Science: Discovering The God Particle

Fiona Fragomen: Grade 7

Imagine just one little particle explaining the start of our world. This particle, known as the Higgs boson or sometimes “The God Particle,” holds the answer to one of the most important questions in the universe today: “How did we come to be?”

Subatomic particles such as this one were first theorized in the 192os by Albert Einstein and mathematician and physicist Satyendra Bose. British physicist Peter Higgs continued the study of this new elusive particle around the 1960s, finally naming it the Higgs boson. If found to exist, this particle would explain the existence of a “Higgs field,” which would illuminate why objects in the universe have mass.

This “God particle” is said to come from the initial “Big Bang.” Higgs believed that the Big Bang caused so much heat that nothing we know today could have survived it. Bosons are part of the basis of modern physics and quantum mechanics. Scientists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) conducted numerous trials that led to the discovery of the boson. The discovery of this Higgs boson helps confirm the basics of physics, which have also been responsible for the discovery of lasers and electronics.

With over $10 billion and a machine called the Large Hadron Collider that lies between France and Switzerland, the particle has been recreated. This machine consists of a large electromagnetic ring that takes protons, or pieces of atoms, and smashes them together at the speed of light. Once in every trillion trials, the conditions were created that existed during the Big Bang, and the particle was observed. The main problem the scientists found was that the particle disappeared so quickly that it was difficult to study. This finding, which some have called the greatest discovery in the history of the understanding of Nature, “enables a glimpse at what happened immediately after the Big Bang,” according to the Asturias Foundation. The discovery of the Higgs boson expands our comprehension of modern science and demonstrates the tremendous collaboration of scientists around the globe to advance our understanding of the universe.