Discovery signals ‘momentous’ day for science

Scientists have hailed the “momentous” discovery of what appears to be the ‘God particle’ that gives matter mass and holds the fabric of the universe together.

Teams at the Large Hadron Collider, the €3bn atom-smashing machine near Geneva, say they have found a new subatomic particle “consistent” with the Higgs boson.

The results are preliminary and more work is needed before the scientists can be sure of what “species” of particle they have captured.