Late this afternoon, in both Melbourne and the home of the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva, CERN announced what probably qualifies as the biggest breakthrough in physics research this century - the discovery of what is almost certainly the Higg's Boson. 99.999 per cent certain, in fact.
The five sigma result is quite a big deal, given how hesitant CERN have been to play down any developments in Higgs research over the last few years.
CEO of the UK Science & Technology Facilities council John Womersley told an audience at an event in London that, "I can confirm that a particle has been discovered that is consistent with the Higgs boson theory.
"Discovery is the important word. That is confirmed. It's a momentous day for science."
Joe Incandela, who appeared earlier today in an accidentally leaked CERN video, told seminar attendees in Geneva that "this is a preliminary result, but we think it's very strong and very solid."
The discovery will mean that the Standard Model of physics, in place since the early 1970's, is a keeper. Thanks to the Higgs, we have a way to explain how matter can exist, how atoms and molecules are able to form, all the way up to how planets like our very own Earth came to be.
Melbourne played host to part of the announcement thanks to also being the location of this year's International Conference on High Energy Physics.
There are plenty of discussions and seminars going on now at these two locations (there's a live webcast going here, for instance), and scientists plan to have more data to share in October.
