PreviousDays✦THE WIKI
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Since 2000

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MOMENTS FROM THIS ERA

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7 illustrated stories · growing daily
A nurse prepares vaccine vials while a mother and child wait in a modest clinic with a mosquito net nearby.Science & discoveries

WHO Recommends the R21/Matrix-M Malaria Vaccine

On 2 October 2023, WHO recommended a second malaria vaccine for children. R21/Matrix-M offered an important practical advance: another product that could help meet demand for protection in malaria-endemic countries.

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An illustrated gas giant crosses a bright star, with light illuminating a thin atmospheric rim.Science & discoveries

Webb’s WASP-96 b Atmospheric Spectrum Release

Webb’s 12 July 2022 science release included a spectrum of WASP-96 b. Its water signature demonstrated how astronomers can investigate an unseen atmosphere by measuring starlight that passes through it.

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A Chinese researcher examines a flask beside leafy plant specimens and laboratory glassware.Science & discoveries

Tu Youyou’s artemisinin research receives Nobel recognition

The Nobel medicine announcement on 5 October 2015 recognised Tu Youyou’s discovery of artemisinin. Her work combined historical Chinese medical literature with extraction experiments, purification and testing to develop an important antimalarial drug.

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India’s gold-blanketed Mars Orbiter spacecraft above the orange curve of Mars.Science & discoveries

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission Enters Martian Orbit

India’s Mars Orbiter Mission entered orbit around Mars on 24 September 2014. A carefully timed engine firing converted an interplanetary arrival into an orbiting mission, demonstrating a central principle of spacecraft navigation: arrival can require braking.

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Juno’s three long solar-panel wings spread above the curved Earth after launch.Science & discoveries

Launch of NASA’s Solar-Powered Juno Mission to Jupiter

NASA launched Juno on 5 August 2011 to investigate Jupiter. Its three large solar wings embodied a key design challenge: supplying enough electricity at a planet where sunlight is far weaker than near Earth.

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Graphite fragments, tweezers and a microscope on a warmly lit laboratory bench.Science & discoveries

The 2010 Graphene Nobel Announcement and the Adhesive-Tape Method

On 5 October 2010, Manchester physicists Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov were named physics Nobel laureates for graphene experiments. Their earlier isolation technique used an astonishingly familiar tool: ordinary adhesive tape.

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Observers gather around a telescope that projects the Sun and the small silhouette of Venus onto a shaded card.Science & discoveries

The 8 June 2004 transit of Venus and the public measurement of the Sun’s distance

Venus’s passage across the Sun on 8 June 2004 became a worldwide observing event. An international education project combined measurements from students and amateur astronomers to repeat a historically important determination of the Earth–Sun distance.

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