Discover Magazine. Science, Technology and The Future
  • Log In
  • Subscribe
  • Give a Gift
  • Archives
  • Customer Service
  • Health & Medicine
  • Mind & Brain
  • Technology
  • Space
  • Human Origins
  • Living World
  • Environment
  • Physics & Math
  • Video
  • Photos
  • Podcast
  • RSS

Discover's Guide to the Top 100 Science Stories of 2003

From the January 2004 issue, published online January 14, 2004


Email Print Rss Increase - Decrease Font SizeIncrease - Decrease Font SizeIncrease - Decrease Font Size

1. SPACE: Columbia and the Year of Flight

2. PHYSICS: Probe Reveals Age, Composition, and Shape of the Cosmos

3. MEDICINE: SARS Storm Spurs Surprising Strategies

4. MEDICINE: Motherless Eggs Created in Lab

5. POLITICS: Bush vs. Science: Is the White House Credible?


advertisement | article continues below


6. ENVIRONMENT: The Great Apes Edge Toward Extinction

7. HUMAN ORIGINS: Our Genes May Prove It: We Are Family

8. MATHEMATICS: 2003: Mathematicians Face Uncertainty

9. PHYSICS: New Matter Detected at Japanese Accelerator

10. MEDICINE: Aspirin May Prevent Some Cancers

11. ASTRONOMY: Good News for Space Aliens

12. GENETICS: Y Chromosome Exposed

13. NEUROSCIENCE: Scientists See Yet Another Reason to Go to the Gym

14. GENETICS: How Babies Can Have Three Parents

15. PHYSICS: Sparks Fly From Fusion Reactor

16. GENETICS: Yeast Give Clues to Cancer Clock

17. ASTRONOMY: Gamma-Ray Burst Source Located

18. GENETICS: Genome Sequences Riddled With Errors

19. PHYSICS: Gravity Measured, or Not

20. MEDICINE: Stem Cells Reverse Paralysis in Rats

21. BIOLOGY: Veterinarian Finds Evolutionary Link Between Humans and Bacteria

22. ZOOLOGY: Oooh! That Hook Hurts

23. MEDICINE: Smoking: The News Just Gets Grimmer

24. ANTHROPOLOGY: Humans Find Chimp Eden

25. PHYSICS: Quantum Computing Makes a Giant Leap

26. MEDICINE: Mad Cow Disease Surfaces in Canada

27. POLITICS: Ties With Drug Companies Bias Biomedical Research

28. ENVIRONMENT: Bizarre Bacterium Dines on Toxic Waste

29. ASTRONOMY: Signs of Primordial Star Ignition Detected

30. ENVIRONMENT: Deadly Extremes: The Weather Outside Was Frightful

31. ENVIRONMENT: Global Warming Triggers Genetic Change in Red Squirrels

32. BIOLOGY: Scientists Play God, Creating New Life

33. POLITICS: Physicists Question Feasibility of an American Missile Shield

34. ENVIRONMENT: Extent of Great Whale Slaughter Worse Than Previously Thought

35. MEDICINE: Ovulation Parsed

36. MEDICINE: Estimates of Dioxin Use in Vietnam Doubled

37. TECHNOLOGY: Nanoparticles Pop Up Everywhere

38. ENVIRONMENT: Ocean Fish Populations Plummet

39. ANTHROPOLOGY: Baboon Surprise: Father Knows Best

40. ZOOLOGY: Dieting Mothers May Have Premature Babies

41. GENETICS: Human Embryo Experimentation Sparks Outcry

42. POLITICS: Terror Threats Prompt Scientists to Mull Self-Censorship

43. MEDICINE: Fast-Acting Ebola Vaccine Tested

44. ENVIRONMENT: China’s Three Gorges Dam Yokes the Unruly Yangtze

45. CHEMISTRY: Flame Retardants Show Up in Fish and Breast Milk

46. PSYCHOLOGY: Antidepressants Linked to Suicidal Thoughts in Kids

47. BIOLOGY: Bioloigists Reverse History

48. ARCHAEOLOGY: Alas, Babylon’s Ancient Treasures Disappear

49. PHYSICS: Physicists Find Suspected Flaw in Cosmic Symmetry

50. SPACE: China Joins the Man-in-Space Club

51. GEOLOGY: Ocean-Bottom Vents Hint That Life Began in Hot Water

52. ASTRONOMY: Presto! Space-Time Blurriness Vanishes

53. PHYSICS: Particles and Theory Collide

54. NEUROSCIENCE: Autism Linked to Excessive Early Brain Growth

55. POLITICS: Science Establishment Gives Belated Recognition to Women Researchers

56. ASTRONOMY: We Can See Clearly Now

57. MEDICINE: New Risks Emerge From Hormone Replacement Therapy

58. ANTHROPOLOGY: Orangutans Show Signs of Cultured Behavior

59. MEDICINE: Hormone Treatments May Prevent Premature Births

60. ASTRONOMY: Neptune Rocks Early Solar System

61. MEDICINE: Safety of Medical X-Rays Reassessed

62. GENETICS: Zoologists Announce Aging Surprise

63. ENVIRONMENT: Land Development Eyed as a Cause of Global Warming

64. TECHNOLOGY: Cell Phones Rival Alcohol as Driving Hazard

