PEOPLE might think Bendigo is a sleepy backwater when it comes to ground-breaking science.
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Those people would simply be wrong.
The city has an international reputation for cutting-edge science that is pushing into the outer limits of humanity's knowledge.
Here are just a few amazing things Bendigo scientists revealed this year:
Race to shed light on cancer, deadly viruses
These beautiful, haunting images of cancer cells and deadly viruses are not just for show. They could help Bendigo scientists deal with the deadliest threats to humanity.
The city is home to one of only a handful of microscopes humanity can use to peer at a single molecule.
It is helping scientists discover the "pathways" viruses use to attack body cells and could help them fight everything from the common cold to Zika.
Your brain plays tricks on you. Bendigo scientists want to know why
Take two different sized balls, hold them in each hand and one will feel heavier, even if they actually weigh the same. It is a simple illusion that could unlock profound mysteries of the human mind.
A lab at Bendigo's La Trobe University campus is charting this brain-bending territory.
But that's not all. Some psychologists believe that we cannot really understand your mind until we fool your pet pooch.
Bendigo has become a global hub for dog psychology in recent years and scientists have made huge strides in understanding our canine companions' - and by extension our own - minds.
Gold explorers stampede into central Victoria, but can they find enough to mine?
A decade after a spectacular fall from grace, investors are flocking to find the mother lode under central Victoria.
Yet doubt remains about whether it really is there.
Here is the story about how ambitious dreams to tunnel under the centre of Bendigo came crashing down and why it never really died.
Could sea algae fight diabetes? Bendigo scientist says 'yes!'
Could Australia's bush and seas be hiding the healthiest diet in the world?
A Bendigo-based scientist says it could. She could be on the cusp of a breakthrough that would revolutionise diabetes drugs and treatments.
Dr Snezana Agatonovic-Kustrin is using specimens harvested in Australia and Malaysia to see if there is something better than the "Mediterranean diet", which is widely regarded as the healthiest in the world.
More from our look back at 2020:
Tom O'Callaghan
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
I grew up in Bendigo and I want to tell your stories.
