Scientist at
CERN report that the
LHCb experiment has observed a four-
charmtetraquark particle never seen before, which is likely to be the first of a previously undiscovered class of particles.[4][5][6]
Scientists report that they measured that
quantum vacuum fluctuations can influence the motion of macroscopic, human-scale objects for the first time by measuring correlations below the
standard quantum limit between the position/momentum uncertainty of the mirrors of
LIGO and the photon number/phase uncertainty of light that they reflect.[7][8][9]
2 July – Scientists report that a more infectious
SARS-CoV-2 variant with
spike protein variant G614 has replaced D614 as the dominant form in the pandemic.[10][11]
Scientists show that adding an organic-based ionic solid into
perovskites can result in substantial improvement in
solar cell performance and stability. The study also reveals a complex degradation route that is responsible for failures in aged
perovskite solar cells. The understanding could help the future development of
photovoltaic technologies with industrially relevant longevity.[15][16]
The
Versatile Video Coding standard (H.266) is finalised, designed to halve the
bitrate of previous formats, and paving the way for on-demand
8K streaming services.[22][23]
Scientists report that analysis of simulations and a recent observational field model show that maximum rates of directional change of
Earth's magnetic field reached ~10° per year – almost 100 times faster than current changes and ~10 times faster than previously thought.[24][25]
Scientists writing in the journal Brain publish evidence that a few mildly affected or recovering
COVID-19 patients can be left with serious or potentially fatal brain conditions, such as
delirium,
inflammation,
nerve damage, and
psychosis.[29][30]
The
World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announces that it assesses a 20% chance that
global warming compared to pre-industrial levels will exceed 1.5 °C in at least one year within the five years of 2020–2024. 1.5 °C is often considered to be a key threshold of global warming and nations have agreed to attempt limiting contemporary climate change to it under the
Paris Agreement.[33][34]
Scientist report the development of a mobile
robot chemist and demonstrate that it can assist in experimental searches. According to the scientists their strategy was
automating the researcher rather than the instruments – freeing up time for the human researchers to think creatively – and could identify photocatalyst mixtures for hydrogen production from water that were six times more active than initial formulations.[38][39]
9 July – The
World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognises that
COVID-19 can be transmitted indoors by droplets in the air. People in crowded settings with poor ventilation run the risk of being infected, according to the updated scientific advice.[40][41]
Scientists report that the
Moon formed about 85 million years later than thought (4.425 ±0.025 bya) and that it hosted an
ocean of magma for longer than previously thought (~200 million years).[42][49][50]
13 July – Researchers report the development of a reusable aluminium surface for efficient
solar-based water sanitation to below the WHO and EPA standards for drinkable water.[51][52]
Researchers report the discovery of
chemolithoautotrophic bacterial culture that
feeds on the metal
manganese after performing unrelated experiments and named its bacterial species Candidatus Manganitrophus noduliformans and Ramlibacter lithotrophicus.[56][57][58]
In two studies researchers of the
Global Carbon Project summarise and analyse new estimates of the
global methane budget and provide data and insights on sources and sinks for the geographical regions and economic sectors where the rising anthropogenic methane emissions have changed the most over recent decades. According to the studies, global methane emissions for the 2008 to 2017 decade increased by almost 10 percent compared to the previous decade.[59][55][60][61]
16 July – Scientists report to have identified 10
genomic loci which appear to
intrinsically influencehealthspan,
lifespan, and
longevity – of which half have not been reported previously at
genome-wide significance and most being associated with
cardiovascular disease – as well as haem metabolism as a promising candidate for further research within the field. Their study using public
biological data on 1.75 m people with known lifespans overall, suggests that
haem metabolism may play a role in human ageing and that high levels of iron in the blood likely reduce, and genes involved in metabolising iron likely increase healthy years of life in humans.[62][63]
17 July – Scientists report that yeast cells of the same genetic material and within the same environment age in two distinct ways, describe a biomolecular mechanism that can determine which process dominates during aging and
genetically engineer a novel
aging route with substantially
extended lifespan.[64][65]
19 July
The
Emirates Mars Mission by the
UAE is successfully launched, carrying the Hope probe to
Mars, with a scheduled arrival date of February 2021.[1]
Archaeologists report the earliest known evidence of humans in the
Americas, dating back
33,000 years, twice the previously oldest known settlement of the continent.[71][72]
Scientists report results of a survey of 371 reefs in 58 nations estimating the
conservation status
of reef sharks globally. No sharks have been observed on almost 20% of the surveyed reefs and shark depletion was strongly associated with both socio-economic conditions and conservation measures.[76][77] Sharks are considered to be a vital part of the ocean ecosystem.
