Gallery: Spiders, Planets and a Boson: Wired Science's Top Stories of the Year
01last-transit-of-venus-of-your-lifetime
This year, our list of most popular stories was dominated by 2012's most famous robot, a long-sought subatomic particle, 10 billion exoplanets and an amazing new spider species. __Above:__ Watch Live: Last Transit of Venus of Your Lifetime -------------------------------------------------- On June 5, a rare celestial event captivated our readers. Venus crossed across the face of the sun for the second and last time this century. We ran several live feeds of the event in our most popular post of the year. The next transit of Venus is not expected until 2117. If you missed this year's event, we have some [great video and photos of the event](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/video-photos-transit-of-venus/). [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/watch-transit-venus/).
02spider-builds-its-own-spider-decoys
Spider That Builds Its Own Spider Decoys Discovered --------------------------------------------------- Every year, [at least one story about spiders](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/09/spider-silk/) creeps onto our top 10 list. Just over a week ago on Dec. 18, we broke the story on a possible new spider species that builds decoy spiders in its web, and it became a huge hit and landed at number two. This intriguing Peruvian spider crafts phony arachnids out of leaves, dead insects and other debris, and shakes them, apparently to make them look alive. Some of the decoys even have eight legs. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/spider-building-spider/ ).
Peter Ginter03rumors-of-higgs-boson-discovery
Physics Community Afire With Rumors of Higgs Boson Discovery ------------------------------------------------------------ On June 20, rumors that the long-sought Higgs boson had finally, really been discovered at the Large Hadron Collider began to circulate through physics blogs two weeks before [the official news](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/higgs-boson-discovery/) (that a particle that looks just like the Higgs but that scientists still aren't willing to officially dub the Higgs) came out of CERN. Our readers love the LHC and the Higgs boson, and they proved it once again by pushing this post to number three on our list of most popular stories. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/06/latest-higgs-rumors/).
04the-harrowing-descent-to-mars
Video: Curiosity Rover’s View of the Harrowing Descent to Mars -------------------------------------------------------------- On Aug. 6, NASA pulled off an incredible feat, [landing its Curiosity rover safely on Mars](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/curiosity-lands/) through a series of incredible complex maneuvers including a contraption known as a sky crane. Our readers seem to love any news about Curiosity's adventures, but this video of the rover's white-knuckle thrill ride as it fell toward the surface was the favorite. Though this was the first video of the descent, a [high-resolution version](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/hd-curiosity-landing/) was released later, and then an [even better video](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/09/ultra-hd-curiosity-landing/) came out. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/curiosity-descent-video/).
05curiosity-rovers-secret-historic-breakthrough
Curiosity Rover’s Secret Historic Breakthrough? ------------------------------------------------ Speculation Centers on Organic Molecules On Nov. 20, a comment made by the lead scientist on the Curiosity team to NPR about a historic finding on Mars led to a frenzy of speculation about what the rover may have found. NASA became very tight-lipped and said that nothing would be revealed before the American Geophysical Union conference two weeks later. So we talked to planetary scientist [Peter Smith](http://www.lpl.arizona.edu/resources/faculty/faculty.php?nom=Smith) of the University of Arizona’s Lunar and Planetary Laboratory about what the discovery was likely to be. “If it’s going in the history books, organic material is what I expect,” he said. While the actual story turned out to be a little [less exciting than Martians](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/12/curiosity-salts-methane/), the rover could still find evidence that there is or was life of some sort on Mars. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/curiosity-historic-news-organics/).
06rock-type-never-before-seen-on-mars
Curiosity Rover Finds Rock Type That’s Never Been Seen on Mars -------------------------------------------------------------- Just about [anything a robot does on another planet is awesome](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/curiosity-wheel-arm/), but apparently finding a kind of rock that's never been seen on that planet before is one of the most awesome. On Oct. 11, NASA announced that after shooting a rock nicknamed Jake Matijevic with lasers and X-rays, Curiosity determined that it is of a variety that no other rover has ever spotted on Mars. Though previously unknown on Mars, the highly fractionated alkalic rock type is relatively well known to geologists because it is common in rift zones on Earth and island chains such as the Hawaiian Islands. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/10/curiosity-strange-matijevic/).
07how-the-higgs-boson-could-break-physics
How the Discovery of the Higgs Boson Could Break Physics -------------------------------------------------------- In the run-up to the announcement of the Higgs boson discovery, we wondered what finding the elusive particle would mean for physics. Turns out that what was going to be great for the Standard Model of physics, could be potentially disastrous for another well-loved theory: [supersymmetry](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/supersymmetry-explained/). The problem is that the Higgs isn't strange enough, and the LHC was failing to turn up any other evidence of supersymmetry. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/07/higgs-boson-breaks-physics/).
08human-evolution-enters-an-exciting-new-phase
Human Evolution Enters an Exciting New Phase -------------------------------------------- If you could escape the human time scale for a moment, and regard evolution from the perspective of deep time, in which the last 10,000 years are a short chapter in a long story, you'd say: Things are pretty wild right now. Our story on Nov. 29 looked at a different aspect of a well-reported study from Nature on the most massive study of genetic variation yet, that as a species, we are freshly bursting with the raw material of evolution. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/11/recent-human-evolution-2/).
0910-billion-earth-like-exoplanets
10 Billion Earth-Like Planets May Exist in Our Galaxy ----------------------------------------------------- Our readers love exoplanets, and one or more of them usually turns up in our top stories list. This year, 10 billion of them did. On Mar. 28, we reported that about 40 percent of red dwarf stars may have Earth-sized planets orbiting them that have the right conditions for life. This exciting prospect made this story a favorite. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/03/ten-billion-earths/).
10curiositys-high-res-photo-looks-like-earth
Curiosity’s Latest High-Res Photo Looks Like Earth -------------------------------------------------- To round out our top 10, why not another story sent to us from Mars by Curiosity? The fourth rover story on the list from Aug. 14 features a high-res image of the surface of the Red Planet that looks a lot like the Blue Planet, specifically desert scenes like those found in Nevada's Basin and Range or California's Death Valley. [Read the full story](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/wiredscience/2012/08/curiosity-sharp-base/).
