The editors of the journal Science have chosen the possible discovery of the elusive Higgs boson as the biggest breakthrough of 2012.
The subatomic particle, named 50 years ago by physicist Peter Higgs, is what scientists believe gives mass to matter. The discovery is monumental because it confirms that the universe works the way that theoretical physicists think it does.
Nine other groundbreaking achievements from 2012 were given honorable mention, including the safe landing of the Mars rover Curiosity this summer, and definitive proof that paralyzed patients could use their mind to move a robotic arm.
All of these earth-shattering events are detailed in the following slides.
NASA's Mars Curiosity rover lands on Mars.
A special "sky crane" landing system placed NASA's Curiosity rover on Mars on Aug. 5. The complicated landing maneuver was famously dubbed the "seven minutes of terror" by NASA engineers because that's how long it took Curiosity to get from the top of the Martian atmosphere down to the surface of the Red Planet. The mission control team had no contact with the one-ton robot during those critical minutes.
Curiosity survived the landing with 100 percent working parts, and is going strong five months into her two-year mission on Mars, sending back new photos and crucial data for future space travel each day.
Scientists created eggs from mice stem cells for the first time.
Japanese researchers showed that embryonic stem cells from mice could be made into viable egg cells, that could be fertilized and result in healthy babies. The healthy mouse pups shown here were bred from the eggs they created. The experiment only involved mice, but may one day be used to treat infertility in humans.
Scientists discovered the structure of a protein involved in the transmission of African sleeping sickness.
Membrane proteins span the outer shell of each and every cell in our bodies, sending signals and shuttling stuff between the inside of the cell and the outside. These proteins play a role in almost everything the cells do, and their involvement is critical in the transmission of diseases and disease-fighting drugs, so understanding their structure is important for developing new drugs to target the disease.
Researchers used an X-ray laser a billion times brighter than traditional X-ray sources to provide a detailed structure of one of these membrane proteins, which plays an important role in the transmission of the parasite that causes African sleeping sickness, a disease that kills around 30,000 people each year. This finding
The enzyme is shown spiking out of the insect's cell membrane below.
See the rest of the story at Business Insider