A paper on a "hummingbird-sized dinosaur" conserved in amber published
on March 11th is retracted after
reviewers agreed with assessments – of which one was uploaded to a
preprint server on March 18 – claiming a misclassification of the fossil, believed to be a lizard instead of a dinosaur.[78][79]
23 July
China successfully launches
Tianwen-1, its first rover mission to Mars, with a planned surface landing date of 23 April 2021.[2]
27 July – A new AI algorithm by the University of Pittsburgh achieves the highest accuracy to date in
identifyingprostate cancer, with 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity.[87][88]
Assembly of the
ITER experimental fusion reactor officially begins in France, with a scheduled completion date of
2025.[91]
29 July
Scientists of the
NA62 experiment at CERN claim to have presented first evidence of a highly rare process – a decay of a charged
kaon – predicted in the
Standard Model which may help identifying possible deviations from the model.[93]
Scientists report that they have transformed the abundant
diamagnetic material known as
"fool's gold" and pyrite into a
ferromagnetic one by inducing voltage, which may lead to techniques with potential applications for devices such as magnetic data storage ones.[94][95]
Scientists report that work honored by
Nobel prizes clusters in only a few
scientific fields with only 36/71 having received at least one Nobel prize of the 114/849 domains science could be divided into according to their DC2 and DC3 classification systems. Five of the 114 domains were shown to make up over half of the Nobel prizes awarded 1995–2017 (particle physics [14%], cell biology [12.1%], atomic physics [10.9%], neuroscience [10.1%], molecular chemistry [5.3%]).[92][96]
Scientists report that geochemical data shows that the origin of 50 of the 52 sarsen megaliths used to construct
Stonehenge is most likely
West Woods, Wiltshire, 25 km north of Stonehenge.[97][98]
30 July –
NASA successfully launches its
Mars 2020 rover mission to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples for return to Earth. The mission includes technology demonstrations to prepare for future human missions.[3]
31 July
Two ice caps in
Nunavut, Canada
have disappeared completely, confirming predictions of a study published in 2017 that they would melt completely within five years.[99]
2 August – Scientists report a newly discovered vulnerability in
SARS-CoV-2's
spike protein – a positively charged cleavage site near its binding site, which they demonstrate could be exploited by negatively charged molecule that bind to it and thereby inhibit the virus from bonding strongly to the host cell.[106][107][108]
3 August – Scientists report that valley networks in the
southern highlands of
Mars may have been formed mostly
under glaciers, not free-flowing rivers of water, indicating that early Mars was colder than thought and that extensive glaciation likely occurred in its past.[109][110][111]
4 August
Physicists working on the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the
Large Hadron Collider announce new results indicating that the
Higgs boson decays into two
muons as expected.[112]
Astronomers report that self-annihilating
dark matter (DM) is not the explanation for the
Galactic Center GeV excess (GCE) in the center of the
Milky Way galaxy after all, stating: "there is no significant excess in the [GCE] that may be attributed to DM annihilation".[113][114]
New Guinea is determined to be the world's most floristically diverse island with well over 13,000 confirmed species of
vascular plants recorded thus far, surpassing that of
Madagascar.[117][118]
6 August
The Canadian Ice Service reports that the
Milne Ice Shelf, the last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic, has collapsed after losing more than 40% of its area in just two days.[119][120]
Scientists report the creation of the brightest
fluorescent solid optical materials so far by enabling the transfer of properties of highly fluorescent
dyes via spatial and electronic isolation of the dyes by mixing cationic dyes with anion-binding
cyanostarmacrocycles. According to a co-author these materials may have applications in areas such as solar energy harvesting, bioimaging, and lasers.[121][122][123][124]
Scientists present an extension to an algorithm to infer local genetic relationships published in October 2019 and report that 3% of the
Neanderthal genome was
introgressed from ancient humans ~200-300kya and predict that 1% of the
Denisovan genome was introgressed from an unknown highly diverged, archaic hominin ancestor of which 15% were introgressed into modern humans alive today.[125][126]
Scientists report the discovery of the oldest monkey fossils outside of Africa; particularly, of
Mesopithecus pentelicus, about 6.4 million years old, in Yuhane Province, China.[127]
7 August
A study concludes that the direct effect of the response to the pandemic on global warming will likely be negligible, with an estimated cooling of around 0.01 ±0.005 °C by 2030 and that
a well-designed economic recovery could avoid future warming of 0.3 °C by 2050. The study indicates that
systemic change for "decarbonization" of humanity's economic structures is required for a
substantial impact on global warming.[128][129]
Russia's
Roscosmos chief
Dmitry Rogozin announces that he wishes for the agency
to explore Venus and to bring back surface materials and that they are building a
reusable rocket.[130][131] On 15 September he told reporters that "projects of Venus missions are included in the united government program of Russia’s space exploration for 2021-2030" and that
they includeVenera-D.[132]
8 August – NASA announces it will change unofficial and potentially contentious names used by the scientific community for distant cosmic objects and systems including references to
NGC 2392 as "the Eskimo Nebula" and
NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 as the "Siamese Twins Galaxy".[133]
