Every year, DISCOVER digs through reams of newspapers and gigabytes of Web sites to find the 100 most important and interesting science stories of the year. Here is the latest installment, chronicling everything from alien planets (#45) to "yeti" crabs (#86). You can alternatively browse through the stories by subject. Medicine and space are particularly packed, with each field placing 13 stories onto the list.
Also check out the results of our year-in-science poll, in which readers chose Pluto Demoted as the biggest story of the year.
100 Saturn Sunburst
The Cassini spacecraft captured an extraordinary backlit image of Saturn and its gossamer rings...
99 Element 118 Debuts On the Periodic Table
Chemists will soon have to make room on the periodic table for a new element discovered in October...
98 Fat Vaccine Works in Rats
In August, immunologist Kim Janda grabbed headlines with reports of a vaccine against obesity...
97 DNA Boosts Panda Count
DNA analysis of panda feces suggests there may be twice as many pandas as was previously thought...
96 Strange Swirls Spotted at Venus's Pole
Venus is Earth's near-twin in size and mass, yet bafflingly different in other particulars...
95 Machines Learn How to Feel
Engineers reported that they had developed a way to give robots a sense of touch...
94 Tough Times for Tyrannosaur Teens
Life was rough for teen tyrannosaurs, according to paleontologist Gregory Erickson...
93 Renegade Planet Pair Defy Explanation
A pair of celestial objects circling one another have fed a growing debate over the dividing line between planets and stars...
92 Capacitors Could Replace Batteries
Ultracapacitors could give electric cars new life...
91 Cancer Morphs Into New Life-Form
Robin Weiss has turned up clues about the origin of sexually transmitted cancer in dogs...
90 Drillers Tap into Foundation of Earth's Crust
Geologists successfully drilled into the bottom layer of the ocean's crust for the first time...
89 Laser-Emitting Chips Promise Ultrafast Computers
Researchers announced they had found a promising way to accelerate computer chips to the speed of light...
88 Super-Ants Fly by Force of Mouth
Super-ants fly by biting against the ground so hard that they shoot themselves into the air...
87 Light Moves in Reverse
Physicists at the University of Rochester have coaxed light into traveling backward...
86 A Yeti Crab Discovered
A furry-looking crustacean discovered on the floor of the South Pacific Ocean at a depth of 6,500 feet...
85 Dodo's Lost World Resurrected
While a few dodo bones and one skeleton remain in museums, they aren't enough to tell biologists exactly why or how the birds went extinct...
84 Did Figs Beget Agriculture?
New research has pegged the fig as the first crop...
83 Nano Electrode Wires Neurons
Researchers announced the creation of a device that can connect to an individual neuron...
82 Secret Lakes Lie Under Polar Ice
Scientists have found evidence of subglacial lakes and rivers far under the surface of Antarctica...
81 Tut Jewel Formed By Asteroid Impact
The central jewel in King Tutankhamen's pectoral gear may have been literally out of this world...
80 New Monkey Genus Found in Tanzania
Biologists added a new branch to our primate family tree this year...
79 Worm Lives Without Guts
Over the course of evolution, a bizarre little worm appears to have lost its mouth, guts, and excretory organs...
78 Mongolian Ice Yields Scythian Mummy
Last summer researchers recovered a 2,200-year-old Scythian mummy from permafrost...
77 First Tree Genome Sequenced
A team determined that the black cottonwood has 45,000 genes, roughly twice the number of genes that humans have...
76 Old Beads Hint at Dawn Of Culture
Grape-size shell beads dated between 100,000 and 135,000 years old are the world's oldest known jewelry...
75 Astro-Hotel Launched
Bigelow Aerospace last July launched Genesis 1, the first inflatable space station...
74 Cochlea's Spiral Plays Surprising Role in Hearing
Deep inside your ear, the spiral-shaped cochlea helps translate reverberations into neurological signals...
73 Electrical Signals Help Direct Wound Healing
Min Zhao announced that electricity is the dominant factor in wound healing...
72 Source of Empathy Found
Mirror neurons fire when you watch other people act...
71 Anti-Repulsion Discovered
This year physicists forced atoms to be bound by their mutual repulsion...
70 Stroke Injury Shows New Way to Kick the Habit
The brain damage caused by certain strokes may eliminate an addiction to nicotine...
69 Weed's Weapon Revealed
Garlic mustard's weapon is a chemical that kills soil fungi...
68 Moss Sex Points To Precursor of Pollination
Arthropods may act as go-betweens for moss procreation...
67 Complex Organic Molecules Formed in Outer Space
Astronomers have identified eight new complex molecules in space...
66 Hobbit Wars Heat Up
Evidence from 2006 has sharpened speculation about humanlike bones discovered in an Indonesian cave...
65 Gay Influence Found
Older brothers lead to more homosexual younger brothers...
64 HIV Precursor Found in the Wild
A team detected antibodies against the HIV-1 precursor in the scat of wild chimps...
63 Chemistry Turns Straw Into Black Gold
Researchers announced a technique for converting almost any source of carbon into synthetic diesel and gas...
62 Biodiversity Aids Productivity
Biological diversity helps make ecosystems stable and productive...
61 Ancient Rain Settles Sierra's Age
Geologists settled a dispute over the age of the Sierra Nevada range by studying gravel that was soaked with ancient rainwater...
60 Polio's Return Traced to Lapses in India
A 39-year-old man in Namibia tested positive for poliovirus, marking the country's first case in 10 years...
59 Fossilized Frog Marrow Found
Researchers in Madrid reported the first example of fossilized bone marrow...
58 Why We Are Not Chimps
Humans and chimpanzees are about 98 percent alike, yet the human brain is three times bigger and far more complex...
57 Microbes Rule Marine Biodiversity
Fill a one-liter bottle with seawater and you'll have gathered at least 25,000 different types of bacteria...
56 Comet Dust Records Solar System Chaos
One-third of a milligram of dust from comet Wild 2 landed on Earth last January...
55 New Mouse Organ Found
An immunologist at the University of Ulm in Germany reported that mice have two thymus organs...
54 Peruvian Dig Uncovers First Western Observatory
The Temple of the Fox, located in the Chillón Valley in Peru, probably served as a rough farmers' almanac...
53 Low-Fat Diet A Bust?
Cutting fat from the diet doesn't significantly reduce the incidence of breast or colorectal cancer, heart disease, or stroke...
52 Storms May Be Getting Worse
Is global warming leading to more extreme weather?
51 Ice Volcanoes Seen On Saturnian Moon
NASA's Cassini probe showed a geyser shooting jets of water and fine icy particles hundreds of miles into space...
