Rome, Italy, Jul 6, 2012 / 03:03 am
While it has no direct bearing on theology or revelation, the scientific discovery hailed by some as the "God particle" is an important achievement, a Vatican astronomer says.
"It is a wonderful piece of science," said Jesuit Brother Guy Consolmagno, a researcher and spokesman at the Vatican Observatory, in a July 5 interview with CNA.
On July 4, the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) publicized results suggesting it had found the elusive "Higgs boson" particle, thought to explain the physical mass of objects in the universe, by means of subatomic experiments carried on at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva.
Br. Consolmagno said the apparent discovery of the Higgs boson was a "delight," particularly given the gradual progress of most physical research, and the resources invested in running the Swiss particle accelerator.