The world was dealt some major blows in 2020, and this was reflected in what made the list of Top 10 research news stories from the University of Central Florida.

Topping the list were stories about the collapse of the Arecibo Observatory radio telescope in Puerto Rico and research UCF is doing to curb the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rounding out the list were stories of hope. These included stories about research into using judo to help children with autism succeed, the importance of gratitude in the workplace, and detecting cancer before it spreads.

The Top 10 list is based on page views the stories received on UCF Today and pickup they received in global, national, state and local media. The stories were generated from UCF’s Office of Research and colleges.

Here’s the Top 10 UCF research news stories for 2020:

  1. Broken Cable Damages Arecibo Observatory
  2. UCF Scientists Seek Novel Material to Kill COVID-19
  3. Asteroid Visiting Earth’s Neighborhood Brings its Own Face Mask
  4. UCF Researchers Identify Features That Could Make Someone a Virus Super-Spreader
  5. UCF Researchers Develop Groundbreaking New Rocket-Propulsion System
  6. UCF Study: Judo May Help Health, Social Interaction of Children Diagnosed with Autism Spectrum Disorder
  7. AI Can Detect COVID-19 in the Lungs Like a Virtual Physician, New Study Shows
  8. UCF Researcher Finds New Signal That Your Breast Cancer Is Growing
  9. Study Shows Keeping Gratitude Journal Reduces Gossip, Incivility in Workplace
  10. UCF Receives NSF RAPID Award to Develop Cough Drops to Help Control COVID-19

UCF saw more than 3,000 research stories published in the media, including major national outlets, such as CNN, Wall Street Journal, The New York Times, NPR, National Geographic, Wired, Vice, Smithsonian Magazine and more.

Local stories appeared in the Orlando Sentinel, WFTV, Fox35, WESH, Spectrum News 13, WKMG, WMFE, Orlando Business Journal, Florida Today, Florida Trend and many more.

The UCF research stories that appeared in media outlets reached more than 6.2 billion total potential viewers in 2020, which is based on the number of visitors to a source from both desktop and mobile devices.