Best of 2023, part 2: India lands on the moon; the orca uprising; birds make use of anti-bird spikes

What was your favorite science story of 2023? Was it the rise of orca-involved boat sinkings? Or maybe the successful landing of India’s Chandrayaan-3 mission at the moon’s south pole? 

This week, it’s the second and final part of our annual event about the best science stories of the year, with a roundup of some of the good news, animal news and all-around most important stories of 2023. Like how researchers discovered the high-tech material called graphene can also occur naturally…and did, deep in the Earth, 3 billion years ago. Or how the World Health Organization ended the global health emergency declaration for covid-19.

Plus, wonders from the animal kingdom: innovative bird nests made of anti-bird spikes,  cooperation between dolphins and fishermen in Brazil and the incredible clogging power of hagfish slime.

Hosts Timothy Revell and Christie Taylor discuss all of this and more with guests Clare Wilson, Sam Wong, and Leah Crane. To read more about these stories, visit newscientist.com.

And if you’re still looking for more of the best stories from 2023, enjoy our best features free December 27-31. 

• What’s behind the recent explosion in ADHD diagnoses?
• Is the entire universe a single quantum object?
• Climate change: Something strange is happening in the Pacific and we must find out why
• The civilisation myth: How new discoveries are rewriting human history
• Revealed: What your thoughts look like and how they compare to others

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