Large Hadron Collider 'likely' to uncover sought-after 'God particle'
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Last Updated: 12:01pm BST 10/09/2008
The scientist whose work lies at the heart of the massive "Big Bang" experiment said today he believed it was "pretty likely" the undiscovered particle viewed as a holy grail of physics would be found.
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Scientists hope the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will uncover the most highly sought-after particle in physics, known as the Higgs Boson.
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It is thought the elusive particle may be responsible for giving mass to everything in the universe, and without it there would be no gravity.
But the particle - nicknamed the God Particle because it is thought to be so fundamental to the evolution of the universe - has not been discovered and to this day it remains a theory.
Today, the man who gave the particle its name expressed confidence that he would be proved right after all these years and said he would be "surprised and disappointed" if that were not the case.
Asked whether he believed the God Particle would be uncovered, Professor Peter Higgs said: "I think it's pretty likely.
"The way I put it is that if there isn't anything there, then it means I and a lot of other people no longer understand all the things we understand about these weak and electromagnetic interactions."
It was in 1964 that the scientist, now aged 79, carried out the work that eventually made his name.
His theory has dominated the world of particle physics ever since.
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Prof Higgs returned to his working roots at the University of Edinburgh today to give a briefing in the same street where he formulated his scientific theory 44 years ago.
Speaking in an office on Roxburgh Street, he said the idea gradually dawned on him over the course of a weekend.
"It wasn't a 'eureka' moment," he said.
"It was a gradual realisation that stored in a different part of my memory was something which helped me to understand how to solve what I was worrying about at that time.
"When I came back on the Monday to work here the first thing I did was go and check various other papers to see if my recollection was correct and it would help me."