It was a tough year for science in the US. Thousands of research grants, including more than 3,800 from the National Institutes of Health and the National Science Foundation alone, were frozen or canceled. NASA was threatened with sweeping budget cuts. Top scientists are leaving the US in search of better opportunities. And misinformation about vaccines and other important scientific matters continues to spread.
But despite these setbacks, scientists around the world produced amazing discoveries every day — some of which made a big splash while others didn’t get nearly the attention they deserved. Here’s a sample of findings that were perhaps ...