{"id":344995,"date":"2018-01-22T22:48:03","date_gmt":"2018-01-22T21:48:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/?p=344995"},"modified":"2018-01-22T22:49:09","modified_gmt":"2018-01-22T21:49:09","slug":"3-amazing-scientific-discoveries-flew-radar-last-year","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/contributions\/3-amazing-scientific-discoveries-flew-radar-last-year\/","title":{"rendered":"3 Amazing Scientific Discoveries that Flew Under the Radar Last Year"},"content":{"rendered":"

For some people, the age of great scientific discovery has come and gone. There\u2019s a hubris among many that what we know about the universe around us is as complete a picture as possible, and that current scientific ventures are little more than frivolous exercises splitting hairs rather than atoms. However, despite what many people might believe, we\u2019re still only scratching the surface of a greater understanding of our planet, ourselves, and the wide void of space around us. Indeed, here are three mind-blowing scientific discoveries that you may have missed in 2017: <\/span><\/p>\n

An Eighth Continent<\/b><\/p>\n

Some amazing discoveries occur at the microscopic level and require careful study and intricate lab equipment like <\/span>serum separator tubes<\/span><\/a>, high-powered microscopes, and extremely sophisticated glassware. And then other times, an entire undiscovered continent is right under our feet. To be fair, the new landmass referred to as <\/span>Zealandia, is actually about 94 percent underwater<\/span><\/a>. Though, scientists discovered this year that the tectonic plate under New Zealand and adjacent to Australia is indeed a separate entity, and thus, has been christened Earth\u2019s eighth continent. <\/span><\/p>\n

Missing Link Discovered<\/b><\/p>\n

No, <\/span>Bigfoot wasn\u2019t actually discovered in the Pacific Northwest<\/span><\/a>, nor was a Yeti uncovered in the Himalayas. But scientists did identify a missing link of sorts this year \u2013\u2013 from 7.2 million years ago. Evidence of the new species, named Graecopithecus by the researchers, was located in areas in Greece and Bulgaria earlier this year. Significantly, the finds predate the oldest hominid remains unearthed in Africa by roughly 200,000 years. Furthermore, the researchers insist that the species was definitively human, i.e. in the hominid family, and not a chimpanzee or variant thereof. And until someone comes across a real-life Sasquatch, this may be as close as we come to encountering the species that connects humans to our earliest ancestral relatives. <\/span><\/p>\n

Earth\u2019s Twin<\/b><\/p>\n

Down the astrological block, some eleven light years away, <\/span>spins a planet called Ross 128b<\/span><\/a>. And what, might you ask, is so special about this otherwise inconspicuous space rock? Well, for one it occupies the \u201csweet spot\u201d around its red dwarf star that could potentially allow for the development of water and life on it. Furthermore, its native star is old (and placid) enough to preclude damaging solar flares that could extinguish any hope for sustaining organisms on the planet\u2019s surface. Further research is still needed, but observation so far has proved encouraging and exciting. <\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

For some people, the age of great scientific discovery has come and gone. There\u2019s a hubris among many that what we know about the universe around us is as complete a picture as possible, and that current scientific ventures are little more than frivolous exercises splitting hairs rather than atoms. However, despite what many people […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-344995","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-contributions"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344995","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=344995"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/344995\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=344995"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=344995"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=344995"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}