Science mattered more than ever in 2013. Climate science questions raged after Super Typhoon Haiyan pummeled the Philippines. And scientific expertise figured in disarmament debates in Syria and in Iran's proposed halt to its nuclear activities. Meanwhile, on the pure research front, investigators made plenty of intriguing discoveries in 2013. With plenty to choose from, and argue over, here's a top five list of some favorites from the year. 1. Space gets more crowded. "Buy land, they're not making it anymore," Mark Twain famously advised investors. Twain never heard of exoplanets, of course. Caltech researchers suggested this year that at least 100 billion such worlds orbit stars in our Milky Way galaxy. That's a lot of new real estate. (See " Smallest Exoplanets Found—Each Tinier Than Earth .") Of course, not all of them are places you would want to live. A November analysis from NASA's Keck Observatory team suggested