Inspiring science stories that turned heads in 2024

A total solar eclipse seen by millions, a lost city in the jungle accidentally found and hope for the almost extinct northern white rhinoceros – this year science gave us many interesting moments.

One of the most popular news stories was about space travel becoming cheaper and easier: Elon Musk’s Starship took a giant step toward giving humanity a reusable rocket.

Of course, not everything was positive. Bad news for the planet, for example, is now virtually certain that 2024 will be the world’s warmest year ever.

But there was something to celebrate. Here are seven of our favorite inspiring science stories of the year.

In October, Elon Musk’s Starship rocket completed a world first after part of it was captured on its way back to the launch pad.

SpaceX’s lower launch vehicle flew back to the launch tower instead of falling into the sea. He was caught by a giant pair of mechanical arms, or “chopsticks”, as part of his fifth test flight.

It brought SpaceX’s ambitions of developing a fully reusable and rapidly deployable rocket closer to the moon and possibly even Mars.

“A day for the history books,” SpaceX engineers said as the launch vehicle landed safely.

You can read more about the “chopstick” moment here.

They can walk, hover, and the males can even sing love songs to court mates — all with brains smaller than a pinhead.

But it wasn’t until October that scientists studying the fruit fly brain mapped the position, shape and connections of each of its 130,000 cells and 50 million connections.

It was the most detailed analysis of the brain of an adult animal ever created, and one leading brain expert described the breakthrough as a “giant leap” in our understanding of our own brains.

One of the research leaders said it would shed new light on the “mechanism of thinking”. Read more about the story here.

Imagine searching for something on Google, landing on page 16 of results, and saying, “Wait, is that a lost Mayan city?”

That’s what happened to Luke Old-Thomas, a graduate student at Tulane University in the US, who came across laser research conducted by a Mexican environmental monitoring organization.

When he processed the data with the techniques used by archaeologists, he saw something that others had missed – a huge ancient city which may have been home to 30-50,000 people at its peak between 750 and 850 AD.

In a city that disappeared under the jungle canopy of Mexico, archaeologists found pyramids, sports grounds and amphitheatres.

The complex – which the researchers named Valeriana – was discovered using lidar, a type of laser probe that images structures buried under vegetation.

There are only two northern white rhinos left in the world, but we have reported a breakthrough in birth rates that has given hope for saving the species.

Scientists have achieved the world’s first IVF rhinoceros pregnancysuccessfully transferring a lab-created rhinoceros embryo to a surrogate mother.

The procedure was performed on southern white rhinos, a closely related subspecies of northern whites that still number in the thousands, and required 13 attempts.

The mother eventually died of infection, but a post-mortem examination revealed that the 6.5cm male fetus was developing well and had a 95% chance of being born alive, suggesting the possibility of a viable pregnancy through rhino IVF.

There are currently 30 precious Northern White Rhino embryos and the next step will be to attempt IVF with them.

With human activity driving what the conservation organization World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) calls “catastrophic” species loss, it can sometimes seem like we don’t hear very much good news about nature.

But a decade of research has shown that conservation action is effective in reducing the global loss of biodiversity.

Scientists from dozens of research institutes analyzed 665 tests of environmental measures in different countries and oceans and found that they had a positive effect in two out of every three cases.

Measures range from the release of teal salmon to the eradication of invasive algae, and the study’s authors say their findings offer a “ray of light” for those working to protect endangered animals and plants.

Read more about the story here.

Tens of millions of people across Mexico, the United States and Canada literally turned their heads away a total solar eclipse.

This is where the Moon moves between the Earth and the Sun, dimming its light.

A total solar eclipse occurs somewhere on Earth about every 18 months, but they often occur in completely deserted areas, while major cities, including Dallas, were in the way.

The path of totality – the area where people could see the Moon completely covering the Sun – was also much wider this year than during the spectacular total solar eclipse of 2017.

Read more about the story here.

Millions of people once visited Sycamore Gap, the famous sycamore tree located in a gap in Hadrian’s Wall.

So when it was minted in 2023naturally, a national outburst of shock and horror followed.

But in March, the tree started a new life from saved seeds and branches, which gave hope that the iconic tree has a future.

BBC News saw the new shoots with a rare visit to the secretive National Trust, which protects the seedlings.

Young twigs and seeds thrown to the ground when the tree fell were rescued by the National Trust, which looks after the site with Northumberland National Park Authority.

The saplings have now been donated to charitiesgroups and individuals as “trees of hope”.