Scientists report that bi-directional connections, or added appropriate feedback connections, can accelerate and improve communication between and in modular
neuralnetworks of the
brain's
cerebral cortex and lower the threshold for their successful communication.[136][137]
11 August
COVID-19 pandemic: Russia's President Vladimir Putin announces that Russia commits the first approval of a
COVID-19 vaccine "
Gam-COVID-Vac". This is a controversial step due to widely perceived lack of sufficient
testing of the vaccine.[138] In November high efficacy in phase III interim results was reported.[139]
Astronomers announce the discovery of
S4714, a star orbiting the black hole at the center of the Milky Way at up to 8% the speed of light.[140][141]
12 August
The latest
State of the Climate report finds that 2010 to 2019 was the hottest decade on record globally, with an increase of 0.39 °C (0.7 °F) above the long-term average, and 2019 either the second or third warmest year on record.[142][143]
Unexpected dimming of
Betelgeuse is explained by NASA as a "traumatic outburst", caused by an immense amount of hot material ejected into space, forming a dust cloud that blocked starlight.[150][151][152] On 30 August 2020, astronomers reported the detection of a second dust cloud emitted from Betelgeuse, and associated with a secondary minimum on 3 August in luminosity of the star.[153]
Universal coherence protection is reported to have been achieved in a solid-state spin
qubit, a modification that allows quantum systems to stay operational (or "
coherent") for 10,000 times longer than before.[154][155]
Melting of the
Greenland ice sheet is shown to have passed the point of no return, based on 40 years of
satellite data, by scientists at Ohio State University. The switch to a dynamic state of sustained mass loss resulted from widespread retreat in 2000–2005.[147][157][158]
14 August – Scientists report the discovery of the oldest grass
bedding from
at least 200,000 years ago, much older than the oldest previously known bedding. They speculate that
insect-repellent plants and ash layers, sometimes due to burned older grass beddings, found beneath the bedding have been used for a dirt-free, insulated base and to keep away arthropods.[159][160][161]
Astronomers report that the
interstellar objectʻOumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is not likely to be composed of frozen
hydrogen which had been proposed earlier. The compositional nature of the object continues to be unknown.[164][165] Nonetheless, the possibility that the interstellar object may be alien technology has not been ruled out, although such an explanation is reported to be a "long shot" by "most scientists".[166]
Scientists report the achievement of a milestone in the development of
laser-plasma accelerators and demonstrate their longest stable operation of 30 hours. These
particle accelerators are far smaller than conventional ones, may have technological applications and may provide a way to energies beyond the
LHC.[172][173][174][175][176]
19 August
An analysis indicates that
sustainableseafood could increase by 36–74% by 2050 compared to current yields and that whether or not these production potentials are realized
sustainably depends on factors such as policy reforms, technological innovation and the extent of future shifts in demand.[177][178]
Researchers report that widespread declines in
Pacific salmon size resulted in substantial losses to ecosystems and people, which they estimate, and are associated with factors that include climate change and competition with growing numbers of wild and hatchery salmon.[179][180]
Researchers provide explanations for variations in the rate of global mean
sea-level rise since 1900 and report that
dam building in the 20th century offset factors that would have led to a higher rate during the 1970s, implying that no additional processes are required to explain the observed major variations.[181][182][183]
20 August – Scientists report that the
Greenland ice sheetlost a record amount of 532 billion metric tons of ice during 2019, surpassing the old record of 464 billion metric tons in 2012 and returning to high melt rates, and provide explanations for the reduced ice loss in 2017 and 2018.[184][185]
A study finds that almost 300 million people live on
tropical forest restoration opportunity land in the Global South, constituting a large share of low-income countries' populations, and argues for prioritized inclusion of "local communities" in forest restoration projects.[189][190][191]
Researchers assess potential global
soil erosion rates by water due to projected climate- and
land use-change for multiple
SSP-
RCP scenarios, indicating that global soil erosion by water may increase 30-66% between 2015 and 2070 and that the greatest increases will occur in areas with tropical climates, which could inform strategies for
soil conservation.[192][193][194]
Scientists report that ionizing radiation from environmental radioactive materials and
cosmic rays may substantially limit the
coherence times of
qubits if they aren't
shielded adequately.[201][202][203]
Scientists report that the average global temperature of the last ice age, or
Last Glacial Maximum, was ~6.1 °C cooler than today and that the
equilibrium climate sensitivity was 3.4 °C, consistent with the established consensus range of 2–4.5 °C.[204][205]
Scientists describe a way
cells – in particular cells of a slime mold and mouse pancreatic cancer–derived cells – are able to
navigate efficiently through a body and identify the best routes through complex mazes: generating gradients after breaking down diffused
chemoattractants which enable them to sense upcoming maze junctions before reaching them, including around corners.[214][215][216]
Quantum engineers working for Google report the largest chemical simulation on a
quantum computer – a
Hartree–Fock approximation with
Sycamore paired with a classical computer that analyzed results to provide new parameters for the 12-qubit system.[217][218][219]
A new
