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Top Science Stories of 2004

Posted by michael on from the out-with-the-old dept.

borkbot writes "New Scientist has several round-ups of 2004. They include one for technology , space and biology . There's also an interesting peice about the most popular stories of the year."

5 of 85 comments (clear)

  1. Nature by jfonseca · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Well the biggest story this year has to do with Nature. Which I guess it's what science is all about.

    Speaking of which : here are some of the places you can help with donations.

    --
    Broken Hearts are for Assholes. - Frank Zappa
  2. Given that everybody loves the lightning gun... by human+bean · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I forsee an upswing in conductive clothing with insulated liners, and ground connections.

    --

    *whup* "Get along, little electrons. Heeyah!"

  3. Variable Speed of light by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

    6. Speed of light may have changed recently

    This story revealed that the speed of light, a sacrosanct universal physical constant, may have been lower as recently as two billion years ago - and not in some far corner of the universe, but right here on Earth.

    I can never understand it when they say the speed of light changes. As I understand it, the meter is currently defined as the distance taken by a certain number of oscillations of a certain frequency of light, i.e. the distance light travels in a certain number of seconds.

    So if the speed of light changes, the length of the meter changes, making the speed of light the same as it was before. Certainly you could say that the length of a meter changed, but you'd need to refer to some outside standard, and then it would be just as accurate to say the outside standard changed, instead of having the speed of light change.

  4. Black hole paradox by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I think cracking the black hole paradox should top the list. The reason is, this one will have a lot to do with how we try to understand and explore the universe in very long run. I am talking in the Assimovian context - like 10k years from now.

    But it's easy to consider sweeping stun guns more important. I wonder how many 'individuals' be part of a 'mob'

    -Anon C.

  5. Re:Missing Options by Tablizer · · Score: 1, Insightful

    I think a slashdot poll is in order so people have a proper place to complain about missing options ;)

    Behold, a new List: The top 10 discoveries excluded from top 10 lists. Hmmm, there seems something recursive about that.

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    Table-ized A.I.