Glimpse of 'God Particle' Nigh?

Scientists may be just days from spotting mysterious Higgs Boson particle
By Rob Quinn,  Newser Staff
Posted Dec 8, 2011 4:43 AM CST
Higgs Buzz Building at LHC
This painting at the Atlas experiment site at the European Center for Nuclear Research outside Geneva, Switzerland shows how a Higgs boson may look.    (AP Photo/Anja Niedringhaus)

The Higgs boson "God particle" may or may not exist, and physicists at the Large Hadron Collider may or may not be close to spotting it, but one thing is clear: There are some very excited scientists at CERN. Rumors that the elusive particle believed to endow matter with mass has been spotted have circulated before, but experts believe confirmation of its existence may finally be unveiled at the European research lab next week, when teams that have trawled data from 350 trillion collisions release their results, the Guardian reports.

The teams have been gradually narrowing the energy range where the Higgs may lurk, and expect to see the first glimpse within days, a top CERN scientist tells the BBC. CERN's director of research is more cautious, saying only that "indications that are not consistent with its non-existence" may surface. "This hunt for the Higgs is like fishing in an ancient way," he says. "Instead of using modern tools you are removing the water from the pond. It might look tedious but it is the only way, at the end of the day, when you have removed all the water from the pond to find the smallest fish." (More CERN stories.)

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