It’s unfortunate but science news doesn’t get nearly the attention other news does. Politicians, for example, often say and do things that are obviously unimportant and have no significant impact on the present or future but still get far more media coverage than developments in science that have profound implications for all of us. What follows are five science news stories from 2011 that you probably didn’t hear about because they didn’t involve political bickering or a Kardashian. These are stories, however, that really do matter and you should be aware of them. Don’t fall into the trap of believing that living on a small island in the Caribbean somehow makes you less connected to these stories. It’s your universe too, just as much as anyone else’s.

1. Astronomers using the Kepler Space Telescope found Kepler-22B, a planet that is remarkably similar to Earth. It’s nice and solid and it orbits a star in the so-called “habitable zone”, an area that may give it ideal conditions for life as we know it. Kepler-22B is 600 light years away so we won’t be visiting it anytime soon, but it does feed the fires of excitement about the possibility of extraterrestrial life. It always made sense to believe that the universe contained worlds like ours. Now we know that it does.

2. One of the most basic and important questions of all is: How many species of life do we share the Earth with? It came closer than ever to being answered in 2011. I’ve written about biodiversity, extinction, and conservation issues for many years so I have long been aware of how clueless we are on this matter. I’ve cited estimates from credible sources, for example, that ranged from 2 million up to 200 million. Fortunately scientists in 2011 came up with a formula that seems to provide the most reliable estimate yet: 8.7 million. Unfortunately their work excludes bacteria so we still work to do.

3. Just when you think you are getting to know your universe, something weird pops up. In 2011 astronomers reported the discovery of planets that do not orbit a star. Who knew? The universe may be filled with planets flying around on their own, free from the prison of a star’s gravity. Scientists think there may be more of these free-range planets out there than there are stars!

4. While most people continue to view global warming as merely another political issue to be rejected or accepted based on whether one is a conservative or liberal, the scientific community continues to pile up evidence that our planet is warming and the consequences are likely to be severe. In 2011 researchers found that the amount of sea ice in the Arctic region is at its lowest since records were first kept.

5. I won’t burden you with a lecture on Relativity but please know this: Something weird, unexpected, and potentially universe-changing appears to have happened in 2011. Physicists Geneva, Switzerland clocked neutrinos (tiny parts of atoms) moving faster than the speed of light. What’s the big deal, you ask? The big deal is that nothing is supposed to be able to move faster than the speed of light—nothing! The experiment was repeated and held up. Of course the matter still has to survive the brutal gauntlet of scientific scrutiny before it earns widespread acceptance. However, if nobody finds a flaw in the experiment or somehow explains it away, it likely means a major rewrite of physics is coming. So what, you ask? Well, physics is the science of everything. It’s the beginning and end of our reality. If valid, this experiment is not only one of the biggest science news stories of 2011. It’s one of the biggest stories in all of history.