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The scale of the experiment matches the scale of the intellectual leap achieved. A huge apparatus, 27 kilometres in circumference, buried 100 metres below the French-Swiss border near Geneva, accelerated particles in a near-perfect vacuum to speeds just below that of light and measured the effect of their collisions. Minute variations in energy released prove the existence of the Higgs boson, which had been postulated in theory by Peter Higgs in 1964 to explain the mass of elementary particles. Wednesday's discovery, published by two separate groups of researchers working in isolation from each other, can be compared with the discovery of DNA, or Einstein's theory of relativity, or the splitting of the atom. Achievements such as those are like peaks in a mountain range. They draw the world's attention, but really it is the great mass of the range itself that holds the peaks up which has more significance. Without the massive bulk below, the peaks would not reach so high. For science that great mass is a huge amount of lead-up work. The standard model of particle physics is the work of many hundreds of researchers, only one of whom was Professor Higgs. That achievement sits within the millions of achievements of the wider research effort of the whole science community. And that is enclosed, too, within the wider community which understands and supports what science has achieved and can achieve. Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/opinion/editorial/science-gets-a-chance-to-show-the-way-20120706-21mf2.html#ixzz21rjUGfs0

The "Fukushima disaster" clouds the merits of nuclear power, argues Martin Freer. The dramatic events that unfolded at Japan's Fukushima Daiichi nuclear-power plant after last year's tsunami are commonly referred to as "the Fukushima disaster." We need look no further than this description to begin to understand the significant misconceptions that surround nuclear energy.

Westerners associate terrorism in Pakistan with suicide bombers, but an emerging terrorist threat for Pakistani women is acid attacks.