For scientists, the discovery of the Higgs boson -- dubbed “the God damn particle” by one scientist because it's so elusive -- was one of the most momentous events of the decade. It was also a monumentally difficult task. To find the Higgs, scientists built a 17-mile-long tunnel at a cost of $10 billion in order to smash protons into each other over 300 trillion times. But why? What's the Higgs all about? And why are scientists so excited by its discovery? If there's one scientist who can break this all down so lay people understand, it's the rock star physicist Brian Greene. He joins us on Wednesday to do just that.
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Brian Greene is a professor of physics and mathematics at Columbia University, the co-founder of the World Science Festival -- which runs this year from May 29 to June 2 -- and the author of four books including The Hidden Reality: Parallel Universes and the Deep Laws of the Cosmos.
Here's a quick video primer on the Higgs boson to gear you up for the discussion. There will be a quiz at the end of today's RadioWest.