约克郡的角斗士墓地，具有人类感情的机器人，犹他州发现了带有15只角的恐龙——这些年度科学突破同时也是年度的头条新闻
March: Cheers and applause greeted the first particle collisions at Cern's Large Hadron Collider. The LHC finally began to justify its ￡6bn price tag when physicists smashed particles together with greater energies than ever achieved before in a collider
三月：欢呼和掌声是献给欧洲粒子物理研究所大型强子对撞机的首次微粒碰撞。当科学家们以前所未有的巨大能量让粒子间相互碰撞时，大型强子对撞机终于开始证明它60亿英镑的身价的确物有所值
Photograph: Denis Balibouse/Reuters
图片来源：Denis Balibouse/路透社
April: The Eyjafjallajokull volcano erupted in Iceland, grounding air traffic over Britain. Charles Arthur explained why flying through volcanic ash presents a hazard to aircraft
四月：冰岛的艾雅法拉火山喷发，致使英国航空业陷入了瘫痪。卫报记者查尔斯·亚瑟（Charles Arthur）解释了为什么飞机在飞越火山灰时会产生危险
Photograph: Paul Souders/Corbis
图片来源：Paul Souders/考比斯
Should wildlife documentary makers respect the privacy of creatures like these amorous amphibians? An academic claimed they should
野生动物纪录片制作者应该尊重动物们——比如这些多情的两栖动物——的隐私吗？一项学术研究对此作出了肯定的回答
Photograph: Thomas Marent/Corbis
图片来源：Thomas Marent/考比斯
The British Chiropractic Association abandoned its libel action against Simon Singh. The science writer had criticised the BCA in the Guardian for promoting treatments for which there is little evidence. Singh and son (above) feature in the 2011 Geek Calendar to raise funds for the libel reform campaige
英国脊柱按摩协会（British Chiropractic Association）放弃以诽谤罪控告西蒙·辛格（Simon Singh）。身为科普作家的辛格在卫报上发表文章批评BCA在缺少证据的前提下，大肆宣扬疗效。辛格和他的儿子为2011年的极客日历充当了模特，为诽谤法改革运动筹集资金
Photograph: Ben Gilbert/2011 Geek Calendar
图片来源：Ben Gilbert/2011年极客日历
May: Biologist and entrepreneur Craig Venter and his team revealed that they had created the world's first 'synthetic life form', paving the way for designer organisms that are built rather than evolved. They synthesised the genome of an existing bacterium from scratch and used it to 'reprogram' another bacterial cell
五月：生物学家和企业家克雷格·文特尔（Craig Venter）和他的研究小组透露，他们已经创造出世界上首例“合成生命形式”，这项成就为构建而非进化的微生物设计铺平了道路。他们从头合成了一种现存细菌的基因组，并利用它“改编”了另一种细菌的细胞
Photograph: Jessica Rinaldi/Reuters
图片来源：Jessica Rinaldi/路透社
Scientists revealed that up to 4% of our DNA is Neanderthal after the first comparison of the complete genomes of humans and our much maligned cousins
在第一次全面比较了人类和尼安德特人的基因组以后，科学家们发现，人类有4%的DNA来自于这些遭到恣意诽谤的远亲们
Photograph: AFP
图片来源：法新社
June: Scars from a lion's bite and hammer marks on decapitated skulls led archaeologists to conclude they had found the world's best-preserved gladiator graveyard
六月：被削去头骨上的狮子咬痕和锤击伤疤让考古学家们意识到，他们发现了世界上保存最为完好的角斗士墓穴
Photograph: C4 Picture/PA
图片来源：C4 Picture/报纸联合社
July: Humans arrived in Britain 250,000 years earlier than thought. Flint tools found on a beach in Norfolk were probably left by hunter-gatherers who lived on the flood plains and marshes bordering an ancient course of the river Thames
七月：人类约在25万年前抵达不列颠，这比之前认为的时间要更早。在诺福克（Norfolk）海滩上发现的燧石工具可能是由狩猎采集者留下的，他们就住在泰晤士古老河道岸边的泛滥平原和沼泽中
Photograph: John Sibbick/NHM
图片来源：John Sibbick/英国自然历史博物馆
