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(Image source: Wikimedia Commons / Lucas Taylor)
BY BRIANA ALTERGOTT
A British and Belgian scientist won the Nobel Prize in Physics Tuesday for predicting the
existence of the so-called "God particle."
Eighty-four-year-old Peter Higgs and 80-year-old Francois Englert came up with the theory of
the Higgs boson, which could explain why fundamental particles have mass and how they obtain it.
(Via The New York Times)
By extension, the find could also tell scientists why stars, planets, and basically everything
else in the universe exist.
Higgs and Englert developed their award-winning theory nearly fifty years ago, but it was
only recently confirmed by the actual discovery of the Higgs boson. (Via ITV)
According to the theory, particles inside atoms gain mass by interacting with an invisible
field of energy that spreads through all of space. The more they interact, the heavier
they get. (Via NBC)
The find is considered to be the breakthrough of the century.
"There's been a big hole in the issue of how do particles get mass? And the boson can explain
that." (Via The Wall Street Journal)
It wasn't an easy road to discovery.
The hunt for the Higgs boson started in 1964 after Higgs and Englert predicted its existence.
After more than 40 years of research, the particle was finally found by physicists in
July 2012 at the CERN laboratory in Geneva. (Via BBC)
"We have found a new particle never before seen in mother nature by slamming two beams
of protons at trillions of electron volts." (Via CNN)
Higgs and Englert almost immediately became the favorites to win the Nobel Prize after
the existence of the Higgs boson was confirmed. The two scientists will split the $1.25 million
prize at a ceremony to be held December 10 in Stockholm.