The question to be answered is, "Where does mass comes from?"
It has not been "discovered" yet. This is very strong and consistent evidence for it- the strongest yet. The Higgs Particle was surmised to be some 130+ times the mass of a proton and requires SO much collision energy between protons to see that neither the LEC nor the Tevatron (the two highest energy colliders prior to the LHC at CERN) could get to the required 120GeV level of energy to give evidence.
They have discovered a new boson – one that could prove to be the long-sought signature of the Higgs field, but more data and study will be needed for correlation. It is currently believed that interactions of particle and field that give rise to physical aspects of the universe. The everyday connection is that this particle is intertwined with the dull question: “What is the physics of motion?” Motion ties together the fundamental concepts of space, time and mass: Space and time are linked through velocity, while mass is the resistance to changes in velocity. Explaining motion was important enough that Zeno, Aristotle, Copernicus, Kepler, Newton, and Einstein were looking into it. I was even reading that enthusiastic speculating researchers see that it could one day make light speed travel possible by "un-massing" objects or allow huge items to be launched into space by "switching off" the Higgs. Time will tell...
The discovery of the Higgs would be the start of a new era in physics. The puzzle is much bigger than just one particle; dark matter and dark energy and the possibility of supersymmetry will still call for searchers even after the Standard (particle) Model is complete. Since the Higgs field is connected to all the other puzzles, we will not be able to solve them until we know its true nature. And also, how does it really connect to the rest of the puzzle?
Steven Hawking has apparently lost a $100 bet with another physicist over the promising news. He says that if the decay and other interactions of this particle are as expected, it will be strong evidence for the so-called standard model of particle physics, the theory that explains all our experiments so far-- and one nail in the String Theory coffin, as the two subatomic models are seemingly inconsistent with one another.
Dr. Peter Higgs (whom I've personally met when I was in my senior year at Ohio State Univ.) at the ATLAS announcement.
