By Brook Sabin
When 34-year-old Peter Higgs started the search for the mysterious “God particle” in the 1960s he was told his theory was ridiculous.
Even the world's most famous living scientist, Stephen Hawking didn’t think the discovery of the particle was likely. Today he told the BBC he bet $100 the Higgs particle would never be found.
“It seems like I have just lost $100,” he said on camera today.
But now it seems the particle has been proven, and Canterbury University is already using the very technology that helped find the Higgs boson to create colour x-rays.
It's a major breakthrough, but what does that mean?
“Better diagnosis, for example with heart problems or vascular problems, you can’t tell when you’ve got a plaque in your neck, whether it’s dangerous or likely to rupture,” says Professor Philip Butler of Canterbury University.
But colour x-rays will provide doctors with that information.
And as to whether other breakthroughs and inventions lie ahead because of the Higgs particle - don't bet against it.
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