The Hunt for the Higgs on Solar News Channel

MANILA, Philippines - At CERN, also known as the European Organization for Nuclear Research, physicists are channeling proton along a track to speeds just barely beneath the speed of light. In doing so, the protons are smashed together, creating a violent and staggering burst of energy that would incinerate any human that dare enter the blast radius.

Energy as we know it, however, is definite. It does not simply dissipate into nothingness. It has to go somewhere. It can neither be created nor destroyed.

The explosion of energy released from the smashing of protons within the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) is reannealled back into the form of tiny particles released from this explosion. Among these high energy particles is what is known as, theoretically at least, the Higgs Boson.

In searching for the Higgs, the physicists at CERN smash protons together and near-light speed tens of millions of times. Per second.

The Higgs Boson, according to the physicists at CERN, is the reason why every particle in the world has mass. It is the reason for why we are the way we are. Without it, we would deflate into some form of primordial ooze, and the universe would collapse into itself. It is appropriately nicknamed, “The God Particle.”

The Higgs Boson gives the universe shape, and the thirst for its discovery has warranted investments of over $10 billion into the projects at CERN. The search for the particle is perhaps the most expensive science experiment in human history. Confirmation of its existence would open up a wealth of possibilities.

BBC’s The Hunt for the Higgs is an insider’s look into the efforts of 6,000 of the world’s most brilliant physicists at CERN in their search for this elusive particle, and their quest to answer what is perhaps nature’s most persistent question: why do we exist?

Catch Stories: Hunt for Higgs on April 26 at 8 p.m. on Solar News Channel.