They say that professor Higgs is shy and not at all comfortable with the attention and almost as hard to find as his particle.

I'd like to take this opportunity to remind people of the (sometimes a little forgotten) other person name-checked in the Higgs Boson: Satyendra Nath Bose.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Satyendra_Nath_Bose

He was an interesting chap!

"While standing around at the back of morning assembly Higgs noticed a name that appeared more than once on the school's honours board. Higgs wondered who PAM Dirac was and read up on the former pupil. He learned that Paul Dirac was a founding father of quantum theory, and the closest Britain had to an Einstein. Through Dirac, Higgs came to relish the arcane world of theoretical physics."

http://www.theguardian.com/science/2013/oct/02/peter-higgs-p...

This is great news, and comes as a bit of relief to some. I remember talking with a professor at the University of Edinburgh who was concerned about delays with CERN referencing the fact that the Nobel prize isn't awarded posthumously, and not as many are saying, not for theory without proof. Really glad to see he made it!

is the nobel prize still the cornerstone of rewarding achievement in the sciences?

sorry to be so snarky, but i am genuinely interested, having long lost any trust in the peace prize comittee[0]. not to speak of the economics prize (which is not really a nobel prize [1])

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nobel_Peace_Prize_laure...

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nobel_Memorial_Prize_in_Economi...

edit: formatting

This article provides some historical context to today's prize.

http://profmattstrassler.com/2013/10/08/the-twists-and-turns...

Robert Brout would almost surely be sharing the prize if it could be awarded posthumously.

I often saw him and Francois Anglert when doing my Ph.D. Robert Brout in particular struck me as the kindest man on earth, and was perhaps someone who though even deeper and more profoundly than Francois Anglert.

Anyone with more insight know if this was overdue, but finally awarded after confirmation last year at CERN, or if it was pushed forward while last year's work was fresh in people's minds?

Feynman on the Nobel Prize: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gMaBmik4VYg

Apparently most commentators were expecting it. I wonder if there was a possibility that also the CERN team could be awarded the prize?

the theoretical foundation for Higgs mechanism was first discovered by Jeffrey Goldstone from MIT:http://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nambu-Goldstone_boson

Thanks, Englert and Higgs, thanks to you we won £300 at the pub quiz last night. You rock.

I think that there are about 15 events in the 125Gev bump.

Just sayin'....