What is the God particle?

The "God particle" is the nickname of a subatomic particle called the Higgs boson. In layman’s terms, different subatomic particles are responsible for giving matter different properties. One of the most mysterious and important properties is mass. Some particles, like protons and neutrons, have mass. Others, like photons, do not. The Higgs boson, or “God particle,” is believed to be the particle which gives mass to matter.

Many Higgs bosons clumped together make up the Higgs field, this field causes particles to have mass. Without the Higgs field, the universe would just be individual particles zipping around at the speed of light, no atoms of any kind would exist. The Higgs field is everywhere so particles travel through it all the time. However, particles with a greater mass will interact more with the Higgs field than particles with a lower mass. This would explain why two particles, which are the same size, can have different masses.

The “God particle” nickname actually arose when the book The God Particle: If the Universe Is the Answer, What Is the Question? by Leon Lederman was published.