infrared spectroscopy method capable of 80 million spectra per second, nearly 100 times faster than previous techniques, is reported.[229][230]
A study supports the theory, formalised in 2019,[231] that generic objects of dark energy (GEODEs) formed by
stellar collapse of very large, early stars could be the sources of
dark energy and are spread throughout the
intergalactic medium.[232][233]
After visualizing droplet dispersal for
face shields and masks with exhalation valves scientists report that these two types of face coverings can be ineffective against COVID-19 spread and recommend alternatives to minimize viral spread.[234][235]
Researchers report that
mining for
renewable energy production will increase threats to
biodiversity and publish a map of areas that contain needed materials as well as estimations of their overlaps with "Key Biodiversity Areas", "Remaining Wilderness" and "Protected Areas". The authors assess that careful
strategic planning is needed.[236][237][238]
Researchers in China demonstrate how
microplastic pollution contaminates the
soil and harms the abundance of common species, such as microarthropods and nematodes, as well as disrupting carbon and nutrient cycling.[241][242]
Researchers present an eight-user city-scale
quantum communication network using already deployed fibres without active switching or trusted nodes.[243][244]
Scientists report that
asphalt currently is a significant and largely overlooked source of
air pollution in urban areas, especially during hot and sunny periods.[245][246]
3 September
A study highlights the importance of old bulls in
African savannah elephants and, according to the study, raises concerns over the removal of old bulls as currently occurring in both legal
trophy hunting and illegal
poaching.[247][248]
Scientists announce new experimental evidence for the existence of
anyons.[249][250]
Scientists report finding "176
Open Accessjournals that, through lack of
comprehensive and open archives, vanished from the Web between 2000-2019, spanning all major research disciplines and geographic regions of the world" and that in 2019 only about a third of the 14,068
DOAJ-indexed journals ensured the long-term preservation of their content themselves, with many papers not getting archived by
initiatives such as the
Internet Archive.[251][252][253]
After investigating how
mammalian extinction rates have changed over the past 126,000 years, scientists report that mainly (about 96% prediction accuracy) human population size and/or specific human activities, not climate change, cause
global mammal extinctions and predict a near future "rate escalation of unprecedented magnitude".[258][259]
Scientists report the discovery of a
nanobody from
alpacas, Ty1, with the capacity to block
SARS-CoV-2 from entering human cells in vitro due to targeting its receptor binding domain, blocking it from binding with
ACE2.[260][261]
7 September
Scientists report that a low-frequency radio emissions
SETI survey of the
Vela region, known to include at least 10 million stars, did not discover any active signalling of extraterrestrial intelligence. It has been described as the deepest and broadest such search at low frequencies to date.[262][263]
A
scientific review by German and Luxembourgian NGOs shows that
electromagnetic radiation – such as mobile phone and Wi-Fi radiation – likely has a negative impact on,
declining, insects, with 72 of 83 analyzed studies finding an effect.[264][265]
Researchers report the magnitudes of
climate change mitigation effects of shifting global
food production and
consumption to
plant-based diets which are mainly composed of foods that require only a small fraction of the land and CO2 emissions required for
meat and dairy. They conclude that such changes could offset CO2 emissions equal to the past 9 to 16 years of fossil fuel emissions in nations, they grouped into 4 types, and provide a map of regional opportunities.[266][267]
8 September
Scientists in northern India report the discovery of the fossil
molar tooth of a new extinct species, and oldest known ancestor of
gibbons, named Kapi ramnagarensis, that lived about 13 million years ago. This reportedly closes a major gap in the hominoid fossil record and shows that gibbons migrated to Asia at least five million years earlier than thought previously.[268][269][270]
Scientists report the oldest
Neanderthal specimen in Central-Eastern Europe, found in the Stajnia Cave. A ~80,000 years old tooth dated via
mtDNA shows that at a time of environmental changes Neanderthals most related to
those of Northern Caucasus moved farther from their southern home areas than previously known.[275][276]
The latest report of the
Living Planet Index (LPI) finds that, based on more than 4,000 tracked
vertebrate species' population sizes, vertebrates have declined by 68% between 1970 and 2016, with increasing
deforestation and
agricultural expansion being key drivers and the largest decline of 94% in the LPI occurring in the tropical subregions of the Americas.[284][285]
Analysis from
NASA and
NOAA confirms that
solar cycle 25 has begun and confirms the start of the solar cycle to be December 2019, the time of a
solar minimum. Solar cycle 24 lasted an average length of 11 years.[299][300]
A
genetic analysis of more than 400 skeletons buried as
Vikings provides a clearer picture of the
Viking Age in Europe and Viking ancestry, showing i.a. that local people of Scotland were buried as Vikings and may have taken on Viking identities, that the contemporary United Kingdom's population has up to 6% Viking DNA and that "many Viking Age individuals — both within and outside Scandinavia — have high levels of non-Scandinavian ancestry".[304][305]
Researchers report the development of two active
guide RNA-only elements that, according to their study, may enable halting or deleting
gene drives introduced into populations in the wild with
CRISPR-Cas9 gene editing. The paper's senior author cautions that the two neutralizing systems they demonstrated in cage trials "should not be used with a
