In the 17 Dec 2010 issue, the editors and news team at Science named their annual breakthrough of the year. This year, the honor went to the first quantum machine -- a microscopic cantilever ingeniously lowered to its lowest possible energy, the quantum ground state. The result may lead to ultrasensitive force detectors and to ways of controlling an object's mechanical vibrations as deftly as we now control electricity and light. Other impressive achievements honored with runners-up commendations included the first cell with a synthetic genome, the genome sequence of the Neandertal, and a microbicidal gel that reduces a woman's risk of being infected with HIV. The news staff also took a break from their regular reporting to look back at the past 10 years and highlight 10 great scientific "insights of the decade" and the technologies that made them possible. Cryoelectron tomography, for example, brought into focus the cell's components, allowing scientists to get atomic-level detail of whole-cell organization. And ever more powerful computers have enabled high-throughput genome sequencing methods, calculations needed to model protein folding on the time scale of milliseconds, and digital surveys of the cosmos. Features on Science Online included a video highlighting the year's top breakthrough and a Science Careers profile of a graduate student who contributed to the achievement; a special edition of the podcast featuring some big ideas from the past decade; and a roundup of readers' picks for this year's crowning scientific advance.Visit the Website
