The author of the book on the history of the universe ("A Brief History of Time") and renowned British astrophysicist, Stephen Hawking, has bet US$100 that the most complex scientific experiment this week will not find the Higgs particle - also known in the scientific world as "God's particle". Although, the Higgs is everywhere but remains frustratingly elusive.
The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will be switched on Wednesday (Sept. 10) to accelerate sub-atomic particles to nearly the speed of light before smashing them together in an effort to discover the holy grail of cosmic science. It was Peter Higgs, a British physicist, came up with this idea in 1964. Particles passing through the LHC would acquire mass by being dragged through a mediator. Physicists have long puzzled over how particles acquire mass.
Hawking, the 66-year-old Lucasian Professor of Mathematics at Cambridge University which was diagnosed with the muscle-wasting motor neuron disease at the age of 22, was quoted as saying in some media release, saying:
"I think it will be much more exciting if we don't find the Higgs. That will show something is wrong, and we need to think again. I have a bet of 100 dollars that we won't find the Higgs."
While questioning the likelihood of finding the Higgs; nonetheless, Hawking said the experiment could discover superpartners - particles that would be "supersymmetric partners" to particles already known about.
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