January 25–April 5 Data + Art: Science and Art in the Age of Information at the Pasadena Museum of California Art. Visit www.pmcaonline.org February 5–7 Delhi Sustainable Development Summit 2009, “Towards Copenhagen: An equitable and ethical approach” to be held in New Delhi. Visit dsds.teriin.org/2009/index.htm February 15–21 Engineers Week 2009. Visit www.eweek.org

PROPOSE CRATER THEORY — Huge bubbles of gas bursting through the moon’s surface may be the cause of lunar craters. Two British scientists proposed in a new “blowhole theory” that gases trapped under the surface when suddenly set free would form craters resembling those observed on the moon. Among other current theories are those attributing the formation of craters to meteorite impacts and volcanoes. The scientists, Drs. A. G. Gaydon and R. C. M. Learner of … Imperial College of Science and Technology, London, say recent reports of volcanic activity on the moon stimulated them to dev...

Big black holes An alternative explanation of why ultramassive black holes reaching 10 billion solar masses seem to go dormant (“Ultramassive: As big as it gets,” SN: 10/25/08, p. 18) could be that in these black holes, the violent activity associated with smaller black holes is completely contained within the event horizon and thus removed from any observation. The tidal forces at the event horizon, which cause the observable effects, actually diminish as the mass and radius of the black hole increase. At a 30-billion-kilometer event horizon, the tidal force is so weak that the largest...

A better way The article “Thinning fuel before injection boosts efficiency” (SN: 10/25/08, p. 9) shows that there are many ways to find efficiency when we look. One place I see for improvement is moisture injection in the feed airstream to gasoline engines. Here in the Southwest, where humidity runs at 20 percent, rainy days are associated with an increase in gas mileage because the moisture turns to steam in the engine and improves efficiency. Moisture injection should be less complex to accomplish than adding a strong electric field. Michael Daly, Gallup, N.M. Good degradatio... (p. 31)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Body & Brain. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 24)

2008 SCIENCE NEWS OF THE YEAR Dramatic disappointments in physics have dotted these pages. A faulty connection at the world’s largest particle accelerator shut it down just after it turned on. The Hubble Space Telescope went silent just before a final servicing mission was about to launch. And, for those who value nostalgia, Pluto still isn’t a planet. Glancing back, 2008 could be seen as a year of setbacks. Luckily, one step forward and two steps back is still progress — as long as the first step is bigger than the second two. (The LHC did turn on, after all.) Science rarely advances...

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Molecules. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 29)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Environment. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 28)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Numbers. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 27)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Earth. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 26)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Nutrition. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 25)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Technology. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 23)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Matter & Energy. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 22)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Life. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 21)

Science News writers and editors looked back at the past year's stories and selected a handful as the year's most interesting and important in Genes & Cells. Follow hotlinks to the full, original stories. (p. 20)