In Our Time: Science

Higgs Boson


Listen Later

Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Higgs Boson particle. One weekend in 1964 the Scottish scientist Peter Higgs was walking in the Cairngorm Mountains. On his return to his laboratory in Edinburgh the following Monday, he declared to his colleagues that he had just experienced his 'one big idea' and now had an answer to the mystery of how matter in the universe got its mass. That big idea took many years of refining, but it has now generated so much international interest and has such an important place in physics that well over one billion pounds is being spent in the hope that he was right. It's the biggest science project on Earth; the quest to find the 'Higgs Boson', a fundamental constituent of nature that - if it does exist - has such a central role in defining the universe that it's also known as the God Particle.What is the Higgs Boson? Why is it so important to scientists and how are they planning to find it?With Jim Al-Khalili, Senior Lecturer in Physics at the University of Surrey; David Wark, Professor of Experimental Physics at Imperial College London and the Rutherford Appleton Laboratory; Professor Roger Cashmore, former Research Director at CERN and now Principal of Brasenose College, Oxford.

...more
View all episodesView all episodes
Download on the App Store

In Our Time: ScienceBy BBC Radio 4

  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6
  • 4.6

4.6

684 ratings


More shows like In Our Time: Science

View all
In Our Time by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time

5,411 Listeners

The Documentary Podcast by BBC World Service

The Documentary Podcast

1,841 Listeners

Global News Podcast by BBC World Service

Global News Podcast

7,677 Listeners

5 Live Science Podcast by BBC Radio 5 Live

5 Live Science Podcast

109 Listeners

6 Minute English by BBC Radio

6 Minute English

1,831 Listeners

Learning English Conversations by BBC Radio

Learning English Conversations

1,080 Listeners

Science In Action by BBC World Service

Science In Action

342 Listeners

More or Less: Behind the Stats by BBC Radio 4

More or Less: Behind the Stats

892 Listeners

Witness History by BBC World Service

Witness History

963 Listeners

The Infinite Monkey Cage by BBC Radio 4

The Infinite Monkey Cage

1,933 Listeners

Newshour by BBC World Service

Newshour

1,065 Listeners

In Our Time: History by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: History

1,895 Listeners

In Our Time: Culture by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Culture

594 Listeners

In Our Time: Religion by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Religion

283 Listeners

In Our Time: Philosophy by BBC Radio 4

In Our Time: Philosophy

859 Listeners

The Life Scientific by BBC Radio 4

The Life Scientific

245 Listeners

Unexpected Elements by BBC World Service

Unexpected Elements

352 Listeners

BBC Inside Science by BBC Radio 4

BBC Inside Science

403 Listeners

SpaceTime: Your Guide to Space & Astronomy by Stuart Gary

SpaceTime: Your Guide to Space & Astronomy

313 Listeners

Curious Cases by BBC Radio 4

Curious Cases

822 Listeners

Americast by BBC News

Americast

740 Listeners

You're Dead to Me by BBC Radio 4

You're Dead to Me

2,969 Listeners

Why This Universe? by Dan Hooper, Shalma Wegsman

Why This Universe?

367 Listeners