14 DAY TRIAL // Now that physicists at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) have demonstrated the existence of the Higgs boson – the missing link in the Standard Model of Particle Physics – everyone who is not a physicist is trying to figure out what it is. Here's the first in a series of three videos explaining it.
In short, the Higgs particle (sporting a mass of 125 GeV) is the fifth boson, or force carrier, in the Standard Model, alongside the bosons that govern strong, weak, and electromagnetic fundamental interactions that occur in nature.
The reason why it is so important is that it allows energy to acquire mass. This is a very important thing to demonstrate, since the rest of the Standard Model – the only comprehensive theory in this field – depends on it. Thus far, the model has been proven right at every turn, for the last 40 years or so.