Feature

  1. Animals

    Year in Review: Odd cicada history emerges

    Brood II returns better understood.

    By Susan Milius
  2. Astronomy

    Year in Review: Visitor from the Oort cloud

    A visitor from the outer solar system flies past the sun.

    By Gabriel Popkin
  3. Math

    Year in Review: Progress made toward twin prime proof

    A surprising advance sparks a flurry of work on the mathematical conjecture.

    By Dana Mackenzie
  4. Anthropology

    Year in Review: Slain king’s bones dug up

    The king’s skeleton reveals fatal wounds.

    By Rachel Ehrenberg
  5. Cosmology

    Year in Review: Dark energy gets more confusing

    New data raise the prospect of a ‘Big Rip’ destroying the cosmos.

    By Gabriel Popkin
  6. Animals

    Year in Review: Canine genealogy

    Competing clues confuse the story of dog domestication.

    By Meghan Rosen
  7. Planetary Science

    Year in Review: Methane shortage on Mars

    A trace of the gas is not enough to be a sign of life.

    By Erin Wayman
  8. Neuroscience

    Year in Review: Obama unveils brain initiative

    In April, the president announced an ambitious plan to reveal the human brain’s secrets.

    By Laura Sanders
  9. Psychology

    Year in Review: DSM-5’s controversial debut

    The diagnostic manual updates disorder criteria.

    By Bruce Bower
  10. Physics

    Year in Review: Below absolute zero, but hot

    Lab trickery pushes atoms to a negative temperature.

    By Andrew Grant
  11. Astronomy

    Year in Review: Death of a planet hunter

    The Kepler space telescope finishes a brilliant career.

    By Andrew Grant
  12. Astronomy

    Year in Review: Voyager 1 reaches interstellar space

    The planetary probe is the first human-made object to break out of the heliosphere.

    By Andrew Grant