Russian scientists about the work that the science department “Gazety.Ru” he wrote in 2014, summed up the year. As expected, many noted landing probe “Fila” the mission “Rosetta” comet Churyumov the surface – Gerasimenko, and it was named outstanding achievement not only astronomers and physicists.
Each of the scientists approached by the Department of Science “Gazety.Ru”, answered the question: “What would you have noted scientific discoveries in 2014?»
Alexei Moiseev , an employee of the SAO RAS and SAI, the author of unusual ringed galaxies, published in the Monthly Notices of the Royal Astronomical Society:
How astrophysics observer I often wonder no “discovery” as such, but the experimental approach, even if not immediately giving the final result.
I note events associated with the project BICEP-2, whose representatives announced the discovery of the microwave background polarization associated with the relic gravitational waves predicted by Inflation. Alas, it seems that the obtained effect is wholly due to the influence of galactic dust, and most scientists agreed with this. Nevertheless, the discussion has gone far beyond the circle of specialists cosmologists.
The second important result in the same area – unlike the value of the Hubble constant, which characterizes the present expansion of the universe, from measurements of nearby galaxies. It is possible to find out thanks to the latest data from the satellite Planck, perform accurate measurements CMB. To be understood, whether it is a re-evaluation of errors, methods or the need to adjust the model of the universe.
Very nice and two observation results associated with supernovae in other galaxies: direct detection of lines in the spectrum of radioactive cobalt SN2014J, confirmed the script thermonuclear explosion of supernovae of type Ia, and opening on the Hubble Space Telescope images of four images at once a supernova created by the gravitational lens.
And, of course, the event is decades in the study of objects in the solar system – the output of the probe “Rosetta” into orbit around the comet Churyumov – Gersimenko and landing module “Fila” on its surface.
Alexander Belousov , a senior researcher at the Institute of Volcanology and Seismology, the author of the eruption of the volcano Tolbachik Nature Communications:
The main outstanding issue and absolutely natural science – this is the origin of life. Here do not even know really, “where to dig,” and while digging in the main space, where there is some, while more technical progress. Landing probe “Ukrainian” comet promises results on the composition of its organic compounds. Well, the technology and accurate delivery of the probe landing is extremely important for mankind. This is useful when you have to be destroyed or transferred to other orbits of Earth-threatening comets and asteroids.
A Mars rover American finally reached the foot of a giant layered mountain, which began to study the layer by layer from the bottom up.
And if life on Mars in the past has been, he is quite able to detect.
Nicholas Muguet , Head Laboratory of Molecular Biology VNIRO, the author of the mechanisms of evolution as an example stickleback fish in PLoS Genetics:
One of the interesting things from my area, made in 2014, you can select article in Nature about the genomes of five species of African cichlids. Cichlids are unique and the most famous model of speciation, in three large African lakes (Malawi, Tanganyika and Victoria) formed bouquets (complexes, speciesflocks) several hundreds of endemic species, and the rate of speciation was going wild. In this paper we have one fish from each unique lake complex and two fish river – a tributary of Lake Tanganyika and as the outgroup – tilapia.
found a lot of interesting things – and a high level of duplication genes and rapid evolution and change of microRNAs and other. But most importantly – that the published genomes will now serve as a reference for identifying the course of evolution in each lake.
Yaroslav Kuzmin , a senior researcher at the Institute of Geology and Mineralogy Russian Academy of Sciences, co-author of the article in Nature about the age and ancient DNA findings Ust-Ishim in Western Siberia:
In the field of interdisciplinary research at the interface of natural sciences, especially biology and geology, and archeology has been received a number of new results.
In January 2014 in the journal Nature published an article describing the complete genome of the Neanderthal Denisova Cave in the Altai, whose age can be estimated about 50 thousand years.
In October – November 2014 journals Nature and Science published two papers in which was presented the complete genome of Paleolithic modern humans, that is our direct ancestor: the Siberian find Ust-Ishim (age 45 thousand years) with the most ancient of today modern human DNA and Eastern European discovery Kostenky 14 (age 38 thousand years). These studies ever to look deep into the distant past of humanity and better understand the process of formation of the people of modern physical type than was known before.
Finally, in December 2014 in the journal Nature Communications published a study of DNA skeleton king of England Richard III (XV century), which has confirmed the authenticity found in the city of Leicester bones. This is a brilliant example of a combination of archeology, biology and writing stories!
