Higgs : the mystery of mass: Conference MT17

What causes particles to have mass? Why do the masses of fundamental particles differ so enormously -the top quark is more than 200,000 times heavier than the electron? A solution has been developed by several physicists and takes the name of Peter Higgs. According to this, the whole of space is permeated by a field, similar in some ways to the electromagnetic field. As particles move through space they travel through this field. The interaction between the particles and the field is similar to the action of a viscous force felt by a particle moving through a thick liquid. The stronger the interaction of the particles with the Higgs field, the more mass they appear to have. We know from quantum theory that fields have particles associated with them, so if the Higgs idea is right, there must be a Higgs particle. Finding it is the key to verifying whether our best hypothesis for the origin of mass is indeed correct.