Surprising Science — December 20, 2010

2010’s Popular Science Stories

ScienceNOW's Top 10 list of its favorite and most popular stories of 2010 is an eclectic mix. It includes its most popular story of all time: "Does Our Universe Live Inside a Wormhole?"

bigthinkeditor

ScienceNOW’s Top 10 list of its favorite stories of 2010 is an eclectic mix including its most popular story of all time: “Does Our Universe Live Inside a Wormhole?” Also featured are reports on why running shoes are bad for you, experiments with ultraprecise clocks, robots trained to lie, atmospheric geo-engineering, pessimistic dogs and irresistible dance moves. The Wormhole story looked at a theoretical physicist’s theory that a long time ago, in a universe much larger than our own, a giant star collapsed. Its implosion crammed so much mass and energy together that it created a wormhole inside which our universe was born.

A pixelated image of a person in a white hoodie walking in the woods, with the person's face obscured by pixelation. The background features reddish handwritten text overlay.

Neuropsych

25 years since Columbine: We’re closer to decoding mass-shooter psychology

Public mass shooters almost always have worldviews shaped by the "3 Rs": rage, resentment, and revenge.

An edited image of elmo peeking out from a trash can, positioned among scattered multiple cartoon-like chat bubbles expressing humorous thoughts.

Thinking

Everyday Philosophy: “Is there anything wrong with trauma dumping?”

When does "oversharing" become an issue?

Bald man in casual attire sitting on a stool with a strategic diagram background in yellow.

Leadership

Adam Grant on how to identify and develop high-potential leaders

The ability to toggle between abstract and concrete thinking is a key differentiator of high-potential leaders.

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Business

Want true success? Be more philosophical about “good” and “bad” failure.

Bob Dylan gave us the paradoxical gem "there's no success like failure, and failure's no success at all." He had a point.

Starts With A Bang

The idea that matter is mostly empty space is mostly wrong

Practically all of the matter we see and interact with is made of atoms, which are mostly empty space. Then why is reality so... solid?

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