From an unprecedented U.S. presidential campaign season, to the ongoing Israel-Hamas war in Gaza, to the continued rise of extremism around the globe, 2024 has been another turbulent year in the U.S.

As nearly half of the world’s population headed to the polls this year, politics grabbed many of the headlines. But scientists and the natural world also managed to attract the public’s attention.

The truth hurts — any longtime documentary viewer, who’s likely sat through hundreds of hours of narrators intoning about atrocities over you-are-there footage, can tell you that. It’s also a concept ...