Framtidskarta 2000-2050

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Trender 2000-2050

1 January, 2000 THE WORLD CELEBRATES THE TURN OF THE MILLENIUM (Social)

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The year 2000 was the first year of the 2000s decade. Popular culture holds the year 2000 as the fir... Read more

THE DOT-COM BUBBLE BURSTS (Technology)

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The dot-com bubble was a speculative bubble covering roughly 1998–2000, during which stock markets... Read more

VLADIMIR PUTIN IS ELECTED PRESIDENT OF RUSSIA (Politics)

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Vladimir Putin rose to the presidency after the unexpected resignation of Boris Yeltsin. He continue... Read more

CONCORDE CRASHES IN FRANCE, KILLING 113 PEOPLE (Technology)

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Air France Flight 4590 was a Concorde flight from Charles de Gaulle International Airport near Paris... Read more

Personal home computers break the 1 gigahertz barrier (Tehnology)

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During 2000, clock speeds were undergoing their biggest ever rate of increase. Read more

Wikipedia is launched

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Wikipedia is a free, web-based, collaborative, multilingual encyclopedia project. Launched on the 15th January 2001, it went on to become the largest and by far the most popular general reference work on the Internet. By 2011, more than 18 million articles (3.7 million in English) had been written by volunteers from around the world. Tags: Technology Read more

George Bush is sworn in as the 43rd President of the United States

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Following a controversial election result, Bush was sworn in as president on 20th January 2001. Though he originally outlined an ambitious domestic agenda, his priorities were significantly altered following the terrorist attacks of the same year. Wars were waged in Afghanistan and later Iraq while significant debates regarding immigration, healthcare, Social Security, economic policy, and treatment of terrorist detainees took place within the US. Read more

Space station Mir is deorbited

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The predecessor to the International Space Station, the Russian-controlled Mir had been in orbit since 1986. In that time, it had hosted astronauts and cosmonauts from twelve different countries. The last crew left in 1999 and, despite attempts by private companies to purchase it, the aging space station was deemed unsalvageable. It was ditched in the Pacific Ocean near Fiji, with a few large pieces later retrieved. Read more

The world's first space tourist

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American engineer and multimillionaire Dennis Tito became the world's first space tourist in 2001. He spent nearly eight days on the International Space Station, Soyuz TM-32 and Soyuz TM-31, orbiting Earth a total of 128 times. Read more

A devastating terrorist attack leaves 3,000 dead in America

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On September 11th, 2001, a series of coordinated suicide attacks took place in the United States. On that morning, 19 al-Qaeda terrorists hijacked four commercial airliners. The hijackers intentionally crashed two of the airliners into the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York, killing everyone on board, along with many others working in the buildings. Read more

Apple launches the iPod

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iPod was a new line of portable media players designed and marketed by Apple. The first generation was launched on 10th November 2001. With its user-friendly interface and gigabytes of storage capacity, the iPod went on to become phenomenally successful. The introduction of the iTunes store, with millions of songs available to download, substantially boosted Apple's fortunes. Read more

The Euro enters circulation

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The euro was established by the provisions in the Maastricht Treaty of 1992. To participate in the currency, Member States were required to meet strict criteria, such as a budget deficit of less than 3% of GDP, a debt ratio of less than 60% of GDP, low inflation, and interest rates close to the EU average. Read more

The world's first cyborg

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In 2002, cybernetics professor Kevin Warwick at the University of Reading, UK, achieved a major breakthrough in the field of brain-computer interfaces. The landmark project consisted of two experiments, both carried out by Professor Warwick himself. Read more

The dwarf planet Quaoar is discovered

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Quaoar is a binary, trans-Neptunian object and dwarf planet. It was discovered on 4th June 2002 by astronomers at the California Institute of Technology. It orbits at 43 astronomical units (6.4×109 km; 4.0×109 mi) from the Sun, with an orbital period of 286 years. It has a single tiny moon called Weywot. Read more

Space Shuttle Columbia disaster

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At the conclusion of the STS-107 mission, the Space Shuttle Columbia disintegrated during reentry over Texas, killing all 7 astronauts onboard. Read more

The invasion of Iraq

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The invasion of Iraq was led by the United States, alongside the United Kingdom and smaller contingents from other countries. The initial invasion phase lasted from 20th March to 1st May and involved troops from the US (248,000), UK (45,000), Australia (2,000) and Poland (194). 36 other countries were involved in its aftermath. Read more

The Human Genome Project is completed

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The Human Genome Project was an international scientific research project with a primary goal to determine the sequence of chemical base pairs which make up DNA and to map the 25,000 genes of the human genome from both a physical and functional standpoint. Read more

Record heatwaves kill tens of thousands in Europe

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The 2003 European heat wave was one of the hottest summers ever recorded in Europe. It led to a health crisis in several countries and combined with drought to create a crop shortfall. Seven days with temperatures of more than 40°C (104 °F) were recorded in France. More than 37,000 died as a result, mostly the elderly. Read more

MySpace is launched

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MySpace was launched in this year and quickly became one of the most popular social networking sites on the web. In 2006, the 100 millionth account was created. However, it was overtaken by its main competitor - Facebook - during April 2008, based on monthly unique visitors. Read more

China launches its first manned space mission

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On 15th October 2003, China successfully placed its manned "Shenzhou 5" spacecraft into orbit. This followed four previous missions, of which three were unmanned and one carried animals. The capsule carried a single astronaut, Yang Liwei. It was launched from the Jiuquan Satellite Launch Center in the Gobi Desert, using a Long March 2F rocket booster. Read more

The emergence of Web 2.0

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This year onwards saw the emergence of Web 2.0 - the next incarnation of the Internet. Up until recently, it had been primarily a tool used to publish material for public consumption. This could be defined as Web 1.0 and was simply a one-way street. Read more

The first recorded hurricane in the South Atlantic

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This hurricane, known as Cyclone Catarina, formed off the coast of Brazil in mid-March and began to move toward the coast. Despite being a relatively low-level category one hurricane, the people in this region had never experienced such a storm in all of recorded history. Read more

Hubble Ultra Deep Field

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The Hubble Ultra Deep Field was an image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope, with an exposure time of 1 million seconds. It was the deepest image of the universe ever taken by humans - looking back more than 13 billion years to just a few hundred million years after the Big Bang. Read more

