2011: science odyssey

ON July 20, 1969, thousands of people across Ireland sat watching grainy black and white images of men taking their first steps on the moon.

It proved to be a watershed moment, not only in science, but also in television, culture, technology and society. Key moments like that rarely play out in public.

However, another similar moment occurred earlier this month and focused on a seminar held in Geneva. This time millions of people followed the key moment in the history of science via webcast, blogs and Twitter feeds. It was in a room packed with particle physicists and journalists that key personnel at CERN (European Organisation for Nuclear Research) announced that they had detected “strong hints” of the Higgs boson. Just as the Large Hadron Collider entered our vocabulary in 2010, the elusive Higgs boson — or ‘God particle’ — became the latest esoteric phrase for the man on the street.