The most important advances in science of the last decade

[seouldavid]

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/science/nature/8435246.stm

 

This article is telling the most important advances in science of the last decade.

What's your opinion?

[Genecks]

I'm thinking our advances in biofuel technology and materials from biological organisms (corn into plastic) will be one of the more important things that came out of the last decade.

[Tranquility]

i'm not sure if it can be classed as an achievment but the discovery of climate change and the effects that will have is I believe going to become the most important scientific progress thispast decade

[npts2020]

I can't believe any list of the past decade doesn't have something about computers or nanotechnology.

[Severian]

I am not qualified to comment on most of these, but I would dispute the two particle physics ones.

 

On the dark matter front, the two events from Soudan are not statistically significant. The statistical error on 2 events is [math]\sqrt{2}[/math], so the result is basically [math]2 \pm 1.4[/math] (the systematic error is small). This is not even evidence, never mind discovery. (CDMS, the actual collaboration, agree with me: "We estimate that there is about a one in four chance to have seen two backgrounds events, so we can make no claim to have discovered WIMPs.")

 

As for the LHC, it is not a scientific achievement until it does some science. So far, it is an engineering achievement (albeit a great one).

[ajb]

No mention of Grigori Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture? The conjecture states that every simply connected, closed 3-manifold is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere.

 

The journal Science in 2006 said the proof was the "Breakthrough of the Year".

 

Perelman refused the Fields medal in the same year.

[Severian]

No mention of Grigori Perelman's proof of the Poincaré conjecture? The conjecture states that every simply connected, closed 3-manifold is homeomorphic to the 3-sphere.

 

Not sure I would call that science. I would call that maths.

[ajb]

Not sure I would call that science. I would call that maths.

 

Don't want to get into that argument again, LOL