London's skyline gets a new landmark

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30 St Mary Axe – also known as the "Gherkin" and the Swiss Re Building – was constructed between 2001 and 2003. It officially opened in April 2004. Read more

Mars Exploration Rovers

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The Mars Exploration Rover Mission (MER) was a NASA mission involving two rovers - Spirit and Opportunity - exploring the surface of Mars. Read more

Facebook is launched

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Launched in 2004, Facebook later became the most popular social networking site on the web – overtaking its main competitor, MySpace, in April 2008. It also became the most popular site for uploading photos, with 14 million uploaded daily. By 2010, it had over 350 million members – or about one-fifth of all users on the Internet. Read more

The world's first 1 gigabyte SD card

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In 2004, SanDisk released the first SD (Secure Digital) card with a capacity of 1 gigabyte. Costing around $500, this was enough to store 300 MP3 music files, or 2,000 images taken at 1,600 x 1,200-pixel resolution, or around nine hours of MPEG4 video. SD card capacities continued to increase exponentially – doubling each year whilst declining rapidly in cost. By 2011, they were available at 128GB. Read more

Asia gets a new tallest building

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Measuring 509m (1,671 ft) to the tip of its spire, Taipei 101 overtakes the Petronas Towers to become the tallest building in the world. It is the first skyscraper to break the half-kilometer mark. Read more

Indian Ocean earthquake leaves 230,000 dead

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The 2004 Indian Ocean earthquake was an undersea megathrust earthquake that occurred on 26th December 2004, with an epicentre off the west coast of Sumatra, Indonesia. Read more

Huygens probe reveals images of Titan's surface

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The Huygens probe, supplied by the European Space Agency (ESA) and named after the Dutch 17th century astronomer Christiaan Huygens, was an atmospheric entry probe carried to Saturn's moon Titan as part of the Cassini-Huygens mission. The combined Cassini-Huygens spacecraft was launched from Earth in 1997. Read more

YouTube is launched

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The video-sharing website, YouTube, was launched in February 2005. It grew rapidly, reaching 100m views per day within a year of being launched. By 2007, the site consumed as much bandwidth as the entire Internet in 2000 - and in March 2008, its bandwidth costs were estimated at approximately $1 million a day. By 2009, the site had reached over a billion views daily, becoming the 4th most popular website after Google, Yahoo! and Facebook. Read more

USB flash drives replace floppy disks

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By the middle of this decade, flash drives featuring the Universal Serial Bus (USB) interface had superseded the previously standard floppy disks. The latter had been in use since the mid-1970s, but now, along with CD-ROMs, were experiencing massive drops in commercial use - essentially becoming obsolete. Read more

Hurricane Katrina floods New Orleans

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Hurricane Katrina, of the 2005 Atlantic hurricane season, was the costliest hurricane - as well as one of the five deadliest, in the history of the United States. Among recorded Atlantic hurricanes, it was sixth strongest overall. Read more

Angela Merkel becomes the first female Chancellor of Germany

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Angela Merkel, leader of the Christian Democrats (CDU), became Germany's first woman chancellor. Mrs Merkel, a conservative, headed a coalition with the centre-left Social Democrats (SPD), who ruled before. Two years later, she became President of the European Council and only the second woman to chair the G8 after Margaret Thatcher. Read more

Crude oil production has reached a bumpy plateau

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Conventional crude oil production was reported by the International Energy Agency (a notoriously optimistic group) to have finally peaked this year. However, this was only announced some four years later, with the release of its World Energy Outlook 2010.* Read more

Twitter is launched

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Twitter was founded in 2006. This new method of social networking and micro-blogging grew rapidly in popularity. Within a few years, it was comparable with Facebook in terms of prominence. Numerous celebrities were using it to keep in touch with fans, while news outlets and businesses used it to supply updates to their followers. By 2011, Twitter had over 200 million users, was generating 190 million "tweets" a day and handling 1.6 billion search queries. Read more

Pluto is demoted to

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From its discovery in 1930 until 2006, Pluto was considered the Solar System's ninth planet. In the late 1970s, following the discovery of minor planet 2060 Chiron and the recognition of Pluto's very low mass, its status as a major planet began to be questioned. Later, in the early 21st century, many objects similar to Pluto were discovered in the outer Solar System, notably the scattered disc object Eris, which is 27% more massive than Pluto. Read more

North Korea conducts its first nuclear test

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North Korea announced its intention to conduct a test on 3rd October, six days prior, and in doing so became the first nation to give warning of its first nuclear test. The blast was estimated to have an explosive force of less than one kiloton, and some radioactive output was detected. Read more

Saddam Hussein is executed

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The execution of Saddam Hussein took place on 30th December, 2006. He was sentenced to death by hanging, after being found guilty of crimes against humanity by the Iraqi Special Tribunal for the murder of 148 Iraqi Shi'ites in the town of Dujail in 1982, in retaliation for an assassination attempt against him. Read more

Apple debuts the iPhone

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Released in June 2007, the iPhone is a multimedia-enabled smartphone designed and marketed by Apple. It functions as a camera phone (also including text messaging and visual voicemail), a portable media player (equivalent to a video iPod), and Internet client (with e-mail, web browsing, and Wi-Fi connectivity), using a multi-touch screen to provide a virtual keyboard in lieu of a physical keyboard. Time magazine named it the Invention of the Year. Read more

Global economic downturn

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During this period, the world experiences the biggest financial crisis since the Great Depression. Former chairman of the Federal Reserve, Alan Greenspan, calls it a "once-in-a-century type of event". This global downturn is caused by a number of factors. Read more

Arctic sea ice hits a record low

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Arctic sea ice hit a record low of 4.14 million km² during the summer of 2007. This shattered the previous record, with an area of additional melting the size of five United Kingdoms. For the first time in recorded history, the fabled Northwest Passage became open to ships without the need for icebreakers. Read more

Amazon releases the Kindle

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The Kindle is a software and hardware platform developed by Amazon subsidiary Lab126, for rendering and displaying e-books and other digital media. The device uses an electronic paper display and is able to download books and other digital content from Amazon, without a computer and without any monthly fee. Read more

