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2009 Review of the Year

It was the year that saw the first pandemic in 40 years sweep the globe and it concluded with the United Nations climate summit in Copenhagen. Nature looks back at a year that also saw the Large Hadron Collider start pummelling protons and the discovery of water on the Moon.

Newsmaker of the Year

  • Steven Chu made his name — and earned his Nobel Prize — for developing new ways to control atoms. Now, as secretary of the Department of Energy in the Obama administration, he has taken on the much bigger challenge of transforming the way the world's largest economy powers itself. He is revamping energy research in the United States to pursue more high-risk ideas and he is luring top scientists from other fields into this arena. At the same time, he has made it a mission to help promote the passage of a climate bill in the United States Congress. For these reasons, Nature has selected Chu as its newsmaker of the year.

    Profile: Steven Chu

    As a physicist, he found a way to capture atoms and won a Nobel prize. Now he is marshalling scientists and engineers to transform the world's biggest energy economy. Eric Hand profiles the US energy secretary, Nature's Newsmaker of the Year.

    Nature 462, 978-983 ( )

Editorial

  • A clean slate

    Nature is pleased to name physicist Steven Chu, Nobel laureate and the US Secretary of Energy, as its Newsmaker of the Year.

    Nature 462, 957 ( )

That was 2009

Research picks of the year

  • Research Highlights

    Nature's editors look back on some of their favourite papers published elsewhere this year.

    Nature 468, 1036 ( )

  • Method of the year

    With its ability to return mature body cells to a pluripotent state, induced pluripotency has wide-ranging potential as a tool for discovery in both disease and basic biology and is our choice for Method of the Year 2009.