Astronomers Relegate Pluto to Dwarf Status

After a week of contentious public and private debate, a small cluster of astronomers voted to demote Pluto from its planetary status. The world wept, and we wept with you.

Newfound Fossil Is Transitional between Fish and Landlubbers

Dubbed Tiktaalik roseae, this large, predatory fish bears a number of features found in the four-limbed creatures that eventually gave rise to all amphibians, reptiles, birds and mammals. Plus, it gave our editor in chief another chance to take on creationism.

The Year of An Inconvenient Truth

The climate models were as dire as ever, despite some researchers' ongoing attempts to deny that anthropogenic climate change is even happening. Meanwhile, the effects of global warming continued to multiply, including more intense monsoon rains, the migration of America's breadbasket to Canada and the contraction of the Earth's atmosphere. (There was some good news, as well: levels of atmospheric methane, which is a powerful greenhouse gas, mysteriously stabilized.)

The Passing of Steve Irwin

An interview with the Crocodile Hunter revealed that he was more than just a showman, and possessed a deep commitment to animals, education and environmental conservation.

Grigory Perelman, Genius Who Solved Poincare Conjecture, Declines the Fields Medal

Why would anyone pass up the "Nobel Prize of mathematics" plus a $1-million bounty? Perhaps a detailed study of the man who did all of the above holds the answer.

The Fountain of Youth at the Bottom of a Wine Bottle?

Resveratrol blew up big this year as the miracle molecule in wine that could extend your life by 60 percent--if you're a yeast cell, that is. Other researchers saw it differently--Forget Resveratrol, Tannins Key to Heart Health from Wine argues that wine's beneficial effects on heart health depend more on the traditional vintner's art than on the wonder molecule resveratrol. Either way, a little knowledge about the chemistry of wine can't hurt.

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