A discovery of a new particle consistent with theHiggs boson, the
long-sought building block of the universe that gives matter its
mass.The boson, the Holy Grail of particle physics, has been
popularly dubbed the God Particle.
The leaders of two projects called Atlas and CMS at the world's biggest particle collider at the CERN nuclear physics lab in Geneva on Wednesday announced the discovery of the boson, whose existence was first postulated in 1964 by British physicist Peter Higgs.
CMS leader Joseph Incandela of America said the new data, converging to within five standard deviations or next to nothing, showed that "there is a new particle".Atlas leader Fabiola Gianotti said: "The incredible performances of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the huge efforts of an enormous number of people have led us to this exciting result".Italy built 15% of the LHC, while the head of CERN research is also an Italian, Sergio Bertolucci.
Thousands researchers have been working on the Higgs hunt, hundreds in at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Rome. INFN President Fernando Ferroni said the likely discovery of the boson was "an enormous satisfaction for us," although he voiced regret that, because of a continuing brain drain, many of the young researchers would not be coming back to Italy."The identification of the Higgs boson, on which we will still be seeking fresh confirmation, was thanks to the work of thousands of young people for whom we would like to assure a future, but who I fear will probably have to offer their contribution to more far-sighted countries," he said.
Italy's University and Research Minister Francesco Profumo said the discovery "makes us proud of our high-level participation" in the CERN projects. The discovery of the boson was greeted with a round of applause in Geneva and in institutions hooked up by video-link around the world, and the clapping got louder when the Newcastle-born Higgs, 83, walked into the room, a tear in his eye."It's really incredible that all this has happened while I was still alive," said the British 'father' of the boson.
The leaders of two projects called Atlas and CMS at the world's biggest particle collider at the CERN nuclear physics lab in Geneva on Wednesday announced the discovery of the boson, whose existence was first postulated in 1964 by British physicist Peter Higgs.
CMS leader Joseph Incandela of America said the new data, converging to within five standard deviations or next to nothing, showed that "there is a new particle".Atlas leader Fabiola Gianotti said: "The incredible performances of the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) and the huge efforts of an enormous number of people have led us to this exciting result".Italy built 15% of the LHC, while the head of CERN research is also an Italian, Sergio Bertolucci.
Thousands researchers have been working on the Higgs hunt, hundreds in at the National Institute of Nuclear Physics (INFN) in Rome. INFN President Fernando Ferroni said the likely discovery of the boson was "an enormous satisfaction for us," although he voiced regret that, because of a continuing brain drain, many of the young researchers would not be coming back to Italy."The identification of the Higgs boson, on which we will still be seeking fresh confirmation, was thanks to the work of thousands of young people for whom we would like to assure a future, but who I fear will probably have to offer their contribution to more far-sighted countries," he said.
Italy's University and Research Minister Francesco Profumo said the discovery "makes us proud of our high-level participation" in the CERN projects. The discovery of the boson was greeted with a round of applause in Geneva and in institutions hooked up by video-link around the world, and the clapping got louder when the Newcastle-born Higgs, 83, walked into the room, a tear in his eye."It's really incredible that all this has happened while I was still alive," said the British 'father' of the boson.
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