'Tantalizing Hints' of Higgs Uncovered by CERN

But an official discovery will require smashing together trillions of more particles.

Physics nerds buffs will have to wait a little longer for definitive proof of the Higgs boson's existence, but researchers at the CERN particle accelerator said they've caught "tantalizing hints" of the elusive particle. Representatives from the two teams working at the accelerator – the Atlas team and the Compact Muon Solenoid team (and yes, we hear they get very envious about the other squad's name) – announced today that research they've done on finding the boson, which is believed to give atoms their mass, pointed in the direction of a true discovery. But more tests will have to be performed to determine if their results from more than 300 trillion separate particle collisions are more than just coincidence at this point. Data released by the two teams suggest that the Higgs boson weighs between 115 and 127 billion electron volts – about 125 times heavier than a proton – with the Atlas team figuring they have a one in 5,000 chance of having their results simply be luck. However, for a discovery to be confirmed, they need to perform tests enough times so that the results only have a one-in-3.5 million chance of being wrong. CERN officials say they could have more definitive proof by this time next year.