The Higgs boson, the last particle in physics’ standard model, falls into place, opening new windows to explore in the universe. (p. 5)

Ask any physicist to name the top two theories of the 20th century, and you’ll almost always get the same automatic answer: Einstein’s relativity and quantum mechanics. But lately a few 21st century thinkers have hinted that maybe the third-place theory should move up a notch. In the wake of the computer revolution, information theory might deserve to displace relativity in the rankings. That revisionist perspective reflects a late 20th century twist in the story of that century’s theories: the surreptitious merger of quantum theory with information science. Their origins had been entir... (p. 26)

Europe’s LHC collider finds traces of what could be the Higgs boson, a theoretical entity that explains why matter has mass. (p. 10)

Time is an ancient and contrary mystery. Augustine of Hippo, writing his Confessions in a North African monastery, asked “Who can even in thought comprehend it, so as to utter a word about it? But what in discourse do we mention more familiarly and knowingly, than time?” More than 16 centuries later, many scholars share the feeling, if not the prospect of sainthood. “We don’t even know what time is. But we can measure it really, really well,” says Chris Oates, a physicist at the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Boulder, Colo., campus. His team operates a ytterbium... (p. 22)

Graphene’s two dimensions offer new physics, novel electronics. (p. 26)