What finding the 'God particle' means

"It is an incredible thing that it has happened in my lifetime," he said, calling the discovery a huge achievement for the proton-smashing collider.

The early Web to exchange information

CERN scientists used the early Web to exchange information, and the vast computing power needed to crunch all of the data produced by the atom smasher as well boosted development of cloud computing, which is now making its way into mainstream services.

The discovery is so fundamental to the laws of nature, Incandela said, that it could spawn a new era of research and development in the same way that Newton's laws of gravity led to basic equations of mechanics that made the industrial revolution possible.