Peter Higgs on the price of fame
"My life has been ruined by people recognising me on the street and wanting a selfie."
- Peter Higgs, interviewed in the London Times
It seems that the cost of scientific success might be too high for the likes of Higgs, the Nobel laureate who proposed in 1964 the existence of his eponymous bosons. When the bosons - particles which form a field that interacts with other particles to bestow them with mass - were finally caught in flagrante by the Large Hadron Collider in 2010, Higgs became a household name and is now, apparently, hounded on the streets of Edinburgh by natives and tourists alike.
We do have some sympathy for Higgs' plight, but on the other hand, it's great to see scientists gaining celebrity status. As our editor wrote recently in The Guardian, until scientists manage to infiltrate popular culture, they'll never be entirely trusted by the world at large.