In a year in which scientists and religious groups fought furiously over a pseudo-scientific challenge to accepted explanations of evolution, the weekly magazine chose to lead its top ten with discoveries that "piled up new insights about evolution at the genetic level and the birth of species."

The breakthroughs included "information that could help us lead healthier lives in the future."

The magazine's top ten list came out two days after a US court ruled that it was unconstitutional for a Pennsylvania school to teach the 'intelligent design' concept as an alternative to Darwin's theory of natural selection as the driving force of evolution.

Advanced by religious conservatives and a handful of scientists, intelligent design postulates that nature and biological structures are so complicated that they must have been designed by an unidentified intelligent being, rather than evolving by chance.

"Evolution has been the foundation and guiding theory of biology ever since Darwin gave the theory its proper scientific debut in 1859," Science said.

At the top of the magazine's ten breakthroughs was the mapping of the chimpanzee genome unveiled by researchers in October.

Scientists are using that map, alongside parts of the human genetic sequence, for a better understanding of the evolution of the human species.

The magazine also honored the sequencing of the virus which caused the 1918 global flu pandemic, using in part influenza genes found preserved in permafrost.

That development is particularly important, the magazine said, because the 1918 virus is believed to have started as purely a bird virus. Scientists and health officials around the world are currently studying the rapid spread of another bird flu strain which they fear could jump to humans.

A third genetic discovery noted by Science is the way the Alaskan stickleback fish lost its armor as it evolved from an oceanic, salt-water fish to a freshwater lake-dweller.

In astronomy for the year, Science gave a nod to the landing of the European spacecraft Huygens on the largest moon of Saturn, Titan, which revealed a world shaped by heavy rains of liquid methane.

The magazine named to the top ten list a group of studies on "faulty wiring" in the brain. The studies suggest that conditions like schizophrenia, Tourette syndrome and dyslexia arise from faulty wiring of the brain's neural circuits during fetal development.

Among other big stories of the year, the magazine singled out increasing evidence of global warming, including melting of Arctic ice and altered bird migrations. As "scientific evidence for climate change built up in 2005," the magazine said, "non-scientists seem to have listened."

It also made note of the decision to site the world's first fusion reactor, the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor, in France, chosen over Japan; and setbacks in experimental particle collider projects in the United States.

The magazine called the cancelation of two major experiments, and the possible coming shutdown of one of the United States's three particle colliders, as "Science's breakdown of 2005".

All rights reserved. copyright 2018 Agence France-Presse. Sections of the information displayed on this page (dispatches, photographs, logos) are protected by intellectual property rights owned by Agence France-Presse. As a consequence, you may not copy, reproduce, modify, transmit, publish, display or in any way commercially exploit any of the content of this section without the prior written consent of Agence France-Presse.