Maxim Nikitin , an employee Institute of Bioorganic Chemistry, GPI and MIPT, author of the article in the prestigious journal in the world Nanotechnology:
In my opinion, the most important scientific event in 2014 is the delivery of the landing module “Fila” on the comet’s surface Churyumov – Gerasimenko: exciting and, as always happens in such cases, a daring move, a great success for humanity as a whole.
From the point of view of individuals, I, of course, most interested in the fate of doctors, scientists and other people, one way or another affected by the Ebola virus. I admire and revere those people who risk their health and lives, though their names, unfortunately, usually unknown to the general public. I very much hope that the problem with this virus will be completely solved in 2015.
In addition, I find very interesting advances in neurotechnology – especially working to regain control of paralyzed limbs using mental effort to bypass the spinal cord.
Julia Covas , professor of genetics and psychology and director of the Laboratory of the Faculty of Psychology Inlab Goldmits University of London, co-director of the Russo-British laboratory psychogenetics Psychological Institute RAO, Head of the Laboratory for Cognitive Studies and psychogenetics Tomsk State University, author of the article on the relationship between genetics and academic success:
In all fields of science, this year has brought a lot of discoveries. In my opinion, it is important something quite different: a versatile approach to cooperation and the exchange of data. In my field – the field of behavioral genomics – this step will lead to many new discoveries. Since the cost of sequencing is high, and its analysis – even higher. The new policy laid out in the sharing of large datasets scientific communities will lead to more efficient use of resources and to new breakthroughs. We will become better understood genomic processes, identify diseases and disorders.
Tatiana Khokhlova , a graduate of the Faculty of Physics, Moscow State University, now working in Seattle, the author of the surgery by ultrasound:
I was most impressed in 2014 made a successful landing module “Fila” comet 67P and detection of organic compound on it.
Sergey Trinity , a leading researcher at the Institute of Nuclear Research, RAS, author of the article about the “hot spot” in the constellation Ursa Major:
I was very impressed with the opening, far enough away from my area of specialization and that I therefore can not give a reliable estimate. This is an opening chiral asymmetry in the destruction of complex molecules of beta-electrons.
This discovery could be an experimental answer to the question, why left-handed amino acids all, and shed light on the origin of life on Earth.
From what I understand a little better – the opening lines of cobalt and nickel in the soft gamma radiation close supernova type Ia. Their stories are told in two independent studies, published in the Science and Nature .
First, the discovery of these lines shows that the radiation type Ia supernovae after maximum brightness is effectively connected with the radioactive decay of cobalt and nickel, as expected, and it’s – actually the first validation of theoretical ideas about the explosion of a supernova of this type.
Second, the line of nickel appeared much earlier than expected, may indicate the effects unaccounted for in the description of the outbreak, in particular, the asymmetry of the explosion.
Third, the first two points in any case, will improve understanding of the mechanisms of the explosion of supernovae of type Ia. But this is precisely the supernovae, which measure the largest distances in the universe – whether measured?!
Third, quite far away from my area of competence, – opening of the fact that nerve impulses propagate as solitons, ie pass through one another without a change in contrast to the conventional electrical excitations. In addition to understanding the prospects of the nervous system and the possible practical applications of this discovery gives another illustration of “inconceivable effectiveness of mathematics in the natural sciences».
And finally – this, of course, landing probe Philae on the comet Churyumov – Gerasimenko. This, of course, not a discovery, but certainly, the scientific event of the year.
From it almost certainly get a lot of discoveries, when the information collected will be processed and analyzed.
And in 2014 to remember a few scenes that caused a wide resonance in the media, but that does, well, just can not be attributed to the most important scientific events.
These are cases where media coverage did not correspond to the actual scientific content or the value of work.
First of all, we are talking about active raspiarenny the experiment Borexino, to detect neutrinos from proton-proton cycle of nuclear reactions in the sun. Unfortunately, there is a misunderstanding here – solar neutrinos from proton-proton cycle were recorded for decades in created specifically for this gallium-germanium experiment GALLEX (Italy, Gran Sasso Laboratory) and SAGE (Russia, Baksan Neutrino Observatory). It is written in dozens of articles and in all major modern textbooks affecting this topic. Result Borexino – of course, for the achievement of the experimental group, but not for the world of science.
Even worse is the case with presumptive detection indirect indication of the existence of axions in the solar wind with the help of X-ray telescope XMM-Newton. These indirect data contradict the results of direct, targeted searches for axions from the sun (experiment CAST), and from the outset specialists were visible weaknesses in this work.
