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With the help of Johnny Thunder and his gang, I will be trying to explain one of the most interesting theories of our time...

This is Peter Higgs. You have probably never heard of him, and you probably won't ever hear of him again. However, he has developed a theory which tries to explain what mass is, and why items have mass.

You probably know how much you weigh, and this is what you call your weight. Mass is very similar to this, but where as weight can vary for an object, mass can't.

If you weigh 60kg on the Earth, and you travel to the moon, you will only weigh 10kg there. This is because your weight is a measure of how strong gravity is pulling down on you, and on the moon, the gravitational field strength is only 1/6th of what it is on the earth.

However, whether you are on the Earth, moon or in space, your mass is still the same. Your mass is, to be very technical about it, the amount of stuff that have in a big lump. The amount of stuff that you have doesn't change with gravitational field strength.

A Higgs Field.

So what's Peter Higgs got to do with all this. Well, he has invented a theory which uses an idea known as the Higgs field to describe how objects acquire mass. A 'Higgs field' fills the universe everywhere, and mass is just a measure of the resistance to movement through this field. This theory is explained in more detail below:

	Imagine a room full of quietly chatting explorers. They have just returned from a long expedition, and are discussing ways to publicise their findings. This represents a space filled only with the Higgs field.
	Suddenly, the chief of the Daily Planet, the world's most read and most famous newspaper, walks into the room, creating a sudden disturbance. This is like an particle appearing in the Higgs field.
	As he tries to walk through the explorers, they crowd round him, shouting to try and be heard. They all want a report on their expedition in his newspaper . This is like the particle trying to move through the Higgs field, but being forced to slow down, as the explorers are creating a resistance to his movement. In other words, he acquires mass.
	The chief leaves, refusing to agree to their requests. However, suddenly another person appears at the door, and yells across the room "Did you know that the Chief who just came in has just been arrested for shop lifting?".
	As the rumour crosses the room, the explorers discuss this new revelation with each other. This is like a clustering taking place as before, but this time among the Higgs field itself. This is an analogy for a Higgs particle.

And now for the technical stuff...
Peter Higgs worked on developing this theory during the 1960s along with a number of other scientists, although it is his name which has been associated with the idea.

Many searches have been made for the Higgs Boson, and the most detailed were done using an LEP accelerator at CERN (www.cern.ch) during the 1990s. Indirect evidence suggests that it has a mass lower than 200 GeV/c^2. And direct searches show it has a mass above 110 GeV/c^2.

In 2000, physicists at LEP may have glimpsed the first signs of a Higgs boson signal. A few events were observed, suggesting a mass of 115 GeV/c^2.

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