Year 2016 was an eventful year. Citizens of this beautiful planet ware overwhelmed with crisis and calamities. Yet science and technology continued to thrive. Here are some of the notable events that happen in 2016.

Health Industry

Molecular Machine
Number for molecular components combined together forms a machine. This  movement can be manipulated through external input. Molecular machines are thousand times smaller than the width of a hair. Molecules are made up of atoms that are held together by chemical bonds and are the smallest particle in a chemical element.
Impact: This technology is still in the very early stage. But one day these machines will work inside the human body.These machines can deliver drugs within the human body directly to cancerous cells or target a specific area of tissue to medicate.Their potential is unimaginable

Three Parent Baby
Mitochondria supply energy to cell by converting food to fuel. Some people carry genetic defects in mitochondria and they can pass these on to their children. Scientist took healthy mitochondrial DNA from a donor then combined them with the DNA from the parents (DNA that contain the genetic code of the parents family).
Impact: This method can rectify the inherently transferred disease like leigh syndrome.

Information Technology Industry

Internet of Things – IoT
Every single individual device will be connected with the main network or the internet and will be able to send and receive data from other.In other word, it is more than a machine to to machine communication without human interaction. This is a cloud based system.
Impact: It’s impact is huge. One example – let say your favorite yogurt is out of stock. Your IoT equipped fridge(it comes with sensor and knows it’s inventory list) will then inform your phone(if that is what you use for order online) and your phone can place the order. Next day you received the yogurt.

Ransomware
One of the most notorious security issue of 2016. Carleton University of Canada was one the major victim of ransomware.
Read : Ransomware what it is ?

Hacking
Some high-profile hacking took place. Yahoo’s massive data breach with over a billion accounts was the biggest one.
Read: Carleton University of Canada Hacking News

Fake News
Fake news became the most discussed topic of 2016 during the US elections. Fake News like “Pope Francis shocks world, endorses Donald Trump for president” or “FBI agent suspected in Hillary email leaks found dead in apartment in murder-suicide” became the talk of town. Facebook, Twitter came under serious criticism after failing to stop spreading the fake news.

Automobile and Electronics Industry

Autonomous or Self Driving Car
These cars can sense its surrounding environment and can navigate from point A to B with human interaction. This technology is in the advanced stage now. More new companies joining the race. Recently Apple announce that they are also joining the club.

Samsung Galaxy Note 7
Galaxy Note 7 was prone to heating up and catching fire. Resulting in multiple injuries for consumers across the and spread panic among consumers. Some airlines also banned this phone on board. Where passengers need to switch-off their phone while on board. Samsung pulled the plug on the product and announced it was ending production.

Blackberry
Canadian technology firm BlackBerry announced it will halt in-house production of smartphones.They will focus on software, security and management. Blackberry will depend on their partners to manufacture the phones.

Aerospace Technology and NASA

Interplanetary Space Mission
After five-year journey to the solar system’s largest planet, NASA’s Juno spacecraft successfully entered Jupiter’s orbit July 4.
Read: Nasa’s Fascinating Juno Mission

Rosetta Space Probe
Rosetta was launched on 2 March 2004 and traveled 6.4 billion kilometers through the Solar System before arriving at the comet Churyumov–Gerasimenko on 6 August 2014. It successfully made the first soft landing on 12 November 2014. On 30 September 2016, the Rosetta spacecraft ended its mission by landing on the comet.

Mother Nature

Supermoon
Planet earth was blessed with the sight of three supermoon. They appear on October 16, 2016, November 14, 2016, and December 14, 2016.

Notable Deaths

Some people work tirelessly through out their entire life.The result of their efforts improve human life and lifestyle.Yet in most cases their death news never get to see the daylight. Here are some notable people in the field of science and technology who died in 2016.

• (Medicine) Henry Heimlich (2016). Thoracic surgeon and medical researcher Henry Heimlich Invented the Heimlich maneuver.(saving choking victims via a series of abdominal thrusts)
• (Astrophysicist) Vera Rubin(2016). Work on galaxy rotation rates. Her word confirmed the existence of dark matter.
• (Game Theory) Thomas Schelling(2016). Known for his study of game theory.Game theory is mainly used in economics, political science, and psychology,
• (Biochemistry) Roger Tsien (2016). Helped develop a method to track cancer cells and track the progress of Alzheimer’s disease
• (Astronaut) Edgar Mitchell (2016). Apollo 14 astronaut who was the 6th man to walk on the moon.
• (Artificial intelligence) Marvin Minsky (2016). Pioneer in the field of artificial intelligence.
  Read: IBM Watson
• (Computer Programmer) Ray Tomlinson (2016). Invented modern email.

Writer – Rubayat M.