The scientist who gave his name to the Higgs boson particle has been granted another honour for his ground-breaking work.
Professor Peter Higgs was given the Edinburgh Medal at a ceremony in the Scottish capital yesterday to recognise his significant contributions to the fields of science and technology.
The professor hit upon the concept of a "God particle" during a walk in the Cairngorms in 1964, when he started to consider the existence of a particle that gives matter its mass.
He wrote two scientific papers on his theory and was published in the Physical Review Letters journal, sparking a 40-year hunt for the Higgs boson.
Last July a team from the European nuclear research facility (Cern) in Geneva announced the detection of a particle that fitted the description.
The medal was given jointly to Mr Higgs and Cern on the eve of the Edinburgh International Science Festival.
The professor, who has retired from Edinburgh University, said: "It is a pleasure to be awarded, jointly with Cern, the 25th Edinburgh Medal. The first medal, in 1989, was awarded to Abdus Salam, in whose group I was a research fellow 55 years ago."
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