These scientific achievements set new records in 2024

The year 2024 was filled with record-breaking scientific discoveries. From tracing the origins of glow-in-the-dark animals to developing the world’s fastest microscope, these brilliant feats captured our imaginations.

Ancient Air Blast

About 2.5 million years ago, an asteroid burned up in Earth’s atmosphere before it could hit the ground and leave a crater, making the event the oldest known explosion in the air. This conclusion is based on a chemical analysis of nearly 120 microscopic rocks buried deep beneath the Antarctic ice. The ancient pebbles are rich in the minerals olivine and spinel, suggesting the specimens are remnants of the asteroid, scientists say.

Chemical analysis of microscopic pieces of rock collected in Antarctica (three shown) suggests that they are consistent with a type of asteroid known as a common chondrite that exploded in the atmosphere. Cby Matthias van Ginneken

The dawn of photosynthesis

Microfossils in Australia hold the oldest evidence of photosynthesis. Fossilized bacteria dating back to about 1.75 billion years ago preserve structures resembling thylakoid membranes, which help modern cyanobacteria convert sunlight into oxygen. Scientists had previously suspected that cyanobacteria were photosynthesizing at the time, but the new discovery is the first direct evidence.

Side-by-side images of an elongated beige bacterium fossil next to a close-up view of its internal structures that appear as horizontal black lines. These structures are membranes necessary for photosynthesis, the researchers say. — Researchers found microscopic fossils of cyanobacteria called *Navifusa majensis* (left) in 1.73 billion to 1.78 billion year clay from Australia). A look inside the fossils revealed black horizontal lines that show the bacterium contains stacks of membranes known as thylakoids (right) like those in modern bacteria and plants where oxygen-producing photosynthesis takes place.CF Demoulin, *et al*./*Nature* 2024

Quickest back turn

Dicyrtomina minutes The spring tails can be launched up to 60 millimeters into the air and rotate at a speed of up to 368 times per second, making arthropods the fastest known hindlimbs (SN: 10/5/24, p. 4). An appendage on the lower abdomen helps the miniature gymnasts stand up, while another helps them climb the squat.

Two little tails flipping off a white platform on a pink background. — The backward-moving arthropods, called orbtails, can rise up to 60 millimeters high and spin up to 29 times in the blink of an eye. Two springtails jump from a platform in a laboratory in this high-speed camera footage.A. Smith

Little frog

At only 6.5 millimeters long, a Brazilian flea toad (Brachycephalus pulex) has been crowned the world’s smallest known frog (SN: 23.3.24, p. 4). Tiny enough to fit on a pinky nail, the amphibian beat the previous champion by about a millimeter.

A small brown frog stands in the center of a genuine Brazilian coin. — The Brazilian flea toad has grabbed the title of the world’s smallest known amphibian and smallest known vertebrate. At just 7 millimeters long on average, the frogs are a fraction of the size of a 27 millimeter wide Brazilian real 1 dollar coin.WH Bolaños, IR Dias and M. Solé/*Zoologica Scripta* 2024

Big genome, small package

The largest known manual of genetic instructions belongs to a small fern (SN: 29.6.24, p. 4). Tmesipteris oblanceolata it is 15 centimeters long, but has a genome that is 50 times larger than that of a human. If unwound, the coil of fern DNA would stretch 100 meters long, scientists say.

A close-up of a single fern with yellow spheres attached to some of its leaves — The yellow balls on this New Caledonian fork fern are synangia, the spore-producing structures in this group of ferns. Oriane Hidalgo

The oldest bioluminescence

Bioluminescence has a new birthday. The ancestors of a group of deep-sea corals glowed in the dark 540 million years ago, scientists say. Scientists had thought that animal bioluminescence began about 267 million years ago in an ancestor of sea fireflies – small, seed-like crustaceans.

Dark red coral with spots of bright blue areas — Colonial False Gold Coral (*Saval*) demonstrates its bioluminescence on a Bahamian reef. This form of bioluminescence in octocorals is the oldest yet dated.Sonke Johnsen

Super small joint

Knots come in all shapes and sizes. Small figure eight knots hold people as they climb the rocks. Larger bow lines secure ships ashore. This year, scientists designed the smallest and tightest knot yet (SN: 24.2.24, p. 4). This triple knot is made of a string of 54 atoms of gold, phosphorus, oxygen and carbon that is wrapped three times over itself.

A simplified 2-D illustration of the smallest known molecular knot, a chain of 54 atoms of gold, phosphorus, oxygen and carbon crossing three times to form a pretzel-like shape. — In this simplified illustration of the smallest molecular knot known, a chain of 54 atoms of gold (red), phosphorus (purple), oxygen (purple) and carbon (black) cross three times to form a similar shape with pretzels.Mr. Li et al/*Nature Communications* 2024

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