Scientists at Europe's CERN research centre believe they have found one of the basic building blocks of the universe -- a subatomic particle called the Higgs boson.<br/> <br />The Director General of CERN told an audience of scientists that the discovery is a milestone in mankind's understanding of nature and has opened up exciting prospects for further revelations in the field.<br/> <br />Peter Higgs, the British physicist who proposed the existence of the boson which bears his name in the 1960s, was at CERN to welcome the news.<br/> <br />The Higgs theory explains how particles clumped together to form stars, planets and life itself.<br/> <br />Without the Higgs particle, the particles that make up the universe would have remained a formless soup, the theory goes.<br/> <br />What scientists do not yet know from the latest findings is whether the particle they have discovered is in fact the Higgs boson.<br/> <br />(SOUNDBITE) (English) BRITISH SCIENTIST, EMERITUS PROFESSOR OF THEORETICAL PHYSICS AT IMPERIAL COLLEGE, TOM KIBBLE, SAYING:<br/> <br />"They have certainly discovered a particle which looks similar to the expected Higgs particle, but there is a lot of work to be done to be sure that it has all the right properties,''<br/> <br />It could also be a variant of the Higgs idea or an entirely new subatomic particle that could force a rethink on the fundamental structure of matter.<br/> <br />Sarah Sheffer, Reuters
