Higgs boson: Web goes wild with speculation

By Rosie Mestel

July 2, 2012

The Internet is crackling with rumors following news reports that the long-sought Higgs boson-- popularly referred to as the "God particle" -- has been detected and that physicists at the Large Hadron Collider atom-smasher CERN, near Geneva, will announce the discovery in a news conference July 4.

Physicists have been speculating for months that the particle’s discovery would be the topic of CERN’s scheduled news conference Wednesday, but Britain’s Daily Mail and the Associated Press upped the ante Monday with articles declaring the announcement was a certainty.

“Scientists believe that the 'God particle' that might explain the underpinnings of the universe is real, and they are about to present their evidence to the world," the AP declared Monday, in an article first titled “Proof of 'God particle' found” and later downgraded to “Evidence of 'God particle' found.” the rest image