General

Race for the ‘god particle’ heats up

European atom smasher gaining on U.S. rival

At a global physics conference this Monday, scientists conducting experiments at Europe’s Large Hadron Collider (LHC) say they are quickly catching up to rival Tevatron accelerator in the U.S. With its advanced power, the LHC may discover a “new physics” which will prove or disprove the Standard Model—finding the Higgs Boson particle, also called the ‘god particle.’ The LHC would be the only machine in the world powerful enough to detect the elusive particle. “The LHC should give us results on the Higgs Boson in 2014 or 2015,” French physicist Guy Wormser told the Associated Press. “If it has a big mass, it could be at the end of 2011 or the beginning of 2012.” However, Wormser added that if found, scientists would need a couple billion euros and twenty more years to build another machine that could analyze them. The International Conference on High Energy Physics in Paris runs until July 28.

Canada.com

Looking for more?

Get the Best of Maclean's sent straight to your inbox. Sign up for news, commentary and analysis.
  • By signing up, you agree to our terms of use and privacy policy. You may unsubscribe at any time.