SciByte

According to the theory, a particle acquires mass through its interaction with the Higgs field, which is believed to pervade all of space and has been compared to molasses that sticks to any particle rolling through it.

the Higgs would be responsible for how particles come together to form matter, and without it, the universe would have remained a formless miss-mash of particles shooting around at the speed of light.

Both the CMS (top) and the ATLAS (bottom) detectors see evidence of the Higgs boson decaying into a pair of photons in the form of a peak in a so-called mass plot. The agreement of the two peaks and other data clinch the discovery of the Higgs.

CMS detector see clear signs of the Higgs decaying into two photons

From the energies of the two photons, physicists can infer the mass of their supposed parent particle

Peter Ware Higgs, FRS, FRSE, FKC

British theoretical physicist and emeritus professor at the University of Edinburgh

so-called Higgs mechanism, which was proposed by several physicists besides Higgs at about the same time, predicts the existence of a new particle, the Higgs boson (often described as "the most sought-after particle in modern physics

As time passes and more research is done, more evidence is compiled supporting the theory that suggests that dark matter is a real thing, even though no direct evidence for its existence has ever been found

evidence comes about as measurements of other phenomenon are taken, generally involving gravitational pull on objects in the universe we can see that cannot be explained by other means

One of these instances is where weak gravitational lensing occurs, which is where light appears to bend as it passes by large objects

During low-light conditions, drivers rely mainly on headlights to see the road but the same headlights reduce visibility when light is reflected off of precipitation back to the driver

Carnegie Mellon professor and his team

Computer science professor Srinivasa Narasimhan

Joe Incandela, leader of one of the teams known as CMS, told scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research, or CERN, that his team of 2,100 scientists has "observed" a new particle that is a boson

data as consistent with the elusive Higgs boson

stopped short of definitively declaring discovery of the Higgs boson.

All theorists today agree that our current theoretical model has its limits

the Standard Model

has more than 100 free parameters, making it impossible to obtain predictions without assigning fixed values to some of these parameters

Boson The collective name given to the particles that carry forces between particles of matter

Higgs boson A particle predicted by theory. It is linked with the mechanism by which physicists think particles acquire mass.

Cassini scientists will keep a close eye on Titan's south pole for further developments, which could shed light on the moon's complex, methane-based weather system

new vantage point granted by its inclined orbit researchers have gotten a new look at the south pole of Titan

We suspect that this maelstrom, clearly forming now over the south pole and spinning more than forty times faster than the moon’s solid body, may be a harbinger of what will ultimately become a south polar hood as autumn there turns to winter.  Of course, only time will tell.

New research suggests that swirling designs on the dusty lunar surface might be the product of electric fields generated by pockets of magnetic bubbles.

looking at these strange, mysterious structures since the invention of the telescope

long suspected that weak magnetic fields near the moon’s surface might shape the looping patterns

4 percent as bright as Pluto II (Nix) and half as bright as S/2011 (134340) 1

new moon has been discovered orbiting Pluto, scientists announced

July 11

discovery comes almost exactly one year after Hubble spotted Pluto's fourth moon, a tiny body currently called P4

lists image sets acquired on 5 separate occasions in June and July. According to the abstract, P5 is 4% as bright as Nix and 50% as bright as P4.

After spending 3 years at sea and traveling up to 300 kilometers away from home, a rainbow trout can swim straight back to its original hatching ground, following freshwater streams inland and rarely heading in the wrong direction

likely relies on many senses; the fish have superb eyesight and smell

trout also seem to rely on Earth's magnetic fields, which point them in the right direction

Cellular change thought to happen only in late-stage cancers to help tumors spread also occurs in early-stage lung cancer as a way to bypass growth controls

study points to EMT as a key step in lung cancer progression during the earliest stages of cancer development

Normal cells recognize when they are dividing too rapidly, and turn on programs that block inappropriate cell division

Two powerful brain chemical systems work together to paralyze skeletal muscles during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep

During REM sleep — the deep sleep where most recalled dreams occur — your eyes continue to move but the rest of the body's muscles are stopped

In a series of experiments

Researchers at Sandia National Laboratories have developed a lab-on-a-disk platform that they believe will be faster, less expensive and more versatile than similar medical diagnostic tools

seeking industry partners to license and commercialize the SpinDx technology

can determine a patient's white blood cell count, analyze important protein markers, and process up to 64 assays from a single sample, all in a matter of minutes.

Methylation of the gene could be used to flag up breast cancer patients who have a greater chance of the disease spreading – helping doctors decide what treatment plan would be most effective.

high levels of a molecular modification called methylation on a gene called CACNA2D3, were linked to the spread of the disease in breast cancer patients

gene CACNA2D3 is a known tumour suppressor gene which prevents cancer

Jimi Crawford, who had been engineering director for the Google Books project since 2009, has signed on with Moon Express

will serve as chief technology officer and software architect for the Silicon Valley firm, which is competing in the Google Lunar X Prize, a $30 million private race to the moon.

25 teams participating in the Google Lunar X Prize, an international challenge to land a robot on the lunar surface, have it travel at least 1,650 feet (500 meters) and send data and images back to Earth.