Tears

• His unparalleled legacy, epitomised by the discovery of the Higgs boson, continues to profoundly shape the future of particle physics like no other discovery before it.
• When Higgs was born in 1929, our understanding of matter was completely different.
• Physicists had developed a simple model of matter with three fundamental, or elementary, particles (those that can’t be broken down into smaller particles).
• At the time Higgs began working on his ideas in the 1960s, the question of how elementary particles acquired mass was a central issue in physics.

• However, for a theory that should explain mass, a viable solution couldn’t depend on a specific medium or material.
• Later, Higgs and other theorists developed a model that overcame this difficulty.
• On July 4 2012, images of Higgs, moved to tears by the announcement, went around the world.

• In the decade since its discovery, many of these interactions have been observed at the LHC.
• If current measurements of that particle are correct, the universe isn’t stable in its current state.
• To answer these questions, Europe, the US and China have proposed plans for building new particle colliders focused on studying the Higgs boson.
• It would be entirely fitting if Peter Higgs’ legacy, which transformed our understanding of particle physics, also transformed our approach to research.

Martin Bauer does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.