Google Street View is launched

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Google Street View is a technology featured in Google Maps and Google Earth that provides panoramic views from various positions along many streets in the world. It was originally launched only in several US cities, but gradually expanded to include many more cities and rural areas worldwide. Read more

Cyclone Nargis devastates Burma

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Nargis was a strong tropical cyclone that caused the worst natural disaster in the history of Burma. After forming in the North Indian Ocean, it moved quickly towards the coast. Upon making landfall, it caused massive destruction, with peak wind speeds of 135 mph (215 km/h), making it a category 4 on the Saffir–Simpson Scale. It continued inland for over a day before dissipating. Read more

Artificial DNA

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Using purely artificial components, Japanese scientists at the University of Toyama created unusually stable, double-stranded structures resembling natural DNA. This breakthrough could lead to improvements in gene therapy, nano-sized computers and other high-tech advances.* Read more

Oil prices hit a record high of $147/barrel

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In July 2008, oil prices rose to a record high of $147 a barrel following concern over recent Iranian missile tests. However, prices declined to just $33 a barrel in December, less than a quarter of the peak price reached four months earlier. A strong contributor to this decline was the drop in demand for oil in the USA, as well as the global equities slide. Read more

Breakthrough in wireless energy transfer

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Intel Corporation demonstrates wireless electricity sent to a lightbulb at 75% efficiency.* This technology still faces a number of problems,* but will eventually see large-scale adoption. One of the main benefits will be reduced clutter in homes and offices, since the need for power cords will be eliminated. Read more

Major advances in CGI

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New modelling technology, pioneered by California-based company Image Metrics, now enables the most minute details of a facial expression to be captured and recreated. This means a long-standing barrier known as the 'uncanny valley' - the perception that animation looks less realistic as it approaches human likeness - may soon be crossed. Read more

Scientists extract images directly from the brain

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In a major scientific breakthrough, a Japanese company developed a way of analysing electrical signals sent from the visual cortex and converting them to digital images on screen. Read more

Video adverts on London's tube

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Video screen adverts - including web content displayed in real time - are appearing on the London Underground.* They are limited to the busiest stations initially, but will soon spread to the entire network. Various other cities are beginning to adopt this technology too. Read more

A shift towards portable (and ultra-portable) PCs

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The market is moving toward portable PCs even faster than expected. By 2009, the laptop share of PCs bought worldwide has overtaken desktops for the first time.* In addition, a new generation of "ultra portables" is emerging. These are significantly cheaper and more compact than traditional laptops, but offer many of the same features including wireless Internet access. Read more

Barack Obama is sworn in as 44th president of the USA

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Barack Obama was elected the forty-fourth president of the United States in January of this year, becoming the first African American to do so. His immediate actions were focused on the financial problems plaguing the country. He subsequently introduced several economic stimulus packages. Billions upon billions of dollars were spent in an effort to reinvigorate the financial system and free up credit. A country-wide cleanup of the banking system, with the aim of removing any toxic bank assets or loans, was soon begun. Read more

Kepler searches for Earth-like planets

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The Kepler space probe is launched by NASA. It will be the first instrument capable of finding Earth-sized and smaller extrasolar planets, using Ball Aerospace's Kepler Space Observatory satellite. It will observe the brightness of about 100,000 stars over four years to detect periodical transits of a star by its planets.* Read more

Macular degeneration is curable

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Macular degeneration – the leading cause of blindness in people aged 65 and older – can now be treated with a miniature "telescope" implanted in the eye.* Consisting of two lenses within a small glass tube, this works like a telephoto zoom lens. It combines with the cornea to project a magnified image of whatever the wearer is looking at over a large part of the retina. Read more

The mouse genome is fully sequenced

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After a 10-year effort, scientists have finished mapping the entire mouse genome.* Given the prevalence of mice in laboratory experiments - and the similarities with our own genetic code - this could greatly aid our understanding and treatment of diseases. Read more

3D scanning enters the consumer market

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This form of technology has been available for a while now - mainly for use in design visualization, CAD/prototyping, architecture, engineering, film production, healthcare, etc. Read more

Africa's population reaches one billion

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The continent’s population has doubled in the last 27 years. It will double again by the 2050s. The main reason for this explosive growth has been the lack of access to contraception and family planning centres. Read more

Mind control headsets for video gaming

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In 2009, a company called Emotiv released a headset allowing gamers to control games from brain waves alone.* This was achieved in a completely non-intrusive manner: no crude implants or direct physical contact were needed. Sensors on the headset could detect the neuroelectrical patterns in the wearer's head, and these were converted into actions on screen. Read more

The tallest man-made structure in history is completed

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With 160 floors, rising to a height of 818m (2,684ft), the Burj Dubai is by far the tallest structure ever built by man, shattering all previous records and setting a new benchmark for skyscrapers. Read more

Scientists engineer new plastics without the use of fossil fuels

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Scientists in Korea have developed a one-step production process for creating everyday plastics through the use of bioengineering, rather than fossil-fuel based chemicals.* Read more

Major breakthrough in cancer research

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In 2009, a major scientific landmark was achieved, as the complete genetic codes for both skin and lung cancer were identified.* Every mutation turning healthy cells cancerous was now fully catalogued - paving the way for drug targets that could lead to possible cures in the not-too-distant future. Blood tests to spot tumours would also be possible at far earlier stages. Read more

Discovery of the first exoplanet that could contain liquid water

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In December 2009, astronomers discovered the exoplanet GJ 1214 b - a "super-Earth" orbiting a red dwarf star approximately 40 light years away. This was the first planet outside our own Solar System with the possibility of holding liquid water. Read more

Water is discovered on the Moon

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The Lunar Crater Observation and Sensing Satellite (LCROSS) was the first American mission to the Moon in over a decade. It was designed to relay data from the impact and debris plume resulting from the vehicle's upper stage, Centaur, hitting a large crater near the Moon's south pole. Read more

Mercury is 98% mapped

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NASA's MESSENGER probe completed a third and final flyby of the planet in 2009. This helped to map 98% of its surface - including the previously unseen far side. It also revealed higher than expected amounts of heavy metals such as iron and titanium, forcing scientists to rethink how the small planet evolved. Data also revealed changing seasons on the planet, in the form of varying chemical compositions in Mercury's thin atmosphere. Read more

