If you don't know the significance of this beforehand, don't worry, nuclear physics can get pretty complicated.
Essentially, there are 6 elementary particles, 4 of which we've already found and explain why things move in the subatomic level. Up until now, there have been 2 more particles to be discovered, with the one that was discovered explaining why mass exists (the other undiscovered one explains why gravity exists). While it's still being confirmed (only its shadow was seen, so it's possible it was just dumb luck), this brings us to a much better understanding of how the universe works.
>>2 For now, it merely proves that there is a particle that determines the mass of other particles, which would explain why matter as we know it exists. But who knows?
I really like this kind of thing. It always fascinates me, even if I don't understand it very well. If I remember right, the existence of the Higgs Boson was only theoretical 'til just recently, when they did these experiments. This is kinda playing devil's advocate, but for the sake of discussion, I wonder what would happen if their findings don't confirm it, and instead find something else. Do you think that it could be so far from the current theories that it would require a total reworking of them?
The other thing about this, as with anything involving scientifically-minded thought, is whether or not they're finding it because they're looking for it. Of course, that's really hard to determine, and I'd hope that the scientists working on this wouldn't let any kind of bias interfere.
