Search for 'God particle'

GENEVA (AP) — The search is all but over for a subatomic particle that is a crucial building block of the universe.

WASHINGTON — Physicists in Italy said Wednesday they are achingly close to concluding that what they found last year was the Higgs boson, the elusive “God particle.” They need to eliminate one last remote possibility that it’s something else. The long theorized subatomic particle would explain why matter has mass and has been called a missing cornerstone of physics. With new analyses, scientists are closer to being certain they found the crucial Higgs boson. But they want to be 99.9% positive, said Pauline Gagnon, a physicist with the European Center for Nuclear Research.

GENEVA — Physicists said Thursday they are now confident they have discovered a crucial subatomic particle known as a Higgs boson – a major discovery that will go a long ways toward helping them explain why the universe is the way it is.

A Canadian scientist at the forefront of research on antimatter has proposed a novel way to solve one of the field’s most daunting problems — what to keep it in. For experimental physicists, antimatter is an elusive quarry because it will vanish in a flash of light upon contact with anything made of regular matter. But a paper published Sunday points the way to a potential solution, in which lasers will literally freeze atoms of anti-hydrogen in place so they can be studied and compared to regular atoms.

Video Scientists at CERN in Switzerland have confirmed the existence of the elusive Higgs boson—or something very much like it. "The ATLAS and CMS experiments at CERN today presented their latest results in the search for the long-sought Higgs boson. Both experiments see strong indications for the presence of a new particle, which could be the Higgs boson, [...]

Fabiola Gianotti was in mid-flow when her audience at Cern, the particle physics lab near Geneva, spotted the result they had so long hoped for amid the garish fonts of her presentation and rose to their feet to whistle, cheer and roar their approval.

Four years ago, three scientists and friends were working on one of the world's greatest mysteries: the search for the God particle. They didn't know they would soon leave physics and become cofounders of a hot young startup, Cloudant.

What modern physics knows about the matter in the universe (better at the end of 2012 than the beginning) is that it is basically shrapnel, strange bits that endure from an ancient explosive nativity, known as the Big Bang. What Melissa Franklin knows about modern physics (likewise better than ever, or pretty much anyone) is that it is finished. Done. Kaput.