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It may not have been the smoothest of landings, but the Rosetta spacecraft's Philae lander bouncing to a halt on the surface of a comet for the first time has been named the most important scientific breakthrough of 2014.

Images and data beamed 500 million miles from 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko to Earth have already begun giving scientists an astonishing insight into what this lump of dusty rock and ice is like.

Among the other achievements highlighted were 40,000-year-old cave paintings discovered in Indonesia, and new cooperative robots that can work together to build structures much like termites. 

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The duck-shaped comet 67P/Churyumov Gerasimenko (left) was finally revealed in intimate detail by Rosetta and its lander Philae after a 10 year journey through space in an achievement that has been named as the greatest scientific breakthrough of 2014 by Science. Scientists used data sent back by the spacecraft to produce a true colour image (right) of what they think the comet would look like through human eyes

Following the successful Philae mission in November, the lander announced it had found organic molecules - the essential building blocks necessary for life. 

Researchers also found that the comet appears to be largely composed of extremely hard water ice - almost as hard as sandstone in fact - that is covered in up to eight inches of dust.

And now editors of the leading journal Science have placed the Rosetta mission and the Philae landing at the top of its annual list of ground breaking scientific achievements for this year. 

Among the others to feature in the top ten was the creation of insulin producing cells from reprogrammed skin cells, which could in the future be used to cure diabetes.

The discovery that prehistoric graffiti of handprints in the Maros caves on the Island of Sulawesi, Indonesia are four times older than previously thought, also featured.

At 40,000-years-old, they are at least as ancient as famous cave art found in Europe and may force anthropologists to rewrite a key step in the development of human culture.

Meanwhile, research that showed bacteria can incorporate two additional genetic 'letters' into their DNA was also listed, along with the development of tiny CubeSats for conducting space science for hundreds of thousands rather than hundreds of millions of dollars.

Another to make the top ten was work by researchers that evoked ideas explored in films such as Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind, where they showed it was possible to manipulate specific memories in mice using a technique that triggers nerve cells in animals brains by zapping them with laser light. 

They were able to delete existing memories and insert false ones. 

Ancient hand prints made by mouth spraying dye onto the wall of a cave in Sulawesi in Indonesia was found to be four times older than originally thought and may lead to the history of human culture being rewritten

Optogenetic techniques that use light to trigger nerve cells allowed scientists to manipulate memories in mice, sparking comparisons with the technology used by Jim Carey in the film Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind

However Tim Appenzeller, news editor of Science, said the stand out achievement of the year came from the Rosetta Mission.

He said: 'Philae's landing was an amazing feat and got the world's attention.

'But the whole Rosetta mission is the breakthrough. 

'It's giving scientists a ringside seat as a comet warms up, breathes, and evolves.'

Rosetta was the result of a international effort including scientists from around the world who worked with Nasa and the European Space Agency to develop the spacecraft and lander.

The challenge of catching and orbiting a 2.5 mile (4km) wide duck-shaped comet travelling at speeds of more than 83,900 mph (135,000km/h) cannot be underestimated.

To have then launched a fridge-sized lander to touch down on the surface of the rotating comet is even greater.

So perhaps it is not surprising it was not entirely smooth.

After a ten-year journey through space, Philae's initial attempt to touch down on the comet's surface was unsuccessful after boosters designed to slow it down and an anchoring system failed.

Instead, it bounced twice before finally coming to rest about half a mile from the initial landing site.

This left Philae lying at an angle and its solar panels partially obscured, giving scientists just 60 hours in which to gather data before it ran out of power completely.

Images taken by the Rosetta spacecraft show Philae's rough landing as it bounced and rotated before finally touching down (seen in the rop right as a bright spot) beside a large rock that obscured its solar panels

Philae made not one, but three, landings on the comet. This graphic shows how the events unfolded

NASA scientist talks about successfully landing on comet

However, there are still hopes that the lander may come back to life as the comet nears the Sun later this year.

Writing for Science, Eric Hand said: 'Regardless of whether Philae wakes up, Rosetta's life at comet 67P has indeed just begun - and it heralds a new age of comet science.'

Science has assembled its Breakthrough of the Year list annually since 1996.

This year they also held a public vote by allowing visitors to their website to select which scientific achievements they felt made the greatest impact.

In the public vote, Rosetta took just 17 per cent of the votes, while the expansion of the genetic alphabet came top with 34 per cent.

Among the other breakthroughs to make the top ten were:

HOW DINOSAURS EVOLVED INTO BIRDS

 An international team of scientists analysed thousands of fossils of dinosaurs and early birds, comparing them to the bones of modern birds.

This allowed them to trace how certain reptiles began developing small, lightweight bodies that then eventually take to the air.

They found that feathers, for example, evolved well before the first birds appeared. Instead of flying they were used for keeping avian dinosaurs warm, for showing off to the opposite sex and perhaps even to help them keep balance.

The researchers also showed that flight may have evolved several times.

Their findings provide the definitive description of how the once lumbering dinosaurs slowly evolved to become smaller and finer boned over time until they finally took to the air.

Scientists discover that modern flyers descended from DINOSAURS

YOUNG BLOOD MAKES A REAL YOUTH SERUM

Scientists also raised hopes it may be possible to rejuvenate the muscles and brains of the elderly by giving them a shot of blood from the young.

Work published in 2014 by researchers at Harvard University showed that a protein isolated from young mouse blood called GDF11 can boost the muscle strength and endurance of an old mouse.

It was also found to spur neuron growth in the brain.

 Another team showed that young blood, or even cell-free blood plasma, can bolster an aging mouse's spatial memory.

Now the first clinical trials are being carried out on 18 middle-aged and elderly Alzheimer's patients who are receiving injections of plasma donated by young adults. 

