This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American
Scienceline, the website of the science writing students at NYU, now has a whole new editorial board and contributors - the previous generation has graduated and the new generation now has the reins and has started posting their first posts. Over the holidays, they posted a whole series of Top Ten and end-of-year lists that are in many ways different from the lists published in other places.... so check them out:
2011: A year of contradictions: Scienceline takes a look back at some of the best contradicting science stories of 2011, by Benjamin Plackett:
Like alcohol it seems, coffee may or may not cause cancer...
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Better luck next year: 2011 didn’t deliver on these eight predictions, by Laura Geggel and Ashley Taylor:
When it comes to predicting the future, weather forecasters, stock market traders and even the Oracles at Delphi have had a hard time foreseeing beyond the present. This year was no different, with doomsayers, physicists and amateur astronomers making predictions that fell flat. Here is a roundup of eight predictions that did not come true in 2011...
Questions you never thought to ask: Scienceline brings you the best obscure science stories from 2011, by Kate Yandell and Jonathan Chang:
The closer you look at the world, the stranger and more interesting it becomes. 2011 was no exception. The following stories come from people who dedicated themselves to obscure topics — from how to survive as an incompetent carnivorous plant to what makes a queen bee a queen. Their discoveries make great holiday party conversation starters — but consider finishing eating before sharing some of them...
The Indiana Jones’ of 2011: A selection of the craziest places that scientists are sciencing, by Emma Bryce:
Scientists in submarines! They had to be somewhere...
Under the lab coat:The top sex stories of 2011, by Susan E. Matthews:
If my mother is right, every year the world gets a little bit more sexually explicit — from movies to advertisements to politics to, well, even sometimes science. And while this perspective may be a combined result of time passing and my dear mother getting, well, older, we can’t deny that some of the top stories of 2011 have been rather sexually entangled. Well, isn’t that what makes the world go round? Here’s a look at some of the top sex-related stories of 2011...
I hear they are not done yet - there may be more lists still to come, so check Scienceline again over the next few days.
Update: Here are a couple more:
Not your average visit to the zoo: The wackiest animal news from 2011 by Justine E. Hausheer and Kelly Slivka:
Squids Will Be Squids, When Rhinoceros Fly, Cyclops Shark, and more.
Apocalypse 2012: What's left on our science to-do list before the Mayan doomsday arrives by Kathryn Doyle:
As we all know, the Mayans predicted the end of the world down to the very precise date of December 21, 2012.* Naysayers beware! A John Cusack movie cannot be disputed. So this New Year’s celebration is, in fact, our last, a thought both ominous and heartening. This should surely make our kazoo-ing and confetti-ing more mindful as the ball starts to drop. What do we have left to accomplish in only a year? Here are my top ten learned predictions for the final year of science.