It was a good year for Wired Science, and we have our readers to thank for that. So, for the dual purposes of thanking you and patting ourselves on the back, here is a list of our most read stories of 2008 (and a couple we think should have been).
Working with simple membranes and proteins, Harvard Medical School researcher Jack Szostak is closing in on creating a new form of life that might resemble the earliest life on earth. It was probably a combination of the frightening idea of scientists creating new life forms, and a fascination with how life evolved on Earth that landed this story at the top of the list.
2) Key Molecule for Life Found in Habitable Region of the Galaxy
It was the unconditional love that Wired Science readers have for extraterrestrial life that boosted this story to just shy of first place. In November, scientists discovered glycolaldehyde, a sugar molecule considered critical for life, in an area of the galaxy calm enough for planet formation.
We piggy-backed on Usain Bolt's electrifying speed with this post, which broke down the biomechanical limits of human runners and delved into the possibility that Bolt (or someone like him) could go even faster.
Animals are always popular at Wired Science, and the stranger the better. Purple frogs, ten-footed lobsters and three eyed beetles are some of the crazy creatures on this list of animals that have stuck with the same genetic plan for millions of years.
This story explained how Stradivarius violins, considered the best in the world, get their pitch-perfect sound courtesy of the Little Ice Age.
6) The Lagoons of Titan: Oily Liquid Confirmed on Saturn Moon
Any time liquid is discovered on another planet, it raises the chance that life will turn up as well. Saturn's moon Titan, with its hydrocarbon lakes, is one of the most promising spots in the solar system to look for extraterrestrial life. Jupiter's icy moon, Europa, Mars and another of Saturn's moons, Enceladus, are some other potential local harbors for life.
Continuing with the origins-of-life theme this year, an old "volcano-in-a-bottle" experiment, sitting on a shelf 50 years, turned out to provide new evidence that life may have begun near volcanoes.
8)Graphic Evidence Against Steroid Abuse
Gross! There's not much else that can explain why this one caught fire. It has been viewed almost 300,000 times, which goes to show that people really like gross stuff. The photo is of a 21-year-old German bodybuilder who suffered severe acne and landed on the pages of the medical journal the Lancet. We've included the "before" photo here. Check out the full story for the real grossness.
9) Mars Phoenix Tweets: "We Have ICE!"
Wired Science broke the story of the Mars Phoenix Twitter feed and helped make her the tweeting star that she was. We then turned around and used the her tweets to break the story of the discovery of ice on Mars, featured here. Unfortunately our love affair with Phoenix came to an end in November when the Martian winter set and deprived her of her solar power, which we commemorated with our popular Twitter-style epitaph contest that received almost 1,000 entries.
We broke down how the LHC could affect the major theoretical physics ideas of our generation. Turns out, though, that we didn't envision the real worst-case scenario. That the world's most complex machine would break within weeks of beginning operation.
11) Tricked-Out Inflatable House Provides "Instant Survival"
With the number of foreclosures skyrocketing, your own personal "bouncy house" complete with beds, heat, food, water and first-aid might not be a bad idea. We found this emergency inflatable home called the "Life Cube" at the California Clean-Tech gala in November.
In September, the colossal Large Hadron Collider, which physicists around the world have anxiously awaited for decades, sent its first beam around its 17-mile circular track. Little did we know it would be months before we'd get more action out of the thing. Just a week after the celebrated machine started up, an electrical problem shut it back down. The most recent estimate is that it could be back in action by
Nothing helps us get through a work day quite like one of Aaron Rowe's nearly-patented top 10 video lists. This one, covering physics, ends with the Large Hadron Collider rap, the best music video ever made for an atom smasher.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j50ZssEojtM__Editor's Picks__: Here are two stories we think should have made this list, but somehow fell just short or slipped through the cracks.
Perhaps you were too busy cooking your turkey dinner to read about how the traditional meal has changed over the years, but we think you'll enjoy this story now if you missed it. The size of the average American turkey has more than doubled in the last 80 years, at the expense of flavor. The corn, potatoes and likely everything else on your plate this Thanksgiving has also changed significantly since the Pilgrims sat down with Wampanoag Indians, and even since Lincoln invented the holiday in 1863.
2) Invertebrate Astronauts Make Space History
Sure it's cool they shot these guys into space and some of them survived. But really, tardigrades are just so damn cute! Like a cross between a teddy bear and the Michelin Man.
See Also:- Wired Science's complete Large Hadron Collider coverage
Images: 1) I**llustration of a protocell/**Janet Iwasa; 2) Bill Saxton, NRAO/AUI/NSF; 4) Justin Marshall; 6) NASA; 8) the Lancet; 11) Inflatable Wortld; Editor's 1) Wired.com; Editor's 2) Tardigrade/**Goldstein Lab.
