Large Hadron Collider 'likely' to uncover sought-after
'God particle'
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/earth/main.jhtml?xml=/earth/2008/09/10/scicern510.xml
Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 10/09/2008
The scientist whose work lies at the heart of the massive "Big
Bang" experiment said today he believed it was "pretty likely" the
undiscovered particle viewed as a holy grail of physics would be
found.
# Full coverage of the Large Hadron Collider atom smasher
# Subatomic particles complete first circuit | How it works
# Legal bid to stop CERN atom smasher from 'destroying the
world'
Scientists hope the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will uncover the
most highly sought-after particle in physics, known as the Higgs
Boson.
advertisement
It is thought the elusive particle may be responsible for giving
mass to everything in the universe, and without it there would be
no gravity.
But the particle - nicknamed the God Particle because it is thought
to be so fundamental to the evolution of the universe - has not
been discovered and to this day it remains a theory.
Today, the man who gave the particle its name expressed confidence
that he would be proved right after all these years and said he
would be "surprised and disappointed" if that were not the
case.
Asked whether he believed the God Particle would be uncovered,
Professor Peter Higgs said: "I think it's pretty likely.
"The way I put it is that if there isn't anything there, then it
means I and a lot of other people no longer understand all the
things we understand about these weak and electromagnetic
interactions."
It was in 1964 that the scientist, now aged 79, carried out the
work that eventually made his name.
His theory has dominated the world of particle physics ever
since.
# Watch: How the great machine will work
# Watch: Telegraph TV visits CERN on the trail of the Higgs
particle
# Watch: Large Hadron Collider workers' rap is YouTube hit
Prof Higgs returned to his working roots at the University of
Edinburgh today to give a briefing in the same street where he
formulated his scientific theory 44 years ago.
Speaking in an office on Roxburgh Street, he said the idea
gradually dawned on him over the course of a weekend.
"It wasn't a 'eureka' moment," he said.
"It was a gradual realisation that stored in a different part of my
memory was something which helped me to understand how to solve
what I was worrying about at that time.
"When I came back on the Monday to work here the first thing I did
was go and check various other papers to see if my recollection was
correct and it would help me."