In 2013 a constitutional convention was held in Ireland to discuss proposed amendments to the Irish constitution. One of the issues discussed was that of same-sex marriage. The proposal pertaining to that matter was a success and on May 22nd, two years after the convention was held, Ireland is set to vote on same-sex marriage.

As a researcher in psychology, my days are often spent meeting strangers who have agreed to take part in my research. Mostly it’s an enjoyable experience, and you can meet the most unusual and eccentric individuals. And yet, despite the uniqueness of each encounter, it always begins and ends the same way: A greeting, a handshake, and a wave.

Before we bid adieu to 2014 and open our hearts to the mystery of the New Year, however, we would like to take a moment to reflect on what has been and gone. As such, in what follows, the brightest and best of IANS staff contemplate what made the past year great, what it made it awful and, above all, what made it memorable.

Like it or loath it, the ice bucket challenge was a massive success for Motor Neuron Disease (MND) associations. As of September, the challenge had raised over £6million for the UK MND Association and a cool $100million for the American ALS Association.

Science is a tricky thing to describe. Definitions can be reductionist; for example, the Merriam-Webster Dictionary states that science is “knowledge about, or study of, the natural world based on facts learned through experiments and observation”.