Haiti is struck by a devastating earthquake

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On 12th January 2010, a 7.0-magnitude quake occurred in Haiti, devastating the nation's capital, Port-au-Prince. With a death toll of more than 230,000, it was one of the deadliest on record.* Many notable landmark buildings were damaged or destroyed, including the Presidential Palace, the National Assembly building, the Port-au-Prince Cathedral, and the main prison. Read more

The longest solar eclipse of the 3rd millennium occurs

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On 15th January 2010, a solar eclipse occurred in the Indian Ocean. It was the longest eclipse of this millennium, with a duration of 11 minutes, 8 seconds. It was first visible as a partial eclipse over Central Africa, before entering the Indian Ocean, where it reached greatest eclipse. Read more

Solar power is plunging in cost

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In many countries, the number of homes with solar power is growing exponentially, thanks to plummeting costs and new government incentives. This is particularly true in the USA, where the cost of a typical five-kilowatt rooftop system has dropped from $22,000 in 2007 to just $13,000 by the end of 2010. This technology is becoming affordable to the middle classes.* Read more

Apple debuts the iPad

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The iPad is Apple's first tablet computer – a device category between a smartphone and laptop computer. Similar in functionality to a larger and more powerful iPhone or iPod touch, it runs a modified version of the same operating system (iPhone OS). Its included applications are also redesigned to take advantage of the larger screen with added functionality similar to their Mac OS X counterparts. Read more

Major breakthrough in robotics

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Robotic manipulation of non-rigid objects – where configuration is unknown beforehand – is now possible. A robot developed at the University of California is capable of analysing towels "on the fly", rather than being given a fixed set of movements. It can analyse different shapes, colours and materials using a pair of high-resolution cameras, then fold and arrange them into neat piles.* Read more

The worst marine environmental disaster in US history

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On 20th April 2010, the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform exploded in the Gulf of Mexico, killing 11 workers and injuring 16 others. The rig was owned and operated by Transocean and was drilling for BP in the Macondo Prospect oil field, about 40 miles (60 km) southeast of the Louisiana coast. The explosion caused the Deepwater Horizon to burn and sink, and started a massive offshore oil spill. This became the second largest environmental disaster in American history – behind the Dust Bowl of the 1930s – and the worst marine accident on record. Read more

Scientists create synthetic life

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In May 2010, a giant leap was achieved in biotechnology as a team of scientists led by DNA pioneer Dr Craig Venter successfully created the first artificial lifeform. Mycoplasma laboratorium was an entirely new species of bacterium, with man-made genetic code, originating on a computer and placed on a synthetic chromosome inside an empty cell. Using its new "software", the cell could generate proteins and produce new cells. Read more

Speech-to-speech translation is common in mobile phones

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Large-vocabulary, continuous, speaker-independent speech recognition is now widespread on cellphones. It has become a popular (and free) iPhone app, as well as being available on Symbian phones and on the Nexus One, using Google's voice translation server. Read more

The first demonstration of solar-sail technology

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IKAROS (Interplanetary Kite-craft Accelerated by Radiation Of the Sun) is a Japanese experimental spacecraft. Launched in 2010, it is the first spacecraft to successfully demonstrate solar-sail technology. When fully unfurled, its membrane has a diagonal span of 20m, but a thickness of just 0.0075mm. It is kept flat by a spinning motion. Tiny solar cells, dust counters and reflective steering devices are mounted as panels on the sail. Read more

British forces withdraw from Afghanistan

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The British Armed Forces have played a substantial role in the Afghanistan War. Their efforts in the country have been huge: second only to the U.S. in terms of troop numbers. Read more

The Constellation Program is essentially cancelled

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President Obama's budget plan for 2011 included no future funding for the Constellation Program – NASA's space exploration plan after the retirement of the Shuttle. Despite numerous objections from senators and astronauts, including Neil Armstrong, Mr. Obama remained firm in his decision. Read more

Augmented Reality (AR) is entering the mainstream

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A growing number of cellphones, cameras and other digital devices now feature augmented reality. This technology displays 3D virtual elements on a real-world camera view. GPS units in combination with inertial references can map a user's precise location, then relay graphics from the web (or a web-based application such as Google Earth) and superimpose them on-screen. Read more

Japan is devastated by a 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami

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On 11th March 2011, a 9.0-magnitude quake and subsequent tsunami hit the east of Japan, killing over 15,000 and leaving another 9,000 missing. Tsunami warnings were issued in 50 countries and territories, while emergencies were declared at four nuclear power plants. Read more

14 nanometre chips enter mass production

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The next generation of microprocessor technology is released by Intel, with transistors now based on a 14nm manufacturing process.* For comparison, a carbon atom is 0.34nm wide.* The 4GHz barrier in stock CPU is finally being passed, thanks to the performance and energy efficiency of these new chips. Read more

The first open petaflop supercomputer comes online

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"Blue Waters", the first open scientific research supercomputer to sustain one petaflop performance (a quadrillion calculations per second), comes online at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.* Read more

22 nanometre chips enter mass production

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Intel begins production of a new 22nm microprocessor - code-named Ivy Bridge - the first high-volume chip to use 3D transistors. A nanometre is one-billionth of a metre. The successor to 32nm, these will continue the trend of Moore's Law for years to come. Read more

China's Three Gorges Dam is fully operational

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Costing almost $30 billion, this is the largest power plant ever built. It has been in planning for nearly a century. Read more

Scientists trap antimatter

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In late 2010, researchers at CERN trapped 38 antihydrogen atoms, holding them in place for one-sixth of a second. This was the first time in scientific history that humans had trapped antimatter. Although antihydrogen had been produced before, it was instantly destroyed when encountering normal matter.* Read more

The Gaia mission is launched

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While the naked human eye can see only a few thousand stars on a clear night, Gaia will map over a billion – approximately 1 percent of all stars within our own Milky Way galaxy – over the course of its five-year mission beginning in 2013. It will chart their brightness and spectral characteristics, as well as their positions and motions, forming a highly detailed three-dimensional map.* Read more

