From solar probes to A.I. art, these breakthroughs changed the course of 2018

The same can be said of the science that happened this year. From a sun-bound space probe to controversial designer babies made by a rogue scientist, this year's science headlines read like chapter titles to a cheap sci-fi novel. NASA's Parker Solar Probe had a bumpy beginning, as a series of budget cuts in the 2000s relegated the mission to a mere twinkle in the agency's eye. But in August, the extraordinary probe, designed to study the sun from the very edge of its atmosphere, finally launched from the Space Launch Complex 37 at Florida's Cape Canaveral Air Force Station. Packed within the Parker Solar Probe's heat shield are a slew of instruments designed to measure electric and magnetic fields within the sun's corona and solar wind, transmitting that information back to astronomers on Earth for analysis.