Theoretical physicists have been living with the Higgs boson for fifty years, and actively looking for it for 30 years. What is it? Well, it’s waaay over my head, but its existence would help to explain why particles have mass. Two groups, one outside Chicago and the other in Cern, Switzerland, have been in feverish competition to be the first to locate the Higgs. And next week there might be an answer:

The teams are sworn to secrecy, but various physics blogs, and the canteens at Cern, are alive with talk of a possible sighting of the Higgs, and with a mass inline with what many physicists would expect.

Click to read the whole article, and be sure to watch the short video. It will be huge if they find and it and huge if they don’t…