Higgs Boson
The capture of the most wanted sub-atomic particle in physics was today named as Science journal's Biggest Breakthrough of the Year.Scientists had been chasing the Higgs boson, nicknamed the 'God
particle' for more than four decades. In July the team from the European
nuclear research facility at Cern in Geneva announced the detection of a
particle that fitted the description of the elusive Higgs.The boson
is believed to give matter mass via an associated 'Higgs field' that
permeates space. Without the property of mass, the universe we live in
could not exist. Scientists used the world's biggest atom smashing
machine, the £2.6billion Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French
border, to track down the missing particle.Finding the Higgs topped
the list of most important discoveries of 2012 released today by
Science, one of the world's most prestigious scientific journals.
The
Denisovan Genome
Scientists sequenced the DNA blueprint of the
Denisovans, an extinct species of human that lived alongside
Neanderthals and the ancestors of people living today.
Making Eggs
From Stem Cells
Japanese researchers showed that embryonic stem cells
from mice could be coaxed into becoming viable egg cells.
Curiosity's
Landing System
Mission engineers at the American space agency NASA
safely and precisely placed the Curiosity rover on the surface of Mars.
They used a 'sky crane' that dropped the 3.3 ton rover to the surface
from a hovering platform on three cables.
X-ray Laser Provides
Protein Structure
Researchers used an X-ray laser, which shines a
billion times brighter than traditional synchrotron sources, to
determine the structure of an enzyme required by the parasite that
causes African sleeping sickness.
Precision Engineering of Genomes
The revision and deletion of DNA in higher organisms has generally been
hit-or-miss. In 2012, a tool known as TALENs, which stands for
'transcription activator-like effector nucleases,' allowed scientists to
alter or inactivate specific genes in animals such as zebra fish and
toads, and cells from patients with disease.
Majorana Fermions
The
existence of Majorana fermions, particles that act as their own
antimatter and annihilate themselves, has been debated for more than
seven decades. This year, a team of physicists and chemists in the
Netherlands provided the first solid evidence that such exotic matter
exists, in the form of quasi-particles. These are groups of interacting
electrons that behave like single particles.
The ENCODE Project
A
decade-long study reported this year in more than 30 papers revealed
that the human genetic code is more functional than researchers had
believed. Although just 2% of the genome codes for actual proteins, the
Encyclopaedia of DNA Elements, or ENCODE, project indicated that about
80% of it is active in ways such as helping to switch genes on or off.
Brain-Machine Interfaces
Scientists showed that paralysed human
patients could move a mechanical arm with their minds and perform
complex movements in three dimensions.
Neutrino Mixing Angle
Hundreds
of researchers working on the Daya Bay Reactor Neutrino Experiment in
China found the last part of the jigsaw describing how particles known
as neutrinos morph from one strain or 'flavour' to another as they
travel at near-light speed. daily times monitor
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