Everything changed. We started this year with what felt like a wild optimism for scientific exploration and discovery. We're ending it still trying to figure out what COVID-19 means at different levels  and how this new world order affects our everyday lives.

But one of the things that is glaringly clear is the role that science plays in our decision-making, and how studying and learning about the world informs all the ways in which we engage with it.

This has been a year where technology has become inextricable from all aspects of our daily lives. We've paid extreme and close attention to the scientific research that has gone into studying COVID-19 and producing a vaccine. There is a newfound and growing appreciation for scientific discovery and all the ways in which it facilitates everything we need to do. But this isn't without its implications and our top Science +Technology stories of the year reflect that.

This year, we've published 185 Science + Technology articles which have been viewed more than seven million times. One of our top stories was by social media researchers Anatoliy Gruzd and Philip Mai, who looked at the role of social media in the spreading of COVID-19 conspiracy theories. Another story that reflects what goes into the science of discovery was written by virologist Karen Mossman, whose lab isolated SARS-CoV-2 — the virus that causes COVID-19. And an extremely popular article contained the answers to all the questions you wanted to ask public health professor Craig Janes, like how long the virus lasts on surfaces (depends on the surface) and whether asymptomatic people could still spread the virus (they can).

But it wasn't all coronavirus all the time over here. Biologist Thomas Merritt wrote about the science of coffee, one of the world's most popular drinks (and one of the biggest changes in consumer trends this year, with people shifting to making coffee at home rather than buying it at coffee shops). That article was translated into French, Spanish and Indonesian.

Another of our most popular stories this year had to do with a flesh-eating parasite that was making its way into the United States and Canada, where veterinarians had reported a handful of cases of Leishmania in dogs that had been travelling or living outside North America.

With the production of several COVID-19 vaccines, we're heading into 2021 with renewed optimism. But if this year has taught us anything, it's that (a) all bets are off, and (b) scientific research remains our greatest hope.

Until next year, all the best.