A decade ago, the Large Hadron Collider, Earth’s most powerful particle accelerator, proved the existence of an subatomic particle called the Higgs boson — thought to be a fundamental building block of the universe dating back to the big bang billions of years ago.A decade ago, the Large Hadron Collider, Earth’s most powerful particle accelerator, proved the existence of an subatomic particle called the Higgs boson — thought to be a fundamental building block of the universe dating back to the big bang billions of years ago.