His theory has dominated the world of particle physics ever since.

BBC: God particle discovery 'likely'

The Large Hadron Collider (LHC), the world's biggest particle accelerator, uses a staggering 1, 200 tonnes of superconducting wire, similar to the sort used in MRI, in order to speed protons up to within a whisker of the speed of light and to collide them inside vast detectors, themselves stuffed with several hundred tonnes of superconducting materials.

ECONOMIST: Inside story

Note: CERN, the European Organization for Nuclear Research, is the world's leading laboratory for particle physics.

UNESCO: THEMES

Searches for dark matter are also being carried out at CERN using the Large Hadron Collider, the world's largest and most powerful particle accelerator, and other laboratories.

CNN: Space station detector gives first clues to 'dark matter'

Dr Andrew Taylor, the Director of Isis, says it achieved its world leading position by building upon the achievements of the accelerators developed for particle physics in the 1970s.

BBC: Making 'ghosts' in a machine

In the wacky world of quantum physics, however, it is not always impossible to work out what a particle once was but no longer is.

ECONOMIST: The arrow of time