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Galleries / The 100 Top Science Stories of 2010

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published December 16, 2010

Every year DISCOVER sorts through the scientific accomplishments of the past 12 months, and assembles a list of the coolest experiments, most brilliant discoveries, and most world-changing events. As you page through the countdown to the #1 science story, we think you'll come to the same conclusion we did: 2010 was quite a year. <br /><br />Click any headline to go to the full article. <br /> <h1>100 to 91</h1> 100. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/100" target="_blank">A Portrait of a Violent Star</a> (pictured): NASA's new Solar Dynamics Observatory takes ultraviolet images of the sun. <br />99. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/99" target="_blank">Sex Secrets of the Bi-Gender Chicken</a>: These bizarre gynandromorphic birds are bizarre on the cellular level, too. <br />98. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/98" target="_blank">The Roaming Rocks of Death Valley</a>: How do these boulders go wandering?<br />97. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/97" target="_blank">Science Explains Why Breaking Up Is Hard to Do</a>: Here's what you learn when you look at the brain scans of people who have been dumped. <br />96. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/96" target="_blank">Male Piperfish Pick Their Litters</a>: The males of this species nurture the fertilized eggs and bear the young, but they seem to play favorites. <br />95. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/95" target="_blank">Rubik's Cube Decoded</a>: What's the maximum number of moves it takes to solve a scrambled cube? <br />94. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/94" target="_blank">Natural Cycle Melts Alpine Glaciers</a>: While human-induced climate change accounts for at least half of the retreat of Alpine glaciers, natural shifts in ocean currents are also to blame. <br />93. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/93" target="_blank">A Green City Rises in the Desert</a>: In Abu Dhabi, an ultragreen city is taking shape.<br />92. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/92" target="_blank">Sharks Use Math to Hunt</a>: These ocean predators know a little something about fractals. <br />91. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/91" target="_blank">Sun-Powered Plane Takes a 24-Hour Flight</a>: The <em>Solar Impulse</em> flew through a day and a night without using a drop of fuel. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/91" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<h1>90 to 81</h1> 90. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/90" target="_blank">Slick Materials Could Lead to Super Electronics</a>: Scientists experiment with intriguing materials that shuttle electrons along their surfaces.<br />89. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/89" target="_blank">Chinese Pompeii Unearthed</a> (pictured): Archaeologists find an immaculately preserved village beneath layers of flood sediments.<br />88. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/88" target="_blank">Same-Sex Parents Do No Harm</a>: A long-term study that followed children raised by lesbians finds they score higher on academic tests and have fewer social problems. <br />87. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/87" target="_blank">A Superfast Magnetic Shift</a>: The Earth's poles trade places every few hundred thousand years--and the process may be abrupt. <br />86. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/86" target="_blank">Bowerbirds Use Illusion to Seduce Mates</a>: Learn the interior decorating tricks of the male bowerbird.<br />85. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/85" target="_blank">Robot Skin Can Feel Your Touch</a>: In tests of one electronic skin, the material detects objects as light as a butterfly.<br />84. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/84" target="_blank">A Better Yardstick for Killer Waves</a>: Researchers are working to predict the exact scale of an oncoming tsunami by determining how much water has been displaced. <br />83. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/83" target="_blank">Mammoth Star Is the Biggest One Ever Seen</a>: How did this heavyweight star get so massive? <br />82. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/82" target="_blank">Scientists Tap the Wisdom of Crowds</a>: Whether you want to establish the structure of proteins or survey galaxies, there's a way to help science. <br />81. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/81" target="_blank">Melting Ice Exposes Ancient Artifacts</a>: The retreat of glaciers around the world pays an unexpected archaeological dividend.<br />
