I tweaked my knee while exercising a couple days ago.  Today it hurt so bad I was housebound for the whole day.  As it’s almost the middle of the night as I write this I’ve had an opportunity to think and do some research I had been neglecting.  For this entry I decided to continue on in the vein of science and tech advances that have happened in 2016 that may or may not have gotten the press exposure they should have.  So here goes:

1. Scientists at Florida Atlantic University have found gene responsible for sleep deprivation and metabolic disorders.
2. Scientists in China have discovered that coating solar cells with graphene will allow solar panels to generate energy from rain drops.
3. Scientists at the University of Southern California have learned that drinking coffee can lead to a lower risk of developing colorectal cancer.
4. Scientists in Belgium have discovered three potentially habitable planets orbiting a red dwarf star approximately 40 light years from Earth.
5. Scientists announce Breakthrough Starshot, a concept that would send fleets of small centimeter sized crafts to Alpha Centauri at 15 to 20 percent the speed of light, taking approximately twenty years to travel to our interstellar neighbor and approximately four years to send word back.
6. Scientists discuss creating a synthetic human genome.
7. An extensive study by the National Academies of Science, Engineering, and Medicine have found no substantial evidence of different health risks between Genetically Modified Crops and traditionally bred crops.
8. Researchers at Massachusetts General Hospital developed a procedure to allow long term cultivating adult stem cells.
9. Carbon nanotube transistors outperform silicon transistors for the first time.

These are just a few examples of the scientific breakthroughs made this year that may have gone unnoticed.  I hope to make another post similar to this soon.