Prominent scientific event forecast for 2012

2012 may be the year of a series of scientific breakthroughs - for the first time Russian researchers plan to infiltrate the remnant 'Oriental' lake in Antarctica, the 'Voyager' probe crosses the boundary. of the solar system, physicists try to synthesize element 119 of the periodic table Mendeleep and find (or conclude that there is no) Higgs boson particle and start the world's largest neutron reactor .

1. Open the 'bottle' one million years old

In the early days of January, Russian explorers continued drilling deep into the strange lake known as Phuong Dong Lake deep in the icy floor, isolated from the world for millions of years. The drilling started on February 5, 2011 and had to be drilled from 10 to 50 meters to reach the lake surface.

With a drilling speed of 1.8 meters every day and night, it may take 2-3 more weeks for new adventurers to reach their goal. With this success, they will discover very special life forms, absolute dark formations, very low temperatures, very high pressures and no external organic sources.

Scientists will stop drilling as soon as the water is seen because under high pressure is sprayed up and immediately frozen, clogging the hole. They will collect new analytical water and will surely discover very strange creatures living in a lake that is millions of years old.

2. Voyager crosses the solar system boundary

The Voyager-1 probe ship is still traveling in the solar boundary and in 2012, it will "cross the border" to enter the cosmic space carrying traces of species civilization. people.

Voyager-1 probe was launched in 1977 to study giant planets. It works continuously and has so far reached a distance of 18 billion kilometers from the Sun. Not only does it travel through the space between planets and regions called 'heliomantia' - the boundary of the solar system, but also through the 'bubbles' around the Sun filled with plasma emitted by the Sun.

It is now entering the area where the flow of charged particles from the stars is weakening, the solar system's magnetic field is increasing and high-energy particles are preparing to "escape" into the space between the planet.

3. Open or close?

Physicists at the European Nuclear Research Center (CERN), work on a large LHC accelerator to prove or disprove the existence of the Higgs boson, a hypothetical particle to ensure mass for those Other basic particles.

This particle is the last missing fundamental particle in Theoretical Physics and Standard Model. Scientists have collected and analyzed data on the collisions of protons in the LHC and found that the phenomenon seems to be the generation or decay of a strange particle called the Higgs boson. The need to prove this requires a lot of information about the collision so that the Higgs particle starts to split on the background of common events.

Last December, scientists announced that they had "seen" the peaks of suspicion that the Higgs particle had been exposed, but the evidence was not enough. To confirm it is necessary to obtain at least four times more information.

4. The Mendeleep board will take a new step

German physicists at the Heavy Ion Research Center have embarked on an experiment to synthesize element 119 in the Mendeleep periodic table. The heaviest element is the element 118 synthesized by the Russian Nuclear Research Institute.

The group of researchers led by Christoph Duellmann intends to go further by synthesizing element 119 on UNILAC by interaction between Titan-50 and Beckeley-249.

Previously, Horst Stoecker's group and the above group were independent of each other and synthesized element 120 but failed.

5. End a longest science project

Perhaps the year 2012 will complete the PIC neutron reactor project (the abbreviation of the phrase "Beam research facility" in Russian) - one of the largest reactive equipment, the longest construction. and the most expensive (though not the largest investment) of Nuclear Physics started from the former Soviet Union. The basic idea of ​​the project was formed in the 1960s and at that time was the best source of neutron generation in the world.

It will be used as a microscopic microscope, visible to the structural details of the material at the atomic scale. Neutrons will allow the study of biological molecules and 'transparent' materials for gamma and ray ray rays, while also observing the kinetics of molecules, filming at very small scales .

Construction was carried out in 1976, but like many other projects in the world, was suspended when the Chernobyl disaster occurred. In 1991 the project was adjusted to update the technology but it was in fact 'frozen'.

In 2007, the Russian Government decided to restore construction but progress was slow. Anyway, 2012 was forced to complete.

6. Tunnel for laser

Last year, many kilometer tunnel systems were drilled for common free-electronic (Roentgen free-electron laser, XFEL) laser equipment for the whole of Europe. It is the largest science project with active participation of the Russian Federation.

The device allows researchers to delve deeper into the secrets of matter: In real-time studying the process of molecular formation and decomposition and recording the polarity quickly phase transition in materials under the effect of strong radiation pulse.

About the laser specifications will exceed all similar devices built in the US and Japan. The length of the device is 3.4 kilometers located in the territory of Germany. Construction of the tunnel system was started in June 2010.

The cost of laser construction is up to 1 billion euros, of which Russia contributes 250 million euros.

7. Not just a carriage

Roskosmos and the European Space Agency ESA since February 2011 have agreed on Russia's participation in the ExoMars program, which is a Mars research program (but recently Russia's reputation seems to have been reduced by losses. defeat of the 'Phobos-Grunt' ship.

The ExoMars collaboration project, which is a joint project between ESA and NASA, is initially scheduled to be implemented in 2016 by introducing a probe into Mars orbit and placing it on the surface of the planet. the set. In 2018, a self-driving car will be put on it. But NASA lacks funding, so it announced that it would withdraw from the project and announced it would not use its Atlas rocket to launch the ship.

Therefore, ESA returned to Russia, proposed to officially participate in the project with the use of Russian Proton missiles. The head of Roskosmos, Popovkin, announced that the Russian Federation's participation in the project must be completely equal in science programs, not just "horse hire".

8. Try the extra heart on people

The Russian Center for Organ Transplant Center and Artificial Organs in 2012 will clinically test the artificial 'sub-heart' on the human body. It is a mini pump, allowing severe heart attack patients to recover their health and wait for the life of the heart.

Previously, medical practitioners have successfully tested animals: A calf that uses artificial hearts has lived for 6 months. After the test period, people give it back their own heart and it is still living normally.

Russia currently has to buy such equipment from abroad, usually for 250,000 euros. Similar Russian devices are 2 to 4 times cheaper.

9. Decoding 1,000 genomes

Participants in the international project '1,000 Genomes ' (The 1000 Genomes Project) in 2012 will present the results of genome decoding of more than 2,500 people of 5 major races in the world. This is an ambitious project to remember that the first human genomes were deciphered 10 years ago and just recently the number of fully decoded genomes is only dozens.

The "1000 genome" project began in 2008. Its main purpose is to detect and describe over 95% of genetic parameters, encountered in people with a frequency of over 1%. The project attracts many research agencies in the US, UK, Denmark, Germany, Finland, China, Korea, France and Switzerland. Russia does not participate.

The systematic catalog of genetic changes provides the grassroots scientists to study the relationship between genes and the risk of a particular person. It can be said that it will open a new era in genetics and medicine.

10. 'Twins' start studying the Moon

Two "twins" of a new ship called GRAIL in the early days of the year set out for the Moon to begin a research program, primarily to create a gravity map of the satellite.

The GRAIL probe was launched by NASA on September 10 to the Moon by a complicated route for a period of three and a half months. The two devices will fly together for 82 days at a height of about 55km in a polarizing orbit around the Moon. Determining the distance between 'twins' will vary according to the level as they fly through gravity points, from which scientists draw a map of the Moon's gravity to figure into the hypothesis of the structure inside the Moon

Two brothers GRAIL twins outside the research mission also have educational purposes: Students all over the world thanks to cameras on the probe, can capture any position you like on the Moon.