1 Fukushima Nuclear Disaster
2011 was dominated by the horrendous news that there were three simultaneous meltdowns at the nuclear power plant in Fukushima, Japan, in March, sparked by a gigantic 9.0 earthquake and a monstrous tsunami. It was recently revealed that the accident was much more severe than previously thought.
The uranium core of Unit 1 completely liquefied (the first time this has ever happened) and melted right through the vessel and into the containment, almost setting off a China Syndrome-type disaster (where the core melts down, theoretically all the way to the other side of the planet).
In December, the utility, TEPCO, announced that it finally stabilized the reactor after 9 months of agonizing work, and temperatures inside were below boiling.
Now comes the hard part -- cleaning up the tragedy, which may take 30 to 50 years or more. It took 14 years to clean up Three Mile island. It's been 25 years since the Chernobyl accident, and that reactor is still not stable (the core continues to produce intense heat as it melts into the ground).
Meanwhile, Germany and Switzerland both announced that they are permanently phasing out all nuclear power plants, in light of Fukushima. This is putting pressure on President Obama, who is still pro-nuclear.
2.Wacky Weather
2011 was haunted by the specter of "100-year storms," i.e. 100-year flooding, 100-year heat spells, 100-year droughts, 100-year forest fires, etc.. Property damage was in the billions and the human agony was often unbearable.
But why is the weather turning so ugly, when you have simultaneous droughts in Texas and massive flooding next door?
The short answer is that scientists don't know for sure. Predicting the weather is a tricky business, even for the best supercomputer. But there are at least two theories.
One is that there are natural fluctuations in the weather, so that random chance can create these disastrous events. For example, much of the weather over the U.S. is determined by cold, Arctic air coming in from Canada, hitting the moist, warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf was hotter than usual this year (meaning that there was more moisture in the air) and the jet stream acted in erratic ways, sometimes bringing down huge storms and at other times causing stagnation and a heat spell.
The other theory says that perhaps the increase in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the erratic jet stream are caused, in part, by global warming. "Global warming" does not mean uniform warming of the earth; instead, it should be called "global swings," with droughts in one part of the country and flooding in the next. So far, there is no smoking gun, but many scientists say that these strange 100-year events are consistent with global warming. If so, then expect more of them.
3.Higgs Boson Found?
Physicists at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland, announced that they are finally closing in on the elusive Higgs particle. The Large Hadron Collider, or LHC, a colossal $10 billion machine 17 miles in circumference, can hurl protons at 14 trillion electron volts to re-create conditions near the Big Bang itself, where particles of the Standard Model of particles can be found.
The Higgs is the last, missing piece of the Standard Model. But this is not the end of physics. The Standard Model only describes 4 percent of the matter-energy of the universe (the rest being dark energy and dark matter), so we are far from a "theory of everything." The next step is to produce dark matter at the LHC and perhaps verify exotic new theories, such as string theory.
4.Giant Black Holes Found
Black holes, once considered science fiction, now appear all around the universe. Astronomers recently identified the biggest black holes of all time, one weighing in at over 20 billion suns in mass.
Our own Milky Way galaxy has a black hole with about 3 million times the mass of the sun. Such monstrous black holes, found in deep space, exist because they swallowed up billions of stars. (There is no danger that we will be eaten up by one these giant black holes, since our sun orbits around the central black hole in our galaxy at a safe distance.)
5.Twins of the Earth Found
The Holy Grail of planetary astronomy is to find a twin of the Earth in outer space. Astronomers this month announced a new candidate.
So far over 500 extra-solar planets have been identified orbiting distant stars, but only a few seem to be in the so-called habitable zones surrounding those stars, and the one announced this month, called Kepler-22b for now, is the first to be confirmed.
If a planet is too close to its mother star, its oceans will boil. If it's too far, the oceans will freeze. But if a planet is "just right" in the Goldilocks zone, then it might have liquid oceans.
Liquid water is the universal solvent, out of which the first proteins and DNA emerged, so there is hope that perhaps Kepler-22b also has liquid water oceans (and perhaps even microbial life).
