What have we achieved in 2006?

[streetster]

What have we, the human race, achieved in 2006; not personal things such as passing driving tests and exams and stuff (though perhaps we should have a thread for that as well)... but simply:

What have we done, invented, created, whatever'd in 2006 that can go down in history?

ie, in 1879 Edison invented the light bulb*


* perhaps not strictly true, but this is the line of thought im on about

[Atomic]

SkyHD?

[dancingtornado]

Chelsea not top of league at christmas

come on united

[trashcanmonkey]

umm, vista?

[jackvdbuk]

testing a nuclear? bomb.... great achievement, liek there aint enough crazy gits in the world already

[TeePee]

Caught up with the ISS program?

[Gr44]

BT's 21CN is rolling out and so far a great success ( so i've heard atleast )

[TeePee]

Actually I'm reminded of something else significant. The FAA set down a huge bunch of rules regarding civilian space flight. I know that sounds like nothing more than burocratic nonsense but it's a step, albeit a small one, in the advancement of the human race.

[Funkstar]

You have a good point with that one TeePee.

I think there will be things that we only realise were significant achievements of the human race in the course of time. Things might seem silly or inconsequential now, but in a few years, perhaps even a few decades, might be regarded as significant.

[streetster]

I was thinking the capture & hopefully death of saddam as well... not a lot of things spring to mind tho

[TeePee]

Science magazine's breakthroughs of 2006

* 1. The Poincare Conjecture. Reclusive Russian mathematician Grigory Perelman apparently solved the venerable mathematical problem.
* 2. Digging out fossil DNA. Researchers used new techniques to sequence more than one million bases of nuclear DNA from a Neanderthal.
* 3. Shrinking Ice. Glaciologists discovered that the world's two great ice sheets were indeed losing water to the oceans - at an accelerating pace.
* 4. From sea to land. Details emerged of a 375-million-year-old fish that fills an evolutionary gap between sea creatures and land animals.
* 5. The Ultimate Camouflage. A British-American team built a "metamaterials" cloaking device, that rendered an object invisible to microwaves.
* 6. Ray of Hope. Clinical trials show the drug ranizumab improved the vision of about one-third of patients with an age-related condition that causes degeneration in vision.
* 7. The road to speciation. Studies on the fruit fly and on butterflies aided our understanding of how species arise.
* 8. Beyond the light barrier. New microscopy techniques allowed biologists to get a clearer view of the fine structure of cells and proteins.
* 9. The Persistence of Memory. Neuroscientists provided insights into how the brain records new memories.
* 10. Small molecules. Researchers reported a new class of small RNA molecules that shut down gene expression.

[Andeh13]

^ if thats all we did last year, im totally underwelmed. With modern day technology, all we managed to do with it is find smaller types of RNA, that there is less ice in the world, and study fruit flies.

edit: Only the improving eye sight & new type of armor have me slightest impressed.

[TeePee]

The new microscopy techniques have potential to open up new areas of study for Biology, and the solution to The Poincare Conjecture is pretty interesting stuff.

Of course, that's just scientific breakthroughs. NASA has achieved a lot this year as stated earlier.

[johnny02004976]

we executed Saddam - you decide whether its an achievement

[Whiternoise]

Hah no. 10 cracks me up - "small molecules"..

Nintendo Wii !!!!

[Skyrail]

compared to what has been invented/researched in the past it's been pretty pathetic, it's not as if anyone reinvented the wheel heh. Just some small discoveries that interest very few and our useful to even less.