Wagstaffe's top science stories of 2016

2016 was quite the year science stories included! Ihad the chance to cover awide range of topics but there were a few 'themes' that stuck out for me.

High impact earthquakes

Major earthquakes rocked countries all around the world in 2016. But afew key quakes demonstrated that the death toll doesn't have to be high for its impact to be devastating.

Central Italy was hit with a series ofshallow earthquakes thatdestroyed centuries-old towns.

The first earthquake, a magnitude 6.0 that struck on August 24, killed almost 300 people. Three more earthquakes between magnitude 5.4 and 6.5 struck the same region in October.

The cost to rebuild the ancient structures will be in the tens of millions, with many 14th century churches and historicpalazzosreduced to rubble. An incredible amount of history and livelihood wasdestroyed.

• Another powerful quake rattles Italy, but no deaths immediately reported
• 'Apocalyptic' aftershocks of back-to-back earthquakes level buildings in Italy

On Nov13,a magnitude7.8 earthquake stuck the northernislandof New Zealand. There were only two deaths, but the damage toinfrastructurewas massive. Roads buckled, roughly 100,000 landslides were triggered and a small island community was cut off completelyfor a few days.

Both Italy and New Zealand will work to recover from these earthquakes for decades to come, and for many their lives and communities will never be the same.

• At least 2 dead, hundreds stranded in New Zealand town after severe quake
• New Zealand earthquake exposes problems in how country prepares
• Hundreds of tourists stranded by New Zealand quake rescued by helicopter

Global warming: the good, the bad and the ugly

For many reasons, climate change was a hot topic in 2016. About this time last year I was just returning from the Paris Climate Change Conference after witnessing the historic signing.It was an optimistic moment, with200 countries backingthe treaty,but it took most of the year to actually make it legally binding.

• MPs vote 207 to 81 to back Paris climate change agreement

• Paris climate change deal passes key threshold

All the while, global warming continued. An epic ElNioin the equatorial Pacific Ocean helped set global-temperature records in the first five months of the year, and2016 is on track to become the third warmest year in a row.

• Temperature records shattered by record margins so far in 2016

All eyes will be on the Trump Administration in 2017, withlots of questions about what will happen to climate initiativesalready in place. But there is more optimism too.

This past year, all around theworld individuals,businessand governments took a massive shift away from fossil fuels.

In February Morocco turned on the switch on first phase of world's largest solar plant that will provide electricity for more than 1 million people when complete.

ElonMusk introduced his latest greenenergyventure solar panel roofsthat arecomparablein price but more durable than regular roof tiles.

Globalrenewableinvestment is at an all-time high withdevelopingcountries surpassingdevelopedcountries in their investment in green energy for the first time.

And an increasing number of organisations are selling shares, stocks and bonds in companies connected to fossil fuels. A trend that is likely to continue through 2017.

• Inventor Elon Musk breaks into the solar panel market

• Morocco's Giant Solar Farm

• Failure to divest carbon assets has cost pension plans $22B, report finds

Gravitational waves: a new tool

It still blows my mindthatthescientificcommunitycontinues to make fundamental discoveries about the world around us and this year it was gravitational waves.

After decades ofsearching, scientistsdetected the ripples in the fabric ofspace time. The signal came from the merger of two black holes from around a billion years ago.

The discovery not onlyaffirmed Albert Einstein's general theory of relativity, almost 100 years after he had published it, but it also provided the most direct evidence yet that black holes exist.

And it means we have a new way of observing the universe by listening to these waves. Who knows what else they will show us.

• Gravitational waves detected for 1st time, 'opens a brand new window on the universe'