Once earth-like planets are identified, this will help to narrow down SETI, the search for radio signals from intelligent life. But don't think that we will be able to visit these planets any time soon. If we take a voyage on a Saturn rocket, it would take several hundred thousand years to reach any of these planets.
6.Alien DNA on Earth?
All DNA on earth is basically the same, except that the genes are arranged differently for different plants and animals. So it was shock, late last year, when scientists announced that Mono Lake in California had DNA which had never been seen before, with arsenic as one of its building blocks.
Immediately, other scientists jumped into the fray, arguing that perhaps the DNA was contaminated. But it still means that, in outer space, we have to be open to the idea of alien DNA, which may look quite different from our DNA.
If it holds up, then every biology textbook on earth has to be rewritten. Time will tell if this shocking result holds up.
7.Last Hurrah for Space Shuttle
President Obama has altered the mission of NASA. He canceled the return to the moon proposed by President Bush, canceled the space shuttle, canceled the Constellation project to replace the shuttle, and put off any manned mission to Mars.
NASA's manned space program was a victim of the Great Recession. So it was with teary eyes that people watched the last shuttle launch in July.
U.S. astronauts will be hitchhiking rides to the International Space Station with the the Russians for the next several years. People are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that private enterprise will eventually pick up the slack.
8.Mars Mission
The "Godzilla" of space probes blasted off in November, headed for Mars. The Mars Science Laboratory, a rover nicknamed Curiosity, is five times bigger than any of the previous Mars rovers.Its mission is to find evidence that liquid water once existed on Mars and then to find evidence of microbial life that might have spawned on Mars billions of years ago.
So far, scientists have found no conclusive evidence of life on Mars. But since Mars once had great oceans (one of them about the size of the U.S.) there is still hope that some form of life may have germinated on Mars.
9.Tape Recording a Memory
In the movies "The Matrix" and "Total Recall," memories can be inserted directly into the brain. So instantly you can become a karate master or a helicopter pilot. This is all science fiction, but science is catching up.
Scientists at USC and Wake Forest University made a major step in this direction. Memories in rats and humans are first processed in the hippocampus of the brain. These scientists recorded signals in the hippocampus as the rats learned a task. Then they gave the rats chemicals which made the rats forget the task. Finally, the re-injected the taped messages back into the hippocampus, and the rats remembered the original task.
So one day, if all goes well, we too might be able to record certain memories and then have them injected into the brain, so we learn a task instantly. Of course, years of work are needed before we can become instant karate masters. However, in principle, it may be possible.
10.Dark Energy
The Nobel Prize in Physics in 2011 went to three astronomers who have discovered that the expansion of the universe is accelerating, rather than slowing down, and that a mysterious "dark energy" may be responsible.
This is embarrassing, since only a few decades ago, it was widely believed that the universe was mainly made of atoms. Now, we realize that 73 percent of the matter/energy comes from dark energy (the invisible energy of the vacuum), 23 percent from dark matter (invisible matter that surrounds the Milky Way Galaxy), 4 percent from stars, and just a paltry .03 percent from higher elements which comprise our body and the planets. We are just beginning to understand what our universe is really made of, a question asked by the ancient Greeks 2,000 years ago.
The uranium core of Unit 1 completely liquefied (the first time this has ever happened) and melted right through the vessel and into the containment, almost setting off a China Syndrome-type disaster (where the core melts down, theoretically all the way to the other side of the planet).
In December, the utility, TEPCO, announced that it finally stabilized the reactor after 9 months of agonizing work, and temperatures inside were below boiling.
Now comes the hard part -- cleaning up the tragedy, which may take 30 to 50 years or more. It took 14 years to clean up Three Mile island. It's been 25 years since the Chernobyl accident, and that reactor is still not stable (the core continues to produce intense heat as it melts into the ground).
Meanwhile, Germany and Switzerland both announced that they are permanently phasing out all nuclear power plants, in light of Fukushima. This is putting pressure on President Obama, who is still pro-nuclear.
2.Wacky Weather
But why is the weather turning so ugly, when you have simultaneous droughts in Texas and massive flooding next door?
