Read more: 鈥Smart Guide 2012: 10 ideas you鈥檒l want to understand鈥
JANUARY
鈥 Egypt cuts its people off from the internet as the 鈥淎rab Spring鈥 begins. In Syria, Tunisia and elsewhere citizens use social media to organise street protests
FEBRUARY
鈥 IBM鈥檚 supercomputer Watson takes on, and beats, two former winners of the US gameshow Jeopardy! Despite a few mistakes it easily wins the $1 million prize
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MARCH
鈥 Magnitude 9.0 earthquake rocks Japan, followed by a tsunami that devastates towns and leaves 20,000 dead or missing. Explosions at Fukushima nuclear plant lead to meltdown when the cooling system fails
APRIL
鈥 A software bot called LIDA shows the first hints of consciousness by reacting just like a human when carrying out simple tasks
鈥 Personal details of 77 million users are stolen after Sony鈥檚 PlayStation Network is hacked 鈥 forcing the firm to take it offline
MAY
鈥 Author Kayt Sukel stimulates herself to climax in an fMRI scanner to learn more about the female orgasm, brains and the control of pain
JUNE
鈥 Physicists at CERN manage to bottle atoms of anti-hydrogen for 1000 seconds 鈥 about 10,000 times longer than before
鈥 Infamous 鈥渉acktivist鈥 group LulzSec announces it is disbanding after 鈥50 days of lulz鈥, during which it attacked a number of corporate targets, including Fox News
JULY
鈥 Space shuttle Atlantis lands at NASA鈥檚 Kennedy Space Center for the last time, bringing the curtain down on the shuttle era after 135 missions
鈥 Antiretroviral drugs shown to not only help those with HIV stay alive but also greatly reduce transmission of the virus to others
AUGUST
鈥 World鈥檚 first 3D-printed aircraft makes its maiden flight in the UK. The parts took just two days to design and five to print
SEPTEMBER
鈥 Shock at claims that neutrinos have travelled faster than the speed of light 鈥 apparently breaking the existing laws of physics
OCTOBER
鈥 First analysis of network of 43,000 companies shows a minority 鈥 mainly banks 鈥 hold a disproportionate amount of power over the global economy
NOVEMBER
鈥 Breakthrough in Alzheimer鈥檚 research as cognitive decline is reduced in two people 鈥 by jolting brain tissue with electrical impulses
鈥 Launch of NASA鈥檚 Martian rover, Curiosity, as part of the Mars Science Laboratory spacecraft. It is due to arrive at the Red Planet in August 2012
DECEMBER
鈥 Two teams at the Large Hadron Collider announce they have found hints of a lightweight Higgs boson
鈥 Climate change conference in Durban, South Africa, ends with agreement to accept targets on emissions in 2020
