From the development of new vaccines to hitting climate tipping points, there were as many reasons to celebrate as there were to commiserate this year.
But what about the stories that tickled, shocked and completely flummoxed us? Here are our favourites from the last 12 months.
1. Hippos can fly
Hippos, it turns out, spend more time in the air than we thought. Researchers have found that they run so fast they can become airborne for as much as 15 per cent of their stride cycle (their pattern of steps). That’s about 0.3 seconds.
2. Pooping frequency is a key health indicator
Goldilocks would be thrilled with this year’s news that researchers calculated how much poop is just right. When it comes to your long-term health, the ‘Goldilocks zone’ is one or two bowel movements a day. That should stave off chronic disease risk and kidney damage.
3. A strange UFO is hurtling through space
Something between the size of a planet and a star was spotted zooming through space at 1.6 million km/h (1 million mph) this year, so fast that it could exit the Milky Way entirely. Scientists have named it CWISE J1249 and are still trying to work out what it is.
4. Pompeii victims are not who we thought they were
DNA evidence revealed new information about victims of Mount Vesuvius’s major eruption in 79 AD (above). They found that not only was a ‘family’ of four not genetically related at all, but the person assumed to be a mother holding her child was actually a man with an unrelated baby.
5. Skin for robots
A living skin for robots, made from human cells, may be a step towards making robots more durable, but the results were… creepy. Next, scientists want to pump them full of blood… to stop the skin from drying out and peeling away.
6. Killer Whales vs Great Whites
For the first time, scientists witnessed and recorded a killer whale attack and kill a 2.5m (8.2ft) great white to devour its nutrient-rich liver. Later, the scientists found the carcass of another, bigger shark that had also been disembowelled on a nearby beach.
7. A 'zombie' cannibal star was discovered
A telltale scar revealed the gruesome history of a white dwarf star that cannibalised the astronomical bodies that developed around it. “Nothing like this has been seen before,” said Prof John Landstreet, a co-author of the study that revealed the discovery of the scar on the dead star’s surface.
Magnetic fields are to blame for funnelling material from the planets and asteroids the dead star devoured towards its poles and creating the scar (illustrated below).
8. New Loki dinosaur
Researchers named a newly found, elephant-sized dinosaur with curved, blade-like horns Lokiceratops rangiformis, after Loki, the knife-wielding Norse god. The dinosaur probably used these defensively against tyrannosaur species, given it was a vegetarian.
9. New cat colour
A new, and rare, cat colour was discovered this year (below). With individual hairs that change from being black at the root to appearing white at the tip, it’s been named ‘salty liquorice’ after Finland’s favourite snack.
10. Megalodon research community at war
A new study claimed that the ancient shark species megalodon may have been long and slender, instead of the chunky beast depicted by Hollywood. But other research reached a different conclusion, estimating the Meg was even bigger than we thought. Shape and size aside, it’s still unclear whether Jason Statham could beat it in a fight.
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