page_title: 2012 in science
section_title: March
hierarchical_section_title: 2012 in science / Events, discoveries and inventions / March
caption_attribution_description: English: Solar panel installation at an information center adjacent to Ögii Lake
context_page_description: The year 2012 involved many significant scientific events and discoveries, including the first orbital rendezvous by a commercial spacecraft, the discovery of a particle highly similar to the long-sought Higgs boson, and the near-eradication of guinea worm disease. A total of 72 successful orbital spaceflights occurred in 2012, and the year also saw numerous developments in fields such as robotics, 3D printing, stem cell research and genetics. Over 540,000 technological patent applications were made in the United States alone in 2012.
  2012 was declared the International Year of Sustainable Energy for All by the United Nations. 2012 also marked Alan Turing Year, a celebration of the life and work of the English mathematician, logician, cryptanalyst and computer scientist Alan Turing.
context_section_description: 1 March – New research concludes that the Earth's oceans may be growing more acidic at a faster rate than at any time in the past 300 million years. (MSNBC) (Science)
  2 March
  NASA's Cassini spacecraft detects oxygen in the atmosphere of Saturn's moon Dione. (BBC)
  Meta-analysis of 42 previous studies concludes that some consumption of chocolate may be good for the heart. (Reuters) (Am. J. Clin. Nutr.)
  5 March – A study finds a correlation between snoring as a toddler and behavior problems later in childhood. (BBC) (Pediatrics)
  7 March
  Physicists from Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory report data suggesting that the elusive hypothesized Higgs boson ("God particle", with a mass of 115 to 135 GeV/c²) may have been detected. (New York Times) (Interactions.org)
  Scientists successfully decode the gorilla genome, the last of the great ape genera to be sequenced. (BBC) (Nature)
  8 March
  A study suggests that donor stem cells may prevent organ rejection in imperfectly matched transplant cases. (Los Angeles Times) (Sci. Transl. Med.)
  The international  Daya Bay neutrino experiment announces the discovery of a new type of neutrino oscillation. (Science Magazine) (Phys. Rev. Lett.)
  9 March – US researchers announce a breakthrough in treating AIDS, using a cancer drug to attack HIV inside certain immune-system cells, which were previously difficult to reach with treatments. (Bloomberg) (AIDS2012)
  12 March
  Researchers at the Vienna University of Technology develop a 3D printer that can print at the nano-scale and is orders of magnitude faster than previous devices. (Science Daily)
  A diet high in red meat can shorten life expectancy by increasing the risk of death from cancer and heart problems, according to a study of more than 120,000 people by researchers at Harvard Medical School. Substituting red meat with fish, chicken or nuts lowered the risks, the study found. (BBC) (Arch. Intern. Med.)
  13 March
  A California-based company has developed solar panels that are half the price of today's cheapest cells, and therefore cheap enough to challenge fossil fuels. (Extreme Tech)
  Scientists have identified a potential drug that speeds up trash removal from the cell's recycling center, the lysosome, one of the causes of aging and degenerative diseases. (Medical Xpress) (Nat. Commun.)
  14 March
  A fly species, kept in complete darkness for 57 years (1,400 generations), showed genetic alterations that occurred as a result of environmental conditions, offering clear evidence of evolution. (Discover Magazine) (PLOS One)
  A pill which doubles the length of time that patients with advanced skin cancer can survive has gone on sale in Britain for the first time. (The Telegraph)
  America's coastlines are even more vulnerable to sea level rise than previously thought, according to a pair of new studies. Up to 32% more real estate could be affected by a 1-meter rise in sea level, while the population exposed to rising water is 87% higher than previously estimated. (Christian Science Monitor) (Environ. Res. Lett. 1) (Environ. Res. Lett. 2)
  A process to "unprint" toner ink from paper has been developed by engineers at the University of Cambridge, using short laser pulses to erase words and images. (BBC) (Proc. Roy. Soc. A)
  15 March – American scientists use a particle accelerator to send a coherent neutrino message through 780 feet of rock. This marks the first use of neutrinos for communication, and future research may permit binary neutrino messages to be sent immense distances through even the densest materials, such as the Earth's core. (PopSci) (Mod. Phys. Lett. A.)
  16 March – Physicists found no discernible difference between the speed of a neutrino and the speed of light in latest test of the faster-than-light neutrino anomaly. (New York Times) (BBC) (ArXiv)
  18 March
  Researchers have identified why a mutation in a particular gene can lead to obesity. (BBC) Nat. Med.
  NEC has developed "organic radical battery" (ORB) technology with a thickness of just 0.3mm. (PhysOrg)
  19 March
  Even if humankind manages to limit global warming to 2 degrees C (3.6 degre
caption: 19 March 2012: researchers report that the number of solar panels in the United States more than doubled between 2010 and 2011.
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