Existence of ‘God particle’ confirmed

Scientists gathered in Melbourne have emerged from celebrating the discovery of a new subatomic particle to compare their elation with the moon landing. “We were all excited then about space exploration and science was thrilling,” recalled Steven Goldfarb, who now works on the Atlas Experiment at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider, which was used to confirm the existence of the new particle. “Suddenly the world is looking (again) and they’re interested to know that we’re not going out to explore anymore, there’s the other extreme: we’re going in, we’re looking at the inner-universe and there’s exploration there, there’s excitement.” The discovery, announced on Wednesday, has riveted the scientific community because it is consistent with the elusive Higgs boson, or “God particle,” which explains how matter gains mass - central to our understanding of the universe. It was all scientists attending a high energy physics conference in Melbourne could talk about on Thursday morning after a night that quickly became a highlight of their careers. Young-Kee Kim, from the US Fermi National Accelerator Laboratory, said she was envious of other scientists who lived through major discoveries - until now. “Last night, it hit me that I’m terribly lucky,” she said. “It’s incredibly exciting.” Confirmation of the new particle comes a century after the Higgs boson was first proposed, representing the emergence of a new frontier in physics that will be studied for the coming decades. “Higgs was a known unknown until yesterday,” said Dr Peter Jenni, from the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, or CERN. Since the joint announcement in Melbourne and Geneva, Jenni said he had received hundreds of emails expressing similar levels of excitement. “Today we can enjoy this first successful step, but there is plenty of physics on the plate to be discovered,” he added. “I think we have to go back to work now.” Scientists from around the world will be in Melbourne at the high energy physics conference until mid-next week.

Existence of ‘God particle’ confirmed

Scientists gathered in Melbourne have emerged from celebrating the discovery of a new subatomic particle to compare their elation with the moon landing.

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Australian Signals Directorate

Assistant Professor in Real Estate / Sustainability / Technology

Director of Research Centre for Resources Engineering towards Carbon Neutrality

Scientists gathered in Melbourne have emerged from celebrating the discovery of a new subatomic particle to compare their elation with the moon landing.

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