Speculation had been rife, in light of the discovery of the Higgs boson announced in July, that Peter Higgs or his colleagues may have been in the running for the prize, but historically the prizes tend to honour discoveries after a period of years.

BBC: Serge Haroche and David Wineland

The discovery of what is hoped to be the Higgs boson was an exciting time for anyone with a curious mind.

ENGADGET: Alt-week 2.24.13: Mapping the brain, discovering dark matter and our inevitable, grizzly end

At at a physics conference in March to discuss the discovery of the Higgs, researchers were encouraged to refer to the particle as the "SM Scalar Boson".

BBC: Science correspondent, BBC News