Here’s the Top 10 Science Stories You Missed This Year (While You Were Distracted by COVID-19)

It may have felt like scientists were all-hands-on-deck battling the pandemic. But plenty of researchers learned amazing things this year that had nothing to do with COVID-19.

Dec 29, 2020 3:00 PM

The crew faced windchills as low as -70 degrees Fahrenheit, sunless winter days and dangerously thin ice during field work near the North Pole. (Credit: Esther Horvath)

For many, 2020 has been a year that we’d just as soon forget. But a lot of good has happened that had absolutely nothing to do with the COVID-19 pandemic. The Discover editors teamed up with our top writers to pick the 10 most important (non-COVID) science stories we didn’t want you to miss.

SpaceX launched the first privately owned capsule carrying NASA astronauts to the space station and back.

Before Gmail, YouTube or Facebook, a starry-eyed rocket startup company announced a fantastical vision: a new age, where private companies send humans into space. And in May 2020, some 18 years after its founding, SpaceX and its CEO, Elon Musk, finally made good on that pledge. The SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule carried two NASA astronauts to the International Space Station (ISS) and brought them back to Earth safely. It was the first time a private spacecraft had carried humans into orbit. Read the full story.