65. ZOOLOGY: The Lobster’s Compass

66. ASTRONOMY: Neutron Star Fizzles

67. GENETICS: Depression Gene Leads to Questions About Prozac

68. GEOLOGY: Periodic Table, 2.0

69. GENETICS: Biologists Reexamine Cause of the Black Death

70. ENVIRONMENT: Coral Killer Hitches a Ride in a Firestorm

71. NEUROSCIENCE: Meditation Apparently Activates Positive Areas Within the Brain

72. MEDICINE: Long-Life Compound Found in Red Wines

73. GENETICS: Bygone Bull Birthed From Frozen DNA

74. ZOOLOGY: Songbirds Use More Energy at Rest Than Aloft

75. HUMAN ORIGINS: This Very Old American House Sheltered Prehistoric Nomads

76. GENETICS: Good Runners Have Good Proteins

77. GENETICS: Horse Racing May Never Be the Same

78. ZOOLOGY: Monarch Butterflies Bounce Back From Winter Disaster in 2002

79. ENVIRONMENT: Condors Die, Condors Fly

80. MEDICINE: Tea Jump-Starts Immune System

81. GEOLOGY: How Everest Came Out on Top

82. ASTRONOMY: Plasma Devils Brighten the Sun

83. PALEONTOLOGY: Prehistoric Guinea Pig Weighed Nearly a Ton

84. ARCHAE0LOGY: Knotted Strings Hold Incan Secrets

85. GEOLOGY: Earthquake Alert: Buying a Few Precious Seconds

86. ENVIRONMENT: Global Warming Disrupts Life Near the Equator

87. BOTANY: Foresters Find World’s Largest Organism, a Humongous Fungus

88. HUMAN ORIGINS: Land Bridge Theory Tested

89. MEDICINE: Too Much Water Can Prove Fatal to Athletes

90. MEDICINE: First Tongue Transplant Patient Regains Ability to Eat and Speak

91. ENVIRONMENT: Revival Project Launched in Desiccated Aral Sea

92. GENETICS: Decaffing Bean Genes

93. PALEONTOLOGY: Regal Kin of T. rex Turns Up in India

94. ARCHAEOLOGY: Ancient Aboriginal Art Discovered in Secret Cave

95. ARCHAEOLOGY: Cold War Spy Photos Reveal Bronze Age Roads

96. ARCHAEOLOGY: Donner Party Cannibalism Site Unearthed

97. MEDICINE: First U.S. Monkeypox Cases Crop Up in the Midwest

98. ARCHAEOLOGY: Ice Age Cave Art Unveiled in Britain

99. NEUROSCIENCE: Chronic Stress Triggers Overeating

100. HUMAN ORIGINS: Ötzi’s Boots Were Made for Walking

Latest News Blogs Most Popular
  • bullet Discover Interview: Roger Penrose Says Physics Is Wrong, From String Theory to Quantum Mechanics
  • bullet Will Our Universe Collide With a Neighboring One?
  • bullet If an Electron Can Be in Two Places at Once, Why Can't You?
  • bullet A Modest Proposal: How to Stop Aging Entirely
  • bullet High-Flying Windmills Blow Away Their Ground-Based Cousins
  • bullet Brain-Like Chip May Solve Computers' Big Problem: Energy
  • bullet 17. Is Pollution Weeding Out Male Babies?
  • bullet Eye Color Explained
  • bullet 96. And Here's Why You Have an Appendix:
  • bullet Intelligent Design's 8 Biggest Fails
  • bullet Health Care Passes In The House
  • bullet One Sick Puppy
  • bullet The Last Thing The Mosquitofish Saw
  • bullet Why Truth Loses
  • bullet Carl Sagan Day live stream!
  • bullet Weekly News Roundup: Hairless Bears, Narcoleptic Meerkats
  • bullet Reminder: Carl Sagan Day
  • bullet Can an iPhone App Decipher Your Baby’s Cries?
  • bullet Alternative Landscapes
  • bullet You Can’t Make This Stuff Up
  • bullet Are There Pesticides in Your Soup? Dunk a Pollution Dipstick to Find Out.
  • bullet Ripped From the Journals: The Biggest Discoveries of the Week
  • bullet Mother Tongue, Indeed: Newborn’s Cries Mimic Mama’s Accent
  • bullet Can Your Pet Catch & Spread Swine Flu? Yes, If Your Pet’s a Ferret
  • bullet Neutered HIV Virus Delivers Treatment to Fatally Ill Boys
  • bullet Toddler Gets a Telescoping, Prosthetic Arm Bone That Grows With Him
  • bullet A Baby Neutron Star, Swaddled in a Carbon Atmosphere
  • bullet Laser-Powered Robot Climbs to Victory in the Space-Elevator Contest
  • bullet The Secret Lives and Loves of Great White Sharks
  • bullet In Controversial Scent Lineups, a Dog’s Nose Picks Out the Perp
Discover on Twitter
Vote: Evolution in Two Minutes or Less
The Road to The New Energy Economy
 








(U.S. orders only) DISCOVER is published monthly except two double issues which count as two each. Savings based on a $29.95 annual subscription rate.

Privacy - Terms - Customer Service - Subscribe Today - Advertise - About Us