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January

Airborne fire starters? At the beginning of the year, we broke the news of the first documented evidence that falcons and kites seem to deliberately spread wildfires. Eyewitness accounts in Australia suggest they drop burning twigs into new areas to flush out prey. Birds may exhibit similar behaviour in Africa, the Americas and South Asia.

February

This month, we revealed that five children born with underdeveloped ears had been given new ones made from their own cells. The technique involved was similar to the one used in the 1990s to create the “Vacanti mouse”, which had a human-like ear growing on its back.

March

It took over a decade to fully sequence the first human genome, but in March we reported that a team at London’s Great Ormond Street Hospital for Children had used rapid sequencing to diagnose rare disorders in 10 critically ill children. This led to improved treatment and protected some of them from life-threatening complications.

April

Humans are beginning to meld with machines. In April, came news of a mind-reading headset that lets you query Google with just a thought. It works by reading signals sent from your brain to your jaw as you think, even if you don’t speak. The story came hot on the heels of two AI systems capable of guessing what you are looking at by your brain.

May

Following the revelation that Cambridge Analytica had access to millions of Facebook users’ data, a 91av investigation discovered that researchers at the University of Cambridge had left similar data from a personality quiz app online for anyone to access.

June

The great ape family welcomed a new member. We revealed that a comparison of genomes found signs of a previously unknown species of chimpanzee that once lived in central Africa. As far as we know, there are no physical remains of the ancient ape, but DNA analysis suggests that it mated with bonobos 400,000 years ago and that some of its genes persist in apes living today.

July

You might think you read a story about the nature of time in July, but that is only because you can’t think in quantum physics. The mind-bending thought experiment in question indicates that our perception of time may come from our inability to process information in a quantum way. Computers built on the principles of quantum mechanics might avoid this disadvantage, the researchers found.

August

A sliver of bone from a cave in Russia became the biggest archaeological story of the year, when researchers published their finding that it came from an ancient teenager who had a Neanderthal mum and a Denisovan dad. “Denny” is the only first-generation hybrid hominin ever found. Back in March, it was revealed that Denisovans also mated with our own species on at least two occasions.

September

The normally sedate world of mathematics was rocked by claims of a solution to one of the field’s longest-standing problems. Michael Atiyah, one of the most eminent mathematicians in the UK, revealed his solution to the Riemann hypothesis, a 160-year-old puzzle concerning the nature of prime numbers. His peers were unconvinced, and the consensus is that the problem remains unsolved.

October

Governments around the world increasingly rolled out artificial intelligence in 2018. In this month, we revealed that Hungary, Latvia and Greece were testing an automated lie-detection system at four border crossings. This used AI to quiz travellers and analyse video of their faces to look for gestures associated with lying. AI experts said such systems are too inaccurate for real-world use.

November

He Jiankui shocked the world when he announced the birth of the first ever gene-edited babies. The CRISPR technique was used to disable a gene to create children who are resistant to HIV, He said. So far, the trial has produced a pair of twin girls. The experiment was widely condemned by geneticists at a summit on gene editing held in Hong Kong the same month.

December

As the year drew to a close, 91av revealed that UK police are turning to artificial intelligence in a bid to stop violent crime. The system, currently being trialled by nine police forces, attempts to predict the risk of someone committing or falling victim to gun or knife crime. A report from data science organisation the Alan Turing Institute warned that the scheme had “serious ethical issues”.

A Good year for:

AI double acts

The best AIs this year were partnerships. Generative adversarial networks consist of one system inventing things and the other checking if they pass muster. In 2018, they came up with sonnets, pranks, fashion items and more.

Moon fans

Twitter exploded when we reported it was possible for moons to have moons, known as moonmoons. This year, we also learned that Earth may have a pair of “ghost moons” made from dust, and China launched a mission to the far side of the actual moon.

Silkworms

What a year to be a silkworm. In 2018, genetically modified silkworms made a completely new kind of silk never seen in nature before, while CRISPR enabled other silkworms to resist a lethal virus.

Dry january

A study of 141 drinkers found that giving up alcohol for a month can lower blood pressure, cholesterol and the levels of cancer-related proteins in the blood. The work behind this study began with a small 2013 experiment involving 91av staff.

A bad year for:

Believing what you see

It is only a matter of time before an AI-powered fake video sparks a political crisis. So-called deepfakes leapt ahead in quality this year, making it even easier to fool people. Academics are now betting on when the first fake video scandal will occur.

Getting along in space

Tensions ran high in orbit, as a hole in a craft attached to the International Space Station sparked accusations of sabotage between Russia and the US. It didn’t help that the US also pushed ahead with plans for a new military branch, the Space Force.

Boring old computers

Last year, we predicted that 2018 would see the first quantum computer capable of outperforming regular machines. That didn’t quite happen, but quantum computers are improving fast, with Google announcing its largest quantum chip yet.

Modern art

New is out, old is in. This year we learned that the world’s first drawing was a red crayon doodle (pictured, left) made 73,000 years ago. And the earliest figurative art was also announced, a 40,000-year-old drawing of an unknown animal.

This article appeared in print under the headline “News Review 2018”