In the 1990s, Russian science plunged into a deep crisis. But this did not prevent Russian scientists from making discoveries of world significance. We will discuss some of them in this article.
Powerful lasers
In 2006, a laser facility was built at the Nizhny Novgorod Institute of Applied Physics, Russian Academy of Sciences, capable of emitting a pulse with a power of 0.56 petawatts (0.56 x 1,000,000,000,000,000 watts). In the near future, Russian scientists plan to increase the power of the facility by 20 times, and in the project - to create a laser with a power of up to one exawatt (add three more zeros to the above figure). To date, the most powerful laser system, two petawatts, is located in Japan.
Such powerful lasers are not created at all as expensive toys, and not in order to shoot down enemy satellites (although the military on both sides of the ocean, this is the only dream). Such a laser will serve as the basis for a controlled thermonuclear reactor. And thermonuclear reactors are the future of mankind, since the fuel reserves for them are practically inexhaustible and, unlike nuclear reactors, they are environmentally friendly.
Super heavy elements
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From 2000 to 2010, at the Flerov laboratory at the Joint Institute for Nuclear Research in Dubna near Moscow, scientists synthesized for the first time the six heaviest elements with atomic numbers from 113 to 118. Two of them have already been officially recognized by the International Union of Pure and Applied Chemistry (IUPAC) and were named flerovium (114) and livermorium (116). The application for the opening of the remaining elements is still being considered.
Why are super heavy elements needed? Their study allows us to understand the laws of stability of nuclear matter, to find out how the Big Bang took place, to explain when and where all the elements of the periodic table came from in general, that is, to comprehend the fundamental principle of human life and the life of the Universe. The Periodic Table gives us the existence of 170 superheavy elements. So far, only 118 have been synthesized, but this is not the limit.
Oil and gas will not run out
There is a lot of talk about the fact that the amount of oil and gas is limited, and already now mankind will have to either save on energy or switch to renewable sources (which, without a corresponding impulse in science, will still lead to total savings).
Researchers from the Russian Gubkin University of Oil and Gas were able to prove that oil and gas are renewable, and it is not at all necessary to wait millions of years for their synthesis.
Previously, it was believed that oil and gas are formed exclusively by decomposition of organic matter, which requires, in fact, biological substances (plants, animal remains) and a lot of time. Russian scientists managed to prove that in the upper mantle of the Earth, at depths of 100-150 kilometers, there are conditions for the synthesis of, if not oil, then, absolutely, gas, and without the participation of biological elements and in a much shorter time.
Denisovsky man
In 2010, a study of the DNA of human bones was carried out, discovered in the Denisova cave in Altai by a group of Siberian archaeologists led by Academician Anatoly Derevyanko.
Previously, it was believed that there were only two types of ancient people: Neanderthals and Cro-Magnons. The find of Russian archaeologists opened the world to the third human species that existed 40 thousand years ago - the Denisovan.
Lake in Antarctica
Russian scientists are also responsible for the last largest geographical discovery on Earth - the subglacial Lake Vostok in Antarctica.
Igor Nikitin