The Higgs Boson Search

CERN

July 2, 2012 at 5:35 pm

After decades of searching, physicists announced on July 4 that they had produced convincing evidence for the Higgs boson, a particle that may explain why matter has mass. Below are links to the most recent coverage in Science News, related articles from our archives (which have been made available to nonsubscribers), and links to additional resources on the Higgs particle.

Latest news

Higgs Hysteria
While some of the hype around the boson’s discovery was exaggerated, many aspects of the Higgs’ real value to science and society went un- or understated.
By Tom Siegfried | July 20, 2012 | Read more

Essay: Nature’s secrets foretold
Higgs discovery celebrates math’s power to make predictions about the real world.
By Tom Siegfried | July 4, 2012 | Read more

Higgs found
The long-sought sign of an energy field that gave the infant universe mass finally emerges.
By Alexandra Witze | July 4, 2012 | Read more

CMS spokesman: ‘We’ve observed a new particle’
A video on the CERN website confirms the existence of a heavy boson matching the description of the Higgs.
By Science News Staff | July 3, 2012 | Read more

Physicists bet they’re homing in on Higgs
In its last report, an Illinois lab presents data suggesting the elusive Higgs particle could exist.
By Alexandra Witze | July 2, 2012 | Read more

Physicists on alert for Higgs announcement
Unless you’re the Higgs boson, don’t expect much attention in July when the International Conference on High Energy Physics convenes in Melbourne, Australia.
By Nadia Drake | June 21, 2012 | Read more

Higgs running out of hiding places
New measurement of another particle’s mass confirms a final missing piece of physics’ puzzle is right where scientists think it is.
By Alexandra Witze | February 23, 2012 | Read more

Tantalizing hints of long-sought particle
Europe’s LHC collider finds traces of what could be the Higgs boson, a theoretical entity that explains why matter has mass.
By Devin Powell | December 31, 2011 | Read more

A lighter Higgs, but chase continues
Target narrows after LHC experiments suggest a new lower estimated mass for the elusive particle.
By Devin Powell | October 8, 2011 | Read more

Last words
Tevatron’s data may have more to say, even after the atom smasher shuts down.
By Devin Powell | September 24, 2011 | Read more

From the archives

New data suggest a lighter Higgs
Fermilab results heat up the race for an elusive particle.
By Ron Cowen | August 14, 2010 | Read more

Discovery of Higgs at Large Hadron Collider might not make all physicists happy
Finding the elusive particle means the atom smasher will have to move on to answering bigger, deeper questions.
By Tom Siegfried | October 20, 2009 | Read more

Elusive Higgs particle has fewer hideouts
New mass limits could even the playing field for finding key elementary particle.
By Ron Cowen | March 16, 2009 | Read more

Large Hadron Collider
Everything about the LHC is enormous, from the energies it generates — 14 trillion electronvolts — to the nearly 60 metric tons of liquid helium required to cool its magnets. All this just to study the tiniest particles in the universe.
By Ron Cowen | July 19, 2008 | Read more

Corralling the Mass Maker
Hunters of the most eagerly sought particle in high-energy physics, the Higgs boson, are gleaning fresh clues about where and how to look from a new finding about another fundamental particle called the top quark.
By Peter Weiss | June 12, 2004 | Read more

Jiggling the Cosmic Ooze
A new blueprint for all the universe’s mass and energy may be just around the corner.
By Peter Weiss | March 10, 2001 | Read more

Most-wanted particle appears, perhaps
Vivid but sparse signs of the Higgs boson at the Large Electron-Positron Collider in Switzerland have sparked a desperate race against time to catch further glimpses before researchers pull the plug on the 11-year-old machine.
By Peter Weiss | September 23, 2000 | Read more

A World-Class Accelerator
As physicists probe ever deeper into the bowels of nature seeking the ultimate secrets of the structure of matter, they find the need for ever more energetic probes.
By Dietrick E. Thomsen | May 14, 1977 | Read more