CERN Scientist Talks About Higgs Boson, Particle Colliders And End Of The World

Earlier this month, scientists from CERN announced that they had found the theoretical particle called the Higgs boson. So we all knew they found it, but not many people actually knew what the Higgs was, or how it was discovered. Turns out it’s a pretty difficult thing to do. First, you need a really, really big machine called the Large Hadron Collider. That machine shoots streams of particles at one another at about the speed of light until they slam into each other. When they collide, the energy they give off is something in the ball park of the Big Bang (yes, that Big Bang), but on a much smaller scale. They read each and every collision (about 40 million) and are looking for only a handful of Higgs. Needle, meet haystack.

We invited Steve Myers, Director of Accelerators and Technology for CERN, to come to our office and explain exactly what the Higgs is, what it means for us normal people, and tell us about the cool technology behind the LHC. Have a look at the video and try not to have your mind blown.