page_title: 2017 in science
section_title: May
hierarchical_section_title: 2017 in science / Events / May
caption_attribution_description: English: This image shows the basic structure of the eye with the three main layers visible.
context_page_description: A number of significant scientific events occurred in 2017. The United Nations declared 2017 the International Year of Sustainable Tourism for Development.
context_section_description: 1 May – The University of Utah reveals a new robotic drill system for greatly speeding up surgical procedures. One type of complex cranial surgery could be done in a fiftieth of the normal time, decreasing from two hours to just two and a half minutes.
  4 May
  The European x-ray free electron laser (XFEL) produces its first beams of x-rays.
  The first synthetic retina using soft biological tissues is created by a student at the University of Oxford.
  9 May
  Scientists report newer findings, two adults and a child, of Homo naledi, an extinct species of hominin, in a second chamber, named "Lesedi", of the "Rising Star Cave" system. This second chamber is near the first earlier chamber, named "Dinaledi". In addition, remains of Homo naledi have been reported to be dated "between 236,000 and 335,000 years ago".
  Scientists publish evidence that the earliest known life on land may have been found in 3.48-billion-year-old geyserite and other related mineral deposits (often found around hot springs and geysers) uncovered in the Pilbara Craton of Western Australia.
  10 May
  Researchers at the University of Minnesota demonstrate a 3D-printed ‘bionic skin’ that could give robots a sense of touch, or lead to electronics printed on real human skin.
  A study of nearly 6,000 adults finds that high levels of physical activity equate to a nine-year biological aging advantage. Those who engaged in a minimum of 30 to 40 minutes of running, five days a week, were found to have longer telomere lengths.
  15 May – Researchers report that glints of light observed from Earth, seen as twinkling from an orbiting satellite a million miles away, have been found to be reflected light from ice crystals in the atmosphere. The technology used to determine this may be useful in studying the atmospheres of distant worlds, including those of exoplanets.
  16 May
  SESAME, a synchrotron light source in Jordan built by a collaboration including Israel, the Palestinian National Authority and Iran, is inaugurated.
  ARM and the Center for Sensorimotor Neural Engineering (CSNE) announce plans to develop a "brain-implantable" system-on-a-chip (SoC) for bi-directional brain-computer interfaces (BBCI). The 10-year project is aimed at solving neurodegenerative disorders.
  17 May – Human blood stem cells are grown in the laboratory for the first time by researchers at Boston Children's Hospital.
  18 May – Researchers publish evidence of a rapid greening in the Antarctica region over the last 50 years. Mosses that once grew less than 1mm a year are now found to be growing more than 3mm a year on average.
  An Australian-Chinese research team creates the world's thinnest hologram, fabricated using a simple and fast direct laser writing system, with potential for use in a range of electronic products.
  20 May – Astronomers report that Tabby's Star, about 1,300 light-years from Earth, has again begun dimming unusually; several explanations have been considered, including the possibility that intelligent extraterrestrial life may have been constructing a Dyson swarm. More dimming events happened in the following months.
  Update (Tabby's Star): as of 5 September 2017, a new dimming event had begun, the largest (of four) of the year, producing as much as a 3% dimming in star brightness.
  23 May
  Researchers in Harvard University report that eating up to six bars of chocolate a week could decrease the risk of a potentially fatal heart condition by approximately one quarter.
  Scientists propose a new type of astronomical object called a "synestia" – a huge, spinning, donut-shaped mass of hot, vaporised rock, formed as planet-sized objects smash into each other.
  24 May
  The launch date of NASA's Psyche probe is brought forward, to target a more efficient trajectory, launching in 2022 and arriving in 2026 with a Mars gravity assist in 2023.
  Researchers in Switzerland create artificial viruses that can be used to target cancer. These designer viruses alert the immune system and cause it to send killer cells to help fight the tumor. The results, published in Nature Communications, provide a basis for in
caption: 4 May: First synthetic retina reported to have been created.[115]
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