August: For 48m years, a fungus has been turning worker ants into zombies, releasing chemicals that alter their behaviour to suit the parasite. In its final act, the zombie ant grasps the underside of a leaf in a 'death grip' – the cue for a spore pod to burst from its head
八月：4800万年前的一种真菌可以将工蚁变成僵尸，真菌释放的化学物质可以使蚂蚁的行为变得适合于寄生。在生命弥留之际，僵尸蚂蚁用尽最后的力气死死抓住了叶片的下沿——一根孢子形状的真菌从它的头部穿了出来
Photograph: David P. Hughes
图片来源：David P. Hughes
The first robot able to show emotions, called Nao, was put through its paces by Guardian science correspondent Alok Jha. Nao has been programmed to mimic the emotional skills of a one-year-old child, learning and interpreting specific cues and responding accordingly
第一款可以表达感情的机器人名叫Nao，它正在卫报科学记者阿洛克·贾（Alok Jha）的引导下自己迈步行走。在程序设定下，Nao可以模仿一岁孩子的情感技巧，学习并解释特定的暗示，作出相应的反应
Photograph: PR
图片来源：PR
Conservators released the first images of exquisite wall paintings in the cave complex 'Little Petra' at Siq al-Barid in Beidha, Jordan. They spent three years removing two thousand years of soot and grime to reveal the masterpieces
保护专家发布了精美壁画的第一批照片，这些壁画来自于约旦贝达（Beidha）小佩特拉（Siq al-Barid）的洞穴复合结构。他们花费了三年时间清理了沉积两千年的煤灰，使这些艺术珍品得以展现在世人面前
Photograph: Ali Jarekji/Reuters
图片来源：Ali Jarekji/路透社
September: Stephen Hawking and American physicist Leonard Mlodinow argue in their book The Grand Design that gravity not God created the universe. Hawking made his name studying black holes. The picture above, taken by the Hubble space telescope, shows a jet of subatomic particles powered by a black hole streaming from the centre of the galaxy M87
九月：史蒂芬·霍金和美国物理学家伦纳德·曼罗迪诺（Leonard Mlodinow）在他们合著的新书《大设计》（The Grand Design）中提出，是引力而非是上帝创造了宇宙。霍金曾因黑洞研究而一举成名。上图是由哈勃太空望远镜拍摄的，它展示了黑洞驱动的亚原子微粒喷射流正从M87星系的中心涌出
Photograph: Hubble Telescope/NASA/ESA
图片来源：哈勃太空望远镜/NASA/ESA
Astronomers discovered a potentially habitable planet of similar size to Earth in orbit around a nearby star, shown in this artist's impression. Gliese 581g is in its solar system's 'Goldilocks zone' – not too hot and not too cold for liquid water to exist
天文学家在一颗邻近恒星周围发现了一颗潜在宜居的行星，它的体积与地球相仿。这颗名为葛利斯581g的行星位于其行星系的适居带——既不会太热也不会太冷，刚好适合液态水的存在
Photograph: L. Calçada/ESO
图片来源：L. Calçada/欧洲南方天文台
The horniest dinosaur ever discovered – 15-horned Kosmoceratops – was found in Utah
科学家们在犹他州发现了角最多的恐龙——拥有15只角的华丽角龙（Kosmoceratops）
Photograph: Lukas Panzarin/PA
图片来源：Lukas Panzarin/报纸联合社
We found out the price of love. On average, having a new romantic partner will mean losing two close friends from your inner circle
研究人员发现了爱情的代价。一般说来，拥有一位新的浪漫伴侣将意味着从自己的社交圈中丧失两位亲密朋友
Photograph: Carl De Souza/AFP
图片来源：Carl De Souza/法新社
Around 2,000 demonstrators rallied outside the Treasury in London in an effort to convince Chancellor George Osborne that science is vital
约两千名示威者集合在位于伦敦的英国财政部外，他们此举是为了说服财政大臣乔治·奥斯本（George Osborne）不要削减科研经费，因为科学至关重要
Photograph: Peter Marshall/Demotix
图片来源：Peter Marshall/Demotix
