Symmetry winners
Three physicists who provided insights into how tiny violations in symmetry shape the universe share the Nobel prize in physics. Yoichiro Nambu receives half the award for developing a theory called “spontaneous symmetry breaking”, which describes how nature’s forces came about after the big bang. The balance of the prize is shared by Makoto Kobayashi and Toshihide Maskawa, who explained how physical laws apply differently to matter and antimatter, and predicted six quarks.
Hubble hobbled
The Hubble Space Telescope has been crippled by an electronics failure, which leaves it largely unable to communicate the results of its observations…
