The theory behind the Higgs-Boson

For quite some time, physicists have known that some fundamental particles have mass which contradicts the mathematics underlying the Standard Model which states these particles should be mass-less. In the 1960s, Peter Higgs and his colleagues challenged this mass conundrum by studying the universe after the big bang. At the time, it was largely believed that particles should be thought of as ripples in a quantum jelly as opposed to tiny billiard balls bouncing off one another. Higgs believed that during this early period, all particle jellies were runny with a consistency like water; but as the universe began to cool down, one particle jelly, known first as the Higgs field, began to condense and become thick. Consequently, other particle jellies, when interacting with the Higgs field, are drawn towards it thanks to inertia; and, according to Sir Isaac Newton, any particle with inertia should contain mass. This mechanism offers an explanation to how particles that makeup the Standard Model - born massless at first - may have acquired mass. It follows then that the amount of mass acquired by each particle is proportional to the strength with which it feels the effects of the Higgs field.