Image: RYAN REID
More In This Article
Year-end lists inevitably leave room for debate and criticism, and ours is no exception. It was an eventful year, and we relied on voting among Scientific American editors to cull our candidates. Any of these notable achievements were certainly worthy but didn't make the final cut. The runners-up were:
• The discovery in South Africa of a new hominid, called Australopithecus sediba, that could be a lost member of our family tree
• The emergence of hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking," a controversial way to recover natural gas trapped in deep rocks
• The detection of an atmosphere of a "super-Earth" and other signs of potentially habitable worlds around other stars
• The recommendation by an advisory committee for the U.S. to approve genetically modified salmon
• The vote by the U.S. Federal Communications Commission to maintain an open, neutral Internet, although service providers still could prioritize content
• The introduction of the iPad, a disruptive technology displacing netbook computers but opening up new opportunities for software developers
• The latest sign of climate change, namely, the NASA conclusion that 2010 will be the hottest year on record, with the world's average temperature reaching 14.65 degrees Celsius, 0.03 degree higher than the previous record year of 2005
Our Facebook fans also chimed in with their top choices, many of which overlap with ours—plus quite a few more.
And as some Facebook fans also pointed out, scientific progress rarely tends to happen in nice, discrete annual chunks. Major discoveries in 2010 could turn out to lead nowhere, and unappreciated studies could end up being watershed moments. We can say for sure, though, that 2010 was hardly a boring year for science and technology.
Click here to view the countdown of our Top 10 Science Stories of 2010
See what we're tweeting about
20 Comments
Add Comment4 of your top ten have little more than gee wizz value. How does discovery of a new hominid, an atmosphere on another planet, another unremarkable computer or getting a common gas from deep rocks have any real effect on our world.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThe article does say that these didn't make the top ten. But I agree with what you're saying.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOops...that was meant to be a reply to Hollycow
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFracking is used by industry.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisThere can be habitable plants around other stars like we have earth around the sun.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisTo the comment on Fracking. Fracking has been around for a while, watch Gasland on HBO, I think it was close to making the list because of the controversy surrounding it. It puts toxic chemicals into the environment and wells. It will greatly impact you or anybody you know in the areas where fracking occurs. According to the documentary they were considering Fracking in an area that could contaminate the water supply of New York city and many on the East Cost. It would impact millions, hence why it is on this list.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisPut your narcissism aside and look beyond yourself and you will appreciate the list and those that fell short of the list. It is the top science stories not discoveries.
I just thought that this was as good a place as any to share my experience of how much more satisfying my web surfing has been this year since I got rid of Explorer, switched to Mozilla Foxfire, set i Google as my homepage and installed (among others) the Scientific American gadget/news app. I now get the news and information that I care about waiting conveniently for me on my PC without a lot of lies and nonsense and stuff I don't care about. I am happy to join the cool kids.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this@Letxequal,
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to this"I got rid of Explorer, switched to Mozilla Foxfire, set i Google as my homepage and installed (among others) the Scientific American gadget/news app."
I want to be the first to welcome you into the 21st Century :)
"I now get the news and information that I care about waiting conveniently for me on my PC without a lot of lies and nonsense and stuff I don't care about. I am happy to join the cool kids."
Kewl
Yes the banks frack us all the time
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisGood Day, all of you who celebrate science highlights this year.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI need to point out that this exciting story about possible planets blessed with life has a strong potential to stir emotions. Thus, if there was anything of a progress on this line of research, emotions would run higher. As far as present science is studied the physical space is lifeless.
Good Day, all of you who celebrate science highlights this year.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI need to point out that this exciting story about possible planets blessed with life has a strong potential to stir emotions. Thus, if there was anything of a progress on this line of research, emotions would run higher. As far as present science is studied the physical space is lifeless.
I am wondering about the antipathy toward Explorer. I am simply ignorant. I use Foxfire at school, typically for academic topics, and I don't notice a difference (but I've not been looking) between browsers. What should I know? I am also ignorant about the concept of open source, though I understand there is a lot of enthusiasm for it. Will someone enlighten?
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisIt should have included the rejection of the technology of the Flying Saucer (Gravity Control) as a means of Space travel after some incompetents in Cleveland, Ohio, used it by using the configuration of an E-Bomb and caused a black-out in large parts of the USA and Canada.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisA Heavy Lifter, costing one Billion Dollars, will not be any competition for a $50 million real Spacecraft.
In Russia they have already decided that rockets are not the way to go to Deep Space. There are no tank stations.
Is the new Nasa's Management just incompetent and does it still not know that?
Or do some people have fingers in a pie?
不错
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisOne of the major problems the world is facing is climate change. What can we do about it? See :
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thishttp://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/p00chrk9/one_planet_2050_an_earth_odyssey/
Notice how finally Pyrolysis technology is now considered as the major remedy, where in the past it got no mention at all. Deciders, scientists and investors, please take note! Happy New Year...
In the previous comment p00chrk9 is p zero zero c h r k 9
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisYou have an error in the description of the Deepwater Horizon spill. You call it "one of the worst natural disasters" and while it is a disaster affecting the natural world it is most certainly a man-made disaster and not a natural one like an earthquake or tornado. http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/natural+disaster
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisNot all science that is done has immediate practical benefit. That's not the same as having no benefit. Scientific progress isn't as straight forward as a lot of folks would like to think, there is a lot of blind luck. To put it bluntly no one knows what bits of knowledge we get now will turn out to have utility later. Nuclear physics took quite some time to get put to practical use, and while some would point out that nuclear bombs are bad, what about nuclear medical imaging? Predictions like that work about as well as weather forecasting. In the near term one can intelligently speculate, but the further out you get...
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisDo I detect luddites on the site? Early astronomers, including the old dude who had to retract his book on the earth going round the sun or suffer excommunication by the RACK are turning over in their graves. The use of the glass rounds by Leawenhook to observe animicules was useless at the time. Oh PLEASE, get off of my planet.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisFracking is harmful when done incorrectly. I have a friend who is in the safety field and has some very bad horror stories from past mistakes. One of the big problems to why fracking is seen as such a problem is due to the sins of the past. In my area (the Northeast) natural gas is the rage. Well federal law never had the companies cap the areas they fracked in nothing was found. They merely were allowed to move to the next site and allow the chemicals to leach back into the the water supply. Well of course sometimes it took years but the final result was always bad, but not devastating.
Reply | Report Abuse | Link to thisI am not advocating fracking but the majority of horror stories are coming from a time with less restriction. I am by no means an expert but I know a lot of people who have natural gas wells on their property and nobody has any problems. In fact the one lady I am referring to has had the wells on her property for over 30 years and hasn't suffered anything from them. And she is on a well.
I do agree that companies seem to have a problem doing the right thing if they save a buck by ignoring what they should do. And yes, the chemicals are bad for the environment if brought to the surface but if done properly they will not harm the rocks they are used to fracture.
And now I await all the horrible posts by people who have read articles and have no first hand experience with anything I just said.