- 2018 has been a crazy year
for pretty obvious reasons. But amidst all the madness, there have been some really incredible things
that have happened. New discoveries have occurred that humanity has never
known about previously, things that you didn't know about either. So what better way to finish off the year than to make you aware of them? And by the way, feel free to
tell your friends and family about these and make
yourself look extra smart. Here are the 10 craziest
discoveries of 2018. Number 10 is there are new
moons orbiting Jupiter. In July of 2018 it was
announced that 12 new moons have been discovered in
the planet Jupiter's orbit. The actual visual confirmation
that the masses existed occurred back in March of 2017, when a group of astronomers
were attempting to discern the location of Planet Nine, a theoretical planet orbiting our sun on the outskirts of our solar system. They realized that the
technology that they were using, specifically the Blanco Telescope at the Cerro Tololo Inter-American
Observatory in Chile, could give them a better
look at the gas giant. So they pointed it at it, only to see a dozen new items out there. But it wasn't until the summer of 2018 when the previously documented masses were confirmed to be in
fact 12 actual moons. The discovery brings the
total number of moons around Jupiter to 79, far more than any other planet. This could mean a lot of different things. Is there life on there? Are there materials on those moons that we could somehow harvest? Or could we look even further to discover aliens? Mm-hm. Number nine is a new
organ in human beings. With the number of times that the human body has been examined, it's hard to believe that there could be an undiscovered organ inside of us. But on March 27th, 2018, an analysis was published in
the journal Scientific Reports by doctors from Mount Sinai
Beth Israel Medical Center, which revealed just that. The interstitium is the fluid-filled space that exists between structural barriers, such as cell walls or the skin, and internal structures, such as muscles or parts
of the circulatory system. The fluid inside the interstitium helps nutrients and solutes travel around to organs,
cells, and capillaries, and scientists believe that they also act as a form of shock absorber, protecting body tissues
from becoming damaged. Though nobody's identified
the interstitium before, it's actually one of the
biggest organs in the body. Side note, and this a bit less scientific, but have you ever thought about how weird your tongue is, like, it's just like a big muscle
hangin' out your mouth. Number eight is the earliest
drawing by a human ever found. On September 12th, 2018,
archeologists announced that the earliest known drawing created by the hands of a homo sapien had been found. The artwork was discovered
inside Blombos Cave, which is around 322
kilometers east of Cape Town, the capital city of South Africa. A seemingly simple place, the drawing consists of nine red lines drawn on a stone flake, and it's estimated to be
around 73,000 years old. Prior to this, the earliest
known drawing by a human being was only around 40,800 years old, a whole 30,000 years younger. According to Christopher Henshilwood, an archeologist from the
University of Bergen in Norway, this is the first evidence
that humans could draw that far back in history. This could actually shed light on the origin of humanity's use of symbols to communicate and record information. Wouldn't it be funny if
there was that one caveman that was like I'm gonna pull a prank and just starts drawing symbols of, like, crazy monsters and aliens to
really freak out future humans? Ha ha, oh God that'd be scary. Number seven is water on Mars. Humankind has never been closer to proving that there was
life on the red planet, as a recent discovery has established that something essential for that life to be possible is very much present. Namely, water. While the evidence of
water having once existed on Mars probably seems like old news, in July of 2018 a group
of Italian researchers revealed that they'd found evidence that water exists there right now. The team was analyzing radar signals from the Mars Express
spacecraft's radar sounder, when they found some bright reflections that they eventually
concluded were made by water. The liquid is unfortunately underneath the massive sheet of ice that makes up the planet's southern pole, and experts say it's
definitely salt water. This could absolutely mean that
there's really life on Mars. Now, don't get too excited. It's probably not little
green men in helmets floating around in that water, but it could very well be
amoebas, cells, who knows? We gotta work our way up, folks. Number six is the brightest
object in the known universe. In July of 2018 it was announced that astronomers in Socorro, New Mexico, had discovered the brightest
object in the known universe. Known as P352, the object is a quasar, a massive, extremely bright,
active galactic nucleus, or AGN, with a black hole inside of it. P352 is trillions of times
more luminous than our sun. Or at least it was. The quasar is so far away that it would actually be
impossible to find out exactly what it looks like at this very
