British physicist Peter Higgs dies. He died yesterday at the age of 94, according to the University of Edinburgh, where he spent most of his career. The Higgs became world famous because of the Higgs boson, an elementary particle also known as the “God particle.”

The particle was the Higgs’ answer to the question of why everything has mass. For example, a car has more mass than a bicycle and is therefore more difficult to push away. This seems obvious, but without mass, all matter would fly past each other at the speed of light.

The Higgs predicted in 1964 that there must be a particle that gives mass to all other particles. Without this particle, the elementary particles in the universe would be weightless.

This remained a prediction for fifty years, until its existence was actually proven in 2012. The CERN research institute used experiments in a particle accelerator to find a particle with the same mass as the particle predicted by the Higgs. Therefore, CERN was 99.9999% sure of the existence of the Higgs boson.

Here Stan Bentvelsen of the University of Amsterdam and the Nykhev Institute explains how the discovery was made:

Particles are fundamental in physics. The Higgs discovery is important for the “theory of everything,” which explains how the universe works.

“I didn’t think this would happen in my lifetime,” Higgs told New Scientist about the particle’s discovery in 2012. The atheist did not like that his discovery was called the “God particle.”

“Some people confuse science with theology,” Higgs said. “They claim that what happened at CERN proves the existence of God.” Watchman.

Peter Higgs won the Nobel Prize in Physics in 2013, jointly with Belgian François Englert. He predicted the particle’s existence independently of the Higgs in 1964 as well.

However, the Higgs became the namesake of the boson, which the shy and humble physicist found rather uncomfortable. Higgs believes he gets more fame than he deserves. He has always described the discovery of the particle as a team effort.

Higgs was born on 29 May 1929 in Newcastle, north-east England, the son of a sound engineer. In addition to his scientific work, he was also a political activist.

Until his death, the scientist was still highly respected by his colleagues. Over time, Higgs gave fewer interviews, preferring to focus on music, films and books, especially his family. He finally died at home after a short illness.