|
What is all this fuss about the Higgs boson?
The physics community is abuzz that a fundamental particle expected by the largely successful
Standard Model of particle physics may be soon be found by the huge
Large Hadron Collider (LHC) at
CERN in Europe.
The term boson refers to a type of fundamental particle with similarities to the photon, while Higgs refers to
Peter Higgs, a physicist who among others published research predicting the
mechanism through which such a particle might act.
The above animated cartoon explains in
humorous but impressive detail why the
Higgs boson is expected, and one method that the
Large Hadron Collider is using to find it.
Although some
rumors hint that preliminary traces of the
Higgs boson are already being found, even
not finding this
unusual particle would open the door to a new
fundamental understanding of how our universe works.
|
