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Power of collaboration: Professor Peter Jenni, an experimental physicist at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research, was a participant in the 2022 edition of the African School of Fundamental Physics and Applications at Nelson Mandela University. Photo: CERN

The long journey to the Higgs boson and beyond: the power of collaboration

‘It is imperative that young people in Africa are motivated to learn physics and be part of big science projects’

Conspiracy: The Christian Fringe sees the Large Hadron Collider as a bid to open portals through which aliens will arrive – or it will create a black hole into which Earth will disappear. Photo: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

Combing through the conspiracies of the Christian Fringe

Fundamentalist Christians are embracing fringe movements that marry biblical prophecy with mainstream conspiracy

SKA will benefit economy, says director general

The SKA telescope being built in South Africa is a huge honour for its scientific community, but will it benefit our developing economy?

Higgs Boson theorists win Nobel physics prize

Britain’s Peter Higgs and Francois Englert of Belgium have won the Nobel Prize for physics for predicting the existence of the Higgs boson particle.

On July 4 2012, physicists announced to rousing applause that they had found an elementary particle ‘consistent with [the] long-sought Higgs boson’ – a scientific milestone.(AFP)

Could this boson be the ‘God particle’?

A year since the discovery of a subatomic particle set the science world aflutter, evidence is mounting it may be the elusive Higgs boson.

20 years on, the world’s first web page to be reborn

The world’s first web page will be dragged out of cyberspace and restored as part of a project to celebrate 20 years of the web.

Hawking defied predictions he would only live for a few years after developing a form of motor neurone disease in 1964 at the age of 22.

Stephen Hawking and CERN team win $3-million in science prize money

Stephen Hawking, world-famous cosmologist, and the team behind the discovery of the ‘God particle’, have won a $3-million science price each.

About 40 people from seven South African institutions are involved in the South Africa-Cern programme

Locals join the hunt for missing link

Thousands of scientists contributed to the discovery of the Higgs boson, and among them were some of South Africa’s brightest minds.

About 40 people from seven South African institutions are involved in the South Africa-Cern programme

Like a boson: Higgs-like ‘God particle’ discovered

Physicists say they have found a new subatomic particle consistent with the "God particle" Higgs boson, which is believed to confer mass.

Roll over Einstein: Particles found to break speed of light

Roll over Einstein: Particles found to break speed of light

A discovery that a sub-atomic particle seemed to move faster than the speed of light has scientists rethinking one of the foundations of physics.

Race to find ‘God’ particle enters final stretch

The world’s top atom-smashers have found tantalising hints that the long-sought Higgs boson particle truly exists, with proof "likely by late 2012".

The search is on for science prodigies

Young science enthusiasts who want to follow in the footsteps of Albert Einstein may now test their skills in a global online science competition.

Pope says God was behind Big Bang

Pope says God was behind Big Bang

God’s mind was behind scientific theories such as the Big Bang, and Christians should reject the idea that the universe came into being by accident.

‘Big Bang’ collider sets particle beam record

The ”Big Bang” experiment at Cern scored a world record on Monday by accelerating beams to the highest energy ever achieved in a particle collider.

Damage to atom smasher forces two-month halt

The world’s largest atom smasher — which was launched earlier this month — has been damaged twice and will be out of commission for two months.

Countdown to the God machine

Beneath the rural tranquillity of the Geneva countryside, scientists are getting ready for a trip into the unknown.