<h1>80 to 71</h1> 80. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/80" target="_blank">Magnets Can Change Your Moral Values</a>: Stimulating subjects' brains with a magnetic field yields some surprising judgment calls. <br />79. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/79" target="_blank">A Stunning Portrait of Saturn's Moons</a>: Titan looms in the background, while Enceladus's jets sparkle in the sun. <br />78. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/78" target="_blank">Good Listeners Get Inside Your Head</a>: How the fMRI brain scans of listeners and storytellers match up. <br />77. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/77" target="_blank">Wired Bees Do Field Research</a> (pictured): Thanks to this handy transmitter backpack, researchers can track bees' flights and foraging habits. <br />76. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/76" target="_blank">What Lies Beyond the Visible Edge of the Universe?</a> Astrophysicists detect a mysterious "dark flow" of galaxies towards something beyond the edge of what we can see.<br />75. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/75" target="_blank">Social Life Begins in the Womb</a>: Ultrasound monitoring suggests that twins in utero interact with each other.<br />74. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/74" target="_blank">New Species: Found Today, Lost Tomorrow</a>. These newfound critters are already teetering on the brink of extinction. <br />73. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/73" target="_blank">Interview with Robert Bigelow</a>: The hotel entrepreneur talks about building a private fleet of space taxis.<br />72. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/72" target="_blank">Stone-Age Romeos and Juliets</a>: Did Neanderthals and modern humans find love with each other? <br />71. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/71" target="_blank">Fossil Prints Rewrite History</a>: Ancient tracks in the mud are adding to our understanding of key evolutionary transitions. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/71" target="_blank"><br /></a>
<h1>70 to 61</h1> 70. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/70" target="_blank">The Proton Gets Small(er)</a>: Do we have more to learn about this much-studied subatomic particle?<br />69. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/69" target="_blank">Is Life's Chemistry Cooking on Titan?</a> A experiment that mimics the atmosphere of the Saturnian moon produces interesting results. <br />68. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/68" target="_blank">Emotions Survive After Memories Vanish</a>: Studying amnesiacs suggest that memories and emotions are stored separately in the brain. <br />67. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/67" target="_blank">Marine Census Completes Its Count</a>: Want to know the estimated number of species in the world's oceans?<br />66. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/66" target="_blank">Synthetic Lung Takes a Breath</a>: This lung-on-a-chip could one day replace animal testing. <br />65. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/65" target="_blank">Animals Survive Without Oxygen</a>: In salty, oxygen-depleted water at the bottom of the Mediterranean, life finds a way. <br />64. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/64" target="_blank">What Color Was This Dinosaur?</a> (pictured): Researchers recognize color-bearing structures on a dinosaur's fossilized hair-like bristles. <br />63. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/63" target="_blank">Ghost Particles Shakes Physics</a>: Elusive particles known as neutrinos are caught in the act of doing something very strange. <br />62. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/62" target="_blank">Glia: Your Under-Appreciated Brain Cells</a>. They were once considered merely neural scaffolding, but not anymore. <br />61. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/61" target="_blank">Rivers at Risk Worldwide</a>: A new map shows where pollution, dams, and urbanization are jeopardizing the water supply.<br />
<h1>60 to 51</h1> 60. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/60" target="_blank">Fighting Crime With Mathematics</a>: By analyzing crime hot spots, police can better calibrate their response. <br />59. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/59" target="_blank">Are There Active Volcanoes on Venus?</a> (pictured): Our sister planet could be alive and ready to rumble. <br />58. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/58" target="_blank">The 13 Faces of Lyme Disease</a>: Sequencing the genomes of different strains of the Lyme bacterium is providing insight into the disease's baffling range of symptoms. <br />57. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/57" target="_blank">Interview with Hank Greely</a>: The bioethicist speaks out on the promise and peril of personal genome tests. <br />56. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/56" target="_blank">Plastic Antibodies Cure Infected Mice</a>: Can artificial antibodies fight real diseases?<br />55. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/55" target="_blank">The First Peek at the Solar System's Edge</a>: A new NASA observatory is staring out at the edge of our home system. <br />54. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/54" target="_blank">Airplanes Pull Snow From the Clouds</a>: How a plane can act like a hole-punch. <br />53. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/53" target="_blank">The Medical Secrets Inside a 2,000-Year-Old Pill</a>: An ancient Greek shipwreck contains a really old medicine chest. <br />52. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/52" target="_blank">Large Hadron Collider Gets Going With a Bang</a>: This year, the LHC started smashing protons together at 99 percent the speed of light.<br />51. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/51" target="_blank">A Computer Rosetta Stone</a>: Researchers find a high-tech way to decipher ancient, forgotten languages.
