2020 in science

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A number of significant scientific events have occurred or are scheduled to occur in 2020.

Events

January

Main article: January–March 2020 in science § January

February

Main article: January–March 2020 in science § February

March

Main article: January–March 2020 in science § March

April

Main article: April–June 2020 in science § April

May

Main article: April–June 2020 in science § May

June

Main article: April–June 2020 in science § June

July

July: The UAE, China, and the USA launch probes to Mars.

• 1 July
  • Scientist at CERN report that the LHCb experiment has observed a four-charm tetraquark particle never seen before, which is likely to be the first of a previously undiscovered class of particles.
  • Scientists report that they measured that quantum vacuum fluctuations can influence the motion of macroscopic, human-scale objects for the first time by measuring correlations below the standard quantum limit between the position/momentum uncertainty of the mirrors of LIGO and the photon number/phase uncertainty of light that they reflect.
• 2 July – Scientists report that a more infectious SARS-CoV-2 variant with spike protein variant G614 has replaced D614 as the dominant form in the pandemic.

3 July: Via analysis of satellite images, scientists show that certified "sustainable" palm oil production resulted in deforestation of tropical forests of Sumatra and Borneo and endangered mammals' habitat degradation in the last 30 years.

• 3 July
  • Scientists report in a preprint that a major genetic risk factor of the COVID-19 virus was inherited from archaic Neanderthals ~60,000 years ago.
  • Scientists show that adding an organic-based ionic solid into perovskites can result in substantial improvement in solar cell performance and stability. The study also reveals a complex degradation route that is responsible for failures in aged perovskite solar cells. The understanding could help the future development of photovoltaic technologies with industrially relevant longevity.
  • Via analysis of satellite images, scientists show that certified "sustainable" palm oil production resulted in deforestation of tropical forests of Sumatra and Borneo and endangered mammals' habitat degradation in the last 30 years.
• 4 July
  • According to WHO chief scientist Dr. Soumya Swaminathan, the Infection Fatality Rate (IFR) of COVID-19 and related pandemic is currently estimated at 0.6%, and the Case Fatality Rate (CFR) at 5%.
  • Scientists report that COVID-19 may be an airborne disease, and not just one transmitted by droplets of the virus in the air or on surfaces.
• 6 July
  • Astronomers report evidence that the chemical element carbon, the fourth most abundant chemical element (after hydrogen, helium and oxygen) in the universe, and one of the most essential chemical elements for the formation of life as we know it, was formed mainly in white dwarf stars, particularly those bigger than two solar masses.
  • The Versatile Video Coding standard (H.266) is finalised, designed to halve the bitrate of previous formats, and paving the way for on-demand 8K streaming services.
  • Scientists report that analysis of simulations and a recent observational field model show that maximum rates of directional change of Earth's magnetic field reached ~10° per year – almost 100 times faster than current changes and ~10 times faster than previously thought.
  • Researchers at the University of Texas at Austin demonstrate a cobalt-free, high-energy, lithium-ion battery.

8 July: Researchers report that they succeeded in using a genetically-altered variant of R. sulfidophilum to produce spidroins, the main proteins in spider silk.

• 8 July
  • Scientists writing in the journal Brain publish evidence that a few mildly affected or recovering COVID-19 patients can be left with serious or potentially fatal brain conditions, such as delirium, inflammation, nerve damage, and psychosis.
  • Mitochondria are gene-edited for the first time, using a new kind of CRISPR-free base editor (DdCBE), by a team at the Broad Institute.
  • The World Meteorological Organisation (WMO) announces that it assesses a 20% chance that global warming compared to pre-industrial levels will exceed 1.5 °C in at least one year within the five years of 2020-2024. 1.5 °C is often considered to be a key threshold of global warming and nations have agreed to attempt limiting contemporary climate change to it under the Paris Agreement.
  • A team of researchers report that they succeeded in using a genetically-altered variant of R. sulfidophilum to produce spidroins, the main proteins in spider silk.
  • Scientists assess that the geoengineering technique of enhanced rock weathering – spreading finely crushed basalt on fields – has potential use for carbon dioxide removal by nations, identifying costs, opportunities and engineering challenges.
  • Scientist report the development of a mobile robot chemist and demonstrate that it can assist in experimental searches. According to the scientists their strategy was automating the researcher rather than the instruments – freeing up time for the human researchers to think creatively – and could identify photocatalyst mixtures for hydrogen production from water that were six times more active than initial formulations.
• 9 July – The World Health Organization (WHO) formally recognises that COVID-19 can be transmitted indoors by droplets in the air. People in crowded settings with poor ventilation run the risk of being infected, according to the updated scientific advice.