The Space Shuttle fleet is retired

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This year sees the last of the Space Shuttle missions to the International Space Station and the subsequent retirement of the fleet. Two private companies - SpaceX and Orbital Sciences Corporation - will take over the remaining work, using cheaper disposable rockets. These will provide cargo delivery flights to the ISS up to 2016. Read more

USB 3.0 is widely available

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USB 3.0 is the third major revision of the Universal Serial Bus (USB) standard for computer connectivity. It has transmission speeds of 5 Gbit/s, which is 10 times faster than USB 2.0 (480 Mbit/s). USB 3.0 significantly reduces the time required for data transmission, reduces power consumption, and is downward compatible with USB 2.0. Read more

Worsening economic crisis in Greece

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For years, the successive governments of Greece had been spending money they didn't have. These governments took advantage of the good economic times in the early 2000s to borrow and spend at a greater rate than taxes were being collected. As a result, the country ran up a massive deficit, reaching an estimated 13.6% by 2010.* Read more

The largest desalination plant in Australia is operational

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Australia is a country with a long history of drought. This year, another step is taken towards saving its future water supply, with the completion of the Wonthaggi Desalination Plant. Costing $3.5 billion, this becomes the largest desalination facility in Australia and the sixth largest in the world. It is also one of the first major plants to be built specifically with climate change in mind, and is easily the most technologically advanced. Read more

The world's first synthetic organ transplant

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In June 2011, surgeons in Sweden carried out the world's first synthetic organ transplant.* A 36 year old man, suffering from terminal cancer of the trachea, received a completely new replacement windpipe. This was achieved using a nanotechnology scaffold - made from a spongy, flexible polymer - which was seeded with his own stem cells in a bioreactor. Read more

Consumer-level robotics are booming

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Thanks to falling costs, this decade sees the beginning of robots entering mainstream society. From 2008 to 2011, sales of professional and personal service robots more than double - from 5.5 million to over 11.5 million.* Read more

Multi-touch surface computing enters the consumer market

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These coffee table-sized devices have been appearing in business venues for a couple of years already. They are now becoming cheap enough for the consumer market. Read more

The death of Osama bin Laden

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Following the attacks of September 11th, which he had largely masterminded, Osama bin Laden became the most internationally hunted fugitive in history. Aside from a few videos of him living in unidentifiable wilderness locations, he essentially disappeared off the radar. After nearly a decade of false leads and high body counts, many began to think the search was hopeless. Read more

World's first commercial spaceport

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A new chapter in space exploration begins with the opening of Spaceport America - the world's first purpose-built commercial spaceport. This offers sub-orbital spaceflights to the paying public. Read more

Global population reaches 7 billion

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In October 2011, the global population reaches 7 billion. Over 74 million people are now being added to the world each year - equivalent to the entire population of Turkey. On current trends, the population is forecast to reach over 10 billion by 2100. Most of the increase is from high-fertility countries in sub-Saharan Africa.* Read more

Mars Science Laboratory explores the Red Planet

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Mars Science Laboratory - nicknamed Curiosity - is by far the largest and most powerful rover ever sent to Mars. Among its many instruments is the first video camera taken to another planet. As well as filming the surface, it also records the descent through the atmosphere, in HD quality. The rover also features the first 3D camera on Mars. Read more

Economic turmoil continues

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The global economic crisis shows little sign of ending. Stock and bond markets remain volatile, while food and energy prices continue to rise. A real estate bubble is about to burst in China, threatening to plunge the world into further chaos. With protests continuing in many countries, various movements for change are emerging, aided by social media like Twitter and Facebook. Read more

Nintendo launches the Wii U

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The Wii U is the first of the 8th generation games consoles – the others being the Xbox One and PlayStation 4, which are launched in 2013. The Wii U features gameplay in full 1080p resolution, 8GB of flash-based memory for storing game saves, a touch tablet controller with built-in camera, and game discs with 25GB of content using a Nintendo-proprietary format based on that of Blu-ray Discs. It is backward compatible with Wii software.* Read more

The Abraj Al-Bait Towers are completed in Mecca

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Also known as the Mecca Royal Hotel Clock Tower, this becomes the second tallest building in the world, behind the Burj Khalifa in Dubai.* It is made up of seven different towers, with the Hotel Tower, the tallest, soaring to a height of 601m (1,972 ft). Read more

The world's first 1-Gigawatt offshore wind farm

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Off the southeastern coast of England, construction of the largest ever offshore wind farm is underway. Known as the London Array, it will supply enough power for 750,000 homes - a quarter of all those in London.* With a total of 341 turbines, it will reduce carbon emissions by nearly 2 million tonnes per year, an important milestone in the government's plan to cut emissions by 80% by 2050. Read more

Quad-core smartphones and tablets

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The first quad-core smartphones and tablets were released in 2012, offering a major boost in processing power. This new generation includes the Samsung Galaxy S3, HTC Edge, HTC Zeta, HTC Quattro tablet and the Asus Transformer Prime.** Read more

The Mayan calendar reaches the end of its current cycle

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The Mayans were an ancient people that lived thousands of years ago, in what is now Central America. They are noted for having the only fully-developed written language of the pre-Columbian Americas – as well as its art, architecture, mathematical and astronomical systems. As part of their culture, the Mayans used a Long Count calendar. Read more

China's Tiangong-2 space station module is launched

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Tiangong (translated as "Heavenly Palace") is a space program of the People's Republic of China, with the goal of creating a next generation space station. It begins with a "space laboratory phase" which consists of three separate modules for testing and experimental purposes – the first being launched in 2011, the second in 2013* and the third in 2015. Read more

Food prices are triggering civil unrest

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World grain reserves are now at historically low levels, due to extreme weather events in the previous year. Failing harvests were particularly bad in the United States, Russia and Eastern Europe.** As the world consumes more than it can produce, the resulting increase in food costs is sparking riots and bringing down a number of governments in Africa and the Middle East.** Read more

The first gene therapy in the Western world

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Gene therapy is a new and emerging area of medicine that holds enormous potential. By identifying and "editing" faulty genes within a person's cells, every disease could in theory be overcome. Research into the field has been fraught with problems, however, with patients developing cancer and even dying in clinical trials. Read more

