These and other questions will be addressed next week by more than 100 scientists from around the globe who are gathering at Swansea University for a four-day Conference on ''Strong and Electroweak Matter" between 10^th-13^th July.

One of the highlights will be a keynote lecture by Professor Peter Higgs from Edinburgh University, after whom the famously elusive Higgs boson is named. 

His appearance at Swansea will come in the wake of exciting announcements by scientists at the LHC at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) in Geneva about the discovery for the Higgs boson.

Professor Gert Aarts, who is chairing the organising committee said: "We are extremely proud that Professor Higgs will come to Swansea for this lecture, which is following hot on the heels of the latest results from the LCH at CERN.

"The members of the Particle Theory Group of the Physics Department in the University's College of Science work on a wide variety of problems in elementary particle physics; to organise a Conference that attracts researchers from Europe, North and South America, India, China and Japan is an excellent way to celebrate the world-class research undertaken in Swansea."