10 July: Scientists report that the Moon formed slightly earlier than thought (4.425 ±0.025 bya) and that it hosted an ocean of magma for much longer than previously thought (~200 My). Image: the thermal state of the Moon at age 100 My (from the study)

• 10 July
  • Astronomers announce the discovery of the South Pole Wall, a massive cosmic structure formed by a giant wall of galaxies (a galaxy filament) that extends across at least 700 million light-years of space.
  • Scientists report that phytoplankton primary production in the Arctic Ocean increased by 57% between 1998 and 2018 due to higher concentrations, suggesting the ocean may be able to support higher trophic level production and additional carbon fixation in the future.
  • Scientists report that the Moon formed about 85 million years earlier than thought (4.425 ±0.025 bya) and that it hosted an ocean of magma for longer than previously thought (~200 million years).

13 July: Researchers report the development of a reusable aluminium surface for efficient solar-based water sanitation.

• 13 July – Researchers report the development of a reusable aluminium surface for efficient solar-based water sanitation to below the WHO and EPA standards for drinkable water.
• 14 July – Scientists report the first complete and gap-less assembly of a human X chromosome.

15 July: In two studies of the Global Carbon Project researchers summarise and analyse new estimates of the global methane budget and provide data and insights on sources and sinks for the geographical regions and economic sectors where the rising anthropogenic methane emissions have changed the most over recent decades.

• 15 July
  • Researchers report the discovery of chemolithoautotrophic bacterial culture that feeds on the metal manganese after performing unrelated experiments and named its bacterial species Candidatus Manganitrophus noduliformans and Ramlibacter lithotrophicus.
  • In two studies researchers of the Global Carbon Project summarise and analyse new estimates of the global methane budget and provide data and insights on sources and sinks for the geographical regions and economic sectors where the rising anthropogenic methane emissions have changed the most over recent decades. According to the studies, global methane emissions for the 2008 to 2017 decade increased by almost 10 percent compared to the previous decade.

16 July: Scientists, using public biological data on 1.75 m people with known lifespans overall, identify 10 genomic loci which appear to intrinsically influence healthspan, lifespan, and longevity and identify haem metabolism as a promising candidate for further research within the field.

• 16 July – Scientists report to have identified 10 genomic loci which appear to intrinsically influence healthspan, lifespan, and longevity – of which half have not been reported previously at genome-wide significance and most being associated with cardiovascular disease – as well as haem metabolism as a promising candidate for further research within the field. Their study using public biological data on 1.75 m people with known lifespans overall, suggests that haem metabolism may play a role in human ageing and that high levels of iron in the blood likely reduce, and genes involved in metabolising iron likely increase healthy years of life in humans.
• 17 July – Scientists report that yeast cells of the same genetic material and within the same environment age in two distinct ways, describe a biomolecular mechanism that can determine which process dominates during aging and genetically engineer a novel aging route with substantially extended lifespan.
• 19 July
  • The Emirates Mars Mission by the UAE is successfully launched, carrying the Hope probe to Mars, with a scheduled arrival date of February 2021.
  • After a 20-year-long survey, astrophysicists of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey publish the largest, most detailed 3D map of the universe so far, fill a gap of 11 billion years in its expansion history, and provide data which supports the theory of a flat geometry of the universe and confirms that different regions seem to be expanding at different speeds.

