UC scientists spearheaded key experiments in what some call the "Holy Grail" discovery in physics — a new particle that may prove to be the long-sought Higgs boson.

In particle physics, bosons are a class of elementary particles. But the elusive Higgs boson, named after theoretical physicist Peter Higgs, is sought because it is crucial for explaining what gives protons, electrons, neutrons and all particles inside atoms their mass. It probably created all the particles in the Big Bang, when the universe formed.

Researchers from UC Santa Barbara, UC San Diego, UC Santa Cruz, UC Irvine, UC Riverside and the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory have taken part in the European Organization for Nuclear Research's (CERN) quest to find the Higgs boson.

Read more about the historic discovery on the UC Research site.