October: A hundred years after Kipling's Just So story How the Leopard Got His Spots, evolutionary biologists showed that cats hunting on open, rocky ground by daylight tend to have plain-coloured coats, while those that pounce from rainforest tree branches typically have dappled fur
十月：在英国作家吉卜林（Kipling）的小说《远古传奇》（Just So story How the Leopard Got His Spots）问世一百年以后，进化生物学家发现白天在空旷多岩石地区捕猎的猫科动物通常拥有色彩淡雅的皮毛，而那些在雨林树丛中捕食的猫科动物则是布满斑纹
Photograph: Vassil Donev/EPA
图片来源：Vassil Donev/美国环境保护署
October: Fossil hunters unearthed 150kg of amber in a coal mine in India containing more than 700 arthropod specimens. The animals were entombed in tree resin some 52m years ago, before the Himalayas existed
十月：化石专家们在印度一个煤矿中发现了一块重达150公斤的琥珀，这块琥珀中包含了700多种节肢动物的标本。5200万年前，这些动物就埋葬在树脂中，当时还没有喜马拉雅山的存在
Photograph: University of Bonn/PA
图片来源：波恩大学/报纸联合社
The 1000 Genomes Project completed its first map of human genetic variation. Thousands of human genomes are being used to catalogue the full diversity of human DNA with a view to improving our understanding of disease. The map was published 10 years after the first draft of the human genome, an anniversary celebrated this year by genome pioneers Francis Collins (left) and John Sulston (right)
千人基因组计划完成了人类遗传变异的首份图谱。科学家们利用千人基因组计划对人类DNA的全部变异进行分类，并以此着眼于改进我们对于疾病的理解。在人类基因组草稿完成十年以后，遗传变异图谱才得以公布。上图中的两位科学家是人类基因组研究的先锋人物——弗兰西斯·科林斯（Francis Collins）（左）和约翰·苏尔斯顿（John Sulston）（右）
Photograph: Martin Argles/Guardian
图片来源：Martin Argles/卫报
November: The US space shuttle programme faced its final countdown and the Observer's Robin McKie asked why, 30 years after the reusable rocket launcher promised to make space travel commonplace, the project fell from grace
十一月：美国航天飞机计划面临终结倒计时，对此，卫报观察家罗宾·麦凯（Robin McKie）大呼不解。本来，可重复使用的火箭发射装置已经使太空旅行变得司空见惯，孰料三十年之后，这项工程却被打入了冷宫
Photograph: NASA
图片来源：NASA
Astronomers spotted a dying star and its accompanying planet that originated outside our galaxy
Photograph: L. Calçada/ESO
图片来源：L. Calçada/欧洲南方天文台
Doctors injected neural stem cells into a man's brain as part of the world's first clinical trial of the therapy in stroke patients. They hope the cells will stimulate the growth of new neurons and reduce inflammation caused by the stroke
在世界首例针对中风病人的临床治疗试验中，医生将干细胞注入了病人的脑中。他们希望干细胞能刺激新神经元的生长，并减少中风引发的炎症
Photograph: Handout/Getty Images
图片来源：Handout/盖蒂图片社
The animal kingdom gained a new record holder after scientists declared that a species of cricket has the largest known testes of any creature relative to its body mass
动物王国的新记录创造者诞生：科学家宣布，一种蟋蟀拥有相对于体重的世界最大睾丸
Photograph: Richard Richards/University of Derby
图片来源：Richard Richards/德比大学
The Zoological Society of London published a list of 100 globally endangered species, including the pygmy three-toed sloth (above). The miniature sloth, which is confined to a single island off the coast of Panama, is the smallest and most threatened of all sloths
伦敦动物学会（The Zoological Society of London）发布了100个全球濒危物种名单，其中就包括上图中的这种矮小三趾树懒。这种小型树懒只生活在巴拿马海岸附近的一个岛上，它是树懒家族中体型最小且最濒危的品种
Photograph: Bryson Voirin/ZSL
图片来源：Bryson Voirin/伦敦动物学会
