Front Cover: The Compact Muon Solenoid (CMS) detector installed at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), shown here under construction. The massive size of the detector can be understood from the yellow arm of the cherry picker truck (see inset) that has a bucket/platform on an extensible arm, to lift people.

Back Cover: Tenuous hold: grass growing on a layer of moss.

Front insider cover: Famous painting of Dutch painter Johannes Vermeer showing a girl with a pearl earring.

Back inside cover: The International Astronomical Union (IAU) recently approved the name Rachmaninoff for an intriguing double-ring basin on Mercury. This basin, first imaged in its entirety during MESSENGER's third Mercury flyby, was quickly identified as a feature of high scientific interest, because of its fresh appearance, its distinctively colored interior plains, and the extensional troughs on its floor. The basin's name honors the Russian composer, pianist and conductor, Sergei Rachmaninoff (1873-1943). Photo courtesy NASA.