Highly flexible touch sensors are appearing in a range of gadgets

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Highly flexible, film-based touch sensors are entering the smartphone and tablet markets.* They are also extending touch capabilities into a range of new consumer and industrial products. Using roll-to-roll metal mesh technology, they provide a high-performance alternative to existing touch sensors. Larger, lighter, sleeker, curved and edgeless designs can now be developed for handheld devices. Read more

The first test launch of the Falcon Heavy

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The Falcon Heavy – the most powerful rocket since the Saturn V – has its first demonstration flight this year. Designed to lift satellites or spacecraft into orbit weighing more than 53 tons, or 117,000 pounds, it has over twice the capacity of the Space Shuttle and Delta IV Heavy launcher. At full power, its thrust is equivalent to fifteen 747's. Read more

Solar flares are disrupting the Earth's magnetosphere

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The Sun reaches its solar maximum this year - the period of greatest activity in its 11-year solar cycle. Because of the unusually low level of activity in recent years, this has caused a sudden build up of energy now, with large "solar storms" hitting Earth's magnetosphere. Read more

Direct high-speed rail from London to Frankfurt and Amsterdam

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Two of Europe's biggest financial centres - London and Frankfurt - are now connected by a high-speed rail link. Trains running at 320 kph (200 mph) provide a journey time of under five hours. Read more

China's first unmanned Moon landing

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In addition to its next generation space station, China also has plans to explore the Moon. Chang'e 3 is named after the Chinese Goddess of the Moon and includes both a lander and rover. It is the third and most advanced in a series of probes, two previous orbiters having launched in 2007 and 2010. Arriving in the second half of 2013,* Read more

China overtakes the USA in scientific research

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In terms of scientific output, China had been closing the gap between it and the developed world for several years. Thousands of new research papers were being published each year at an accelerating rate, while millions more students were entering universities as the country became more developed. Read more

Launch of the PS4 and Xbox One

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2012 saw the launch of Nintendo's Wii U – the first of the eighth generation games consoles.* By late 2013, it is joined by the PS4 and Xbox One.* These new machines offer major improvements in graphical power. Both have eight-core CPUs, each clocked at 1.6GHz and based on the 28nm fabrication standard. Read more

Comet ISON makes an appearance

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C/2012 S1 (ISON) is a sungrazing comet discovered in September 2012 by astronomers at the ISON-Kislovodsk Observatory in Russia. It reaches perihelion (closest approach to the Sun) on 28th November 2013 at a distance of just 680,000 miles (1,100,000 km) above the Sun's surface. Read more

Terabyte SD cards are available

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SD cards and other memory devices continue to grow exponentially this decade, with storage capacities doubling roughly every year. A terabyte is equal to 1000 gigabytes. Read more

The first test flight of NASA's Orion spacecraft

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The Orion Crew Exploration Vehicle was originally part of NASA's Constellation Program which was cancelled in 2010. However, the design was carried forward as the Orion Multi-Purpose Crew Vehicle (Orion MPCV), as part of NASA's new plans for manned exploration to the Moon, Mars and asteroids. Read more

The IPCC releases its Fifth Assessment Report

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The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) releases its Fifth Assessment Report in 2014, which further discusses the possible future impacts of climate change.* Read more

The Shanghai Tower is completed

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The Shanghai Tower is designed by Gensler and constructed in the Pudong District of Shanghai, China. It is the tallest in a group of three supertall buildings, the others being Jin Mao and the Shanghai World Financial Center. Upon its completion in 2014, it becomes the tallest skyscraper in China and the second tallest in the world, surpassed only by the Burj Khalifa in Dubai. The building rises 632 m (2,073 ft) and has 128 stories. Read more

Google Glass is launched to the public

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Google Glass is an augmented reality head-mounted display, allowing hands-free access to the web.* The product resembles normal eyeglasses where the lens is replaced by a small electronic screen. It provides interaction via natural language voice commands, as well as eye-tracking technology.* Read more

The MAVEN probe arrives at Mars

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NASA's Mars Atmosphere and Volatile EvolutioN (MAVEN) spacecraft arrives at Mars, to study its atmosphere and climate history.* Its four primary objectives are: Read more

The first solar aircraft to circumnavigate the globe

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Solar Impulse is a Swiss long-range solar powered craft being developed by Bertrand Piccard and André Borschberg. In 2014, it becomes the first piloted fixed-wing plane to circle the Earth using solar power alone. Read more

Laser guns are in naval use

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Following several years of research and development, Solid State Laser (SSL) weapons are now being deployed by the U.S. Navy as a form of short-range defence. These high-powered beams of directed energy can be fired at distances of four miles, hitting targets moving at 300 mph (480 km/h). Read more

Completion of the International Space Station

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The International Space Station is by far the largest man-made structure ever put into orbit: 110m (360 ft) across, with a mass of 345,000 kg and a living volume of 1,000 cubic metres. It is maintained in a nearly circular orbit with a minimum mean altitude of 330 km (205 mi) and a maximum of 410 km (255 mi). Read more

The new World Trade Center is completed

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After the terrorist attacks of 2001, then-President George Bush vowed that the World Trade Center complex would be fully rebuilt and the skyline made whole again. A competition was held between several architecture firms to design an iconic new landmark. Read more

Most phone calls are made via the Internet now

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By now, the majority of homes and workplaces use Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) systems, such as Skype.* These connections are made via the Internet, rather than traditional phone lines. Read more

The Internet has a greater reach than television

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Citizens in developed nations now rely on the Internet more than any other medium for news coverage. This trend* first became apparent in the early 2000s, when radio was overtaken by Internet usage. The rapid shift towards web-based information then began to affect print media, with newspaper sales being heavily impacted. Read more

India's first Mars mission

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Joining the MAVEN probe this year is another orbiter, the first Indian mission to Mars.* Launched in November 2013, the probe enters a highly elliptical orbit of 500 x 80,000 km around Mars in September 2014. Read more

Personalised DNA sequencing for under $100

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DNA sequencing technology is now so fast and cheap that an entire human genome can be read in a matter of hours for less than $100. This has been made possible by a revolutionary new device called a nanofluidic chip.* Read more

Better protection against tooth decay

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A new molecule known as "Keep 32" is now present in a range of dental care products, as well as several foods like chewing gum. This eliminates Streptococcus mutans - one of the two main bacteria responsible for tooth decay.* Read more

