"If you weren't sure that there was a tiger in front of you, by the time you were sure it was too late, " Lotto observes.

CNN: Is there a bias against creativity?

The view back then "was like seeing a person in a fog you knew there was a person there but you weren't sure who it was, " said Andy Parker, a professor of high energy physics at the University of Cambridge who is involved in the CERN experiments.

WSJ: New Data Boosts Case for Higgs Boson Find

"It gives you chills, and I'm sure it gave him chills because they weren't cheering for us, they were cheering for him, " McClement said.

WSJ: Reimer SO sends Devils to 10th straight loss