Finding the Higgs boson tops scientific achievements this year

From landing the Curiosity rover on Mars after a 350-million-mile journey, to the discovery of the world's most wanted subatomic particle, the top 10 scientific achievements of 2012 have been nominated by the journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, showing the march of human knowledge in genetics, physics, cosmology, medicine and nanoscience.

The discovery of the Higgs boson by physicists using the Large Hadron Collider in Switzerland was named breakthrough of the year by Science magazine, with runners-up including the pin-sharp DNA sequencing of a Siberian cave girl who lived 50,000 years ago and a delicate brain implant in a US woman paralysed from the neck down that allowed her to use thought to manipulate a robotic arm to grasp a bottle and take a sip of coffee.

Adrian Cho, a writer on the journal, said: "For all the hype, the discovery of the Higgs boson easily merits recognition as the breakthrough of the year. Its observation completes the standard model, perhaps the most elaborate and precise theory in all of science."

The discovery proves there is an energy field all around us that gives mass to the fundamental particles that make up our world. The announcement of its discovery in Geneva was met by cheers usually heard at football matches or rock concerts.

"The feat marks an intellectual, technological and organisational triumph," said Cho.

The result of the 43-year-long hunt for the Higgs boson was not the only exercise in exploring the world's very smallest particles to make the shortlist.