* Astronomy

The physics story of the year 2006 was, we believe, the new high precision (0.76 parts per trillion uncertainty) measurement of the electron’s magnetic moment by Gerald Gabrielse and his colleagues at Harvard University. Then in a second paper the same experimenters used the new moment in tandem with a fresh formulation of quantum electrodynamics (QED) provided by theoretical colleagues to formulate a new value for the fine structure constant (denoted by the letter alpha), the pivotal parameter which sets the overall strength of the electromagnetic force. The new value has an uncertainty of 0.7 parts per billion, the first major revision of alpha in 20 years. A comparison between this new value and values determined by other methods provides the best test yet of quantum electrodynamics (QED)

Other top physics stories for the year, in no particular order, are listed below from the past year.
he observation of many more supernovas at redshifts of 1, thus establishing the idea that dark energy was around even in the early universe

The first direct measurement of turbulence in space

The best direct test of Einstein's E=mc2 formula

New WMAP measurements of the cosmic microwave background, including polarisation information, help to sharpen cosmological numbers such as the age or the flatness of the universe

First matter-antimatter chemistry

Elements 116 and 118

The 2006 Nobel prize in physics for John Mather and George Smoot

Advances in plasmonics, or "two-dimensional light"

Advances in the study of graphene, including the discovery of a new form of the Hall effect

Progress at several labs in modelling gravity wave transmissions from black hole mergers, the kinds of events which LIGO or LISA would possibly detect

Measuring the presence of virtual strange quarks inside protons

Acoustic lasers

Evidence for negative electrical resistance

A particle laser or "PASER"

Hypersound

Heaviest baryons discovered

Investigating whether the electron/proton mass ratio changed over time

Optical "cloaking"

Telecloning

Rare positronium ion

Wireless energy transfer

The sharpest object ever made

Chemical transistor )

Radioactive scorpion venom for brain cancer therapy

Liquid flowing uphill

Stock market criticality

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