false sense of security for field-implemented gene drives".[311][312]
Media reports of what may be the first publicly confirmed case of a, civilian, fatality as a nearly direct consequence of a
cyberattack, after
ransomware disrupted a hospital in Germany.[313]
Scientists report the likely
oldest securely dated evidence for Homo sapiens in the Arabian Peninsula – ~120,000 year-old footprints of two or three human individuals visiting a lake.[314][315][316]
22 September – Researchers report that over half of
endangered species' proposed recovery plan budgets are
allocated to research and monitoring (R&M), that species with higher proportions of such budgets have poorer recovery outcomes and provide recommendations for ensuring that "conservation programs emphasize action or [R&M] that directly informs action".[320][321]
Scientists publish new findings and data about the
supermassive black holeM87*, including a video of the black hole based on data not sufficient for images, using statistical modeling about changes in its appearance in 2009–2017, showing variations of its orientation and a wobbling ring – constituting the "first glimpse of the dynamical structure of the
accretion flow so close to the black hole's
event horizon".[324][325]
24 September – Researchers report that 13.7% of blood samples from 987 individuals with severe
COVID-19 contained "auto-
antibodies" against the patients' own
type I interferons.[326][327]
Scientists report that
carrion crows show a neuronal response that correlates with their
perception of a stimulus, which they argue to be an empirical marker of (
avian/corvid) sensory
consciousness – the conscious perception of sensory input – in the crows which do not have a
cerebral cortex.[332][333] A related study, published on the same day, shows that the
birds' pallium's neuroarchitecture is reminiscent of the mammalian cortex.[334][335]
Scientists report with a
preprint that reanalysis of
LMNSin-situ-based data of around 1980 supports the presence of phosphine on Venus, reported on 14 September. Their data-analysis found a phosphorus signal that fits to phosphine in data gathered with the probe the NASA spacecraft "Pioneer" dropped down to Venus to measure the chemistry of its clouds.[336][337]
28 September
Scientists confirm the existence of several large
saltwater lakes under the
ice in the
south polar region of the planet
Mars. According to one of the researchers, "We identified the same body of water [as suggested earlier in a preliminary initial detection], but we also found three other bodies of water around the main one ... It’s a complex system."[338][339]
Scientists warn that an "international effort is needed to manage a changing fire regime in the vulnerable Arctic", reporting that
satellite data shows how the
Arctic fire regime is changing.[340][341] On 3 September EU institutions reported that, according to satellite data, the Arctic fires already far surpassed the total of CO2 emissions for the 2019 season.[342]
Scientists report that they expect construction of the experimental
SPARC experimental
fusion reactor to begin in 2021 and take four years to complete, and, with seven studies, that it is "very likely" to work.[349][350]
A new
graphene-based
bolometer with a claimed 100,000 times higher sensitivity than previous instruments is demonstrated.[355][356]
October
1 October
Researchers report the discovery of a novel
overlapping gene (OLG) (a gene partially overlapping with a sequence of another gene), named ORF3d, in the
SARS-CoV-2genome, that may be a factor in the
SARS-CoV-2 pandemic. They found the gene has been identified before, but only in a variant of coronavirus that infects
pangolins.[357][358]
Astronomers announce spectroscopic confirmation of a web-like
structure containing
galaxies and
dark matter around, and likely fueling, a
quasar at an age of the Universe of 0.9 bn years, which contributes to an explanation of how such
supermassive black holes could have grown rapidly so early.[359][360][361]
2 October – A rippling
graphene-based
Brownian ratchet-related
energy-harvesting circuit with the potential to deliver "clean, limitless, low-voltage power for small devices" if adequately incorporated into a chip is demonstrated.[362][363][364]
Scientists announce the first global estimate of
sea-floor microplastics: 14 million tonnes of
microplastic on the
ocean floor in terms of overall weight. Their estimate was created by averaging the microplastic mass per cm3, is about double their estimate using earlier data and 1-1.7 times the amount of plastic thought to annually enter the oceans as of 2015[update].[366][367][368]
Researchers reveal a new high-temperature superconducting cable, named VIPER, capable of sustaining higher levels of electric current and magnetic fields than previously possible.[376][377][378]
Researchers demonstrate the first passive
radiative device that absorbs heat from the hotter inside of an enclosure and emits it on the outside. The system has potential to cool vehicle and building interiors, and solar cells, without using electricity.[379][380]
Medical researchers conclude the
SARS-CoV-2 can remain on common surfaces for up to 28 days in laboratory conditions that include darkness.[381][382]
Scientists present a comprehensive quantification of global sources and sinks of
the greenhouse gas N2O and report that human-induced emissions increased by 30% over the past four decades and is the main cause of the increase in atmospheric concentrations, with recent growth exceeding some of the highest projected
IPCC emission scenarios.[373][383]
12 October – Medical scientists report, for the first time in the U.S. and fifth worldwide, confirming evidence of
reinfection with the
SARS-CoV-2.[389][390]
13 October
The red supergiant star
Betelgeuse is shown to be 530 light years away, about 25% closer than previously thought. Additionally, its estimated size is revised downwards, from the semi-major axis of Jupiter to around two-thirds of this diameter.[391][374]