<h1>50 to 41</h1> 50. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/50" target="_blank">Giant Ancient Fish Fed Like Whales</a>: These filter-feeders thrived for more than 100 million years. <br />49. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/49" target="_blank">Why Swine Flu Fizzled</a>: H1N1 changed as it spread--but we may not have seen the last of it.<br />48. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/48" target="_blank">The Science of Chivalry</a>: Studies of the <em>Titanic</em> and <em>Lusitania</em> shipwrecks shed light on "women and children first."<br />47. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/47" target="_blank">An Early Dawn for Earth's Complex Life</a>: Did multicellular organisms get their start 2.1 billion years ago?<br />46. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/46" target="_blank">Do Physical Laws Vary From Place to Place?</a> A surprising finding casts doubt on our understanding of the constants of nature.<br />45. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/45" target="_blank">The Pinkie Pokes Holes in Human Evolution</a>: Even the littlest bone can change the story of human origins. <br />44. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/44" target="_blank"><em></em>A Prehistoric Moby-Dick</a>: Meet <em>Livyatan Melvillei</em>, a toothy 12-million-year-old sperm whale.<br />43. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/43" target="_blank">Plasma Rivers Explain the Quiet Sun</a>: Researchers have been looking for an explanation for a recent lull in sunspots and flares. <br />42. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/42" target="_blank">X Prize Shows the Easy Path to a 100-MPG Car</a>: It doesn't require wild new technology to reach super-efficiency. <br />41. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/41" target="_blank">Scans Unlock Hidden Life in Vegetative Brains</a> (pictured): A man believed to be in a vegetative state communicates with doctors using only his thoughts. <br />
<h1>40 to 31</h1> 40. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/40" target="_blank">Wild Winds Made Gorgeous Mars Gorges</a>: The ice cap of Mars's north pole was sculpted over millions of years.<br />39. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/39" target="_blank">Microbes Are the Key to a Happy Gut</a>: Each person's unique ecosystem of gut microbes plays a vital role in good health. <br />38. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/38" target="_blank">Sinkhole Eats Guatemala City</a>: Well, it didn't devour the entire city, but it did take down a clothing factory. <br />37. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/37" target="_blank">CIA Doctors Did Forbidden Research</a>: A report states that doctors went too far with prisoners after the 9/11 attacks.<br />36. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/36" target="_blank">Astronomers Catch an Asteroid Smashup</a>: An X-shaped tail provides direct evidence of a space collision.<br />35. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/35" target="_blank">Haitian Quake Signals Future Shocks</a>: Is the Caribbean in for more serious shakes?<br />34. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/34" target="_blank">Our Jumbled Ancestor</a> (pictured): With a braincase and limb bones that don't look like they're from the same species, this fossil poses an evolutionary riddle.<br />33. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/33" target="_blank">Science Saves the Chilean Miners</a>: The dramatic rescue was a triumph of engineering and psychology. <br />32. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/32" target="_blank">Sleep Switch Found in the Brain</a>: The chemical trigger that lets us nod off may not work on the whole brain at once. <br />31. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/31" target="_blank">Autism: One Label, Many Diseases</a>. A study of more than 1,000 autistic children reveals daunting diversity in their genetic variations. <br />
<h1>30 to 21</h1> 30. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/30" target="_blank">Ocean Plant Life Feels the Heat</a>: The ocean's vital phytoplankton are in the midst of a long decline. <br />29. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/29" target="_blank">"Ardi" Continues to Shake the Human Family Tree</a>: This fossil female created a huge stir when discovered, but some scientists question its significance to human evolution. <br />28. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/28" target="_blank">The Incredible Shrinking Moon</a>: Researchers find signs of a lunar lessening.<br />27. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/27" target="_blank">Egg Recall Rattles the Food Supply</a>: After 500 million eggs are recalled, what happens next?<br />26. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/26" target="_blank">How Matter Defeated Antimatter</a> (pictured): The Tevatron particle smasher offers hints on the universe's beneficial bias towards matter. <br />25. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/25" target="_blank">Interview with Steven Chu</a>: Our Secretary of Energy speaks up on getting to a green-energy future.