Scientists find particle consistent with Higgs boson

However, the experiment's spokesperson Joe Icandela stressed that the results were preliminary. "The implications are very significant and it is precisely for this reason that we must be extremely diligent in all of our studies and cross-checks."   "We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," said CERN director general Rolf Heuer.

 

British scientist Peter Higgs and others developed a theory explaining why matter exists, by introducing the Higgs boson as a key part of the mechanism that allows particles to gain mass.

 

The CERN scientists said that they now had to find out whether the new particle was the boson as described theoretically by Higgs. In this case, the discovery could underpin the so-called Standard Model of particle physics, which explains the world as we see it.

However, if the new subatomic particle turns out to be slightly different than the Higgs particle, this could be even more significant, since it could point to the existence of additionals patial dimensions or of unseen mass called dark matter, which makes up 96 per cent of our universe.//DPA