Cracking the Quantum Safe

THIS summer, physicists celebrated a triumph that many consider fundamental to our understanding of the physical world: the discovery, after a multibillion-dollar effort, of the Higgs boson.

Exomoons may give us first glimpse of habitable worlds

That's no planet (Image: Frizaven/3D Space Simulator Celestia)

Moons, rather than planets, could star in the first images of habitable worlds outside our solar system. Once taken, such images would offer unprecedented clues to the moons' ability to support life by providing the chemical signatures carried in their light.

Manipulators of quantum world win physics Nobel

When quantum theory was born, practical applications such as quantum computers and super-accurate atomic clocks would have seemed virtually impossible. This year's Nobel prize in physics, announced this morning, rewards two pioneers who made today's quantum technology possible.

Cloning and stem cell Nobel for Gurdon and Yamanaka

This year's Nobel prize in Physiology or Medicine has been awarded to John Gurdon at the University of Cambridge and Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University in Japan. They rewrote biology textbooks by showing that mature cells could be reprogrammed into embryonic cells that could then turn into all other tissues of the body.

Top 10 most influential popular science books

Darwin, Hawking, Dawkins… New Scientist readers voted for the 10 popular science books that helped changed the world

HALF a century ago, biologist Rachel Carson sent shock waves through US society. By the time her book Silent Spring hit the shelves on 27 September 1962, it had already sparked fierce debate. In the weeks before publication, President John F. Kennedy had to field questions about the widespread use of pesticides, an issue he noted had become a central scientific concern - thanks to "Miss Carson's book".