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Science In Action: Science in Action 2012 Highlights

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27/12/2012

Science in Action 2012 Highlights

BBC World Service - Science In Action, Science in Action 2012 Highlights

Top science stories from 2012 on the BBC World Service

Discovery of the Higgs Boson; The STAGE science play competition; MEMO Project mourning the loss of species; The Mars Rover landing

Higgs Boson discovered
Scientists working at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at CERN, have claimed the discovery of a new particle that is consistent with the Higgs Boson.

The Higgs Boson is the last, missing ingredient in a recipe for the Universe that physicists have been cooking up since the 1960s.  The other ingredients are subatomic particles like quarks, and electrons, which combine to make the atoms out of which we’re all made; and the four forces that govern the way they combine and behave. 
Photo credit: AFP/Getty Images)

STAGE Science play competition
STAGE – which stands for Scientists, Technologists & Artists Generating Exploration, is a competition to find new science-based drama with a $10,000 prize.  You may remember that last December, Science in Action covered the contest as it entered its fifth year.  

MEMO – Mass Extinction Monument Observatory
Plans are underway to build a beautiful monument to species going extinct worldwide.  Conceived as a continuous spiral of stone, it will be lined with the carved images of all 850 species to have perished since the Dodo in the 17th century.
The Mass Extinction Monument Observatory will be built on the Isle of Portland on the south coast of Britain, overlooking the UNESCO Jurassic Coast – the World Heritage Site where many important fossils have been uncovered.

Mars Science Lab
The US space agency successfully landed its one tonne robot rover, Curiosity, on Mars in August.  It has now embarked on a mission of at least two years to look for evidence that Mars may once have supported life.  The signal confirming the rover was on the ground safely was relayed to Earth via NASA's Odyssey satellite, which is in orbit around the Red Planet.  The success was greeted with a roar of approval at mission control at the Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in Pasadena, California.

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