22 July: Astronomers publish the first image of multiple exoplanets orbiting a sunlike star – TYC 8998-760-1.

22 July: Scientists confirm the first active leak of sea-bed methane in Antarctica.

• 22 July
  • Astronomers publish a photo, for the first-time, of multiple exoplanets orbiting a sunlike star, particularly the star TYC 8998-760-1.
  • Archaeologists report the earliest known evidence of humans in the Americas, dating back 33,000 years, twice the previously oldest known settlement of the continent.
  • Scientists confirm the first active leak of sea-bed methane in Antarctica and report that "the rate of microbial succession may have an unrealized impact on greenhouse gas emission from marine methane reservoirs".
  • Researchers report the development of a technique to produce a degradable version of the tough thermoset plastic pDCPD which may also be applicable to other plastics, that aren't part of the ca. 75% of plastics that are recycable.
  • Scientists report results of a survey of 371 reefs in 58 nations estimating the conservation status of reef sharks globally. No sharks have been observed on almost 20% of the surveyed reefs and shark depletion was strongly associated with both socio-economic conditions and conservation measures. Sharks are considered to be a vital part of the ocean ecosystem.
  • A paper on a "hummingbird-sized dinosaur" conserved in amber published on March 11th is retracted after reviewers agreed with assessments – of which one was uploaded to a preprint server on March 18 – claiming a misclassification of the fossil, believed to be a lizard instead of a dinosaur.
• 23 July
  • China successfully launches Tianwen-1, its first rover mission to Mars, with a planned surface landing date of 23 April 2021.
  • Astronomers report the observation of a "hard tidal disruption event candidate" associated with ASASSN-20hx, located near the nucleus of galaxy NGC 6297, and noted that the observation represented one of the "very few tidal disruption events with hard powerlaw X-ray spectra".
  • Lancaster University researcher Mike Ryder describes the nature and rise of the "robot prosumer", derived from modern-day technology and related participatory culture, that, in turn, was substantially predicted earlier by science fiction writers.
• 24 July – Scientists report the development of an AI-based process using genome databases for evolutionary algorithm-based designing novel proteins. They used deep learning to identify design-rules.
• 27 July – A new AI algorithm by the University of Pittsburgh achieves the highest accuracy to date in identifying prostate cancer, with 98% sensitivity and 97% specificity.

28 July: Marine biologists report that aerobic microorganisms (mainly), in "quasi-suspended animation", were found in organically-poor sediments, up to 101.5 million years old, 68.9 metres (226 feet) below the seafloor in the South Pacific Gyre (SPG) ("the deadest spot in the ocean"), and could be the longest-living life forms ever found.

• 28 July
  • Marine biologists report that aerobic microorganisms (mainly), in "quasi-suspended animation", were found in organically-poor sediments, up to 101.5 million years old, 68.9 metres (226 feet) below the seafloor in the South Pacific Gyre (SPG) ("the deadest spot in the ocean"), and could be the longest-living life forms ever found.
  • Assembly of the ITER experimental fusion reactor officially begins in France, with a scheduled completion date of 2025.

29 July: Scientists report that work honored by Nobel prizes clusters in only a few scientific fields.

• 29 July
  • Scientists of the NA62 experiment at CERN claim to have presented first evidence of a highly rare process – a decay of a charged kaon – predicted in the Standard Model which may help identifying possible deviations from the model.
  • Scientists report that they have transformed the abundant diamagnetic material known as "fool's gold" and pyrite into a ferromagnetic one by inducing voltage, which may lead to techniques with potential applications for devices such as magnetic data storage ones.
  • Scientists report that work honored by Nobel prizes clusters in only a few scientific fields with only 36/71 having received at least one Nobel prize of the 114/849 domains science could be divided into according to their DC2 and DC3 classification systems. Five of the 114 domains were shown to make up over half of the Nobel prizes awarded 1995–2017 (particle physics [14%], cell biology [12.1%], atomic physics [10.9%], neuroscience [10.1%], molecular chemistry [5.3%]).
  • Scientists report that geochemical data shows that the origin of 50 of the 52 sarsen megaliths used to construct Stonehenge is most likely West Woods, Wiltshire, 25 km north of Stonehenge.
• 30 July – NASA successfully launches its Mars 2020 rover mission to search for signs of ancient life and collect samples for return to Earth. The mission includes technology demonstrations to prepare for future human missions.
• 31 July
  • Two ice caps in Nunavut, Canada have disappeared completely, confirming predictions of a study published in 2017 that they would melt completely within five years.
  • A study suggests a volcanic cause for the Younger Dryas geochemical anomalies including the extinction of many ice-age animals about 12,800 years ago and weakens the support for the Younger Dryas impact hypothesis.

