What is the signifigance of the Higgs boson?

Question

Is this particle really something that - if found - will totally change the human understanding of reality?

Answer 1

One of the major problems that exists in physics today is a lack of a unified theory that applies to all four force carrying particles. The four categories of force carrying particles are gravitation force, electromagnetic force, the weak nuclear force and the strong nuclear force. The discovery of the Higgs-Boson would further unify the electromagnetic force and weak nuclear force and would give us great insight into the origin of the mass of particles.

Answer 2

Higgs boson
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

(its also called "The God Particle")

The Higgs boson is a hypothetical massive scalar elementary particle predicted to exist by the Standard Model of particle physics. It is the only Standard Model particle not yet observed, but plays a key role in explaining the origins of the mass of other elementary particles, in particular the difference between the massless photon and the very heavy W and Z bosons. Elementary particle masses, and the differences between electromagnetism (caused by the photon) and the weak force (caused by the W and Z bosons), are critical to many aspects of the structure of microscopic (and hence macroscopic) matter; thus if it exists, the Higgs boson has an enormous effect on the world around us.

As of 2006, no experiment has directly detected the existence of the Higgs boson, but there is some indirect evidence for it. The Higgs boson was first predicted in 1964 by the British physicist Peter Higgs, working from the ideas of Philip Anderson, and independently by others.