Scientists at the European Center for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva were cheered like rock stars on July 4 when they formally announced that they had almost certainly nabbed the biggest and most elusive catch in modern physics: the Higgs boson. Dubbed the "God particle," the Higgs boson is "the missing cornerstone of particle physics," said CERN director Rolf Heuer. This "milestone in our understanding of nature" essentially confirms that the universe was formed the way scientists believe it was. Two teams of atom-smashing researchers at CERN's Large Hadron Collider independently verified, with 99.99997 percent certainty, the new subatomic particle, which is a near-perfect fit for what physicists have expected of the Higgs boson since its existence was first theorized 48 years ago. "It's the Higgs," British physicist Jim Al-Khalili tells Reuters. "The announcement from CERN is even more definitive and clear-cut than most of us expected. Nobel prizes all round." So what does this all mean, and where does it leave us? Here, four questions answered about the God particle...
