Artistic view of the Brout-Englert-Higgs Field. Dominguez, Daniel © 2013 CERN
Project Description:
The 'Higgs boson' can be thought of as the glue that holds our material reality together. Its discovery at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) in 2012, almost half a century after Peter Higgs' prediction in 1964, was a milestone in the history of science, for which he was awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics. Rarely has a theoretical prediction been so spectacularly confirmed so long after it was originally made.
The first phase of this project combines a literature review, archival research and oral history interviews with members and former students of the School of Physics and Astronomy. It traces the legacy of theoretical physics in Edinburgh from the establishment of the Tait Chair of Natural Philosophy (1923) to the appointment of the first Higgs Chair of Theoretical Physics (2020) and beyond. The second phase of the project is a documentary film featuring prominent physicists from the University of Edinburgh, including Peter Higgs.
