Excitement is building across the international science community – with the announcement overnight from CERN that all indications are that a particle identified last year is indeed a Higgs boson.
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| Large Hadron Collider. Credit: CERN |
International scientists announced last July that they suspected they had found “The Higgs”, and it was reported overnight that, having studied two and a half times more data since then, they’re now almost certain.
The Higgs boson is one of the biggest, most enduring scientific mysteries. First posed by Professor Peter Higgs in 1964, it is believed to be the particle that gives mass to all matter.
Research into “The Higgs” has been led by the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) using the Large Hadron Collider (LHC): a 27 km circular accelerator, located 100 metres underground near Geneva.
Its discovery would bring us a step closer to understanding how the Big Bang, at the dawn of time, gave rise to stars, planets and even life.
And it is considered one of the final pieces of the puzzle required for a complete understanding of the standard model of physics: the so-far successful theory that explains how fundamental particles interact with the elementary forces of nature.
In Australia, the discovery is being watched closely by scientists at Australia’s centre for nuclear science and technology and accelerator science: ANSTO.
ANSTO is the operator of both Australia’s only nuclear research reactor, OPAL, which is located at Sydney’s Lucas Heights, and the Australian Synchrotron in Clayton, Melbourne.
“The discovery of “The Higgs”, and confirming its existence and role, has been a life-long quest for many in the science community,” said ANSTO’s Chief Executive Officer, Dr Adi Paterson.
“Proof of the existence of the Higgs boson would be a huge leap forward in human-kind’s understanding of the universe at the deepest, most fundamental and physical level.
“Australia has played a small but significant in research into the Higgs boson. In particular I pay tribute to Melbourne University’s Professor Geoffrey Taylor, who has led the Australian contribution.”
In addition to fundamental science accelerators, such as the LHC, there are a range of smaller accelerators such as the Australian Synchrotron – with applications including the study of protein structure and new pharmaceuticals. In addition, ANSTO also has two accelerators at its Lucas Heights campus.
The Australian Collaboration for Accelerator Science promotes education and training of future generations of young scientists in particle accelerator technology. It brings together ANSTO, the Australian Synchrotron, the University of Melbourne and the Australian National University (ANU).