The previous year has forced us to confront difficult science questions: Was processing patents Einstein’s real strength? Are there any other planets out there like Earth? Why is the universe composed of matter instead of antimatter? 2011 had a bumper crop of fascinating science and technology stories, so many that it’s impossible to call ten stories "the top” but the audience expects it.  So, courtesy of Ysabel Yates at Txchnologist, here are ten notable events from a long list, in no particular order and slightly edited.

A study in Cancer Discovery says mutations in the ATM gene may increase the hereditary risk for pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most morbid cancers, with less than 5 percent of those diagnosed with the disease surviving to five years. Approximately 10 percent of patients come from families with multiple cases of pancreatic cancer.

Using next-generation sequencing, including whole genome and whole exome analyses, they identified ATM gene mutations in two kindreds with familial pancreatic cancer. When those initial findings were examined in a large series for patients, ATM mutations were present in four of 166 subjects with pancreatic cancer but were absent in 190 spousal control subsets. 

An international clinical trial shows that treating ovarian cancer with the drug bevacizumab ("Avastin") delays the disease and may also improve survival. 

The findings in the New England Journal of Medicine report that the drug halted the cancer's return for two months overall but for women with the highest risk disease, the delay was five to six months and the findings also indicate a strong trend to improved overall survival, which is being analyzed until 2013. 

The seven-year study began in 2004 and enrolled 1,528 women with ovarian cancer at 263 centres, including 20 in Canada. Avastin was added to chemotherapy treatment and given intravenously every three weeks for 12 months.

In March 2011, a surgical team at Brigham and Women's Hospital (BWH) performed the first full face transplantation (FFT) in the United States and went on to complete a total of three FFTs this year.

Writing in the New England Journal of Medicine, researchers evaluate FFT in the US and describe details of patient preparation, design and execution of the operation as well as unique immunosuppression protocol allowing for lowest long-term maintenance drug regimen. They also share details of the early functional outcomes and demonstrate FFT as a viable option in the treatment of severe facial deformities and injuries. 

Prejudice is just bigotry that arises from flawed ideology, right?  Not so, say the authors of a new paper.

They contend prejudice stems from a deeper psychological need and it is associated with a particular way of thinking. People who aren't comfortable with ambiguity and want to make quick and firm decisions are also prone to making generalizations about others. People who are prejudiced feel a much stronger need to make quick and firm judgments and decisions in order to reduce ambiguity.

And, they argue, it's virtually impossible to change this basic way that people think.

Champagne, unlike other wines, undergoes a second fermentation in the bottle to trap carbon dioxide gas, which dissolves into the wine and forms the fabled bubbles in the bubbly. More than 600 different chemical compounds join carbon dioxide in champagne, each lending its own unique quality to the aroma and flavor of champagne. 

But even with all of that flavor, champagne would be just another white wine without those tiny bubbles. As the bubbles ascend the length of a glass in tiny trains, they drag along molecules of those 600 flavor and aroma substances. They literally explode out of the surface as the bubbles burst, tickling the nose and stimulating the senses.

The last 65 million years of natural history in North America may be broken into six distinct, consecutive waves of mammal species diversity, or evolutionary faunas', according to a new paper in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

Swiss Army Jewelry?

The recent discovery of a pendant at the Irikaitz archaeological site in Zestoa in the Basque province of Gipuzkoa may be as old as 25,000 years, which would make it the oldest on the Iberian Peninsula.  This stone is nine centimeters long and has a hole for hanging it from the neck although it would seem it was used to sharpen tools. 

The late Devonian, about 390 million years ago to roughly 360 million years ago, was a time of struggle and escape for fish in a drying environment, theorized paleontologist Alfred Romer.  That circumstances and necessity for continued survival were vital in fish-tetrapod transition.