Higgs and the Atom Smasher: By the Numbers

The LHC tunnel where particles accelerate. — This photo shows the tunnel of the Large Hadron Collider, where beams of particles pass through the central pipes before colliding with each other.

(Image credit: CERN)

For physicists, July Fourth fireworks may have come in the explosive announcement that a new particle had been found, one that is likely the long-sought Higgs boson thought to confer mass on all other matter.

The Higgs finding came from two experiments called ATLAS and CMS taking place at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) within the world's largest atom smasher, called the Large Hadron Collider. There, physicists send protons at near light-speed around the 17-mile-long (27 kilometer) underground ring beneath Switzerland and France. The protons collide head-on to create explosions that give rise to new, exotic particles.

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Jeanna Bryner is managing editor of Scientific American. Previously she was editor in chief of Live Science and, prior to that, an editor at Scholastic's Science World magazine. Bryner has an English degree from Salisbury University, a master's degree in biogeochemistry and environmental sciences from the University of Maryland and a graduate science journalism degree from New York University. She has worked as a biologist in Florida, where she monitored wetlands and did field surveys for endangered species, including the gorgeous Florida Scrub Jay. She also received an ocean sciences journalism fellowship from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution. She is a firm believer that science is for everyone and that just about everything can be viewed through the lens of science.