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A WORLD OF SMALL DISCOVERIES

Days that made a difference.

38 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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A cream-coloured cluster of spacecraft airbags bounces above a rocky Martian plain.Science & discoveries

Mars Pathfinder's airbag landing on 4 July 1997

NASA's Pathfinder reached Mars inside inflated airbags, bouncing across the surface before opening to release the small Sojourner rover.

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A white-faced lamb stands beside a black-faced surrogate ewe in a straw-lined research-farm pen.Science & discoveries

Dolly the sheep is born at the Roslin Institute

Born on 5 July 1996, Dolly demonstrated that an adult mammal's specialised cell could provide the nuclear information needed to develop a new animal.

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Original reconstruction: amber light falls across a ship's wet desk, blank cargo folder and loose lashing; rough teal seas and a container appear through the window. Illustrative reconstruction: a folded North Pacific map has two brass pins joined by red thread, suggesting a journey from open ocean to southeastern Alaska. Original reconstruction: a small scuffed red plastic beaver bath toy rests among wet pebbles and driftwood on an Alaskan shore. Original reconstruction: a weathered yellow plastic duck, blue turtle and green frog sit on cream paper on an oceanographer's desk.Science & discoveries

The Friendly Floatees spill: bath toys as ocean tracers

A North Pacific cargo accident on 10 January 1992 released thousands of plastic bath toys. Their subsequent discovery on beaches gave oceanographers an unusual source of evidence about surface currents and the movement of floating debris.

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A fossil hunter examines large vertebrae emerging from an eroded South Dakota bluff.Science & discoveries

Sue Hendrickson discovers the T. rex SUE

A flat truck tyre interrupted a South Dakota fossil expedition on 12 August 1990. Sue Hendrickson used the delay to investigate a promising bluff.

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A cylindrical spacecraft approaches an irregular comet nucleus amid streams of illuminated gas and dust.Science & discoveries

Giotto's closest approach to Halley's Comet, 14 March 1986

ESA's Giotto passed 596 kilometres from Halley's nucleus just after midnight UTC. Its protected instruments helped turn a distant glowing comet into an observable physical world of dark terrain and escaping gas and dust.

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