Higgs Boson Discovery at the LHC
Easily the biggest science story of the year (and dubbed 2012 Breakthrough of the Year by the journal Science and given the distinction of "Particle of the Year" by Time magazine) is the evidence from the Large Hadron Collider that suggested they may have found the elusive Higgs boson, sometimes called "The God Particle" fondly by journalists (and irritatingly by physicists).
This particle is the last component of the Standard Model of Particle Physics to be discovered, and the July 4 announcement from the LHC researchers swept the physics community. The big question is whether the discovered properties of the Higgs boson would be a springboard into new physics, such as the theoretical supersymmetry property that many physicists (especially those studying string theory) have long been hoping to discover. Unfortunately, so far nothing about the Higgs boson (or some other research from the LHC) have pointed at real evidence of supersymmetry, leaving physicists to wonder if this idea may not need to be rethought.
Curiously, evidence released in mid-December 2012 hinted that the LHC data might be actually showing two versions of the Higgs boson, not just one. This comes from the fact that the ATLAS experiment is showing decays at two different energies: 123.5 GeV and 126.6 GeV. This is happening just on the ATLAS experiment, though, and the CMS experiment is still showing just a single result around 126, so there's a good chance that these two energies are a technical glitch of some kind with ATLAS, and physicists are very tentative about it. However, there's another result that is unexpected and showing up in both ATLAS and CMS, which might also hint at something unusual going on. Put very simply, the particle is "decaying into two photons more often than it should."
All of these open questions about the Higgs boson should become much clearer over the course of the next year, as more data is obtained from the LHC, meaning that there's a very good chance the Higgs boson will show upon 2013's list of top physics stories as well.
Majorana Fermions Discovered
Another discovery this year is of Majorana fermions, a theoretical type of particle predicted back in 1937. If this bears out, these particles - which act as their own antiparticles and are stable even in response to environmental influences - might provide a key insight into how to build functional qubits, a crucial element in the design and creation of quantum computers.Curiosity Descent and Landing on Mars
It was great to see the excitement generated over the Mars Curiosity Rover. One of the key elements to generate this excitement was the amazing landing system they used, where the launch capsule collided with the atmosphere and use friction and heat shields to slow down, then hover in the air and it lowers the rover down (while hovering, mind you!) to gently touch down on Mars. The fact that it worked pretty much exactly as planned is probably one of the greatest engineering achievements in the history of mankind, though sadly too fleeting to be memorialized in the same way as the pyramids or other such engineering feats of the past.If you haven't seen the videos of this, then check out the NASA Curiosity website for more information.
Brain-Machine Interfaces
In an amazing advance in cybernetic technology, engineers have vastly improved mind-body interfaces this year. The technology has advanced to the point where paralyzed individuals can operate cybernetic limbs with the power of their thoughts, which is a vast improvement over previous interfaces, which could allow individuals to move computer images, such as cursors, by thought. (Which, in itself, was a pretty cool achievement!)Transforming Neutrinos
Physicists have discovered neutrinos (electron antineutrinos, actually) that transform into other particles. This behavior had previously been expected, but now that it's been detected, physicists are finding that the rate of the transformation is different from what was expected. Increased study of this phenomenon could help understand the relationship of the matter-antimatter symmetry in our universe.Big Year for Einstein's Brain
In perhaps one of the stranger physics-related stories, it's been a really big year the brain of Albert Einstein. See, it turns out that sections of his brain were "stolen" (for lack of a better word) after his death. Honest. This is charmingly recounted in the book Driving Mr. Albert: A Trip Across America with Einstein's Brain by Michael Paterniti, about the journalist who returned Einstein's brain pieces to his family.
This year, we saw two related pieces of information. The first was the appearance of Einstein's brain in an iPad app: Einstein Brain Atlas (read a review at Wired magazine). And, if that weren't enough, research published in the journal Brain showed that Einstein's brain had "extra folding in his brain's grey matter," including "much more complicated folding across the cerebral cortex, which is the gray matter on the surface of the brain responsible for conscious thought. In general, thicker gray matter is tied to higher IQs," as reported at Live Science.
