Physics Hide-and-Seek

The large hadron collider cost 10 billion Swiss francs and has been accused of having the possibility to end the world, but what does it actually do?

Well, one of its main aims is to find the Higgs Boson, sometimes called the 'God Particle', the most elusive and sought after particle. The Higgs Boson was proposed by one Peter Higgs, a British physicist. To see why, we first need to look at the standard model. This is what explains everything that we know about physics, and consequently the universe. However, it has one major flaw, namely that mass doesn't exist within it. To rectify this, Higgs conceived his 'Higgs field'. This, if in existence, gives matter to particles as they pass through it. And there is a way to prove its existence.

All fields such as the Higgs field have one elementary particle that relates to it, e.g. the electromagnetic field has the electron. If we find this particle, it would prove the existence of the Higgs field and explain why matter has mass. This particle is the Higgs Boson.