AND THE WINNERS ARE: Ardi, the LHC and the Hubble Space Telescope are among the editors' top picks.
Image:
More In This Article
The H1N1 pandemic, the Copenhagen climate talks, the restart of the world's biggest experimental device—2009 sped by many scientifically relevant mile markers. The year also celebrated several important past events: It saw the bicentennial of Charles Darwin's birth and the 150th anniversary of the publication of his Origin of Species; the 40th anniversary of the first humans on another world; and the 400th of Galileo's report that proved not all heavenly bodies circle the Earth. The year also marked the first occasion in which the science Nobel Prize committee honored more than one woman—four, in fact.
Science, of course, typically progresses in small steps, not giant leaps. It often takes years of experiments and data gathering to prove a theory or confirm a finding. Many achievements in 2009 could very well be the basis for future paradigm shifts but are now not quite recognized for what they are. (Did someone say they found dark matter?) We'll just have to see how things turn out in the years ahead.
Slide Show: Top 10 Science Stories of 2009
See what we're tweeting about
18 Comments
Add Comment#9 A 3.5 billion dollar pencil?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisreally evolution theory was a good story , so finally this sarcasm collapsed by science. So why you insert that man made religion to other scientific developments???
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgood luck explaining endogenous retroviral insertions without evolution
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisin the future, please spare us your propaganda
yes your are right, evolution is pure propaganda for keeping top of pyramid
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thistruthi,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou don't think clearly. How can you be so blind...open your eyes and look around...evolution is everywhere. You have to be sick not to see it. Very sorry for your type of person.
I don't understand the argument about evolution, it is an established fact that all living things evolve, whether you are virus or human. All lives are equal by the way.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisAnyway, I am looking forward to hear more about the $3.5 billion laser system. Hope it'll bring about more exciting scientific discoveries.
We can compare previous years to see development on science. But when we compare with spices we see anything changed.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI think that the supermassive black hole behind Sagittarius A (Sgr A*) and the stars rapidly orbiting it is the best story of the year.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTruthi:
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI can't understand your grammer. This is only partly my fault. Please do an English parse of the sentances in your submissions and submit the parses as addenda to your your submission.
Hi, to the best of my knowledge, it was not LCROSS that detected water on the moon. It was the ISRO mission Chandrayaan I that did. Could you correct this travesty of justice in your article please?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe Copenhagen meeting accomplished all it could. The warming data that was used as evidence was faulty. There is absolutely no evidence that man-made emmisions are the main cause of the warming trend that has been occurring for 10,000 years with minor spurts of cooling (such as that during the past 10 years in the U.S.). There are many causes of climate change. CO2 in the atmosphere is only one cause. A more significant cause of greenhouse gas is water vapor. Methane is also a major contributor. The driving force for change is the sun. It always has been and always will be. The sun drives the atmosphere, the ocean circulations patterns in conjunction with the position of the continents, and goes through many cycles of energy output. A greater concern to mankind should be the acidification of the oceans and its affect on the food chain rather than increases in worldwide temperatures. Although parts of the Antarctic ice sheet are shrinking, other parts are growing and sea level has not changed significantly for hundreds of years.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisSea level has changed quickly many times in the geologic past with temperature fluctuations much greater than what we currently record. In conclusion, the Copenhagen meeting was an attempt by poor countries to fleese the rich countries of capital and independence in an attempt to create a world government.
The socialist/communist trending government in the U.S. is falling right into the hands of these misfits.
You are so blind to anything contravening your beliefs.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisLook around you and you see only CREATION not evolution as you say. You are like many who find an arrow shaped flint and say, "Oh, we've found an old weapon!" But when you see a beautiful blue planet you refuse to admit it was created.
Creationalist, Cambridge, England.
G6YHF@YAHOO.CO.UK
Hey, what about the sequencing of the Neanderthal genome??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisHey, and the draft sequencing of the Neanderthal genome??
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisConsider the water molecules found on the moon and the ignition project at Lawrence Livermore. By separting the hydrogen from the oxygen on the moon you would have a power source for and stations built on the moon.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA.W. Glaze
I think that people like that "truthi" are the living proof of (our) evolution. Only, they are the hopless, dead branches of it.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgerard
i THINK PEOPLE LIKE THAT "TRUTHI" ARE LIVING PROOF OF EVOLUTION. ONLY, THEY ARE LEFTOVERS OF HOPLESS, DEAD BRANCHES OF IT. (in other terms: the exception that proves the rule).
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisgerardcrow
Could it be that truthi's inability to spell or create a meaningfull sentence is shared by most people who don't believe in evolution?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this