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Science News, Dec 18, 2004 by Julie Ann Miller, Ivars Peterson

In the pages that follow, the writers of Science News have selected what they consider the most compelling stories of 2004. However, visitors to our Web pages at Science News Online have their own favorites. As we track the number of visitors to each Web page, we learn which articles attract the most interest.

We can also peek into the minds of the next generation of our readers by seeing which stories on the Science News for Kids site receive the most visits.

The top selections on Science News Online spanned the full range of scientific fields. The most widely viewed news article described bias in a heads-or-tail toss of a coin. The most popular feature looked into the physics underlying a new generation of yo-yos. Other top articles reported on:

* DNA differences among various breeds of purebred dogs.

* Stone Age human relatives that were surprisingly small.

* Psychology investigations of how, and how well, people recognize lies.

* A Martian chemical that hints there was once life on the Red Planet.

* A gene mutation that resulted in a superstrong toddler.

* Technologies developed to mimic ocean animals.

While Web site visitors, unless they are subscribers to Science News, can view only a small portion of each week's magazine articles, there are some treats available only online. Last April, National Public Radio's Car Talk guys sent almost 100,000 people to Science News Online when they mentioned our MathTrek article "Riding on Square Wheels." Other especially popular online-only features investigated the mathematically puzzling dimensions of baseball's home plate and considered new evidence that coffee and caffeine may aggravate diabetes.

Students visiting Science News for Kids most often turned to a feature on obesity among youngsters. They were also strongly drawn to stories on mosquitoes, violence in video games, and hurricanes. Not all their top choices centered on troubles, however. Another favorite article considered how studies of animal behavior are providing information on fair play. Links to all the stories mentioned here appear at sciencenews.org/20041218/bob21.asp.

Anthropology & Archaelogy

Hot Stuff An Israeli site yielded the oldest evidence of the controlled use of fire in Asia or Europe, from around 750,000 years ago (165: 276 *).

Human origins A skull found in a Romanian cave boosted the controversial theory that Neandertals interbred frequently with people (165: 328 *). Other evidence indicated minimal or no genetic contact between Neandertals and ancient people (165: 181), and Stone Age Homo sapiens may have had better memories than Neandertals did (166:183).

Fossils found on an Indonesian island appeared to have come from a half-size Homo species that evolved during the Stone Age (166: 275 *).

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People tamed cats by about 9,500 years ago, much earlier than previously estimated, according to discoveries on the Mediterranean island of Cyprus (165: 227).

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Family ties Fossil teeth dating to more than 5 million years ago in Africa led anthropologists to conclude that early members of our evolutionary family belonged to a single, anatomically diverse genus (165:148).

Mouthing off A gene mutation unique to people decreased jaw size beginning around 2.4 million years ago and heralded brain expansion in our ancestors (165:195).

Evolutionary puzzle A 930,000-year-old cranium found in Africa filled in details of the anatomy of our Stone Age ancestors and stirred debate about how they evolved (166: 5).

Bug trail A controversial DNA analysis of lice indicated that physical contact occurred between people and Homo erectus, probably in eastern Asia between 50,000 and 25,000 years ago (166: 230).

Good ear Ancestors of Neandertals that lived in Europe more than 350,000 years ago heard the same range of sounds that people do today, a finding that led researchers to propose ancient roots for speech (165: 404).

Sheltered lives Field observations demonstrated that baboons and chimpanzees regularly use caves, a behavior previously attributed, among primates, only to people and our direct ancestors (165:101).

Astronomy

Red Planet news Working overtime, NASA's twin rovers on Mars found the best evidence yet that water once flowed on the planet (165: 22, 51*, 67, 147, 195, 285; 166: 243, 253). The European Space Agency's orbiting Mars Express spacecraft found evidence for methane on the Red Planet (165: 228*), while the mission's lander, Beagle 2, failed to operate (165: 22, 125).

Ring bearer The Cassini spacecraft slipped between two of Saturn's icy rings and became the first craft to orbit the planet (166: 22, 110). The craft then discovered two tiny moons (166: 115), recorded temperatures of the planet's rings (166: 166), and took the first close-up images of Titan, Saturn's smog-shrouded moon (166: 291, 316). Even before Cassini's arrival at the ringed planet, it captured images of the moons Iapetus (166: 77) and Phoebe (165: 387) and recorded two storms merging on Saturn (165: 269).

Distant denizen Solar system discoveries included the most-distant object known to orbit the sun and the largest resident of the solar system to be detected since Pluto was found in 1930 (165:179 *, 262).