The short answer is that scientists don't know for sure. Predicting the weather is a tricky business, even for the best supercomputer. But there are at least two theories.
One is that there are natural fluctuations in the weather, so that random chance can create these disastrous events. For example, much of the weather over the U.S. is determined by cold, Arctic air coming in from Canada, hitting the moist, warm air from the Gulf of Mexico. The Gulf was hotter than usual this year (meaning that there was more moisture in the air) and the jet stream acted in erratic ways, sometimes bringing down huge storms and at other times causing stagnation and a heat spell.
The other theory says that perhaps the increase in moisture from the Gulf of Mexico and the erratic jet stream are caused, in part, by global warming. "Global warming" does not mean uniform warming of the earth; instead, it should be called "global swings," with droughts in one part of the country and flooding in the next. So far, there is no smoking gun, but many scientists say that these strange 100-year events are consistent with global warming. If so, then expect more of them.
3.Higgs Boson Found?
The Higgs is the last, missing piece of the Standard Model. But this is not the end of physics. The Standard Model only describes 4 percent of the matter-energy of the universe (the rest being dark energy and dark matter), so we are far from a "theory of everything." The next step is to produce dark matter at the LHC and perhaps verify exotic new theories, such as string theory.
4.Giant Black Holes Found
Our own Milky Way galaxy has a black hole with about 3 million times the mass of the sun. Such monstrous black holes, found in deep space, exist because they swallowed up billions of stars. (There is no danger that we will be eaten up by one these giant black holes, since our sun orbits around the central black hole in our galaxy at a safe distance.)
5.Twins of the Earth Found
So far over 500 extra-solar planets have been identified orbiting distant stars, but only a few seem to be in the so-called habitable zones surrounding those stars, and the one announced this month, called Kepler-22b for now, is the first to be confirmed.
If a planet is too close to its mother star, its oceans will boil. If it's too far, the oceans will freeze. But if a planet is "just right" in the Goldilocks zone, then it might have liquid oceans.
Liquid water is the universal solvent, out of which the first proteins and DNA emerged, so there is hope that perhaps Kepler-22b also has liquid water oceans (and perhaps even microbial life).
Once earth-like planets are identified, this will help to narrow down SETI, the search for radio signals from intelligent life. But don't think that we will be able to visit these planets any time soon. If we take a voyage on a Saturn rocket, it would take several hundred thousand years to reach any of these planets.
6.Alien DNA on Earth?
Immediately, other scientists jumped into the fray, arguing that perhaps the DNA was contaminated. But it still means that, in outer space, we have to be open to the idea of alien DNA, which may look quite different from our DNA.
If it holds up, then every biology textbook on earth has to be rewritten. Time will tell if this shocking result holds up.
7.Last Hurrah for Space Shuttle
NASA's manned space program was a victim of the Great Recession. So it was with teary eyes that people watched the last shuttle launch in July.
U.S. astronauts will be hitchhiking rides to the International Space Station with the the Russians for the next several years. People are keeping their fingers crossed, hoping that private enterprise will eventually pick up the slack.
8.Mars Mission
So far, scientists have found no conclusive evidence of life on Mars. But since Mars once had great oceans (one of them about the size of the U.S.) there is still hope that some form of life may have germinated on Mars.
9.Tape Recording a Memory
In the movies "The Matrix" and "Total Recall," memories can be inserted directly into the brain. So instantly you can become a karate master or a helicopter pilot. This is all science fiction, but science is catching up.
Scientists at USC and Wake Forest University made a major step in this direction. Memories in rats and humans are first processed in the hippocampus of the brain. These scientists recorded signals in the hippocampus as the rats learned a task. Then they gave the rats chemicals which made the rats forget the task. Finally, the re-injected the taped messages back into the hippocampus, and the rats remembered the original task.
So one day, if all goes well, we too might be able to record certain memories and then have them injected into the brain, so we learn a task instantly. Of course, years of work are needed before we can become instant karate masters. However, in principle, it may be possible.