Scientists report in a
preprint the possible detection of
glycine in the atmosphere of Venus with the
ALMA radio telescope. The amino acid may be relevant to the origin of life and was found on meteorites earlier.[392][393]
On 15 October
BepiColombo conducts a fly-by of Venus, having instruments possibly sensitive enough to detect the gas, without a detection or non-detection being declared by 10 November.[394]
A data analysis released as a preprint on 19 October shows no statistical evidence for
an apparent detection of phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus reported in September and that "at least a handful of spurious features" which can be obtained with the data processing method that was used in the study.[395][396]
On 27 October scientists release a preprint according to which the detection via
JCMT can be explained by the presence of other gases and the
ALMAinterferometric data is invalid due to calibration issues of the used data processing scripts. Independent processing of the ALMA data by several teams varied from the original study's authors'.[how?] They also claim to have found an inconsistency between the proposed photochemical model and data about the altitude of the gas in the original study.[397][398]
On the same day, other researchers publish a paper according to which no phosphine was discovered between 2012 and 2015 at the cloud tops and the lower mesosphere above, putting an upper limit of PH3 abundance there.[395][399]
On 28 October science journalists reported that ESO ALMA scientists found separate, unspecified issues – later reported to be a calibration error that was found as a result of the study "No phosphine in the atmosphere of Venus"[400] – with the data that was used by authors of the study that claimed an apparent detection of phosphine in September, and took those data off the observatory's public archive so that the European ALMA Regional Centre Network, who originally calibrated the data, scrutinises it in detail and reprocesses it.[401][395][additional citation(s) needed]
14 October
A
multicriteria optimization shows
restoration of degraded terrestrial ecosystems to be up to 13 times more cost-effective when applied in prioritized locations, with major improvements in terms of biodiversity and climate goals, at low cost. Their estimated cost-benefit ratio is based on contemporary assignments of value for labor, material input, and yield losses – such as of beef – on the costs-side and biodiversity conservation, local nature benefits, poverty-reduction, and climate-stabilization on the benefits-side. They note that gains are highest when restoration is combined with
protection of remaining ecosystems.[404][405]
A study reports major shifts in the colony size structure – the demographics – of the
Great Barrier Reef's coral populations compared to 1995/1996. The reef is known[410] to have
lost more than half of its overall coral cover since then.[411][412][413]
Scientists report, based on near-real-time activity data, an 'unprecedented' abrupt 8.8%
decrease in global CO2 emissions in the first half of 2020 compared to the same period in 2019, larger than during previous economic downturns and World War II. Authors note that such decreases of human activities "cannot be the answer" and that
structural and
transformational changes in human
economic management and
behaviour systems are needed.[403][416]
Researchers report that two Homo species lost more than half of their climate
niche space just before
extinction and that climate change played a substantial role in extinctions of past Homo species.[421][422][423]
Scientists reconstruct the mechanisms, integrating them in a
biogeochemical model, that led to the largest known extinction event, the
Permian–Triassic extinction event 252 Mya, and report that it can be traced back to volcanic CO2 emissions.[426][427]
Researchers report that
polypropyleneinfant feeding bottles with contemporary preparation procedures were found to cause
microplastics exposure to infants ranging from 14,600 to 4,550,000 particles per capita per day in 48 regions. Microplastics release is higher with warmer liquids and similar with other polypropylene products such as lunchboxes.[428][429][430]
20 October – NASA's
OSIRIS-REx spacecraft briefly touches down on
Bennu, becoming the agency's first probe to retrieve samples from an asteroid, with its cargo due for
return to Earth in 2023.[431][432]
23 October – Scientists illustrate that and how
quantum clocks could experience a possibly experimentally testable
superposition of proper times via
time dilation of Einstein's
theory of relativity by which time passes slower for one object in relation to another object when the former moves at a higher velocity. In "quantum time dilation" one of the two clocks moves in a superposition of two localized momentum
wave packets,[further explanation needed] resulting in a change to the classical time dilation.[435][436][437]
27 October – The largest
clinical trial – aiming to
recruit over 5,000 participants – to investigate effects of
Vitamin D supplementation – including with a dosage regime near the
RDI – on risk and/or severity of
COVID-19 and other
acute respiratory infections, CORONAVIT, is launched.[444][445] Another such trial's proposal was published in a journal on 10 October and is reported aiming to recruit 2,700 people across the United States.[446][447]
28 October
Scientists report finding a coral reef measuring 500 m in height, located at the northern tip of Australia's
Great Barrier Reef, the first discovery of its kind in 120 years.[411][448]
Scientists publish estimates of the occurrence rates of rocky habitable zone planets around Sun-like stars with updated data and criteria for
habitable zones – including ≈4 such exoplanets around
G and K dwarf stars within 10
pc of the Sun and ≈300 million in the
Milky Way.[449][450][451]
Scientists report in a
preprint that a variant of
SARS-CoV-2, 20A.EU1, was first observed in Spain in early summer and has become the most frequent variant
