Mars Water Tops Science Honours

[zavvy]

<b>Mars Water Tops Science Honours</b><br /><br />LINK<br /><br />The discovery by Nasa's robotic rovers of a watery past on Mars has topped an eagerly awaited list of the 10 key scientific advances of 2004. <br /><br />Compiled each year by Science magazine, the list has always divided opinion, and this year's has proved no exception. <br /><br />The rovers triumphed in a strong field, including the discovery of a dwarf human species in Indonesia. <br /><br />But Donald Kennedy, editor of Science magazine, said selecting first place in the list "wasn't a headache". <br /><br />Not everyone shared his assessment. For some, the announcement in February that South Korean scientists had cloned human embryos had far-reaching significance. <br /><br />"It has a whole range of implications; it's a very important development," said Professor Christopher Higgins, director of the Medical Research Council's Clinical Sciences Centre in London, UK. <br /><br />"I wouldn't put the rovers at the top. It's a great technological achievement, but they haven't found life. If they had, that would have been extraordinarily exciting." <br /><br />The South Korean work was an important step along the road to therapeutic cloning. But Professor Higgins also sees philosophical implications in the work. <br /><br />"The fact it can be done begins to move us away from some of the mysteries surrounding human beings; things like the existence of a soul, which frankly is pure imagination," he told the BBC News website. <br /><br />"It begins to get us to that point at which we realise we are just a different form of animal. Science is about trying to understand where we come from, what our purpose is. <br /><br />"Cloning a human embryo starts to address those questions. It may not be in the way that people like - as it may suggest there is no purpose - but I think it's very important." <br /><br />'Short-changed' <br /><br />Runner-up status

 

[silylene old]

I would've put the Flores hominid discovery first. I think this has completely altered our thought paradigms on human evolution. Prior to this discovery, we had a very different concept of human evolution. And for that matter, our understanding of the relationships between the role of brain size, EQ, and tool use now has to be completely altered.<br /><br />We all very strongly suspected beforehand that Mars had a watery past. While the Martian discoveries this year are fantastic and voluminous, mostly what we had always suspected was confirmed. <div class="Discussion_UserSignature"> <div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><em><font color="#0000ff">- - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - -</font></em> </div><div class="Discussion_UserSignature" align="center"><font color="#0000ff"><em>I really, really, really miss the "first unread post" function.</em></font> </div> </div>

 

[zavvy]

<font color="yellow">I would've put the Flores hominid discovery first. I think this has completely altered our thought paradigms on human evolution. </font><br /><br />I agree...!<br /><br /><font color="yellow">We all very strongly suspected beforehand that Mars had a watery past. </font><br /><br />I suspect it has a watery present also... <img src="/images/icons/smile.gif" /><br /><br />

 

[paleo]

There is an irony in the very ranking of 'advances' because science, of course, isn't about populism. I'm sure ever niche of every science has made advances. Why is the discovery of a hominid anscestor more 'advanced' (scientifically) than the discovery of a whole line of anscestry of an obscure bacterium? It isn't...but it is more 'popular'.<br /><br /> Humans, for all our science, are still very human centric. Our machines on Mars, our hominid relation, the cloning of a 'human' cell, etc. <br /><br /> I just admire all the thousands of scientists and graduate students making incredible discoveries in non-sexy topics from nanotechnoloigy to the genetic relationship between obsure microbes.<br /><br /> These lists are fun. They reflect what's happening culturally but that's all they are.