Amazing Inventions in 2024

A year full of amazing discoveries, our screens were swept by a storm of headlines about exciting discoveries made by scientists, from the appearance of a bright green comet in the sky that we haven’t seen since the Stone Age, to the discovery that our ancestors were on the verge of extinction 900,000 years ago, to the discovery of the elements of life on Saturn’s moon Enceladus, to life on Earth during the hottest year on record due to climate change.

This past year, astronomers have made new discoveries about the universe, palaeontologists have painted a richer picture of the dinosaurs that roamed the Earth millions of years ago, biologists have mapped our planet’s creatures more clearly, documented the first-ever case of a female crocodile “virgin birth”, pushed the boundaries of artificial life, investigated how living things control time, and developed theories about consciousness and emotional health.

In the main health news, efforts to combat COVID-19, hepatitis B and other infections have paid off, the COVID-19 public health emergency has ended, the disease has received less attention than it did in the past two years even as it continues to wreak havoc, and medical experts expect updated annual vaccines to continue to combat the virus as it evolves.

Stone tools upend assumptions

In February, archaeologists at Nyanja on the Homa Peninsula in western Kenya made a surprising discovery: some of the oldest stone tools ever used by early humans to butcher and grind plant materials like tubers and fruits, dating back about 3 million years, according to research published in the journal Science.

Scientists had previously thought that Oldowan tools—a type of simple stone tool—were only used by the ancestors of Homo sapiens, and these smaller, lighter tools were supposed to be a technological breakthrough and a milestone in human evolution. But the latest discovery provides evidence that tools were used by other branches of early humans.

However, no Homo sapiens fossils were found at the excavation site, and instead there were teeth (strong molars) from the genus Paranthropus that combined ape and human traits, along with 330 stone tools.

Researchers have long assumed that only the genus Homo, to which humans belong, was capable of making and using complex tools, but the discovery of Paranthropus teeth alongside these stone tools turns that assumption on its head. Scientists previously thought that humans relied solely on their teeth and large jaws to eat, meaning they probably didn’t need such tools.

The excavations at the site provide the earliest evidence that humans ate very large animals. At least three hippopotamus skeletons were discovered, two of which contained bones showing signs of butchering. There were also antelope bones that showed evidence of meat being chopped or crushed to extract the bone marrow.

Analysis of wear patterns on 30 stone tools showed they were used to cut, scrape and beat animals and plants. Based on the artifacts’ history, which predates the use of fire for cooking, researchers believe the toolmakers ate raw hippopotamus and antelope meat, perhaps grinding it into something like lime to make it easier to chew.

Low-Frequency Gravitational Waves

In a historic first, a team of scientists around the world announced on June 24 what they call “compelling evidence” for the existence of low-frequency gravitational waves, ripples in the fabric of the universe created by massive objects moving and colliding in deep space at a distance far enough to create a subtle signal that scientists can pick up.

It took decades of work by scientists around the world to track down evidence of these extremely slow oscillations. The discovery came through careful observation of more than 100 pulsars, strange stars that spin hundreds of times every second, creating radio beams that resemble lighthouses.

A new heavyweight champion in the animal kingdom

The blue whale is no longer the heaviest animal that ever lived after paleontologists discovered the fossilized bones of a massive marine mammal that went extinct millions of years ago. The newly described creature, Perocetus colosus, which means “Peruvian giant whale,” is a creature that looks a bit like a manatee and dates back between 38 and 40 million years during the Eocene epoch.

Weighing in at between 100 and 150 tons, the endangered blue whale has long been considered the largest animal on record. Argentinosaurus, a long-necked, four-legged herbivore that lived about 95 million years ago in Argentina and was classified in a study published last May as the largest dinosaur, was estimated to have weighed about 76 tons.

In a study published in the journal Nature, researchers estimated that the giant Pyroscetus could weigh up to 340 metric tons, challenging the blue whale’s status as the largest animal in the animal kingdom. But it’s not the longest. Pyroscetus’s body stretched to about 20 meters (66 feet) long, and blue whales can be even longer, with some reaching more than 30 meters (100 feet) in length. The research team said one reason for the animal’s heavier weight was that its bones were denser and heavier than those of the blue whale, which has the ability to dive and swim quickly. The scientists said those super-dense bones suggest the whale probably spent its time in shallower coastal waters. Other animals that stay close to the coast, such as manatees, have heavy bones that help them stay near the sea floor.