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DiscoverMagazine.com
instagram.com/discover.magazineYour Curiosity Fix
It starts in the early spring, as the
snow begins to leave for good.
Discover editors huddle every couple of
weeks to talk over the hot science news
and hash out which stories will be the
top finds of the year.
This year, by April, we figured we had
our No. 1 contender: Astronomers, for
the first time, had an image of a black
hole. And it wasn’t like this was a black
hole right in our neighborhood; it was
55 million light-years away. Getting this
shot meant you needed a telescope the
size of the planet — which is exactly what
they used.
Discoveries like these keep us curious,
and it’s why we take the time to assess the
broadest possible range of research over
many months. Because it’s thrilling to
gaze at an image of something so ridicu-
lously far away. It’s just as important,
and alarming, to see a photo of sled dogs
racing across a melting Greenland ice
sheet that’s turned into a giant puddle.
This annual issue brings you closer
to understanding gene therapy as it
begins to land in clinics. It questions
why CBD seems to be everywhere,
and how 1 million plants and animals
could be on the brink of extinction —
the most ever in human history.
If you’re curious about life on this
planet — and off it — then this issue is
for you.O«
Becky Lang
Editor in Chief Feel free to send comments and questions
to [email protected]EDITOR’S NOTE