Social media in the Arab Spring, Japanese megaquake and nuclear disaster, orgasms in the brain, HIV drugs, faster-than-light neutrinos, Higgs and more
Read more: "Smart Guide 2012: 10 ideas you'll want to understand"
JANUARY
? Egypt cuts its people off from the internet as the "Arab Spring" begins. In Syria, Tunisia and elsewhere citizens use social media to organise street protests
FEBRUARY
? IBM's supercomputer Watson takes on, and beats, two former winners of the US gameshow Jeopardy! Despite a few mistakes it easily wins the $1 million prize
MARCH
? Magnitude 9.0 earthquake rocks Japan, followed by a tsunami that devastates towns and leaves 20,000 dead or missing. Explosions at Fukushima nuclear plant lead to meltdown when the cooling system fails
APRIL
? A software bot called LIDA shows the first hints of consciousness by reacting just like a human when carrying out simple tasks
? Personal details of 77 million users are stolen after Sony's PlayStation Network is hacked - forcing the firm to take it offline
MAY
? Author Kayt Sukel stimulates herself to climax in an fMRI scanner to learn more about the female orgasm, brains and the control of pain
JUNE
? Physicists at CERN manage to bottle atoms of anti-hydrogen for 1000 seconds - about 10,000 times longer than before
? Infamous "hacktivist" group LulzSec announces it is disbanding after "50 days of lulz", during which it attacked a number of corporate targets, including Fox News
JULY
? Space shuttle Atlantis lands at NASA's Kennedy Space Center for the last time, bringing the curtain down on the shuttle era after 135 missions
? Antiretroviral drugs shown to not only help those with HIV stay alive but also greatly reduce transmission of the virus to others
AUGUST
? World's first 3D-printed aircraft makes its maiden flight
SEPTEMBER
? Shock at claims that neutrinos have travelled faster than the speed of light - apparently breaking the existing laws of physics
OCTOBER
? First analysis of network of 43,000 companies shows a minority - mainly banks - hold a disproportionate amount of power over the global economy
NOVEMBER
? Breakthrough in Alzheimer's research as cognitive decline is reduced in two people - by jolting brain tissue with electrical impulses
? Launch of NASA's Martian rover, Curiosity, as part of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft. It is due to arrive at the Red Planet in August 2012
DECEMBER
? Two teams at the Large Hadron Collider announce they have found hints of a lightweight Higgs boson
? Climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, ends with agreement to accept targets on emissions in 2020
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