<br />24. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/24" target="_blank">Space Ship Sails on a Breeze of Sunshine</a>: The first journey of a solar sail spacecraft is a success!<br />23. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/23" target="_blank">Comets Are Interstellar Visitors</a>: The solar system's Oort cloud, where comets are born, may be full of immigrants from other stars. <br />22. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/22" target="_blank">Hair DNA Documents a Forgotten Migration</a>: You can learn a lot from 4,000-year-old hair.<br />21. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/21" target="_blank">MRI Scans Track Brain Development</a>: In six minutes, a scan can reveal if a child's brain is developing normally.<br />
<h1>20 to 11</h1> 20. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/20" target="_blank">AIDS Virus Has an Ancient History</a> (pictured): SIV, the virus that spawned HIV, was present in primates for at least 32,000 years. <br />19. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/19" target="_blank">Ocean Ooze Teems With Life</a>: Do bacteria in the ocean floor's muck have a relay system to get the oxygen they need?<br />18. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/18" target="_blank">Helper Gene Makes Cancer Deadly</a>: Researchers idenify a gene they dub "Mahjong" that determine whether cancerous cells get the upper hand. <br />17. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/17" target="_blank">New Hope for the World's Forests</a>: Here's some good news: in the last decade, forest loss has slowed worldwide. <br />16. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/16" target="_blank">Google Whacked by Hack Attack</a>: All signs point to China as the source of a malicious hack. <br />15. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/15" target="_blank">A Universal Vaccine Could Eliminate Flu</a>: By targeting a protein found on the surface of all flu virus strains, an experimental vaccine could take the guesswork out of flu prevention.<br />14. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/14" target="_blank">Super-Material Gets Supersized</a>: If engineers can produce sheets of graphene (made up of a single layer of atoms), what will they do with it?<br />13. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/13" target="_blank">Bats Devastated by Deadly Plague</a>: White-nose fungus is wiping out bat colonies around the United States--and scientists don't know how to stop it. <br />12. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/12" target="_blank">Brain Map Shows You Think Like a Worm</a>: Your cerebral cortex isn't so different from the clump of neurons in a marine ragworm.<br />11. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/11" target="_blank">Interview with Geoff Marcy</a>: The astronomer is leading the hunt for Earth-sized, life-friendly exoplanets. <br />
<h1>10 to 1</h1> 10. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/10" target="_blank">Early Diagnosis for Alzheimer's</a>: If we can detect the disease early, maybe we can treat it more effectively.<br />9. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/09" target="_blank">The World's First Cyberweapon</a>: The Stuxnet worm is the first cyberweapon to cause damage in the physical world--and Iran's nuclear facilities may have been its target. <br />8. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/08" target="_blank">Obesity Reaches Epic Proportions</a>: With U.S. obesity rates still rising, public health officials and pharmaceutical companies are searching for new ways to prevent or treat the epidemic. <br />7. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/07" target="_blank">The Map of Everything</a>: Astronomers use the new Planck space telescope to make a map of the entire infant universe.<br />6. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/06" target="_blank">Attack of the Bedbugs!</a> These nastly little biters are now infesting movie theaters, department stores, and motels. <br />5. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/05" target="_blank">Family Genomics Links DNA to Disease</a>: Thanks to cheaper genome sequencing, researchers can compare family members' genomes to find disease-causing mutations.<br />4. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/04" target="_blank">Climate Science's Big Chill</a>: Climate change scientists spend the year on the defensive, and climate policy stalls.<br />3. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/03" target="_blank">Interview with E.O. Wilson</a>: The evolutionary scholar is overturning his own trailblazing theories.<br />2. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/02" target="_blank">The World's First Synthetic Organism</a>: Craig Venter hopes to one day fashion designer organisms that can produce drugs or churn out biofuel. <br />1. <a href="http://discovermagazine.com/2011/jan-feb/01" target="_blank">4.4 Million Barrels Later</a> (pictured): The Deepwater Horizon disaster gushed oil into the Gulf of Mexico for 86 days. What are the consequences for our energy supply? <br />

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