I’ve heard too much today about how 2014 was a terrible year, so I’ve come to make the case for the opposite. Goodbye, 2014 — you were a fantastic year. And here’s why:
According to a study in The Lancet, “global life expectancy for both sexes increased from 65·3 years (UI 65·0–65·6) in 1990, to 71·5 years (UI 71·0–71·9) in 2013.” According to Time magazine, “this may have been the best year for women since the dawn of time (but there’s a long way to go),” and Slate agrees, too. According to The Atlantic, 2014 was “the best year for job creation this century” (even if that’s only since 1999, that’s still pretty good). And even if it was the worst year for Bitcoin (in terms of value lost per coin) it was definitely the best in terms of adoption (Overstock, Dell, Microsoft, Times Inc.) and in terms of transaction volume. It was a great year for SpaceX, too (check out /u/EchoLogic’s inforgraphic of the year in review).
So for a pretty darn good year, here’s a list of lists (yep, I’m doing it again) of the best of 2014.
To start you off with your early 2015 reading, io9 has a list of the best science fiction and fantasy books of 2014.
The New York Times has a list of the top ten home robots of the year.
Wired has a list of the top thirteen most amazing science discoveries of the year, as well as a list of the craziest sci-fi fantasies that got closer to reality this year.
AAAS Science has a list of the top ten science images of the year, while Time decided to go more specific, with a list of the top ten space images of the year.
io9 reminds us again that there are anti-vaxxers and climate deniers out there with a list of the top ten pseudo-science theories that we hope will go away in 2015.
Gizmodo wants us to know about the seven most important gadgets of 2014.
And the Rolling Stone, for all its flaws, gets a special mention for letting the world know eleven ways 2014 was a great year for transexual rights.
We’ll end with this video from AAAS Science, letting us all know in video form about the great science breakthroughs the year had to offer.
Happy New Year, everyone. See you in January.