moment within our lifetimes. This is due to the fact that
although it's amazingly bright, P352's light takes 13 billion years just to reach us here on Earth. That means that the quasar is
13 billion light years away. For that matter, it's
possible another object has stolen the record
for brightest object, only it will take billions
of years to claim that title. Number five is the origin
of sickle cell anemia. Nearly 250 million people carry the gene responsible for sickle cell anemia, a potentially deadly disorder
that affects hemoglobin, a molecule found in red blood cells that transports oxygen all over the body. It gets its name from the shape that red blood cells form into, specifically sickles of crescents, and symptoms that include serious
infections and blood loss. However, hope may be
just around the corner, because in March of 2018 scientists at the Center for Research
on Genomics and Global Health announced that they had traced
the origin of the disease to a single mutation that
developed in West Africa 7,300 years, or 259 generations, ago. 300,000 babies are born every
day with sickle cell anemia, but now it may be possible to predict how severe their symptoms will be. And from there, perhaps a cure. Who knows? Science is awesome. Number four is the holy
grail of paleontology. In September of 2018 a group
of Australian scientists managed to finally identify a fossil that's been stumping experts
since its discovery in 1947. Found near the White Sea in Russia, this 5.1 centimeter-long
oval-shaped fossil with symmetrical ribs was
given the name Dickinsonia. The creature died in a place that, back then, was a great ocean, meaning it was more than
likely an aquatic creature, or at least able to
survive in ancient waters. Dickinsonia went unclassified
for over seven decades but has finally been
proven to be an animal. It's considered to be the
holy grail of paleontology, as Dickinsonia is actually an animal that lived 558 million years ago. This makes it the oldest animal ever discovered and
likely one of the first complex living things to exist on Earth. I know these names are
often given based on Latin, but come on, Dickinsonia? Okay, we gotta name this thing. A lot of people are
gonna be saying its name. Dickinsonia. (laughs) That's gonna be funny. Number three is anti-aging in mice. Since the first human beings reached old age and felt its effects, we as a species have been searching for that fabled Fountain of Youth. But instead of energy drinks
or anti-wrinkle creams, science may be close to a way
to actually reverse aging. In March of 2018 a study was published by researchers from
Harvard Medical School, which revealed that they had reversed a sign of aging in mice. Through their work of manipulating a gene associated with the growth
of new blood vessels, the team discovered a chemical compound that can directly stimulate it. The drug improved endurance in the older mice by more than 56% and increased their
muscle blood vessel growth to one that mimicked younger mice. Anti-aging drugs could literally
be right around the corner. Oh, that's good, longer-living people. That won't hurt the
overpopulation problem on Earth. (laughs) Number two is a cure for blindness. An amazing breakthrough that was revealed in March of 2018 has
the potential to change how many people will
one day see the world. Literally. People suffering from age-related macular degeneration, or AMD, a condition in which the
central vision is badly damaged, may not be suffering much longer, as experts in the United Kingdom working at the London
Project to Cure Blindness have actually discovered
a treatment for it. The cure is a revolutionary
new form of stem cell therapy, which has successfully reversed much of the damage in
at least two patients. AMD is currently the most common cause of people becoming blind, but doctors claim this brand new treatment could be restoring those
same people's sight on a wide scale within just five years. That is huge! But I'm still waiting for a pill or some sort of ability to be able to eat whatever I want and not gain a pound, 'cause your boy has an inner
fat kid and he breaks loose. And number one are
cancer-fighting nanobots. In a medical procedure that seems to come straight out of an episode of Star Trek, scientists have managed to
treat cancerous tumors with, believe it or not, tiny robots. In February of 2018 researchers from Arizona State University and the National Center for
Nanoscience and Technology of the Chinese Academy of Sciences managed to inject nanometer-sized
machines into mice. The robotic treatment
attacks cancer cells, halting the flow of blood to tumors by clotting the blood inside the vessels that tumors feed off of in order to grow. These things literally track down cancer, cut off its food supply, and shrink them down
until tumors' tissues die of what has been compared
to a tumor heart attack. And in other good news, the scientists believe that the procedure can be adapted for multiple cancers. That does sound exciting, but let's make sure that
these little nanobots don't fall into the wrong
hands of an evil genius, because the last thing we need is little robot creatures running around causing mini-heart attacks in people. That's bad news. (light music)
