A tiny particle with universal significance
By KEVIN SPURGAITIS
Sometime in the next 12 months, scientists are hoping to get their first glimpse of a theoretical subatomic particle believed to be the key to confirming the origins of the universe.
Forty years ago, British physicist Peter Higgs first suggested that the particle could be found in the makeup of the atom. It was named “the God particle” by Nobel laureate Leon Lederman because it was believed that its discovery could unify understanding of particle physics and help humans “know the mind of God.”
Higgs, speaking while visiting the site of a massive new atom-smashing accelerator in Switzerland, says scientists are close to confirming his theory. The $2-billion Large Hadron Collider, operated by the Europeans Laboratory for Particle Physics, is expected to recreate the rapidly changing conditions in the universe in the instant after the Big Bang. It will be the closest that scientist have come to the event that they theorize was the beginning of the universe.
Higgs told the Associated Press that he is hoping to receive confirmation of his theory by the time he turns 80 in May 2009. He said he would be “very, very puzzled” if the particle is never found because there is no other way to explain how particles acquire mass.
Originally published in the United Church Observer, June 2008.