A special case is the opening of B- Fashion CMB polarization collaboration BISEP II.
Here I have no complaints about the content of the work, they really found tensor modes, but the whole interest of the scientific community to this subject has been associated with the cosmological interpretation of the results, while the analysis of the tool Planck, specifically conducted to verify BICEP-2, shows , that this signal is due entirely to the interstellar dust.
Alex Moskalev Head of the Laboratory of Molecular Radiobiology and Gerontology Institute of Biology of Komi Science Centre, Head of the Laboratory of Genetics of longevity and aging MIPT and the Department of Ecology SyktSU, the author of several papers and books that tell about the science department, in response to the question “Gazety.Ru” wrote full text. You can access it in the incision.
Paul Musienko , researcher at the Institute of Physiology. IP Pavlov in St. Petersburg, the author of the article in Science Translation Medicine about how rats with transected spinal cord learn to walk with the help of current:
In the past year, it may be noted significant progress in the study of neural networks of the spinal cord involved in Control of walking and maintaining balance. The proposed effective methods of influencing these neural network models are tested on animals and spinal paralyzed patients.
Fedor Moiseenko , an employee of the St. Petersburg Academic University and Scientific and Practical Oncology Center, Russian participant in the project to establish a genetic atlas of cancer:
The most serious world scientific achievement in the field of oncology in the last year, in my opinion, was the emergence of the first significant data on the antitumor efficacy – inhibitors PD1, PD-L1, CTLA4 (immune checkpoint blockade).
It was found that the anti-tumor immunity exists. And that in itself is a very important discovery. However, in normal circumstances, the tumor cells through mechanisms that are present in a healthy organism, actually prevent the activation of immunological mechanisms and the formation of autoimmune conditions, block the action of the immune system to them.
The new class of drugs that relieve This blocking effect on various levels, is represented by monoclonal antibodies against PD1, PD-L1, CTLA4. The most interesting is that these drugs are now shown to be active in many solid tumors, including lung cancer, melanoma, bladder cancer, and many others, which indicates their potential universality. At the same time, in connection with a completely new mechanism of action, they are active in situations where the possibilities have been exhausted and the standard targeted cytostatic (chemo) therapy.
Another very important feature of this class of drugs is that some patients while relatively small (10-15%), unfortunately, there is a long regression of the disease (& gt; 5 years), it was practically impossible for a pre-existing methods of treatment of disseminated solid tumors (IV stage) and is equivalent to a cure for these patients.
There is no doubt that the study of these drugs is still at an early stage. Quite a few patients die from their toxicity associated with uncontrolled autoimmunity, drugs help only a small group of patients (20-25%), no markers that could help identify patients who are sensitive to these drugs (the expression of PD-L1, according to many experts is not an absolute marker), the price of those drugs that have entered the market, astronomical.
However, as far as I know, some domestic pharmaceutical companies already have initial experience in this area, which may make these products available to the Russians in the foreseeable future.
Maxim Timofeev , Director of the Institute of Biology of Irkutsk State University, author of a new form of amphipod crustaceans that live in the lake:
The work of scientists each year brings more and more new facts about the world around us. And, unfortunately, in recent times the news show an increasing impact on the world of so-called “human factor”, ie our activities with you.
Among the mass of scientific information events of the outgoing year I would like to mention an event related to Lake Baikal.
This year, broke the big scientific and public scandal about finding facts intensify the processes of eutrophication of Lake Baikal, or, as some journalists dubbed the “swamping” of this unique lake. Lake, containing one-fifth of the world’s reserves of fresh water!
The beginning of this public debate put our colleagues at the Limnological Institute, discovered during the summer fieldwork process massive overgrowth of shallow water, and some areas of Lake Baikal algae – Spirogyra (Spirogyra
In the journal Science published a list of the most significant discoveries of the outgoing 2014. This scientific discoveries in various fields. 
Recently, the love of new gadgets is manifested not only in humans. But also in animals. Many of us at home noticed that the animals are watching with interest what is happening on television, often with great pleasure to listen to music vsemte with us and watch movies. Many cat trying to catch moving objects on the screen, as though what is involved in such an active interest in animals to modern technology. Scientists are also interested in the question-how for the animals understood our modern technology. And it turned out tha t most of the animals with great pleasure playing computer games, solve puzzles, and even give preference to certain games on the tablet.