At a press conference on July 4, 2012, held at CERN, the European Center for Nuclear Research, spokesperson Joe Incandela announced the discovery of the long-sought Higgs particle. I was watching the live feed at the Aspen Center for Physics in a room packed with colleagues. It was about two a.m. Everyone erupted into wild cheers. The camera cut to Peter Higgs, removing his glasses and wiping his eyes. Higgs had proposed the particle bearing his name nearly fifty years earlier, had successfully fought the resistance unfamiliar ideas sometimes encounter, and had waited a lifetime to learn that
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