August

• 4 August
  • Physicists working on the ATLAS and CMS experiments at the Large Hadron Collider announce new results indicating that the Higgs boson decays into two muons as expected.
  • Astronomers report that self-annihilating dark matter (DM) is not the explanation for the Galactic Center GeV Excess (GCE) in the center of the Milky Way galaxy after all, stating: "there is no significant excess in the [GCE] that may be attributed to DM annihilation."
• 5 August – The British Antarctic Survey reports that emperor penguin colonies in Antarctica are nearly 20% more numerous than previously thought, with new discoveries made using satellite mapping technology.
• 6 August – The Canadian Ice Service reports that the Milne Ice Shelf, the last fully intact ice shelf in the Canadian Arctic, has collapsed after losing more than 40% of its area in just two days.
• 8 August – NASA announces it will change unofficial and potentially contentious names used by the scientific community for distant cosmic objects and systems including references to NGC 2392 as "the Eskimo Nebula" and NGC 4567 and NGC 4568 as the "Siamese Twins Galaxy".
• 10 August – The dwarf planet Ceres is confirmed to be a water-rich body, containing a deep reservoir of brine, based on analysis of data from the Dawn mission. The "bright spots" in Occator crater are the result of salty water rising to the surface from below.
• 11 August
  • COVID-19 pandemic: Russian President Vladimir Putin announces that Russia has approved the world's first COVID-19 vaccine.
  • Astronomers announce the discovery of S4714, a star orbiting a black hole at up to 8% the speed of light.
• 12 August – The latest State of the Climate report finds that 2010 to 2019 was the hottest decade on record globally, with an increase of 0.39 °C (0.7 °F) above the long-term average, and 2019 either the second or third warmest year on record.
• 13 August
  • Scientists at the University of Southern California report the "likely" order of initial symptoms of the COVID-19 disease: "fever, cough, muscle pain, and then nausea, and/or vomiting, and diarrhea".
  • Unexpected dimming of Betelgeuse is explained by NASA as a "traumatic outburst", caused by an immense amount of hot material ejected into space, forming a dust cloud that blocked starlight. On 30 August 2020, astronomers reported the detection of a second dust cloud emitted from Betelgeuse, and associated with a secondary minimum on 3 August in luminosity of the star.
  • Universal coherence protection is achieved in a solid-state spin qubit, a modification that allows quantum systems to stay operational (or "coherent") for 10,000 times longer than before.
  • July 2020 is tied as the second-warmest July on record, with a record low Arctic sea ice extent for the month, in a report by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
  • Melting of the Greenland ice sheet is shown to have passed the point of no return, based on 40 years of satellite data, by scientists at Ohio State University.
• 16 August – Astronomers report the detection of asteroid 2020 QG, a small Earth-crossing Earth-crossing near-Earth asteroid of the Apollo group that passed the Earth about 1,839 miles away, the closest known asteroid to pass the Earth that did not impact the planet.
• 17 August
  • Astronomers report that the interstellar object ʻOumuamua (1I/2017 U1) is not likely to have been composed of frozen hydrogen which had been proposed earlier. The compositional nature of the object continues to be unknown. Nonetheless, the possibility that the interstellar object may be alien technology has not been ruled out, although such an explanation is reported to be a "long shot" by "most scientists".
  • Physicists present studies involving interpretations of quantum mechanics that are related to the Schrödinger's cat and Wigner's friend paradoxes, resulting in conclusions that challenge seemingly established assumptions about reality.
• 26 August – Scientists report that bacteria from Earth, particularly Deinococcus radiodurans, were found to survive for three years in outer space, based on studies on the International Space Station. These findings support the notion of panspermia.
• 27 August – Researchers report that sufficient water to fill the oceans may have always been on the Earth since the beginning of the planet's formation.
• 28 August – Elon Musk reveals a model of the prototype brain–computer interface chip, implanted in pigs, that his company Neuralink has been working on.

Predicted and scheduled events

• December 21: Jupiter and Saturn come within a 6' arc (called Great Conjunction), giving a rare telescopic view of the two so close together. As the two planets have an apparent size smaller than one arc minute occultations are extremely rare, the next one will happen in the year 7541.

Date unknown

• Shenzhen East Waste-to-Energy Plant is planned to become operational, the largest waste to energy (WET) power plant in the world.
• Waymo, the first self-driving cars in ride-hailing services are announced for 2020.
• The Large Synoptic Survey Telescope is expected to achieve first light in 2020.

