Reductionism has its limitations. Is a human being -- one who bristles at injustice, weeps at Pachelbel's Canon, loves her children, is awestruck by beauty, and craves chocolate -- simply the product of Pavlov's conditioned reflexes to stimuli?

So far, the Higgs boson has been a disappointment. Of course, it was a major discovery that generated worldwide attention.

Peter Higgs had published the paper that was to bind him forever to the particle that bears his name in 1964, and had waited nearly fifty years for some kind of vindication. "I'm relieved it's coming to an end. It will be nice after all this time to be proved right."

In the wee hours of July 4, at 3 a.m. New York time, the world heard two presentations from CERN about the status of the search for the so far elusive Higgs boson.

Editor's Note: This article originally published in July 2012 when scientists discovered a subatomic particle that could be the Higgs boson. Have y...

By: Natalie Wolchover Published: 07/03/2012 07:58 AM EDT on Lifes Little Mysteries The infamous Higgs particle has a weighty task: It grants all...

Searching for the Higgs particle has occupied physicists for half a century. And yet before my kids finish first grade, we very well could know whether the Higgs particle exists, at least in the form we most expect to find.