Discovery of Higgs Boson "God" Particle May Be Close

Amid all of our news about celebrity breakdowns, market fluctuations, and apocalypse predictions, there is occasionally a moment in which the ultimate secrets of the universe grace a headline. Of course, those things are complicated, not nearly as digestible as Lindsey Lohan’s latest stint in rehab. However, these developments are the kind that change human understanding of the world. For that reason, and although I’m a shallow swimmer in the deep end of the intellectual pool, I’m going to attempt to explain why this Higgs Boson “God particle” is such a big deal.

On Tuesday, The European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) hosted a conference in which two different teams of scientists announced they have reason to believe that the Higgs Boson particle may actually exist. The Higgs Boson (more commonly referred to as the “God Particle”) is actually a theoretical particle, a kind of quantum Rosetta Stone that would allow scientists to definitively explain why anything actually has mass, and gravity, two essential aspects in the field of physics. It would also put to rest a theory 50 years in the making because the Higgs Boson was originally hypothesized by Peter Higgs, of the University of Edinburgh, in 1960.

The “God particle” is important because it is the essential mass-creating particle that supposedly existed immediately after the big bang, the theoretical “birth” of the universe. Michael Lemonick, of TIME magazine, explains it this way.

“Suffice it to say that there's a sort of energy field that pervades the universe, and that when particles like protons, neutrons, quarks and the rest interact with the Higgs field, they're rewarded with mass. The Higgs boson helps broker the transaction.”

The CERN conference, which took place in Geneva, was partly to reveal the results of recent experiments in the Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the massive particle collider built beneath Switzerland. The LHC was designed to smash particles together in a micro-recreation of the Big Bang. Within that collision there is immense power, and the Higgs Boson particle should be created. However, the nature of the particle’s existence means that it quickly is absorbed into other particles and so can not be directly observed. However, Higgs Boson is not unique in this respect, and separating the God particle from all of the other quickly decaying particles can be an immense job for such a split-second reaction.

However, CERN scientists assure that there is evidence from both of the experimental reactions that the Higgs Boson was present. Of course, both are also quick to point out that this is nothing conclusive, simply a step on the journey to unraveling one small aspect of our universe’s beginning that has huge implications.