Question: I have a question right here, okay so, if the hadron collider recently discovered the higgs boson particle, then what use is it to anybody anymore? The whole reason that it was built was to discover the particle... So what will they use the hadron collider for now? Also, if the whole universe was made from matter and anti-matter, does that mean that all humans have traces of matter and anti-matter within us?

Pete Etchells answered on 9 Jul 2012:

Hi hello111! That’s a very good question. While it’s great news that the large hadron collidor has found evidence for the Higgs boson, the job’s not quite done yet – we still need to collect more data and more evidence to make sure it’s there. Furthermore, the collidor was built for other purposes too, and those experiments haven’t been conducted yet. For instance, it still hasn’t been used to find out what ‘dark matter’ is and what it’s made from, or whether there are other dimensions to the universe.

As to the second part of your question, I’m not too sure (I’m not a physicist!). I don’t think we have antimatter in us, but I do know that when cosmic rays hit the earth’s atmosphere, it can produce antimatter. When it comes into contact with matter, they annihilate each other, so it’s probably only around for a very small amount of time.