The Leading Scientific Discoveries of 2017
This report is from our 2018 archive. See what the Foundation does now.
Translated from Arabic. Read the original.
In this article we find innovations that were once imagination and have become reality
2017 was full of achievements in science, in space and astronomy, in computing, the internet and software, as well as discoveries that won Nobel prizes in chemistry and physics.
Here we survey the leading scientific achievements of 2017
A self-healing electrical conductor
Scientists at the University of California, Riverside, in the United States developed a new electrically conductive material that is flexible and transparent and heals itself. It can be used to improve the properties of batteries, robots and electronic devices.
The new material stretches to 50 times its original length.
If it is cut, it can repair itself completely within 24 hours at room temperature.
The heart camera
The Japanese company Panasonic developed a new camera that can read heart rate accurately by analysing the images it captures.
The company used a technique called Contactless Vital Sensing, which reads people's heart rate, and athletes' levels of stress and strain, by analysing the image of the face through a video camera, without any physical contact.
The flying car
The Russian company “Hoversurf” developed the world's first self-flying car, with five seats, which will help reduce traffic congestion.
The car has folding wings and hybrid generators that can be charged either electrically or with petrol at conventional filling stations.
It relies on a computer, a security system and drone signalling to control it on the ground and in the air.
It can descend from the sky to the ground and park in the conventional way once its wings are folded.
The fire-extinguishing battery
Researchers at Stanford University in the United States developed a special lithium-ion battery containing materials that extinguish fire automatically.
The battery is triggered when its temperature rises too high, so as to prevent a fire from starting.
It contains triphenyl phosphate, a fire-extinguishing compound held inside a special casing within the battery fluids, which breaks down into its elements when an electric current passes.
The casing melts by itself when the battery reaches 150 degrees Celsius, releasing the chemical compound to put out the fire.
Launching a used rocket
The American company “SpaceX” successfully launched a “Falcon 9″ rocket that had been used about a year earlier.
It was thus the first company to achieve this singular success, which will help reduce the cost of space flight.
The company said it aims to cut its costs by about 30 per cent by reusing spent rockets.
The company's owner, the billionaire Elon Musk, called the reuse of the rocket “a historic space breakthrough, and an event that will be a great revolution in space travel”.
A robot that responds to thought alone
Researchers at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in the United States developed a program that lets people control a robot by thought alone, paving the way for humans to control robots effortlessly in future simply by watching what they do.
The new technique relies on algorithms that monitor brain activity for particular electrical signals.
The robot receives instructions through the electrical signals of the human brain and changes its actions immediately if the person watching it notices that it has made a mistake.
A 3D-printed network of blood vessels
Researchers at the University of California in the United States succeeded in developing and producing a living network of blood vessels using 3D printing.
The researchers said the discovery opens the way to use in regenerative medicine.
The network can integrate safely with the body's existing vascular network to carry blood, following successful trials in mice.
An atmosphere around an Earth-like planet
Astronomers at Keele University in Britain discovered, for the first time, an atmosphere around an Earth-like planet, an important step in the search for life beyond the solar system.
The scientists studied the planet, known as GJ 1132b, and found it to be 1.4 times the size of Earth and 39 light years away.