If this year has proven anything it’s that things can change fairly rapidly. That is to say, that you can never really know what to expect when it comes to the human race. We are very good at making life a little bit more complicated then it needs to be. Not to mention the fact that we always strive for progress in every field. I am of course talking about the scientific developments of our time, there are many of them out there and more being found each day. So with 2024 coming to a close, let’s take a look at what scientific highlights the year had to offer.
First of all, let’s look at some crazy infrastructure around the world. In China, the Three Gorges Dam is a colossal undertaking which provides an incredible amount of electricity to the people of the nation. Interestingly enough, because of its sheer size and the volume of water that it holds back, scientists have observed changes in the Earth’s rotation because of it. That’s right, apparently you can build a structure of large enough to change the rotation of our planet itself. Now of course, the impact of human-made structures on our planet is no foreign concept. But scientists say that the Three Gorges Dam’s water is enough to shift the Earth’s pole position by 2 cm, slow down the plants rotation, and increase the length of the day by 0.06 microseconds. While those things aren’t necessarily perceivable to us, the fact that a man-made creation altered the way that our planet spins in space is quite preposterous.
Another part of the infrastructure that has developed immensely is travel. Renewable fuels have been showing up everywhere in our travel industry. But it hasn’t quite made breakthrough in the aircraft travel department. That may change, as this past year European designers have been working to design a supersonic hydrogen jet which has potential to fly 300 passengers at 1,141 mph (Mach 1.5). It’s a breakthrough in aerodynamics as the the jet features a sleek design. Regardless, it’s quite amazing to see such developments in our world.
Continuing on with our observations of celestial bodies, astronomers are observing more about different parts of space constantly. One of those topics of observation is astroids. Asteroids tend to do one of three things when they interact with the Earth, either they fly past it, they hit the atmosphere which causes bright streak that we know as comets, or they could possibly get caught in orbit. For a couple of months between September and November this year astronomers observed one such asteroid get caught in Earth’s orbit giving us a “mini-moon” for a couple of months. The asteroid was only 33ft in length which makes you wonder, how did we even catch something so small, that arrived for such a short amount of time?
Of course, there are more scientific developments than just in the realm of astronomy, planet science, and new renewable technologies. But the importance of all of these cannot be understated. It’s essential for us to understand how our planet functions, and all of the ins and outs of its many ecosystems. After all, with this past year being the hottest on record (like every year before it), we really need to begin to ask the big questions. Hopefully with the understandings that science provides us, and a little bit of faith, we can find our way through all our troubled times.
