Although this might seem a little esoteric, discovery of this baryon provides further proof of the validity of the Standard Model of Particle Physics, and helps contribute to our understanding of atomic interactions.

FORBES: Large Hadron Collider Discovers Beautiful New Particle

Dr Kobayashi and Dr Maskawa, who were at Japan's High Energy Accelerator Research Organisation and Kyoto University respectively, described a type of symmetry breaking that predicted two new families of quarks, a sort of subatomic particle whose simplest members are the ingredients of the protons and neutrons that form atomic nuclei.

ECONOMIST: The 2008 Nobel science prizes