Breakthrough of the Year 2007: Science Online Special Collection

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Special Online Collection: Breakthrough of the Year 2007

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Breakthrough of the Year 2007

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Each year, the editors and news staff of Science look back at the big science stories of the past 12 months, and dub one of them the Breakthrough of the Year. A special section of the 21 December 2007 issue showcases this year's top Breakthrough and nine runners-up, and takes a look at last year's predictions as well as areas to watch in 2008. Online extras include links to additional resources and references embedded in each article, a video presentation, and a special Breakthrough edition of the Science Podcast.

In Science

Video Presentation

Watch a video presentation on this year's discoveries in human genetic variation, featuring Francis Collins, David Altshuler, and Science news writer Liz Pennisi.

Special "Breakthrough" Podcast

In a special edition of the Science Podcast, the journal's news staff and editors review some of the biggest and most discussed scientific stories of 2007. [More podcasts]

Editorial: Breakthrough of the Year: Science Editor-in-Chief Donald Kennedy overviews the big stories from 2007 covered in this year's Breakthrough issue.
Breakthrough of the Year: Human Genetic Variation: Equipped with faster, cheaper technologies for sequencing DNA and assessing variation in genomes on scales ranging from one to millions of bases, researchers are finding out how truly different we are from one another.
It's All About Me: Along with the flood of discoveries in human genetics, 2007 saw the birth of a new industry: personal genomics. But researchers worry that these services open up a Pandora's box of ethical issues.
The Runners-Up: The runners-up for 2007's Breakthrough of the Year include advances in cellular and structural biology, astrophysics, physics, immunology, synthetic chemistry, neuroscience, and computer science.
Scorecard: How'd We Do?: Some of last year's predictions panned out this year, especially the work that led to the Breakthrough of the Year, but other areas are progressing more slowly.
Global Warming, Hotter Than Ever: Climate change, a perennial runner-up for Breakthrough of the Year, broke from the pack this year--both in the pages of this section and in the public arena.
Areas to Watch in 2008: Science's editors will be watching Europe's Large Hadron Collider, microRNAs, humanmade microbes, paleogenomics, multiferroics, the human microbiome, and neural circuits in 2008.