The year 2022 has seen many strange and wonderful scientific discoveries and events, from successfully growing a pig's heart in a human body to being able to deflect an asteroid on its collision course with Earth.
Here are the strangest and biggest scientific discoveries and achievements that occurred this year:
Pig heart transplant into a human body: The year started with a bang when David Bennett became the world's first patient to undergo a pig heart transplant. David, 57, who had chronic heart disease, underwent an experimental nine-hour procedure at the University of Maryland Medical Center in Baltimore. Bennett initially survived, but died two months later due to failing health. Despite what ultimately happened, doctors described the operation as a "watershed event" in the medical world.
Asteroid Deflection Mission: In September, scientists successfully conducted the first-ever planetary defense test by slightly deflecting an asteroid. The Double Asteroid Redirection Test (DART) mission saw a spacecraft intentionally crash into Dimorphos, a small asteroid moon in the Didymos double asteroid system, 11 million km from Earth.
It was the world's first test of kinetic shock mitigation technology that uses objects to deflect a non-threatening asteroid and change its trajectory. Before impact, Dimorphos took about 11 hours and 55 minutes to orbit its larger partner, Didymos. However, that was shortened by 32 minutes after impact to 11 hours and 23 minutes. Scientists hope that one day, if necessary, we will be able to formulate strategies to protect our planet from future threats from outer space.
- Found the oldest dinosaur fossil in Africa: Paleontologists discovered the oldest dinosaur in Africa in the summer of 2022. This creature, dubbed Mbiresaurus raathi, roamed Zimbabwe 230 million years ago. He was about six feet tall, and weighed from 20 to 65 pounds.
Analysis of the fossils revealed that it was a type of sauropodomorph, a relative of the sauropod, that walked on 4 legs, had jagged teeth, and a long neck and tail.
The most complete woolly mammoth baby: Gold miners in Canada's Yukon Territory in June discovered a well-preserved baby mammoth that lived more than 30,000 years ago. The Yukon government said it was "the most complete mammoth ever discovered in North America" and the second of its kind in the world. Nun cho ga was frozen in permafrost, mummifying its remains.
Teaching lab-grown brain cells to play video games: The classic tennis-themed video game "Pong" was innovative and hugely popular when it was released in 1972. Researchers from Cortical Labs in Melbourne demonstrated for the first time that 800,000 brain cells could perform Goal oriented tasks which in this case is Backgammon Pong. This finding suggests that even brain cells in petri dishes can display intrinsic intelligence and change their behavior over time.
First images from the new Super Space Telescope: Astronomy enthusiasts have received the first image of the universe, or "stellar nursery", sent by NASA's new $10 billion space telescope. This image, taken by James Webb, heir to the famous Hubble Observatory, and released by NASA in June, was considered "the dawn of a new era in astronomy." Webb's capabilities in the infrared part of the electromagnetic spectrum mean he can "see past time" within just 100-200 million years of the Big Bang, allowing him to take pictures of the first stars to shine in the universe more than 13.5 billion years ago.