Awards

Main article: Lists of science and technology awards

Deaths

Main article: January–March 2020 in science § Deaths

Main article: April–June 2020 in science § Deaths

• July 1 – Ray Matheny, American anthropologist (b. 1925)
• July 2
  • Ángela Jeria, Chilean archeologist (b. 1926)
  • Xu Qifeng, Chinese engineer (b. 1936)
  • Willem van Zwet, Dutch mathematician (b. 1934)
• July 3 – Erika Taube, German ethnologist (b. 1933)
• July 5 – Horace Barlow, British neuroscientist (b. 1921)
• July 6
  • Ronald Graham, American mathematician (b. 1935)
  • Deborah Zamble, Canadian chemist (b. 1971)
• July 7
  • Millicent S. Ficken, American ornithologist (b. 1933)
  • Juan Rosai, American pathologist (b. 1940)
  • Henk Tennekes, American toxicologist (b. 1950)
• July 8
  • Norman Allinger, American chemist (b. 1928)
  • Flossie Wong-Staal, Chinese and American virologist and molecular biologist (b. 1946)
• July 9 – Tong Binggang, Chinese physicist (b. 1927)
• July 10
  • Ananda Mohan Chakrabarty, Indian and American microbiologist (b. 1938)
  • Michael M. Richter, German mathematician and computer scientist (b. 1938)
• July 11 – Lim Boo Liat, Malaysian zoologist (b. 1926)
• July 14
  • Tim Clark, British physician (b. 1935)
  • Caesar Korolenko, Russian psychiatrist (b. 1933)
  • Alex McCool, American manager of the Space Shuttle Projects Office at NASA (b. 1923)
• July 13
  • Grant Imahara, American electrical engineer (b. 1970)
  • Zeng Yi, Chinese virologist (b. 1929)
• July 15 – George Simon, Guyanese archeologist (b. 1947)
• July 17
  • Angela von Nowakonski, Brazilian physician and medical researcher (b. 1953)
  • C. S. Seshadri, Indian mathematician (b. 1932)
  • Ron Tauranac, British and Australian engineer (b. 1925)
• July 21 – Li Jijun, Chinese geographer and geomorphologist
• July 23
  • Masakazu Konishi, Japanese neurobiologist (b. 1933)
  • Jacqueline Noonan, American pediatric cardiologist (b. 1928)
  • Ward Plummer, American physicist (b. 1940)
  • Paolo Sassone-Corsi, Italian microbiologist (b. 1956)
• July 24 – Zheng Shouren, Chinese engineer (b. 1940)
• July 26
  • R. Stephen Berry, American physical chemist (b. 1931)
  • Roger Williams, British hepatologist (b. 1931)
  • Bill English, American computer engineer and co-developer of the computer mouse (b. 1929)
• August 1
  • Frank Barnaby, British nuclear physicist (b. 1927)
  • Rosemary Radley-Smith, British peadatric cardiologist (b. 1939)
• August 2 – Gregory Areshian, Armenian and American archeologist (b. 1949)
• August 4
  • Frances Allen, American computer scientist, first woman to win the Turing Award (b. 1932)
  • Irene D. Long, American physician (b. 1950)
  • Jan Strelau, Polish psychologist (b. 1931)
• August 6 – Louis Meznarie, French engineer (b. 1930)
• August 7
  • Lungile Pepeta, South African paedatric cardiologist (b. 1974)
  • Edward Bruner, American anthropologist (b. 1924)
• August 8
  • Dóra S. Bjarnason, Icelandic sociologist (b. 1947)
  • Bert Laeyendecker, Dutch sociologist (b. 1930)
  • Konrad Steffen, Swiss glaciologist (b. 1952)
• August 9 – Calaway H. Dodson, American botanist (b. 1928)
• August 11 – Russell Kirsch, American computer scientist and inventor of the first digital image scanner (b. 1929)
• August 12 – Robert Williams, American psychologist (b. 1930)
• August 13
  • Peter Stuart Excell, British engineer (b. 1948)
  • Bernd Fischer, German mathematician (b. 1936)
• August 14 – Kenneth Kunen, American mathematician (b. 1943)
• August 16
  • Nina McClelland, American chemist (b. 1929)
  • Jean-Michel Savéant, French chemist (b. 1933)
• August 17 – Richard M. White, American electrical engineer (b. 1930)
• August 18 – Han Woerdman, Dutch physicist (b. 1942)
• August 19 – Borys Paton, Ukrainian scientist (b. 1918)
• August 20 – Herbert Tabor, American biochemist (b. 1918)
• August 23 – Neil Douglas, British physician (b. 1949)
• August 25
  • Erik Allardt, Finnish sociologist (b. 1925)
  • Rebeca Guber, Argentine mathematician and computer scientist (b.1926)
  • Arnold Spielberg, American electrical engineer (b. 1917)
• August 26 – Gerald Carr, American astronaut and aeronautical engineer (b. 1932)
• August 28 – Seymour I. Schwartz, American surgeon (b. 1928)

See also

• Category:Science events
• Category:Science timelines
• Impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on science and technology
  • COVID-19 apps
  • COVID-19 vaccine
  • Face masks during the COVID-19 pandemic
  • Open-source ventilator#COVID-19 pandemic
• List of emerging technologies
• List of years in science

External links

• Media related to 2020 in science at Wikimedia Commons
• Science Summary 2020, monthly images for entries of this list