The Week has identified four scientific breakthroughs that happened in 2011 in this article on the Yahoo News website. I'd only heard of two of them, and I try to pay attention. This article is worth your time.
The four discoveries include neutrinos going faster than the speed of light, and finding planets orbiting stars like our sun that are the right size and distance from their stars to support life. These two I was aware of and find interesting.
Then there are the two I'd not seen. First, there being three "enterotypes" or groupings of bacteria living in the human gut, so that foods or medicines react differently according to which type you have. Second, a finding about aging involving senescent cells and a way to get rid of them, perhaps a first step on anti-aging drugs.
All four of these could be real bombshells.
