The God Particle
That
brings us back to the LHC's main stated goal—finding the Higgs boson itself. Cosmic
Variance's post gives the CERN scientists a 95 percent chance of locating the "God
particle," a nickname the Higgs has earned because physicists hope it can
start to unify the different forces of physics, and their explanations, into one
theory of everything.
Particle physicists developing the standard model—the current theory explaining what we know about the makeup of the universe—have managed to find all the other particles they thought they would find, except the one that should give matter its mass: the Higgs. We know matter has mass, so something must play that role. Thus, the Higgs just should be there.
Surprises drive science, however, and that's why Stephen Hawking is playing the off chance, betting against the LHC finding the Higgs. Maybe he believes that. Or maybe he's just yearning for something to shake up the scientific community. But if you're hoping that means we're about to have a physics revolution, I've got some bad news: Hawking is a notorious loser of bets.
See the related DISCOVER article,"An Essential, Concise History of the LHC, 2002–2008."