Launch of the Sunjammer solar sail

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The Sunjammer is a NASA mission intended to demonstrate solar sail technology, a form of propellant-free spacecraft propulsion that allows travel using radiation pressure alone.* This involves a combination of light and high-speed gas particles, ejected from the Sun, pushing large ultra-thin mirrors (or sails) to high speeds. Read more

Robotic pack mules are entering military service

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Dynamically stable, quadruped robots are being deployed in military support roles now. These are accompanying soldiers in terrain too difficult for conventional vehicles. They use four legs for movement, allowing them to move across surfaces that would defeat wheels or treads. Read more

A comet is passing extremely close to Mars

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C/2013 A1 (Siding Spring) is an Oort cloud comet discovered in January 2013 by the Siding Spring Observatory. Subsequent analysis by NASA's NEO Program indicated that it could pass just 31,000 miles (50,000 km) from the Red Planet's surface: only two-and-a-half times the distance of its outermost moon, Deimos, and roughly the height at which communication satellites orbit Earth.* Read more

Rosetta deploys its lander on comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko

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Rosetta is a probe launched in 2004 by the European Space Agency and intended to study the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko. The craft studies two asteroids, 2867 Steins and 21 Lutetia, before rendezvousing with the comet in 2014. Read more

LifeSaver bottles are in widespread use

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Third World countries are benefitting from a revolutionary portable device. First revealed in 2007, it is now widely used by foreign aid workers and UN staff. Read more

A new generation of hi-tech supercarriers

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The first in a new generation of US aircraft carriers is launched this year. The Gerald R. Ford-class replaces the aging Nimitz-class which has been in service since 1975. This new class of ship includes some major improvements over previous generations. Read more

Battery technology gets a boost

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A new method of charging lithium-ion batteries has been perfected. This enables them to charge ten times faster and to last ten times as long. A chemical oxidation process creates miniscule holes (10 to 20 nanometres) between layers of graphene. Read more

Gay marriage is legal in the UK

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Civil partnerships had already been permitted in the UK since 2004, following the Civil Partnership Act. This gave rights and responsibilities to same-sex couples that were identical to civil marriage between opposite-sex couples. Read more

The next generation of optical discs

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This year sees the release of a new optical disc format with 300GB capacity.* It has been jointly developed by Sony and Panasonic. Read more

3D printing is a mainstream consumer product

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Until recently, this technology was extremely expensive - upwards of $15,000 per machine - and limited to use in industrial prototyping, product design, medical modeling and architectural models.* However, plummeting costs are now making it affordable to consumers.** Read more

Genome sequencing continues to improve exponentially

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Despite the economic crisis, a number of industries continue to show growth. One of these is personal medicine and genome sequencing.* After the Human Genome Project was finished in 2003, the potential for its public use began to be realised. Read more

The first large-scale solar updraft towers are operational

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The first large-scale solar updraft towers are completed in 2015.* Built by EnviroMission - a start-up company that purchased land in Arizona, USA - they stand 800 metres in height, over twice as tall as the Empire State Building. Read more

Virtual reality makes a comeback

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The computer industry is another sector that continues to see growth, in spite of the global economic crisis.* Exponential improvements in processing power (doubling every 18 months) are enabling the creation of highly lifelike graphics and 3D environments. Read more

Dawn arrives at Ceres

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Dawn is a robotic spacecraft sent by NASA on a mission to the asteroid belt. It reaches Vesta in 2011, before rendezvousing with the dwarf planet, Ceres, in 2015. Read more

Scientists resurrect the woolly mammoth

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New cloning technology has enabled the woolly mammoth – extinct for 5,000 years – to be brought back to life. Tissue samples are taken from a mammoth frozen in permafrost. The nuclei of a viable cell is then inserted into the egg cell of a female African elephant, which can act as a surrogate mother. Following a 600-day gestation period, the baby woolly mammoth is born. Read more

Trucks with emergency braking systems are mandatory in Europe

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In November 2015, an EU law comes into effect which mandates that all new trucks must be fitted with emergency braking and collision warning systems.* This has been introduced in an effort to lower the number of rear-end collisions, which account for a significant proportion of road accidents. Read more

The Large Hadron Collider reaches its maximum operating power

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The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is the world's largest and highest-energy particle accelerator. By smashing together sub-atomic particles at close to the speed of light, it aims to recreate the conditions that existed just a fraction of a second after the birth of the universe. In doing so, it is expected to address some of the most fundamental questions in physics. Read more

Five-year survival rates for thyroid cancer are approaching 100%

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The thyroid is one of the largest endocrine glands. Found in the neck, it controls how quickly the body uses energy, makes proteins and controls how sensitive the body is to other hormones. It does so by producing thyroid hormones which regulate metabolism and affect the growth and rate of function of many other systems in the body. Read more

LED lamps dominate the commercial and domestic lighting markets

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For many years, light-emitting diodes (LEDs) were used as indicators such as red standby dots on TVs. At first, they were available only as a red light source, and their output was too low for general illumination. Read more

New Horizons arrives at Pluto

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This NASA probe was launched in 2006 and has travelled more than 4 billion kilometres through space. In July 2015, it returns the first close range, high resolution pictures of the icy world - along with its five moons - before passing through the Kuiper Belt.* Read more

The world's first fully sustainable, zero-carbon, zero-waste city

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The first phase of Masdar City – a $22 billion eco-project – is completed in 2015.* This huge development is located outside of Abu Dhabi in the United Arab Emirates. Entirely pre-planned and self-contained, it is the world's first carbon neutral, zero waste and fully sustainable city. Read more

The Carteret Islands are abandoned

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By 2015, due to rising sea levels, the inhabitants of the Carteret Islands in Papua New Guinea have been forced to abandon their homelands.* These people are among the first true climate refugees. Read more

Voyager I enters the heliopause

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Voyager I remains the most distant human-made object, traveling away from the Earth at a speed greater than any other space probe. Read more

The Eurasian Union is formed

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The Eurasian Union is a political and economic union of Belarus, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Russian Federation, Tajikistan and other countries, in particular the post-Soviet states. The idea, based on the European Union's integration, was brought to attention in October 2011 by then-Prime Minister of Russia, Vladimir Putin, but was first proposed as a concept by the President of Kazakhstan, Nursultan Nazarbayev, during a 1994 speech at a Moscow university. Read more