in multiple European countries. They also illustrate the emergence and spread of other frequent clusters of sequences using
Nextstrain.[452][453]
A systematic, and possibly first large-scale, cross-sectoral analysis of
water,
energy and
land in
security in 189 countries that links national and sector consumption to sources shows that countries and sectors are highly exposed to over-exploited, insecure, and degraded such resources with
economic globalization having decreased security of
global supply chains. The study finds that most countries exhibit greater exposure to resource
risks via
international trade – mainly from remote
production sources – and that diversifying trading partners is unlikely to help countries and sectors to reduce these or to improve their resource
self-sufficiency.[454][455][456][457]
29 October – Scientists assess four preparation procedures of
rice for their capacity to reduce
arsenic content and preserve nutrients, recommending a procedure involving
parboiling and water-absorption.[458][459]
Scientists announce the discovery of Kylinxia, a five-eyed ≈5 cm long shrimp-like animal living
~520 Mya that appears to be a key '
missing link' of the evolution from Anomalocaris to
arthropods and could be at the evolutionary root of arthropods.[468][473]
Astrophysicists report the first X-ray emissions measurement of
baryonic matter of
cosmic web filaments, strengthening empirical support for a recent solution to the
missing baryon problem of missing detections of ≈40% of ordinary matter.[476][477]
Scientists begin collecting living fragments, tissue and DNA samples of corals from the
Great Barrier Reef for a
biobank for potential future
restoration and rehabilitation activities.[483]
Scientists show why concentrations of
radionuclides in rocky planet mantles may be critical for the
habitability of Earth-like planets as such planets with higher abundances likely lack
a persistent dynamo for a significant fraction of their lifetimes and those with lower abundances
may often be geologically inert. Planetary dynamos create strong magnetic fields which may often be necessary for life to develop or persist and radionuclides are thought to be produced by rare stellar processes such as
neutron star mergers.[486][487]
Astronomers report newly found evidence for
volcanic activity as recently as 53–210 kya on the
planet Mars. Such activity could have provided the environment, in terms of energy and chemicals, needed to support
life forms.[493][494]
Scientists report the detection of
SARS-CoV-2 receptor-binding domain
antibodies in 111 (11.6%) of 959 asymptomatic individuals of a lung cancer screening
trial in Italy, starting from 3 September 2019, apparently establishing a substantially earlier
start time of the COVID-19 pandemic.[492][495] However, the journal published an expression of concern in March 2021 due to possible issues with the peer review.[496]
13 November – Scientists report that Mars' current loss of atomic hydrogen
from water is largely driven by seasonal processes and
dust storms that transport water directly to the upper atmosphere and that this has influenced the planet's climate.[499][500]
16 November
Results of phase III trials of
Moderna's
mRNA vaccine are announced, the company claims to 94.5% reduction of
COVID-19 cases based on interim results, including severe illnesses. The vaccine is easier to distribute than BNT162b2 as no ultra-cold storage is required.[501]
ALMA staff release a corrected version of the data used by other scientists in a study published on 14 September that claimed an apparent detection of
phosphine in Venus' atmosphere. On the same day authors of this study publish a re-analysis as a
preprint using the new data that concludes the planet-averaged PH3 abundance to be ≈7 times lower than what they detected with data of the previous ALMA processing, to vary by location and to be reconcilable with the
JCMT detection of ≈20 times this abundance if substantially varying in time. They also respond to points raised in a preprint that challenged their conclusions in October and find that so far no other compound can explain the data.[502][503][504][505] ALMA is reported to be expected to restart in early 2021 after a shutdown due to the
COVID-19 crisis and may enable further observations that could provide insights for the ongoing investigation.[504]
21 November –
Sentinel-6 Michael Freilich is launched into orbit, to monitor
sea levels in higher detail than ever before. The satellite's resolution will allow measuring of water depths closer to the shore, which has long been an area of uncertainty.[508]
23 November
Medical researchers report that during
human-to-human transmission, an average of about 1000 infectious SARS-CoV-2 virions is thought to initiate a new infection.[509][510]
Preliminary test results for
AstraZeneca's
AZD1222 vaccine, developed in collaboration with
Oxford University are released. The company claims 70% efficacy in the overall study, and 90% in a subsample where the first dose was reduced by accident.[511][512]
A study shows that
bottlenose dolphins can learn – apparently via
instrumental conditioning – to rapidly and selectively slow down their
heart rate during diving for conserving oxygen depending on external signals. In humans regulating heart rate by methods such as listening to music,
meditation or a
vagal maneuver takes longer and only lowers the rate to a much smaller extent.[516][517]
29 November – A team of international scientists create a study which suggests that the primeval atmosphere of the
early Earth was much different than the conditions used in the
Miller-Urey studies considering the
origin of life on Earth and more similar to the current atmosphere of Venus.[527][528]
The
Arecibo telescope collapses after several hurricanes, storms, and earthquakes over the 2010s raised concerns over the stability
