Science faves: Yours and ours - 

If The Conversation is ever transformed into a quiz show, our science and technology desk is a lock to provide the questions for the “Potpourri” category.

Based on the stories that most engaged our readers this year, you might agree. Your favorites of 2024 ranged from self-medicating animals in antiquity to a check-in on drones in the war in Ukraine. Also popular were an explainer on how winter temps challenge rechargeable batteries and a history of the various ways people have defined biological sex over the past 150 years. I did say they ranged!

Our best articles help satisfy your curiosity about the world – maybe even answering questions you didn’t know you had. We cover new discoveries and inventions and how they intersect with people and society. It can sometimes feel like we cover everything under the Sun – including the Sun.

In that spirit, each science and tech editor selected one of our own favorite articles of the year. They probe questions as big as building in space and as personal as a bad feeling, as existential as life after death and as useful as advice about AI search features.

Thanks for reading in 2024. We’ll be back to explore more questions from the wide world of “Potpourri” in the new year.

If you appreciate the discoveries and insights we bring you from the world of science and technology, please consider donating to our end-of-year fundraising campaign. Thank you.

A goat with an arrow wound nibbles the medicinal herb dittany. O. Dapper

Animals self-medicate with plants − behavior people have observed and emulated for millennia

Adrienne Mayor, Stanford University

Humans have watched and learned from animals who treat their ills with bioactive plants. This animal wisdom has a scientific name: zoopharmacognosy.

Small, cheap, explosives-laden drones have become ubiquitous in the war in Ukraine. Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images

Cult of the drone: UAVs have changed the face of war in Ukraine – but not outcomes

Paul Lushenko, US Army War College

Drones have dominated images of the war in Ukraine, but an expert on drone warfare casts doubt on many of the grand claims made for the weapons.

Why do batteries lose charge more quickly when it’s cold? Halfpoint Images/Moment

Lithium-ion batteries don’t work well in the cold − a battery researcher explains the chemistry at low temperatures

Wesley Chang, Drexel University

Electric vehicles are catching on across the US, but they’re also catching on fire in colder regions like the Northeast and Midwest.

Sarah McBride, center, is the first out transgender member of Congress. Andrew Harnik/Getty Images

Are trans women ‘biologically male’? The answer is complicated

G. Samantha Rosenthal, Washington and Lee University

Republicans are seeking to define ‘sex’ in federal law. But after centuries of debate, doctors, scientists and judges haven’t come to a clear consensus on what the definition of sex should be.

A lunar base on the Moon would include solar panels for power generation, and equipment for keeping astronauts alive on the surface. ESA - P. Carril

The rush to return humans to the Moon and build lunar bases could threaten opportunities for astronomy

Martin Elvis, Smithsonian Institution

The best spots on the Moon for lunar bases are the same spots where scientists want to build telescopes − can these two interests coexist?

A bad feeling can trigger behavior that leads to something better. Rawpixel/iStock via Getty Images Plus

Anger, sadness, boredom, anxiety – emotions that feel bad can be useful

Heather Lench, Texas A&M University

Lots of people will do a lot to avoid feeling negative emotions. But researchers are figuring out how these unpleasant feelings actually have benefits.

Biobots could one day be engineered to deliver drugs and clear up arterial plaque. Kriegman et al. 2020/PNAS

Biobots arise from the cells of dead organisms − pushing the boundaries of life, death and medicine

Peter A Noble, University of Alabama at Birmingham; Alex Pozhitkov, Irell & Manella Graduate School of Biological Sciences at City of Hope

Given the right conditions, certain types of cells are able to self-assemble into new lifeforms after the organism they were once part of has died.

Fast and yummy is often less than healthy. Zinkevych/iStock via Getty Images

AI search answers are the fast food of your information diet – convenient and tasty, but no substitute for good nutrition

Chirag Shah, University of Washington

An information scientist explains that while Google’s AI Overviews and other AI search tools may look enticing, you shouldn’t rely on them to fill all your search needs.