Veteran physicist hopes secret of universe lies underground

0 Comments | AFP, April, 2008

GENEVA (AFP) — British scientist Peter Higgs, whose work is the cornerstone of modern physics, said Monday he is putting champagne on ice in the hope a new experiment confirms his theories on how the universe works.

Higgs, a veteran professor at Edinburgh University, told journalists in a rare interview that he hopes a vast experiment in the tunnels deep underground the CERN laboratory on the Franco-Swiss border could finally prove the existence of an elusive and unstable particle to which he has lent his name.

The so-called "Higgs Boson" has been dubbed the 'God Particle' because so many have searched for it but no-one has seen it, despite Higgs using scientific deductions to claim its existence as far back as 1964.

Now the white-haired scientist hopes to...