National Galleries of Scotland

The theoretical physicist Peter Higgs is known for the particle named after him - the as yet undiscovered Higgs boson. Higgs?s research at the University of Edinburgh in the 1960s contributed to the theory which proposed that, in the aftermath of the Big Bang, particles acquired mass through interaction with a field permeating space. In very high-energy particle collisions, the energy of this field should be released in the form of new particles known as Higgs bosons. If discovered, the Higgs boson will change our understanding of physics. The artist has mixed sand with paint to represent ?particles whirling round in space?, which she has said ?anticipated, in some intuitive way, the present clashing of atoms at the Large Hadron Collider in Geneva?.