All products featured on WIRED are independently selected by our editors. However, we may receive compensation from retailers and/or from purchases of products through these links.
It's been a good year for science. 2014 has yielded discoveries across almost every field of research, from the origins of life on Earth to the far future of our species. In no particular order, here are ten of the most important scientific breakthroughs of the last twelve months.
The Earth's water didn't come from comets The biggest science news of the year was undeniably the landing of the Philae probe on the comet 67P/Churyumov-Gerasimenko.
Its parent craft, Rosetta, had been circling the comet for a few months beforehand and during that time took some measurements of its water content. The team found that comet water has a totally different chemical makeup to our own, suggesting that the Earth's oceans are more likely to have originated from asteroids instead.
Hydrogen fuel is getting more viable In September, chemists at Glasgow made a breakthrough in their attempts to create hydrogen fuel from water. The team was able to store the gas in a carbon-free liquid, acting like a sponge, until needed. The method allows the gas, which could one day replace petroleum in cars, to be produced cleanly, cheaply and over 30 times faster than previous approaches -- paving the way for a revolution in renewable energy.
Richard III's body was identified When a battle-worn skeleton was dug up below a Leicester car park in 2012 there were claims that the body of Britain's notorious Richard III had been found, but historians weren't sure until the results of a DNA analysis came through this year. Those results proved beyond any reasonable doubt that the skeleton was the former king's remains, and exposed a little royal adultery on the side.
The first footage of a Black Sea Devil The saying goes that we know more about the surface of Mars than the depths of the Earth's oceans, but we're making great strides on both fronts. In November, deep-sea ecologists used an underwater drone to not only film a Black Sea Devil anglerfish for the first time, but capture it alive and bring it up to the surface. The results should shed some light on the enigmatic species.
Where the 2014 ebola outbreak began Until this year, ebola was merely an interesting footnote for anyone studying tropical diseases. Now it's a global health disaster. But the epidemic started at a single point with one human-animal interaction -- an interaction which has now been pinpointed using genetic research. A total of 50 authors contributed to the paper announcing the discovery, including five who died of the disease before it could be published.
Earth is not the only member of the solar system with oceans Saturn's moon Enceladus has long been suspected of harbouring a liquid ocean below its icy surface. But that suspicion was confirmed this year by a team of astrophysicists who carefully examined the orbit of Nasa's Cassini probe over several years.
Interestingly the ocean only appears to cover the southern hemisphere of the moon -- not the whole surface.
The Amazon was once full of people In the centuries following Christopher Columbus' voyage across the Atlantic, the Amazon rainforest has been characterised as mostly uninhabited. But in recent decades it's become clear that the region had previously been dotted with ancient towns and cities. This year, archaeologists reported that more than three percent of the Amazon basin contains "terra preta" -- soil fertilised by humans in large-scale farms that supported a vast population.
The best map yet of our place in the Universe We know that Earth is in the solar system, which is in the Milky Way galaxy, which is in a much bigger supercluster of galaxies. But this year researchers built up a map of that supercluster -- naming it Laniakea. The structure is far bigger than previously estimated, stretching more than 500 light years and containing 100,000 galaxies. Each of those galaxies has trillions of stars, each with their own solar systems.
Depending on how you look at it, you'll feel either incredibly insignificant or the most important thing in the Universe.
HIV infection can be totally blocked in monkeys In 2005 2.3 million people died of AIDS-related causes, but that figure has been falling steadily since due to expanded access to antiretroviral therapy and lower incidence of infection.
In 2013, the death rate had fallen to 1.5 million -- albeit still a vast number of people. This year, doctors discovered a vaccine that totally blocks infection altogether in the monkey equivalent of the disease -- a breakthrough that is now being studied to see if it works in humans.
DNA can survive entry into the Earth's atmosphere Since the start of the space program, it's been assumed that the hostile vacuum of space would sterilise the outside of any rocket leaving Earth, preventing contamination of other worlds. But when molecular biologists squirted DNA samples on the outside of a sounding rocket, they were
surprised to find as much as a third of it alive and well after it had undergone a 13-minute trip into low Earth orbit. It's only a starting point, and there's no suggestion yet that DNA could survive longer trips to other planets, but it raises questions over how life originally arrived on Earth.
That's our list. How about you? Share your favourite scientific discoveries of 2014 with other readers in the comments section below.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