The deadline for the Millennium Development Goals

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In 2000, the largest gathering of world leaders in history took place, as the 193 UN member states met in New York to discuss the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs). These were eight international objectives with ambitious targets for developing countries, most of them to be achieved by 2015.* Read more

Holographic Versatile Disc (HVD) supersedes Blu-Ray

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These ultra-high density discs are capable of holding 1Tb of data - equivalent to over 200 DVDs. They work by analysing micro-holograms in 3D, rather than just markings on the surface. This allows data to be far more densely packed than conventional optical technology. Read more

Launch of the Titanic II

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More than 100 years after the ill-fated voyage of RMS Titanic, an exact replica is built and launched by the Australian billionaire Clive Palmer. The boat sails from China – where it is constructed – to Southampton in England ahead of her maiden passenger journey to New York. Read more

The Gotthard Base Tunnel is completed

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After 20 years of construction, the first trains are now running through the Gotthard Base Tunnel in Switzerland.* With a route length of over 57 km (35 mi) and a total of 152 km (94 mi) of tunnels, shafts and passages, it is the world's longest rail tunnel. Read more

Microchipping of all dogs in England

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In April 2016, a new law comes into effect requiring all dogs in England to be tagged with a microchip implant.* This measure has been introduced in order to cut the growing number of strays. As of 2012, there were 118,932 dogs reported lost or stolen, of which 55,898 (about 47%) were reunited with their owner. Read more

China passes the USA in PPP

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Under Purchasing Power Parity (PPP), China's economy expanded from $11.2 trillion in 2011 to $19 trillion in 2016. Meanwhile, the size of the US economy rose from $15.2 trillion to $18.8 trillion. This has reduced America's share of world output to 17.7%, its lowest in modern times. China's share has reached 18% and is continuing to rise.* Read more

New drug delivery methods for brain-related conditions

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The main issue preventing effective treatments of many brain disorders had for years been the blood-brain barrier. This helps to protect the brain from dangerous bacteria, but it also blocks drugs from entering, prohibiting effective medical treatments. Read more

A pill to prevent sunburn

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In 2011, British researchers who analysed coral samples from the Great Barrier Reef made a remarkable discovery. Algae living within the coral were found to produce a special compound that was transported to the coral, then modified to protect both the algae and the coral from the sun's ultraviolet (UV) rays. Not only that, but fish feeding on the coral were also found to benefit, so it was clearly passed up the food chain. Read more

US vehicles are becoming more fuel-efficient

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New standards enacted by the Obama administration have boosted the fuel efficiency of light duty vehicles (cars, crossovers, SUVs, vans and pickup trucks) to an average of 34 miles per gallon (MPG).* Read more

China completes the largest environmental cleanup in its history

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The rapid growth of China in recent decades led to some truly appalling environmental conditions in the country, particularly the developing urban areas. Since 2006, China had been the world's largest producer of CO2, a result of coal power supplying 70% of the country's energy. Read more

Apple Inc. achieves a market capitalisation of one trillion dollars

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Since it entered the market in the late 1970s, Apple has continually supplied the consumer electronic industry with innovative and revolutionising products. From the original Macintosh, released in 1984, to the latest generations of handheld devices, Apple has been at the forefront of advancing the technology available to consumers. Read more

The Strait of Messina Bridge is completed

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The world's largest suspension bridge - the Strait of Messina Bridge - is completed this year, connecting Sicily with mainland Italy for the first time.* Some 3.3 km in length and 60m wide, the bridge is supported by two 382m pillars, higher than the Empire State Building in New York. Read more

India's first manned space flight

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India becomes only the fourth nation – after Russia, the US and China – to independently launch humans into space. The rocket used is a variant of the Geosynchronous Satellite Launch Vehicle Mark 2, operated by the Indian Space Research Organisation (ISRO). Read more

Completion of the i5K project

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i5K is a five year project to sequence the genomes of 5,000 insect and related arthropod species.* It aims to identify the vulnerable regions of insect DNA, which could then be targeted with pesticides and other treatments. This could reduce the $50 billion spent globally each year to control the many diseases transmitted by insects. Read more

India launches its second unmanned lunar probe

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In addition to sending its first man into space, India conducts its second unmanned lunar exploration this year.* Chandrayaan-2 is a probe which includes an orbiter as well as two rovers: one lander/rover built by Russia, and a second smaller rover built by India. Read more

InSight touches down on Mars

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InSight is a probe launched by NASA to Mars, arriving in September 2016. The name stands for Interior Exploration using Seismic Investigations, Geodesy and Heat Transport. A stationary lander is placed on the surface of Mars, equipped with a seismometer and heat flow probe that drills 5 metres (16 ft) below ground - deeper than all previous arms, scoops, drills and probes. Read more

The first hotel in space

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Energiya - a Russian space group - launches the world's first space hotel, in a partnership with Orbital Technologies, a US hi-tech firm. Capable of housing up to seven people, it offers spectacular views of the Earth and includes a menu crafted by celebrity chefs. It can also function as a possible emergency refuge for astronauts from the ISS. Read more

The Juno probe arrives at Jupiter

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Launched in 2011, this becomes the second probe to orbit the gas giant, the first being Galileo in 1995. It is equipped with a camera, infrared and microwave radiometers, particle detectors, and an ultraviolet spectrometer. Read more

The mining industry is highly automated

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Recent years have seen a rapid increase in the use of automation, a trend that is becoming especially prevalent in the mining sector. Rio Tinto, for example, now has a fleet of self-driving haul trucks which together are responsible for over half of its total material moved.** Read more

Agricultural robots are appearing on farms

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The first significant numbers of robots are appearing on farms.* These have been in development for 20 years and are now cheap and sophisticated enough for mainstream use. New scanning and imaging technology has solved the primary problem of allowing robots to handle the varying shape of individual fruits and vegetables. Read more

High-definition CCTV cameras are ubiquitous

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Closed-circuit television (CCTV) has improved hugely in recent years with a shift from analogue to digital equipment. The vast majority of cameras now record footage in high definition, with some capable of gigapixel resolution. Read more