10.Dark Energy
This is embarrassing, since only a few decades ago, it was widely believed that the universe was mainly made of atoms. Now, we realize that 73 percent of the matter/energy comes from dark energy (the invisible energy of the vacuum), 23 percent from dark matter (invisible matter that surrounds the Milky Way Galaxy), 4 percent from stars, and just a paltry .03 percent from higher elements which comprise our body and the planets. We are just beginning to understand what our universe is really made of, a question asked by the ancient Greeks 2,000 years ago.
Final Fantasy XIII-2 is a console role-playing video game developed and published by Square Enix for the PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360. It is being produced by Square Enix's 1st Production Department. It is a direct follow-up to the 2009 role playing game Final Fantasy XIII and set for release in January 2012.
Twisted Metal is a vehicle combat video game developed by Eat Sleep Play and published by Sony Computer Entertainment exclusively for the PlayStation 3 video games console. It is the eighth installment in the series of the same name. The game was planned to be released in October 2011, but was delayed to February, 2012. 
Syndicate by Starbreeze Studios set for release in February 2012 for Windows, Xbox 360, and PlayStation 3 platforms. It is a reboot of the Syndicate series, changing completely the genre from a tactical shooter to a First Person Shooter game. 
Uncharted: Golden Abyss is the title of an upcoming entry in the Uncharted series scheduled to be released on the PlayStation Vita. It is currently being developed by SCE Bend Studio, with development overseen by Naughty Dog. The game will be a launch title in Japan however the Europe and North American versions will be released on February 2012. 
XCOM is a first-person shooter video game in development by 2K Marin for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platform. The game is a reboot of the X-COM video game series originally created by Microprose. 
Mass Effect 3 is an action role-playing game developed by BioWare and published by Electronic Arts for Windows, Xbox 360 and PlayStation 3 platform. The game is scheduled to release on March 2012. 
StarCraft II: Heart of the Swarm is a continuation and expansion pack to the military science-fiction real-time strategy game StarCraft II series. The expansion will include additional units and multiplayer changes from Wings of Liberty, as well as a continuing campaign focusing on the Zerg species. It will span approximately 20 missions and it is likely to be released around April 2012. 
Metal Gear Solid: Rising is an action video game under development by Kojima Productions as part of the Metal Gear series. It is in development for Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 and expected to be released in 2012. 
BioShock Infinite is a first-person shooter video game, and the third game in the BioShock series. It is being developed by Irrational Games for a 2012 release on the Windows, PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 platforms. BioShock Infinite is not a direct sequel to previous BioShock games, taking place in an earlier period and different setting, though it features similar gameplay concepts and themes. 
Max Payne 3 is a third person shooter video game and the third edition in the Max Payne series, published by Rockstar Games for Windows, Playstation 3 and Xbox 360 platform. This is the first game in the series not to be developed by Finnish game developer Remedy Entertainment and not being written by series creator Sam Lake. The game is still in development and Rockstar announced a March 2012 release date for the game. 
Samsung Galaxy S II is well known in the smartphone segment and one of the best additions to the android market. It is the next generation smartphone that you can grab on since it is earning great reviews all over. 
32,890.
HTC's approach with the Sensation is the antithesis of Samsung's strategy. Where the Galaxy S II aimed for the thinnest smartphone title, compromising hand-feel in its rush to shed ounces, HTC has come up with a thicker device that feels far more in keeping with the flagship positioning. 
With its slick iOS 5 platform and amazing display are the plus points of this mobile. The notable feature of this phone is the smart voice assistant Siri that helps in everything from sending messages, scheduling meetings, placing phone calls, to searching the web. 
It comes with 4.2 inch capacitive touch screen with LED backlight, along with scratch-resistant surface and utilizes Sony Mobile BRAVIA Engine which is Sony's display technology. The phone comes with Timescape user interface which is Sony's proprietary user interface with deeper Social network integration. The phone is based on Android v2.3.4 (Gingerbread) OS and 1.4 GHz Scorpion processor. 
The phone has been designed from a single block of aluminum to transform into a sleek handset. It comes with a 3.2-inch OLED HVGA touchscreen display. The trackball has now been fitted with an optical joystick next to a narrow button to improve functionality without compromising on the look and design of the phone. 
