The coupling of the Higgs boson to both W and Z bosons were observed.

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The real parallel was the discovery of the W and Z vector bosons, which was in 1983 at CERN.

FORBES: If I Want To Look Well-Read And In The Flow, What Do I Need To Know About The Higgs Boson Discovery And Announcement?

The rub was that both W and Z are heavy.

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Without it, or something like it, some of the Standard Model's particles that actually do have mass (particularly the W and Z bosons) would be predicted to be massless.

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The Standard Model (see table) includes familiar particles such as electrons and photons, and esoteric ones like the W and Z bosons, which carry something called the weak nuclear force.

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Before July 4, 2012, the Higgs boson mass could only be in the 122 GeV to 130 GeV mass range (units where the proton mass is about 1 GeV, and the W and Z vector bosons are 80 GeV and 90 GeV, respectively).

FORBES: If I Want To Look Well-Read And In The Flow, What Do I Need To Know About The Higgs Boson Discovery And Announcement?