Stories of 2012
In a series of interviews to be published in the days leading up to New Year, Guardian writers speak to some of the people who made headlines in 2012 or were closely involved in the year's big stories
Adam Steltzner: 'I could not imagine the Curiosity landing working'
The leader of a group of Nasa engineers tells how his team on Earth guided a one tonne rover to land safely on Mars
Mario Pellegrini: 'We saved some Costa Concordia passengers from death'
Unlike the stricken liner's captain, the deputy mayor of Giglio played a key role in the rescue operation near his Italian island
Alexis Tsipras: 'We are the great hope for change'
Tony Nicklinson's widow: 'I've just started to look around me'
Charles Walker MP: 'I've made peace with it. I've got it off my chest'
Pussy Riot: 'Things have changed, but our desire to protest remains'
Higgs boson discovery: 'It was an extraordinarily tense time, but exciting'
Physicist Fabiola Gianotti reflects on the culmination of decades of work on the elusive particle
Chen Guangcheng: 'When people overcome fear, change is inevitable'
Exiled Chinese dissident and self-taught lawyer has become a potent symbol of resilience and empowerment
Matthew Varnham: 'Occupy is still very much alive'
Continuing our series of interviews with some of the newsmakers of 2012, an Occupy St Paul's protester talks about the movement's future
Sergei Polunin, the Royal Ballet star who made a leap into the dark
In the second of a series of interviews with the newsmakers of 2012, Alex Needham speaks to the star who shocked the ballet world in January
Doreen Lawrence: 'Stephen is always in my thoughts'
In the first of our series of interviews with the newsmakers of the past 12 months, Hugh Muir talks to the mother of Stephen Lawrence
