Most Significant Scientific Advance in the last year?

[Ponger]

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I was going over the application for the summer program I'm looking at and I got stuck on this question:
Please describe what you consider the most significant scientific advance you have read or heard about in the last year.

I read a whole bunch of news sites like nytimes, digg, slashdot but I couldn't think up the reads I'd read off the top of my head. I applied to the same program last year but was denied (according to them they didn't accept freshmen). I want to make sure this year that this question in no way hurts the rest of the application. Stuff I could remember was interesting science/technology stuff but not really groundbreaking stuff. Stuff like the plant that converts bio-matter into light crude oil or the AIDS drug that sold for over half a billion at Emory (my school). Can anyone share what they thought was the most significant scientific advance so I can refresh my memory? Any help would be much appreciated.

 

[PneoDr]

I read somewhere about a vaccine for HPV. Said it can reduce cervical cancer cancer caused by HPV to nearly zero. Also said side effects are minimal or none. It would be worth looking into.

 

[Its_MurDAH]

Dog-cloning in south korea!

Look it up.

 

[beponychick]

Look into RNA interference (post-transcriptional gene silencing). It is a very novel way of knocking down endogenous genes and has tons of practical applications in curing diseases.

 

[gostudy]

Dog-cloning in south korea!

Look it up.

Not so fast:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051229/sc_nm/science_korea_dog_dc_3

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/15/AR2005121502243.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/12/29/AR2005122900705.html

 

[Freakingzooming]

Look into RNA interference (post-transcriptional gene silencing). It is a very novel way of knocking down endogenous genes and has tons of practical applications in curing diseases.

yeah pubmed- vitravene- first FDA approved antisense drug. But that was approved in 1998. Hasn't made any real large advancements into therapy this past year. But tons of stuff in pipeline. RNA interference looks promising.

 

[potato51]

RNA interference is a beast in the science industry now. It's not recent, but it has tons of promise.

 

[bootz]

splicer and dicer!

 

[beponychick]

RNA interference is a beast in the science industry now. It's not recent, but it has tons of promise.

Well "recent" in the sense that it has been maybe 10 years since it was first noticed in plants. But only 3 or so years in mammals. There is lots of stuff out there on it. One of the courses I took for my masters was JUST on this topic. Definitely look into it.

 

[eddie13231]

Yes dsRNA or RNAi is an extremely powerfull tool we use in my lab to study genetic mutagenesis in model organisms. It is only one of two ways to "change" things in an organism without effecting the genome (the other is chemical genetics). Unfortunately RNAi was not discovered in the past year but has huge promise and recieves a ton of funding from NIH. I think there was an artical about it in a recent scientific american issue? Anways, do a google search on it, its pretty cool!!

 

[CADreaming06]

definately interesting and very important considering the current situation with H5N1.

good luck - - you may want to check out Science, Nature, and Current Biology.

 

[riceman04]

What about the research finding that showed that human stem cells (ESC's) could be grown in a medium lacking animal cells.

here is the link:
http://www.cnn.com/2006/HEALTH/01/01/stemcells.reut/index.html

 

[Pewl]

The biggest medical find in history was Roentgen and his X-ray. That opened the door for radiological sciences (nuclear medicine, mri, ct, pet, etc). =D