This year, there was renewed interest in the periodic table, which arranges the chemical elements in order of their atomic numbers, after scientists discovered four new elements.
Joining the table are nihonium (nee-HO-nee-um) (atomic number 113), moscovium (mos-KO-vee-um) (115), tennessine (TEN-eh-seen) (117) and oganesson (o-guh-NESS-on) (118).
Just as chemists were celebrating new discoveries, physicists were excited, too, about the detection of faint ripples in the fabric of space-time called gravitational waves for the first time.
It confirmed a prediction by Albert Einstein in 1916.
By the middle of the year, it was space nerds celebrating the successful entry of an unmanned spacecraft into Jupiter's orbit.
Juno is expected to send information back to Earth while studying what lies beneath Jupiter's thick clouds and mapping the planet's enormous magnetic fields.
Lead scientist Scott Bolton said the mission will help scientists understand the formation of the solar system.
Other scientific breakthroughs of note included the birth of the world's first so-called "three-person baby."
Doctors in the United States revealed a boy had been conceived through a new technique known as "three-person fertility."
The step was taken to ensure the baby would not inherit a genetic condition his mother carries in her genes.
And perhaps one of the most significant agreements in recent history was ratified by almost 200 countries -- including Australia -- bringing it into effect globally.
The Paris climate deal, reached in the French capital in 2015, lays out a global plan to take steps aimed at limiting climate change.
