The Higgs particle is also known as the Higgs boson, or “ the God particle ,” a term that Leon Lederman used some years ago and which delighted journalists but surely offended photons and electrons throughout the universe. The Higgs is named after Peter Higgs, a theorist who four decades ago predicted its existence as part of the Standard Model of particle physics. No one’s ever found one. Discovering the Higgs is a central purpose of two very elaborate experiments being conducted at the Large Hadron Collider at CERN. On Tuesday, the CERN scientists will announce their latest batch of results, and, as Scientific American has reported , rumors abound that they’ve homing in on the Higgs. More here from Nature . Read full article > >

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Joel Achenbach:
Higgs particle: Getting closer

European stocks and the euro slid and most bond yields rose after the threat from rating agency Standard & Poor’s to downgrade euro zone countries en masse if no credible plan to solve the debt crisis emerges at a summit later this week.

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S&P Move Piles Pressure on Euro Zone Assets

Ratings agency Standard and Poor’s puts almost the entire eurozone, including Germany and France, on “credit watch” due to the debt crisis.

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Ratings agency warns euro nations

Belgium has its credit rating downgraded by ratings agency Standard & Poor’s, on concerns about government debt.

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Belgium credit rating downgraded

U.S. stocks tumbled Wednesday morning as concerns grew that political turmoil in Italy could send Europe into an even scarier sovereign debt crisis. Investors fled Italy’s bonds, sending 10-year yields to a euro-era record of over 7 percent. Both the Standard & Poors 500 index and the Dow Jones Industrial Average had slumped roughly 2 percent by mid-morning. The S&P 500 was down 27.50 points to 1,248. The Dow had fallen 238 points to 11,932. Read full article > >

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Stocks tumble over troubles in Italy

The U.S. economy grew at its fastest clip in a year during late summer as consumers and businesses shrugged off fears of a new recession , according to government data released Thursday that helped drive the stock market to its best day since August. Investors were also cheered by overnight news that European leaders have reached an agreement on how to address their continent’s debt crisis , and the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index ended the day up 3.4 percent. European markets were up even more sharply, with the German Dax index up 5.3 percent. Read full article > >

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U.S. economy grows nearly twice as fast in 3rd quarter

WASHINGTON — Home prices rose in August in half of major cities measured by a private survey, a sign that prices are stabilizing in some hard-hit portions of the country. The Standard & Poor’s/Case-Shiller index showed Tuesday that prices increased in August from July in 10 of the 20 cities tracked. That marked the fifth straight month that at least half of the cities in the survey showed monthly gains. Read full article > >

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Private survey shows prices rose in 10 of 20 cities tracked, fifth straight month of gains

The Standard & Poor’s-500 stock index officially traded in bear market territory, as European markets again fell sharply.

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Shares Tumble on Greece Fears

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index fell to 1,099.23, a 52-week low, while the Dow Jones industrial average closed at 10,655.30, its low for the year.

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Wall Street Closes Sharply Lower

If consummated, the new joint venture would operate both McGraw-Hill’s venerable Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index and the Dow Jones industrial average.

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DealBook: McGraw-Hill in Talks to Lead Stock Indexes Joint Venture

Italy’s sovereign debt rating is cut by Standard & Poor’s, the latest move in a deepening and continuing European debt crisis.

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Italy has debt rating cut by S&P

Since Rick Perry joined the presidential race this month, his campaign entourage has included not just the standard array of political advisers and aides, but a squad of Texas law enforcement agents. The security forces scout and secure locations days in advance. Well before the governor’s visit to Tommy’s Country Ham House in Greenville, S.C., the weekend of Aug. 20, more than a half-dozen suited and armed agents were giving orders to the crowd of more than 400. How much is this ever-present phalanx of state policemen costing the taxpayers of Texas? They won’t know at least until after next year’s presidential election, thanks to a provision, tucked into a school finance bill in July, that will keep the governor’s travel records sealed for 18 months. Read full article > >

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Perry’s travel, security costs will stay secret until after 2012

Perhaps it is because the ouster of Moammar Gaddafi will come months after the fall of Tunisia’s Zine el-Abidine Ben Ali and Egypt’s Hosni Mubarak , or maybe it is fatigue generated by the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, but the Libyan revolution seems subject to a higher standard of success than the uprisings that preceded it. A curious conventional wisdom has emerged in the commentary on Libya’s revolutionaries. “We don’t know who these people are or what comes next,” the popular reasoning goes, “so we can’t let ourselves be too enthusiastic about them, their goals or their achievements.” Read full article > >

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Is the bar set too high for Libya?

This time a year ago, Federal Reserve Chairman Ben S. Bernanke headed to an annual gathering of central bankers in Jackson Hole, Wyo., amid a faltering U.S. economy, a perilous global situation, and rising calls on Wall Street for the Fed to do something to address both. Here we go again. Bernanke is to deliver a speech Friday morning in the same ballroom in the shadow of the Grand Teton mountains where last year he gave a speech that laid the groundwork for a $600 billion program of bond purchases aimed at lifting the economy. The financial world is obsessing over the possibility of another go-round. The thought that Bernanke may offer hints of new steps to boost growth contributed to big gains on Wall Street Tuesday, with the Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index up 3.4 percent. Read full article > >

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Ben Bernanke unlikely to announce big new plans at Jackson Hole

The Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index was down about 2.7 percent at the start of trading, following the trend set in Asia and Europe.

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U.S. Stocks Drop Sharply at Open, Following Europe