Almost half a century after the idea was conceived, physicists at the Large Hadron Collider announced the discovery of a particle consistent with the elusive Higgs boson, which explains why all other particles have mass. Peter Higgs, after whom the particle was named, was at Cern to hear the announcement. He commented: "It's really an incredible thing that it's happened in my lifetime."
London staged the Olympics in July, with a declaration that its Olympic doping lab was the most high-tech ever. But some questioned whether it was time to redefine what's meant by doping and performance enhancement. There was also the revelation that a third of paralympic athletes with spinal injuries could be harming themselves to boost performance.
August
Nasa's huge Curiosity rover survived the seven minutes of terror it takes to land on Mars. The agency used a hovering, rocket-powered crane to lower Curiosity to the ground on nylon cords.
August was also the month that a towering figure in spaceflight was mourned. Neil Armstrong, the first man on the Moon, died from complications following heart surgery several weeks earlier. After touching down on the lunar surface on 20 July 1969, Armstrong famously described the event as "one small step for a man, one giant leap for mankind". President Obama paid tribute to one of the great American heroes "not just of his time, but of all time".