Science news highlights of 2011
Science news highlights of 2011 The year 2011 offered up glimpses of Earth-like planets, hints of the Higgs boson and suggestions of a discovery that could turn modern physics on its head. Headlines were dominated by the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami in Japan, which resulted in the loss of thousands of lives and plunged the country into a nuclear emergency. The BBC News website's science editor Paul Rincon looks back at an eventful year in science and the environment. January - Another Earth? Kepler has revolutionised the search for distant Earth-like planets The scientific year kicked off with the American Astronomical Society meeting in a chilly Seattle. Among the most anticipated results were those from Nasa's Kepler space telescope , which had hit its stride after being launched in 2009. At the conference, Dr Natalie Batalha outlined details of Kepler 10b, which was at the time the smallest planet yet discovered outside our Solar System ...