Read more: 鈥�2014 preview: 10 ideas that will matter next year鈥�
January
The year starts with bad news for Kepler, NASA鈥檚 planet-hunting space telescope, when a vital reaction-wheel breaks. Kepler was then put in 鈥渟afe mode鈥� and no longer able to scan for potential exoplanets. But its data is still bearing fruit. So far, 167 planets have been confirmed (see diagram).
February
A meteor explodes over the Chelyabinsk region of Russia, injuring hundreds of people and damaging buildings. It could give clues to the effects of future hits from bigger space rocks.
Advertisement
Inspiration Mars Foundation announces plans for a two-person mission to Mars that will launch on 5 January 2018, during an expected solar minimum, and arrive at the planet in August that year.
March
The European Space Agency releases the highest resolution map yet of the entire cosmic microwave background (CMB), relic light from the primordial universe.
April
Developers and early 鈥淓xplorers鈥� get hands-on with Google鈥檚 wearable computer, Glass. It is due to be launched to the public in 2014 (see 鈥�2014 preview: Google Glass for the masses鈥�).
May
Panic as H7N9 bird flu spreads in humans across China.
The Mauna Loa Observatory, Hawaii, reveals atmospheric CO2 has passed the symbolic 400 parts per million mark.
June
Whistleblower Edward Snowden leaks explosive details of the massive surveillance operation run by the US National Security Agency (see 鈥�2014 preview: Private internet to beat the spooks鈥�).
Earliest primate skeleton ever found, unearthed in eastern China.
July
International Energy Agency predicts that electricity from renewables will outstrip every other source except coal by 2016.
快猫短视频 that first child has been born after his parents had the entire genomes of a batch of their IVF embryos screened for abnormalities.
August
A gas attack kills hundreds of civilians in Damascus, Syria. The atrocity comes amid a civil war that has displaced millions of people.
First lab-grown beef burger cooked and eaten on TV
September
There is more certainty than ever that recent warming has been caused by humans, states a report from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change.
October
Peter Higgs shares the Nobel prize in physics after new data confirms the 鈥淗iggs-like particle鈥� announced at CERN in 2012 is truly a Higgs boson.
November
Typhoon Haiyan sweeps through the Philippines, killing thousands and causing widespread devastation. It is believed to be the strongest recorded storm ever to make landfall.
December
Evidence that memories can jump generations after mice are shown to be aware of a smell first encountered by their grandparents.