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Scientists claim glimpse of ‘God particle’

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  AP British physicist Peter Higgs congratulates Fabiola Gianotti, ATLAS experiment spokesperson, after her results presentation during a scientific seminar to deliver the latest update in the search for the Higgs boson at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Meyrin near Geneva on Wednesday
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  AP Participants applaud after the presentation of the ATLAS experiments results during a scientific seminar to deliver the latest update in the search for the Higgs boson at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research in Meyrin near Geneva on Wednesday.
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  AP A computer screen is pictured prior to a scientific seminar at CERN in Meyrin near Geneva on Wednesday. CERN's chief is claiming discovery of a new particle “consistent with the Higgs boson” known as the “God particle”.
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  AP In this May 20, 2011 file photo, a physicist explains the ATLAS experiment on a board at the European Center for Nuclear Research, CERN, outside Geneva, Switzerland. The illustration shows what the long-presumed Higgs boson particle is thought to look like.
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  AP A view of the LHC (large hadron collider) in its tunnel at CERN near Geneva, Switzerland. File Photo

To cheers and standing ovations from scientists, the world’s biggest atom smasher claimed the discovery of a new subatomic particle on Wednesday, calling it “consistent” with the long-sought Higgs boson popularly known as the “God particle” that helps explain what gives all matter in the universe size and shape.

“We have now found the missing cornerstone of particle physics,” Rolf Heuer, director of the European Centre for Nuclear Research (CERN), told scientists.

“As a layman, I think we did it,” he told the elated crowd. “We have a discovery. We have observed a new particle that is consistent with a Higgs boson.”

The Higgs boson, which until now has been a theoretical particle, is seen as the key to our understanding of why matter has mass, which combines with gravity to give an object weight. The idea is much like gravity and Isaac Newton’s discovery of it: Gravity was there all the time before Newton explained it. But now scientists know what a boson is and can put that knowledge to further use.

CERN’s atom smasher, the $10 billion Large Hadron Collider on the Swiss-French border, has been creating high-energy collisions of protons to investigate dark matter, anti-matter and the creation of the universe, which many theorise occurred in a massive explosion known as the Big Bang.

Two independent teams at CERN said on Wednesday they have both “observed” a new subatomic particle, a boson. Mr. Heuer called it “most probably a Higgs boson, but we have to find out what kind of Higgs boson it is.”

Asked whether the find is a discovery, Heuer answered, “As a layman, I think we have it. But as a scientist, I have to say, “’What do we have?’ ”

The leaders of the two teams Joe Incandela, head of CMS with 2,100 scientists, and Fabiola Gianotti, head of ATLAS with 3,000 scientists each presented in complicated scientific terms what was essentially extremely strong evidence of a new particle.

Mr. Incandela said it was too soon to say definitively whether it is the “standard model” Higgs that Scottish physicist Peter Higgs and others predicted in the 1960s. That was part of a standard model theory of physics involving an energy field where particles interact with a key particle, the Higgs boson. Asked his opinion, Mr. Higgs said he also could not yet say.

The stunning work elicited standing ovations and frequent applause at a packed auditorium in CERN as Ms. Gianotti and Mr. Incandela each took their turn.

Mr. Incandela called it “a Higgs-like particle” and said “we know it must be a boson and it’s the heaviest boson ever found.”

“Thanks, nature!” Ms. Gianotti said to laughs, giving thanks for the discovery.

The phrase “God particle” was coined by Nobel Prize-winning physicist Leon Lederman but is used by laymen, not physicists, as an easier way of explaining how the subatomic universe works and got started.