A Closer Look: HodgePodge for Oct. 11

​From particle physics to popcorn, this week’s stories take a behind-the-scenes look at topics big and small.

A Nobel particle

It’s been back in the news a lot lately, with the awarding of the Nobel Prize for its discovery, but what exactly is a Higgs boson? It’s a perfect little snowflake, just like you.

The other shutdown

The fallout from the government’s arrest of the alleged leader of Silk Road, an online marketplace for illicit goods, is just beginning. One of the more fascinating stories to come to light is this pseudonymous first-person look at buying drugs through the service.

Behind the cellphone

Few companies are as secretive as Apple, which has such a culture of secrecy that it’s rare for even former employees to speak on the record about their products and process. So, this look behind the scenes of the original iPhone announcement is a fascinating read.

There’s a store for that

Tim Cook may be Steve Jobs’s successor as Apple CEO, but his successor in the public consciousness as the prototypical mercurial founder/CEO is Amazon’s Jeff Bezos. BusinessWeek takes a look at how Amazon “became the everything store.”

Kernel of an idea

Why do we eat popcorn at the movies? File this under answers that are longer and more interesting than you thought possible.

Follow us on Twitter or subscribe to our blog to make sure you don’t miss next week’s edition.