SCIENCE杂志12月21日发布了2017年度科学突破，其中双中子星合并引力波事件（Cosmic convergence）入选Breakthrough of the year，另有9项Runners，其中生物独占7席！

7项与生物相关的科学突破分别为原子水平的生命（Life at the atomic level）、智人古老的起源（Deeper roots for Homo sapiens）、单碱基基因编辑（Pinpoint gene editing）、BioRxiv杂志（Biology preprints take off）、广谱抗癌药（A cancer drug’s broad swipe）、发现新类人猿物种（A new great ape species）和基因治疗的胜利（Gene therapy triumph）。另外两项科学进展分别为中微子探测器（A tiny detector for the shiest particles）和270万年前气候（Earth’s atmosphere 2.7 million years ago）。

在科学杂志网站中也让普通民众对2017年候选科学突破进行了投票，大家对生物领域的科学突破的认可度很高，在12000选票中，生物相关的占据全部选票的76%，其中“基因治疗的成功”占据了47%的选票，单碱基基因编辑和广谱抗癌药也分别占据了15%和14%的选票。另外，中微子探测器占据了24%的选票。

Life at the atomic level: It is a rare innovation that earns science’s top honor at the sametime as its impact continues to mount. But this was a banner year forcryo–electron microscopy (cryo-EM), a technique that allows scientists tocreate freeze-frame images of complex molecules as they interact with eachother. This year, cryo-EM delivered multiple insights into the way key protein complexes work, the U.S. National Institutes of Health set up a network ofcryo-EM centers around the country, and some of the pioneers of the technique were awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry.

Deeper roots for Homosapiens: A long-overlooked skullfrom a cave in Morocco pushed back the fossil record of our species, Homo sapiens, and energized the study of modern human origins this year. Researchers determined that the skull is a startling 300,000 years old—about 100,000 years older than fossils from Ethiopia that had held the record as the oldest widely accepted remains of archaic H. sapiens.

Pinpoint gene editing: More than 60,000 genetic aberrations have been linked to human diseases, and nearly 35,000 of them are caused by the tiniest of errors: a change in just one DNA base at a specific point in the genome. This year, researchers announced a major improvement of a nascent technique, called base editing, to correct such point mutations, not just in DNA, but in RNA as well. Researchers are already exploiting the advance, and it ultimately may lead to medical applications.

Biology preprints take off: For decades, biologists sat on the sidelines as their colleagues in physicsroutinely shared draft manuscripts online before they were published in apeer-reviewed journal. But preprint sharing in biology took off this year, as thousands of life scientists posted their unreviewed papers online and funders threw their weight behind this mode of scientific communication.

A cancer drug’s broadswipe: It’s been a long time coming: a cancer drug that slays disease based not on the organ where it originated, buton its DNA. In May, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) green lighted the first such treatment, called pembrolizumab. Manufactured by Merck and branded Keytruda, the drug, which had already been approved to treat melanomaand a handful of other tumor types, can now be prescribed for any advanced solid tumor in children or adults, on one condition: The cancer cells mustcarry a defect that goes by the awkward name of  “mismatch repair deficiency.” This means that whether the cells turned cancerous in the pancreas, the colon, the thyroid, or any one of a dozen other tissues, they are riddled with mutations in genes that repair DNA.

A new great ape species: Welcome to the family, Pongo tapanuliensis. It’s been nearly 90 years since scientists last discovered a new living species of Hominidae, the great apes, so it was cause for celebration in November, when researchers debuted a third species of orangutan. Just one small population survives in a threatened forest in Indonesia, adding a dose of worry to the welcome.

Gene therapy triumph: A dramatic success in a small clinicaltrial buoyed the field of gene therapy this year. Researchers reported thatt hey had saved the lives of babies born with a fatal inherited neuromuscular disease by adding a missing gene to their spinal neurons. If left untreated, the babies would have died by about age 2. The trial also marks a broader milestone, because the researchers delivered the new gene across the membrane that protects the brain and spinal cord from blood-borne pathogens and toxins. That feat could open the door to using gene therapy to treat other neuro degenerative diseases.

Other three breakthroughs:

Cosmic convergence: Themerger of two neutron stars captivated thousands of observers and fulfilled multiple astrophysical predictions. On 17 August, scientists around the world witnessed something never seen before: One hundred and thirty millionlight-years away, two neutron stars spiraled into each other in a spectacular explosion that was studied by observatories ranging from gamma ray detectors toradio telescopes. The blast confirmed several key astrophysical models, revealed a birth place of many heavy elements, and tested the general theory of relativity as never before. That first observation of a neutron-star merger, and the scientific bounty it revealed, is Science’s 2017 Breakthrough of the Year.

A tiny detector for the shiest particles: This year, physicists spotted the most elusive subatomic particles, neutrinos, pinging off atomic nuclei in anew way. The achievement fulfilled a 4-decade-long quest, and it didn’t requirethe massive hardware usually used to detect neutrinos. Instead, the researchers pulled off the feat with a portable detector that weighs about as much as amicrowave oven.

Earth’s atmosphere 2.7 million years ago:  At the bottom of the world,frozen in ice, are portals to another time: tiny bubbles of Earth’s ancient atmosphere. This August, a team led by researchers from Princeton University and the University of Maine in Orono announced they had recovered Antarctic ice that froze 2.7 million years ago. That’s 1.7 million years older than any previous ice sample, and it pushes back the direct atmospheric record to apivotal time in the planet’s climate history.

（SCIENCE杂志原文见：http://vis.sciencemag.org/breakthrough2017/）。