Q 01/05

When CERN announced his particle, what was Higgs seen doing?

A) Checking sums

B) Wiping a tear

C) Shaking his head

D) Slipping out

Answer · why

B) Wiping a tear

Wiping a tear as the teams finished presenting, he later told reporters, "It's very nice to be right sometimes."

Q 02/05

Higgs shared the 2013 Nobel Prize in Physics with which Belgian physicist?

A) Robert Brout

B) Martinus Veltman

C) François Englert

D) Georges Charpak

Answer · why

C) François Englert

François Englert collected it without his co-author Robert Brout, who had died in 2011, because Nobel Prizes are not awarded posthumously.

Q 03/05

Higgs spent most of his career as a professor at which university?

A) Cambridge

B) Edinburgh

C) Glasgow

D) Manchester

Answer · why

B) Edinburgh

Edinburgh first charmed him on a student trip in 1949, so he took a lectureship there in 1960 and stayed until he retired in 1996.

Q 04/05

Higgs was born in 1929 in which English city?

A) Kingston upon Hull

B) Stoke-on-Trent

C) Southend-on-Sea

D) Newcastle upon Tyne

Answer · why

D) Newcastle upon Tyne

Newcastle upon Tyne was home only briefly: born in its Elswick district, he left as his father's job moved the family, yet the city gave him its Freed...

Q 05/05

Higgs's father worked as a sound engineer for which organisation?

A) Decca Records

B) The Post Office

C) Ealing Studios

D) The BBC

Answer · why

D) The BBC

The BBC kept his father on the move, so Higgs missed a lot of early schooling and was partly taught at home by his parents.