COOPERATIVE ROBOTS

While some roboticists have wrestled for years to develop androids that work and think more like humans, others have sought inspiration from elsewhere in nature.

Scientists at Harvard University have developed swarms of tiny robots based on termites that can build simple structures without human supervision.

Another American group built thousands of machines, about the same size as a US quarter, that can form squares, letters and other two dimensional shapes.

A third project used 10 quadcopters taht were able to radio their locations to one another and adjust their paths to avoid collisions and fly in formation, creating a rotating circle.

In yet another experiment, a fleet of robotic boats performed relatively sophisticated group maneuvers, under the command of a central computer that tracked them with a camera.

The work has raised hopes that swarm robots will one day be able to take over the fiddly tasks that currently require humans and possibly even perform round the clock repairs in space.

Scientists created self-organising robots (pictured) that can construct towers, castles and pyramids

COMPUTER CHIPS LIKE A HUMAN BRAIN

Computer engineers at IBM and other companies have developed the first large-scale "neuromorphic" chips, designed to process information in ways more akin to living brains.

The human brain works through individual neurons communicating with thousands of their neighbours using chemical signals. 

This enable the brain to process lots of information in parallel with different brain regions specialising to do certain processes to increase efficiency. 

In the average brain there is a network of 100 billion neurons linked by 100 trillion synapes,

By mimicking this architecture of a human brain, IBM's new TrueNorth chip uses 5.4 billion transistors and 256 million synapses. It is now working on even more complex networks.

It believes this will lead to faster computers that are able to think more like humans in the future.

This could transform the ability to make machines have vision and could allow computers to deal with vast quantities of real time data from sensors. 

INDONESIAN CAVE ART MUCH OLDER THAN FIRST THOUGHT

A series of vivid hand stencils and animal paintings in a cave in Indonesia have been found to be four times older than previously thought.

Originally believed to be 10,000 years old, the prehistoric graffit at Maros caves on the island of Sulawesi in Indonesia, were found to actually be 35,000 to 40,000 years old.

The hand stencils, created by blowing and spitting red paint over a hand placed on the wall of the cave, are mixed with pictures of pig-deer in red and mulberry coloured pigments.

The discovery that they are at least as ancient as cave art found in Europe could help to rewrite the ideas that underpin the development of human culture.

While preshistoric humans in Africa were carving geometric deisngs on eggshells as early as 78,000 years ago, the oldest symbolic art appears in Europe between 35,000 and 39,000 years ago.

The new discovery in Indonesia suggests that paintings of this type were already widespread among human populations around the world and hints that modern humans may already have been sophisticated artists when they spread out of Africa 60,000 years ago. 

MANIPULATING MEMORIES WITH LIGHT BEAMS

Much like in the film Eternal Sunshine of a Spotless Mind, researchers have this year shown they can manipulate and even delete memories - in mice at least.

Using a technique called optogentics, which uses viruses to introduce light sensitive molecules into the neurons of mice, they were able to alter the activity of the animal's brains.

This allowed researchers at MIT to delete existing memories and implant false ones. They were also able to switch the emotional context of a memory from bad to good.

While still a controversial form of research, the implications of the technique are profound.

If ever used in humans, it would give doctors the power to control people's behaviour, possibly helping those suffering from addiction or disorders like depression or schizophrenia.

It could also be used to help traumatised soldiers and even help patients with damaged spinal cords to alleviate pain or restore movement by using light to bypass the damaged nerves in the spine. 

Minature satellites called CubeSats are transforming space science by reducing the cost of sending experiments into orbit from hundreds of millions of dollars per launch to just a few hundred thousand dollars

CHEAP SATELLITES

Although they've been blasted into space for more than a decade now, cheap satellites with sides that are just 4 inches (10cm) squared, called CubeSats, really took off in 2014.

Once considered educational tools for college students, these miniature satellites have started to do some real science, according to researchers.

In 2014 more than 75 were launched, conducting space based research such as new Earth imaging equipment and to study how plants sense gravity.

Others have been sent up to test new smartphone technology and satellite communications.

There are hopes that swarms of these CubeSats could be used to create arrays of space telescopes that can stare back down on the Earth to monitor the environment.

EXPANDING THE GENETIC ALPHABET

All life on Earth uses the same basic ingredients to build up its genetic code - long strands of DNA that use four basic molecules that form a kind of genetic alphabet.

Researchers at The Scripps Research Institute in California this year created the first organism that contains two additional genetic letters.

They were able to get the new extended DNA to copy itself.

Although these synthetic bacteria are unable to reproduce outside the laboratory, scientists believe they can be used to make biochemicals with 'unnatural' properties.

Another group of researchers also created an entirely new form of genetic material called XNA and found it could catalyse simple reactions. 

Again they hope that they can use this to create types of synthetic life with new capabilities that can be harnessed.

CLOSER TO A CURE FOR DIABETES?

Two groups pioneered two different methods for growing cells that closely resemble beta cells--the insulin-producing cells of the pancreas--in the laboratory this year, giving researchers an unprecedented opportunity to study diabetes. 

Attempts to use human embryonic stem cells to tackle disease have been frustratingly slow and for nearly a decade scientists have been trying to turn them into cells in the pancreas that make insulin.

Called beta cells, these help to regulate the glucose level in the blood stream, but in sufferers of diabetes, their own immune system can attack these cells and kill them.

This year, however, researchers at the University of British Columbia and Harvard University, showed that it was possible to grow new human beta cells from reprogrammed skin.

However, before these can be used to treat patients, researchers need to find a way of protecting them from the immune response that kills the original beta cells in the first place.

In the meantime they are using beta cells grown from the skin of health subjects to compare with those from diabetes patients to see if they can pinpoint any key differences.