THE BEST SCIENCE OF 1993

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9 Mayamania A series of dramatic discoveries -- including four lost cities in the jungles of southern Belize -- shed new light on the ancient civilization of the Maya, which flourished in Central America between the years 250 and 900 and then suddenly collapsed, apparently the victim of infighting, overpopulation and reckless destruction of the rain forest.

10 Born Gay What makes people gay? New findings suggested it is not misguided upbringing, mental illness or willful choice, as some would have it, but an inherited propensity passed on most often on the mother's side of the family.

...And the Worst

Superconducting Supercollider Big Science took a big hit when Congress finally pulled the plug on the Superconducting Supercollider, the 54-mile-around atom smasher that was supposed to be the world's largest and most sophisticated scientific instrument but is now just a $2 billion hole in the ground. The SSC was doomed when its projected cost escalated from $5 billion to more than $11 billion, making it look less like Big Science and more like Big Bloated Bureaucracy.