An experiment in which University of Portsmouth scientists have played a leading role in has been selected as one of the TIME’s best inventions of 2024.
An experiment in which University of Portsmouth scientists have played a leading role in has been selected as one of the TIME’s best inventions of 2024.
The Dark Energy Spectroscopic Instrument (DESI) project has led to the most precise measurement of our expanding universe. A team of international researchers, including scientists from the University of Portsmouth, mapped millions of galaxies and quasars with unprecedented detail, creating the biggest ever 3D map of the Universe and measuring how fast it has expanded over 11 billion years.
The annual list which features 200 extraordinary innovations changing people’s lives was revealed by TIME today (30th October 2024). To compile this year's list, TIME solicited nominations from TIME editors and correspondents around the world, and through an online application process, paying special attention to growing fields—such as health care, AI, and green energy. TIME then evaluated each contender on a number of key factors, including originality, efficacy, ambition, and impact.
The data we have acquired in just one year of operations is breathtaking – a map of the positions of nearly 6 million galaxies and quasars, measured to exquisite precision, from which we are able to tease out secrets of how the Universe has been expanding over the last 11 billion years.
DESI enabled researchers to create a map and measure the effects of dark energy, the mysterious cause of the Universe’s accelerating expansion. DESI uses 5,000 tiny robots mounted within a mountaintop telescope, near Tucson, Arizona. By harnessing light from far-flung objects in space, DESI’s scientists mapped the cosmos as it was in its youth and traced its growth to what we see today.
This is the first-time scientists have measured the expansion history of the young Universe with a precision better than one per cent, giving the best view yet of how the Universe has evolved.
Dr Seshadri Nadathur from the Institute of Cosmology and Gravitation at the University of Portsmouth, led parts of the analysis. He said: “The data we have acquired in just one year of operations is breathtaking – a map of the positions of nearly 6 million galaxies and quasars, measured to exquisite precision, from which we are able to tease out secrets of how the Universe has been expanding over the last 11 billion years.
The result is a list of 200 groundbreaking inventions, including the world's largest computer chip, a humanoid robot joining the workforce, and a bioluminescent houseplant, that are changing how we live, work, play, and think about what’s possible.
“What’s even more exciting is that the results we have got so far seem to be hinting that our understanding of how dark energy behaves might have been wrong. There’s nothing scientists like better than discovering that they might have been wrong about something! But the evidence isn’t conclusive yet, so we need to be cautious – luckily we’ve got another 4 years of more data to come, which will help us find out one way or the other.”
Of the new list, TIME’s editors said: “The result is a list of 200 groundbreaking inventions, including the world's largest computer chip, a humanoid robot joining the workforce, and a bioluminescent houseplant, that are changing how we live, work, play, and think about what’s possible.”
See the full list here: time.com/best-inventions-2024