Скачать или смотреть GOD PARTICLE FOUND! CERN Scientists Announcement

RENOWNED British physicist Stephen Hawking says the Nobel Prize should be given to Peter Higgs, the man who gave his name to the elusive "God particle", which scientists now say is likely to exist.

Former Cambridge University professor Hawking also joked that the discovery had actually cost him $100 in a bet.

In an interview with the BBC on Wednesday, Hawking, who has motor neurone disease, said: "This is an important result and should earn Peter Higgs the Nobel Prize.

"But it is a pity in a way because the great advances in physics have come from experiments that gave results we didn't expect. For this reason I had a bet with Gordon Kane of Michigan University that the Higgs particle wouldn't be found. It seems I have just lost $100."

After half a century of research, physicists announced at the European Organisation for Nuclear Research (CERN) Wednesday they had found a new sub-atomic particle consistent with the elusive Higgs boson, a theoretical particle that is key to the scientific understanding of all matter.

Hawking said the discovery was of major importance.

"If the decay and other interactions of this particle are as we expect, it will be strong evidence for the so-called standard model of particle physics, the theory that explains all our experiments so far," Hawking said.

CERN said the discovery was a milestone in the understanding of nature.

Physicists stressed the results presented at a joint conference in Melbourne and Geneva were preliminary.

They were unsure if the particle was the long sought-after Higgs boson, or God particle, or something more "exotic".

Archive: The Higgs explained, with pop references

"The next step will be to determine the precise nature of the particle and its significance for our understanding of the universe," a CERN statement said.

CERN director general Rolf Heuer said it was a milestone.

"We have reached a milestone in our understanding of nature," he said.