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Science's Breakdown of the Year: US Particle
Physics
Washington, DC, Dec. 22: With the cancellation of two major experiments and talk of an early closing for one of the three existing particle colliders, U.S. particle physics is Science's breakdown of 2005. As the U.S. program founders, particle physics research around the world could suffer. A bit of good particle physics news did emerge in 2005, however – researchers around the world remain committed to building the International Linear Collider, a multibillion-dollar global facility that may be the key to the future of particle physics.
Studies that follow evolution in action claim top honors as the Breakthrough of the Year, named by Science and its publisher AAAS, the nonprofit science society.
This milestone, plus nine other research advances, make up Science's list of the top ten scientific developments in 2005, chosen for their profound implications for society and the advancement of science.
The list includes ITER landing in France. The struggle over the location of the world's first fusion reactor has ended -- the International Thermonuclear Experimental Reactor
(ITER) will be built at Cadarache in southern France and not in Rokkasho, Japan. One aim of ITER is to generate fusion-powered electricity by recreating the power of the sun on Earth.
Science's Top Ten list appears in the 23 December 2005 issue of the journal
Science.
Areas to watch in 2006: This year, Science's predictions for hot fields and topics in the upcoming year include drug and vaccine development for avian flu, RNA-interference in humans, high-temperature superconductors, the microbial family tree, detection of the merging of two neutron stars and ultrahigh-energy cosmic rays – the speediest atomic nuclei in the universe. Researchers will also be on the lookout for more evidence for the ivory-billed woodpecker and solid helium flowing like a liquid.
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