Posted: Dec 18, 2020 5:01 PM ET | Last Updated: December 21, 2020 A man wearing a face mask and holding a sign is approached by a woman attending a rally and march held by protesters opposed to COVID-19 regulations, in Vancouver, on October 18. (Darryl Dyck / THE CANADIAN PRESS) Often at this time of year, we might have a list of the top science stories of the year, but this season COVID-19 took over many different areas of science as we all scrambled to face a new reality. While the first private rocket flight to the International Space Station, Japan's sample return mission from an asteroid and China's sample return mission from the moon briefly grabbed headlines, it was the COVID-19 pandemic that rallied scientists around the world to work together to fight the emerging disease.