The Higgs boson is an elementary particle that is responsible for giving mass to all known particles that have mass. Every star, planet and all life on earth has mass – so the Higgs boson is quite important.
Until today, the Higgs boson has been theoretical. Scientists have been unable to find direct evidence for it, although they believed it must exist.
Now, scientists have taken a giant leap in their understanding of how the universe was formed, with an announcement that the particle has been discovered.
In what will prove a milestone in the history of modern science, the revelation ends almost five decades of searching for the subatomic particle.
The search included constructing – for almost $10 billion – the Large Hadron Collider 100 metres below the Swiss-French border to conduct experiments in conditions similar to those just seconds after the big bang.
The existence of a Higgs-like boson effectively verifies the all-encompassing 30-year-old theory on why particles have mass and how the universe works at the simplest level.
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