Higgs Boson Rings in the 4th of July

Inside the Large Hadron Collider's tunnels. Credit: CERN

Called the God-damned particle for years by Physicist Peter Higgs because of its elusiveness, and come to be known as the "G-d Particle," the Higgs boson has been at the center of a 45-year investigation by scientists worldwide as the explanation of how matter attains its mass.

Results of the experiments that has finally  identified the particle were announced on the U.S. Fourth of July at CERN (the European Organization for Nuclear Research) in Geneva Switzerland, which houses the Large Hadron Collider (LHC).

Built by CERN from 1998 to 2008, the LHC, for those remaining few of you who are out of the loop, is the world's largest and highest energy particle accelerator.  The LHC has provided an opportunity for physicists to test the predictions of different theories of particle physics including the existence of the Higgs boson particle, only a prediction until today.

The LHC is expected to continue to explore and uncover some of the most fundamental questions still outstanding in physics including advancing the understanding of the deepest laws of nature. The LHC was constructed in collaboration with over 10,000 scientists and engineers from over 100 countries, as well as hundreds of universities and laboratories worldwide.

The confirmation of the discovery was met with loud applause and cheering. Prof Higgs, after whom the particle is named, wiped a tear from his eye as the teams finished their presentations in the Cern auditorium. 

"I would like to add my congratulations to everyone involved in this achievement," he added later. "It's really an incredible thing that it's happened in my lifetime."

A particle collision in the LHC

Prof Stephen Hawking added his opinion on a topic often whispered in private:

"This is an important result and should earn Peter Higgs the Nobel Prize," he told BBC News.




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