of the Arecibo observatory and two cable breaks in August and November led teams of engineers to assess a high risk of collapse. One of the three teams determined there to be no safe way to repair the damage due to which the
NSF announced the decision for a controlled decommissioning of the telescope on November 19, a few days before the collapse, which was challenged by scientists worldwide who, with a public petition subsequent to this announcement, asked for it to be repaired instead.[532][533] The telescope built in 1963 was Earth's largest single-aperture telescope until 2016 and the
source technology for many significant scientific discoveries,
SETI as well as of the 1974
Arecibo message.[532][531]
The Chinese experimental
nuclear fusion reactor
HL-2M is turned on for the first time, achieving its first plasma discharge.[534]
2 December
The
World Meteorological Organization reports that 2020 is likely among the three warmest years on record globally, at 1.2 °C above the pre-industrial level. The ten years from 2011 to 2020 are also reported to be the warmest decade on record.[537]
The world's first regulatory approval for a
cultivated meat product is awarded by the Government of Singapore. The chicken meat was grown in a
bioreactor in a fluid of amino acids, sugar, and salt.[540]The chicken nuggets food products are ≈70% lab-grown meat, while the remainder is made from
mung bean proteins and other ingredients. The company pledged to strive for price parity with premium "restaurant" chicken servings.[535][541]
Chinese researchers claim to have achieved
quantum supremacy, using a
photonic up to 76-
qubit system known as Jiuzhang, which performed calculations at 100 trillion times the speed of classical supercomputers.[542][543][544]
Scientists report that
repurposedMolnupiravir can completely suppress
SARS-CoV-2 transmission within 24 hours in ferrets whose COVID-19 transmission they find to closely resemble SARS-CoV-2 spread in human young adult populations.[545][546]
8 December
Samples preserved for an estimated 4.6 bn years collected from asteroid
162173 Ryugu with the Japanese spacecraft Hayabusa2 are retrieved on Earth. The capsule containing the two samples becomes the second retrieved pristine asteroid sample a decade after Hayabusa collected the first and includes sub-surface dust. It was sent off from 220 million km away with the spacecraft proceeding on a
2026 and 2031 route to two asteroids.[548][547]
A study finds there to be no direct causal relationship between the proportionally most comparable mass
radiations and
extinctions, substantially challenging the hypothesis of such creative mass extinctions.[552][553][554]
The first
whole-genome comparison between
chimpanzees and
bonobos is published and shows genomic aspects that may underlie or have resulted from their divergence and behavioral differences, including selection for genes related to diet and hormones.[569][570]
The Chinese
Chang'e 5 spacecraft return a
lunar sample, which marks the first lunar sample-return mission conducted since 1976.[579] The Orbiter proceeded on a mission to carry out observations at Sun-Earth
Lagrange pointL1 after dropping the sample off to Earth.[582]
18 December
Media outlets report that astronomers detected a radio signal,
BLC1 (Breakthrough Listen Candidate 1), apparently coming from the direction of
Proxima Centauri, the closest star to the Sun. Astronomers have stated that this and other, yet unpublished, signals, "are likely interference that we cannot fully explain" and that it could be the strongest candidate for an extraterrestrial radio signal since the "
Wow! signal" of 1977.[583][584][585]
A paper by other astronomers released 10 days before the news report about BLC1 reports the detection of "a bright, long-duration optical flare,
accompanied by a series of intense, coherent radio bursts" from Proxima Centauri also in April and May 2019. Their finding has not been put in direct relation to the BLC1 signal by scientists or media outlets so far but implies that planets around Proxima Centauri and other
red dwarfs are likely to be
rather uninhabitable for humans and other currently known organisms.[586][587][588]
Ecologists report that the driest and warmest sites of 32 tracked Brazilian non-Amazon tropical forests have moved from
carbon sinks to carbon sources overall
c.2013.[589][590]
Researchers report a deep learning approach to identify
gene regulation at the single-cell level, which previously had been limited to tissue-level analysis.[591][592]
21 December
Jupiter and
Saturn come within a 6' arc (called a
great conjunction), giving a rare telescopic view of the two so close together.[593] As the two planets have an apparent size smaller than one arc minute, occultations are extremely rare: this is the closest approach since 1623 and the next occultation will happen in the
year 7541.[594]
Publication of research of "
counterfactual quantum communication" – whose first achievement was reported in 2017 – by which information can be exchanged without any physical particle traveling between observers and without
quantum teleportation.[595] The research suggests that this is based on some form of relation between the properties of modular angular momentum.[596][597][598]
23 December – A study finds that
face masks reduce the risk of spreading large COVID-19-linked droplets when speaking or coughing by up to 99.9 percent.[605][606]
30 December – Scientists report finding microvascular
blood vessel damage in tissue samples of brains without any detected SARS-CoV-2 as well as olfactory bulbs from patients who died from
COVID-19.[607][608][609]
31 December – Scientists determine that
desalination membranes are inconsistent in density and mass distribution, and show a way to increase efficiency in the membranes by up to 40%.[610][611]
20 December –
VinGroup announced the launch of the global
VinFuture Prize for authors of breakthrough research or technology inventions that have been shown to make people's lives better and improve a sustainable living environment.[616]
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