If confirmed next week, this will be the biggest news in the history of physics since the birth of the Theory of Relativity: CERN scientists may have already found evidence of the existence of the elusive Higgs boson.

A respected scientist from the Cern particle physics laboratory has told the BBC he expects to see “the first glimpse” of the Higgs boson next week. via Gizmodo

The Higgs boson is notoriously difficult to define, but its existence helps us to understand why particles have mass.

The search for the Higgs has become the hottest pursuit in modern physics. It is separate from the unexpected announcement in September of the apparently faster-than-light neutrinos, a result which is still puzzling the world of physics, and has taken the limelight recently.

Next Tuesday, two separate teams will each reveal the outcome of trawling through their latest data from LHC collisions. A spokesman for one of these teams told us that this year alone they’ve searched the remains of some 350 trillion collisions, with only ten or so producing candidates for a reliable sign of the Higgs. via BBC

Image: Maximilien Brice, CERN