Bugs That Live Under Your Skin and Other Creepy Discoveries This Year

Science can be many things. Ambitious. Awe-inspiring. Confusing. Elegant. Wrong. And Creepy. Fortunately for you, the WIRED Science team doesn’t fear the creepy and instead (often) finds it fascinating. We’ve been enjoying some really weird, gross and shiver-causing science this year, and we’ve collected our favorites here for you.

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National Geographic This Year’s Biggest Discoveries in Science

> 1. A November analysis from NASA’s Keck Observatory team suggested that one in five stars may have Earth-size planets orbiting in their “habitable zones”

I’ve commented on this before, saying that most of those will be found to have a highly elliptic orbit that takes it out of the so-called habitable zone for part of its year.

> 2. Embryonic stem cell cloned

Old news.

> 3. Voyager reaches edge of the solar wind.

According to xkcd Voyager has already left the solar system 22 times, and that number is still climbing.

> 4. Mars lake looks hospitable to ancient life.

Hardly. An ancient alluvial fan formed by a brief flood is barely relevant. Mars doesn’t have enough carbon on the surface for carbon-based life for starters.

> 5. Lord of the Rings looking more like a documentary.

Um, no.