is a race to be won, as important as being the first in space (though, ask the Soviet Union how that worked out) or fielding the first workable atomic weapon (seems to be going OK for the U.S.).

And so here is a postwritten in terms as clear and simple as this human could mustersumming up these recent advances and repeating other experts predictions that the 2020s appear to be the decade when quantum computers begin to contribute to your life, by both making slight improvements to your map app, and powering artificial intelligence robust and savvy enough to be a real-life Skynet.

First, the requisite introduction to the concept. Normal computers, such as the device you are using to access and display this content, process information in a binary. Everything is either a one, or a zero, or a series of ones and zeroes. On, or off. But what if the zero was simultaneously also a one? (Please exit here for your requisite digression into quantum physics and mechanics.)

The idea that a value can be a zero, or a one, or both at the same time is the quantum principle of superposition. Each superposition is a quantum bit, or qubit. The ability to process qubits is what allows a quantum computer to perform functions a binary computer simply cannot, like computations involving 500-digit numbers. To do so quickly and on demand might allow for highly efficient traffic flow. It could also render current encryption keys mere speedbumps for a computer able to replicate them in an instant.

An artists rendition of Googles Sycamore quantum processor mounted in a cryostat. Forest Stearns, Google AI Quantum Artist in Residence

Why hasnt this been mastered already, whats holding quantum computers back? Particles like photons only exist in quantum states if they are either compressed very, very small or made very, very coldwith analog engineering techniques. What quantum computers do exist are thus resource-intensive. Googles, for example, involves metals cooled (the verb is inadequate) to 460 degrees below zero, to a state in which particles behave in an erratic and random fashion akin to a quantum state.

And as Subhash Kak, the regents professor of electrical and computer engineering at Oklahoma State University and an expert in the field,recently wrote, the power of a quantum computer can be gauged by how many quantum bits, or qubits, it can process. The machines built by Google, Microsoft, Intel, IBM and possibly the Chinese all have less than 100 qubits,he wrote. (In Googles case, the company claims to have created a quantum state of 53 qubits.)

To achieve useful computational performance,according to Kak, you probably need machines with hundreds of thousands of qubits. And what qubits a quantum computer can offer are notoriously unstable and prone to error. They need many of the hard-won fixes and advancements that saw binary computers morph from room-sized monstrosities spitting out punch cards to iPhones.

How fast will that happencan it happen?

Skeptics, doubters, and haters might note that Google first pledged to achieve quantum supremacy (defined as the point in time at which quantum computers are outperforming binary computers) by the end of 2017meaning its achievement was almost two full years behind schedule, and meaning other quantum claims, like Dario Gil of IBMs pledge that quantum computers will be useful for commercial and scientific advantage sometime next year, may also be dismissed or at least subject to deserved skepticism.

Dario Gil, director of IBM Research, stands in front of IBMs Q System One quantum computer on October 18, 2019. Misha Friedman/Getty Images

And those of us who can think only in binary may also find confusion in the dispute between quantum rivals. The calculation performed by Googles Sycamore quantum computer in 200 seconds, the company claimed, would take a normal binary supercomputer 10,000 years to solve. Not so, according to IBM, which asserted that the calculation could be done by a binary computer in two and a half days. Either way, as The New York Times wrote, quantum supremacy is still a very arcane experiment that cant necessarily be applied to other things. Googles breakthrough might be the last achievement for a while.

But everybody is tryingincluding the U.S. government, which is using your money to do it. Commercial spending on quantum computing research is estimated to reach hundreds of millions of dollars sometime in the next decade. A year ago, spooked and shamed by what appeared to be an unanswered flurry of quantum progress in China, Congress dedicated $1.2 billion to the National Quantum Initiative Act, money specifically intended to boost American-based quantum computing projects. According to Bloomberg, China may have already spent 10 times that.

If you walk away with nothing else, know that quantum computer spending is very real, even if the potential is theoretical.

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The Quantum Computing Decade Is ComingHeres Why You Should Care - Observer